Pei Zhen remained where he was.
The slight stinging sensation on his lips and her tender words still lingered in his ears.
He reached out, took out the sapphire necklace, and gently caressed it.
His laugh was wild and brilliant.
A flock of bizarrely red birds flew across the distant horizon, their calls grating and harsh, sounding particularly like they were cursing someone as contemptible. The people of the Underground City thus gave them a name: the Contemptible Birds.
A legend was also born from this: encountering a Contemptible Bird proved you were a contemptible person.
In the Underground City, this was undoubtedly a compliment to the wicked.
Pei Zhen had, of course, heard this tale. He rhythmically tapped his fingertip against his cheek, his smoke-gray eyes blending into the morning mist, making his emotions unreadable.
