“Tianxie… did you hear something? It sounded like… knocking.” Su Feifei said it with some tension. Midnight, a downpour, lightning, thunder… and a house that never had visitors, with the sound of knocking starting up at an hour like this. It set her heart beating noticeably faster.

“Ignore it.” Ye Tianxie answered idly. In the past, when he had been alone at home, there had occasionally been knocking — usually someone asking directions, someone at the wrong door, or a salesman of some sort. He had never once paid attention to any of it. The doorbell that had originally been there he had long since torn off by force.

“This late, who would it be? Could it be…” Su Feifei’s body had been drifting unconsciously nearer to Ye Tianxie the whole time; without either of them noticing, she was very nearly pressed against him. The unease inside her kept making her want him to hold her tightly.

“A night of heavy rain is excellent for evading surveillance and for blocking sight and sound, and it washes away every kind of trace as well. So, other factors being equal, a night of downpour is actually the ideal night for killing someone.” Ye Tianxie said it calmly, eyes half open. “But don’t worry. This house is fairly solid. Even if someone really did want to break in, so long as we don’t open the door there’s not a great deal they can do.”

Ye Tianxie’s words made Su Feifei’s heart speed up again, and the color began to drain slowly from her lips. She drew a light breath and put both hands out toward him until she found his arm. She gathered his arm against herself, lowered her head, and leaned against his shoulder, and only then did she feel a little less uneasy. “Ten years ago… my mother died on a night of wind and thunder and heavy rain, exactly like this…”

Something shook faintly in Ye Tianxie, and his other hand went out without his intending it, resting on her round, smooth shoulder, comforting a heart that lay under that shadow.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

The knocking continued, neither heavy nor light, neither ponderous nor gentle… and the longer he listened, the tighter Ye Tianxie’s brows drew. Because the frequency of that knocking was so even — even to a degree very nearly beyond belief. The interval between any two strikes was identical, exactly and precisely… entirely like knocking produced by a machine with the ability to calculate to the decimal.

Ye Tianxie began to feel all at once that this knocking was nothing like as simple as he had imagined, and a steadily thickening wariness began to gather in him.

“Are you frightened?” Ye Tianxie asked softly.

“Mm…” Su Feifei answered in a small voice, her body still, consciously or unconsciously, pressing closer to him.

Ye Tianxie sat up in bed, picked up his outer coat and threw it on, and switched on the light in passing. The dim bedroom brightened at once. Ye Tianxie said in a low voice, “Feifei, I’m going to take a look.”

Su Feifei flung off the blanket and, heedless of how much of herself she was showing, caught hurriedly at his arm. “Don’t go… I’ll, I’ll come with you. On my own I’d be more frightened.”

The nightwear across Su Feifei’s chest was drawn tight, two faintly pink points printing themselves clearly against the fabric. Ye Tianxie’s throat went slightly dry. Meeting Su Feifei’s eyes, which were brimming with nerves, he nodded, then found a coat large enough and draped it over her, took her hand, and started toward the front door of the living room.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

The knocking continued, its frequency never varying from first to last. Ye Tianxie’s steps were light to the point of soundlessness; and while Su Feifei was doing her best to tread quietly, her slippers still made no small amount of noise as she walked — and just as they reached the middle of the living room, that knocking abruptly stopped.

The hands Su Feifei had wrapped firmly around Ye Tianxie’s left arm tightened all at once. It was not that she was timid; any girl meeting a situation like this would naturally feel enormous tension and fear. Ye Tianxie patted the back of her hand and said in a low voice, entirely unconcerned, “Set your mind at rest. Even if it were Spider-Man standing out there, I’d have him turned into a dead spider inside ten seconds.”

Su Feifei laughed in spite of herself, and those hands loosened considerably.

Reaching the door, Ye Tianxie did not open it at once but looked out through the peephole… Outside the rain was coming down in buckets, but the compound’s lights were as bright as ever, and in that ample light, in front of his door… there was plainly no one at all.

Ye Tianxie’s brows drew hard together. He straightened up soundlessly, then made a gesture at Su Feifei for silence. His eyes half closed, and he quietly felt out everything in front of the door… The rush of the rain and the ceaseless roll of the thunder could not affect his perception; but close to half a minute went by, and he did not detect any abnormal movement whatsoever.

That uncertainty drew Ye Tianxie’s brows tighter and tighter. His hand went to the edge of the door and switched the living room light on; and in the brightness he stayed silent a little while, then said to Su Feifei, “Whoever it was must have left. Let’s go back to sleep.”

