69 If not Drought, then Flood (1/2)

The night was silent, except for the pattern of rainfall, dropping down above the old tiles of the small inn.

Xue'er sat on the bed in a lotus position, with her eyes closed. Taking in very slow breaths, calming her heart so much that a person could barely feel her pulse or breath, as though she was a corpse forever in the same position.

Her pale skin contrasted her ink black hair that was messily arranged behind her ears framing her face perfectly. Like the bare branches against the snowing sky.

Empty and bare

Yet still there…

The rooms that were occupied by the newly arrived guests of the inn a few doors down was quiet and tranquil. Just like a steady flow of water going down a mountain.

It seemed the two people were really fast asleep.

[In that case, it will be a tranquil night.]

~

The moon loomed overhead with an eerie glow, as though a blood moon would be appearing soon.

Gan Tian Chi held a bare branch of a tree, twirling it around his fingers in a playful manner. His eyes twinkled brightly under the gleam of the moonlight.

[If not drought, then flood would parch then drench each vale

Without life, all creatures would pass away

Princes and kings, without that moral sway

However grand, high or mighty would all decay]

The branch he held in his hand was frozen thoroughly, every bud and leaf that had formed had become withered and desiccated, falling off in the end.

These years, the cold of the north had been increasingly harsher to live in. It was as though nature was tired of so many people living here without worshipping her, she would try to chase them all away.

Slowly, slowly, each year became colder than the previous. Soon, there would no longer be anyone left in the lands north of Eastern Jin.

In the hunter's shed, the place was dry, not a drop of rain had fallen upon the dry and frozen ground, it was a world away from the small village a few miles away that had already begun experiencing water leaking into their homes and into their firewood storage.

Soon, they would find it hard to survive.

Gan Tian Chi could not help but feel bad for those people.

Just a few years ago, they had experienced a different kind of hardship. For the past few years, the northern band that the border town rested on had been plagued by months of dry coldness, now there was nothing but an endless stream of water coming from the heavens.

Gan Tian Chi patted the dry sand off himself as he stood up, and threw the broken branch in his hand away.

He whistled a soothing tune that complemented this rainfall very much. The tune was like a feeling one would have on such a rainy night. There was a certain bliss to listening to his song. Even the birds and all other creatures gently swayed when the tune came to their ears.

His long ivory colored robes had been slightly dirtied at the hem that met the ground, now became wet, as he went into the pouring rain. Stepping in the muddied puddles that accumulated in the past few days, the hem of his robe became soaked with muddy water, yet there was nothing for him to care about.

He carefully secured his oil paper umbrella near his neck to prevent it from being blown away by the raging winds.

[However heavy the winds may be, will soon die away.]