Aha's Readers

Ning Rongrong had come to Heaven Dou City this time out of spite.

Her father had told her to attend an academy, but what could an academy possibly teach her?

She had not argued back, but inwardly, she had been unwilling a hundred times over.

She was the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. From the day she was born, people had paved the way for her. Even two Titled Douluo had been willing to crouch down and tie her cloak for her. She did not need anyone else to teach her.

So she had run off to Heaven Dou City.

She had been to Heaven Dou City many times before, and every time, someone had arranged everything for her.

Not this time. She had brought only Xiaomei, entered the city in an inconspicuous gray-canopied carriage, found the most expensive inn, and booked the best room.

"Miss, when are we going to the academy?" Xiaomei asked.

"What's the rush?"

Ning Rongrong pushed open the window. The wind of Heaven Dou City rushed in, carrying sweet fragrances and the scent of powder. "I want to look around first."

Along the main street, past lofty buildings, jewelry shops, and perfume stores, she bought a pile of things she had no use for and even tipped several flower sellers.

She spent lavishly, and the vendors all crowded around her, calling her "Miss" in voices sweeter than honey.

Ning Rongrong enjoyed it immensely.

But she soon realized that something had been off in Heaven Dou City lately.

No matter where she went, people were quietly discussing a book.

The book had no title—or rather, whenever its title was spoken aloud, it always sounded as though someone were laughing.

"Aha wrote it."

"Seriously? Those two?"

"Shh—don't say it out on the street. But it's really that..."

Even the storytellers at the teahouses had started rapping their blocks and saying, "If you wish to know what happens next, wait for the next installment."

The people below listened and laughed at the same time, their laughter both restrained and unbridled.

Ning Rongrong's interest was piqued.

Why did everyone in the city look as though they had been bewitched?

"Go buy me a copy." She stood by the railing on the third floor of a restaurant and spoke to Xiaomei.

Xiaomei left for half the day before returning. "Miss, I couldn't buy one. They only have them in the south of the city, but all those shops said they were sold out."

Ning Rongrong frowned.

But the harder it was to buy, the more she wanted to see it.

What on earth was it that had so many people in Heaven Dou City talking?

"Prepare the carriage." She turned and headed downstairs.

Xiaomei hurried after her. "Miss, a place like the south of the city..."

Without looking back, Ning Rongrong said, "I refuse to believe a book can grow legs."

The south of the city truly differed from the main street. The roads were narrower, the people more mixed, and the air carried the smell of vegetable leaves, fish, and cheap face powder.

The carriage could not enter, so it stopped at the mouth of an alley. Lifting her skirt, Ning Rongrong walked past several puddles of filthy water.

She walked slowly, every step filled with disgust at the thought of this filthy ground dirtying her shoes.

But she entered that old bookstore nonetheless.

The moment the bookstore owner heard "Aha," he immediately straightened up. His half-blind eyes suddenly seemed fully awake.

He pulled out a bundle of papers wrapped in gray cloth from the very bottom of the counter and pushed it toward her. "The last copy. If you'd come half a day later, Miss, you'd have had to wait until tomorrow."

Ning Rongrong raised her chin. "How much?"

"Two Copper Soul Coins," the owner said.

"For this scrap paper?" She frowned.

"Don't judge it by the paper, Miss."

The owner lowered his voice. "People would fight to catch the ashes if this book were burned right now."

Ning Rongrong snorted, but still had Xiaomei pay him.

Back in the carriage, she unwrapped the gray cloth. The paper was old, and the writing was tiny.

The first line read:

"During such-and-such year of the Douluo Calendar, the two Yue set sail together."

Leaning against the soft cushions, she read slowly. Outside, the lights gradually came on, casting shifting brightness and shadow across the pages. The further she read, the more excited her expression became.

"Tianyue retreated first. It was not because he could not win, but because he could not fight. When he left, Sea God Island rained for three days."

She read it over twice, but in the end, only one sentence remained:

"If you wish to know what happens next, wait for the next installment."

Ning Rongrong pinched the page, pressing her fingertips hard against the words "next installment."

"That's it?"

She snapped, "There isn't even an ending. What kind of book is this?"

Xiaomei softly reminded her from beside her, "Miss, keep your voice down. People outside can hear you."

"Let them hear."

Ning Rongrong snapped the pages shut. "I paid for it. Can't I say what I want?"

"Find a restaurant. I'm hungry."

Xiaomei immediately replied, "How about Duiyue Restaurant? It's on the street ahead. Miss used to go there all the time."

"No."

Ning Rongrong said, "It's too troublesome. Just find somewhere."

Though she said that, when the carriage stopped before a restaurant called Listening Wind Pavilion, Xiaomei still breathed a sigh of relief.

Though it was not as grand as Duiyue Restaurant, it stood beside Heaven Dou City's main street. Its storefront was clean, and the people coming and going were all fairly respectable.

Ning Rongrong stepped down from the carriage and glanced up at the signboard.

It was a three-story building, with lights shining on every floor and silhouettes filling the windows.

She walked straight in.

The hall was indeed bustling. When the waiter saw her enter, he froze for a moment before putting on a smile and hurrying over. "How many, Miss? Please head upstairs. There happens to be a window seat available."

Ning Rongrong gave a hum and was about to go upstairs when a steward-like man hurried down from the stairway and whispered a few words to the waiter.

The waiter's expression changed slightly. Turning to Ning Rongrong, his smile became somewhat bitter. "Miss, I'm terribly sorry, but the upper floor has just been booked by an honored guest. And there aren't any empty tables downstairs right now, either..."

Ning Rongrong halted.

"No empty tables?" she repeated, sweeping her gaze through the hall.

