Chen Chou first met Xu Dong back when he and Zhang xiong were first preparing for the Capital Examination, when they all got drawn into the series of weird cases that led up to a failed coup and everyone in the capital nearly dying from a mist of red pollen.
Their relationship has only been like this since Chen Chou and Zhang Ping moved to Yiping County, though.
Chen Chou and Xu Dong's arrangement through the years, and how everyone else arranged themselves too.
Sometimes a man's old enough to know his own mind, even if his brother worries, even if his family are living in exile in a mass grave, even if the boy he's set on is an unstable necromancer who could kill them all. Even if he has a history of making dubious choices.
A vignette.
Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui, wandering, falling in love, and coming back together with their family.
Yu Ziyuan and Nie Mingjue see something in one another.