They’d fought, they’d shouted; now, looking at her good friend covering her face and hanging her head like a pitiful little dog who’d done something wrong, Shen Mangge found her anger melting away before she realized it.
“…Does it hurt?” Her fingertips trembled as she asked, guilt lacing her voice.
She’d truly lost her temper just now and used her full strength— the numbness in her palm said as much.
Seeing the clear handprint on Mingming’s face, she knew it must hurt even more.
Of course it hurt.
Jiang Mingxi looked at Shen Mangge— still so lively, still standing before her full of fire— and she wanted to laugh, to laugh out loud.
The wound on her cheek throbbed with pain, yet her smile only grew brighter.
“What are you laughing at! Getting smacked and you’re still smiling, are you crazy or what!”
Shen Mangge grumbled, but the corners of her mouth curled up too, her eyes filling with radiant joy, as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun.
She thought, it was always like this.
As long as she was by Mingming’s side, she couldn’t help but smile.
After she’d been ruined by that beast Zhang Nan, she’d been in utter despair, wanting only to die.
It was Mingming, like a solid wall behind her, who’d forced her to keep living.
As long as Mingming was there, nothing in this world could break her.
Her parents had given her flesh and blood, but Mingming—Mingming was the backbone that kept her standing tall.
Shen Mangge wiped away the tears at the corner of her eyes with a smile, then turned to fetch a bundle from behind the coffin and handed it to Jiang Mingxi. “Here, take this.”
The bundle was a bit heavy in her hands. Jiang Mingxi asked, “What is it?”
Shen Mangge said, “Things I managed to scrounge up from the Zhang Family these past few days. You’re almost out of money, aren’t you?”
Jiang Mingxi suddenly understood— no wonder the guards around the Spirit Hall were so lax!
“You knew I’d come looking for you?” So she’d sent the others away ahead of time.
Shen Mangge rolled her eyes and shot back, “Could you really let me go that easily?”
Of course… she couldn’t.
In her previous life, Jiang Mingxi had doted on Shen Mangge like a younger sister.
After her Rebirth, Shen Mangge was almost like her own daughter in her eyes.
Just thinking of that small figure, pregnant and alone in the Zhang Family, not knowing how much more she’d have to endure, Jiang Mingxi’s heart twisted with pain.
“These days, are you alright?”
“How have you been these past few days?”
Their voices overlapped, and they shared a smile.
Then, leaning against the cold coffin, they sat down shoulder to shoulder— just like when they were young, whispering secrets under the covers, close and inseparable.
So, Shen Mangge learned that her friend had been disguising herself as a man, wandering the world, and even played tricks on the Xianbing Captain.
Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she listened.
And Jiang Mingxi learned that Shen Mangge was doing quite well in the Zhang Family.
Though the Old Madam hated her Dowry Maid for killing her son, for the sake of the child she carried, she hadn’t made things too difficult.
As for all the grievances hidden behind Shen Mangge’s offhand “I’m fine,” and the life-and-death dangers behind Jiang Mingxi’s “interesting stories,” neither mentioned their hardships.
They only spoke of happy things.
They talked for a long time— so long that Gao Mingling burst into the Spirit Hall with a blast of cold wind, “The Main Courtyard’s in chaos, we have to go!”
Without pausing, he rushed to Zhang Nan’s Coffin, lifted the lid with force, and a wave of foul stench rolled out.
Zhang Nan’s body was already half-rotten.
Gao Mingling, holding his breath in disgust, drew the dagger from his belt.
With a flash of cold light, he stabbed the corpse in the chest, twisted his wrist, and dug out a chunk of dark, bloody flesh, dropping it into a Wooden Box he’d prepared.
The coffin lid was closed again.
Holding the death-reeking box, his face still cold and fierce, he turned and unexpectedly met a pair of calm, water-like eyes.
Jiang Mingchuan was tightly covering Miss Shen’s eyes, silently meeting his gaze.
Miss Shen obediently nestled in his arms, motionless, only complaining, “What are you up to now?”
Jiang Mingxi said, “Don’t look, or you’ll have nightmares.”
Gao Mingling managed a strained smile, “Didn’t scare you, did I?”
He wanted to explain, but felt there was no need.
After all, they were just passing acquaintances; what Jiang Mingchuan thought of him didn’t matter.
Jiang Mingxi asked curiously, “Why not take the heart?”
That question caught Gao Mingling off guard.
