Chapter 31 (Part 1)
I finally asked Gu Xiao Wu, "Do you like to marry me?" Gu Xiao Wu seemed to be a bit surprised. He looked at me and said, "Of course I do." "But I have a bad temper. You come from the Central Plains while I grew up in Western Liang. You like to eat millet rice while I love roast lamb. I don't understand your language, nor do I know the custom of Central Plains. If you stay in Western Liang which is far from Central Plains, you will definitely be homesick. If you go back to Central Plains long way off Western Liang, then I will definitely miss my hometown. Although you killed the White-Eye Wolf King, you didn't do that completely for me. You said that you happened to meet the wolf and kill it while you were hawking tea... I'm young, but I know that I can't force someone to marry me..." I talked a lot from when we first met to the present. I told him all the inconveniences we would meet if we got married, which made me thirsty. Gu Xiao Wu didn't interrupt me. When I put down the lamb chop and went to drink, he asked, "What you said were all unimportant things. Are you willing to marry me? Just give me an answer." I almost spit water out of my mouth. I gave him an angry stare while my face suddenly went red, "Am I willing... um..." "Answer me!" he urged me, "yes or no?" My mind was in such a turmoil. Pictures of these days in my mind were like visions or dreams. Time had gone by so quickly that so much had happened. I had never expected that I would marry at such an early age. I found Gu Xiao Wu was annoying at first, but now I didn't hate him. I didn't know what I should say. Looking at fireflies in the autumn, I suddenly made up my mind and said, "I will say yes if you can catch me a hundred fireflies." As soon as I finished my words, he stood up abruptly. I stared at him, but then he turned a somersault as if he was a naughty boy. I watched him jumping into the air like a star – no, a meteor would not be like this – he nearly fell onto the flood land. He suddenly reached his arms out for fireflies and grabbed a few. Those fairies shone faintly through gaps between his fingers. I shaped the lower part of my robe into a bag and urged, "Hurry up!" He put the fireflies into my bag-shaped robe. He jumped up again – martial arts in the Central Plains were charming and elegant, just like paintings or poems. He moved as if he was dancing, but there was no dance with such an act of animated courage in the world. He spun around in an incredible angle in midair, chasing those ethereal fireflies. His sleeves brought a flurry of wind, and I pointed in the direction of the fireflies, "Left! There are a lot on the left!" "Oops!" "They've escaped! There! Oh, there are more of them!"... The laughter of us wafted across the river, and the number of fireflies in my clothes was increasing. They gathered together and shone like a bright moon in my arms. All the fireflies near the river were gone, they were caught by Gu Xiao Wu and put in my arms. "Are there a hundred fireflies now?" He leaned over, putting his head to my head and using a slender finger to uncover the corner of my rope, "let's count, shall we?" We then counted a dozen. Gu Xiao Wu's body had a faint cool aroma, which couldn't be found in Turks and the people of Western Liang. I felt that this faint aroma made me uneasy, and my face seemed to be burning. He stayed too close to me. Suddenly a gust of wind blew, his hair softly touched my face, it felt light, soft and itchy. My hand holding the clothes could not help but loosen, the fireflies then were scrambling to fly up, thus the moon dispersed, turning into countless fine meteors. For a time, Gu Xiao Wu and I were surrounded by these meteors, whose bright light illuminated our faces. I saw his dark eyes, which were staring at me. I remembered those who sang outside the A'Du tent, as they just stared at A'Du in this way. Their burning gaze was like a flame, softening people who were looked at. However, Gu Xiao Wu's eyes were much warmer, reflecting my silhouette. I suddenly felt something in my heart was becoming softer, which made me uneasy but comfortable. Seeing me watching him, he suddenly became embarrassed. He turned his face to see the fireflies in the sky and said, "They all ran off!" I couldn't help but say, "They are like meteors!" He also laughed and repeated, "Meteors!" Countless fireflies flew away, like thousands of meteors passing by our fingertips. When the gods released the meteors, the scene must be not better than this one, which was like a dream. I thought I would never forget the night by the river – thousands of fireflies were surrounding us, and they flew by deftly, then scattered in all directions with their fluorescent light, just like the golden glow of a meteor splitting the night. I thought of a song, in which a god, together with his loved one, stood in the Milky Way as gorgeous as this scene.
