pdf-ebookys Chapter 1072 Never Seen the Sun
Chapter 1072 Never Seen the Sun
But Su Wanwan felt it. The hand was very cold, with thin knuckles, and the palm was much colder than hers. When it pressed against her head, it felt like a cold leaf falling on her hair.
"Let's go," Bai tide said.
Su Wanwan nodded vigorously, then turned and left.
After taking three steps, she suddenly stopped and turned around.
"Master," she called out.
Bai tide stood in the middle of the standing stone, her cloak fluttering slightly in the morning breeze, the gray-white fur on her hat brim trembling gently in the wind. She didn't speak, but only slightly raised her chin, as if to say, "Is there anything else?"
Su Wanwan opened her mouth, wanting to say, "I will come back to see you," but then felt that the words were too weak, so weak that they would dissipate as soon as they were spoken. She thought for a moment and changed her words.
"You're all alone here, don't just skip meals."
Bai tide's lips twitched slightly.
Without waiting for her reply, Su Wanwan turned and walked away quickly. She walked so fast that she almost tripped over her own tail, stumbled, steadied herself, and continued walking.
The white donkey followed behind her for a few steps, then suddenly turned back and brayed at Bai tide. The bray didn't sound like a donkey's bray; it sounded more like some other animal saying goodbye, its deep, muffled voice carrying an indescribable emotion.
Bai tide looked at the donkey and actually chuckled softly.
"Get out," she said.
The white donkey understood the goodwill behind the word "get lost," flicked its tail, and trotted to catch up with Su Wanwan.
Chu Yang walked at the very back. As he passed Bai tide, he paused and glanced at her.
Bai tide was also looking at him.
"She's stronger than you think," Bai tide said.
Chu Yang nodded: "I know."
"You don't know," Bai Xi lowered her voice, so low that only Chu Yang could hear, "She will be stronger than you in the future."
Chu Yang was stunned for a moment, then smiled.
"That's even better," he said, and then he left.
Bai tide stood at the valley entrance, watching their figures slowly shrink, recede into the distance, become blurred, and finally disappear around the bend in the mountain path. A morning breeze swept in from the north, causing her cloak to flutter loudly. She raised her hand and pulled her hood down, obscuring half her face.
On the stone at the mouth of the valley, a line of words appeared sometime during the day. The words were very small and shallowly carved, as if they were drawn stroke by stroke with a fingernail, and could not be seen at all without careful observation.
The inscription read: "Under the cushion, on the stone slab, I've hidden two jars of osmanthus wine. Don't drink them all at once."
Bai tide remained silent for a long time after reading that line of text.
Then she squatted down, lifted the stone slab under the cushion, revealing two tightly sealed wine jars. The jars were small, each about the size of a palm, and the mouths were sealed with yellow mud. On top of the mud was a dried lotus leaf, with a small talisman drawn on the lotus leaf with cinnabar for moisture protection.
She picked up a jar, scraped off the yellow mud, uncovered the lotus leaves, and brought it to her nose to smell it.
The fragrance of osmanthus blossoms wafted from the mouth of the jar; it was sweet, warm, and had a hint of spicy alcohol.
She held the jar of wine, leaned against the rock, and looked up at the sky. The sky was very blue, as blue as freshly washed silk, without a single cloud.
She closed her eyes, placed the jar of wine on her lap, and wrapped it around her with both hands, as if hugging a warm stove.
The fog at the valley entrance gathered again, but this time it wasn't a fog that blocked the way. It was a light fog, like gauze, floating in the air. It didn't stop people; it just draped the valley in a thin veil.
Bai tide leaned against the rock, her blue robe and cloak soaked with morning dew, but she did not move.
The wine jar rested on her lap, the aroma of osmanthus wine slowly spreading in the mist, like an invisible thread connecting her and Su Wanwan, delicate yet resilient, unbreakable by the wind.
As they reached the foot of the mountain, they heard footsteps behind them.
It wasn't the sound of human footsteps, but that of a four-legged animal, light and fast, like something rushing down the hillside with a reckless, unrestrained energy. The white donkey was the first to hear it, its ears perked up, and it turned around to block Su Wanwan's path, baring its teeth and striking a pose that said, "I'm a donkey, but I'm not to be messed with."
A white wolf came.
It wasn't Qingya. This white wolf was a size smaller than Qingya, and its fur wasn't the grayish-white of Qingya's, but a true, snow-white, so bright it almost shone in the morning light. Its limbs were long and slender, its neck delicate, and its face much more refined than Qingya's. Its eyes weren't gray, but a very pale blue, like light shining through the ice in winter.