He stumbled over his words for once. “The breastbone… too hard.”
Jiang Mingxi flipped her wrist, and a similarly gleaming dagger appeared in her palm. She asked seriously, “Need help?”
Gao Mingling’s eyes widened, as if seeing her truly for the first time, filled with surprise and scrutiny.
Jiang Mingxi looked back at him, equally confused.
Gao Mingling raised an eyebrow and put on a fierce face. “I’m going to eat Zhang Nan’s heart as a drinking snack.”
“Oh.” Jiang Mingxi let go of Shen Mangge’s eyes, her gaze sweeping toward the growing fire and chaos outside the window. She said regretfully, “What a shame. I was hoping to rob the Zhang Family’s treasury while I was at it.”
Gao Mingling couldn’t keep up the fierce act any longer and burst out laughing. “You’re really something else.”
Jiang Mingxi looked at Shen Mangge, but before she could speak, Shen Mangge cut her off, “Go, quickly!” She gave her a hard push. “The farther you go, the better.”
“You…”
Shen Mangge interrupted again, “You have to write to me!”
Jiang Mingxi’s eyes curved with a gentle smile, as soft and clear as moonlight over a river. “Alright.”
Gao Mingling looked away, scratching his flushed cheek awkwardly.
He didn’t know why, but seeing Jiang Mingchuan’s smile made his heart beat faster, and his cheeks heat up.
Was it from running too hard just now?
From outside came hurried footsteps, drawing closer.
Someone shouted, “There’s a thief!”
There was no time to linger.
Gao Mingling grabbed Jiang Mingxi’s wrist with a grip like iron, almost dragging her toward the window. “Go!”
Jiang Mingxi stumbled a few steps, but still looked back, catching Shen Mangge’s smiling eyes. “I’m really leaving, then?”
“Hurry up and go.” Shen Mangge waved hard, smiling as she urged her.
She kept smiling, kept smiling, until those two black shadows vanished out the window.
“Click.”
The moment the window closed, Shen Mangge’s forced smile finally collapsed, and hot tears flooded down.
“From here, the mountains are high and the river is long…”
Shen Mangge slowly knelt, turning her back to the massive coffin and the pale Shroud Banner, bowing deeply in the direction her dearest friend had gone.
With hands cupped, she performed the most solemn Ancient Salute.
“I wish you…”
There was so much she wanted to say.
She wanted to wish her, to ride the winds and waves and cross the vast seas.
She wanted to wish her, to soar like a great roc straight to the blue heavens.
She wanted to wish her, to never worry about the road ahead, for she would always have a Friend.
So many blessings to give, but in the end, Shen Mangge spoke only one.
“Blessing of Safe Journey.”
If there truly were gods in this world, she asked for only this one wish—to let her elder sister, her dearest friend, be safe and well, even if… they never met again in this life.
“Bang!” The door was violently kicked open.
“Madam, are you alright?” The burly Head of the Guards burst in with his men, their faces anxious as they surrounded her, worried she might have done something foolish.
He was deeply shaken, then somewhat moved. Who would have thought this New Madam felt so deeply for the Master?
Of everyone in the house, only this New Madam, forced to marry in, was crying so truly and sorrowfully for him.
“Woof woof woof—”
Suddenly, fierce barking echoed from afar, slicing through the chaotic night.
The burly man’s face changed, and he shouted, “After them! Don’t let them get away!”
……
Gao Mingling gripped Jiang Mingxi’s wrist tightly, almost dragging her as they ran for their lives.
The cold night wind slashed their faces like knives, whipping their clothes so they snapped and fluttered.
Behind them came the crazed barking of dogs, pounding footsteps, and harsh shouts.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Bullets, hot with the scent of death, whistled past their ears, slamming into walls and ground ahead, kicking up shards of stone and sparks.
If they weren’t careful, they’d lose their lives here tonight.
Even in this mad, life-or-death flight, Gao Mingling couldn’t help but glance back at the person he was dragging along.
Behind the black cloth mask, only a pair of eyes showed, with tears streaming down.
But beneath those tears, a wild, almost crazed light burned— so bright it was blinding.
—He was crying, and laughing too.
A strange resonance struck Gao Mingling’s heart in that instant.
He was certain that, right now, somewhere deep in both their souls, the same shock was ringing out.
They were tearing through a heavy, dark past. If they could just break through this final cage, what awaited them— would be a new life as vast as the sky and sea!
