Xuelei had a secret.

He had broken a Rule.

He had a friend, not intentionally of course. She just popped into his life.

Since befriending MeiHua, he would stop by this stream hoping to see her. Sometimes he would meet her, sometimes not. When they did, they would sit and talk for hours, well she did, he listened.

Xuelei would let the sound of her voice soothe him and make him forget the tension and stress. She would tell him about herself, her grandpa, things which currently interest her and stories of the world around them. He would occasionally ask her questions. With her, he could just be himself.

It happened one of those days when he had come to this very river after a mission, much like this day. He had been meditating and calming himself after a particularly stressful mission. He couldn’t believe that he had almost been caught. He had not been careless, the Sect had underestimated the target’s skill and resourcefulness. Only dumb luck had saved him.

Suddenly he had heard a scream, followed by a girl’s terrified sobbing. Xuelei went upstream to investigate. He found a young girl huddled on the ground clutching a woven basket. It’s contents had spilled but she took no notice of the fallen herbs and plants. When she saw him, she yelled at him to stop.

“Oh! Don’t come any closer. It will get you too.”

She pointed to a large snake. It was hissing at her. It’s head was held high, forked tongue tasting the air as it slithered nearer to investigate the girl. It was really agitated. She must have accidentally disturbed it.

“I-Its going to eat me!” she sobbed.

“Move back slowly. Don’t make any sudden movements,” Xuelei said in a low voice.

“I can’t. I ran when I first saw it near those bushes and tripped. My ankle … I twisted it.”

Xuelei moved nearer slowly. “Okay, don’t move. I got this.”

The snake hissed at the newcomer feeling threatened. Just as it raised its head to strike, Xuelei flung a long dagger at it. The snake fell with an angry hiss as the blade sank in between its eyes. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and screamed in terror.

The large snake trashed violently on the ground, its coils churning up the dirt and making horrible slithering sounds. Its long body entwined upon itself, sweeping up leaves and twigs in its death throes. Finally it stilled, dead.

Xuelei tried to reassure her. “Hey, it’s okay. The snake is dead. See?”

She opened her eyes and her mouth fell open. “Wow, you killed it.”

“Kill or be killed,” he muttered.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

He went to the girl to help her up but she couldn’t stand. Her twisted ankle was tender and swollen. Her tears of fright turned to tears of pain. She couldn’t put any weight on her ankle. Making a quick decision, Xuelei gathered her fallen herbs and placed them back into her basket. He pushed the basket into her arms. Then without ceremony, he lifted her bodily as she yelped and clutched at him in surprise.

“Where do you live?” he asked. “I’ll carry you back home.”

“I live behind this mountain. I come over this side to gather the seeds and plants that grow here.” She looked at him tearfully.

“Hmm, too far. You can recover at my place. We can’t stay out here.”

He had carried her to the mouth of the main cave but did not reveal his secret hideaway above the ledge. No one was to be trusted. He got a small fire going, to keep them warm.

“Can you go get that snake for me?”

He raised his eyebrows questioningly. This girl was crazy. She wanted a dead snake.

She smiled, “If it’s not too much trouble. I thought I’d make some snake soup for dinner. It will warm us up.”

Xuelei gave her a curt nod of understanding before leaving the cave. He was soon back with the dead reptile. He cleaned it, then stripped off the scaly skin. She deftly cut up the tender meat, seasoning it with some of her gathered herbs. She threw a portion into a small cooking pot which already had water boiling in it.

“Ha! You thought you would eat me. Now I am going to eat you!”

Xuelei listened to her monologue in amusement. She was talking to the snake. He had never met anyone like her before. The pretty girl was weird and funny.

“Die! Die! Die!” she muttered as she poked fiercely at the meat. “That’s for frightening me and that’s for making me trip. And you made me spill my basket and now I can’t gather anymore because my ankle is hurt.”

“Take that! … and that and that!”

She continued by skewering more of the meat with thin sticks. They would be having snake soup and barbecued snake for dinner. The delicious aroma of the boiling soup and roasting meat filled the air.

“Umm, I’m pretty sure it’s dead.”

“Huh? Oh!” she blushed in embarrassment. She gave the last strip a jab, securing it neatly onto the skewer. “I’m just double checking,” she gave a small laugh in satisfaction.

“Who said revenge isn’t sweet?” she took off the little pot to cool and arranged the barbecue over the flames, “and tasty?”

“By the way, thank you. I forgot to thank you earlier for saving me.”

“No problem.”

“What’s your name?” she asked in a soft sweet voice.

He frowned. Damn, he had not thought about the consequences of his actions. He had killed the snake and saved her on instinct. He had brought her here so that they would be sheltered from the unpredictable weather. Now she was asking questions.

“I’m MeiHua (Plum Blossom).”

Xuelei looked at her uncertainly not sure how to answer without giving anything away. He was not supposed to exist. He was a ghost, an assassin who killed from the shadows and who remained there.

Silence stretched awkwardly between them.

“You are not much of a talker are you?”

Xuelei broke off eye contact, busying himself with cleaning up the remnants of the snake, its bone and intestines. He would dig a hole some distance away and bury it so that it would not attract scavengers.

He kept the beautiful patterned skin. He would cure and sell it, if he was lucky it would fetch a good price. The snake’s poison sack he would give to Shen. Fifth brother would appreciate it adding it to his collections of poisons.

“Okay, than I will just have to name you. A name … name … hmm,” she was studying him trying to think of a suitable name.

The handsome youth was shy, she grinned inwardly. It was so weird for someone so skilled and confident with the dagger just a while ago to transform into this shy uncertain guy before her. He didn’t know how to act around her she realised. He was so awkward. Didn’t he have friends?

MeiHua studied him. His long shiny black hair was tied in simple warrior’s style. His beautiful pale face was serious, his jet black brows knitted together as he worried over something, probably what she was going to name him, she laughed silently. He was so cute. Better make it good.

“Okay, I got it,” MeiHua announced. “Since you don’t want to tell me your name, that means you have no name to me. So, I shall call you WuMing (Nameless).”

His head jerked up from his work as his dark brown eyes darted to her. He gave her an incredulously look.

“Then tell me your name. I have to call you something,” she countered reasonably.

He muttered something under his breath.

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch what you said.”

“Nothing.”

“Really?” She raised an inquiring eye brow and grinned sweetly at him.

“I said, you can call me WuMing,” he said with a sigh, defeated.

MeiHua flashed him a winning smile. “I thought so.”

She poked him with a stick, making him inhale sharply. “Lighten up, you don’t have to be so serious all the time.”