803 Coming Home Part II (2/2)
”Hmm, he indeed had been a little unreliable.”
Mu You looked at the bright moon and smiled.
Then she turned to Ning Que and said, ”Thank you.”
She knew that Ning Que took the two teenagers to the Academy as a way to distract his Senior Brother.
That was what she thanked him for.
Ning Que smiled back and said nothing.
The mountain behind the Academy was so huge that everyone could build their own small courtyard, which was either near the lake or near the mountain, including Tang Xiaotang. Since Song Qian and Eighth Brother liked to always play Go games under the pine tree while the scholar had been living in the library cavern, their houses were usually empty.
Because of Sangsang, Ning Que had been the only one who didn't live in the mountain. He mostly lived in the Old Brush Pen Shop or in the house near Yanming Lake, and occasionally slept over in the mountain, but his house was always kept.
He walked slowly along the mountain path with his crutch, heading to his own yard in the dark night.
Sangsang was gone. The house near Yanming Lake had been ruined and the walls of the Old Brush Pen Shop had been destroyed. He had no reason to go back. The yard in the mountain would probably be his home in the future.
It was located behind the dense forest where Beigong and Ximen used to play music. It was near the lake, quiet and secluded in the night.
Someone was waiting for him in the room.
Leaning against the mud wall, Tang Xiaotang kicked it sometimes, lowering her head and looking at her old small leather boots.
Ning Que looked at her beautiful but sad face and asked, ”What do you want to know?”
Tang Xiaotang looked up and asked, ”Is Sangsang really dead?”
Sangsang had few good friends, but she was one of them.
Thinking of this, Ning Que suddenly felt pain somewhere in his body.
”Few people mentioned Sangsang in front of me since I came back. They probably felt sorry, like my Senior Brothers and Sisters, but most of them have forgotten her.
”And yes, she is dead.”
He said peacefully, as if he were describing a common thing.
Although that made it even more sorrowful.
Tang Xiaotang said, ”She really was Haotian's daughter.”
After a moment of silence, Ning Que answered, ”Or you could say, she was Haotian.”
He thought of the traces left by Haotian in the God-stunning Array, the traces of Sangsang passing by in Chang'an, their home and past. He suddenly laughed and said, ”I raised Haotian and married her. Am I legendary?”
Tang Xiaotang suddenly felt sorry for him and she did not know how to comfort him.
Because she felt sorry for herself as well.
Ning Que looked at her and said, ”I know what you want to ask. Pipi has taken the Abbey Dean back to the Zhishou Abbey. I want to say, I owe him a lot. I owe him my life. If he needs me someday, I will try my best do do it.”
Tang Xiaotang found her answer and said, ”Thank you, Youngest Uncle.”
They embraced in the chilly moonlight and gave each other warmth and courage.
Ning Que once believed he owed nothing to the world and was owed by it instead, until he lived in the City of Wei, then as he came to Chang'an and entered the Academy, he found he owed many people.
He owed Chen Pipi his life and he owed Mo Shanshan for her love.
Mo Shanshan didn't live in the Academy. She preferred the hotel in Chang'an.
She came for the Academy and the Tang Empire from the Great River Kingdom, leaving her sect behind.
Ning Que didn't know how to face her.
They had something, but they didn't know what they should do.
Not all men and women were like his Second Brother and Seventh Sister.
Like him, who had a wife, but still slept alone.
He hoped everything would pass after a sleep, but he was unable to fall asleep.
He looked at the bright moon in the night.
When they left the City of Wei, the stars were as cold and white as today.
The wounds made by the Abbey Dean suddenly became more painful, as his heart.