The horse raised its head high and walked slowly under the moonlight.

Chao Yan’s face was pressed against the horse’s neck while lying on the horse’s back. His hands were wrapped around the horse’s neck to prevent himself from falling. He narrowed his eyes. Under the cold moonlight, he looked even paler despite baking beneath the unrelenting sun all afternoon. His bloodless lips were cracked, and the skin flaked off as he was jostled about. One could vaguely see the tender red flesh peeking through the old, like several bloodred vines crisscrossing in some macabre patchwork of skin.

“The world is dark. No matter where you go, it’s the same.”

At this moment, the horse suddenly stopped, its ears twitching nervously.

Chao Yan felt the horse’s unease. A horse would only behave so skittishly when danger lurked around the corner.

He supported himself unsteadily into a seated position, slowly dismounting from the horse’s back. Fortunately, he had the advantage in height, so he did not fall.

He hugged the horse warily, listening to his surroundings. Being blind, he had no choice but to use his other senses to perceive the unseen danger. Still, had he his sight, it would not have mattered much in the inky darkness of night.

A biting wind whistled across the plains, masking a deadly intent.

Few people lived so far out in the open plains where nature reigned supreme. Here, the most likely threats to a person were roving packs of wolves.

“It looks like we may have encountered a hungry pack. It would be best if you left without me,” Chao Yan murmured calmly, devoid of fear.

The horse whinnied uneasily. It snorted and neighed, trying to scare away their would-be assailants. In the quiet of the night, the sound carried further, sounding louder than it should.

Chao Yan comforted it by smoothing its mane. “Thank you for accompanying me on many journeys. I will walk the rest of the way by myself,” he said gently.

The terrified horse settled a little. Its bell-sized eyes stared at Chao Yan as if it knew what he was attempting and showed signs of anxiety.

Chao Yan continued stroking the horse’s mane. It was smooth. Even if he could not see it, his mind had little doubt that he had ridden a horse. He thought it was horse-sense, in a way.

Patting the horse’s neck in farewell, he urged, “Go. Otherwise, when the wolf pack arrives, you won’t be able to run away.”

Although the horse ran fast, it would inevitably become their food when it met a pack of wolves.

Being a wild horse, it had plenty of survival experience. It knew when danger lurked around the corner. It would soon become food for the wolves if it did not leave now.

The horse stared at Chao Yan as if it could not bear to leave him here alone.

Even as it cantered away, it spared Chao Yan a glance, fearing what would become of him as the wolves closed the net.

Chao Yan heard the horse’s hooves fading into the distance and smiled. The only creature that accompanied him to the end had also left.

No. That was not quite right. There was still the pack of wolves encircling him.

Though he could not see, nor could he tell which direction he was walking in, Chao Yan clung to the one belief that remained clear to him. Forward. He would walk forward, not back.

He staggered, exhaustion weighing him down. Under the pale moon, he cut a sorry figure, an ant in a field full of danger.

He moved slowly, unsteady on his feet as if a gentle breeze would blow him over.

Had he travelled far? He could not tell. Would it not be great if the plains ended in sheer cliffs?

He imagined a raging sea or even a small stream.

Why had he chosen a grassland with no beginning or end?

“Baby, this is all your fault. If only you kept your promise and accompanied me for one more day… I would have sent you off and returned to Mount Qi to finish what I started.”

“What is wrong with me that you despise me so much?”

“I changed. I became the person you wanted me to be.”

His words were the siren song signalling the start of the assault. Wolves surrounded him, their dark green eyes staring hungrily at the prey before them. They needed no weapons but their strong bodies and sharp teeth.

Chao Yan stopped. Even if he could not see them, he knew the pack had him surrounded, wolves stalking a tiger. He could feel their endless bloodlust just fine.

“I don’t have much meat on me. It’s not even enough to fill the gaps between your teeth,” He said slowly, moving in small, weary steps. He was not afraid of them.

“I still have poison on me. If I eat it, I might not live past tonight.”

As he spoke, he suddenly laughed.

“My life isn’t something you wolves can take.”

–

7:50 pm

Fu Tingyu held Qin Shu’s hand as they queued up for their tickets. Just then, she received a call from Yin Shi.

“Hello?”

“Miss Qin, has my master contacted you?” Yin Shi could not conceal his anxiety.

Qin Shu shook her head. “No, he blocked me.”

“Master even stopped contacting you…” Yin Shi did not dare consider the implications. He rambled on, seemingly lost in thought, “We were supposed to send you off before returning to Mount Qi to wrap things up there… If Master isn’t with Miss Qin…”

Yin Shi stared up at the inky black sky. He had been searching for his master all afternoon but could not find any trace of him. It was almost eight o’clock in the evening. He could not imagine the state his master was in, not eating or drinking for so long.

