Nightfall

Back to the South

Tears streamed down Ning Que’s face as he looked at the Moon. He could barely stop crying until he found his crying more terrifying than the wolves’ howling far away.

Ning Que had felt nothing but hunger since he woke up. His empty belly had been torturing and haunting him like the Heaven and Earth’s Qi did, in the cliff cave in the back of the mountain of the Academy.

Judging by the hunger, he knew he must have been in an unconscious for days, leading him to the extremely weakened state he was in. He searched for edible grass in the meadow. He put the grass with dew in his mouth and chewed it until it was soft. He managed swallowing it, and then he felt much better.

He looked at the water droplets on the grass and took them for granted since he didn’t know that they were remained from the heavy rain that had arrived after the Headmaster’s passing.

When the Moon disappeared at dawn, Ning Que started to head south under the guidance of the morning sun rays.

He was depressed and confused, and didn’t know where exactly he was going.

Then, head back to Chang’an.

His home was there, and the Academy was there, too. However, the Old Brush Pen Shop and the house by the Yanming Lake were empty now, and the Headmaster would never again return to the Academy.

It didn’t take him long before he walked to where he could see mountains coated by snow. Then he walked towards the mountains till the night came, and the Moon shone in the sky.

For days he walked south through the mountains. At night when he looked up to the Moon, his temper would suddenly turn sour, making him spill curses at it, arms on his hips.

He knew the Headmaster was still alive, but in a different way. He was still fighting against Haotian in the sky now, and the effects of their ongoing struggle produced the shape of the Moon, bright or dim, wax or wane.

But still he felt sad and frustrated.

Because he could see nothing resembling the Headmaster in that Moon.

“Bright like a full moon is what people used to praise a handsome young man, and you’re nothing like that.”

He mocked as he pulled out his podao, to cut the snow hare he had just hunted. Since he had left the Primordial Thirteen Arrows and all other weapons in the carriage by the Sishui River, the podao was all he had. Sometimes he would worry if anything had happened to the Big Black Horse.

Having cleaned the hare nicely, he passed it to the empty air next to him, saying, “Don’t over-toast it.”

He was asking Sangsang to cook the hare.

Yet Sangsang wasn’t there anymore.

Ning Que lowered down his head and was silent for quite a long period. Then he cried out.

“Sangsang!”

…

…

After getting up in the morning, he continued his journey to the south and walked to the foot of the mountains.

The mountain capped by snow was the Tianqi Mountain. Along its was the way to Min Mountain, then to Chang’an, and to the Academy.

On his way, he ran into a small Herdsmen’s tribe.

The tribe was ruled by the Golden Palace. They knew Ning Que was one of the Tangs by his clothes and accent. Instead of treating him to a meal, they tried to kill Ning Que for the nice podao on his back.