Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 48: Old Friend (17)

Dragon Raja 5

The crow whistled loudly, earning an unpleasant glare from the boy. After feeling that the crow might be a gangster, the boy hurriedly pulled the girl away.

“It’s great to be alive, isn’t it?” Crow said quietly, looking at their backs. “There are also girls with long legs and thin waists. Don’t give up so easily, Lu Jun.”

“Um.”

“Even if you are going to die, you can’t give up easily. You can’t let someone shoot you on the way out. You have to fight back and die with dignity. You want your name to be on the tombstone.”

“Um.”

“Every man should retrace the path of his youth before he dies,” Crow, or rather, Ryuji Saeki, gazed at the city shrouded in snow and hail, his eyes, clouded by alcohol, suddenly clearing. “That would be the most meaningful funeral.”

    ***

In the darkness, Nuonuo suddenly opened his eyes.

She sat in the dark, hugged her knees, took deep breaths, and tried to calm herself.

After a month of continuous escape, her sleep became very light, and the slightest unusual noise would wake her up. However, this time, she woke up not because of any unusual noise, but because of a strange dream.

She also dreamed on the way to escape. Sometimes she was running wildly in an alley filled with thick fog, with footsteps approaching from behind. Sometimes she dreamed that she was still attending classes at Cassell College or Golden Iris College, and the years were quiet and nothing had happened.

Those dreams could be explained, but tonight’s dream was very strange. She dreamed that she was wearing the costume of a Japanese shrine maiden, holding a candle in her hand, walking along the winding path in the snow into the shrine. There were large groups of people standing on both sides of the road. Those people were wearing black clothes and were silent.

It seemed like a grand religious ceremony, or also like a funeral… Could it be that I had such a strange dream because I live in a shrine?

There was a slight snoring sound coming from the side, Chu Zihang was sleeping soundly.

Nuonuo quietly crawled out of bed, put on a windproof coat, opened the door, and wanted to go out for some fresh air, but was suddenly stunned.

A damp and cold wind blew in her face, snow fell all over the sky, and the whole world was white.

An inexplicable joy surged in her heart. Nono put on the haori prepared by the shrine, stepped on wooden clogs, and walked into the courtyard with a clattering sound. The stone road was covered with fresh snow, and the clogs left a trail of marks.

The priests were probably asleep, and there was no one in the courtyard. Oil lamps were lit in the stone lanterns on the side of the road, and there was a warm light every few steps.

Nuonuo strolled along, gazing at the vast expanse of falling snow, finally relaxing completely. After such a long period on the run, her heart was always on edge. Even at this shrine, she kept her loaded UMP9 by her pillow.

But it snowed tonight, and the heavy snow seemed to have a special magic that could completely isolate this quiet mountain shrine from the outside world. At this moment, she didn’t think about the pursuers suddenly falling from the sky. She just wanted to walk around in this shrine, like a girl visiting Japan for sightseeing.

Although there were no people around, there was light everywhere in the shrine. There was light in the incense oil cup in front of the Buddha, and there was fire in the honest stove in the kitchen. Nono even found a few frozen chicken wings, wrapped them in tin foil and threw them into the stove. After they were roasted, they emitted a fragrant and oily aroma.

She walked under the eaves while biting a chicken bone. This was her favorite way to travel. She would walk and stop alone, and when she saw a place she wanted to stay, she would stop, order a glass of wine or a drink, and sit quietly for an afternoon.

No timetable and no clear destination, just like fish in the sea and birds in the sky.

At the end of the corridor, a room had its door ajar. Nuonuo was a little surprised because she could smell a girl’s scent. It wasn’t perfume, but rather the natural scent of a girl, as if a girl had just walked down this corridor.

Nuonuo casually pushed open the door, and it was indeed the girl’s room. It was very clean, and the furniture was very antique. There was a candlestick covered with a light red gauze on the table. There was a vertical clothes hanger beside the bed, on which hung a set of red and white shrine maiden costume, a white long dress, and a scarlet hakama.

There are actually shrine maidens living in this shrine, but when I arrived, I was greeted only by a group of young male priests she thought to herself.

The whole room was filled with that pleasant, girly smell, and it seemed that the girl who lived here had just gone out. Nuonuo wanted to get to know the girl who lived here for no reason, and didn’t think about whether it was rude to push the door and enter someone else’s bedroom like this.

She walked around the room, observing the Japanese-style bedroom curiously. It was indeed very cozy, but a little too austere. She wondered if the girl living here would feel lonely.

Finally, she stopped in front of the shrine maiden’s costume. It was a really beautiful dress, finely tailored and made of exquisite materials, yet without even a single unnecessary decoration. In the light, the white dress glowed like a young girl’s skin.

Nuonuo suddenly wondered what effect this dress would have on her. As the thought came to her mind, a breeze seemed to suddenly blow through the room, and the wide sleeves of the miko’s costume swayed slightly.