His fingers were careful.
He worked from the outside of the knot inward, testing each loop before pulling it, releasing tension in one place before addressing another. He didn't rush. The young monkey, after one initial flinch, went completely still, either out of wisdom or out of sheer bewilderment, Bai Yue couldn't tell which.
She sat back down quietly, hugging her knees, and watched.
It took a few minutes. The vine was stubborn. At one point, Cāng Jì made a small, thoughtful sound under his breath, and changed his approach entirely, working through a loop she hadn't even seen. His brow was furrowed in concentration. All the performance of him, the golden radiance and the celestial authority, had gone somewhere else for the moment. What was left was just someone paying close attention to a small, specific thing.
Click.
The knot released.
