842 The Waning Moon (2/2)
The girl was young and smart. She asked as she took over the things, ”Who are you?”
Ning Que looked at her messy hair and said, ”I'm a friend of your teacher. This is the belt he wanted me to buy for you, and this is the headdress flower he promised you long ago.”
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...
The severe heat of midsummer arrived as soon as the rain stopped pouring. The air was so humid, and the accumulated waste water was giving out a terrible smell.
Ye Su sent Ning Que off. They stopped by a quiet place outside the alley. Ning Que looked at him and said, ”The girl was so happy, and... are you sure you're just making her happy, for nothing?”
”Her name is Huanzi. She's just a little girl.” Said Ye Su.
Ning Que said, ”Why so serious? I was joking.”
Ye Su said, ”We're not that close.”
Ning Que said, ”But she and I were very close.”
Ye Su asked, ”Who's she?”
Ning Que said, ”Your sister.”
Ye Su felt the two words familiar, then he realized Ning Que said the same two words when he asked him where he had learned the Dahe Sword, in the snowy Chang'an.
”People from the Academy can be really annoying sometimes.”
He looked at Ning Que and said, ”I still don't understand why you don't want to kill me.”
”I hated you before, but now I can live with it. I never hesitate to kill, but only for proper reason or the mood.”
Ning Que told him what he did in Qing He County, then he said, ”I let Wudao kill Zhong Dajun to help Guanhai solve the problem, to subdue Qinghe County and to release my anger. And most importantly, I want to bind the Buddhism Sect, or at least the Lanke Temple, with the Academy. But meeting you in Linkang made me come up with another possibility, that if you're the future of Haotian Taoism, then why would I try to kill you?”
Ning Que hadn't walked far before he heard children reading in the alley. Or to be specific, they were reciting the method of headdress flower weaving instead of reading books.
He turned back to see the alley, only seeing the mist rising at dusk. He heard the sound of children, and as he walked further, the terrible smell was gone. He could only see the picture, and it was beautiful, in its own way.
Ye Su had integrated theories from the Buddhist Sect and Haotian Taoism, and mixed it with his own experience in the small temple. Now he had his own view of the world, which betrayed Haotian.
He had betrayed Haotian before the Verdant Canyon, just like how the Abbey Dean had betrayed Haotian in Chang'an. For those who were really powerful, no matter how devout believers they used to be, they would definitely find their own way one day if they wouldn't stop thinking.
”We're all leaving you.”
Ning Que looked at the sky above Linkang, talking to her.
He hadn't learned any wisdom directly from Ye Su in those days, but there was one thing that he had finally figured out, which was to never ask a Sage for the way to become a Sage.
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Ning Que had never run into any other cities after he left Linkang. He walked in the mountains, and the whole journey was peaceful until he was about reach the West-Hill Divine Kingdom.
He made a bed with cloth tied between trees, and slept on it at night. Soon he slept soundly in the gentle summer breeze, on the swinging bed.
Suddenly, he was awakened by firecrackers. While rubbing his eyes, he saw the small village, laying at the foot of the mountain, setting firecrackers everywhere.
He was confused because there was no festival that day, and it was days away from the Light Sacrifice. Why were they setting off firecrackers? Did someone just die?
If someone had died, the firecrackers should only be set off by one family, the family of the dead. So why was it everywhere now?
Then the sound came from the ridge of the mountain, and that was when Ning Que realized something was happening, and he turned serious.
He suddenly noticed that the moon light in the forest was dimmer than usual. The difference was slight, which the ordinary might ignore, but not him; not one of the students who too often looked up at the moon and called the Headmaster's names. The slight difference was obvious enough.
He looked up into the night sky, and then he couldn't move his eyes from it.
The moon in the night sky was waning by a piece.