“I cut off the flesh!” Gao Mingling roared into the howling wind, his voice torn to shreds, “Not to eat it!”
“I know!”
Through the black cloth mask, Jiang Mingchuan’s voice was muffled, mixed with panting and a hoarseness from crying, but it rang out clear as day.
Gao Mingling locked his blazing gaze on her, asking solemnly, “Then why do you think I did it?”
He’d risked his life sneaking into the Zhang Family, taken no gold or silver, only a hunk of rotten flesh.
To others, it was the foolishness of a Yin-Yang Ritual, but— could she understand?
“I don’t know.” Jiang Mingxi panted, her voice broken.
Gao Mingling’s eyes dimmed, his mouth curving in self-mockery, not sure if he felt disappointed or relieved.
He turned away, thinking, as expected… even he didn’t truly understand.
But then, Jiang Mingxi’s voice rang out again, the young voice hoarse but clear, cutting through wind and gunfire.
“I only know! If Shen Mangge died, I’d dig out my enemy’s heart too, and offer it at her grave.”
—She understood!
Gao Mingling’s pupils widened, his face going blank for a moment.
It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. He stared in shock for several seconds, then spun around to fix his gaze on Jiang Mingchuan behind him.
Time seemed to stretch and freeze in that instant.
Gao Mingling could see the sweat sliding down Jiang Mingchuan’s brow, his long lashes wet with tears and trembling.
In those eyes, a fire burned— the same unyielding, boiling anger as his own.
Gao Mingling suddenly began to tremble.
Through those burning eyes, he felt as if he was seeing himself.
He had stormed into the Zhang Family, braving a hail of bullets, just to cut out a piece of his enemy’s flesh for his benefactor’s memorial.
He knew those so-called “friends” laughed at him behind his back.
He also knew Jiang Mingchuan would never laugh at him.
Because they both disregarded life and death, choosing to do the “foolish” things others found not worth the cost.
That’s just the kind of people they were.
The moon was hazy, the wind howled.
Dogs barked madly, gunfire rang out without end.
In this endless chase beneath the shadow of death, Gao Mingling suddenly shut his eyes, a pent-up frustration bursting out of his chest as a wild, unrestrained laugh.
So, there really was another fool like him in this world.
Gao Mingling gripped Jiang Mingchuan’s hand tightly, a strange thought springing up— his hand was so warm, even though he always looked so cold.
He raised his head, facing the wind reeking of gunpowder, and, pulling Jiang Mingchuan along, ran forward with all his might, calling out with exuberant delight, “I have a feeling—we’ll be friends for life!!”
Jiang Mingxi looked at him, baffled, not knowing what madness he was on about now.
But the benefits of being Gao Mingling’s friend were obvious.
In her previous life, there was a line in the newspaper describing Gao Mingling:
“Gao Mingling is a man of his word, who treats life and death lightly, and possesses the spirit of an Ancient Chivalrous Hero.”
Though he mingled with the gangs, Gao Mingling was a man of true loyalty, willing to risk everything for a Friend.
That was why he’d had so many friends in his previous life, always surrounded by people wherever he went.
But to the then Mingming, it seemed Gao Mingling never had any true close friends— only a crowd of drinking companions.
Now, the legendary Ancient Chivalrous Hero let go of Jiang Mingxi’s hand and turned off in another direction, tossing back, “I’ll come find you.”
Jiang Mingxi was not surprised; it was what they’d agreed on— if discovered, they’d split up and escape separately.
In fact, they should have split earlier; she’d only wondered why Gao Mingling had kept dragging her along.
Without hesitation, Jiang Mingxi dashed toward the familiar Old Pagoda Tree in the corner of the courtyard, scaling its thick branches in a few swift moves.
She pushed off with her toes at the corner of the wall and vaulted over, leaving the pursuers and chaos far behind.
She ran down the empty, silent street, the bright moon above bathing everything in silver light. Her nerves finally relaxed, and a wave of newfound freedom flooded her.
Jiang Mingxi stopped, lifted her head, and gazed at the moon, letting out a long, relieved breath. At last, a genuine, carefree smile spread across her lips.
She remembered the new name she’d given herself after her Rebirth.
Jiang Mingxi and Jiang Mingchuan.
In this life: Sun, Moon, and Rivers, Bright Light for Ten Thousand Miles, Endless Flowing River.
She would live in the light, and live happily ever after.