[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 86
By the time He Chong and Jin Zhan returned, the fire at the inn had somewhat subsided.
It had been a long night, and everyone was exhausted, some bearing injuries. Li Xuanci went to search for a nearby inn or, if none was available, a nearby residence where they could spend some silver to rest for the night.
Jin Zhan turned to leave, but suddenly a fierce west wind swept through the night sky, instantly causing the previously subdued flames to leap up over ten feet high.
Sparks crackled and scattered through the air, bursting into dangerous flashes.
Sizzle! A spark landed on the roof of an adjacent building and, carried by the strange west wind, quickly ignited the house next door.
This new fire spread with extreme speed. In moments, the adjacent house was burning even more fiercely than the inn that had caught fire first. Amid the raging flames, the grey walls and black tiles seemed to warp and melt.
Before the firefighters could react, the brick wall within the fire emitted an ominous cracking sound.
Boom!
Such a large building collapsed right before everyone’s eyes. The brick wall split apart, countless tiles falling from the sky. For a moment, shattered, scorching dust surged out like a tide, briefly overshadowing the burning flames and plunging everything into a grey haze.
As the dust surged toward them, Shiliu instinctively closed her eyes but suddenly felt a warmth—a hand covering them.
Fragments of debris sprayed onto her with the heatwave; fine, burning dust grazed her cheeks with a slight stinging sensation.
She couldn’t see; there was only darkness before her eyes, and waves of heat clung to her skin, making it difficult to breathe.
Yet, the only thing she could feel was the hand covering her eyes—warm and dry.
The calluses on his palm brushed against her eyelashes, stirring a flustered, itchy feeling in her heart amid this absurd and terrifying fiery night.
Before Shiliu could sort through her tangled thoughts, Li Xuanci lowered his hand.
But when Shiliu opened her eyes, all she saw was his retreating back.
“This fire is strange.”
Li Xuanci stared intently at the collapsed building amidst the flames, his brow slightly furrowed.
“A wooden inn burned for so long without collapsing. Brick and stone buildings are the most fire-resistant and difficult to ignite—how could it burn and collapse so quickly?”
He Chong, equally serious, voiced his opinion.
As they spoke, several more houses were ignited by flying sparks. Some, like the previous one, burst into intense flames almost instantly, on the verge of complete collapse.
Li Xuanci didn’t respond. Instead, he suddenly dashed forward, lightly tapped his toes, and nimbly leaped into an old tree nearby. From there, he scanned the surrounding fire points carefully.
After observing for a while, he jumped down.
“What did you see?” Shiliu hurried over, her heart pounding. The fire was too strange—unpredictable and out of control. If they didn’t figure it out soon, who knew how many in the city would perish?
“The fire seems to have eyes, but the ignition points show no pattern.” Li Xuanci frowned.
“What does that mean? It has eyes but no pattern?” Shiliu was utterly confused, unable to decipher his riddle.
Li Xuanci glanced down at her, knowing her mind was already a muddled mess. He shot her a blatantly mocking look. Only when Shiliu puffed her dirty cheeks into a ball of anger did he finally deign to explain.
“I observed just now. Although there are fires in the distance, this area was the first to ignite. The fire burned in the inn for a long time without being so severe, but once the sparks flew out, they spread as if doused with oil.”
“Further out, some wooden houses burned quickly, while some brick houses burned slowly, so it’s not all like the situation here at the inn,” Li Xuanci said, turning to He Chong.
“And then? And then?” Shiliu, impatient with his slow explanation, grabbed his sleeve and tugged. “The fire is still burning right now! People could die at any moment—why are you dragging this out?”
Li Xuanci gave her a light glance but didn’t lose his temper. Allowing her to tug on his already disheveled underrobe, he continued.
“But in several places, two or three houses in a row burned, while the houses between them remained untouched—only the ones on both sides caught fire.”
“There’s even a flour shop completely unscathed, while the dye workshop next to it is engulfed in flames. One instance could be a coincidence, but this many ignition points absolutely cannot be coincidental. If this fire didn’t have eyes, how could it be so precisely targeted?”
Shiliu nodded. Flour shops, with all their dust, usually fear sparks—a single one could cause an explosion. Yet tonight, it remained completely untouched, while the dye workshop next door, which stored pools of water for rinsing cloth, was ablaze. It was far too strange.
From this perspective, the fire indeed seemed to have eyes, choosing ignition points in a bizarre and seemingly irrational manner.
But no pattern could be discerned. It neither followed the logic of wood and dust being highly flammable nor completely defied it. It was more like the random, unreasonable game of a mischievous child.
A mischievous child?
Something flashed through Shiliu’s mind, but she couldn’t grasp it. She pressed one temple, thinking hard, even rapping her own head sharply a few times, but still couldn’t recall it.
She raised her hand to hit her head again, but Li Xuanci caught it just in time.
“Already foolish enough,” he said with a look of disdain.
Shiliu opened her mouth to retort, but suddenly her eyes fixed blankly, looking past him toward the narrow alley behind the others.
In the darkness, a pair of small eyes flashed, then disappeared.
“It’s him!” Shiliu blurted out, pointing into the darkness and shouting.
Li Xuanci’s gaze sharpened instantly. He turned, his sword gleaming like frost, its light brilliant, and swiftly flew toward the darkness.
“Ah!”
A thud and a cry came from the darkness, the voice high-pitched and thin.
It was actually a child.