Nightfall

Ning Que heard two pieces of important information while Chen Pipi kept talking.

Firstly, Chen Pipi said that headmaster was having fun somewhere. Secondly, he said everyone was fed up with the big bully Second Brother, but no one dared to fight against him. The next thing Ning Que saw was Chen Pipi, with an expectant and overjoyed expression, holding Eldest Brother tightly in his arms. On his chubby face, you couldn’t find even any respectful or cautious expression. All this told Ning Que two things.

Firstly, neither Headmaster of Academy nor Eldest Brother was in charge of the back of the mountain, or did they care about what other people thought about them. And that was why Chen Pipi was so fearless and straightforward while he was with them. And the truth was that Second Brother, who was always serious, was the scary and respectable one. Secondly, Chen Pipi was, indeed, a big liar.

But at this moment, Chen Pipi had no idea what Ning Que was thinking of him. He wiped his tears and snot away, hugged Ning Que and patted him on the back, “Youngest Brother, you have worked hard… umm… this girl is really pretty.”

Ning Que pushed him away and looked back at Mo Shanshan, feeling really embarrassed. He thought Chen Pipi was a real shame of the back of the mountain of Academy. How could he just say a girl was beautiful when they had just met each other for the first time?

Chen Pipi was not a pervert, in fact, his knowledge about sex was even less than that of Ning Que. If not for this reason, he wouldn’t have been beaten so hard by Ye Hongyu a couple of years ago, or would he describe his fear of women in his first letter to Ning Que. When he said Mo Shanshan was so pretty, there were no hidden lines at all.

Ning Que introduced Mo Shanshan to Chen Pipi. He said, “This girl comes from the Great River Kingdom. She is Mo Shanshan, the last student of Master Wang, the Master of Calligrapher.”

Chen Pipi was surprised, he said in an unbelievable tone, “You are the Calligraphy Addict?”

When listening to the conversations between these students of the Academy, Mo Shanshan already realized that Chen Pipi was the youngest cultivator who was at the Knowing Destiny State. He was legendary. Full of surprise, she looked at him and nodded.

Chen Pipi was taken back, he exclaimed, “That is why you are so pretty. But I guess I should stay away from you since you are also one of the three Addicts, like that woman. Umm… I think you look down on me? Do you know that I am a genius in cultivation, a genius of the genius?”

Ning Que explained to him reluctantly, “Shanshan’s eyes are not very good, don’t get her wrong.”

Chen Pipi was a little surprised and said unreasonably, “I don’t like anyone who is similar to Tao Addict anyway.”

Ning Que didn’t bother to explain further, he asked, “Why are you here?”

Chen Pipi answered, “Go ask Sangsang that question.”

Eldest Brother finished looking around at the Old Brush Pen Shop at this moment. He looked at those two, and said slowly, “Youngest Brother, didn’t you invite us for dinner? When will dinner be ready then? I am quite hungry.”

Ning Que invited Eldest Brother and Shanshan to visit the Old Brush Pen Shop as soon as they returned to Chang’an City. He really wanted to thank them for taking care of him on the journey and wanted them to see his real life in Chang’an and become a part of it.

Life should be simple and it always seemed to be quite simple too, but the conversations that happened today in the Old Brush Pen Shop suggested that it was not simple at all. Both Eldest Brother and Chen Pipi revealed some very important information, but it was done in such a vague way that no one knew what the other party’s opinion was, let alone Ning Que and the other two girls.

Because of all the guessing and investigating behind the conversations, this gathering didn’t go very well. And it took such a long time for Sangsang to prepare tea, so long that before it was ready all the three guests decided that they were leaving.

Mo Shanshan wanted to meet her mates, girls from Black Ink Garden from the Great River Kingdom, at the guesthouse at Ministry of Rites. Eldest Brother needed to go back to the back of the mountain, the reason for that, as Chen Pipi put it, was that the Headmaster of Academyr was having fun out of the Academy, so Eldest Brother needed to take charge of the affairs in the Academy. And Chen Pipi wanted to leave with Eldest Brother. When the gate of the shop closed as the three people left, the Old Brush Pen Shop became a quiet and peaceful world again, which only belonged to Ning Que and Sangsang.

The first meal Ning Que had after he returned to Chang’an City was made by Sangsang. It included a bowl of rice, some fried green vegetables and stewed meat and carrots.

The burning coal in the stove brought warmth to the shop. Ning Que took off his coat and started eating. And Sangsang was sitting opposite of him, eating and adding more food to Ning Que’s bowl from time to time. No one was talking, it was all so quiet.

Ning Que went to the Wilderness for over half of a year, which was the longest time for the two not seeing each other ever since Ning Que found Sangsang in a pile of dead bodies. Although they were still as familiar as they used to be, Ning Que found that Sangsang had changed and grown up when he looked at her face.

Sangsang didn’t do the washing up after dinner, instead, she started telling him stories.

“When the old man came to our shop that day, he was wearing very dirty clothes, he said to me that we had Lucky Chance to know each other and wanted me to be his student. I pitied him because he was so old, and I thought he could not eat a lot anyway. So I just agreed to let him stay.”

