Low voices conversed, gazes met. The night remained frozen.
Chu Zhao had already caught up to the old woman carrying the child: “It’s really too dangerous outside. Wait until daybreak to go home.”
“You’re worried about your son—if something happens to you, how heartbroken your son would be,” A’Le also complained angrily.
The old woman wailed in a drawn-out cry: “Even if I die, I want to die together with my son—”
The girl in her arms suddenly began crying too.
Chu Zhao reached out to pat and comfort them: “Don’t cry, don’t cry—”
A’Le scolded: “Quiet, quiet—”
The four pulled and tugged along the alley heading outward. Soon they would exit the alley and disappear into the night—
The frozen gazes in the night suddenly wavered.
“No.”
“Not one person, not even a dog can be let out.”
……
……
Walk faster.
But also walk slower.
Chu Zhao told herself.
The street intersection ahead was almost reached.
“Where are we going?” A’Le asked in a low voice.
Chu Zhao looked at the dark night ahead. In the distance were sounds of fighting, continuous crying.
Behind was a beast’s open maw—but wasn’t the front the same?
“I don’t know either,” she said quietly.
Staying home was death. Running out, perhaps, there was a chance—
Having run out, yet not knowing where to go—how despairing, how questionable. But the old woman holding the child asked not a single question, her footsteps unhesitating, following closely behind this girl.
The child in her arms had stopped crying too.
As if even if she were leading them to the deepest hell, they would step forward with her.
And weren’t they already in hell right now?
“Miss—”
A shout suddenly came from behind.
“Miss, come back quickly. The master has ordered—”
A’Le looked back and saw black shadows emerge from the estate, transforming into two figures, chasing after them.
The voice sounded like worried servants, but looking at their movements, these servants were running really fast.
A’Le clenched her hands. So even this wasn’t enough—
Chu Zhao stopped: “You’ve come at just the right time.”
She said, turning to face the approaching men, standing in the middle of the road, also blocking them from the old woman.
“Help me persuade them—or escort them. It’s too dangerous—”
Seeing Chu Zhao act this way, the approaching servants lowered their hands, using their garments to conceal something, slowing their pace.
“Alright,” they said. If they could bring people back without a fuss, even better.
It wasn’t that they feared killing people—it was to be able to kill more people without alerting the prey.
They lowered their heads, adopting the appearance of docile servants, walking past Chu Zhao.
Just at the moment of passing, short blades slid from the girl’s sleeves. Like a wildcat leaping, two strikes, left and right.
The two servants’ throats were pierced. They twisted violently, pulling knives from beneath their garments, but it was too late. They only had time to turn and look at the girl.
Blood spurting from their throats splattered the girl’s face and body. In the dark night, her pale face and red blood flashed with an eerie light.
With a clang, the knives in their hands fell to the ground, and the two men also collapsed.
……
……
In the darkness, a black shadow on the wall beside the street moved and whistled silently.
“Amazing,” he said, his small eyes widening. “Sister Zhao really is formidable at fighting.”