Nightfall

Looking at the two children who were sucking desperately for milk in her arms, Sangsang’s face did not reveal the maternal luster that was always mentioned in the stories, nor was there much emotion. But her eyes were slightly perplexed as this scene proved that she was getting more and more like humans, regardless of the fact that she was breastfeeding, or the fact that she had milk to breastfeed.

The two children fell asleep after eating. She put the children on the side, held on the armrest of the Great Divine Priest and stood up slowly. She walked to the outside of the Taoist palace, looking at a particular direction of the clear blue sky. She took out the abacus from her arms with her fingers poking at it thoughtlessly, and stayed silent for a long time.

The Drunkard was looking for her in the human world, and Ning Que was rushing over here. The reason she was silent was not because she was uneasy, but that she was in an unpleasant mood. Her unhappiness was from the bit of changes in the process of transforming from god to human. She had experienced this beforehand, but never had she experienced the pain and vulnerability. It was real and frustrating, the humiliation was unbearable especially when she recalled that she was forced to escape from the so-called dog, the Drunkard.

She did not know whether it was because of the labor that the feeling of humiliation became unusually strong, and the urge to protect her own territory and dignity were overwhelming. She made up her mind quickly.

Walking back to the Taoist palace, she looked indifferently at the lethargic middle-aged midwife under the Great Divine Priest with condescension as she used to do it before and said, “I grant you eternal life.”

Nothing happened, there was no clear light and tea, nor any changes in the path of fate that could not be seen but truly existed, as she was no longer the omnipotent Haotian.

After a moment of silence, she said, ” If I’m immortal, I’ll grant you eternal life.”

She felt a bit uncomfortable after saying it, her face turned slightly hot, thinking in her heart if it was possible that she got sick easily after she became a human. She wanted to do something to distract herself from her thoughts, just then, she saw the pincer.

The pincer that the middle-aged midwife referred to as cephalotracter was not a piece of exquisite workmanship in her eyes, but there was real wisdom or, a novel idea in the circle formed at the head of the pincer.

She was a bit curious to know who designed it, just then, she saw a familiar label on the pincer. Indeed, she was very familiar with the label as it was manufactured by the workshop held by the Academy. She was very familiar with it because she had cooked many times at the Back Hill Academy back then, the same label was on all the kitchen knives.

…

…

Sangsang rearranged the clothes used to wrap the children with great patience, looking at the appearance, they could barely be referred as swaddling clothes. But the two children were not very comfortable, judging from the slight frown on their fine eyebrows.

It was fine as long as it could keep warm. She did not want to waste her energy over such a trivial matter. She tied up both the children on the sides of the big black horse’s saddle and rode on the indigo lion, heading toward the outer ring of the capital.

The twilight sky was red like fire. The streets were deserted because of the war. Occasionally there were pedestrians looking at the huge indigo lion and Sangsang who was sitting on it, screaming and running away.

Sangsang halted the indigo lion temporarily when she passed by a square. There were thousands of people in the square, worshipping and praying at a courtyard. There was a pile of white ashes in the courtyard.

These were the worshippers of the New Stream who came from all over the place, worshipping the holy land and reminiscing about their Saint.

The power of the New Stream was growing gradually, the few Kingdoms like Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen were unstable. Taoism was hardly sustainable and would be abandoned at anytime. They dared not do what they used to do back then, shouting and killing these worshippers of the New Stream.

Sangsang knew that Ye Su was burnt to death in that courtyard, perhaps some of his ashes were in the pile of wood ashes there. It was from that day onward, her weakening strength was irreparable.

Looking at the courtyard and the crowd of the worshippers of the New Stream in front of it, she remained silent for a while without much anger. It was meaningless to be mad at a deceased person. However, a slight mood swing was inevitable. It affected the wound on her belly and her wound dehisced. She lowered her head to look at the bloodstain on her green shirt and frowned slightly. Then she recalled that the number of times she frowned in these past few days was a lot more than that adding together for the past few years.

“Let’s go,” she said softly.

The indigo lion walked slowly to the outside of the city. The big black horse tagged along, together with the two children. The worshippers of the New Stream who were kneeling at the square did not notice this group of people at all, perhaps it was because they were too focused, or it was a sign of faithfulness.

She rode on the indigo lion, looking at the human world that was no longer the same. Her mind drifted away, there was no expression, no kindness but a divinity on her face, lights gleaming from her green shirt.

A thought suddenly crossed her mind. When she was young, she heard Ning Que talking about a Bodhisattva who was cruising the world sitting on the indigo lion. She took over the indigo lion from a Bodhisattva in a chess match. Now that she was sitting on its back, she did look like a Bodhisattva. Ning Que said that the Bodhisattva was very persistent and kind, he was a good Bodhisattva. He loved all people, regardless of whether they loved him or not. She raised her eyebrows slightly and dispersed the feeling, thinking in her heart how she could turn into a weaker existence than the bald donkey of the Buddha.

After getting out of the capital of Song Kingdom, the indigo lion and the big black horse stopped and gazed at her at the same time, exchanging looks. What was their next move in order to avoid the Drunkard who was chasing after them?

Sangsang looked at the northwest direction, facing toward a star. She remembered that she named the star, Sirius.

“Let’s go there.”

There was Sirius star in the northwest direction of the sky. There was a small town in the northwest direction of the human world.

