A shadowy figure crept to the edge of the cliff.
It peered down for a long while, then muttered to itself as it walked away, "Could they really be dead?"
After a long while,
the ivy clinging to the cliff face stirred faintly.
It was so slight it might have been the night wind brushing past, teasing a corner loose.
Then, in the next instant, the vines were gently pushed aside. A narrow platform, so small it could easily be overlooked, was exposed under the pale wash of moonlight.
Two figures slipped out from the shadows.
A boy and a girl.
Chun's face was still deathly pale. The color had drained from her lips until they were almost translucent. She pressed her back against the cold rock, her chest rising and falling hard. She looked like someone hauled out of deep water, gulping for air. Only after several uneven breaths did she manage to steady herself.
"Wei…" Her voice trembled. "How did you know there was a platform here?"
"Quiet."
Wei raised a hand at once, signaling her to stop. His voice was lowered to almost nothing. "I don't think they've gone far."
He leaned against the cliff, turning his head slightly, listening. His breathing had not yet fully calmed.
Chun held her breath and listened too. In the sound of the wind, there seemed to be something else. Soft. Fragmented. Like footsteps brushing stone. Or maybe it was only imagination playing tricks.
Wei shifted forward half a step and whispered, "There's a narrow path ahead. You have to walk with your body pressed to the rock. It can take us around."
"Around to where?" Chun asked.
"To the plank bridge." He paused, lowering his voice even further. "We can't stay here. If the wind picks up, freezing to death would be the least of our worries."
Chun hugged her arms instinctively. "Then… we leave now?"
Wei did not answer. He only reached out and gave her a firm tug, moving forward again.
When he spoke earlier, his tone had been steady, almost absolute.
Of course, there was another reason he had not said out loud.
He could not resist letting Chun see this hidden mountain path, one that had always belonged to the boys.
Chun followed closely behind him, stepping onto the narrow trail carved into the edge of the cliff. It was barely wide enough for one person.
Under her feet, the rock was rough and uneven. At the edge, there was nothing at all.
No railing.
In the darkness, the wind rushed past her ears, low and constant, like a restrained snarl.
After a short distance, the ivy thinned and disappeared, revealing the exposed cliffside path in full. Wei shook the leaves off his shoulders and glanced back. Chun was moving with painful slowness, inch by inch, her body almost glued to the rock face.
She did not dare let herself lean away, even slightly.
She was afraid that a single misstep would send her straight down into the endless void below.
Wei softened his voice deliberately. "Don't be scared. The boys from the village walk this path all the time."
"For fun?" Chun blurted out.
"We jump from here," Wei said casually. "That's how we knew there was a platform below."
Chun still felt shaken. "Then why did you sound so certain back there? I really thought you meant it. I thought you were actually going to jump."
"If I didn't say it like that," Wei replied, "why would they believe we were serious?"
"You always have an answer," Chun said, shooting him a hard glare.
Wei smiled faintly and said nothing.
The path narrowed further ahead, forcing them to move sideways. The cliff wall was cold and damp beneath Chun's fingers. Each step felt like a negotiation with gravity itself. She could hear her own heartbeat, loud and unsteady, echoing in her ears.
Wei slowed his pace without turning around. He adjusted his steps to match hers, careful not to rush her. Occasionally, loose pebbles slid beneath their feet and vanished into the darkness, swallowed without a sound.
That silence frightened her more than the wind.
The moon drifted in and out of the clouds, sometimes lighting the path just enough for Chun to glimpse how little separated her from empty air. Other times, everything vanished into blackness, leaving only the rough stone beneath her hands to prove the world still existed.
She focused on Wei's back. On the steady way he moved. On the quiet certainty in his steps.
It helped.
Gradually, her breathing slowed.
The cold still bit through her clothes, and fear still curled tight in her chest, but she could walk. One step at a time. Pressed to the rock. Following him forward.
Behind them, the cliff returned to silence, ivy settling back into place as if nothing had ever passed through at all.
-----------------
"Careful. There's a bend ahead. Keep your body close to the cliff," Wei warned, his voice low and steady.
Chun had no choice but to let go of the hand she had been gripping so tightly. Her fingers slid along the cold stone as she felt her way around the corner, watching his back disappear from view.
Wei moved ahead first, rounding the bend, then stopped. He pressed his back against the rock and waited silently for her.
Chun inched forward, almost glued to the cold surface. She"pushed" herself along the curve of the cliff. The air was thick with the smell of damp earth. The wind whispered past her ears, curling around like a low, constant murmur.
Then, in that brief instant, moonlight poured down from the darkness.
Soft, quiet, like mercury spilling over the stone.
It landed directly on Chun's face.
Wei's heart jumped violently.
Under the moonlight, her face…
Her eyes were large, bright, and open. Long lashes cast delicate, flickering shadows. Her clear pupils reflected a faint, trembling glimmer of white.
White light?
Wei's gaze locked on her face.
The smile she had been wearing, the one that had just hinted at relief, froze instantly.
Fear exploded across her face like a sharp blade.
It carved into the innocence and beauty of her features in a single, blinding moment.
Wei's forehead throbbed.
Pain flared without warning.
Sharp. Burning.
As if something heavy was slamming into his skull, again and again.
He sucked in a breath.
The wind howled along the cliff.
Then a sound cut through it.
Soft, almost imperceptible, yet it made his heart stop.
An axe swung silently from behind him.
The blade tore through the air.
The rush of wind brushed against the back of his head, cold enough to feel like it cut.
Pain and terror hit him at the same time. There was no time to think.
Wei lunged forward.
He did not retreat, nor did he fall.
He jumped.
One step sent him off the narrow path.
His body was thrown into open air.
The next instant, he slammed into the corner of the cliff and hooked both arms around jagged rock.
He was hanging.
Nothing beneath his feet.
Only the black abyss below.
Cold wind surged up from the depths.
It tore at his clothes.
It pulled at his weight, trying to drag him down.
His fingers scraped across the stone.
The surface was sharp.
It sliced into his skin.
Blood sprang out at once.
He clenched his teeth and held on.
Every muscle locked tight.
He did not dare loosen his grip, not even for a breath.
The wind lashed his hair into his face.
A few drops of blood were torn away and vanished into the dark.
Chun froze.
Her heart jumped into her throat.
Then she snapped back to herself.
She bent down and grabbed Wei's hand. The warmth of his palm spread through her, steadying her shaking body.
Across from them, a figure emerged slowly from the darkness.
The figure was clad in tight black leather. Uneven stubble covered his jaw. He was short, his hair tied into a small braid. Dried blood still streaked his face.
The axe was in his right hand. Its edge glinted sharply in the moonlight.
Chun's pupils constricted violently.
Her mind flashed back to earlier in the day, at the village entrance. He had been squatting there, smoking, the little braid swaying in the wind like a dead snake.
Now, the snake-like braid swung in the night.
The axe was aimed directly at them.
"Chun, little one," the man said, his voice casual but dangerous."The mountain path is slippery tonight. Don't fall behind Wei."
Chun's mind exploded.
"You… you're here?"
Earlier, during the day, he had helped make the fire, handed out water. And now, at night, he stood here with an axe.
He had known this path all along. He had known they would come out along the cliff. He had known…
Everything had been planned.
"Why… why is it you?"
Her voice broke. It sounded strangled, carrying disbelief and the beginnings of tears.
"You sold us out?!"