Nightfall

Sangsang took the green pear and ate it with her head lowered. The pear was very sweet and mellow, with an odd texture to it. She was delighted as it felt like the pear had melted in her mouth.

Raising her head, she passed the remaining half to Ning Que. “Try this. It’s very sweet.”

The two were used to sharing good food since they were children. Ning Que didn’t care about the taboo behind sharing pears, which implied separation. He took the portion of pear Sangsang offered and gulped it down.

Master Qishan didn’t expect that the two would share an ordinary pear. He was surprised, but shook the feeling off and said, “Let’s begin.”

Sangsang chose the black chess pieces again.

The chessboard under the front canopy was made from an interesting material. It felt like cold iron and also looked like it. Yet, the chess pieces’ made no sound when landing on it.

As Sangsang’s hand let go of the chess piece, something odd happened.

A flash of confusion crossed her eyes, and then, her eyes slowly shut.

Her lashes did not move. She had fallen asleep!

...

...

Ning Que’s pupils constricted, and his hair stood up.

The cool breeze wafted through his hair, calming his mind before the storm.

He stared into Master Qishan’s eyes. His right hand clenched shut slowly, forming an empty hole that was just the right size for a hilt. His hands vibrated at a fast speed, almost invisibly. He was prepared to whip out the podao behind him.

“Do not worry,” Master Qishan said. “She is just tired, so she is taking a break in her dreams.”

Ning Que observed the state of Sangsang and confirmed her breathing was calm. In fact, it was calmer than usual. Besides that, there was nothing unusual about her. It seemed that she was really sleeping.

“What are you doing?” He asked coldly.

Master Qishan said with a slight smile, “This is good for her health.”

Sangsang, who had fallen asleep mysteriously, seemed to be really comfortable. Her brows, which were usually scrunched up in pain, were relaxed. She was also not coughing at all. Ning Que placed a hand on her wrist and discovered that the cold aura in her body had become exceptionally calm, and was not rolling around wildly like normal. Seeing this, he relaxed slightly.

However, he could not relax completely.

He stared into Master Qishan’s eyes and asked once more, “What’s happening?”

Master Qishan looked at the chessboard before him and said, “You should have heard of the legend of Lanke Temple. The chessboard you are looking at right now is the chessboard used by those old monks in the legend.”

Ning Que asked, “This chessboard... who left it behind?”

Master Qishan answered, “Buddha.”

Ning Que thought about the legend and grew anxious.

“Why does Sangsang have to use this chessboard to play chess? I only just found out that the last game of chess on Wa Mountain was adjudicated by Master Dongming. This is definitely not the chessboard they used.”

Master Qishan said, “Just treat it as a test for her from Buddha.”

Ning Que said, “We are here to cure an illness, not pray to Buddha. Why do we have to be tested by Buddha?”

Master Qishan said, “If her illness can only be cured by Buddha, will you pray or not?”

Ning Que was silent for a long while before asking, “Is she in any danger?”

Master Qishan answered, “She is not in any danger.”

Ning Que thought about it for a while, and then, in a slightly hoarse voice, he said, “But she will be in terrible pain.”

Master Qishan said, “If she was in pain, you would feel it.”

Ning Que asked, “So what happens next? Are we still going to play chess?”

Master Qishan looked at the lone black piece on the chessboard. Then, he took out a white piece from the urn beside him and placed it across the black piece. “This game has already begun.”

...

...

Time slowly passed, and the sun slowly moved towards the west. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding the cave at Tile Mountain. Nobody knew what was going on with the chessboard and why Sangsang had fallen asleep after placing a single chess piece on it.

Ning Que had almost lost his patience many times. However, he tempered down his uneasiness forcefully when he thought of how much respect and trust Sangsang had shown Master Qishan before she placed the chess piece. He continued waiting silently.

There were still two chess pieces on the board.

Ning Que did not look at the chessboard but at Sangsang’s face. He noticed that she did not seem to be in discomfort, and her breathing patterns had not changed. There was nothing different about her body.

He examined her scrupulously and seriously without blinking. He did not miss the movement of even a single strand of her eyelash, even though they were caused by the breeze.

Mo Shanshan stood outside the cottage and watched Ning Que’s expression silently. She watched him closely and carefully. On the stone bench beside the mountain path, the Crown Prince of South Jin Kingdom stared at Mo Shanshan’s beautiful side profile, stunned. He was very focused on her, and occasionally, an expression of infatuation and lust crossed his face.

If the world was a giant chessboard and everyone was a chess piece on it, then nobody would be able to escape. Everyone had to have someone they wanted to look at unless they had already become detached from the world.

