Chapter 68: Back in the Burnt Library
The next morning Xing woke up early even before the sun came up and went to meet with her father and she made him promise that he won’t send his people or interfere her meeting in any way.
Xing looked at her father’s worried look and her heart warmed up. Her mother would worry about her too but she would babble on for half an hour on how worried Xing made her. But her father showed his worries differently. He did not say much but he hadn’t let go of her hands he was holding for a long time since he asked her to be safe. His hands were slightly cold and was clutching her hands tightly showing how nervous he was to let her go.
Xing smiled at her father making him confused. For Xing, this place is home and she even knew how many stones lie in the roads.
On the contrary, AoTian who had heard various things about her life here was too worried. His rational mind knew she can handle things but his heart could not let her go. Not to mention, Lord Ming or that Shengli weren’t here too.
He is the kind of father who had hired people to constantly look after his son, so that he does not lose his way after all. After Rijun entered the court as an official was when he realised his son was directionally challenged. But his son refused to hire an assistant for him as other officials would think of him as haughty. So AoTian hired a bunch of people in the Imperial Palace whose sole purpose is to watch his son not lose his way and help him subtly, without alarming him.
So if he was this attentive to his son, how could he easily let his daughter who is deep in real dangers out on her own?
But as stubborn as her father was, Xing was more stubborn than him. In the end Xing convinced her father that she will be safe and she had to leave the guest Manor before morning light not to catch any attention from prying eyes. Only then AoTian let her go not before deciding he will take a look later.
Xing got out of the Manor pretty easily as her father had already diverted the security details around the backdoor. Xing was thankful as she was not that good in sneaking out or being covert as she always do things out in the open and would leave the sneaky things to others as being covert never worked for her.
As she left the manor, she saw the burnt library still left untouched after the incident from eight years back. No one went there as it was rumoured to be haunted and even Xing didn’t visit there even though she knew she was inside the library during the fire and she had no memory of it. She had always felt a bit uneasy to enter the library for some unknown reason. She knew her pyrophobia should be connected to that fire. But Shengli told her that she definitely did not cause the fire. So she gathered herself to have a look inside the library.
The sky had started to brighten up and as she entered a mixed smell of ashes and dust entered her nose making her sneeze. There didn’t seem to be any spirits lurking there so this place is definitely not haunted. The entire place was abandoned for years and there were cobwebs covering most places. None of the books were left and the book racks were half burnt. As she reached the tower she saw some of the book racks moved at a pillar and there were weird markings in the entire area around it.
Xing observed the marks that were covered with dust to see they were actually made by some kind of weapon. The weapon must have been too sharp to be a sword and cut too deep to be a blade. Xing wondered what kind of weapon could make those mark. Those marks were concentrated at the pillar and some places were left as if someone was standing there. So someone used their weapon on another who was trapped between the pillar and them. But how could that person survive this sharp and deep cuts? There was nobody found after the incident. So he escaped unscathed? Shengli didn’t mention that.. Could it be Shihong? Did that tiger god do this?
Just then the sun rose bringing in the golden rays and Xing could see the entire library clearly. The burn marks left were weird as if the fire had flowed according to the wishes of someone and not by wind or naturally. So those people who found this fire weird were right. This indeed is not a fire spread by a human. So this was a fight between gods or demons? Us three got on the crossfire? Sigh! Why can’t I remember anything?