Chapter 263

Chapter 263: 256: Her Xingxing is here (second update) Chapter 263: 256: Her Xingxing is here (second update) Wen Changling turned around, Jiang Chengxue got out of the car, holding an umbrella, and walked towards her step by step. The wind rushed towards her, and in the white snow, he resembled the Evil Spirit of the Night.

He walked up to Wen Changling and handed her the umbrella.

“The blizzard is coming.”

Wen Changling instinctively pushed away, and both the umbrella and her cell phone dropped to the ground.

It was silent all around, with no one speaking; Fu Ying’s voice came from the phone: “Changling.”

Wen Changling did not respond.

“Changling?”

Fu Ying asked, “Can you hear me speaking?”

Wen Changling picked up the phone and ended the call, her gaze fixed on Jiang Chengxue: “Who is Potter?”

Jiang Chengxue picked up the umbrella: “Potter is a dog. You forgot, I am a veterinarian.”

His deep-set eyes made it difficult to see through him; looking at him was like looking at a waning moon obscured by heavy snow in the distance. In Eastern mythology, a waning moon is inauspicious.

He lifted the umbrella higher, took a step forward, and brought Wen Changling under his umbrella: “Come back to the car.”

Wen Changling stepped back.

Xue Boyong, Dai Qiu—they were all Jiang Chengxue’s people. Was the euthanized Potter really a dog? Wen Changling felt an intense sense of unease. Just then, her cell phone suddenly vibrated, its sound strikingly abrupt and eerie in the snow-filled night.

“I won’t be going down the mountain,” said Wen Changling, pointing to a hotel in the distance, “I’ll go there.”

She turned and walked into the heavy snow. She couldn’t stay in the same space as them any longer; she would suffocate.

She answered the phone: “Yueyue.”

“Did something just happen?”

“Nothing.”

Dai Qiu called from behind: “Director Wen.”

Wen Changling didn’t turn back.

“Director Wen!”

Dai Qiu had just rushed out when he heard a voice under the umbrella, a soft whisper like a demon luring its prey: “Let her be, she has legs, we can’t stop her from escaping.”

The retreating figure in his field of view got smaller and smaller until it became a black dot.

Jiang Chengxue sighed helplessly: “Should have taken the umbrella, how will you cope being drenched in such heavy snow?”

The snow fell heavier, marking the arrival of the blizzard.

There was a resort hotel on the mountain, at least a two-hour walk from where Wen Changling started. She walked for less than an hour, her feet starting to feel heavy, her shoes soaking wet, each step like stepping on ice blades.

The temperature was too low, the road sloped, and her breathing became heavier and more painful. The silence was so profound that even someone unafraid of death like her felt terrified.

Xie Shang’s call came just in time.

“Xie Shang.”

Wen Changling called out just once, and Xie Shang heard it.

“What’s wrong?”

His voice immediately dispelled all of Wen Changling’s unease.

She sniffed, tucking her hand and phone inside her sleeve, her head down and her hat nearly covering her eyes, complaining:

“Linbei is so cold.”

Xie Shang heard the wind: “Are you outside?”

She was dishonest: “No.”

“I can tell.”

Wen Changling instinctively covered the mouthpiece.

Xie Shang said: “Send me your location.”

She changed the subject: “Is it snowing in the capital?” He was in the capital, so sending her location was useless.

“Changling, send me your location.”

He was so bothersome.

Wen Changling took out her hands and phone from her sleeves, her fingers stiff with cold, and clumsily shared her location with Xie Shang. The battery life of her phone was perilously low, but she needed Xie Shang’s voice so much that she continued the earlier conversation, “Is it snowing in the capital?”

“No, it should snow tomorrow.”

She gave a hum, her steps unconsciously slowing down, “It seems like there really will be a once-in-a-century blizzard this year, so many places are getting heavy snow.”

Xie Shang asked, “Do you like snow?”

“I don’t,” Wen Changling said. “I like the warmth of spring and the blooming flowers.”

“Then you should settle down in Fragrant City.”

Flower Capital Fragrant City was Wen Changling’s hometown, where winters were not cold at all, spring and summer lasted long, autumn was filled with fresh flowers, and there was tea in all four seasons.

“I will go back, sooner or later I have to return to my hometown.”

When she would die, she wanted her soul to return to her homeland, to be beside her mother and Ah Na.

She was alone, but under the interlaced street lamps, there was more than one shadow on the ground. She didn’t want to walk alone at night; she needed Xie Shang’s company, that’s why she talked so much, always looking for something to say.

“Xie Shang, I’ve never heard you sing. Sing a song for me.”

“My singing isn’t pleasant to hear.”

That can’t be, Xie Shang played the guqin so beautifully.

Wen Changling felt he must be modest, “I want to listen.”

“I don’t know many songs.”

She suggested the simplest one: “Little Star.”

Xie Shang had said that the first piece he learned on the guqin was ‘Little Star’.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before a very low voice slowly sang, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle, little star...”

Xie Shang wasn’t being modest.

Wen Changling pursed her lips and smiled, “Besides using chopsticks and drinking alcohol, I’ve found another thing you’re not good at.” As the thought struck her, she asked, “Star, can you dance?”

“I can’t.”

“Can you photograph?”

“A little,” Xie Shang said, “But I’m not skilled.”

She had so many questions, “Can you write code?”

Xie Shang sounded helpless, “Changling, I’m just an ordinary person, there’s so much I can’t do.”

That’s not true.

To Wen Changling, Xie Shang seemed capable of everything.

She was tired from walking, stopped, and looked up at the sky. Snowflakes fell into her eyes, very cool. “I can’t see any stars tonight.” She glanced at her phone as its back grew warm, “My phone is about to die.”

“Just wait a while longer, you’ll see—”

Xie Shang didn’t finish his sentence when the phone automatically shut down, and then it became very quiet all at once. Were all animals hibernating in winter? Not a single sound was heard in the woods.

Wen Changling continued onward. It shouldn’t be far now; she could see half of the hotel, but it might also be very far, considering how the mountain roads twisted and turned.

The sound of her footsteps on the snowy ground was crisp, pure white noise. During the blizzard, on the long uphill road with no end in sight, there was only Wen Changling and countless lampposts. The snow soaked through her clothes, she was so very cold.

She walked for a very long time, and then a gust of wind blew, causing her to sway. She stopped, unable to go on.

A beam of light, different from the lamp’s color, stretched from afar to her feet. In the wild mountains, her first reaction was caution, the light at her feet growing brighter.

She turned around, facing the light, squinting her eyes, as she looked through her fingers at the “unwelcome guest” of the night.

“Changling.”

Before the phone shut down, the words Xie Shang hadn’t finished were: Just wait a little longer, you’ll see the stars.