Nightfall

Ning Que said he had a very hot body in a humorous way, which sounded like a poor poem written by a young and inexperienced poet.

Sangsang didn’t feel joy and said in a cold voice, “No need.”

Taking the answer as she was just being polite or pretended to be polite, Ning Que moved a little to the bed immodestly, with his hand falling on the bedding.

Sangsang stared at him and her bright eyes had no emotions, not even hatred.

Ning Que turned pale instantly and began to cough.

Once the coughing began, it was difficult to stop. He coughed violently and curled up painfully, and his blood dripped to the ground, like scarlet plum blossom.

His chest was so painful that it felt like he was being pierced by a burning knife. He was worried that he would bleed to death or cough out his heart and liver.

Sangsang revealed no emotions on her face.

Rubbing his painful chest and picking up his bedding, Ning Que left the bed and walked to a dark corner. He laid the bedding at the dark corner, lay down, and sighed.

The sigh sounded a little aggrieved.

Back in the days when they were in Min Mountain, they always shared one bed. Although their house in the City of Wei had two beds, they would always end up sleeping in the same one.

It was even more so when they went to Chang’an that it did not matter whether they stayed at the Old Brush Pen Shop or the mansion beside Yanming Lake. Now that their statuses were reversed, he unexpectedly lost the right to sleep in bed.

Two handmaidens in white put the bed curtain down with pear wood rod in their hands. Seeing this and hearing Ning Que’s aggrieved sighs, the handmaiden who talked with him in the kitchen before couldn’t help but laugh noiselessly.

Back in the old days, Ning Que would definitely flirt with the handmaiden, but now he did not want to because he worried that the flirting might displease Sangsang. Her displeasure could easily make this handmaiden disappear.

He knew she could do such things because she was Haotian. She could even kill him. If she was willing to kill him, then she was willing to kill anyone.

Ning Que was a cold-blooded man, but he didn’t want to cause any more meaningless deaths. He wanted to bring nothing but warmth to this cold Divine Hall of Light.

These two handmaidens went to the side chamber to rest. The Divine Hall of Light under the night sky became extraordinarily quiet, and the temperature inside remained high even though the wind and snow kept drifting into the Divine Hall from the terrace.

Under such circumstances, Ning Que had trouble sleeping. Looking at the increasingly big wind and snow, he thought that the snow had lasted several days. He frowned slightly.

West Hill Divine Kingdom was known as the land that Haotian favored. It had four distinct seasons and pleasant weather, which was much better than the climate at Chang’an. However, this winter was colder than the ones from previous years in West Hill. The snow came early and never stopped.

Ning Que had never lived in West Hill before, but he sensed that the situation was rare. The Headmaster kept Sangsang in the human world. Could Ever Night fall again?

He slowly sat up and walked to the side of the bed, staring at Sangsang.

With her eyes closed, Sangsang’s eyelashes flickered slightly. The length of her eyelashes and the distance between them were so precise that it looked like they were painted and it revealed a feeling of unreality.

Ning Que looked at her quietly for a long time.

He looked at her eyes, brows, eyelashes, rosy lips, ears and hair, and he felt her indifference and wisdom.

He didn’t know whether she was asleep and whether Haotian needed to sleep. However, he did know the changes around wouldn’t be able to escape from her perception even though she was asleep.

She didn’t wake up and closed her eyes quietly as if she was having the sweetest dream. Her appearance was so plain, but she looked like the most noble princess.

For Ning Que, Sangsang’s face was very strange now. However, by quietly looking at her more, he got more familiar with her appearance and felt as if she looked like this all along.

He didn’t understand why.

Was it because she was Haotian or because she was his wife?

The night sky under the West Hill Divine Kingdom was covered by snow clouds that completely blocked the moon. The Divine Hall of Light was dark and quiet that the sound of falling snow echoed.

His voice was as clean and soft as snow.

“If you want my compensation just because you want to cut off your connection with me, then what about your compensation for me? Should you return the things you took from me?”

Sangsang opened her eyes which were very clear and not drowsy at all. It turned out she never fell asleep.

She looked at Ning Que and asked emotionlessly, “Like what?”

Ning Que thought for a while and didn’t say anything because in his heart, he did everything willingly for Sangsang. As a proud human being, how could he be as dull as Haotian?

He looked at his crotch and said ruefully, “How about this? It would be very inconvenient for me to lose it.”

Sangsang closed her eyes again and said nothing.