Even though Sangsang was telling the story as succinctly as possible, it still took her a long time to finish the story because it was a very long one. Ning Que listened to her talking in silence, he didn’t ask any question or drink his tea.

When the story came to the ending part, Shangsang led Ning Que to the courtyard. She pointed to the two urns standing next to it, and said, “My teacher is in the new urn, and your teacher is in the old one.”

Then she went to her bedroom, looking for something for a while. Finally, she found two tokens from somewhere and passed one of them to Ning Que. She said, “Master Yan Se left this to you. It seems that many people are after it.”

She showed him the other token and said, “My teacher left me this one. He said this token belongs to the Great Divine Priest of Light of the West-Hill Divine Palace. And if one day I take that position, I will need to hang it to my belt.”

That ID token reminded Ning Que of the bloody murders happened many years ago. He frowned slightly, feeling quite disgusted.

Sangsang was silent for a while and then said, “It should be my teacher who plotted the murder happened in Xuanwei General Mansion. He said it was because he once saw a baby there who knew a lot as soon as he was born. Young master, was that you?”

Ning Que nodded. He never mentioned the blood feud of his family, because he didn’t want her to get involved in it and become as heartless as him. But he never meant to keep it secret from her either. So after so many years, gradually, she found out something about it.

Sangsang stared at her and said seriously, “The Dark Shadow my teacher was looking for was actually the Son of Yama. Does it mean that you are the Son of Yama, if you were the person he was looking for?”

Although he came from another world and his life was bizarre enough, but he never thought he was related to someone legendary, let alone Yama. After heard Sangsang’s word, he was a little surprised, then said mockingly, “Although in some sense I did see Yama once, I know I am definitely not his son. Your teacher was not only mad, he was an idiot.”

Sangsang said, “But there are many people who will believe his word, so we must keep it a secret.”

After thinking a while, Ning Que gave a hollow smile and said, “You are right. Apart from us, no one should know about it, just like no one knows about the notes under the bed.”

Sangsang suddenly lowered her head. Looking at the tips of her shoes, she said softly, “There is another thing.”

“Tell me later.”

Ning Que glanced at the dark sky and picked the old urn up. He said, “I want to bury my teacher first.”

Sangsang pointed to the new urn and said, “There is another one that needs to be buried.”

Looking at the urn, Ning Que frowned and said with a cold voice, “He killed my family, all the people in Darkie’s village and my teacher. I already did what studied from the Academy said of forgiving people, if I can resist not to smash this urn.”

After finishing the words, he left the courtyard and walked towards the front area of the shop, with the old urn in his arms.

Sangsang thought for a while and picked the new urn up.

The humble horse carriage, which was standing outside of the shop, was taken back to the Academy by Eldest Brother. Only the black horse carriage was still standing there.

And the Big Black Horse was standing in front of it, kicking his hooves and feeling very bored.

Ning Que walked to the carriage and stroked the surface of the carriage slowly. It was made of Stainless-steel and was therefore cold to touch. He felt as if the aura of Master Yan Se was still there, hidden in the intricate talisman lines.

He sat in the carriage with the new urn in his arms.

After a while, Sangsang also went into the carriage and carried the new urn in her arms, panting heavily.

Ning Que looked at the old urn and said to the Big Black Horse, “Let’s go to the southern part of the city.”

As if understood what he said, the horse started moving slowly.

The wheels of the carriage rolled over flagstones and clinked quietly. In the carriage, both the master and his handmaiden were hugging a urn silently.

Not knowing how long it was.

Ning Que suddenly glanced at her and said, “Come here.”

Sangsang was happy to hear that. She was about to move with her urn.

Ning Que looked at the new urn and said with a frown, “You come and leave it there.”

Sangsang looked down at the new urn, and then looked up at the empty seat next to Ning Que. She carefully leaned the urn on the back of her seat, walked toward Ning Que and sat next to him.

Ning Que put the old urn next to his feet and held Sangsang in his arms.

Both of them were silent during the journey, only the sound made by the wheels could be heard. Sangsang leaned on Ning Que’s chest, feeling very safe and relaxed. But from time to time, she would glance at the urn, worrying that it might fall to the ground and spill her teacher’s ash out.

They arrived at the southern part of Chang’an.

Not far from the Academy, there was a meadow. Although it belonged to the Academy, no one took care of it. So even in the coldest winter, weeds were still knee-high and dead bodies were scattered around in the weeds.

There were two newly made tombs in the weeds.

Ning Que kowtowed twice to one of the tombs. Then he stood up and walked to the other one, with a gloomy expression, he said to Sangsang, “I told you to bury him somewhere further from here, why didn’t you do it?”

Sangsang ignored him and kowtowed in the same way as he did three times to the new tomb.

Ning Que muttered helplessly, “You don’t even listen to me anymore.”

Sangsang stood up, looked at Ning Que and said, “Why does it matter since they are already dead now? Besides, when they were choosing urns, they said that they wanted to be neighbors after they die.”

Ning Que looked at the tombs in silence for a long time before he shouted angrily, “How can you be neighbors when you are dead? You are ash now. Still want to chat and fight? Two idiots!”