That was when he reached an epiphany. His master had sent him away not because he wanted to be alone but because he did not want anyone to follow him or learn where he was going. He wanted to disappear without sparing anyone another word.

How heartless could his master be? He had followed him for so many years… how could he disappear without saying anything?

He was his master’s one and only aide. Master could not have been so heartless as to abandon even him, could he?

Why could Master not let him stay by his side?

Qin Shu listened, feeling somewhat confused. “What do you mean? Where is Chao Yan?”

Qin Shu’s voice snapped Yin Shi out of his minor panic attack, but it also redirected his anger towards her. “Master is going to die! Don’t you know that?” He hissed.

Qin Shu was baffled by the question, “Why is he going to die? Didn’t he treat himself of the poison long ago?”

“Did you honestly believe that the stop-gap would treat him? Gu Yan said that once the poison enters the internal organs, he wouldn’t live more than a year. The antidote was too little too late. Did you think it was some miracle cure?”

Qin Shu was stunned. She had not considered the possibility at all. She had thought the antidote would cure Chao Yan of his poisoning.

She remembered asking Chao Yan if that was the case, and he affirmed her belief.

Had he lied to her?

“Master humbly begged you to accompany him for a few days. Why do you think he did so?”

“You owe my master too much… favours you will never be able to repay in this lifetime.”

Yin Shi hung up on Qin Shu. He gazed into the distance almost as if willing the night sky to divulge its secrets, its knowledge of where Chao Yan could be.

Yin Shi vowed he would not give up until he found his master.

The call was suddenly cut off. Qin Shu was so stunned she did not know how to react. Was Chao Yan going to die?

Fu Tingyu held onto his wife’s hand, reminding her, “Babe, it’s time for us to board the plane.”

Qin Shu looked up at her husband in a daze. She did not even realise that her voice was trembling as she spoke, “Chao Yan is going to die.”

Fu Tingyu asked in confusion, “What happened? Why is he going to die?”

“I don’t know either. He can’t see, and he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going.”

Qin Shu had spent two days camping in the plains. Even if she could not be called an expert, she did know what to expect from the environment. Where could Chao Yan have gone when he could not see a thing?

Fu Tingyu saw his wife’s anxious expression and frowned. “Are you worried about him?”

“I don’t know… I just feel flustered and a little uneasy.”

Qin Shu could not accurately describe what she was feeling. She thought back to the time before she left, and Chao Yan asked if he could hug her like a friend.

She thought about how he suddenly asked her to leave.

She thought of how he seemed so skinny and out of shape.

His last words to her were most concerning: “I won’t appear in front of you again, and I won’t disturb you. A gentleman never goes back on his word.”

She suddenly grabbed Fu Tingyu’s arm and said in an anxious voice, “Hubby, we need to go back and make sure everything is alright.”

Fu Tingyu could tell how anxious his wife was. Deep down, he did not want his wife to be involved with another man. However, he could not bear to see his wife so uneasy, as if she feared something bad would happen.

“I’ll go back with you to take a look. If he’s alright, we’ll leave immediately.”

Qin Shu nodded vigorously. “Okay.”

Fu Tingyu held Qin Shu’s hand and turned to walk out of the airport.

It was already dark outside.

Fu Tingyu hailed a jeep, and the two took off for the sprawling plains.

It was already late into the night when they returned to the rolling fields of Mongolia.

Qin Shu pushed open the jeep’s door and got out. She jogged to the yurt and lifted its flap, entering it in one breath.

She realised that other than the chef, there was no one else inside.

“Yin Shi brought everyone else out to look for someone. They haven’t come back yet.”

Why had they not returned yet?

Qin Shu spun on her heels and stepped out. Fu Tingyu was outside waiting for her. “Yin Shi went to look for Chao Yan. He hasn’t come back yet. Let’s go look for him too,” she said.

“Do you know which direction he went?” Fu Tingyu asked.

Qin Shu shook her head. The plains were too vast. How would she know which direction Chao Yan had gone?

At this moment, she heard the neighing of a horse. She turned around and saw a horse standing on the slope. The small tuft of red on its forehead was eye-catching amidst its coat of white fur.

Moonwalker?

She thought Moonwalker had gone back a long time ago. Moonwalker was a wild horse, so she had not thought it would stay in one place for so long.

Moonwalker trotted over on all fours, stopping before Qin Shu.

Qin Shu looked at Moonwalker in confusion. It lowered its head and bit her sleeve, tugging her.

