Nightfall

“Don’t add shallots.”

“Don’t add vinegar.”

“More noodles.”

The person who asked for the last request was obviously Chen Pipi. As he looked at the chessboard, which had been restored to its prior state, his thick eyebrows jumped quickly. Depression and shame filled his face right away, even making him forget about his current dangerous situation. How could he be proud of his brain and call himself a genius compared with the little handmaiden, who was able to memorize the positions of all the chess pieces in just one glance?

Looking at Master Yan Se, Wei Guangming smiled and said, “This female student of mine is quite excellent.”

Watching the thin figure disappearing from the back of the courtyard, Master Yan Se said with emotion, “She is indeed excellent.”

Sangsang’s excellence that was praised by the two old men did not have much to do with her astonishing brain, and that shocked Chen Pipi. They were referring to a kind of disposition that could only be sensed by high-state elders like them. This special disposition was able to precisely and clearly reflect the world due to its absolute transparency, even though it looked a little dull.

Master Yan Se withdrew his attention and said to Wei Guangming, “Both of us are old. Even if we don’t have a serious fight, we are inevitably close to our natural deaths. Let’s have a bowl of noodles since this is our last meeting.”

Three bowls of delightful noodles with fried eggs were brought to them—one without vinegar, one without shallots, and one with noodles overflowing the bowl’s edge.

After having noodles, the two elders finished their game of chess. They did not keep score, so no one knew who had won or lost the game.

Later, they rejected Sangsang’s reward of one more bowl of noodles and one more game of chess. They just began recollecting their history.

Sangsang remade three bowls of tea. Each of them sitting on a small stool, she and Chen Pipi carefully listened to their memories like two students.

Yan Se and Wei Guangming belonged to the oldest living generation in Haotian Taoism. During the past 14 years, one had enjoyed himself in the world while the other was imprisoned on the back hill of Peach Mountain. However, compared with the duration of their acquaintance, 14 years was so short after all. Therefore, their common memories and experiences were very long and colorful.

They began recollecting from the time of being little taoist priests, to playing tricks in the Revelation Institute, and then to being appointed as Great Divine Priests in Zhishou Abbey. The two elders were busy talking together for a long time.

Of course, Master Yan Se spent most of the time with his nagging. The Great Divine Priest of Light just smiled and listened peacefully. He occasionally interrupted and argued a little in order to avoid some misunderstandings from the two juniors. For example, the beard of the headmaster of the Revelation Institute was actually burned by the current Hierarch Lord, but not by him with his Divine Skill. Besides that, on their way to Zhishou Abbey that year, he suffered from diarrhea because Yan Se had used a cold talisman on him furtively, and not because he was nervous.

These naughty little taoist priests in the past had then become bigwigs in the world. The man who had once jokingly burnt the beard of the headmaster of the Revelation Institute had become a powerful hierarch of the Divine Hall, while one had become Master Yan Se and another had become the God of Light. However, when having such interesting moments, who could resist the temptation to occasionally recall their memories?

These memories were very sweet, along with a kind of unique reminiscence at dusk.

The Great Divine Priest of Light did not realize that time had unknowingly passed so fast until he looked at the warm twilight outside of the Old Brush Pen Shop. It was already dusk.

Silence surrounded the Old Brush Pen Shop in the twilight, and no sound could be heard on Lin 47th Street.

The smiling old man just looked outside without saying a word.

“At that time we were very young and naughty, but you were always the cleverest and the most well-behaved one.”

Master Yan Se looked at him and said, “After you reminded me, I just realized that this little girl, Sangsang, is indeed very similar to how you were at that young age. She is lucent, inside and out, without any impurities.”

The old man looked fondly at Sangsang, who was seated on a stool, and said, “She’s better than I am.”

Master Yan Se said with emotion, “Do all those who can be the God of Light have to be so transparent? Is that what makes them closer to the nature of Haotian than us? But what does transparency represent? Can it reflect the original appearance of the world? If the world were dark, would you also be dark? Is that why so many Gods of Light go astray in the end?”

The old man shook his head and said with a smile, “Transparency means having no color, but darkness represents no color and no light. In the bright Haotian world where you and I live, transparency means light and is the enemy of the darkness.”

As Master Yan Se heard the words ‘”the enemy of the darkness”, he fell into a long silence. After a while, he slowly raised his head and seriously looked at Wei Guangming and asked him, “Do you remember Lotus?”

The old man felt a little shocked and said with a frown, “How could I forget him?”

Master Yan Se asked, “Does he represent light or dark?”

The old man shook his head and said, “That year, he was the God of Justice and I was the God of Light. Actually, I began to doubt him when I saw some dirty blood exuding from that Black-Jade Seat. However, before I exposed him, he had predicted his fate and left Peach Mountain, and was killed by Mr. Ke in the end. Considering the reputation and fame of Haotian Taoism, the Divine Hall kept silent the entire time and didn’t mention him at all. In my view, the Liansheng 32 were just made of dirt and mud with some pink color, no matter how dazzling and crystal-like they had seemed.”

