The mountain way was a little more stormy, dark, heavy. The clouds seemed twisting like a tornado—at the west where the Liánlěi Tān beach lay much farther from this town near the border of Xuè Gusu and Yínglòu Chéng.
So the storm wasn't only the cursed one over this town. It was a natural reaction of nature.
So probably the storm would be twice as strong because of the remaining one unionizing with the new one.
There was no way any ordinary man could survive here without breaking a few bones. So it was fair that Lìngxiāo was sending the man away. But the path towards returning to the mainland was still as dangerous as moving forward.
They didn't have anyone extra to send back to see the rest. Not when they were both hiding their identities.
'Now he has to go back or rest here together.'
He watched Lìngxiāo keep his face a little more blurred within the hat since his outfit was the only thing swept. He could never shift the smile which had earned him this title. But he was trying his best to wear it like anyone else.
He didn't interfere for now.
Lìngxiāo's voice filled with a bit more humbleness while he usually balanced it with confidence—changing the tone more visibly.
He shifted a step closer to the man humbly, keeping his head lightly low as he spoke to the driver. "You might be aware that the Smiling Exorcist has been here for a while."
Chóng Fēi crossed his arms, almost like silently hugging himself. His expression was a little bitter with flush from Lìngxiāo's disobedience, ignorance, and the visible judgment in Lìngxiāo's eyes from the incident he had just shared.
It was more than the horror.
'I should have understood that the fucking "when things changed" meant the ending. Not the turning point. Or perhaps my freaking dignity was alive a little longer.'
He exhaled. Somehow he could breathe a little better than before too. But things were too complicated to react normally. Everything was mixing with another.
He watched the driver nod thoughtfully. "Of course..he has also survived the temple loop."
Lìngxiāo nodded once, a little shaky, his left hand still clenched tightly as he took out a lantern-shaped soft golden talisman. "When I was introduced to him today when he returned from the temple, he gave me this in case I have any trouble."
He handed it to him. "Perhaps it would help you more than me. You would be safe with this."
The driver looked at it. "How..?"
"Any of his tamed mō would be there in time to rescue you." Lìngxiāo said.
'Wow. This guy really came here, brought me here to dig my grave right beside him.'
Chóng Fēi's lips pressed in a thin line, leaning against the carriage where the horses stood. He was focused on his inner struggles and cursing his luck while watching Lìngxiāo with a bored gaze that was just randomly catching any details—like how he slightly changed things which made him him. But for a while, he didn't feel like himself: the slightly shy humbleness like any common passenger talking to a driver, bringing a dimple at the corner of his mouth where a tiny beauty mark lay—while he didn't really have dimples.
But he wasn't able to change the pace of his words. He spoke kind of fast, which Chóng Fēi was sure meant he really was in a hurry—like something dangerous was slipping away from his grasp.
The driver agreed to leave them there when he received the talisman. He got busy adjusting it properly to his carriage.
"He said it would be better to adjust it at the middle of the carriage if not only a single person.." Lìngxiāo advised—his own advice, yet described it perfectly as if he had really received it from the exorcist.
Lìngxiāo watched the man. But then his gaze fell on Chóng Fēi. He was tense right now but managed to point at Chóng Fēi with his free right hand. "Your hair, Gōngzǐ.."
Chóng Fēi blinked. 'My hair what?'
And then he realized that one of the horses was eating his hair. He felt like his soul left his body with the fear of losing his physical dignity.
"Shu! It's not grass." He shushed the horse lightly, checking the edges of his braid.
The braid had gone wet with the horse's saliva and had lost its shape a little at the edges. A faint gag rose in Chóng Fēi's throat.
"Excuse me..do you have some water with you?" Chóng Fēi changed his tone into humbleness as he called the driver, forcing a smile.
"Indeed, here you go, Gōngzǐ." The man reached out his hand from inside the carriage. He handed a small round bottle which looked like it belonged to a liquor—and was now being recycled.
Chóng Fēi took it. "Thanks.." Then he moved to a side to clean up. He moved past Lìngxiāo with a side glare.
Lìngxiāo held his gaze through the veil but said nothing. But he intentionally took out that clipped lock of his hair and tucked it inside as if he was just fixing his hair. The move along said: now feel how it feels like to lose physical dignity.
Chóng Fēi's jaw tightened.
'He took this too seriously, didn't he?'
'I'm at least not failing out of panic that my new hairstyle got ruined by that horse.'
'I'm the one who should have showed him this glare because of bringing me here for Lord knows what secret which the ghosts of my clan could understand—like they are educated—but not the one here.'
'Wait, wait. Or am I overthinking about it more than him?'
'He seemed to forgive me at his chamber by the press of his towel. Then what about this look? Am I misunderstanding?'
Once done, he returned the bottle to the man who had just gotten up to his carriage. The driver bowed and wished them a good journey.
But Chóng Fēi didn't focus on that.
His gaze was over Lìngxiāo who had just given a single nod to the man and crossed the road fast just as the carriage turned towards its way back. He was gripping his wrist with his other hand, close to his chest. He wasn't even following the actual path towards the Mō Mèi Xuè restaurant.
"Oi!" Chóng Fēi finally called in his usual voice, running behind Lìngxiāo, his breath forming smoke in this space of the mountain. "The path isn't this way! Where do you think you are going??"
But Lìngxiāo just ran into the bushes. The path here was a bit narrow downwards.
But he still didn't stop.
He balanced himself with his left hand and slid down anyway. His left arm was being clenched so hard the bones would break.
The most striking thing was—the hand had curse-like ancient marks glowing golden. His fair skin turned jade black at the points of contact—shiny, almost polished, with golden lines threading through like ancient script carved into stone, only at the part where he was gripping them harsh.
He wasn't able to see what the marks implied, but this wasn't normal at all. It seemed like a fully formed curse mark drawn by some kind of special spiritual effect.
But it couldn't be real, right?
'Only a few rare beings had it. According to the texts, only three Yòng Zhèn spirits could have it. But two of them died before even the third one was born to complete the ballad of heaven tears.'
'Can Lìngxiāo be the third one then?'
Chóng Fēi noticed all. His eyes widened as he paused at the path where the road had gone narrow, heart pounding with thousands of questions.
'Does he have the black skin? The white hair like the legends say about—the stories were old. Half-forgotten. His hair wasn't even white.'
'Is this why he is so sensitive with physical contact—even accidental?'
'No wonder he was hissing at me the whole time for even gripping his arm for my own fucking trauma he wanted to know.'
'Perhaps I have been...too close while lost in my trauma to understand what I was doing..'
'Poor him. Did I do anything more?'
'I didn't have any sense.'
'But how can it be him?!'
'But only white-haired men in history had it. Not even all!'
'His hair is not white.'
'But what if he has it and has been hiding just THIS from not me but the whole world??'
'Is this why he's running away..? Because it is dangerous?'
His thoughts broke with the cracking sound of thunder rumbling over his head in the sky. His breath caught.
"LÌNGXIĀO!" He quickly slided down too—who knows if any thunder would fall over here or not. The trees could catch one.
But the even bigger thunderstorm was this curiosity—this burning possibility.