The next morning, Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Ning Rongrong had already returned to the sect.
Heaven Dou City had become far too chaotic.
She had originally wanted to stay a few more days, but Ning Fengzhi had sent people to fetch her, saying, "It's not safe outside."
No matter how unwilling she was, she could only return to the sect first.
On the night she arrived home, her mind was still full of the things Luo Yan had left unsaid. She tossed and turned until the latter half of the night before finally falling asleep.
Then, she heard a bird call.
It was right in her own courtyard.
Ning Rongrong sat up in bed.
Dawn had just broken, and a faint layer of blue showed through the window paper.
She did not call for her maid. She merely threw on an outer robe and walked to the window.
The window was closed.
Yet the birdcall continued, seeming to drift down from a distant treetop, yet also seeming to come from the crabapple tree just outside her window.
After hesitating for a moment, she pushed the window open a crack.
A gray-blue bird was standing on a crabapple branch.
The bird was not large. Its entire body looked as though it had been soaked in mist, its gray-blue feathers gleaming with an almost unreal brightness in the morning light.
It cocked its head at Ning Rongrong, as if confirming whether she was the person it was looking for.
"Are you here to find me?" Ning Rongrong took a step forward and asked tentatively.
The bird did not chirp.
It merely flew up from the crabapple branch and landed lightly on the windowsill, less than half a foot away from her.
Ning Rongrong instinctively wanted to retreat, but her feet seemed nailed to the floor.
Then the bird opened its beak.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA—"
It laughed loudly, like a person. The laughter exploded through the early morning room, making even the windowsill seem to tremble.
Ning Rongrong stumbled back half a step in fright, her lower back hitting the dressing table. The bronze mirror rang out with a thud.
"What are you laughing at?!" She was furious, yet did not dare step closer.
"Young Miss?"
Her maid Xiaomei's hazy voice came from the outer room. "Young Miss, what's wrong?"
"Nothing!"
When she turned back to the window, the bird had already vanished.
Only a thin sheet of paper remained on the windowsill.
Ning Rongrong glanced back at the door, making sure Xiaomei had not come in.
She reached out and picked up the paper.
The paper was very light, its edges faintly gray-blue, as though it had been formed from bird feathers. There was only one line written on it:
"Miss Ning~ I'm heading out for a while, so I may be unreachable for the time being. Don't miss me too much~"
Ning Rongrong did not need to guess who had written in that tone.
She clenched the note in her hand, her chest rising and falling.
"Who misses you!"
She shouted out the window as if that person could still hear her. "Luo Yan, are you insane?! If you've got the guts, come say goodbye yourself! What kind of farewell is sending some stupid bird?!"
Ning Rongrong stood by the window, clutching the note so hard her face turned red with anger.
But aside from the crabapple tree, not even a gray-blue feather remained outside.
The morning breeze drifted by lazily, as if it were laughing at her.
"Luo Yan."
She bit down on his name as though she wanted to chew those two words to pieces and swallow them. "Just you wait. Don't let me see you again. If I do, I'll make you finish writing the next installment right in front of me. Not one word less."
She slammed the window shut.
The instant the wooden window closed, the crabapple tree in the courtyard quivered lightly, and several leaves fell, as if shaken loose by some invisible laughter.
Ning Rongrong returned to the bed and read the note again. That line really was written so lightly.
Especially that final "okay" after "Don't miss me too much," its tail drawn out so very long.
"Like hell I miss you." She folded the paper into an extremely thin strip and tucked it into the very bottom of her jewelry box.
Then she lay back down. The sky was already bright, but she found herself unable to sleep.
She closed her eyes and remembered the way Luo Yan had sat in the corner of Listening Wind Pavilion.
At the time, he had stood by the door, half his body submerged in the darkness beyond the corridor, yet his voice had been as clear as though it had leapt off the page.
"What exactly... are you?" Ning Rongrong turned over and buried her face in the pillow.
Outside, the bells of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect rang.
Meanwhile, in Notting City, Dorm Seven.
