Chapter 2: A Silver Hair Crown for You
Just as he was about to cast a spell to immobilize someone, a silver-white figure rose silently from the ground.
Just as Cang Ming was about to retaliate against the boy's sneak attack, one arm wrapped around her waist, and the other supported her knees. The silver-white boy held her and slowly descended to the ground. The wind rose and subsided, and everything happened in a flash.
The ugly mask had already fallen to the ground, bouncing and tumbling. Cang Ming looked up and saw the boy looking down at her face. He stared at her deeply, his blazing gaze as if he could see through her. For a moment, Cang Ming was dazed by the intensity of his gaze. His embrace was as warm as spring, making the late autumn chill seem stark in contrast.
A moment later, Cang Ming struggled to land, complaining loudly, "Thank you for picking me up, but why didn't you remind me that this building has no floor?" The young man said nothing, and slowly walked to the side with his hands behind his back. The building was empty, the hall was vast, and even the sound of words echoed. All he could hear was waves of sound spreading from near to far:
“There’s no floor…”
“There’s no floor…”
Cang Ming: “…”
Antique shelves and a counter were placed in the corner, leaving only four walls, paneled with old brown wood panels. It was even more shabby than the place where Cang Ming had fled. A silver-white figure leisurely walked to the counter and turned to call out to Cang Ming: "Don't you want to come and take a look?"
Cang Ming was stunned and said hurriedly: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not a thief, I came up here to--"
The young man smiled lightly: "If you are not a thief, then why did you come in?"
Cang Ming asked back: "Then what are you doing in here?"
He crossed his arms and said leisurely, "I'm a thief."
"..." Cang Ming looked him up and down, and saw that he felt as comfortable as if he were home after entering the building. He was basically the host and was enjoying it.
He said with a half-smile, "If the girl is not a thief, then she came in just to follow me?"
Cang Ming frowned slightly: "Of course, get out now."
"Aren't you looking for a pearl crown?" The young man walked to the counter, looked for a while, then took something and handed it to Cang Ming.
Cang Ming was leaning over the counter, watching his back. She took it casually and asked, "What is this?" A silver hair crown lay in her palm. The crown was exquisitely crafted, with graceful lines and unique patterns, and the whole thing shone with a silver light like snow. The boy looked down at her and said, "This is for you."
This man was taking someone else's things as a favor, and he was so self-righteous. Cang Ming's eyebrows furrowed again. Then she remembered how he looked when he said he had no home. He was also a pitiful person. She touched the black cloth tied to her ponytail and said gently, "You are young, so forget about the past. Find a good job in the future and don't take other people's things so casually."
"Why, you don't want what I give you?" The young man's face was filled with disappointment, his eyes lowered, his whole body emitting helplessness and sadness, "You also despise me like them..."
"Of course not. How could anyone dislike you?" Somehow, Cang Ming took it and said, "I like it very much. Thank you."
Under his gaze, Cang Ming tied her ponytail with a hair crown. For a moment, Cang Ming thought she saw a subtle smile play at the corner of his mouth, as if a cunning plan had succeeded. But when she looked again, she saw a serious, pitiful and handsome face again. Cang Ming only suspected that he was seeing things.
"I'm sorry, I don't have the pearl crown." He looked down at Cang Ming, as if he felt that it was a pity that he, as a thief, couldn't help her steal the pearl crown. "Want to see something else?"
"No." Cang Ming asked tentatively, "Do you come in often?"
He raised his eyebrows again, as if to say that this was a given: "It's not like I have anywhere else to go."
"..." Considering his pride, Cang Ming looked around with disdain, "Hey, this place is shabby and empty. There's nothing fun to do here. Let's go out."
He walked over to Cang Ming and spread his hands: "It's too high, I can't get out." Cang Ming looked up at the window above his head. It was high up, and there was not even a ladder in the building. The front and back doors were double-locked from the inside and outside. I really don't know how this owner did it.
"Then hold on to me." Cang Yi put one hand around his waist and, without further ado, leaped, carrying him upward. The young man was caught off guard, his entire body stiffening. His hand slowly rested on her shoulder, then released it again. In a moment, they landed in the open space outside the building.
Cang Ming let him go and found that he was looking at him intently. The two were very close, and his eyes were dark and bright. Cang Ming took a step back and said doubtfully: "You won't go in again?"
"Girl, how can I make you believe that I am not a bad person?" The boy asked obediently, looking very sincere, but trying hard to suppress a smile in his eyes.
