Rustle, rustle, rustle...
The following evening, a steady spring rain fell over the countryside outside Jingjie City. The mountains had already dimmed before nightfall, and everything within sight was shrouded in mist.
Ye Jingtang sat leaning beside the rudder at the stern, sheltered from the drizzle by the canopy overhead, kneading Niao Niao in his hands.
Watching the soft curtain of rain falling from the sky, Ye Jingtang raised a hand to catch a few drops, feeling a touch of sentiment stirred by the scene.
If a summer downpour was like Shui'er, arriving amid fierce winds and sudden rain that left one hard-pressed to withstand it, flooding rivers at the slightest provocation, it usually exhausted itself within half an hour and departed just as hurriedly.
Then the lingering spring rain before him was like Qinghe, soft and yielding, seemingly powerless, yet extraordinarily enduring. Once it began, it could continue for days on end, barely perceptible against the skin, yet soft as cream and sweet as honey. With such persistence, it felt as though it could dissolve the hardest stone between heaven and earth.
And Big Silly felt like the spring breeze, slightly cool against the skin, yet concealing a measure of spring warmth that refreshed the heart and mind and left one unable to get enough...
Ye Jingtang leaned beside the rudder in contemplation, his thoughts roaming so far afield that he failed to notice he had kneaded Niao Niao to sleep.
After they rounded a bend in the river and the outline of a city appeared to the north, footsteps sounded inside the boat's little cabin. Then Perfected Person Xuanji, her robes white as snow, emerged and sat beside him.
"We're almost there. That's Jingjie City ahead. Keep following the river upstream, and you'll reach Heaven's Gate Gorge..."
"Really?