I couldn't argue. My chest was still tight, that echo of laughter ringing in my ears. Faint, but certain.
It sounded like the child from the river.
I kept my gaze fixed on the alley, the echo of laughter still circling in my chest. It gnawed at me like a memory that refused to fade. But Mingzhu did not so much as glance back. His hand dropped from my path, and he turned away with the same effortless calm, as though nothing at all had happened.
"Wait," I said, voice sharp. "You heard it too. Didn't you?"
He did not answer. His steps carried him forward, unhurried, robes whispering like the current itself.
Dòu Dòu drifted closer, grinning as if to soften the silence. "You'll find he's not very talkative, little mortal. Broods like a thundercloud. Stares like one too. Honestly, if silence were a competition, Mingzhu would have been crowned king centuries ago."
My pulse quickened. "This isn't a game."
The boy's grin faltered for the briefest moment, though he quickly patched it with a flourish. "Of course it isn't. But you'll drive yourself mad if you stare at every shadow down here. Better to laugh sometimes. Trust me, the river eats those who forget how."
I ignored him. My eyes found Mingzhu again...his dark figure already ahead, shoulders squared, unyielding.
"You don't care at all, do you?" The words slipped out before I could stop them, bitter on my tongue. "I was dragged here, I lost a child to your river, and you..."
He halted, turning just enough that I saw the sharp line of his profile, carved like stone. His eyes did not soften.
"The river takes as it wills," he said. "It is not my duty to ease your grief."
The calm in his voice cut deeper than cruelty. My breath caught, heat burning at the back of my throat. For the first time, I wished I had never looked into the water at all.
Behind us, the alley stilled. Yet in the hush I thought just for a heartbeat that something whispered my name.
The whisper faded, but its echo left me raw. My hands trembled against the folds of my dress, the weight of Mingzhu's words still cutting through me. I wanted to scream at him, to demand why he stood so still while my world cracked apart ...but he had already turned away again, as though I were no more than a ripple in the current.
I bit down on the heat rising in my chest. If he would not see me, then I would not beg for his eyes.
Dòu Dòu drifted into the silence like a spark, somersaulting lazily until he hovered upside down above my head. "Careful, little mortal. If you glare any harder, you might actually set him on fire. And trust me, I've been trying for years. Doesn't work."
I blinked at him, half startled, half unwilling to let the laugh escape. "How can you be joking now?"
He tilted his head, hair floating like black ink in the water. "Because someone has to. Otherwise we'll all drown long before the river even bothers to try."
The words held more truth than his grin suggested. For the first time, I saw something sharper in his eyes, a glimmer that told me he knew far more than he ever admitted.
Still, he clapped his hands once, scattering tiny currents around us like bubbles. "Besides, if you're going to stay here, you'll need a proper guide. Mingzhu might look impressive, all scales and brooding stares, but he's a terrible tour host. Me? I'll show you the fun corners, the dangerous corners, and the corners that smell like fermented kelp. Spoiler: avoid those."
Against my will, a small laugh broke through. It slipped into the current, fragile but real.
Mingzhu did not look back. Yet, for the briefest moment, I thought his shoulders tightened, as though the sound had reached him.
The current around us shifted again, stirring faintly from the alley we had left behind. Not laughter this time ...only silence, too deep, too heavy. A silence that felt as though it were listening.