She could not understand Moonwalker’s actions. “What are you trying to do?”

Fu Tingyu held onto his wife’s hand while observing Moonwalker’s confusing behaviour. “Isn’t this a wild horse? What is it doing?” He asked.

“This is Moonwalker; it’s the horse we rode together in Xijin.”

As Qin Shu spoke, Moonwalker tugged at her sleeve again, pulling her in a certain direction.

“What a coincidence! To think we would meet again under similar circumstances.” Fu Tingyu sized up Moonwalker, feeling that it was somewhat magical.

Qin Shu eyed Moonwalker’s strange behaviour. She knew that Moonwalker was an intelligent horse. Moonwalker couldn’t possibly know where Chao Yan was, could it?

Moonwalker snorted twice.

Qin Shu looked up at the man. “Let’s follow Moonwalker.”

Fu Tingyu nodded in agreement. “Okay.”

Fu Tingyu mounted Moonwalker first. Then, he reached out to Qin Shu and pulled her onto the horse. There was no saddle or reins, so he could only rely on himself.

Once they were seated, Qin Shu patted the horse’s neck, and Moonwalker broke into a gallop.

He ran very fast. Fu Tingyu hugged Qin Shu tightly. The wind whipped past his ears with a hint of coldness.

Moonwalker showed no signs of stopping despite galloping for over an hour.

Qin Shu wrinkled her nose. The smell of blood was strong.

She frowned, a bad premonition overcoming her. “What a strong smell of blood.”

Fu Tingyu also smelled it. He looked ahead and saw a few corpses lying on the ground, illuminated by the scornful moon. Those bodies were probably the source of the stench.

Moonwalker slowed, coming to a halt. Fu Tingyu flipped off the horse’s back and helped Qin Shu off.

The pungent smell of blood was almost overpowering so close to the source. The corpses lying around told a story of an epic battle, one they could only imagine.

It was not Qin Shu’s first time coming into contact with such a gruesome scene. Still, it took all the willpower she could muster to prevent herself from puking. The bloodcurdling smell was so awful that it left her stomach in knots.

Hesitantly, she approached the source of the smell.

It was four in the morning when they stumbled upon this harrowing scene. It was the hour darkest before dawn.

Qin Shu could make out general shapes but nothing concrete. She concluded from the shapes littering the ground that they were all wolves. She saw no sign of Chao Yan.

Fishing out her phone from her pocket, she turned on its flashlight function. With it, she could see more clearly. The dead wolves possessed robust bodies and were probably very strong alive.

However, all of them died horribly. Their legs were shattered, and their heads split open. A few looked like they had had their intestines ripped out.

Her vision suddenly turned dark. Fu Tingyu’s large hand covered his wife’s eyes, preventing her from seeing the worst of it. “Don’t look,” he said.

Fu Tingyu had never allowed his wife to witness such barbarity before, and he was not about to let her see it now. He always covered his wife’s eyes when they came across scenes of carnage like the one before them.

In the past, Qin Shu had not known why Fu Tingyu would behave so protectively, but now that she remembered her past, she knew.

It was an understanding borne of experience.

She had met a pack of wolves and killed many with her dagger, but she was not strong enough, and Han Xiao got bitten.

Warm blood splattered all over her face, scaring her silly.

Ever since then, she felt nauseous when she saw raw meat, red wine, or anything resembling the unmistakable hue of blood.

It had taken her a long time to get over her fear of the colour red.

Although she was a mischievous imp in her youth, she never enjoyed killing.

It was even more so when she trained on Mount Qi.

Her master treated her very well, and her junior brothers did the same.

She never bled in any of the spars on Mount Qi. At most, she suffered minor injuries.

It was probably around that time when Fu Tingyu developed this habit.

She reached out to hold the large hand covering her eyes. It was warm and made her feel safe.

“It’s alright. I’m fine,” she said, “I want to see if there are any clues about Chao Yan.”

Moonwalker brought her here. There was a high chance that Chao Yan was close by.

Besides the wolf’s body, there was no sign of Chao Yan at the scene.

If anything, it worsened the feeling she had in her gut.

Fu Tingyu was a little hesitant. Seeing that she insisted, he moved his hand away.

Qin Shu held her phone and started to look for clues about Chao Yan with the help of the phone’s light.

Fu Tingyu also turned on his phone’s flashlight and helped search for clues.

Just when Qin Shu was about to give up, something caught her eye.

She shuttled over to the object of interest. It was a wolf’s head, but underneath it was a snowy white gauze stained a dark red after being soaked in blood. Only a small corner escaped the fate that met the greater part of it.