Venting feels great in the moment, but the aftermath is a funeral pyre.

Wu Man was immediately dragged out by the troupe leader, who pointed at her nose and berated her furiously. Then he turned around and bowed apologetically to the elderly couple.

“He was the one who took advantage of me first, alright! I sell my voice, not my body!” Wu Man protested indignantly. She threw down the microphone, creating another loud noise. Everyone quickly covered their ears to block the piercing sound waves, and the tent immediately descended into chaos again.

Zhui Ye watched from the side, his heart stirring with desire to act.

This was a good opportunity. A voice inside urged him—go snatch back Mom’s portrait. Her soul shouldn’t be trapped there.

He silently cheered Wu Man on in his heart, hoping she would make the scene even more chaotic.

Wu Man didn’t disappoint. She pulled off her outer garment, revealing the thin, tight camisole underneath—bright yellow, like the evening glow on the horizon’s edge. Everyone was shocked, pointing at her and calling her shameless. She coldly curved her lips and threw the garment at the troupe leader.

“Your stuff, take it back! I quit!”

Her hand deliberately moved to her skirt as she glared: “What, want to watch me take this off too? Get lost!”

She shook her head, and wearing just the camisole and short skirt, turned and strode away in large steps, mounting her rented electric scooter.

While everyone was shocked by Wu Man’s scandalous stripping, Zhui Ye whooshed out like a small cannonball.

His eyes held only that portrait.

At first, no one reacted. Not until he clutched the bride’s portrait to his chest and ran off some distance, stumbling in fear as he knocked over chairs, funeral wreaths, and spirit lamps along the way…

Someone immediately gave chase from behind.

How could a child’s legs possibly outrun an adult’s? He panted heavily, hearing only the rushing wind in his ears. Despite using every ounce of a child’s maximum speed, he was still about to be caught.

A tragic despair welled up inside him. He couldn’t tell if what blurred his vision was sweat from running or tears—mist clouded his eyes.

He clutched the photograph even tighter.

“You little brat, stop right there, do you hear me!”

The shouting behind him grew closer and closer.

“Hey, kid, get on.”

Amidst the cursing and furious roars, a crisp yet casual female voice cut through, descending before him.

Wu Man rode up on her electric scooter, braking sharply to block his path. She jerked her chin, gesturing for him to get on the back seat.

In that moment, backlit as she was, she seemed like a Valkyrie from Norse mythology, descending at this twilight of the gods.

Young Zhui Ye was dazed for a second, then jumped on without hesitation, one hand clutching the photograph tightly, the other gripping the seat. He shouted: “I’m holding on tight!”

Before he finished speaking, she turned the electric scooter into a roaring train, leaving the pursuers in the dust.

He was short, so sitting down he could only see her back, his gaze falling right on the exposed birthmark. Its shape was peculiar, like a scar burned by fierce flames.

“Are you hurt?”

As soon as he spoke, the fierce wind rushed into his mouth, making his voice sound distorted.

“What—?”

She asked, puzzled, from the front.

“Your back!”

“Oh—” Wu Man laughed and glanced back at him. “That’s a birthmark.”

She wasn’t wearing a helmet. Her long black hair curled against the side of her face with the wind, the overly long ends even grazing his forehead. He could smell the shampoo between the strands—the scent of early spring bicycle bells rolling over osmanthus flowers scattered across the ground, stirring up that fragrance.

Wu Man drove aimlessly. He couldn’t help asking again: “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know either—” Wu Man pointed at the sky’s edge. “Let’s just chase the sunset.”

She accelerated again, twisting the throttle, and the electric scooter headed toward the horizon where day and night met. The streets of Qingling along the way were full of the atmosphere of human life. They swaggered through the night market about to open for business—dazzling small stalls with everything: large, artificially ripened cherries, seed-filled strawberries, mulberries that stained the tablecloths purple…

These foods were all related to spring and growth, filling the night when he lost his beloved, retreating rapidly without nostalgia. They left the nightfall behind. Wu Man continued to lead him in chasing that remaining bit of twilight. Rosy gold threaded through her hair strand by strand, fell on his head, then flowed into the distance.

The electric scooter left the night market. The surroundings gradually became desolate, but the water plants were lush. He smelled grass and the ocean.

Just ahead was that barren beach.

The last bit of sunset sank down. Heaven and earth were shrouded in dusky blue. The sea that looked murky in daylight became solemn at night, no longer so unbearable, even somewhat ambiguously beautiful.

