FMT 44

Chapter 44 The Last Night

That night when Chen Shuangning had been carefree, the next day after sobering up, he returned to his usual self again.

Liandan could tell that soon after the new year, they must have had some kind of action planned. Because after the first day, the senior brothers gathered together every day, shutting their doors tightly to discuss and prepare something.

After the fifth day of the new year, when the visits were finished, most people left. Each courtyard cooked on its own instead of eating together. The place grew much quieter.

On the fifteenth, in the morning they cooked yuanxiao, and in the afternoon they ate a meal together.

In the evening, Xue Ming came over and carried Xiaodan away, saying the child would sleep with her that night.

Liandan felt embarrassed and hardly dared look at her.

After dark, Liandan bathed, dried his hair, drank some water, and leaned against the headboard quietly waiting.

After a while, there was a soft knock at the door. Liandan instantly sat straight, then answered, “Please come in.”

A tall young man pushed open the door and came into the room.

He wore an outer robe. His long hair hung damp over his shoulders. He had clearly just bathed as well.

Chen Shuangning walked to the bed and sat on the edge.

For a while neither spoke.

Until Chen Shuangning raised his hand, holding a cloth strip, intending to cover Liandan’s eyes.

Liandan quickly gripped his wrist. Chen Shuanning’s movement paused.

Liandan said, “I… that day it was me. I was outside the door. I saw you. You… you don’t need to use that.”

Chen Shuangning’s eyes changed slightly. He looked at him for a while, but still freed his hand from Liandan’s grip, covered his eyes with the cloth, and tied it gently behind his head.

Liandan bit his lip as he was guided to lie on his back on the bed.

He could only hear the rustle of clothes being taken off. He did not know that after he lay down, Chen Shuangning hesitated for a moment, then removed the mask from his own face and set it on the table beside them.

His body felt cold, but soon he was sweating from heat.

Liandan was already used to this, no longer struggling like before. Soon, the blindfold was soaked through with sweat.

The young man’s hot breath brushed across his face, very near. Liandan, his head dizzy, thought to himself that if the other wanted to kiss him, this time he might not refuse.

But the other never did. When the blindfold slipped loose and fell, both of them froze.

Liandan blinked his blurred eyes. Just as he made out, right before him, a face so beautiful it shook him, immersed in emotion, a hand came over and covered his eyes.

The blindfold was undone with one hand. Liandan felt him trying to tie it back. He held that hand and silently but firmly refused.

The young man let out a faint sigh. After that, he covered Liandan’s eyes with his palm, turned him over, back facing him, and only then continued.

Liandan buried his face in the pillow. At the last moment, he felt Chen Shuangning’s movements were not as gentle as before, but heavy and fierce.

At the very end, he vaguely heard, right by his ear, the hoarse voice calling his name.

When they had first met, Chen Shuangning had only been eighteen. Liandan thought, at such a young age, he had already gone through so many terrible things.

Liandan tilted his head back, his heart aching faintly.

….

The next day, when Liandan woke again, it was already near noon. He could not keep lying down. After lunch, he got up.

By then, there were fewer and fewer people in the residence. Even Liu Shuqi had disappeared.

When Liang Yun came by, he only brought his child. Bai Wushuang was nowhere to be seen.

But the atmosphere in the residence remained unchanged. Liandan knew something might happen, but he did not dare ask.

Later, even Xue Ming went out. Liandan grew anxious. Fortunately, she came back three days later.

When she returned, she brought the medicinal ingredients for Liandan’s second dose of antidote.

….

Xue Ming grew busy. Her door stayed shut tight. The old women delivered her meals to the door and picked up the empty dishes later. She never came out once.

In those days, Chen Shuangning stayed in the courtyard more often. Unlike before, when he ate breakfast then went out, only returning by dinnertime, sometimes not even returning for dinner. Liandan never knew when he entered the door.

When he was free, Chen Shuangning held Xiaodan and read him picture books. He even brought a new book and read aloud the words for Liandan, wrote out texts for Liandan to copy for practice.

Other times, Chen Shuangning only sat there silently, eyelids lowered, lost in thought.

Once, when Liandan went into the next room to find him, he saw for the first time the weapon he used.

It was a sword, its blade gleaming cold. When Chen Shuangning noticed him, he put the sword away at once and asked, “What is it?”

Liandan looked at the sword now sheathed and placed on the rack. His heart felt unsettled and uneasy.

“Dinner is ready. It’s time to eat.”

Chen Shuangning answered “Mm,” stood, and came over. As he passed, he did not look at Liandan, but under the sleeve of his robe, his hand caught Liandan’s.

Liandan raised his head to look at him, but the other had already let go and walked out.

Chen Shuangning wore his mask. His eyes avoided him. Liandan could not tell what he was thinking.

….

Five days later, Xue Ming came out of her room. She looked somewhat tired, but her eyes were softer and gentler.

She found Liandan and handed him the small wooden box that held the second dose of antidote.

Liandan held the wooden box with both hands. In his heart he could not tell what he was feeling. He said to Xue Ming, “Thank you. Thank you.”

Xue Ming shook her head. “You don’t need to be polite with me.”

Liandan stared blankly at the box in his hands.

Xue Ming looked at him and said, “I already had your and Xiaodan’s things packed.”

Liandan suddenly lifted his head and looked at her.

“The everyday items in the other rooms, it will still be in time to pack them tomorrow before you leave.”

