"It's feasible, this method should be feasible. I'll ask Xiaobai later..." Su Ming'an thought calmly while almost burying his face in the bouquet of flowers, not wanting to show his wavering expression.

"Hey! Child!" came the old lady's voice from behind.

Su Mingan was stunned for a moment and slowly turned around.

Under the dim street lights, he saw a white-haired old lady struggling to shake the handle of her wheelchair and catch up with him.

"Your stuff fell!"

The old lady raised her hand, holding a plastic bag filled with steaming white cake, as if it had just been taken out of the steamer.

...I didn’t bring the white cake, it’s not mine...The next moment, Su Mingan realized that this was just his grandma’s way of making him stay.

The old lady stuffed the white cake into his hand and said, "Take it and eat it tomorrow morning. This place is far from the next town."

He paused for a moment, nodded, took the white cake, turned and left.

He tapped his chest gently with his palm, as if to calm the heartbeat that shouldn't be surging.

He took a bright red Lycoris radiata and pinned it to his sleeve with a pin, as if it had some important function. He also took out the "Xinjian Talisman of Immortality" and hung it around his waist.

Bai Qiu and the gods of Yunshang City remained silent, wondering what he was doing but did not ask.

Before leaving the town, Su Mingan looked back.

He saw the fields, the bluestone well railings, the lights on the eaves turning into amber, the moss marks like ink, the crows’ cries like wind drying. He saw the blue cloth that had been forgotten to be put out to dry was still empty, and a stone millstone was pickled and shining in the moonlight. He saw the wind wrinkling the wheat fields, and the last piece of light was cut into pieces when the wooden window of the old lady’s greenhouse closed.

He heard the sound of wind chimes, a rusty copper wind chime under someone's eaves.

The sound did not seem to go away, but instead gradually spread to the world from behind him.

It was as if something hot could not be suppressed, but was climbing up the ringing sound and escaping into the deeper night.

The cool breeze blew the petals away, and he tied the talisman.

"Let's go," he said.

As if he had made some kind of decision.

…

At the deepest point of the night, Su Mingan arrived at the temple of the Mother Goddess of Light.

(End of this chapter)