Full of misgivings, he walked back with Su Feifei all but glued to him — but just as they reached the bedroom door, that uncanny knocking started up again. The same striking force, entirely consistent, a frequency without half a fraction of variation. Ye Tianxie’s step stopped dead.

It was as though… there were a pair of eyes watching every move they made. When they approached, the knocking stopped; when they had retreated far enough, it started again.

“Tianxie…” Su Feifei looked up, tense, at a Ye Tianxie whose expression had turned grave. It was an expression she had very rarely seen on him.

A thread of a cold smile appeared at the corner of Ye Tianxie’s mouth. He shook his head slightly and said, “A very skillful game… but anyone who dares play this sort of game with me had better be prepared to bear the consequences.”

He turned with Su Feifei and went quickly back toward the door. Just as they reached the center of the living room the knocking stopped again — and in that instant Ye Tianxie suddenly let go of Su Feifei, his body bursting forward amid a startled cry from her, the explosive power of that one moment sending him off like a rocket, at a speed high enough to be terrifying and past anything an ordinary person could comprehend.

He did not open the door, because opening it would have cost a fraction of time. Reaching the door in that sprint, Ye Tianxie locked his eyes on the peephole at the first possible instant… and what he saw was the dull yellow glow of the streetlamps, and ground soaked by driving rain.

Still not a single person.

Su Feifei, badly startled, ran to Ye Tianxie at very nearly her fastest possible speed and threw her arms around him, out of breath. At a time like this, it was only beside him that she felt any less afraid.

Ye Tianxie took Su Feifei’s hand, retreated several steps, put her behind him, gripped the door handle with his other hand, turned it soundlessly, and then drew the door open by a crack as small as a crack could be.

Neither the turning of the handle nor the opening of the door made any sound at all. Ye Tianxie had confidence enough to fear no enemy, but that did not mean he would grow arrogant, or lose the caution he could never afford to forget. Above all, one uncertain factor after another had left him with no choice but to be as careful as he could.

Cold wind came pushing in through the gap, blowing Ye Tianxie’s hair back, and his sharp gaze went out through that narrow opening… And Su Feifei, kept behind him and thoroughly tense, distinctly felt it — in the moment he glanced out through the gap, Ye Tianxie’s body visibly stiffened, and even his expression showed deep astonishment.

“Tian… Tianxie…” Su Feifei’s hands tightened; her strange tension made her voice come out tiny.

His face full of that odd astonishment, Ye Tianxie pulled the door straight open.

Wind with broken rain in it came surging in with a soft howl. Through the opened door, all Su Feifei saw at first was the apartment building opposite — and then… her gaze moved downward…

A bolt of lightning flared at exactly that moment, lighting the small, delicate shape of a young girl. She stood quite still in the rain, letting the water soak her hair and her purple dress. She was too quiet; even with the door opened and two people appearing in front of her, she went on standing there in silence.

At that moment it was not only Su Feifei — even Ye Tianxie was rather at a loss.

“Tianxie, she…” Looking at this girl whose stillness was uncanny, Su Feifei turned instinctively to Ye Tianxie. On a night of downpour and thunder and lightning, had it been this little girl knocking all along? Small wonder nothing could be seen through the peephole — her body was simply far too small, her height lower even than the peephole itself.

Perhaps because of Su Feifei’s voice, the girl finally reacted. Her head came up, lifting a beautiful little milk-white face. Every piece of clothing on her was already soaked through by the rain. Outside a purple lace-style one-piece dress, her soft arms and shoulders were bare. Her long soft hair, though wet through, did not look the least bit disordered but remained beautiful and affecting… The girl’s whole appearance was exquisite to a degree that was frankly excessive; looking at her was like looking at a doll small enough to dance on a palm, adorable and without flaw, and as delicate as a rose about to open. Only, this beautiful doll was missing the two most beautiful and brilliant ornaments of all…

Her eyes… In that upturned little face, both of her eyes were closed, and along the seam of them, which had not the smallest gap, lay two rows of long, fine lashes.

Ye Tianxie took note of the movement around them and confirmed, more or less, that no one else was present. Pushing down the deep doubt in him, he crouched halfway down and asked gently, “Little one, what’s your name? Why are you here… are you lost?”

…There was no answer. But as Ye Tianxie’s voice sounded, he distinctly saw the little girl’s body shudder violently — seemingly a shiver brought on by the cold.

The sight of the girl standing out in the rain made Su Feifei’s heart ache. She stepped forward to take the girl’s hand. “Tianxie, let her in first. A child this small, she’ll make herself ill out there.”

(End of Chapter 195)