[L] To Me, The One Who Love You

43

Rays of sunlight cast down. The blade reflected it with a swaying, harrowing white.

Lisa stood back up, then she returned to the side of the donkey carriage, "Jen, sit tight and stay inside, don't look out. We're heading off." She said in a low voice.

Then she pulled the reins to progress slowly towards the valley's exit...

------

Nineteen mountain bandits stood with their weapons in hand. None of them dared to block them.

The nineteen mountain bandits finally 'thawed' once Lisa and Jennie's donkey carriage had completely disappeared in the canyon.

There were some that hollered, some that whimpered, and some that threw away their weapons to run away.

In the end, the nineteen mountain bandits scattered in different directions, but no one cared for Baron and Black tiger.

Yeri and Joy walked down from the mountain slope once everyone was gone.

Once they had a closer look at the disastrous state of this valley, they looked at each other.

They saw a look of horror and disbelief within each other's eyes...

***

Lisa put her short sword away, then she jumped up to the driver's seat. She waved the whip in her hand, then the donkey carriage started to run again.

Lisa stayed silent. 

Jennie who sat inside the compartment did not speak either.

... ...

The donkey carriage suddenly stopped after about an hour. 

Lisa jumped down from the driver's seat.

"Jen, I'll go wash up for a bit. Just wait for a while."

As Jennie sat prim and properly in the compartment, she sighed a breath so soft that it could not be heard. She could already smell the stench of blood in the air from the moment that Lisa came back.

Jennie lifted up the carriage drapes, then she got down from the donkey carriage. 

She found Lisa squatting by a small stream. Her left hand was hanging at her side while her right was slowly splashing water on her face.

Jennie walked closer, then she saw a few lines of red flow down the current of an originally clear stream.

Jennie stood behind Lisa all the while. 

Once the stream no longer flowed with any red, she spoke in a soft voice: "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Lisa stayed silent for a while, then answered solemnly: "It's nothing."

"Let me see it?"

Lisa kept her head low. The calm stream was clear enough to be a mirror.

She looked at her slightly wobbling reflection. As she looked on, she suddenly felt that her reflection looked like a stranger.

Lisa remembered that there was a small stream just like this in their village. Even its current was similar, clear and steady. 

Back then, Lisa loved to squat by the stream to look at herself with her hair tied in twin buns.

So many years had passed in the blink of an eye. 

Lisa felt as if she hadn't looked at herself like this for a very, very long time.