Liandan’s eyes widened in shock. Xue Ming gave a bitter smile, held his hand, and said, “None of us want you to leave, but this is best for you.”

“Yuanjing will not appear near Kaoshan village again, you can rest assured,” Xue Ming promised. “From now on you and Xiaodan will have nothing more to worry about. He already arranged everything for you.”

Liandan stared at her in a daze.

“There is no feast that never ends, Liandan,” Xue Ming said, her eyes red. “It will be hard to meet again in the future. I will miss you and Xiaodan very much.”

Liandan’s mind buzzed. After a long time, with trembling lips, he let out a few words. “I will too.”

….

That night, in the room where Liandan lived, only the necessary items were left. Most of it had been restored to how it looked when he had first arrived.

Xiaodan had been carried away. Liandan stood by the window, waiting.

The Blue Flower poison had penetrated deep into the bones. Back then, the Left Protector, Yuanjing, probably had not told the false Yuanjing about how terrible it was. He must have thought it was just an ordinary drug, so he dared to use it.

Even if the false Yuanjing had not died that day, by now he would likely have already perished from the poison tearing apart his body.

Because the poison was so special, the second antidote had to be taken in bed together for the medicine to work best.

So now, at the start of the month, Liandan had to share a room with Chen Shuangning, the last time they would do so.

Late at night, Liandan finally heard knocking on the door.

He did not call out. He went to the door himself. Just as he took a step, the knocking stopped.

Liandan pulled the door open. Outside stood Chen Shuangning, dressed in white.

That night felt especially long, especially tormenting.

Several times Liandan felt he was losing consciousness, then half-awake and half-dreaming, he quickly came back.

He tried again and again to take off the blindfold on his eyes, but each time his wrist was caught and stopped.

At the last moment, when he cried and tried again to take it off, his fingers were caught, pressed to warm damp lips, kissed, then his lips were kissed, and a pill was placed in his mouth.

Liandan cried as he wrapped his arms around the young man’s neck, trembling all over as he endured it.

….

The next day, when Liandan opened his eyes, the light outside the window was only just beginning to break. On the bed, he was alone.

The bedding had been changed. His body had been wiped clean.

Exhausted, he propped himself up and looked outside the bed curtains.

Someone pushed the door open softly and walked in quietly. When they came near, they said in surprise, “You are awake.”

The bed curtains were lifted and tied to both sides. Xue Ming sat on the bed’s edge, her fingers resting on Liandan’s wrist.

After a while she let go of his hand, smiled gently, and said, “The poison is all gone. No residue.” She touched Liandan’s cheek and said, “Liandan, you will surely live a long life.”

Liandan’s throat was hoarse. He bumped his head lightly against Xue Ming’s head and said once more, “Thank you.”

Xue Ming wrapped her arm around his shoulder. They leaned together for a while. Then she said, “Lie down a little longer. After lunch it will still be in time to set off.”

But Liandan did not lie back. He sat there with his head down, one hand clenched tightly, the other grasping the bracelet on that wrist, cheap in material.

Back in Kaoshan village, it was Chen Shuangning who had given it to him. After Old Madam Chen passed away, Liandan had returned it to him.

Just now when he got up, Liandan found it had come back onto his wrist.

Xue Ming also saw the bracelet. She clearly knew where it came from, and her expression dimmed.

Liandan asked, “Before I leave, can I see him again?”

Xue Ming turned her head away and said, “He said… everything that should be finished is already finished, there is no need to see again.”

Liandan suddenly lifted his head. His eyes slowly reddened. But when he lowered his head to look at the bracelet on his wrist, then raised it again, he insisted, “I want to see him.”

Xue Ming bit her lip, turned her head back, and looked at the bracelet on his wrist. Her eyes grew determined. She said, “Put on your outer robe. I will take you.”

….

Liandan followed behind Xue Ming. In the faint light of dawn, the two walked through corridor after corridor, courtyard after courtyard.

It was still early. Aside from smoke rising from the kitchen, everywhere was quiet.

They walked for the time of two cups of tea. Finally they reached the deepest part of the residence.

Here the courtyard walls bent and ended, and the residence connected with the rising mountains. At the deepest point there was a cave. From inside came the sound of flowing water, and steam with the smell of sulfur drifted out.

When they had come within sight of the cave, Xue Ming stopped and said softly, “I cannot go in any farther.”

Liandan looked at her and said, “I will go.”

Xue Ming raised her hand to straighten the hair at Liandan’s temple, then stepped back and turned away.

Liandan also turned and walked toward the cave.

The sound of the spring covered his footsteps. When he reached the entrance and felt the thick steam rush over his face, a deep hoarse voice came from within. “Who?”

Liandan closed his eyes, then walked further inside. The heavy steam shifted with the air he moved, revealing in the depths of the cave a hot spring pool shrouded in light mist.

Beneath the water, long hair spread like silk, flowing with the water.

Its owner stood in the pool. His face was so pale it had no blood, yet beautiful as if blessed by the heavens, not of mortal kind.

His lips were light in color, full and soft, not like those of a man. But the eyes that looked at the intruder were deep, within them a sea of blood, threatening, giving his whole face a severe edge.

The moment Liandan stepped out of the mist and his face was revealed, those eyes flickered, the brows knit faintly, and the gaze dropped.

Liandan’s eyes moved from his lowered lashes down to his neck above the water.

Beneath the beautiful collarbone was a scar. That was the mark of his bite.