Shiqiao Village.
During the three days since her younger sister had left, Bai Ruxue had woken every morning and sat on the stone stool in the courtyard, just as she had forty-eight years ago, gazing at the little path outside.
In Bai Ruxue's heart, it seemed as though everything had happened only yesterday.
The night before Xiao Qing left, neither Bai Ruxue nor Xiao Qing had slept.
Xiao Qing had told her elder sister all sorts of things.
Bai Ruxue knew that she had fallen into a deep sleep only after Xiao Qing fed her that pill.
She also knew that Daoist Priest Fuchen had given Xiao Qing a Soul Memory Pill that could help her recover her memories.
But Xiao Qing had hesitated and hadn't given it to her right away.
Bai Ruxue didn't blame her younger sister.
In Bai Ruxue's eyes, Xiao Qing was the one caught in the middle, the one who had it hardest. She had shouldered all the responsibility and guilt alone.
Sometimes, the person who had to choose suffered more than the one who was chosen.
From Xiao Qing, Bai Ruxue had also learned that Xiao Mo had known all along that she and her younger sister were of the Demon Race. He had simply pretended not to know.
Over the past forty-eight years, Xiao Mo had come to visit her in the cave every so often.
Bai Ruxue heard from her younger sister that Xiao Mo still hadn't married.
Even just listening to Xiao Qing's account, Bai Ruxue could picture Xiao Mo spending all those years alone, and a dull ache stirred in her heart.
That afternoon, just as Bai Ruxue's thoughts began to drift,
she heard a slight rustling from the woods outside the courtyard.
She turned to look and saw the