Chapter 24: CH 24

When I woke up the next morning, it was still drizzling a little. I had to go to the school administration building today to take care of some final affairs regarding my transfer and then I planned on sending some of my books and clothes to Finland.

When I arrived at the post office in the afternoon, I saw Ye Lin sitting on a wooden chair on the stone path in front of the university.

As I left the post office I decided not to go back to uni, but instead walked towards the ancient plot of land behind it. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the old castle where I used to come and sketch with my friend Christine. Its gentle paths, shady trees and broken intersections allowed for countless hours of drawing as we attempted to catch its beauty onto our canvases. The French citizens themselves had forgotten about it, and tourists rarely visited.

It was a quaint, old-fashioned place, which I had painted many times, but I had still never been able to capture the beauty of the Middle Ages.

This time I hadn’t brought my painting tools with me. I remembered I had only gotten halfway through my painting the last time I’d been here.

I walked under the white carved archway, noticing that some of the ground inside had been eroded over time, to the point where in some areas I could not see the original stone.

As I walked deeper into the courtyard, I suddenly remembered the crystal bracelet that had been left one year ago as a gift for Christine on one of the ancient walls.

I walked on, remembering all the joys and pains of the past. I began to search for the crystal bracelet.

“Anjie!”

I swivelled around just as there was a loud bang and the scenery around me shuddered. Black smoke billowed out and pieces of stone flew in all directions as the ground caved under me and I fell straight down.

I was so frozen with fear, I couldn’t even choke out a scream.

A dark shadow flashed over me and I felt something hug me as I hit the ground and immediately passed out.

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the pungent smell of rotting moss. There was also the sound of water dripping into my ears.

I slowly opened my eyes, and blinked painfully into the darkness.

How could this happen? Perhaps God has prepared for me an end where I am buried alive.

I had the sudden, funny thought that maybe this was how Jian Anjie would disappear neatly from the world. Even the cost of a funeral would be saved.

The initial numbness of my newly revived limbs passed and pain began to gradually flow through me.

A dull ache took over my body, and I couldn’t tell where I was hurt exactly, but strangely enough, the pain wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

I suddenly realized that my body was not lying on cold, hard ground, but rather something soft and warm with a familiar scent of fresh mint.

My heart fluttered and I struggled to get up, but my waist was caught in a death grip and my body fell back down. I heard a soft, muffled grunt.

There was someone beneath me.

The arms around my waist were released, and I quickly rolled over to my side. How could this man have coincidentally fallen into this place with me!?

“Are you alright?” A low, but familiar voice rasped out.

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My eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness and I began to faintly see that we had fallen into a long and narrow tunnel. There was a pile of debris blocking the way in front and all encompassing darkness behind.

I couldn’t bring myself to guess why he was here.

How in the world did he end up falling with me and cushioning my fall? 

“Xi Xichen, are you a stalker?”

“I have a few days off,” he coughed out, “I have the choice to do whatever I like.”

There was a soft “pop”, like something being struck, and a faint spark of light illuminated the tunnel. He reached out and lit a torch hanging on the wall.

The tunnel came into clearer view, with huge, uneven, stone blocks, covered in moss and seeping water. There was an elegant ornamentation carved into the hole, revealing the decadent beauty of medieval Gothic architecture.

I laughed mirthlessly at my situation.

In the firelight, I saw him holding an exquisite pocket watch, the metal chain looped around his fingertips. The end seemed to have a little smoky blackness, and the brilliant sapphire on the lid was extremely eye-catching.

“The Changle sapphire, as legend has it, was discovered in a small mountain village called Xinwang when a geological exploration team, while chatting with an old man, accidentally discovered that the blue flint they had chained to their cigarette purses to light their cigarettes turned out to resemble a sapphire, and after identification it was confirmed to be the best quality sapphire in China to date. I had no idea that it could be restored to its original purpose.” He said in an offhand manner.

“It’s not a lighter?” I was shocked and embarrassed at my own unnecessary curiosity.

The light of the slightly, wavering fire cast an obscure shadow on his face.

“I don’t smoke,” he said.

Somehow these plain words gave me the illusion that something else was going on.

“The primary school near the church was once the estate of Duke Monat Eboure, and the church was also on his property, so this secret passage must have been built by him for some reason. It was an unspoken rule for nobles to build secret passages for emergencies.”

Xichen took the torch off the wall and looked at the pile of rubble blocking the tunnel.

“The side leading to the church collapsed, but there must be an exit on the other side.”

This man in front of me had always acted indifferent and calculating, holding back his words and only saying things halfway, making it hard to understand his true intentions.

This was the first time he had been so straightforward.

“Mr. Xi is being all-wise and all-knowing.”

Xichen looked at me for a long time.

“Let’s go.” He raised his torch and walked into the dark tunnel.

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