It looks small. Not a cub, but a teenager—the kind of teenager who has just left infancy and hasn't fully grown up yet. Its skeleton has already stretched out, but its muscles haven't caught up. It's thin and long, like a bamboo stalk that hasn't fully matured.
It stopped in front of Su Wanwan, its four legs carving two shallow furrows in the gravel road, raising a small cloud of dust. It was panting, its pale blue eyes staring straight at Su Wanwan, its mouth slightly open, its tongue sticking out a little—not from exhaustion, but from tension.
Su Wanwan was puzzled by its gaze: "You are...?"
The white wolf opened its mouth, but no sound came out. It opened its mouth again, but still no sound came out. Its ears twitched back in embarrassment, it lowered its head, and a muffled sound, like a fishbone stuck in its throat, came out of its throat. After several attempts, it finally managed to squeeze out a single word.
"I……"
His voice was very tender, as tender as newly sprouted grass, bending easily in the wind. It wasn't the kind of deliberate attempt to appear young; his voice genuinely hadn't fully developed yet, his vocal cords were thin, and the sound he produced had a unique quality of youthful hoarseness mixed with clarity.
Su Wanwan was stunned. She had seen talking wolves before—Qingya could talk, the Wolf King could talk—but she never expected this little white wolf, which looked like it wasn't even an adult yet, to be able to talk as well.
After hesitating for a long time, the white wolf finally managed to utter a complete sentence: "I want to go with you."
The voice wasn't loud, but each word was spoken with great effort, as if the speaker had practiced those words countless times in their mind, until their lips were calloused, before daring to say them in person.
Su Wanwan didn't react immediately: "What?"
The white wolf took a deep breath, straightened its body, and changed its tail from being tucked between its legs to drooping slightly, and its ears from being pursed up to tilting slightly forward—it tried to make itself look more reliable, but its light blue eyes were clearly filled with unease.
"The king sent me," it said. "The king said... that there is a person outside, and that I should follow her."
It glanced at Su Wanwan, then quickly looked away, focusing on its own paws.
Su Wanwan turned to look at Chu Yang. Chu Yang was also looking at her, and their eyes met in mid-air, exchanging a few unspoken messages.
"The Wolf King wants you to come with us?" Chu Yang asked calmly. "Why?"
The white wolf's ears twitched, as if recalling the wolf king's words. After a few moments, it recited in a memorized tone, "The king said that the wolf clan cannot be locked up forever. Someone has to go out and see what's going on. Whether they can stay depends on whether the fox clan outside is willing."
It paused, its pale blue eyes looking at the ground.
"Wang also said, 'I may not necessarily come back after I get out. But if they don't want me, I shouldn't resent them. Because we were the ones who were locked up first, not the other way around.'"
After he finished speaking, the mountain road fell silent.
Sun Wukong, who had been walking ahead, turned back and squatted down in front of the white wolf, tilting his head to look at it. After a while, he reached out and patted the top of its head. The white wolf stiffened at the touch, but didn't flinch; its ears just twitched nervously.
"The fur is quite soft," Sun Wukong commented.
Tang Sanzang stepped forward, looking at the white wolf with a complex expression that seemed to be both pity and感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection). He clasped his hands together, murmured a Buddhist chant, and then said to Su Wanwan, "Miss Su, this matter... still requires your decision."
Su Wanwan was taken aback: "Why me?"
Tang Sanzang glanced at her but offered no explanation. But Su Wanwan quickly understood—because she was a fox spirit. The feud between the wolf and fox clans was a matter between those two clans. Chu Yang was human, Sun Wukong was a demon immortal, and Tang Sanzang was a monk; they were all outsiders. Only she could make this decision.
She looked at the little white wolf.
The little white wolf was also looking at her.
The pale blue eyes lacked Qingya's composure and the wolf king's profundity, containing only something simple and pure—fear. Not fear of her, but fear of rejection. It feared that after traveling so far and saying so much, it would only receive a "no" in the end.
Su Wanwan thought of herself.
It wasn't that I remembered any specific event, but rather a feeling. That feeling of standing in front of a door, not knowing if the person behind it will let you in. That feeling of holding all your courage in your chest, pushing it out in one breath, and then waiting to be accepted or rejected.
She had the exact same feeling at the entrance of Qiyue Ridge.
She crouched down to be at eye level with the white wolf.
"How old are you?" she asked.
