Chapter 255 — Nestling Close

Suddenly, as Lu Xueling set down her foot, a small yet shrill cry burst from the grass beneath it, piercing and mournful in the chill of the night. Lu Xueling's face went pale and her body stiffened for a moment; then a field mouse darted out from the grass by her feet, scurrying on all fours, and in an instant vanished into another clump of thick grass.

Lu Xueling stood stunned for a moment, then slowly let out a long breath. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point now; things that would never have troubled her ordinarily could set her heart quaking tonight. Yet that sudden shriek, though it gave her a small fright, also startled awake the monkey sleeping on the other side.

Before it was even awake, the gray monkey's ears had already twitched. A moment later, all three of Xiao Hui's eyes were open.

Footsteps—coming from the other side of the ruins.

Xiao Hui clambered up and looked about, and at once discovered that Xiaobai's familiar figure was gone. The monkey grew wary; it stood a while, glanced at Ming Li, and saw its master still sitting there dumb and unmoving as a wooden statue. Then Xiao Hui turned, climbed up onto the broken wall Ming Li leaned against, and looked toward the sound of the footsteps.

In the darkness, the golden eye on its brow slowly began to glow.

Lu Xueling had walked only a short while, and yet in her heart it felt long as a thousand years. Everywhere was an empty, hollow darkness, and her heart was filled with anxiety, now tinged faintly with dread as well—surely, in the time since Xiaobai left, he had not done something foolish, alone as he was...

Her face paled another shade, and her steps quickened of themselves. As though sensing the frenzy in her heart that was on the verge of bursting forth, after two more steps Lu Xueling abruptly halted.

On a broken wall ahead, a point of golden light suddenly kindled—but it was no firefly stirring in the dead of night. It was an eye, fixed intently upon her.

The moonlight crept forward, shifted a little, and lit the shadows, revealing the shape of a gray-furred, three-eyed monkey crouched atop the broken wall, several strips of cloth like bandages oddly and comically bound about its body, looking toward Lu Xueling.

Xiao Hui!

Lu Xueling's heart gave a violent leap. Almost without thinking she darted forward; the white figure traced a faint afterimage through the moonlight, as though vanishing like the last willow catkin of spring.

Watching Lu Xueling race toward it, Xiao Hui scratched its head, seeming to hesitate. Of all the women connected with its master, Lu Xueling was the one Xiao Hui knew least. The others—Xiaobai, Xiaowan, and the rest—would laugh and gather the monkey into their arms at first sight, stroking it or teasing it, but this woman in white was cold as frost and had never once exchanged a word with Xiao Hui.

Even so, Xiao Hui knew perfectly well that this woman's bond with its master was no ordinary one. Seeing the white shadow sweep near, Xiao Hui hesitated, then made no reaction at all.

The monkey did not react, but Lu Xueling did: with a face full of alarm she snatched the monkey up in one hand. In the moonlight there was the monkey's shape and no sign of that other person. Her voice trembling, she said, "He... where has he gone?"

Xiao Hui was held up in midair. Though those hands were fair and beautiful as well, their owner was in no mood just now for courtesy, and unconsciously her grip grew tighter and tighter. Xiao Hui, growing annoyed, flailed its limbs and began to squeak. But before the monkey could even voice its protest, Lu Xueling's gaze had already drifted past it—and there, behind that broken wall, deep in the dark shadow, a motionless figure sat silently.

"Crack!"

The protesting monkey, its support suddenly gone, tumbled out of midair and hit the ground, and by the look of it he scraped against some wound in the fall. Little Gray yelped in pain, bared his teeth, leapt to his feet, and made furious faces at Lu Xueling's receding back.

Lu Xueling slowly rounded the broken wall and came to stand beside Ming Li. What met her eyes was a husk that seemed to have lost all life—a pair of vacant, lightless eyes staring blankly, fixed on some nameless point; the whole face written over with haggard exhaustion; and even a faint reek of decay rising from his body, so that one nearly mistook him for a corpse already rotting from within.

"Clang!" The Celestial Dipper Divine Sword slipped from her hand and fell lightly to the ground beside her, yet Lu Xueling did not spare it even a glance. Slowly, she knelt down before Ming Li, and two glittering strings of tears slid down her pale cheeks.

"Xiaofan..."

Ming Li's body stirred abruptly, as though that half-familiar cry had faintly touched something deep within him. Yet moments later he sank back into his former blankness—like a weary bird that would rather huddle in its own small, formless nest than look even once more upon the world outside.

Trembling slightly, Lu Xueling reached out both hands and slowly cupped his face. Those familiar contours—they were the very one carved into her heart, the one she had yearned for through countless nights. Her lips quivered, and with a choke in her voice she whispered, "Xiaofan, I'm here. It's me—I'm Xueqi..."

He did not move. His face was wooden.

The night wind blew cool and clear, rustling through the grass. The gray-furred monkey sat crouched to one side, watching them without a sound. Beneath the cold, cold moonlight, who would spare a thought for this lowly, insignificant corner of the world, and for the man and woman struggling, sinking and rising, in the tides of mortal love?

Drip. A translucent tear rolled from her cheek and fell upon Ming Li's face—moist, and faintly warm. Lu Xueling sat gently down beside Ming Li; wherever she touched, he was cold as ice.

"Don't be afraid. You mustn't be afraid..." Behind the tear-stains on Lu Xueling's face there slowly surfaced a courage edged with resolve. Gently she gathered Ming Li's head against her bosom, warming with the heat of her breast that body about to collapse in despair.

She held the man in her arms tightly and would not let go again, and slowly she raised her head to gaze at the vault of heaven, at that bright moon, so clear and luminous.

"Xiaofan, don't be afraid."

"It will be all right..."

"Everything will be all right!"

She spoke softly, her voice tender yet firm.

Moonlight like water poured down upon the mortal world, gently illuminating that pair of figures leaning against each other.