บท 31: Mirror mirror
It was almost two hours before midnight. The rain poured down on the wind master's body but he still continued to shout for his disciple's name in the market. "Hu Zi!"
"Ah, if it isn't Master Shou." An old man inside a music box shop looked through the window. He saw Shou jump from one roof to another. "Agile as always, is he not?"
"Ehehe… of course, that is Master Shou for you." The old lady who was his wife added. "He is looking for the Hu Third Miss in the middle of the night again. I wonder what mischief he started this time."
"They are playing chase again? Both of them are so young and vibrant." The old man chuckled.
"They remind me of the two of us when we were young." The old lady also chuckled.
The white-haired old man was using a wooden stick to support his hunched body. Even though he was already in his late years, he still had a magnanimous aura and keen eyes. The old lady also had a hunched body but did not need a stick to support herself. Her face might be full of wrinkles but from her smile, you could imagine just how beautiful she was in her youth.
The old couple continued to reminisce their younger days. Then suddenly, the old lady stopped and told the old man, "Okay, okay, enough joking around. Dear, there is a customer to serve."
Right after the old lady said that, a woman with a black raincoat covering her entire body came in. The woman had a very beautiful, curvy body. The skin on her hands was ivory white. She used one of her beautiful hands to lift her hood and reveal her stunning face.
A bit of her hair was wet and half of her face was obscured by the shadows but her cherry red lips were appealing enough to make any head turn.
"Ah yes, and a very important customer at that." The old man did not need to see her face clearly to know who she was. Slowly, both of them bowed to her.
"Welcome." They spoke in union.
The beautiful woman's lip curved up.
-----
"Agh… She is not here either."
Almost everyone in town was accustomed to Shou's weirdness by now, so they weren't really shocked to hear him shouting Hu Zi's name in the market. Instead, some even helped him by relaying where they last saw her, but Hu Zi was faster and they did not manage to catch her. Some of the civilians also help her hide and refused to give Shou her location. There are tons of inn in this capital city and it was almost impossible to inspect all of them to the last bit.
Shou sat on a bench behind the restaurant Hu Zi visited earlier. In front of him was a small lake with a beautiful view.
The rain just stopped and the air was still cool, but it was not intolerable for Shou. His tired eyes looked up to the sky, then down to the beautiful lake surface.
The light from the shops fell on the lake surface and made it glitter like the stars.
"Stars… Xiao Zi is like a star too. She is small but high up and unreachable." Shou told himself. "I can't catch up with her nowadays, ah! Where is she?"
Shou blatantly stood up and stared at the lake surface, at his own reflection.
He already checked the Hu household but Hu Zi hadn't come home yet. She probably went and slept somewhere else. Since she was strong now, she managed to get her parents' permission to sleep outside whether it was for camping or simply sleeping in a nice inn.
"Mirror mirror on the lake surface, tell me where Xiao Zi is." Shou wished. Of course, the lake surface did not answer him. "Great, I think I'm finally going crazy."
Actually, Shou could just wait until Hu Zi calmed down and went back to the Hu residence to apologize to her like how he did each time they fought, but he felt uneasy. He wondered if it was because of what had happened a few hours ago with that assassin. He doubted any assassin could easily defeat Hu Zi but still…
Shou's face was a bit pale from exhaustion. He moved his hand to his face and felt the cool feeling on the tip of his long fingers. Just then, the rain went on again and fell to the lake, making the surface rupture and his reflection waver and disappear.
When he saw this, Shou suddenly tensed up. A flash of a memory came at him. He furrowed his eyebrows and scratched the skin on his right cheek. "Tch!" He suddenly clicked his tongue in anger. He looked at the night sky again and said. "It was on a night just like this that I met that red demon."
The moon shone from the cracks between the black cloud. Shou clenched his left fist. "It feels like that nightmare happened just yesterday," he added.
"What nightmare?" A deep male voice spoke.
Shou's eyes widened, and he whipped his head toward the sound. It was a man in a black raincloak that had asked him. Surprisingly, Shou had not sensed the man coming. It might be because he had expended so much of his energy.
Shou jumped back to create some distance, putting his guard up. He could not use too much wind since he had very little energy left, but he could still use his martial arts.
Shou did not say anything; questions were unnecessary as he could sense the strong aura of that man even from the distance.
Shou immediately charged forward and swung his fist.
The black cloaked man seemed to have been expecting Shou to do that, as he dodged.
When he saw the black cloaked man dodging his punch, Shou swiftly turned and kicked the man right in the stomach.
"Kuhh!" The black cloaked man jumped back so that the force from Shou's kick wouldn't destroy his inner organs. The black cloaked man looked his opponent right in the eyes then could not help but shiver.
-----
"Where did that idiot Master go now, I wonder?" Hu Zi finally calmed down and was ready to accept Shou's apology. She was sitting on a hotel roof far away from the lake where Shou was.
The capital city's market was fast and the rain made it hard for Hu Zi to use her winds in an attempt to search for her Master's where about.
The rain poured on her body, making the curves that were hidden under her purple garment a bit visible. Hu Zi used a bit of wind so she would not get too wet. She could just go to a tavern or inn and drink a warm cup of tea while she used her short distance radar to search for Shou. "A warm tea sounds nice but…"
Hu Zi felt like she should wait there on the roof instead of going in. She didn't know why but her heartfelt strange tonight, and this unfamiliar feeling made her unable to calm down. She wanted to feel her Master's presence right away. She wanted to touch his face and trace his lips so she could imagine what kind of smile he had.
Hu Zi could trace someone's face with just her wind, but not her Master's. She could never get a clear image of her Master's face no matter how good her wind skills were. She wondered why.
"It feels like he is wearing some kind of invincible mask." Hu Zi hugged her knees. "If he does wear a mask, I wonder what kind of face he has hidden beneath."
-----
Shou was staring coldly at the black cloaked man. The air around him could make the water frost over and any man or woman stop breathing.
"It seems that I woke the sleeping white demon." The black cloaked man gulped.
Shou was glad that Hu Zi was not here. Part of it was because he wanted Hu Zi to be safe, another being that he did not want her to see him like this.
Shou took a deep breath and tried to regain his energy as fast as he could. He did not manage to regain much but he calculated that his martial art skills could help him in this fight.
Shou closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, then opened them again.
The light shone on his long eyelashes and created a shadow over his eyes. The illusion from that shadow made his eyes look as blue as the day sky.
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