Chapter 12

Pei Jin leaned back against the wall at his ease. He hadn't said a single word the whole time, only listening quietly as the two of them talked.

Partly he was letting his thoughts settle; partly he wanted to work out what the situation actually was now—and who that woman was?

He had no memory of the woman at all. When the families had died in that disaster years ago, it was as if she hadn't existed.

He still couldn't help wondering who she was.

Ling Yu only gave a soft "oh." She gathered that none of this had anything to do with her—perhaps because they had come out of the desert later than the others.

With that thought, she asked, "Then how did you know Mr. Pei's number?"
Chen Mo answered, "I heard it while you two were talking just now, and something felt off, so I called Mr. Pei."

His answer sounded perfectly reasonable, and decisive.

Then he paused before adding, "Though those people were strange too. The moment that kid mentioned 'Sunbearer,' something changed in them."

"Sunbearer?" Pei Jin suddenly repeated the word.

Chen Mo nodded quickly. He kept rubbing his cheek, clearly wishing he could run to the shop next door, buy a popsicle, and press it against his punched-raw face.

Ling Yu had never heard any account of the Sunbearer before. Her notebook held no complete entry on it either—it was essentially a new piece of the record.

"The Sunbearer and the sundial are strongly connected. But I've only heard it said that, in the strange stories from those years, the Sunbearer was the one who saved people."

"Oh? So you're saying this Sunbearer has something to do with me?" Ling Yu didn't beat around the bush; she pointed straight at herself.

The other two shook their heads. They couldn't say whether any of it was true—for all anyone knew right now, it could be any one of them.

The three of them standing at the edge of the street were rather conspicuous. Ling Yu suddenly coughed several times. Her scuffle with the man and the woman inside had cost her more strength than she'd expected, and she was tired now.

She wondered whether they could sit down at a stall nearby and talk while they ate.

Pei Jin said, "Good." He knew this area, so he quickly arranged a place to eat. There wasn't much food nearby—but fortunately, there was seafood, which Ling Yu couldn't stand.

...

Once they'd picked a small stall and sat down, the owner came over to take their order, one dish each. After Chen Mo ordered, he went off to a shop nearby, bought an ice pack, and started pressing it to his own face.

Ling Yu was still turning over what the woman had said—turning it over in the way one turns over the matter of Pei Jin. Pre-dinner thinking, essentially.

She considered, then asked, "Mr. Pei, do you still plan to go back?"

Pei Jin had just come back from the stall owner's crates with a few bottles of drinks for the table. Hearing the question, he first opened one of the bottles before answering: "If Miss Ling wants me to go back, I'll go back. If you'd rather I didn't, then I won't."

He took a swig. The orange juice in the bottle was already more than half gone; the earlier confrontation had kept him tense for a stretch, and left him parched now.

Ling Yu smiled. "I was thinking it might not be bad if you didn't. Honestly... I really do want to know what kind of person you are."

She took a sip of her own drink, and Pei Jin said, half joking, "From what I know, anyone who wants to get to know someone is thinking about coming along with—"

"I know exactly what you're imagining, Mr. Pei. I only want to know whether you're a danger on the road I'm taking." She guessed his thought at once and simply shook her head.

She was only wondering what charm Pei Jin had, that so many people thought of him—or whether he had done something, back then, that had gone wrong.

Those two possibilities. That was all she came up with.

Pei Jin glanced at Chen Mo not far away, and surfaced from his distraction:
"Do you really want to know these things?"

Ling Yu nodded, then shook her head, caught squarely between the two.

She wouldn't deny, and wouldn't confirm, whether what she'd just said had changed after what had happened earlier.

Pei Jin said, "Then what do I gain by telling you? And what do I lose? I naturally understand your worries, Miss Ling. But on the professional side of things, you needn't worry. As long as you trust me, I won't let you come to harm."

His tone carried an extra measure of helplessness, and at the end he slumped back into his chair and looked at her. She could see something unnameable and raw in his eyes.

It wasn't the first time she had seen that expression on Pei Jin's face.

"Sorry. I'll drop it." She quickly chose to end the subject, then raised her bottle and clinked it lightly against his. "Mr. Pei—do you know who, or what, is in that big village at the far end of the desert?"

"The far end?" He thought for a moment.
Then he shook his head quickly. "I honestly don't know much about that. All they say is that the land back there is a little cursed."

Cursed?
That man inside had also singled out the word "cursed." But no one seemed to know exactly where that place was. She felt a wave of gloom and finally just slumped onto the table.

Seeing her low, Pei Jin told her not to worry about it for now—surely "the road will bend before the mountain blocks it."

Listening to him, he really did have a bit of learning in him.
What Ling Yu worried about, though, was whether these fifteen days would turn anything up at all. If they didn't—Chen Mo's girlfriend really would be done for.

"Hello—your order."
Right then the owner came over quickly, carrying three dishes.

The moment the food landed on the table, Ling Yu grabbed the disposable chopsticks without ceremony and started eating.

"That fight with those people really took it out of me. All that breath wasted and who knows when we'll get a real result. Should've skipped the arguing altogether."

She meant every word. Arguing turned out to be even more exhausting than she'd imagined. She hoped she'd never have to argue with anyone again for the rest of her life.

Pei Jin didn't interrupt her, just watched her quietly, offering the occasional nod of agreement.

Chen Mo came back over quickly, grinning: "I just asked the people selling things over there. They say it's pretty wild behind that village behind—apparently strange people keep showing up in the desert."

Ling Yu listened while she ate, making no move to respond to any of it. Perhaps the strange figures they'd seen were desert stone corpses.

When he got no reaction from either of them, Chen Mo immediately guessed the two of them already knew all this—probably had it all investigated long ago—so nothing he said would help.

He was only thinking about his girlfriend and what state she might be in now. He didn't know where she was, only the last place she'd vanished.

The desert had so many strange corners to it. If he couldn't find her, what was he supposed to do?

"Stop chewing on all that for now. Eat first. In a bit we'll go see if other places have their own version of things." Pei Jin handed him the chopsticks. "Spiraling on an empty stomach won't get you a plan."