Sure enough, every one of the dozen or so tables downstairs was occupied.

Just then, she spotted a young man.

He sat alone at a square table in the corner, with a bowl of noodles and a dish of peanuts before him.

Ning Rongrong hesitated briefly, then walked over anyway.

"Hey."

She stood before the table, chin slightly raised. "There aren't any seats. Can I sit here?"

Luo Yan looked up. He had not expected anyone to come over, much less her.

After a brief pause, he gently nodded. "Please."

Ning Rongrong pulled out a chair and sat down. Xiaomei hurried forward, wiped the tabletop before Ning Rongrong with a handkerchief again, then quietly called over the waiter to order dishes.

Ning Rongrong did not look at the person across from her again. She took out those pages once more.

The paper had already been creased from her folding it, yet she had not been willing to throw it away. She had read the book once, but something seemed to tug at her heart, making her want to look through it again and again.

She unfolded the first page and began reading again by the restaurant's light.

Just as she reached the line, "Tianyue retreated first. It was not because he could not win, but because he could not fight," the gray-clothed youth across from her suddenly began coughing.

Luo Yan had been drinking soup. A mouthful went down the wrong way, and he coughed several times before barely managing to put down his bowl.

Ning Rongrong raised her eyes and frowned. "What are you doing?"

Covering his mouth, Luo Yan coughed twice more before wiping the corner of his lips with a handkerchief. He looked up at her, his gaze complicated. "You're reading it so openly?"

"What, I can't read it?"

Ning Rongrong waved the pages. "It's mine. Do I have to hide to read it?"

Luo Yan looked at the pages in her hand, his gaze passing over several lines of text. "A lot of people have been reading this book lately, but not many are like you, reading it in a restaurant as if it were a lamp."

"That they don't dare is their business."

Ning Rongrong slapped the pages onto the table, perfectly justified. "I paid two Copper Soul Coins for it. I'll do as I please."

Luo Yan hesitated. Instead of replying at once, he pushed his soup bowl aside and leaned back, his eyes pausing on Ning Rongrong's face for a moment before shifting away.

"How are those pages?" he asked casually.

"Not bad." Ning Rongrong answered without thinking. "The writing and all that are pretty good."

"Mm." Luo Yan nodded. "What else?"

"What else?"

Ning Rongrong glanced at him. "You really want to talk about this lousy book?"

"Not really."

Luo Yan smiled. "I just heard that this thing is hard to buy now. Since you managed to get a copy, Miss, I figured you might have some connections."

Ning Rongrong gave a light snort. "What connections could I have? I merely snatched the last copy from an old bookstore in the south of the city."

"An old bookstore in the south of the city."

Luo Yan repeated it. "That owner probably only had these few pages too."

Ning Rongrong's hand paused. "What do you mean?"

Luo Yan looked at her and lowered his voice. "The version circulating outside is only the first part. There's more after it, but no one has it, and no one dares sell it. It contains things that are even less fit to be spread around."

Ning Rongrong's heart skipped a beat. She could not stand people who said half of something and hid the other half.

Yet she was genuinely being hooked, as if a bite of food had already reached her mouth only to be taken away.

"You mean?" She lowered her voice and leaned slightly closer.

Luo Yan did not answer immediately.

He first looked around, then lowered his voice even further. "Does Miss know how the copies circulating outside came about?"

"Didn't Aha write it?" Ning Rongrong raised a brow.

"Aha did write it, that's true."

Luo Yan said, "But only the first part was released. The rest isn't in bookstores or in the hands of those storytellers. Even if someone happens to get it, they wouldn't dare make it known."

Ning Rongrong looked at him. "Then how do you know so much?"

"Me?"

Luo Yan smiled, with a hint of helplessness in it. "I heard it from someone else too. That person owed me money and couldn't repay it, so he shoved an oil-paper package at me and said it could count toward the debt. I looked inside and discovered it was the complete book."

As he spoke, he lightly tapped a finger against the edge of the table, as though mentioning something scorching hot. "I had planned to hand it over to someone else, but I heard that even Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect have begun investigating it in secret. Do you think I'd dare sell it?"

Ning Rongrong frowned, yet her curiosity only grew stronger. "You mean the complete version is with you now?"

"It isn't."

Luo Yan shook his head. "I hid it somewhere else. Who would dare carry something that dangerous around?"

"Name your price," she suddenly said.

Luo Yan froze, then pondered for two breaths. "Miss, you really want it?"

"What else would I mean?"

"Five hundred Gold Soul Coins."

"How much? You want to sell me one book for five hundred Gold Soul Coins?" Ning Rongrong nearly slammed her teacup onto the table. It was not that she could not afford it.

But this man had just acted as though he feared trouble, yet now he was asking an outrageously high price.

Luo Yan remained unhurried and leaned forward slightly. "Miss, don't be so quick to say it's expensive. The cover alone is worth that price."

Ning Rongrong gave a laugh. "A few sheets of scrap paper and some worthless cover, and you're telling me they're worth five hundred Gold Soul Coins? Do you think it's my first day in Heaven Dou City?"

"To be honest, your clothes and bearing show that you're no ordinary person. Naturally, I wouldn't dare quote a price at random. If you don't believe me, Miss, leave me an address. I'll visit tonight, and you'll understand when you see it. It's just..."

Ning Rongrong was puzzled. "What?"

"Aren't you afraid of inviting trouble?"

Ning Rongrong scoffed. "My name is Ning Rongrong."

The expression on Luo Yan's face paused. He studied her more carefully, then said, "No wonder you're so graceful and lovely. So you are the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

Ning Rongrong felt her ears grow warm. She gave a soft cough. "Come find me at the Seven Treasure Hotel tonight."

"Alright."