White Wolf thought for a moment: "According to the outside calculation method... it's about fourteen."
Fourteen years old. What was Su Wanwan doing when she was fourteen? Hiding. Hiding from cultivators, hiding from powerful demons, hiding from those who wanted to capture her to work as a gatekeeper for alchemy. When she was fourteen, no one gave her a door; she searched for a very long time before finally finding Qiyue Ridge and Bai Xi.
She reached out and stroked the little white wolf's head. Its fur was indeed very soft, much softer than a white donkey's, like touching a ball of freshly dried cotton.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The white wolf's ears twitched: "I don't have a name. The king said that a name will be given after we leave. Only after we take a name outside will we be considered part of the outside world."
Su Wanwan's hand stopped on its head, and she remained silent for a few moments.
"Then you can come with us for now," she said. "There's no rush about the name."
The white wolf's tail suddenly shot up, high like a flagpole. Then it realized it was too happy and tried to press its tail down, but it couldn't. It kept shooting up and pressing down, pressing down and shooting up, until finally its whole tail was shaking like a spring.
Su Wanwan looked at its unruly tail and couldn't help but laugh.
"You look exactly like I used to be," she said.
The white wolf didn't know when she meant "before," but it understood the kindness in her words. Its eyes lit up, and its pale blue pupils reflected Su Wanwan's face and the five tails behind her swaying gently in the morning breeze.
Chu Yang watched all this without saying a word. Only after Su Wanwan stood up did he ask in a low voice, "Are you sure?"
Su Wanwan nodded: "It's confirmed."
"Let's go then." Chu Yang turned around and continued walking forward. "The road ahead is still long."
The white wolf followed Su Wanwan for a few steps when it suddenly noticed the white donkey staring at it with an extremely unfriendly gaze. The donkey's gaze could be interpreted as, "Another one here to share the fodder." The white wolf felt a little uneasy under its gaze and moved closer to Su Wanwan. The white donkey immediately grunted, nudged the wolf aside with its rump, and took its place to Su Wanwan's left.
The white wolf stumbled a couple of steps from being nudged, and looked at Su Wanwan with a wronged expression.
Su Wanwan sighed helplessly, pushed the white donkey's head away, and waved to the white wolf: "This way."
The white wolf cautiously circled around to Su Wanwan's right, standing between her and the white donkey, like two children vying for her attention. The white donkey was still not entirely satisfied, but at least it stopped nudging her, only occasionally rolling its eyes at the white wolf from behind Su Wanwan.
The white wolf pretended not to see.
Sun Wukong walked at the front, his golden cudgel slung over his shoulder, humming a tune he'd heard somewhere—a tune wildly off-key, but with a cheerful rhythm. Tang Sanzang followed behind, his hands moving his prayer beads, a faint smile playing on his lips. Chu Yang brought up the rear, leading a white horse that carried nothing on its back; the horse's mane, as long as its tail, fluttered in the wind.
The group now has one more wolf than when they arrived.
Su Wanwan walked in the middle, her five tails swaying gently behind her. A white donkey was on her left, and a white wolf on her right. The morning breeze blew down from the hillside, carrying the scent of wild grass and earth, and the aroma of distant cooking smoke—it was breakfast time in Ping'an Market.
She took a deep breath and felt that the air smelled better today than yesterday.
Perhaps it's because I don't have to say goodbye to anyone today. I've already said goodbye to those I needed to say goodbye to, I've already taken what I needed to take, and I'm moving forward now.
The mountain road winds its way out and disappears into the woods ahead. The woods are not dense, and sunlight filters through the leaves, casting patches of light on the ground like scattered gold dust.
The white wolf stood on a patch of sunlight, its paws gleaming. It looked down at its paws, then looked up at the sun overhead, its pale blue eyes narrowing.
It hasn't seen the sun in a long time.
wrong.
It has never seen the sun.
It was born in an underground space, grew up under the warm yellow light stone, knew the name of the sun, knew the color of the sun, and knew the temperature of the sun, but it had never seen it with its own eyes or felt it with its own fur.
It stopped, stood still, tilted its head back, and let the sunlight shine on its face.
The fur was warm and cozy from the sun, and a feeling of laziness, which I had never experienced before, rose from deep within my skin, making me want to lie down and roll around.
Su Wanwan took a few steps and realized the white wolf hadn't followed. Turning back, she saw it standing there, dazed, head tilted back, eyes squinting, mouth slightly open, tongue lolling to one side. The wolf looked as if it had been sunburned. (End of Chapter)