Staring at his eyes, Master Yan Se said in a deep voice, “After the collapse of the Devil’s Doctrine, the Divine Hall enrolled many mighty cultivators of the Devil’s Doctrine. If the light can’t leave any opportunity for the darkness, then how do you explain this thing? If your choice to plot those murder cases that year was just your forced way to destroy the Dark Shadow, what about the shadows in the Divine Hall now?”

The old man said, “That’s different. That Dark Shadow is the offspring of Yama.”

Master Yan Se became angry and struck the table heavily and said, “Why are you so obstinate? The Underworld is just a legend and it has never appeared! That year you modified the edict of the hierarch and caused blood to rain in Chang’an, but you failed to find the so-called Son of Yama in the end. Why are you still so ridiculous today!”

The old man said, “Actually, both the abbey dean and the hierarch believed what my eyes had seen back then.”

Master Yan Se stared at his eyes and coldly said, “But it resulted in you being locked up in You Prison!”

The old man looked at Master Yan Se peacefully and said, “I’m the light of the world. Those who follow me won’t walk in the darkness and are supposed to achieve the light of life. On the contrary, those who doubt me have to trudge in the darkness and will never be free.”

Angry at Wei Guangming’s stubbornness, Master Yan Se wrathfully waved his sleeves and severely reproached him. “So please tell me where the Dark Shadow is! Where’s the Son of Yama! Who do you want to kill in Chang’an!”

The old man said in a low voice, “I don’t know, either.”

Listening to that answer, Master Yan Se was a little shocked, and a bitter smile appeared on his face. He looked at the old man and said in a trembling and sad voice, “Just because of an unknown person and illusory Son of Yama, a Great Divine Priest of Light, who was once as transparent as glass and as bright as light, became a wicked murderer. Furthermore, you were even willing to be imprisoned in You Prison for 14 years, which grieved many people. Don’t you regret it at all?”

After a long silence, a little confusion following introspectiveness occasionally flashed across the old man’s face, and then the confusion quickly transformed into a kind of peaceful stability. He said, “But what troubles me is that I do know of its existence.”

With a frown, Master Yan Se looked at him and said, “Who on earth is he?”

Looking at the darkness of night gradually covering the Old Brush Pen Shop, the old man peacefully said, “Since he’s the Son of Yama, of course, he hides deeply. And perhaps, even he himself hasn’t realized his real identity yet. If you ask me who he is, I can’t answer you now. However, since I have seen him in Chang’an, he must be in the world. He is the one, regardless if he had managed to escape from the General’s Mansion or survived from among those dead bodies in the village of the Yan territory.”

Suddenly, the old man frowned as he looked at Sangsang and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Sangsang’s black face became a little pale and her two little hands were tightly grasping her clothing, but her expression still looked peaceful. She replied to the old man’s question, “I somehow feel a little tired now.”

With pity, the old man said, “Then go to bed right now.”

Sangsang looked back at Master Yan Se with her lips tightly pursed without saying a word.

Master Yan Se said with a sigh, “If my disciple knows that you didn’t have a good rest because of me, he will definitely not forgive me. Just go to bed. We two old men won’t fight while you’re sleeping. If we decide to have a final battle, we will wake you up.”

Wei Guangming looked at Chen Pipi and said, “The sky has turned dark, and the man that you waited for has come, so just leave.”

Chen Pipi wiped the sweat from his forehead, which seemed to flow unceasingly today. After respectfully bowing deeply to the two elders, he pushed open the door and walked out of the Old Brush Pen Shop.

…

…

The pine twig that was used for the smoked bacon was still smoking. The smoke became thicker because Sangsang had forgotten it for a while. Probably due to that, Sangsang’s eyes were slightly reddened by the smoke.

After quietly washing her face and feet, she climbed into her bed and crawled beneath the cold blankets. Looking at the starry light outside the window, she imagined that Ning Que would probably begin muttering nonsense if he was looking at the same star right now.

The bed was a little cool because of her frugality. Besides, the weather in Chang’an this year was colder than last year. She had been lying down for some time and still did not feel warm, therefore, she could not help blowing out two mouthfuls of hot air into her little hands.

The starlight shone onto her palms, which were covered with bloodstains from being pinched by her fingernails.

When she was listening to her teacher talking about the General’s Mansion and the village of the Yan territory before, she had felt a great fear in her heart. If she had not forcibly suppressed her mind with pain, maybe her body would have continued to tremble then.

She did not hear about the incident at the General’s Mansion from Ning Que directly. She did not ask, but she knew about it. She knew that Ning Que had killed the censor Zhang Yiqi and that blacksmith. In addition, she even wrote a common piece of poetry. But, she still did not ask about it.

Ning Que did not want to talk about it, so she did not ask. But as Ning Que said before, she was not stupid, just a little dull. Besides, if she needed intelligence, she could be more clever than anyone, therefore, Sangsang knew everything.

“Son of Yama… it sounds like a very terrible thing.”

As Sangsang rubbed her little face on the cold pillow, she looked at the winter starlight in front of the window and said to herself, “But I’ve been living with you for so many years, let’s just stay alive together on the sly.”

…