Chapter 60 — Storm
劍問蒼天 · Page 3 of 5
Her gaze made him uneasy, and he said in surprise: "What is it?"
Bili pursed her lips and smiled, and her expression seemed greatly pleased. "So even a boy like you knows to worry about my health?"
Zhang Qingyue's face reddened, though fortunately in this stormy night it was hard to tell. He said awkwardly: "I'm just afraid that if you fall ill later, you'll blame me for it."
Bili leaned in and at once crouched right alongside him, pressed close. The difference was that Zhang Qingyue was kneeling on the ground, while Bili was crouching beside him. At the same time, Bili's umbrella shifted over once more, sheltering the two of them from the wind and rain.
Zhang Qingyue felt that amid the wind and rain, there was a faint gentleness, a subtle fragrance, drifting over. He could not help glancing to the side, and unexpectedly Bili was looking at him too. Their eyes met, and both froze. After a moment, Zhang Qingyue was the first to look away, though for some reason his heart had begun to pound violently.
And Bili, who had always been so good with words, fell quiet now too, crouching silently beside Zhang Qingyue, keeping him company, only when he was not looking quietly shifting the umbrella a little more toward him, shielding him from a bit more of the wind and rain.
"Ah!" In the midst of the silence, his thoughts in turmoil, Zhang Qingyue suddenly thought of something and could not help crying out. He turned to look at Bili, anxiety written on his face, and said urgently: "You -- how can you come here?"
Bili did not seem much surprised by his reaction. She only smiled faintly, her voice faint and wistful, carrying a note of sorrow amid the rain and wind that filled the world: "I came to see you!"
Zhang Qingyue lowered his voice, but the anxiety in it was plain to hear: "All around here are people of our righteous path. Never mind the elders of the Brahma Sound Temple and the Fenzia Valley -- if even a single elder of our Canglan Sect came out, you would have no place to be buried. Why aren't you leaving at once?"
Bili seemed unmoved. She only smiled at Zhang Qingyue's anxious expression, then suddenly sighed and said: "You wicked boy, you do have a bit of a conscience after all!"
Zhang Qingyue was struck dumb and could not speak.
He only heard Bili say softly: "Aren't you always claiming to stand on the righteous path? Aren't good and evil supposed to be irreconcilable? Why don't you call someone to arrest me?"
Zhang Qingyue was anxious, but her words struck him like a sudden revelation, and he felt a great shock, cold sweat breaking out all over his body. Though in the eyes of outsiders he did not have the extraordinary talent or supreme cleverness of Lin Jinghong and his senior sister Tian Lingsu, he was no fool. It was only that over the years on Dazhu Peak, no one had ever valued him, which had given him a certain self-doubt.
Now, hearing Bili's words, half reproach and half delight, Zhang Qingyue suddenly realized that his present situation was truly most improper. Never mind that he was already a sinner being punished by his master; even now, if any of his fellow disciples should discover that he was here, seemingly on intimate terms with this young demon sect girl, he feared that even a mouth on every part of his body would not be enough to explain himself.
At the thought of such consequences, a "buzz" rang through Zhang Qingyue's head, and he did not dare think further. His heart in turmoil, he was just about to open his mouth and call for his fellow disciples, when his glance fell on Bili's shoulder leaning close beside him -- and in this great wind and rain, she had turned most of the umbrella over his head, and her own half of her body was already soaked through.
The clothes clung tightly to her skin, reflected in his eyes. Even on her snow-white face there were a few drops of rain, beading into pearls and slowly sliding down.
That shout, Zhang Qingyue found himself utterly unable to utter.