Cang Ming advised kindly, "Look, I'm not a god who interferes with cause and effect. I can't keep an eye on you forever."
But the boy said: "You can stare at it forever if you want."
Cang Ming continued, "So, if you have taken anything from here, return it and don't go in there again."
"Okay, I'll remember that." The young man smiled slightly, "Then your hair crown..."
Cang Ming was startled and hurriedly tried to take off his hair crown: "I really am not..."
"Your hair crown is not stolen." The boy changed the subject, "I originally left it here."
Cang Ming uttered a doubtful "oh." To preserve the child's pride, she decided to wait until midnight and then sneak into the antique shop to return the hair crown to its shelf. That probably wouldn't be too much trouble.
"Miss, are you new to Fengyan City?" the young man whistled. "Since you like following me so much, how about I show you around?"
"Maybe some other time. Thank you very much." Cang Ming put on his mask again and asked casually, "Isn't the city haunted? I wonder if there is a need for Taoist priests here?"
The young man said calmly, "No shortage."
Cang Ming paused, then asked unwillingly, "Um... have they already divided up all the ghosts? I wonder if they can still give me a share..."
The boy answered nonchalantly, "No."
Cang Ming smiled awkwardly: "Ahaha, a few days ago someone from Fengyan City wrote to me asking me to come catch ghosts. Seriously, maybe I'm too late..."
The young man walked up to her with his hands behind his back, bent down slightly and looked at her and said, "Girl, you are so young, why bother catching ghosts? Why don't I help you find a place to live? You..."
"Thank you for your kindness." Cang Ming raised his hand gently to interrupt him, and smiled appropriately, "I'm used to catching ghosts, thank you so much." After saying that, he turned around, waved goodbye and walked away.
The sky cleared after the rain, and the sunlight shone through her finely crafted robe, embroidered with dark patterns of clouds and ocean waves in matching silk thread. It looked as if her entire body was covered in snow. Behind her, the young man's burning gaze seemed to follow her until she disappeared at the end of the road.
As the experienced young man had said, the city was full of Taoists. After a day of running around, Cang Ming hadn't even landed a single job, let alone the person who had written the letter. As the sky darkened, Cang Ming leaned against the city gate, a leaf in her mouth, watching the boats pass by on the river. Whenever night fell and the lights flickered, Cang Ming felt a sense of desolation and loneliness, wishing only for the night to pass quickly and the sun to rise again. She threw away the leaf, pressed her mask, and slowly stepped onto a tattered wooden boat.
The boatman standing on the deck immediately called out, "Where are you going, my friend? Our boat is comfortable, stable, and well-regarded. We can travel within a hundred miles and back the same day."
Cang Ming took out two pancakes. He rummaged in his purse again and took out a few copper coins, which he handed to him: "Put me wherever this little money reaches you."
The boatman looked up at her and said, "What an ugly mask."
“…”
The boat sailed in the wind, and the wind sailed over the water. The wrecked boat drifted downstream, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone. Cang Ming sat on the edge of the boat, watching the scenery on the shore recede. As he was thinking about that young boy, the bushes suddenly rustled, a restless movement.
A pair of embroidered shoes with blood-red satin and black cloth soles walked out of the bushes by themselves, stepping on the dead branches and leaves, and walked towards the city step by step.
In a flash, Cang Ming had leaped ashore. Though losing the boat fare meant her poverty was tantamount to begging, she resolutely deployed her light-body skills to pursue the enchanting embroidered shoes, determined to accumulate merit and achieve divine enlightenment. The boatman rowed diligently as the dilapidated boat drifted away.
Embroidered Shoes walked slowly, Cang Ming trailing behind them at a distance. In front of the first house, the two Embroidered Shoes stopped. One of them raised its leg and kicked the door twice.
Tap, tap.
"Who is it?" The door creaked open and a big man poked his head out to look. Seeing no one, he closed and locked the door again.
If he had looked down, he would have seen that the two embroidered shoes had already slipped silently into the door.
Cang Ming picked up the fallen leaves at his feet, looked at the movements in the city from afar, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.
After early autumn, it gets dark earlier and earlier. In the open kitchen window, the shadows of the family flicker in the dim candlelight. The large man filled a bowl with rice and handed it to his wife, who was standing beside him. "Bring it here," he called twice, and she slowly turned her head.
