[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 108
The path was so desolate that not even the sounds of birds could be heard. Only an increasingly dense, lush green obscured their view, hiding the way back and blurring the path ahead.
Shiliu managed to puff out her cheeks in defiance for a while, but before long, her jaw ached. Combined with her trembling legs from the climb, she deflated like a blowfish losing air, an eggplant beaten by frost, and a grasshopper after autumn.
Unfortunately, someone was utterly lacking in romantic sensibility and showed no intention of slowing down. His long legs moved as easily over the rugged mountain path as if on level ground. His black boots with white soles lightly touched the stones, quickly putting distance between them.
Yet, every time Shiliu thought she was about to lose him, she would always see his figure ahead after a turn, continuing forward without looking back.
It was like flying a kite—the string in hand loosening and tightening, tightening and loosening, tugging at one’s heart, up and down.
Infuriating.
Bottling up a silent anger, Shiliu stubbornly followed him the entire way. The later it got, the more she refused to fall behind, pushing forward obstinately like the first batch of spring chives sprouting stubbornly from the ground.
The two spectators bringing up the rear occasionally exchanged glances behind them.
He Chong watched Shiliu charging ahead in a huff, yet always being led by the nose by Li Xuanci’s unhurried pace in front. His eyebrows twisted into hemp ropes, and he quite immorally vented his frustration on the available target.
“This is just not right. Is he teasing a cat or dog? What does he take our Shiliu for?”
Jin Zhan, the recipient of this venting, wasn’t sure if he should remind He Chong that he had just compared his own junior brother to a cat or dog. So, he could only maintain his role as the tight-lipped gourd, allowing He Chong to splash ink and wield the brush in expressing his grievances, while he himself provided the blank, contrasting background to the landscape.
Although the mountain path was long, with the cat-and-dog teasing mixed with the comic banter of a straight man and a funny man, they managed to endure it.
After growing numb from the endless view of green mountains and lush foliage, they finally spotted the tips of grey tiles hidden in a gully. They had set out at dawn, and it was now dusk.
Traces of human activity created a patch of bare, earth-colored ground amidst the deep green of the mountains. Houses built of mud were scattered haphazardly. It was mealtime, but from the many chimneys protruding from the roofs, only a few sparse, grey wisps of smoke rose.
Before they even entered, a scent of decay and decline stealthily crept up from under their feet.
The wooden fence outside the village was inserted crookedly, pointing abruptly towards the sky, with gaps here and there, unrepaired. Pushing open the creaky old gate on the fence, the lock was rusted—no one had come to replace it, no one had come to fix it.
The four exchanged glances. He Chong, having traveled outside and dealt with demons before, subconsciously raised his guard. Although Shiliu lacked experience, seeing her senior brother’s demeanor, she naturally became alert too.
Only Li Xuanci couldn’t even be bothered to draw his sword. The tip of his foot tapped, and he mercilessly kicked the creaky old gate to pieces. It fell to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
He Chong couldn’t say anything, but Shiliu boldly glared at him and said in a low voice, “Be careful not to startle the snake.”
Li Xuanci, however, lightly raised one eyebrow. “A bunch of ants, worth my caution?”
Shiliu opened her mouth to retort, but Li Xuanci’s words turned over in her heart, and it seemed… that was indeed true.
So, they swaggered into the village just like that.
Walking further in, they realized just how desolate this village was. The earthen walls were mottled, with soil crumbling sporadically at their bases. In many enclosed yards, the cabbages looked wilted and had turned yellow from rotting. In contrast, the melons and fruits hanging from the vines on nearby frames were large and heavy, clearly left untended for some time.
Seeing all this desolation, Shiliu turned to Li Xuanci and asked, “How do we find the young man the old servant mentioned?”
Even though she had been angry with him on the road, when faced with a problem, Shiliu forgot her displeasure and asked frankly. She didn’t even realize that Li Xuanci had now become her guardian deity, her problem-solving bodhisattva—the first person who came to mind when she had doubts.
Li Xuanci looked at Shiliu, remembering her puffed-up cheeks along the way, now obediently retracted. A hint of amusement appeared in his eyes as he crooked a finger at her.
He really was teasing a cat or dog.
Shiliu, however, remained oblivious, naively leaning in, only to have her chin captured by him, his fingertips gently stroking it.
Her eyes widened like bells. The amusement in Li Xuanci’s eyes deepened. Watching her silly, puffed-up expression had made his hands itch the whole way. If he hadn’t been toying with her, he would have given in to the urge long ago.
Before Shiliu could lose her temper, Li Xuanci turned her chin towards a house not far away.
“Over there,” he said, leaning close. His deliberately approaching breath stirred the stray hairs on Shiliu’s forehead, tickling her.
Suppressing the itch, Shiliu refused to anger herself with such a childish person. She looked where he had turned but still couldn’t see anything different, so she looked back at Li Xuanci in confusion.
“The latch,” Li Xuanci hinted briefly.
With the hint, Shiliu looked more carefully and figured it out.
“Only the latch on the side room of this house is nailed on the outside. The latch on the main house, like the other courtyards, is on the inside, so we can’t see it.”
Shiliu’s eyes lit up. She didn’t mind the king of hell still endlessly pinching her chin and continued her deduction, “The old servant said the young man who returned went mad. Now, every household keeps their doors shut, but someone who’s insane is hard to control. So, they changed the latch to be nailed on the outside. It can’t be opened from the inside, so the person is trapped.”
“Not completely stupid,” Li Xuanci laughed lightly and flicked her forehead with his finger.
Right on the spot, He Chong had tapped that afternoon.