a quiet mind | huang renjun

Chapter 38

On a nights road, Xinyi and Renjun walked down the bridge, admiring the velvet skies as they awaited the fireworks. It was almost christmas, and the fireworks for this day was the most anticipated thing yet. After all that has happened, they just wanted to let everything go, even if it's just for one day

"Is there anything you want to do?" Xinyi asked, eyes reflecting the canvas of stars.

"Start a family" Renjun replied casually, earning a chuckle from Xinyi.

"Choose something that's not way in the future" She hummed, nudging closer to Renjun like the couples around them. Renjun intertwined his hands with hers, his thumb playing with the ring around her finger.

"It's not way in the future"

Xinyi gave him a hard shove

"OK OK" He rose his hands up defensively "How about...hotpot"

"Hotpot?" Their gazes connected

"Hotpot after a firework show. Now that, my friend, is life" After Renjun became human, his appetite grew so much he could devour a 4 people portion all for himself. At least he was embracing his perks as a human.

"Fine, hotpot" She agreed "Ren-"

The fireworks went off. The skies bursted into multicoloured sparks, lighting the gentle night skies with explosive gifts as if they were God's graffiti. The river reflected spontaneous streaks of the rainbow, becoming the remnants of what the skies had casted down into the water.

"Woah" Renjun gaped, swinging himself up on the fence. The girl looked at the burst of colour too, smiling weakly at the beauty of the human realm she's known all her life. With the man she loved and the most beautiful scenery in front of her, it all seemed like the last page from a fairytale. All she wanted to do was to pick up a pencil and join the fireworks with sketching strokes of neon colours on the midnight canvas.

Renjun glanced at her, beaming his ever youthful smile. Grabbing her arm, he rose their arm up and hollered into the air, their voices buried under the sound of explosion. She joined him, letting her voice ripple against the sky and the breeze take her away from her own thoughts.

Every page of their life was ripped and bent, yet the inking on the paper had barely faded.

"Is there anything else you want to do?" Xinyi asked once again, focus solely on Renjun despite having a circus of magnificent fireworks in front of her

"Hm" Renjun thought of a second. A smile suddenly spread across his lips, his mind seemingly wondering off into his own imagination "I want you to spend a day in Neverland with me"

Xinyi chuckled humorously "And how are we going to do that"

"I don't know" He shrugged "Take me to your Neverland. A human's Neverland"

A place came to mind "OK" She agreed, joining his smile as their gaze met each other's. The corners of Renjun's eyes crinkled up into a light laugh. Not once had she seen a smile prettier than Renjun's; if only she could tattoo that bright laugh of his into her head.

"Let's go there now" Xinyi pulled him down from the fence

"What? Why not tomorro-"

"Time waits for no one"

—

Her hands weaved through the velvet strings of the midnight skies, trying to pick at the diamonds that dotted across the terrace that was often reigned by a big lantern called the moon. Her head was against a blanket, soft music floating from ear to ear to create a beautiful ambience under the tonight's torch.

Tonight, was the night where all was silent. Emotions were fragile, throats were freed, eyes were closed, thoughts were empty. Just a girl and a boy, laying by eachother side with the moon as their guardian and the stars as their friend.

What a tender and sweet night upon a rooftop decorated with nothing but the aura of his scent and her faint perfume. She took his hand in hers, raising it high up above them. The ring that wrapped around their fingers casted a shadow on their face, the opal glimmering with its own life.

"Do you think Mireu can see us?" Xinyi asked, counting the stars.

"Yes" Renjun replied. He pointed at the brightest star in the sky "That's Mireu. He wants us to be happy, and when we're happy, he'll be happy. If you close your eyes and let your mind rest, you can hear his laugh that would ring in your ear for ages, and his little jumps because he's too short to reach anything on the benches. You can see his face of curiosity as he touches one of your ornaments on your shelf, then squirm back in fear when I tell him that mum's going to be back soon. If Mireu was with us right now, he'd be running around the whole place, dragging me to play banana split with him. Then I'd let him win and give him a prize, which would be a big hug from me. Then when we got tired, he'd be quiet and put his finger to his lip as if he was telling the owls to be quiet too. Then he'd snuggle up against us and fall asleep after we've fallen asleep to make sure no bad guys touches us"

Xinyi couldn't help but let out a teary chuckle "As if he could protect us with his little body"

Renjun rolled over, scooping her up so that she lay intertwined within his body.

"Remember when he tried to beg me not to kill him" Xinyi murmured "At that time, I thought: wow, he's a smart kid. I remember seeing that confidence behind his irises; he was so certain I wouldn't dare kill him. He was brave, too. Armed with a butter knife and running at someone with a gun. Funny if you mention it now. He also threw me a gun once during one of my missions. I was shocked"

"He's like a mini you"

Her heart felt heavy.

When I grow up, I want to be like mum: brave and strong. That's what Mireu's letter wrote. Brave and strong. Thats what Xinyi was. But at the moment, when Mireu took his last breath, she wasn't brave, nor strong. She was defeated.

"Xinyi" Renjun begun to doze off into a slumber "What should I do if you leave me?"

Her laughter rung through the air "I don't know, find a new girl?"

He rolled around to sling an arm around her torso "I'm serious"

"Okay okay" She grabbed his arm "If I disappear one day, I want you to wait for me. I'll always find my way back to you" She whispered "Just always be waiting for me"