Nightfall

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

After a while, Sangsang looked at the old man and earnestly said, “If you only like women from your own country and don’t like Yan women, I also know some brothel girls. But, if you want them to give birth to children for you, the estimated cost will be very high.”

The old man stood dazed. But, after a long silence, he finally sobered and solemnly said, “I don’t want to find a wife to have my children. I’m looking for a disciple to inherit my things.”

This time, it was Sangsang’s turn to fall silent. She had not realized that she would be involved in finding a disciple. Her bones were not elegant and her life experience had not been bizarre. Although the cotton jacket on his body was really dirty, it seemed that he had not been begging these days. So, she did not think he looked like an Unworldly Sublime Being like in the stories Ning Que had told during her childhood.

“Are you asking me to be your disciple, or are you asking me to find a disciple for you?” she inquired seriously.

“I want you to be my disciple,” the old man replied seriously.

Sangsang decided to ignore him and squatted down as she began to wipe the legs of the table.

The old man looked at the absolutely stainless, bright table legs and fell silent.

The old man did not leave the Old Brush Pen Shop, instead, he silently followed Sangsang and watched her. He watched Sangsang wipe down the table legs and chairs, cleaning non-existent dust. He watched as she rebuilt the shop door that had been repaired earlier, closed the shop door, fetched water from the well, chose rice, dealt with vegetables, cooked a meal, cut garlic, and sat at the table, where she began to eat alone.

Sangsang did not ask him to join her, however, she surprisingly did not ask him to leave either.

Across the window, the old man looked at Sangsang as she sat silently having a meal and sympathetically said, “Aren’t you bored?”

Sangsang’s hands stiffened while holding a bowl of rice. She looked down at the three vegetables mixed with white rice and nodded before she continued to forcefully chew her food, with her little black cheeks slightly bulging.

After dinner, Sangsang washed the dishes, her face, and her feet as she prepared for sleep.

Before laying down, she gave a sheet and some bedding to the old man, who had been on the patio’s courtyard for a long time. She said, “If you don’t have a place to sleep, you can move some tables from the front and sleep on them for the night.”

The old man felt the weight of the bedding and became more and more resolved in his heart. He looked at the girl before asking seriously, “Do you believe in Lucky Chance?”

Sangsang began to shake her head, but then she thought about an encounter from many years ago, and the life that she had devotedly lived with somebody over these years. Her willow-shaped eyes became a little brighter as she nodded.

“I believe in Lucky Chance.” The old man said, “I believe that everyone is destined to meet specific people and do something. These things are arranged by Haotian, namely Lucky Chance.”

The turbid eyes of the old man gradually brightened as he looked past the small courtyard toward the night scene of Chang’an. He paused briefly before saying, “Many years ago, I saw the shadow of Nightfall in this city. Once I saw him, I became destined to meet him.”

“And once I meet him, we will not be separated again. However, I didn’t see him clearly or meet the real one. I only know that he exists but I don’t know where he is.”

“Then I saw a person in Chang’an City who was born knowing. I think it’s not right, there shouldn’t be anyone born knowing in the world. So, the Lucky Chance between me and him began.”

“The Lucky Chance between me and him is to see him and kill him.”

“Nine months after seeing him, I started trying to kill him. But, I knew that I hadn’t killed him, for he was still alive. I was also the only one in the world who could clearly feel that he was alive.”

“After that, the Lucky Chance became weak and I could no longer see where he was, except for one random time. But recently, I saw him again. So, I came to find him, renewing my Lucky Chance.”

The old man sitting on the high threshold, like a devout foolish woman, recalled those fragmented memories from the past. Sangsang silently listened to him for a long time and her willow-shaped eyes would occasionally brighten or fade away. Then she asked, “When you find him… what will you do?”

“Kill him,” the old man replied.

Sangsang asked, “If you’re such a great person, why weren’t you able to kill him over all those years?”

“Because there isn’t an absolute match of Lucky Chance between us… Not everyone can easily enter a city to kill people, especially me. So, only the people living in this city would be able to do the killing. The more crucial reason is that the entire world became skeptical of what I saw with my eyes, and they didn’t believe me.”

The old man went on to say, “I don’t know what will happen after I find him. Haotian’s arrangement could never be guessed by mortals like us. But, I firmly believe that he is the person who has a great Lucky Chance with me. I thought I came to Chang’an for understanding this Lucky Chance. That was until I… met you.”

The old man looked at Sangsang’s slightly black cheeks and her bright willow-shaped eyes, falling silent for a long time. He quietly thought about the real reason for making his many loyal subordinates sacrifice themselves, making the entire Peach Mountain and the Tang States feel uneasy, attracting him to come to Chang’an City. Was it the shadow of Nightfall, or the girl in front of him?

Sangsang’s eyelashes lowered slightly as she calmly asked, “What can I learn from you?”

The old man looked at her slightly fluttering eyelashes and her common appearance. He said, “Divine Skill.”

Sangsang asked, “Is the Divine Skill very powerful?”

