[Jia Xu leaned his head against one hand, gesturing vaguely with the other.] Historians are bad company. What can they tell you that you should care about? They'll only be useful when you're already dead. [The fact that this kind of thinking was what got him out of Water Mirror's house only made him more adamant in it.

But interest that he couldn't quite conceal flickered in his eyes at the other's words. Thirteen years - he was still young enough for that to sound like a lifetime.] That is a while, [he said finally, a little slowly.] I was in Xiapi when what happened, happened, watching my lord take Lü Bu's head. [His curiousity overcame him then, and he conceded, with a polite salute.]

My surname is Jia, my given name Xu, styled Wenhe, out of Gozang in Wuwei.