Chapter 13

Pei Jin really was the type who could read people like open books. One sentence out of him and Chen Mo was nearly in tears.

"If I come back with nothing to show for it, my future mother-in-law will beat me to death..."

Hearing that, Pei Jin smiled. "No problem. I trust Miss Ling will make sure we find her."

Ling Yu, catching the tail end of it, couldn't quite sit still. So in the end the blame was being steered her way. Right now, though, she only wanted to fill her stomach and think about the next step.

No one spoke during the meal.

However much talking got done, none of it was worth as much as a good rest and some food.

...

After the meal, Ling Yu wiped her mouth. "We don't seem to know much about Xia Town's situation. I was thinking of crossing into the village on the desert side to see what's what."

At that, tension flooded the three of them again.

Chen Mo licked his lips uneasily. "Could my girlfriend really have been dragged off by those things?"

After a silence, Ling Yu told him the truth: "If the desert stone corpses really took her, we have half a month. Past that, your girlfriend's out of chances completely."

The more Chen Mo heard, the more terrifying it got. Half of today was already gone—if they rested tonight, there would be no chance at all.

A mental "hell no" later, he declared he'd go around the clock.

"If you go around the clock, your odds of running into something bad in the desert at night get much bigger. When that happens, you won't just fail to find her—you'll throw your own life in on top of it." Pei Jin warned him.

After that nudge, Chen Mo had nothing more to say.

He decided he had no brain.

Ling Yu leaned over to look at him, about to lecture him a few lines—then, as if something occurred to her, her gaze slid past Pei Jin's shoulder.

Pei Jin saw where her eyes had landed behind him. He sensed something but didn't turn around.

Without a flicker: "Who do you see?"

Ling Yu answered, "Someone's been standing there staring at us eat, ever since we came out of the shop."

Chen Mo sucked in a cold breath. When he'd come over just now he hadn't noticed any strange figure at all—maybe it was just that he was too tired.

He gave a violent cough. "The people from that shop aren't going to make a move on us, are they?"

"Hard to say. Maybe that shop simply can't bear to let Mr. Pei leave?" Ling Yu asked the counter-question without the slightest hurry.

Because the biggest problem in front of them right now was the consequences of having barged into that shop.

But if they simply strode over and hauled the man out...

Pei Jin cut in at once: "Miss Ling, that kind of thinking is dangerous. Acting rashly will only bring the whole street down on us."

Ling Yu, seeing that Pei Jin had already guessed her thoughts, moved her gaze from somewhere far off back onto him, and simply nodded.

The nod meant she wouldn't strike first and wouldn't make a move—she'd see to her own business with patience. The one precondition was that this person not directly interfere with what she was doing.

She had principles.

...

They sat a while longer. The man was still standing there, shifting poses now and then to keep watch—sometimes with a coconut drink in hand, sometimes an ice cream. In any case, never still.

"Why is this man so persistent?" Ling Yu asked, curious.

Pei Jin was getting tired of sitting. He turned to look at the man, and somewhere in the drifting minutes his brows knitted without his noticing. If he wasn't mistaken, he had met this man before.

He remembered that during one of the occasions when the families had come to make trouble, this man had stood at the very back, never stepping forward to shout. Which was exactly why Pei Jin had noticed him—and why he looked so unaccountably familiar now.

He rose abruptly. Ling Yu and Chen Mo stood at the same instant. The three of them, moving without warning, startled the watching man too.

Chen Mo stood because the other two did; the same went for Ling Yu.

She suddenly said, "Mr. Pei—this one's here for you, isn't he?"

Pei Jin didn't answer. He only pushed back his chair and walked toward the man, the other two hurrying after him, afraid of missing anything.

The man, seeing them approach, showed not the slightest guilty urge to leave. He only watched Pei Jin come closer, waiting until the whole group had arrived. Only then did Pei Jin ask: "Uncle. Why are you here?"

"Of course I came for you." The man's voice carried resentment. "I heard you're playing tour guide around here again! What—did what happened back then not teach you a proper lesson..."

Ling Yu stepped up, shielding: "Uncle, there's really just a bit of legend draped over this place. Nothing much to worry about."

The man saw through to who Ling Yu was and only laughed coldly. "Back then my daughter went into the desert following him, and vanished. The tour guide who ranked first in the cursing—that was Gu Weidong. This one ranked second. The two of them were neck and neck."

Vanished?

Ling Yu went a little blank. "Vanished? How does someone vanish?"

The man shot her a glance. "You young people are all nerve and no sense. You see a decent-looking face and go begging for help, without asking what he's done!" His tone had something odd in it.

But at last Ling Yu understood why Pei Jin had been so unwilling to talk. Not that she accepted being called nerve-and-no-sense.

She was reasonably easy to deal with. She managed a smile. "Uncle, no personal attacks. I'm only here to gather material and sketch. And by all accounts Guide Pei isn't bad at his job."

The man's face grew only more contemptuous. Pei Jin, head lowered, finally spoke: "Miss Ling, I can handle this. Why don't you wait over there?"

"I won't." Ling Yu shook her head without hesitation. "Saving someone matters more. And I believe Guide Pei isn't that kind of man. Accidents happen in the desert—who can say? We're all adults. Everyone answers for their own plans, don't they?"

That long stretch of reasoning shut the man's mouth.

Chen Mo was still digesting all this. He'd had no idea Pei Jin carried a past like that, and for a moment he grew more suspicious of what the two of them actually were.

Then he thought: maybe people with that kind of background were exactly the mysterious wandering sort, the kind who traveled the jianghu settling strange odd jobs.

Pei Jin said, "It's all right. I'll handle it."

Ling Yu lowered her voice. "Just an apology?"

Pei Jin said nothing, so she went on, "An apology looks cheap. Apologizing alone, these people will never be satisfied..."

He thought about it and chose to cut her off. "Don't worry. Just wait for me somewhere shady nearby."

Ling Yu shut up at once and gave a small "oh." "Fine. Be careful."

Hearing that, Pei Jin half felt he really was about to get into a fight. In truth, he only meant to have a talk.