"Take off your clothes."
The moment the words left Ji Huan's lips, Guan Shan's outstretched hand froze in mid-air.
He remained frozen until Ji Huan clarified, "Take off your clothes, and try this on."
Only then did Guan Shan's rigid posture relax.
He took the clothes, his eyes fixed on Ji Huan, saying nothing.
How could Ji Huan not know what he meant? She turned, left the main hall, and pulled the door shut behind her.
She didn't just wait by the door, either. She went around to the back of the house, found a twig thinner than her little finger, and brought it back. After breaking it to the desired length, she found a shard from a roof tile and squatted in the courtyard, scraping at the finger-length piece of wood.
Once she scraped off the dark brown bark, revealing the earthen-brown wood beneath, Ji Huan used the tile shard to whittle the two ends.
