Nightfall

“I will go when I want to – even if there are thousands and millions of people before me.”

Ning Que said to himself.

This was a sentence reported by the Second Brother – what the Youngest Uncle had once said. When he heard it at the time, he could not help feeling emotional and feverish. But when he seemed to be faced with the same condition, he realized how difficult it was.

Sangsang was bathing her feet in hot water when she heard the sentence. She was slightly taken aback. “It is so heroic,” she said.

Sitting on a stool in front of the basin, Ning Que lowered himself to rub her feet. He said with a smile, “When foreign enemies invade and evil is furious, you are a hero if you take up a sword to rush against thousands of people – no matter how many you kill. Only a person who is a hero can be heroic. But we are villains – we are the legendary devil waving a sword at thousands of people. It is indiscriminate slaughter of countless innocent victims. It is cruel and evil – nothing to do with heroes.”

Sangsang’s little feet were still white, like a pure lotus in the wooden basin. Looking at Ning Que who kept rubbing her feet, she asked, “Does it matter whether we are heroes or not?”

Ning Que took the towel from his shoulder, raised her feet from the basin and dried them. Then he rubbed her feet to warm them up and helped her put on thick cotton socks. He said, “You know, I don’t mind killing – as long as we can survive. But it would be better if I can become cooler when I kill.”

After she tightened the tie of her socks, Sangsang turned around and climbed onto the bed. She lifted the quilt and climbed in, with only her little face outside. “What is cool?” she asked, with her eyes wide open.

Ning Que took off his shoes and put his feet into the water since it was still warm. “Cool is being handsome without facial expression.” he answered casually.

“How can one be handsome when he has no facial expression?” Sangsang was confused.

“Have you seen Second Brother’s annoying face?” Ning Que asked.

Sangsang seemed to realize something. She said, “Mr. Second really is handsome… but I still do not know why it is called ‘cool’. If you’re busy killing, why would you pay attention to being handsome?”

“You have not heard of words like ‘grim’, ‘overbearing’ and ‘arrogant’, so you do not know its meaning. Besides killing, even in situations such as taking a shower or going to the toilet, you can be extremely handsome if you want.”

Ning Que said with a smile. Then he got up and went outside to pour out the water. When he got back into the room, something suddenly crossed his mind. He groped around in the luggage for quite a long while before he took out a wooden box. There were two pairs of glasses partially made of ink crystal.

He took a pair out and wore it. Then he walked over to the bed and looked at Sangsang without any expression on his face – just like the Second Brother. “Am I cool?” he asked.

Looking at Ning Que, Sangsang could not help laughing. Then, something occurred to her. She looked at her hair in front of her eyes with knitted brows. Last autumn, Ning Que had cut her hair short. Though it looked refreshing, after being cut short, it was hard to tie down. She tried to tie it with a hairpin several times but failed to prevent hair from waving in front of her eyes.

She pouted her small mouth and blew upwards, trying to part the hair in front of her eyes. Suddenly, she asked thoughtlessly, “Is the thing on your face made by Mr. Six?”

She pouted, perhaps trying to blow on her hair or to express a kind of dissatisfaction, grievance or just playing coy. Ning Que was slightly taken aback. He took off his ink crystal glasses and asked, “How would I still remember?”

Sangsang said, “You always hide the glasses in your luggage. How could you forget?”

Ning Que said, “When we were ready to leave Lanke Temple, you took the glasses out of the luggage and gave them to her.”

Sangsang pulled the quilt higher to cover her chin that was becoming increasingly slim due to her illness, so as to make herself looked less acerbic. But she deliberately tried to look as if she had been wronged and said, “You placed the glasses in the luggage because you thought that we might meet Miss Shanshan. You prepared them for when you meet her again.”

Sangsang was occasionally jealous and angry in recent days. According to his previous disposition, Ning Que could not endure it for long. But now he did nothing but smile, no matter how angry Sangsang pretended to be.

Because he thought that it was very cute.

Sangsang looked very fresh and endearing with short hair. Her two white front teeth looked simple and cute, and she was charming and adorable when she pretended to be angry. She was lovely when she frowned in her sleep and when she held two long chopsticks when eating. She was always so lovely whether she was doing something or not.

Ning Que was very happy and reached out his hand to rub her hair into a mess. He asked, “My Sangsang could not possibly be so lovely. Tell me now, which siren from which cave are you?”

“I am the Daughter of Yama, so I am indeed a siren.”

Sangsang looked at him and said seriously, her hands grabbing the edge of the quilt and her eyes wide open. However, she could not help giggling at last, appearing extremely cute.

An awful crow’s cry came from outside the window.

Ning Que patted her cool little face and said softly, “I’ll go out to take a look. You can sleep first.”

Sangsang said, “Be careful.”

Ning Que nodded, opened the door and went out into the courtyard. As dusk fell, the setting sun slowly sank in the west. Red light shone between Chaoyang City and thick clouds in the sky, paintng the world bright red.

He looked up at the thick clouds above his head, looking like they were made of flames, shook his head and left.

Sangsang put on a fur coat and climbed out of the quilt. She walked over to the window and prepared to cover the light coming through it, when she suddenly caught sight of the flaming clouds. The little hand pulling on the curtain stopped.

Ning Que did not know what the clouds represented, but he knew that the phenomenon was related to Sangsang. Sangsang did not know what the clouds meant either, but she knew that they might mean her leaving, or even death.

Just like the previous joke – Sangsang could not be so cute.

Sangsang just wanted to show her loveliest side in the days before her death. She hoped that she could leave behind some beautiful memories rather than sad ones for Ning Que.

The whole world was an enemy.

Ning Que was very clear that if they hid in Chang’an, they would have long been found and killed by the court of the Tang Empire. Fortunately, they had hid in Chaoyang City.

Yuelun Kingdom’s government was extremely inefficient. The common people believed in Buddhism sincerely, and though they dreaded and hated the Daughter of Yama, no one could overcome their lazy nature and help their government, and the Buddhist Sect, to search everywhere.

This was why they could manage to hide in the city for an entire winter. However, since a warning sign had emerged, perhaps now was really the time for them to leave.

Though Ning Que desired to confirm whether Big Black Horse and the carriage were safe, he did not go out of the city.

He went directly to a garden behind the palace. Walking along the wall of the White Tower Temple, he went to the side door of the palace. Hiding in the dimness of night, he observed and listened in silence for a long time, making the final supplement to his plan.

Then he walked around in the streets of Chaoyang, holding the shabby Big Black Umbrella, wrapped tightly by a piece of old cloth. In this way, he could sense the orientation of the powerhouses’ auras.