Wu Man finally stopped the scooter and stretched lazily: “The sun has set. Our escape is over too.”

“Thank you…”

Clutching the photograph, he jumped off the vehicle and looked up to thank her.

She glanced down at his tightly clenched fingers: “Who is this to you?”

Zhui Ye lowered his head. After a long silence, he said in an extremely difficult tone: “It’s my mother.”

Wu Man froze for a moment, then her expression also showed some helplessness.

She reached out, her hand hovering in the air, finally choosing to land on Zhui Ye’s head, rubbing it very gently.

“Even the most difficult times will pass one day.”

Zhui Ye could clearly feel the comforting warmth transmitted from her soft palm. His already dried eyes began to sting again.

He asked hoarsely: “Elder sister, have you also had very difficult times?”

“Elder sister? You people here have such a strange way of addressing older girls.” Wu Man laughed and touched her nose. “Me… every moment, I guess.”

“Every moment?”

“You and your mother must have had a good relationship. But my mother and I are not like that.” She said lightly, “I wish she would die, but if she really died, I would be very sad… So I simply ran far away from her, so she wouldn’t affect me anymore.”

These words wouldn’t normally be spoken to others so easily.

But in a county town she was about to say goodbye to, facing a lost little boy, what did it matter to say some suppressed words?

“Why?”

He didn’t quite understand this complex emotion. In the world where he grew up, love was love, without any extra impurities.

Wu Man jumped onto the embankment, pulled out a cigarette and held it between her lips, saying something that made Zhui Ye even more confused.

“Because she sees me the same way. Not all parents in this world love their children.”

She knew he wouldn’t understand, and she didn’t want him to understand. She just wanted to vent casually at this moment. Whether the listener was him or just a breeze by the sea didn’t matter.

“In any case, your mother is still alive.” Little Zhui Ye rubbed the picture frame with his thumb. “But my mother won’t come back.”

“You’ve already snatched her back, so she won’t follow that young man away. She’s just accompanying you in a different form.”

Actually, Wu Man didn’t believe in deities, souls, or any of these supernatural things at all, but sometimes people needed kind lies. Especially for a child who had just lost his mother.

“But if she’s by my side, she’ll still be taken away.” He looked up at the distant sea surface, as if making some major decision. “I need to quickly let her leave this place.”

Wu Man was startled: “How would you do that?”

“She loved the sea.”

Zhui Ye didn’t specify what he would do, just walked toward the damp shore with uneven steps.

Wu Man watched his back, feeling this child looked so thin, yet so stubborn. She spat out the cigarette and followed.

The tidal flats were already flooding back in the darkness, soon reaching past the calves of him who had walked to where the waves met the shore. Wu Man followed him to the water’s edge, calling out: “Be careful.”

By then he could no longer hear anything—the sound of wind, Wu Man’s voice, the lazy sound of waves slapping against the rocks… all were moving away from him. Zhui Ye tremblingly touched the upturned corners of his mother’s mouth in the photograph, pathetically sniffling.

“We’ve come to the seaside.”

He bent down solemnly, his fingers dipping into the spring night’s not-warm seawater. He hesitated for a long while, as if someone had forcibly pried open his fingers, before letting the photograph fall into the vast embrace.

He didn’t stand up again. Curled up, he stared blankly at the frame containing the portrait floating and sinking on the moonlit sea surface, drifting farther and farther away. The fine, broken light flickered on the metal frame, like tear tracks flowing from the person in the photograph.

“Whispers beneath the moon are all asleep, all asleep.

My jasmine has also slept, also slept.

I send her a beautiful dream,

So she won’t forget me.”

In the silence, Zhui Ye heard an ethereal singing voice from beside him.

He looked up. Wu Man was also quietly gazing at the drifting frame, humming a folk song he’d never heard before.

“Little jasmine,

Please don’t forget me.

When the sun comes out,

I will come to visit you.”

She sang this song, sending his mother off. It seemed she was saying for him what he couldn’t say—please don’t forget me.

“Elder sister, what song is this?”

“‘Little Jasmine.’ I was supposed to perform and sing at the food stall tonight, but I didn’t expect to use up my quota here with you.” His crouching position made it easier for her to pat his head. “But I’d much rather not sing for those stinking men—little brother is much nicer.”

“Won’t there be problems if you don’t go tonight?”

“Silly, I’ve already been fired.”

Zhui Ye’s voice became even more dejected: “…Then are you leaving too?”

