Chapter 200: Farewell

I slept soundly for a solid four or five hours. When I woke up, the beds around me were empty. He Yu had brought my bag in and placed it at the head of the bed. Only a single lamp was lit on the table in the tent. I hadn’t been awake long when someone swept aside the tent flap, letting in a gust of cold wind.

“Wake up and wash your face. We have roast meat tonight.” Bai Shenxian set a basin of water on an iron rack with one hand while holding a bright pressure lamp in his left. The lamp’s light was so brilliant it felt like the temperature in the tent instantly rose by over ten degrees.

I climbed out of bed, dressed, and shivered involuntarily. I washed my face with the water Bai Shenxian had brought, clearing my head a little, then followed him out of the tent.

Outside, three bonfires had already been built in the open, each encircled by a ring of people. The aroma of roasting meat flooded my nostrils. I saw He Yu flipping and turning branch skewers in front of one fire and swallowed hard. Bai Shenxian led me to the nearest bonfire, and we sat down on the ground.

Even though the island had plenty of thickets and the wind was fairly light, it was still cold enough to make a person shiver all over. He Yu was expertly turning the makeshift grill of tree branches, occasionally pulling seasonings from the basket behind him and sprinkling them on. Juices sizzled from the heat. A pigeon was tied to the grill, along with some other meat I didn’t recognize – probably brought over on my mother’s ship.

Lu Ayao wasn’t at our fire. I could see him from a distance sitting next to my Fourth Brother. Fourth Brother, my mom Yujingzi, and the others were chatting. Lu Ayao sat off to the side, nibbling at a roasted potato slice. From his expression, he didn’t have much appetite, as if he wasn’t fond of it.

When he looked up and saw me watching, he immediately stopped gnawing on the potato. I grinned and waved at him energetically, calling out, “He Yu’s almost done grilling. Come eat with us?”

Lu Ayao quickly turned and said something to Fourth Brother and the others, then patted the dirt from his clothes and stood, heading toward our bonfire. I shifted back to make space beside me. At that moment, a dark shadow suddenly “flew” past me from behind, moving so fast it instantly snatched the spot I’d just freed up.

The next thing I knew, a fragrant skewer of grilled meat appeared before my eyes. The smell hit my taste buds like a thunderbolt. Tian Xiaoqi peeked out from behind the skewer with a grin and shoved it into my hand. “Got this for you!”

I took the skewer. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lu Ayao sit down next to Bai Shenxian, then I turned back to Tian Xiaoqi, bit off a piece of meat, and asked, “You ran over so fast – weren’t you afraid you’d trip? How are things at home?”

Tian Xiaoqi sat cross-legged and turned her gaze toward the bonfire. The smile that had just lifted her lips faded. “Once things here are wrapped up, your Fourth Brother is leaving for Inner Mongolia right away. He said he’ll do his best to help find my big brother. There’s a huge mess at home, so I can’t go with him. I’ll leave with your ship tomorrow morning. I have to go home.”

I thought for a second, then said, “You’re the only one left at home now, right? Why not come with us? We can look out for each other.”

Tian Xiaoqi shook her head and turned to face me. “Gan Ji, I can’t keep running away. All the problems I used to fixate on have come to light since my big brother disappeared. I’m the only one who can sort out those pankou. My big brother probably had his reasons. After all, when he was keeping those people in line, I could be carefree and daydream about whatever I wanted. But now I can’t anymore.”

“You’re not looking for your great-grandfather anymore?” I asked.

She frowned, then shook her head. “Right now, I can’t search for him.”

We fell silent for a moment. Then, without warning, Tian Xiaoqi lifted her head and threw her arms around me. I still had the skewer in my hand and froze. She rested her head on my shoulder and said with a smile, “So I came specially to say goodbye to you. We’re leaving in a hurry tomorrow, so we probably won’t get another chance to meet.”

For a moment, my hands didn’t know where to go, my mind a complete mess. Tian Xiaoqi had already released me. In the glow of the bonfire, I could see that her smile was clearly tinged with bitterness, her eyes already brimming with tears.

I knew this path would be incredibly difficult.

