Goodnight, Kitty

Luo Yan poked at the campfire, propping up his chin with one hand. "So... you don't know where this place is either?"

Zhu Zhuqing nodded. "Mm."

Luo Yan gently closed his eyes. "Why is fate so cruel? All I wanted was to make a trip to Gengxin City. Why did I have to run into that damned swindler?!"

He sounded utterly grief-stricken. If not for the redness the fire had baked onto his face, Zhu Zhuqing might have thought he was actually crying.

Zhu Zhuqing glanced at him, then turned her gaze back to the fire.

"You believed that map yourself," she said.

"You couldn't even tell the directions apart, yet you dared stuff it into your clothes."

Luo Yan opened one eye. "Are you blaming me?"

"No." Zhu Zhuqing said, "I just think you weren't in that much of a hurry either."

Luo Yan hissed, sat up, and tossed two more dry branches into the fire. Sparks crackled and leapt up.

"I was in a hurry."

He said, "I don't know the roads, but it's not like you know them any better. Your sister is chasing you, and you're more stranded than I am in these woods. We're both in the same boat, so neither of us should laugh at the other."

Zhu Zhuqing hugged her knees, lightly resting her chin against her arms. Her voice was calm and low. "You figured it out long ago."

"Figured out what?"

Luo Yan said, "Your surname is Zhu, someone's chasing you, and your sister wants to kill you? Isn't it obvious? With that little family drama of yours, half of Heaven Dou City has been laughing at it."

Zhu Zhuqing raised her eyes. "You're from Heaven Dou City?"

"Just passing through."

Luo Yan said, "I'm passing through now, I'll pass through again later. Wherever there's excitement, there's me. What, do you want to ask me about Heaven Dou City? Things haven't been peaceful there lately. There's someone called Aha who's made the whole city into a joke."

Zhu Zhuqing did not respond. She had no interest in such things.

"Thank you."

"Hm?" Luo Yan tilted his head.

"Thank you for helping me. I'll repay you."

Luo Yan looked at her and suddenly smiled. "How will you repay me? Offer yourself to me?"

He said it lightly, with his usual punchable insolence. If it had been Xiao Wu, she would have kicked him already. If it were Ning Rongrong, she would probably have called him a lecher.

But Zhu Zhuqing merely lifted her head and looked at him.

"My life still has some use. If I'm not dead in the future, I'll come find you and make good on it."

He slowly lowered the hand that had been tending the fire, his gaze settling on Zhu Zhuqing's face.

She was not joking.

She did not even think there was anything unusual about what she had just said.

So this was... the Zhu Family of Star Luo?

"Why does that make me feel so uncomfortable?" Luo Yan said softly.

Zhu Zhuqing did not answer.

The flames dimmed, casting one side of her face into shadow.

She still hugged her knees, her eyes fixed on the fire.

"Seriously."

Luo Yan said, "Stop talking about not dying all the time. The road ahead is long, and you're still so young. What's-her-name—your sister—didn't catch you, did she? Why talk about dying?"

Zhu Zhuqing did not look at him. She only said, "I won't die for nothing."

Luo Yan said, "Wouldn't it be better to be hopeful about the future? Why cling to the past? The past is already set in stone."

Zhu Zhuqing was silent for a long time. A log in the fire popped, and several sparks drifted up on the heat before slowly falling back into the ashes. Her shadow swayed gently behind her, as though it, too, struggled faintly at those words.

"My past isn't set in stone," she said.

Luo Yan did not interrupt.

"The Star Luo Empire. The Dai Family and the Zhu Family."

She spoke, her voice even softer than before. "The Dai Family's princes must fight from the moment they are born. The winner becomes Crown Prince. The loser, at best, has his Soul Power crippled. At worst, he does not even get to keep his life."

"The Zhu Family's daughters are the same. Our two families have intermarried for generations. Whoever wins earns the right to stand beside the winner. Whoever loses becomes a corpse."

She paused, staring into the flames.

"I have a fiancé," she said.

Luo Yan said nothing. He knew who it was, but he did not interrupt.

"I've never met him. I only know that he is older than me and that he is the Dai Family's second prince. He ran away before. He left nothing behind; I only heard that he escaped the empire."

"He saw the end of that road before I did, so he left. I didn't understand back then, but now... I do."

Luo Yan poked at the fire and said quietly, "You came after him not to talk about love."

"No."

Zhu Zhuqing said, "I came because only if he and I live together can we survive."

She raised her eyes to Luo Yan. "The children of our two families must fight from childhood. Sisters tear each other apart, brothers kill each other. None of us are clean."

"But if there is one person who can let me be more than just a blade, perhaps it can only be him. At least our fates have been bound together since before we were born. If he dies, I cannot live either."

Luo Yan gave a quiet hum. He thought of the Hell White Tiger. Some things truly required two people together.

But as Zhu Zhuqing spoke of this, there was not the slightest hint of affection. There was only a responsibility, hard as iron, forced upon her when she had been backed into a corner.

"So you have to find him," Luo Yan said.

"Mm."

Zhu Zhuqing nodded. "I need him to stand up and stop hiding. He thinks that by running to Heaven Dou City, he can drink himself into a puddle of mud. But mud cannot save me, and it cannot save him either."

When she said "drink himself into a puddle of mud," a faint ripple finally entered her tone. It was disappointment.

"I want to live."

Luo Yan could no longer smile. He could imagine that scene.

Dai Mubai was surrounded by women in the Rose Hotel, while this girl, covered in blood, crossed several mountains just to find him and tell him: the two of us have to live.

Another section of firewood collapsed inward, and the firelight dimmed.

Luo Yan did not poke at it again. He merely rested his chin on his knees and watched the embers that were nearly extinguished.

"Who can say what the future holds? Get some sleep first. I'll keep watch."

Zhu Zhuqing did not move or answer.

After a long while, she slowly turned onto her side and lay down with her back to him.

Her movements were light. Luo Yan took off his outer robe and casually tossed it beside her feet.

Zhu Zhuqing did not pull it over herself. She merely tucked her hands into her sleeves and curled herself up a little tighter.

The night wind was cold, but her breathing slowly changed from hurried to steady.

Luo Yan sat on the rock without saying another word.

He added a thin branch to the fire, and the flame gave a tiny flicker.

He looked at that faint light, then at the half of Zhu Zhuqing's nape exposed outside her clothes.

Even asleep, she felt unsafe. Her whole body was taut like a drawn bowstring.

"Goodnight, kitty," he said softly.

He hugged his arms and stared into the pitch-black forest.

This kitty would not truly trust him because of a single sentence, but that was fine. He was not in a hurry to begin with.

The wind slipped through the treetops, carrying those pools of blood, those words, and those pursuers a little farther away.

Luo Yan leaned lightly against the rock and closed his eyes, but he did not sleep.

Aha, I took the wrong road because you wanted me to meet her, didn't you?