Hu Xiaotian lay on the carpet, Xima's soft, delicate body resting against his chest, as meek as a lamb. She longed to hold on to this moment forever, but she knew dawn would soon come, and she would have to face another day of her life. Her fingers traced circles on Hu Xiaotian's chest. Suddenly, two crystalline tears fell onto it.
Hu Xiaotian reached out and gently stroked her silky hair.
Xima kissed his cheek, then lay down beside him, gazing entranced at his handsome face. "Go," she whispered. "And never come back."
Hu Xiaotian frowned. "Why?"
"I don't want you risking yourself for me," Xima said. "This is Black Hu, not your country."
Hu Xiaotian smiled faintly, cupped her lovely face, and said, enunciating every word, "I always keep my promises. You are my woman. No one can take you away from me."
Xima flung herself into his arms, her heart overflowing with happiness. Even if Hu Xiaotian's words were only a lie, she would willingly live within that deception forever.
"You probably didn't come to the Northern Desert just for me, did you?" Xima asked. She might have been innocent by nature, but she was not foolish.
Hu Xiaotian did not hide anything from her. Relations between men and women were strange: once they had done this, the distance between them suddenly seemed to shrink. Apparently, the best way to close that distance was still to get to know each other in depth. "Taking you away is the most important thing," he said. "But there's something else: retrieving what Brahma Sound Temple took."
"What did they take?" Xima clearly knew nothing of the matter.
"Two skulls," Hu Xiaotian said.
"I'll help you!" Xima did not even ask why. Once a woman settled on the man she would follow