The Tian family had twice as many pankou as ours. According to my Fourth Brother, during the most chaotic years, the pankou forces had even charged to the gates of the Tian estate wielding knives, trying to force Tian Yuqing’s hand. Barely in his twenties, Tian Yuqing was protecting his younger siblings when he personally chopped off the pinky of the ringleader, an Old Chief. Rain mixed with blood flowing across the ground – that’s how he secured his position today.

And Tian Xiaoqi had grown up doted on and cherished. She had always been well protected by Tian Yuqing. But now she had to face all this alone.

At that moment, a tear slid from Tian Xiaoqi’s eye. I instinctively reached out to wipe it away, but my hand stopped mid-air. I thought that might be overstepping. After hesitating, I pulled my hand back and fumbled to find some tissues.

Tian Xiaoqi looked at me, patted my shoulder, and wiped the tear from her face with her hand. “It’s okay. We’ll meet again someday.”

With that, she stood up, walked around our bonfire, and headed alone toward a tent in the distance with a light shining inside.

I couldn’t snap out of it for a long while. As soon as she was gone, He Yu let out a couple of rude whistles at me. I shot him a fierce glare and finished eating the now-cold skewer in my hand. Bai Shenxian, who had been warming himself by the fire, shifted closer to me, took a drink from his canteen, and clicked his tongue twice.

“Didn’t expect you’d be so popular with young girls. So what’s your stance?”

I glanced at him. “Her experience is a lot like mine. We both chase a faint, elusive answer, cluelessly following people, only to be forced to accept whatever comes. Even now, I’m still lost. I can empathize with that.”

“Just empathy?” Bai Shenxian asked with a mischievous grin. “When a beauty throws herself into your arms like that, didn’t you feel even a trace of attraction?”

I shot him an odd look, shifted a little farther away, and drew a line between us. “I’m not as vulgar as you. Beauty is meant to be appreciated, not taken advantage of.”

Bai Shenxian chuckled, half-reclined, crossed his legs, and stuck a blade of grass he had plucked from somewhere between his lips. “Good. I didn’t expect you to have such decent character.”

At some point we all stopped talking. We listened to the wind mingling with the distant sound of the waves, gazing up at the star-filled sky. Bai Shenxian loved looking at the stars. He was a strange man. The more time you spent with him, the more you realized he seemed to care about nothing around him. He had no purpose.

Everyone here had a purpose – everyone except him. Wealth was both important and unimportant to him. The same went for picking sides. He didn’t lean toward any family. He came here solely because Fourth Brother asked for his help.

To put it another way, I couldn’t sense a single trace of human emotion from him.

The meat was about ready. He Yu handed each of us a few skewers. I got two meat and two vegetable skewers – very nutritionally balanced. Lu Ayao’s were all meat, which suited his diet better. Bai Shenxian got nothing but vegetable skewers. Rumor had it he couldn’t eat meat, not for any religious reason – he simply couldn’t stomach it.

We sat around the bonfire shooting the breeze.

He Yu spoke first, asking Bai Shenxian, “Hey, hey, I’ve got a question. Why’d you give yourself that nickname? Just because you cured a dead sheep?”

Bai Shenxian chuckled. “The rumors are wrong. What they brought me was a newborn lamb. That family was raising sheep for the first time that year and didn’t know newborn lambs can appear dead at first.”

He opened the canteen at his side and took a huge swig. I immediately caught the harsh scent of liquor wafting out of it. Only then did I realize he hadn’t been drinking water all along. At this point, Bai Shenxian had already downed who knows how much. Grinning, he hoisted his liquor-filled canteen and stood up while still drinking, then paused to tilt his head back and roar with laughter at the sky. After that, he started staggering toward the tent.

“Is he okay?” I scrambled to my feet, wanting to follow him inside and check.

“Don’t mind him. He’s just tired. Let him be by himself for a while and he’ll be fine.” Lu Ayao darted forward in a single bound, blocking my path.

Watching Lu Ayao’s reaction, I thought to myself, You people are honestly all pretty strange. If this happened out in the real world, he’d definitely get dragged off to a mental hospital.

Volume 4: Shedding-Shell Water Shadow Tower – End

# Tianjing Corpse Cage City