Wu Man paused: “Mm, I’ll probably leave here tomorrow. So tonight is our last night together, even though it’s the first time I’ve met you.” She crouched down, bumping his shoulder in a consultative tone. “Kid, why don’t you show me around Qingling? I haven’t toured it yet.”

At a time like this, he didn’t want to be alone. Had this older sister seen through his thoughts? His chest tightened, and he carefully nodded.

Wu Man’s eyes curved: “Then let’s extend this adventure until sunrise! How about it?”

“We need to set a time limit?”

“Mm, yes, let’s limit it to sunrise.”

Actually this was all nonsense—it was simply because she had nowhere to stay tonight.

However, Zhui Ye nodded seriously and murmured: “Let’s end it at sunrise then.”

All the grief and reluctance would be limited to tonight only.

“Then let’s set off—”

Wu Man waved vigorously at the sea, then pulled his hand to shake together, cupping her other hand into a small megaphone and shouting: “Auntie, I’m borrowing your child for one night, thank you!” Then she tilted her ear. “She said she knows, and allows me to borrow him for one night.”

“…Really?”

“Listen to the sound of the waves—they’re two degrees louder than before.”

So he pricked up his ears, and the waves did seem more turbulent than before. They weren’t rushing toward the rocks, but toward his nearly stranded heart, making it wet and warm again.

Mom, if you’re really watching, I’m doing well right now.

Before leaving, tiny Zhui Ye smiled hard at the black sea surface.

*

Wu Man mounted the electric scooter and carried Zhui Ye back to Qingling’s liveliest night market.

The night market now was much more crowded than when the lights had just come on earlier. Densely packed stalls were filled with people. Wu Man pulled out two coins from her pocket and said: “Elder sister will treat you to cotton candy.”

She pushed through the crowd at the stalls to go inside, attracting attention all the way. While other girls wore cotton cloth long dresses, only she wore a blazingly bright camisole, her bare shoulders and neck like the new moon hanging high in the sky, also like a luminous pearl flashing bright white light.

She nimbly squeezed in, and when she came back out, she already held two sticks of cotton candy.

“Here.” She reached out to hand him one. Zhui Ye stared at the cotton candy, suddenly feeling as if she had plucked down a cloud to give him.

She sipped slowly from the edge inward. The lipstick on her lips melted with the cotton candy, revealing the original pale pink. He watched her, and for some unknown reason, his palms broke out in sweat, barely able to hold the candy steady.

“Don’t like sweets?”

She raised the corner of her eye, glancing at him while busy eating her candy.

“…I like them.”

He lowered his head in panic.

“Kid, what fun things does the night market have to recommend?”

“Um… there’s goldfish scooping, air gun shooting, and ring toss…”

Wu Man snapped her fingers: “Air gun shooting sounds good, let’s try it!”

She pushed his shoulder and charged straight to the stall, glanced at the prizes, and said confidently: “Elder sister will shoot down a first prize for you, as a parting gift before I leave.”

Hearing this, the owner’s eyelids twitched—here comes a pro. Especially seeing Wu Man pick up the gun, he was even more certain.

Zhui Ye was also dumbfounded, looking up at her shoulder tilting slightly, the gun butt braced against it, squinting one eye, the gun barrel coldly aimed at the balloons. The very picture of a badass female assassin.

The female assassin fired the shot seriously. The small yellow pellet flew out strangely upward, hitting the canvas roof in one shot.

“…”

“…”

“…”

All three people present were speechless.

Zhui Ye thought maybe even he could do better—at least he wouldn’t shoot at the sky…

Wu Man smiled awkwardly: “I learned the posture from TV dramas. Seems like it doesn’t work too well in actual practice.”

The owner’s originally sour face bloomed into a smile, scrunching up like a chrysanthemum: “Aiya, it’s fine, you’ll get the hang of it after a few more tries.”

Zhui Ye tugged at her sleeve: “Elder sister, he’s scamming money, let’s go.”

Wu Man’s eyebrows knitted: “No, I promised to win you the big prize.”

She gritted her teeth and pulled out another bill from her pocket: “I’ll try again!”

One bill after another, one blank shot after another—by the end, the owner’s face was nearly splitting from smiling.

He checked his watch, yawning, unable to hold on first: “Miss, I need to close up shop. Come back next time!”

Only then did the two realize that the surrounding stalls had already gradually dispersed. This stall remained because of them, like an isolated island.

