Shang Shuqing shook her head and pushed it back. "I'm not eating. You eat." Her emotions were stirred and tangled. Afraid she had misunderstood, she confirmed again, "Silver Child, did Matchmaker also tell you not to mention having seen Daoist Master, or she wouldn't give you chicken legs to eat?"
Silver Child nodded again, indignant once more. "Bad people!"
Indignant though she was, she still could not miss the tears glinting in Shang Shuqing's eyes. She once again held out the chicken leg she had already gnawed on. "Qingqing."
Smiling through her tears, Shang Shuqing pushed it back again and pointed into the basket, indicating there were more.
All right then. Silver Child took it back and continued gnawing on her own.
Shang Shuqing turned away, wiped her tears with a handkerchief, and paced with her hands clenched, her fingers twisting together. Reaching the window, she pushed it open and looked out at the night that had only just deepened. Gradually, she calmed down, though her bright eyes still brimmed with complicated thoughts.
Though she had accepted the reality that Daoist Master was dead, she had never wanted to believe it. What if Silver Child's words were true?
The key was that she did not know how she ought to face it.
If he was truly still alive, then it meant Daoist Master had been concealing some truth. She also knew that if he had done so, the matter must be of tremendous consequence.
What sort of place was the Sacred Realm? If he had faked his death within the Sacred Realm, the implications had to be enormous—thunderous enough to shake heaven and earth, involving who knew how many people. It was not something she could bear.
She was someone who knew her own limits. If it was something she