The Flower Addict, Lu Chenjia, stared at the people outside the cottage silently. A mocking smile flashed through her beautiful, expressionless face. Then, she left the cave and returned to the Buddha statue at the peak of the mountain.

The stone statue was very tall, and even a single toe was way larger than she was.

Lu Chenjia stood on the pinky toe of the Buddha statue. She tucked her flowing hair behind her ears and looked up into the distance. She was blinded by the setting sun, and scrunched up her eyes.

The face of Buddha appeared hazily between the clouds as he looked down at the mountains. He was not looking at a specific individual, but at everyone struggling to stay afloat in the mortal world. He looked exceptionally benevolent.

Lu Chenjia watched him for a long time before turning away. There was a white flower in the small crack on the toenail of the Buddha statue. She bent down to pick it up.

...

...

Sangsang stood in a daze on the mountain.

There was a small town at the foot of the mountain. She could see the waterwheel at the steam outside the town, and vaguely hear the bustle coming from it. At noon, she could smell the scent of food from the town.

She knew that this was not reality. Because in this world, Ning Que was not by her side. But she could not ascertain if this world was the world on the chessboard because she only saw the world and not the chessboard.

It was late at night when she appeared on the mountain. At dawn, when smoke started rising, she descended the mountain and walked around town. Then, she returned to the mountain once more and found a tree before continuing to stare out, as if in a trance.

She was not allowed to leave because if she walked too far out, she did not know if she would be able to find her way back. If Ning Que were to come to this world to find her, she should stay at this spot and wait for him.

This was something that Ning Que would always tell her before he went out to hunt or do something else when she was very small. He would repeat over and over again that she was not to leave her spot no matter what happened because he would not be able to find her should she move.

Sangsang would always seek confirmation then. She would ask, “Will you definitely come to find me?” “Of course.” Ning Que would say. Then, Sangsang would rest assured and do as he requested. She would stand in the same spot and wait for him without moving.

...

...

Sangsang stood there for a long time. She stood for so long she had lost track of time. She only remembered that the sun had risen and set many times, and that snow, wind and gale had come and gone. She heard many rounds of festivities and firecrackers from the town.

Sangsang thought that these people seemed to have a lot to celebrate. Ning Que had still not found her after so long, so she could not bring herself to be happy even if she heard the firecrackers. Time continued to pass and Sangsang continued waiting. She was tired of standing, so she sat down to rest. She dozed off against the tree when she was tired.

There were two ants nests under the tree. Sangsang was bored waiting for Ning Que, so she began to watch the ants moving nests or fighting. She watched them many times, and watched as hundreds of generations of ants lived and died. She finally realized that there was something very interesting about these ants, or when they moved.

The two different nests of ants moved at similar speed and were of a similar distance away from the tree. The honey from the tree appeared at different spots every time. Sometimes, ants from one nest can just walk to it in a straight line while the other nest had to circle around puddles to reach it. The ants walking in a straight line would be the first to get the honey.

The straight line was the shortest.

Sangsang thought silently, that this was the rule the world wanted to tell her.

The world she was in had a town. In the town there were people and mountains. There were beasts and trees in the mountains. On the trees, were birds. There was water, wind and clouds, day and night. And naturally, there were rules.

Sangsang did not leave the mountain. However, because she had too much time to think, she eventually grasped many of this world’s rules. For example, light was warm and night was cold. Rules like these were boring.

Some rules were even more heart-wrenching.

The town would set off firecrackers for festivities and during mourning. Sangsang stood on the mountain and watched as the children in the town grew old and sick before dying. They disappeared without a trace, accompanied by the lighting of firecrackers.

The ashes from the firecrackers were swirled up by the wind and floated from the graves of the town. They swirled around the mountain and eventually disappeared. Sangsang noticed that the wind always came from one place, and that the ashes and smoke would always travel in the same direction. It felt as if was directed by an arrow toward the same direction forever.

She understood that this was the rule of time.

Time only moved forward. Nobody could stop it.

...

...

Sangsang was still on the mountain.

Woodcutters would come to the mountain for firewood, children would bring their sheep to graze there. In the years, many have walked by the tree, but nobody saw her. Three generations of cows have been tied to the tree, but nothing could touch her.

She existed in the world, but could not affect the world, and neither could the world affect her. Although she was still restrained by the rules of this world, so she felt tired and felt both cold and warmth.

Of course, there were rules that could not stop her. She had never eaten, and never hungered.

She thought of how Ning Que had once told her of the legend of Lanke Temple. The woodcutter called Wang Zhi had eaten a bun and spent a century by the chessboard under the tree and had never hungered once.

Sangsang had not eaten any buns, but she had a green pear.

Then, she seemed to have understood something. She walked to the cliff and jumped down.

...

...