Now she was the Monk Tang whom Ning Que once talked about, with only her divinity but none of her divine power left. In the eyes of the people like the Abbey Dean and the Drunkard, she was the biggest temptation. This level of the Grand Cultivator could kill her at all cost. Chang’an City was too far away and the return journey was very unsafe, hence she wanted to go to the small town.

Suddenly she remembered about the Monk Tang that Ning Que once talked about, that he became a Buddha after that. That fellow was very naggy but stubborn as well, why did he keep running away on his journey to the West?

She did not want to run away anymore. The dignity of Haotian forbade her to keep running away. She wanted to go to the small town and kill the Drunkard.

…

…

The small town was located between the border of Song and Yan Kingdom; it was barren and deserted now. The Northeast Battlefront Army that was newly created by the Tang had attacked the hinterland of Yan Kingdom. It was said that the Chengjing City had been besieged for 10 days, and the escape team had crossed the small town, flocking to the place that was further south, only leaving behind the mess and ruins.

The only butcher shop in the town was closed, but the only painting and calligraphy shop was still open. The owner of the shop was waiting for someone, even though that person probably would never come back and he might never have a chance to do what he was ready to do. However, he would keep waiting until he could finally confirm it. Unexpectedly, the bibulous person whom he was waiting for had yet to come back, but a surprising guest came instead.

Sangsang walked the big black horse to the front of the shop, over the doorstep and looked at him. She curtsied slightly to him in a friendly manner to the best of her knowledge, looking a bit clumsy, or awkward.

Chao Xiaoshu felt very awkward, he looked at her and sighed, “There’s no need for that, sister-in-law.”

He was an unruly genius, and he was very confident. Back in those days when he was travelling around Jianghu world, he knew he would definitely broaden his horizon with many sceneries, and he would get to know a lot of great people, for instance the late emperor. But never had he thought that one day, he would become the brother-in-law of Haotian.

Zhang San and Li Si knew Sangsang’s identity as well. Their faces turned pale instantly, panicking and feeling extremely uneasy. They were at a loss as they saw the two fair-skinned children on the horse saddle.

“These are your…” Sangsang thought for a while and said, “Youngest Brother and Youngest Sister.”

There were three generations of the Back Hill Academy, the Eldest Sister of the third generation was Tang Xiaotang, followed by Zhang San and Li Si. Ning Que’s son and daughter would naturally be the Youngest Brother and the Youngest Sister.

Zhang San and Li Si finally came out of trance hearing the name, thinking in their heart that there was nothing to be afraid of since they were family. They went forward to greet her and called her Youngest Aunt cheerfully.

It was not very far from the capital to the small town. The indigo lion and the big black horse were as fast as lighting. The twilight faded into darkness, the silence in the small town was deafening, only a light gleaming from the painting and calligraphy shop.

There was only one shop, but they still needed to eat.

Zhang San and Li Si were very bold, otherwise they would not have beheaded the Abbey Dean with a kitchen knife, nor would it be possible for them to keep calling her Youngest Aunt. Nevertheless, when Sangsang personally cooked some food and served them bowls of soup noodles, they were still a bit uneasy, or more so, terrified.

The dish made personally by Haotian. Who had eaten it before? Who was eligible to eat?

“Your master, uncle and aunty had eaten it before, and it’s more than once,” Chao Xiaoshu smiled and said, his smile was filled with mixed emotions. He looked at the tender fried egg on the noodles, remained silent for a while and uttered, “It rained heavily that year, you didn’t cook for me when I wanted to eat a bowl of noodles.”

“I did it anyway after that.” Sangsang looked at him calmly and said, “And I put onion today, I fried eggs too.”

Few would have known why Chao Xiaoshu came to the small town, but he could not hide from her.

Back then, Chao Xiaoshu walked into the Old Brush Pen Shop in the rain on a spring night, Ning Que followed him to kill people with a knife on his back. Sangsang made a bowl of fried egg noodles for both of them after they killed people.

This bowl of fried egg noodles was not that easy to eat.

In order to eat the noodles, you had to kill, or hand over your life to the other person.

Chao Xiaoshu glanced at her and smiled, he picked up the chopsticks and started eating the noodles with relish.

Zhang San and Li Si dipped the chopsticks in the noodle soup and fed the children who just woke up.

…

…

In fact, the painting and calligraphy shop was not the only shop in the town that was open, the wine cellar was open too.

The owner of the wine cellar was a young and beautiful widow. She did not have any relatives, at least after all the discrimination and bullying, she did not have anyone who cared for her. Selling alcoholic drinks was not something to be much talked about in this world.

Sangsang was walking the horse, looking at her with no expression and said, “He may feel miserable if I kill you, even though the feeling was transient, I decide to kill you anyway.”

The beautiful woman looked frightened, her face paled, not knowing what she was talking about. Nevertheless, somehow she could tell who was the person she was talking about, as she was with him for many years. All the people had fled, but she did not, as she was waiting for him to come back too. She believed that he would bring her out of here.

Sangsang was very weak now, but it was merely a matter of thought to kill such an ordinary woman.

The big black horse cocked its head and refused to move forward. The indigo lion hid in the dark like a small black mountain, approaching slowly, it might swallow up the wine-selling woman anytime.

Then, the Drunkard appeared.

…