Strange Sky!

Lu Chi thought for a moment. "Nervous, yeah. But you can't really tell when I'm nervous."

"I saw you eating quite happily," Deacon Gu said.

"The candied fruit was good."

Deacon Gu glanced at him, shook his head, then looked at Luo Wen. He seemed to want to say something, but after opening his mouth, he said nothing.

Luo Wen walked at the very front, the hem of his gray robe fluttering softly in the evening breeze. He did not turn around, but he spoke, his voice low as it carried on the wind to Lu Chi's ears. "Today's candied fruit was a little worse than yesterday's bowl of noodles. Noodles are real; candied fruit is empty. Remember that."

Walking behind him, Lu Chi watched Luo Wen's silhouette stretch into a long shadow in the dusk. He pondered what Luo Wen had said: noodles were real, candied fruit was empty. He remembered that plum—the sweetness when it first entered his mouth mingling with the sourness that followed. Hold it there for a while, and it melted away, leaving nothing behind. But that bowl of lamb noodles had gone into his stomach at noon, and even now, it still kept him warm.

A breeze rose along the road. It was not strong, but it was chilly, hitting his face like a splash of icy water. One lantern after another lit up beneath the eaves lining both sides of the alley—yellow, red, warmly glowing—casting alternating pools of light and shadow across the stone road. Lu Chi kicked a small pebble at his feet. It rolled away, struck the base of a wall, and stopped.

He quickened his pace and caught up with Ning Xiaohe. "Why haven't you said anything today?"

Ning Xiaohe carried her wooden case on her back, her pace unhurried.