Morning broke without ceremony.
The camp did not wake gently. It stirred like something unsettled ... low voices, clinking armor, water splashing at the stream, the muted strain of cultivators testing their pulses before the day began.
Jin Yue was already awake.
His shoulder throbbed.
Not sharply ... just enough to remind him.
He sat near the edge of the encampment, rewrapping the bandage properly this time. The cloth Jun Kai had tied the night before lay folded beside him. He did not discard it.
He simply replaced it.
Clean lines. Even tension. Minimal pressure over the reopened seam.
The wound would hold.
Across the camp, Jun Kai stood with A Xing and several officials beneath the raised terrace platform. He did not look toward Jin Yue.
Which meant he was thinking about him.
A Xing noticed.
"You're avoiding the left side of the camp," A Xing said mildly.
Jun Kai didn't react. "I'm reviewing patrol assignments."
"With your back turned to the lists?"
