Chapter 115 — Hope

Ming Li shook his head silently. After a long while he said, "That is what I cannot fathom. How could this woman be so formidable as to know our movements? Yet I have just searched myself all over and can find no place where anyone has played a trick."

Little White's gaze shifted, sweeping over Ming Li, then somehow drifted back to Little Grey. Suddenly she smiled faintly. "With your cultivation, even if that woman had wished to leave some subtle mark on you, I doubt she could have managed it. The problem is not with you."

Ming Li turned to look at her, hesitated, and said, "What—from what you say, Senior… Miss Little White, it seems you know something?"

Little White's eyes gleamed. She stroked Little Grey's head lightly and laughed. "Little Grey has probably never had a bath in his life! So the problem lies with Little Grey…"

…

At the foot of the hill, Ming Li and Little White found a clear little stream and set about bathing Little Grey.

Since the day he was born, Little Grey had likely never once been bathed, and naturally he was reluctant in every way, struggling with all his might and chattering in protest.

In the end it was Little White who had a way. She did not know where she had picked a few wild fruits, which she put into Little Grey's hands, comforting him softly all the while and doing the washing herself. Only then was Little Grey placed in the water and his body rinsed.

Ming Li stood to one side, brows furrowed, and after pondering a long while said, "Strange—how is it I never noticed that smell?"

Little White gave a soft laugh. "You are a man, and you were not paying attention. Naturally you would not notice. Last night, because I was fond of Little Grey, I held him in my arms, and from that moment I smelled a faint, elusive fragrance. I thought it strange then—a monkey like Little Grey surely should not have such a scent. But it was so faint that I paid it no mind. It was only this morning, when we met that young woman, that it came to me."

She smiled. "That young woman is meticulous in her thinking—fine methods, truly formidable."

Ming Li gave a cold snort.

The sky remained overcast. The stream babbled on, and Little Grey frolicked in the water without cease, as though unable to keep still for a moment, now and then scooping up sprays of water to splash in every direction.

Little White, crouched beside him washing him, had her face and body splashed again and again by this mischievous monkey.

Ming Li stood to one side, gazing toward them.

There by the water's edge, Little Bai rolled up her sleeves, a faint smile on her lips, her eyes as limpid as water, coaxing Little Hui in a soft, laughing voice to hold still while she washed him.

Looking closely, one saw a few droplets had settled on her face like crystal-clear pearls, some resting lightly on the tips of her brows, others slipping quietly down along the curve of her cheek, grazing skin so fair it was almost translucent and yet, as if reluctant to part, lingering before they fell.

The gentle breeze of the southern frontier wilds drifted in from afar, stirring her long hair, and the glistening droplets seemed to tremble faintly with it...

Ming Li suddenly turned his head away and looked no more toward that side. Yet barely a moment later, a startled cry from Little Bai came from behind him.

Ming Li was taken aback and turned around, only to see that Little Hui had finished his wash and leapt up onto the bank; before Little Bai beside him could call out to stop him, he shook his whole body at once, sending the droplets caught in his fur flying in every direction.

Little Bai, unable to dodge in time, scolded him laughingly, but her clothes were already speckled with many drops from this rain that had fallen out of a clear sky.

As her gaze shifted, Little Bai saw that Ming Li was looking her way; she was startled for an instant, then smiled.

The corner of Ming Li's mouth twitched, and instinctively he smiled too. Then he turned his head away, and still behind him came the sound of Little Bai laughing and scolding Little Hui.

On this overcast day, a warmth that had not been felt for a long while suddenly stirred, quietly echoing in the air.