“But I still haven’t…”

Zhui Ye gently tugged at Wu Man’s hem: “Thank you, elder sister. Your intention is already the best parting gift.”

Because of her, he was able to escape with his mother from the suffocating ghost marriage, so her soul wouldn’t be tormented a second time. This night that should have been filled with complete despair—because of her companionship, he felt a bit of relief.

Whether it was that sweet cotton candy stick or her comical air gun technique, they made this viscous spring night become thinner, and the weight pressing on him was also pared down.

He had stopped believing in deities. If deities truly existed, why would they so viciously punish his devotion, letting his mother leave so cruelly?

But there must still be deities in this world—otherwise, why would one be sent to his side just when he felt life was at its darkest?

Elder sister, elder sister.

He sat on the back seat of Wu Man’s electric scooter, both hands gripping her hem, silently chanting.

Wu Man carried him through Qingling after midnight. Narrow streets and alleys, houses and shops intermingled like dog teeth, the scooter also swaying and bumping. She called out loudly from the front: “Kid, hold steady, grab my waist!”

He responded with a confused oh, hesitantly extending both hands, slowly approaching her waist.

The instant he touched her, the warmth of her abdomen passed through his palms, spreading from his blood to his heart, violently jolting along with the tires.

“Are there any record stores still open?” she suddenly asked.

“Ah… there’s one at Qing Street intersection, open until 2 AM.”

“Alright, let’s go there.”

The vehicle turned this way and that. Under his difficult guidance, they finally stopped at the entrance. Outside the record store were still a few scattered young punks who nearly dropped their eyeballs when they saw Wu Man.

One youth, apparently the leader of these three, pretended to be suave as he flipped his leather jacket collar, his lips curving in a wicked smile. His eyes sent out electricity as he cleared his throat and said: “Hey baby, want to go play a round of pool with big brother?”

Right after saying this, he lowered his voice to the person beside him: “How was that? Wasn’t my voice just now very magnetic?”

That person immediately gave a thumbs up: “Boss, who wouldn’t go weak in the knees hearing that!”

“Then you two pair up and go play pool.” Wu Man folded her arms, her expression cold. “Don’t block the store entrance.”

“Listen here, little girl, don’t think you can give us attitude just because you’ve got some looks!”

The lackey immediately furrowed his triangular eyebrows, his whole body radiating some menace.

His arrogance hadn’t even burned for a second when a rock from the distance fiercely struck his waist.

“Dammit, who threw that at me!”

He looked toward the darkness. A little kid was hiding in the shadows, holding a rock bigger than his fist, fiercely glaring at him. Though so small and weak, he bared his teeth and brandished his claws, saying: “Don’t bully elder sister!”

Wu Man’s eyebrows jumped. She turned and shouted at Zhui Ye: “Get on!” While speaking, she quickly ran toward where the electric scooter was parked.

Before those three could react, they got a face full of exhaust fumes, watching one large and one small person speed away.

After the electric scooter drove some distance, Wu Man laughed in the front seat, her whole body shaking. She clicked her tongue: “Kid, you’re way too bold, daring to challenge them like that? We almost got beaten up!”

“…Sorry.”

“They’re the ones who should apologize. You wanted to protect me—what’s wrong with that?” Wu Man’s voice carried teasing laughter. “You already know to protect girls at such a young age—you’ll definitely become a great adult. Promise me you won’t grow up crooked!”

“I will!”

The little one’s voice still carried baby fat. Hearing such a solemn tone made her want to laugh.

Through the electric scooter’s rearview mirror, Zhui Ye saw this expression and said indignantly: “I’m serious!”

“I know, I know. I’m envious of the person who’ll become your partner in the future—really blessed.”

She casually threw out this comment, but it made Zhui Ye’s hands around her waist tremble.

“Don’t tell me you already have a little girl you like?”

“…No!”

“Hahaha, elder sister was just teasing you.” Wu Man raised an eyebrow. “Don’t know if those fools have left yet. Let’s circle around a few more times before going back to check.”

“Still going to the record store?”

She nodded: “Have to.” But didn’t say why she had to go.

Zhui Ye didn’t ask either, feeling the chilly spring night wind billow his clothes. This wind became even more unrestrained as they entered a tunnel. The tires followed the white lines on the road straight ahead. The tunnel’s overhead lights extended one after another, pure white light and shadow flickering on their young faces.

He couldn’t help opening his arms, feeling himself becoming light and flying up once more, falling into this dreamlike spring night.