The old man nodded and said, “Very powerful.”

Sangsang lowered her head even more, making her eyelashes look longer. Then she whispered, “My young master is awesome. Would I be able to help him beat people after I learn the Divine Skill?”

The old man smiled and said, “Certainly.”

Sangsang raised her head, looking up at the old man with her slightly dark face, and asked bravely, “Could I… beat you?”

The old man looked at the little girl’s small face and her black eyes that were like two deep pools among mountain rocks. There seemed to be no trace of impurity, rather absolute transparency in the depths of those pools. He could not help but utter an internal sigh before saying in a predictably solemn tone, “Certainly.”

Sangsang asked, “What is the Divine Skill?”

The old man answered, “Cultivation focuses on perception and it needs cultivators to manipulate the aura between heaven and earth. Divine Skill is to perceive, understand, and control the Haotian Divine Light. The so-called Divine Light—you have seen it when you wake up early in the morning and when you close your door. You’ve seen it in summer and in winter snow. In a word, you see it all the time.”

Sangsang slightly frowned and asked, “What is it?”

It was a quiet night in Chang’an City. There were numerous stars above in the sky, but it was not as clear as the daytime after all. The old man stood in the cramped courtyard and slowly spread his arms, seeming to take on all the light of the world.

“Haotian Divine Light is the sunshine.”

Just when he finished those words, the old man stuck out the front of his right hand from his dirty cotton jacket sleeves, namely the tip of his middle finger, where it suddenly became bright. Some fluorescent lights converged out of nowhere and slowly released flames from the inside just like a bright flower. They covered all the lines on the flesh of his finger, looking holy white and making people feel respect.

The old man looked at the little girl in front of him and calmly said, “It takes more than 10 years to perceive the Haotian Divine Light. So in the beginning, what is most needed is super forbearance and patience.”

Upon listening to this, Sangsang seemed to understand something. She raised her right hand and lifted up her index finger, putting the slim finger into the dark winter night. That slightly dark finger was gently shaking in the wind and then gave birth to a touch of dim light, as if it were a broken candle in the wind that might be quenched at any time but was never extinguished after all.

The old man was enchanted as he looked at the light in front of her delicate forefinger and felt intoxicated as if he was drunk and did not want to wake up.

In the winter of the 14th year of the Tianqi era, the Great Divine Priest of Light was fleeing from West-Hill Divine Palace and came to Chang’an City because of some mysterious perception. He did not find the shadow of Nightfall, but found his own successor. It was probably some kind of revelation.

…

…

In the northwest border of the Tang Empire, somewhere in the grassland not far from the City of Wei,

a scholar in a cotton jacket was cooking under a winter tree that was going to die.

He calmly and attentively looked at the book held in his left hand. He suddenly remembered something and took the ladle from his waist to scoop some water. He poured the water into a pot that had already had milky white soup in it and slightly suppressed the boiling water in the pot. As he was waiting for the water to boil again, he began to slowly and orderly cut the meat. The lamb that was frozen into a perfect state became pieces of flying meat under his sharp knife, looking just like snowflakes. However, his movements were too slow and the soup began to boil again before he had finished cutting the meat.

The scholar poured another scoop of water into the pot and continued to cut meat. The tall Headmaster of the Academy had long held his chopsticks and a bowl with seasonings inside, eagerly waiting beside the soup pot and angrily uttering anxious sighs from time to time.

“When it comes to fate or Lucky Chance… no one knows what he will see or encounter. And no one knows the meaning of what he sees or encounters. Ideas and reality often reside in opposite worlds. Like the general and the woman we saw in the City of Wei some days ago—maybe they will live forever or withdraw back to the Central Plains next year. However, no matter how they develop, they are not as happy as they look.”

The Headmaster of the Academy used his chopsticks to tap the empty bowl. He shook his head and sighed. “Unhappiness does not mean that you will certainly remain in bleakness. I don’t think that is a sad thing, but I feel it’s filled with a sense of drama. Just like the soup and the lamb here—half an hour has passed, but I have not eaten them yet. That doesn’t mean that I will continue to be sad like this. Maybe the first bite of lamb later will be the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.”

Every student needed to learn to listen to the true wishes of their teacher through those disguised words. As Eldest Brother of the Academy, the scholar was, of course, the person who could best understand the preferences of the Headmaster of the Academy. So he put the book back into his waist and began to accelerate the speed of cutting meat in order to prevent the teacher from really starting to get angry later.

However, as Chen Pipi had told Ning Que, the elder brother worked really conscientiously and, therefore, very slowly. Although the Headmaster of the Academy was waiting by the soup pot holding his tableware like a beggar, which gave Eldest Brother unprecedented pressure, Eldest Brother still did not improve his speed of cutting meat too much.

In order to distract the teacher to slightly relieve his current mental stress, Eldest Brother asked while cutting the meat, “Teacher, can’t you see the future?”

Upon listening to this question, the Headmaster of the Academy became furious. He pointed to the overcast winter sky and reprimanded him. “I don’t even see the sky. How can I see the future?”