Ning Yi’s body gave a slight tremble.

With one knee against the cliff, Zhi Wei looks up at him as she thought back to the unfocused expression in his eyes back at the cellar, she remembered the first thing he did was to smell the fire on her, she remembered that he didn’t know she was hurt, she finally remembered the creature he was faced with . Even glancing at the creature out of the corner of her eyes made her teared up, so how could Ning Yi be spared after his standoff with it?

Above her head, Ning Yi has already regained his composure as he says nonchalantly “It’s alright. I know where the creature is from, I know how to fix this, but just can’t do it right now.”

“Hm.” Zhi Wei laughs “Then let me be your eyes now.”

Her voice sounded chipper, carrying with it a sense of carefreeness that’s not usual for her. The simple sentence hits Ning Yi like a fierce wind, shaking him again.

Ning Yi slightly lowers his face, his vision blanketed by an endless field of grayish-white as he “looks” at Zhi Wei. He couldn’t see her face and even if he could, it wouldn’t be real anyway but he can still imagine her expression at that moment nonetheless. Her brows would be slightly raised with eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

This woman…the more dangerous it is, the more of her true color is revealed. She might back off, she might compromise but you will never see her cry or wandering around confused. 

Looking up with some puzzlement when only silence greeted her words, Zhi Wei finally gets an “Alright” from Ning Yi who has already turned his face away. The answer was simple but Zhi Wei could sense that there is some sort of special meaning in the word but from where she is, there is no way to see Ning Yi’s expression.

“Be careful.” Zhi Wei hesitates for a moment then finally reaches out an arm to wrap it around Ning Yi’s knees. She is below him so this was the only way to make sure a blind Ning Yi wouldn’t accidentally fall off the cliff…but then that means she is almost half embracing him with her face pressed against his leg. Zhi Wei turns her face to the side as she reminds herself that this was only for an emergency but the telling hint of red blush on her ears still betrayed her true emotions.

His body gave an involuntary jerk again when he felt Zhi Wei’s arm on his legs, despite the thick fall weather clothing Ning Yi could still feel the warmth of her small delicate face. Her ears must be red by now… transparent and delicate as coral beads. Her delicate porcelain skin is so close…close enough as if he could feel the warmth of her breathing on the back of his knees. Ning Yi feels his legs buckling under as sudden shortness of breath beset him. Jerking out of his trance when his trembling fingers touch the jugged and cold cliff surface, Ning Yi “looked up” at the sky above him. He could not see anything but he could feel the frozen darkness right before the first ray of dawn break through the icy coldness. Taking in a deep breath to focus his mind, Ning Yi carefully moves downward. If he loses his footing again, it would mean losing two lives.

Between trying to find her own foothold in the dark and carefully holding onto Ning Yi’s leg to guide him to a safe spot to put his foot, it didn’t take long before Zhi Wei feels like her world is spinning. Taking a deep breath, a sudden dizziness caused Zhi Wei’s face to fall against Ning Yi’s knee which then made his knee slam against the cliff wall. Ignoring the stabbing pain that came with his knee bloodied against a sharp edge of a rock, Ning Yi bends down and asks nervously “Zhi Wei, what’s wrong?”

The person beneath him just presses her face tightly against the back of his knee without answering. Taken aback, Ning Yi, who is perpetually calm even when he lost his eyesight suddenly felt his heart beating frantically.  Ning Yi reaches down to touch Zhi Wei but was only able to touch her head. Under his fingertips, instead of Zhi Wei’s usual smooth silky hair, Ning Yi finds a mess of singed hair in various length. Guessing right away that Zhi Wei’s time in the fire must have burned quite a bit of her hair, Ning Yi’s hand paused as his mind become even more jumbled. Just as Ning Yi is about to attempt to bend down, the person beneath him suddenly spoke in a muffled voice laced with a trace of laughter in it “I feel odd every time you call my name…” Letting out a sigh of relief, Ning Yi asks again “What happened just now?”

“Nothing.” Zhi Wei moved her face away, her voice already returning to normal “Just a little tired.” Feeling something seems off at the back of his knee, Ning Yi tries to touch what feels like a wet spot but his hand was gently pulled away by Zhi Wei. In a pouting voice, Zhi Wei chides “Keep a tight grip on the rock, why are you touching random things?” Normally he would’ve used this opportunity to tease her but he was in no mood to do so right now. Pulling his hand back silently, Ning Yi increased the speed of his downward climb.

When they have made their way more than halfway down, voices came from the top of the cliff. Pressing tightly against the cliff wall, Ning Yi and Zhi Wei hear someone shouts “Go search! Two of you go down and look around.” Her heart sinks, Zhi Wei quickly accelerates her speed but it was no use. The assassins are from Minnan where they are used to climbing cliffs anyway, plus they were not wounded like they are. In no time, they could see two dark shadows descending down the cliff wall with the agility of monkeys. Pulling out her sword, Zhi Wei pounders how she could kill two men in an instant without alerting those above.  The task seems quite difficult no matter how she thought of it. Moreover, if one escapes then death would be certain for herself and Ning Yi. Above her, Ning Yi suddenly stops and raised his head to “focus” his eyes on the fast descending two assassins. Without warning, Ning Yi says “In my wasite bend, there is my prince stamp and the royal decree for this mission. Before you leave, make sure you find those.” Caught off guard by Ning Yi’s words, Zhi Wei thought “Aren’t you coming with me?” but she could not question Ning Yi because one of the assassins has already reached them.

Before Zhi Wei could thrust her sword forward, Ning Yi’s hand abruptly made a knocking sound on the cliff wall. Due to the darkness, the assassin had not discovered Ning Yi yet but the noise made the man turn his head and spots Ning Yi right away. Reach out a hand towards Ning Yi, the assassin yell with joy “Her…”

Ning Yi grabs the assassin! The moment the assassin had let out the first syllable Ning Yi was able to discern the man’s position and lunged himself at the man. With a mighty push off the cliff wall with both of his feet, Ning Yi plunged past Zhi Wei with the assassin, falling straight towards the cliff bottom!

Zhi Wei only saw a flurry of fabric and dark shadows flying across her head followed immediately by a muffled sound of a thump.

Zhi Wei’s heart turned to ice at the sound only to raise her head to come face to face with the second assassin who was stupefied to discover that his companion had disappeared without warning. Before the assassin could process the situation at hand, Zhi Wei has already shot her sword right into the spot between his brows. Another muffled thump followed.

Biting her lip, Zhi Wei descends the cliff as fast she possibly could. The bottom of the cliff was pitch dark since the protruding cliff top had prevented the light above from reaching down. Groping around blindly in the dark, Zhi Wei calls out in hush voice “Ning Yi…”

Someone from the clifftop calls down “Find anyone yet?!”

Recalling the voice of the assassin who had spoken, Zhi Wei replies with a high sharp and slightly nasal voice “Still searching, it’s really big down here!” Ignoring the distant sounds of cursing from above, an anxious ridden Zhi Wei goes back to her search in the dark. Her hand touches a body with a hole between its eyebrows, pushes it away and goes on searching again. She seems to be transported back to that day in the fire when she had to continuously drag out one charred body after another. Scared yet relieved when one body after another was not his… That feeling was too horrendous, she really hopes that she would not experience it in her life for the third time.

 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

 

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