Ning Que said, “I will continue to look at you, so please do not open your eyes suddenly again. Although you look even plainer than before, it’s still pretty scary to do so.”

Sangsang didn’t respond.

Ning Que did not care that she ignored him. He continued to stand beside the bed to look at her quietly for a long time. When he felt tired, he even took out a jade stool to sit.

He kept looking at her until the blizzard died down and the day broke.

…

…

In 3450 West Hill Dazhi year, the West Hill Divine Kingdom had a heavy snow, giving Peach Mountain a white coat. The followers who still gathered in the villages and towns nearby were very helpless in such a freezing cold condition. Nobody knew why the warm West Hill would have such a cold winter. The Hierarch and Ning Que speculated that it might be related to Ever Night and feared the Divine Hall of Light even more.

Nobody knew what happened in the Divine Hall of Light. Ning Que never came out after he was imprisoned in the Divine Hall of Light and no message came out either.

The stories that were happening in the Divine Hall of Light were ridiculous and naive, even a little childish. Naivety was often the cruelest thing.

If this was the game of running a household, then Ning Que of course was the servant. When he woke up every morning, he began to clean the yard. He was quite worn out since the Divine Hall of Light was really big.

Then he had to prepare breakfast, wash the dishes, wash clothes, make lunch, wash the dishes again, mop the floor, make dinner, and wash the dishes again. He could not go to bed until he washed Sangsang’s feet.

He ate leftovers everyday, and washed his feet with the water that was used by Sangsang. Devout believers, such as the Hierarch would probably be willing to drink the water in the copper basin that Sangsang used to wash her feet, for it contained the smell of Haotian. Hoewever, Ning Que was not as crazy as they were. Besides, from the world he came from, it was the biggest insult for a man to drink the water his wife used to wash her feet.

In addition to the daily essential chores, he had to take care of Sangsang’s daily needs, which included brewing tea and playing Go. The former was easy, but the latter was the most painful and humiliating thing for him, for he was not able win against her in the game.

The days were repeatedly simple and dull. He did all sorts of chores and fell asleep instantly at night, so he never stood beside her bed to watch her again.

Sangsang looked exactly the same, just as indifferent as before.

Ning Que expected more from his life in the Divine Hall of Light, hoping to make her become more and more like a human being through living together. However, he was very disappointed to consistently see her indifferent expression.

One day, he swept the snow at the terrace with a bamboo broom, without a smile on his face. The weather was extremely cold, just like his mood at this moment.

The broom swept across the snow, like writing on rough paper with a brush pen. The messy traces left on the terrace looked like a cursive script.

The one who wrote the cursive script seemed a little fretful.

Just then, the blizzard raged and continued to spill over the cliff. The terrace which had not been cleaned up yet was covered by snow again, ruining the cursive script.

Ning Que stopped cleaning, stood in the blizzard with the broom in his hand and asked, “When will this end? What do you want from me?”

Sangsang said, “I washed your feet many times, cooked for you many times, mopped the floor many times, and washed the dishes many times. What you are doing now was less than one percent of what I did before.”

Ning Que went silent for a while and said, “You know this won’t work. I do owe you much, but you owe me just as much. Things will never be even between us.”

After he said this, he turned to the hall and said, “In Min Mountain, I carried you on my back many times, I washed your diapers many times, I spoon fed you many times, and I killed for you many times.”

Sangsang walked slowly and said without any expression, “This was just the universal emotion of human beings: pity for the infants.”

Ning Que’s heart was as cold and angry as the blizzard.

“What about after you grew up?

“When you were sick, I held you in my arm and warmed you with my body. How are you gonna pay me back? I washed your feet when we were in the Academy, Lanke Temple and Chaoyang City. How are you gonna pay me back?

“I carried you on my back, fought our way out of Chaoyang City and then fought our way into the Wilderness. I carried you on my back all along when the whole world wanted you dead. How are you gonna pay me back?”

Sangsang walked to the balustrade and looked at the world with her hands behind back. Many pictures appeared on her mind, vaguely and vividly at the same time: the rain in Hebei Province after the serious drought, the cub that struggled in a trap in Min Mountain, the lad who cut off mounted gangsters’ heads happily by the Shubi Lake, the little handmaiden who waddled with flagon and roast chicken in her hands, the noodle soups with fried eggs in the Old Brush Pen Shop, and the morning sun in Chaoyang City.

Under the sun, he carried her in his back as he continued to run and wave his sword. She leaned on his shoulder weakly but happily and held the big black umbrella tightly.

…