That kid Lei Qing was being buried today. I stood beside the soul-guiding lantern, my feelings impossibly tangled. The people seeing him off were all his underlings. I was a little older than him, so I didn't accompany him up the mountain; everyone older had stayed behind.
The brothers from the underworld had also shown me plenty of respect. More than a hundred people had marched in a grand procession to the outskirts.
Sitting at the deserted entrance, I thought of the two young brothers, Lei Qing and A Biao, and sorrow welled up in my heart. Perhaps I really wasn't suited to walk this mortal world after all. I had only brought disaster upon two ordinary people.
Lin Feiyu was dead. Senior Brother Liu Fangyuan was dead too. Later came the female lay Buddhist Zhang Ziyi, the old lady Zhang Yufang, and Li Ruizhong. If I had never appeared, perhaps all of them could have lived ordinary lives.
But I had come, bringing ruin to the Arcane Sect Houses of Dalong County. And the aftermath of the Blood Cloud Coffin was still spreading. I didn't even know whether this was some kind of calamity, but I believed that until Grandma came out, the situation would only continue to worsen.
The weather in the south had grown colder. The sky was frighteningly overcast, and even wearing long sleeves, I couldn't help shivering.
The basketball court opposite was deserted as well, utterly devoid of any sign of life. Perhaps after I left and some time had passed, this place would become more peaceful.
I looked toward the intersection. Two black dots were drawing closer and closer, and I knew both of them extremely well.
He wore a dark-blue Daoist robe, with a Qian-Kun Eight Trigrams pattern certain to be embroidered at