With a clang, the rice bowl crashed to the ground, scattering the coarse rice everywhere. The man screamed desperately. The face pressed against his wife's neck was already a dead one. His old father, on the other side, slowly turned his head, and saw another dead face. The man howled and lunged at his two younger brothers, then stumbled back.
The faces of the whole family looked like ghosts.
Suddenly, the wife's dead face, eyes rolled around, hands waved, grabbed something on the table and rushed out: "Bring it here - bring it here -" leaving the big man collapsed on the ground, muttering to himself: "Ghost..." When the young wife ran out, she was wearing the pair of ghostly embroidered shoes on her feet.
Cang Ming raised his hand, and a yellow talisman transformed from a leaf flew across the streets, striking her precisely. The young woman fell to the ground with a cry of "Ah!", her two embroidered shoes falling off, and she scampered away. Cang Ming chased after her, sword drawn, and in his busy schedule, he took the opportunity to throw another handful of leaves: "Wake up!" Several yellow talismans slammed into the faces of several "ghosts," instantly igniting. As each talisman burned, several people's faces burned red, and the souls that had not yet fled were summoned back.
Seeing the ghostly aura of the few people gradually disappear, Cang Ming shouted to the big man in the window: "Hey, get up and take care of it. I have something to do, so I'll run away first..."
The embroidered shoes darted across the rooftops, trampling across the city as they fled. Cang Ming pursued them relentlessly, nearly losing them several times. After many twists and turns, circling back and forth, they finally tracked them back to the riverbank. Wherever the shoes trod, black flames suddenly erupted. In the thousands of homes, no one noticed that the roofs above their heads had turned into a ball of inky flames.
In the blink of an eye, the entire city was engulfed in a sea of flames. The sea of fire opened its countless bloody mouths and began to sing.
"Yang leaves, Yin comes, the door to the ghost world opens..."
"After a great epidemic, there will be a great disaster..."
With a swish, Cang Ming drew his sword, spun around, and raised it to the heavens. A field of execution, like a hexagonal snowflake, suddenly appeared in the sky, wrapped in lightning and frosty shadows, and instantly fell into the city like a meteor trailing. The dark sea of fire screamed and roiled, engulfing the entire city like a tsunami. The magic circle suddenly tightened, and the black smoke finally dissipated like a receding tide. Only the ashes of the embroidered shoes drifted on the wind and rolled into the earth.
"What a terrible song! It's so unpleasant." Cang Ming commented. As he slowly put away his sword, the ashes underground suddenly began to sing with a shrill laugh:
"My parents are dead, and there's no way to call back their souls..."
"Disrespecting teachers and ancestors, digging up graves and robbing tombs..."
A chill ran down her back, and she fell to her knees with a thud, unable to get up. Her heart was pounding wildly, and even her breathing was extremely labored. The shoe demon seemed to have a glimpse into her past, to see through the hidden weaknesses in her heart. The erratic heartbeat and the suffocating feeling in her chest caused Cang Ming to cough violently. Tears and cold sweat mixed together, and she took off her mask and wiped her face carelessly. The unbearable past of ten years ago was revealed without warning by this ballad.
The riverbank suddenly lit up like day. A streak of white light flew across the sky, darting back and forth like a boomerang, instantly extinguishing the wailing sparks on the ground. The light slowly settled in mid-air. Cang Ming looked up and saw a thin, snow-white shadow, as thin as a sheet of paper, stretching and floating, as if breathing. He only suspected that it was a deceptive trick played by the embroidered shoes.
"Get out!" Cang Ming gritted his teeth and growled, supporting himself with one hand, half-kneeling on one knee, and unsheathing his sword. The sword sliced through the night, flew a circle, and returned to its sheath, piercing only a few wisps of autumn wind. There were no more ambushes by the river, and the embroidered shoes had already fled. Only the white paper remained suspended in mid-air, silently facing her.
Cang Ming drew her sword and leaped into the air, soaring above the trees before landing gently on the bank of the flowing river. Amidst the rustling of leaves, she swung her sword diagonally downward, sending a spray of water flying. The water droplets flew behind her like hidden weapons. She put on her mask and walked away without looking back.
From afar, countless drops of water fell on the white paper, breaking it into pieces.
In the moment his mind was shattered, the magic circle within the city had already broken. Only a fragment of the embroidered shoes remained, half a sole, the upper charred, as they hopped away. Following the demonic aura, Cang Ming walked step by step towards the center of the city.
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