Lone Guest 3

The two looked at each other eye to eye in the setting sun. The sunlight fell into the man's dark eyes, sprinkling them with heavy gold. He still had a faint expression, as if he had just said something as ordinary as "the weather is nice today."

This guy wasn't mocking him on purpose. Qi Yin was certain now—this person probably had something wrong with his head.

"I'm no longer proposing marriage," Qi Yin said.

Confusion appeared in Fu Lan's eyes.

"Didn't you see? She was just kissing her boss," Qi Yin said helplessly. "She has already married her boss as a concubine."

Fu Lan looked toward the apothecary. The old proprietor was sitting by the counter calculating the accounts. He tapped his index finger on his tongue, flipping through the ledger page by page, his bony hands crisscrossed with bulging blue veins.

This was an old mortal, his spirit and soul gradually declining; soon he would step into the cycle of reincarnation.

"Her husband is very weak," Fu Lan said indifferently. "You can snatch her."

Qi Yin was startled and looked at the man in astonishment. The guy continued to watch him quietly. His large eyes were an even black, like a piece of clear glaze. Qi Yin suddenly realized that his gaze had never changed; humans, animals, and plants all looked the same in his eyes, as if there was no difference among all things.

Qi Yin was suddenly very curious about what kind of parents could raise such a... silly child.

"What does your family do for a living?" Qi Yin asked. "Where are your parents? You came alone with a cat to find a wife. Why aren't your parents with you?"

"No father, no mother," he replied.

With just these few simple words, Fu Lan showed no further expression, but Qi Yin heard a deep sorrow.

To think that they were clearly strangers, yet they shared the same plight.

"Sigh..." Qi Yin sighed heavily. He pulled Fu Lan's wrist and placed a pouch in his palm. "There's a tael of broken silver here. I saved it up myself. It's not much, but take it to use. Stop looking for that wife of yours. Find a proper living to support yourself and your little cat. Once you have some savings, it will be easy to find a wife. Don't worry, men don't need to fear getting old."

Fu Lan stared at him blankly.

"Living in this world, who doesn't have their hardships? Grit your teeth and you'll get through it. Whatever you do, don't stray onto the wrong path. Understand?"

After Qi Yin finished speaking, he patted his shoulder, turned, and left. He looked down at his long, thin shadow in the setting sun—a dark, long strip with drooping shoulders and a lowered head, like a homeless, wandering ghost. He suddenly found himself laughable; he couldn't even take care of himself, yet he was trying to comfort someone else.

He had wandered aimlessly outside all day today and hadn't accomplished anything. When he returned home later, he wondered if his aunt would scold him for being a money-loser again. No, wait, she was currently relying on his identity to send Yao Xiaoshan to the Immortal Mountain, so she would probably treat him a little better.

The front of his clothes was suddenly tugged. He turned his head and saw that guy holding onto the corner of his lapel.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Is your egg still there?"

"..." Qi Yin was dumbfounded by this guy's sudden question. He unconsciously looked down at himself. Did he look like a eunuch?

"Both of them are still there. What do you want?" Qi Yin's mouth twitched.

Two? Fu Lan was a little surprised; when he looked earlier, there was only one. He didn't pay it much mind and merely said, "Throw it away as soon as possible. It is very dangerous. Be careful."

Is he sick? Qi Yin looked at Fu Lan as if looking at a madman. Fu Lan was completely oblivious. Holding the cat in one hand and his umbrella in the other, he turned and slowly walked away. Qi Yin was puzzled. His two eggs were perfectly fine and precious to him, why should he throw them away, and how were they dangerous... Wait, it suddenly dawned on him. Could he be talking about that Stone Egg?

That guy... how could he know he had a Stone Egg?

Qi Yin was greatly shocked and chased after him in a panic. However, there were only pedestrians coming and going on the streets around him. The setting sun shone on the green brick ground, the slippery moss gleaming with a shallow gold. That person had simply vanished, as if he had never appeared.

Returning home, he headed straight for the attic. He dragged the chest out from under the bed and opened it. The Stone Egg now had several more cracks on it, looking as if it would shatter at any moment. Qi Yin was filled with shock and uncertainty. Not daring to touch it with his hands, he closed the chest tightly once again.

Very dangerous. Could it be a Demon Egg?

From below the attic came the sounds of his aunt shouting and scolding again. She yelled loudly and stomped her feet, her high-pitched voice echoing throughout the entire house. He had lived in this kind of noise for thirteen years. Pushing open the window, he saw Old Madam Yao in the backyard dozing in a rocking chair. The dim setting sun climbed up her knees and hovered around her withered fingers. He closed the window, shutting out the setting sun. In the gloomy attic, there was only him, and that Demon Egg that seemed ready to burst forth.

......

His aunt stood before the Eight Immortals table, watching Xiao Yuan serve the dishes one by one. The old madam took her seat, twirling her prayer beads, her eyelids drooping, as composed as a divine statue. His aunt unconsciously glanced toward the attic again. Qi Yin hadn't come home at noon, but he had to return in the evening. She had set a rule in the house long ago: the door wouldn't be left unlocked at night. If he didn't come home before the sun went down, he would sleep on the streets. The boy was cowardly and had never broken this rule.