Before night had even fallen, someone rushed in in a great flurry, waving a crumpled sheet of paper. "Something huge happened! Something huge happened!"
Xiao Wu was sitting cross-legged on her bed, gnawing on an apple. She looked up at the words. "What now? Did Xiao Chenyu get beaten up again?"
"No! Heaven Dou City! Aha!"
The person was panting. "Do you know Aha? The one who writes books! Everyone outside is spreading the news now! They say Heaven Dou City is haunted at night!"
"Seven Ahas appeared at the same time! And there was a bird! A gray-blue bird! It can laugh! After it laughed, no one on the whole street dared sleep!"
Xiao Wu shot upright. "What did you say? Aha? A Gray-Blue Bird?"
"That's right! If you don't believe me, ask Third Brother!" The person slapped the paper down in front of Xiao Wu.
Tang San was sitting by the window, whittling a wooden stick. At the words, his hands merely paused, but he did not look up.
He knew Luo Yan had mentioned "Aha." During Luo Yan's final days in Dorm Seven, he had always had "Aha" on his lips. Sometimes he even spoke to the air, as if arguing with someone.
"Third Brother!"
Xiao Wu jumped off the bed and darted over to Tang San in a few steps, her eyes shining. "This has to be Luo Yan! He ran off to Heaven Dou City to have fun, and he made such a huge mess too!"
"Mm." Tang San set the wooden stick aside, picked up the paper, and skimmed it.
It was titled Heaven Dou City Strange Tales. It spoke of a Gray-Blue Bird crying at night, seven bursts of laughter appearing at once, and the entire city being thrown into an uproar.
Some swore that Aha was a bird; others firmly insisted that Aha was a person.
Opinions varied wildly. The only certainty was that no one in Heaven Dou City was unaware of Aha anymore.
"This guy."
Xiao Wu laughed and cursed, "He was already so mysterious and strange back in Dorm Seven. Now he's gone and stopped being human altogether."
"He was never going to behave like a normal person," Tang San said.
Xiao Wu's eyes shifted as she leaned close to Tang San. "Then let's go to Heaven Dou City and find him too, okay? Didn't he make such a name for himself over there? We can pretend to be passing by, then suddenly appear in front of him and scare him half to death!"
Tang San glanced at her. "How are we getting there?"
"Walk! It's not that far! If that doesn't work, we can wait until the academy is on break!"
"Heaven Dou City is huge. By the time you try to find him, he'll already be gone."
Tang San picked up the wooden stick again and continued whittling. "Besides, since he used an alias, that proves he hasn't had enough fun yet. Once he has, he'll come back on his own."
Xiao Wu puffed out her cheeks. "Waiting again! I'm going to grow mushrooms from all this waiting! He's out there having the time of his life all alone, even turning into birds for fun."
"When he comes back, I'm making him turn into one for me too. If he can't, I'll hang him from the gates of Notting City and let the whole city laugh at him."
The corner of Tang San's mouth curved up, but he said nothing.
Luo Yan, he thought. I took your advice. It really was good.
Once you've had enough fun, come back and visit.
Meanwhile, Luo Yan had his hands tucked into his sleeves as he walked along the official road toward Notting City.
He was in a good mood, humming a little tune he had learned from children: "Gray-Blue Bird, flew eastward, laughed once and disappeared from sight.
Fake Aha, face turned red, bragged yesterday, hid today, curled beneath the bed just like a worm."
"Gray-Blue Bird, flew westward, seven bursts of laughter rose at once.
Fake Aha, legs went weak, shouted from a teahouse in daylight, heard the cries at night and trembled three times."
"Gray-Blue Bird, flew southward, turn the page and face the gates of hell.
Fake Aha, greedy eyes, stole someone's next installment and changed two lines, then the real bird came and scared his soul away."
"Gray-Blue Bird, flew northward, everyone laughed until tears fell.
Fake Aha, opened his mouth, wanted to say he was the real one, but all that came out was, 'Who... am... I?'"
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