Chapter 145 — Meeting

A smile rose to her lips, yet in her eyes there flickered a faint crystalline light, as though she were hesitating over something. But after a moment she said softly at last, "And what of Bili?..."

It was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head. Ming Li's whole body went cold; the chill that seeped out from the deepest depths of his heart seemed in an instant to freeze him into ice. That figure in water-green, that serene smile, that beautiful form lying upon the cold jade platform—in an instant it struck him down completely.

He bowed his head in silence and stood so for a long while. Then, when he raised his head again, the agitation on his face was gone, replaced by coldness. Lu Xueling stared at the change in him, feeling with terrible clarity how the man before her was drifting away from that tender warmth, retreating into the icy darkness.

She drew a deep breath, and a smile touched the corners of her mouth. Yet who was there to see the faint gleam of tears in her eyes? That instant of heart-shaking beauty!

"Next time," Mingli turned and slowly walked away, "when we meet again, use your sword!"

He departed without a backward glance, like a resolute lover severing all ties of affection. Moonlight followed at his back, like a gentle hand tugging weakly at him, yet in the end it could not hold his figure.

He vanished into the darkness—the very path by which he had come, and the direction in which he departed!

On Lu Xueling's pale face still hung a faint, somewhat stiff smile. Her snow-white robes fluttered in the wind, beneath the moonlight, until, without a sound, she shed her first tear.

Over all the mountains and fields, the weeping bamboos rustled in the moonlight, on such a desolate and clear night...