Waving her silk fan, she moved to the threshold and craned her neck to look up at the attic. The doors and windows were quiet; there was still no movement at all. All the dishes were served. Yao Xiaoshan and his uncle had both arrived; only Qi Yin was missing.

She became increasingly impatient and was about to go upstairs to check. The old madam slammed her bowl and chopsticks heavily on the table and shouted, "Come back and eat!"

His aunt retracted her stepped-out foot and reluctantly walked back. Just as she finished serving the old madam some soup, the light at the doorway dimmed. Qi Yin walked in holding a small chest. He placed it on the table and said to his aunt, "Aunt, this is the Qilin Immortal Egg that cousin asked me to hide for him. Last time he asked me to hide talismans for him, it turned out to be a bunch of toads. I don't dare to do it this time, so I'd better hand it over to you."

"Qi Yin, you betrayed me!" Yao Xiaoshan cried out loudly.

His aunt glared at him fiercely and said, "What did you go peddling at the West Market again? A Qilin Immortal Egg? You must have spent a lot of silver on it, haven't you? Even if our family had mountains of gold and silver, it wouldn't be enough for your squandering! Later, I'm going to search your room again and throw away all those deceitful gadgets of yours!" She took the chest and handed it to Xiao Yuan. "Go, put it in my room."

Yao Xiaoshan was indignant and threw down his chopsticks in a fit of pique. Xiao Yuan left carrying the chest. Qi Yin sat by the table with his eyes lowered. His aunt smiled at him, picked up his bowl, and served him some rice. "Xiao Yin, you are the sensible one. Don't learn from your cousin. Come, eat. Young people have big appetites, so eat more."

Seeing Qi Yin open his mouth and eat the rice, she felt relieved. The food had been spiked with enough drugs to knock out a cow. Everything was ready; all that was left was the Eighteen-Bead Glazed Bracelet on Qi Yin's wrist. His aunt lowered her head and took a small sip of soup. Her eyes unconsciously looked at the boy again. He sat in the furthest corner, his head lowered, his broken hair covering his eyes.

This child looked like his father. He wasn't ugly; in fact, he could be called handsome. It was just that he always kept his head down and trailed behind the crowd, making it hard to see his face, like someone else's shadow. His features were deep, as if carved stroke by stroke with a knife. The corners of his eyebrows were sharp, taking the shape of a blade's edge. When he smiled, he was very vibrant, but when he didn't, he was hard and aloof, seeming distant from everyone else.

It was this kind of personality that made him unlikable. Drooping his head and rarely uttering a sound, he always made people feel a sense of bad luck. In truth, she had held him when he was just born. A tiny little thing wrapped in swaddling clothes, his wrinkled face crying non-stop, but when he looked at her, he smiled. She had genuinely liked him, at least before he came to live in her house. The two sisters had been close since childhood, inseparable. Naturally, she had loved her sister's child too.

But he shouldn't have come to her home. He should have been dragged away by the water ghosts, just like his mother. That way, her love for him could have continued to this day, and every time the anniversary of their deaths came around, she wouldn't have spared any expense in paying for memorial rites.

She thought she had treated him well enough, raising him until he was this old and this tall. As long as her son went to the Immortal Mountain, she wouldn't mind giving him some extra silver to let him marry a wife to his liking. Cultivating the Dao and becoming an immortal was a blessing that common folks wouldn't dare to dream of in their entire lives. She imagined that those immortals standing high up in the clouds must look down on them as if they were just dusty dirt. From now on, her son would be able to stand that high too, his feet untainted by the slightest dust, his lifespan lasting for thousands and tens of thousands of years.

Qi Yin finished eating and went back to his room. She sat by the door, fanning herself with the silk fan, quietly waiting for nightfall. The moon slowly rose, a full circle, white and bright, as if heralding reunion throughout the mortal realm. She sent Xiao Yuan away to the old madam's side and quietly went up to the attic herself. Lifting a corner of the screen window, she saw that the room was pitch black, with a hazy dark silhouette on the wooden bed.

She pushed the door open and tiptoed inside. Qi Yin had his eyes closed. In the darkness, his facial features were peaceful, completely unaware of everything. She tremblingly reached out her hand and slipped the Eighteen-Bead Glazed Bracelet off his wrist, which was resting on the edge of the bed. It was the only thing his parents had left him, and a sudden wave of guilt washed over her heart.

'Don't blame me, I've done right by you,' she said in her heart, tiptoeing out of the room and locking the door and windows. Returning to the main room, she lay back on the lounger, looking down at the Eighteen-Bead Glazed Bracelet in her hand, and let out a deep breath of foul air. It was her first time doing something like this, and her heart was pounding like a fleeing rabbit. Her husband grinningly brought over a bowl of beauty-nourishing soup. "My wife is the amazing one. You've worked hard, come, drink some soup."

She shot him a sidelong glance and scoffed coldly, carrying quite an air of conceit, before lowering her head to drink the bowl of soup.

In the darkness of the attic, Qi Yin opened his eyes.