[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 87
“Ah!”
A thud and a cry came from the darkness, the voice high-pitched and thin.
It was actually a child.
Li Xuanci moved the fastest, with Shiliu close behind. He Chong, more meticulous, grabbed a lantern from a nearby water cart and followed last.
The flickering candlelight faintly illuminated a corner of the narrow, dark alley. The hazy glow fell on the child crouched on the ground, a gleaming sword piercing his small shoulder. Dark red blood quickly spread across his white clothes.
“So it’s you!” Shiliu’s eyes widened in surprise. But seeing the frail child trembling from blood loss, biting his lower lip hard to stay silent, a flicker of pity crossed her eyes.
He Chong and Jin Zhan were also shocked to see it was a child. Only the perpetrator remained coldly watching his sword create a bloody hole in the child’s shoulder, utterly unmoved.
He Chong, unable to bear it, handed the lantern to Jin Zhan and moved to help the child, though he couldn’t bring himself to blame Li Xuanci.
As the lantern light swayed and He Chong stepped forward, Li Xuanci, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, raised a fingertip to block his path.
He Chong whispered urgently, “Your Highness, I sense no demonic aura on this child…”
Li Xuanci didn’t even bother to look up, cutting him off directly.
“If he were an ordinary child, why would he be out alone in the middle of the night with fires everywhere? And why, after being struck by my sword, does he grit his teeth without a sound? There must be something strange.”
“Besides,” he paused slightly before continuing in a meaningful tone, “even your soft-hearted shidi hasn’t spoken up. Why are you showing kindness?”
Shiliu, called out by him, hesitated and said, “I saw him in front of the inn during the day. There was another child in red with him.”
When the child in white had run over earlier, the others had already entered the inn, so they hadn’t noticed him. Only after Shiliu mentioned it did they recall indeed encountering a child in red during the day.
Li Xuanci reached out and pulled the sword from the child’s shoulder in one swift motion. Blood instantly gushed out, splattering onto Li Xuanci’s face. Against his sharp features in the dark night, it was particularly terrifying.
His black boots mercilessly stepped on the child’s shoulder, now half stained with bright red and half plain white, even grinding down forcefully. A look of pain flashed across the White Child’s face, his teeth biting his lower lip until it turned pale.
His face, tinted jade-like by the moonlight, was set against the raging fire in the distance. A splash of blood marked his cheekbone, his eyes filled with ruthless killing intent.
It’s been so long since I’ve killed anyone. So boring.
Before him, there was no distinction between male or female, old or young, good or evil—only those he wished to kill and those he did not.
Like a heterochromatic asura from the abyss.
But Shiliu, remembering the childish smile on the boy’s face when she handed him the red ball that afternoon, couldn’t help but tug lightly on Li Xuanci’s sleeve.
Yet this gentle tug, like a cat’s scratch, managed to cage the asura about to break free.
The madness in Li Xuanci’s eyes receded slightly. He controlled the killing intent on his face before turning to look at her. Sure enough, he saw a pleading look in Shiliu’s dark, round eyes.
He mentally clicked his tongue. Troublesome.
The next moment, he still lifted his foot from the White Child’s shoulder. Looking at his blood-soaked boot sole, he ground it on the ground, leaving a deep, filthy blood mark.
Shiliu moved closer, crouched down to look at the pale-faced child, meeting his eyes at his level, and whispered, “You see how terrifying this person is, right? Better be honest, or I’ll let him torture you however he wants.”
She spoke as if Li Xuanci were a hound at her beck and call, ready to charge into battle.
Shiliu probably felt guilty too, hence the whisper, unaware that Li Xuanci behind her had raised an eyebrow.
The White Child looked warily at Shiliu approaching. Even though Shiliu had saved him, his face showed a resentment he hadn’t even displayed toward Li Xuanci.
“It’s all your fault! If you hadn’t pretended to be kind…” He stopped abruptly, biting his lip again, refusing to say more.
Shiliu was utterly baffled. She had just saved this child, and instead of gratitude, she was accused of feigning kindness.
“How can you be so unreasonable? I should have let him stomp you to death earlier,” Shiliu retorted angrily.
Resentment flashed in the child’s eyes. He opened his mouth to argue but closed it again, saying nothing.
Seeing his reaction, Shiliu felt something was odd. That strange, fleeting feeling from earlier returned. What clue had she missed? What was really going on?
Her gaze unintentionally fell on the child’s garment, interwoven with stark red and plain white, and she became lost in thought.
Suddenly, she jumped up and exclaimed, “I know! I know how this fire grew eyes!”
He Chong, hearing this, quickly pressed for an explanation.
Shiliu urgently turned to Li Xuanci, urging, “Take me up high again. I want to confirm something.”
Li Xuanci raised an eyebrow, looking at Shiliu, who had proactively opened her arms to him, and simply stared at her for a moment.
Belatedly realizing how embarrassing this was, Shiliu felt the blood rush in her ears, her pulse pounding. Her outstretched arms trembled slightly, but she didn’t withdraw them. Instead, she put on an even more justified expression, spreading her arms wider—wide enough to hug a pig.
A flicker of amusement passed through Li Xuanci’s eyes. He wrapped an arm around her waist, tapped his feet a few times, and flew up onto the roof.
Soon, the two jumped back down. This time, Shiliu’s expression was much more certain.
“I know how the fire started.”
“That child in red from during the day scattered red pellets all over the ground, and this child in white was picking them up behind him. Just now, based on my memory, I checked a few places where he had picked up the balls, and none of them had caught fire.”
Everyone looked at the child in white. So, was he actually the one putting out the fire?
He Chong asked, “Then what about our inn? Why did it burn for so long without being instantly destroyed like the other buildings?”
Shiliu thought for a moment and guessed, “The ball that rolled near the inn—I picked it up and gave it to him. He didn’t pick it up himself. Could that be why?”
The White Child finally couldn’t hold back, “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have taken it! I should have let you all burn to death!”
His outburst confirmed Shiliu’s guess.