8: Soul-Stealing Hook T/N: The Qiang flute is pretty rare, so have an ocarina rendition of the audio drama theme! – LLS
Xie Yun raised his eyebrows subtly, and he smiled and answered: "Oh?"
Shan Chao nodded, asking:
"Miss Long, what kind of person is Commander Xie?"
The moonlight in the courtyard was crystal clear, and upon the stone pillars the moonlight was suffused with a pale pallor. Shan Chao"s entire person seemed to be suspended in mid-air from his perch on the railings, looking towards the heavy Seven Stars Longyuan, and in the shadow only his concentrating profile could be seen, the straight nose-bridge casting a deep shadow across his thin cheekbones.
This young man from Mobei, was taciturn and valiant, upright and humble, as if his entire body was surrounded in the greatly changing sandstorms which persisted all year round, entirely different from the scholars and literati of Jiangnan.
Yet when he held a weapon and meditated alone by the banks of a patchwork of waterways, it seemed like an entirely different place, where he melted into one with the lonely and remote moonlit night of Jiangnan.
"Commander Xie, you say," Xie Yun leisurely said.
He stroked his chin, as if considering it for a long time, before he smiled.
"If you ask the guards in the Xie manor, they would probably speak of him as a master regarded as fairly easy to serve; if you ask the big shots of the Crown Prince faction such as Zhang Wenguan1 and Liu Bingjie, I reckon they will say that he is a vile character, who takes the side of the evildoer, and plays up to those in power; as for the Jianghu foremost beauty Young Mistress Fu whom I met today, her description was the most succinct, saying that Xie Yun is an ugly as a demon, a vicious and merciless monster."
"—but are these the Xie Yun that you recognise, Master?"
"Everyone"s judgement on him is determined by their position and choices, so depending on how Master sees Xie Yun in your heart, Xie Yun is that type of person."
Shan Chao"s expression was scared, and after a long while involuntarily laughed: "Miss is talented, this poor monk cannot compare."
Yet Xie Yun said: "Master has praised too much, as a woman I am not very educated. Only why did Master suddenly ask this? Could it have something to do with the Seven Stars Longyuan?"
Shan Chao muttered to himself for a moment, with a sonorous tone. Following this sound, the Longyuan sword in his hand unsheathed itself a bit, the sword-edge reflecting cold light.
A sort of misty and incorporeal pressure immediately centred itself around the sword, spreading all around.
"The antique divine sword in the Sword-Forging Manor is fake," Shan Chao rumbled: "The real Longyuan sword here, was once used by my Master two years ago, to try and kill me."
"I do not know what happened either, but I have been having similar dreams for two years, that in my youth I lived in the desert where yellow sand stretched as far as the eye could see, and next to me was a person I did not know yet addressed as Master, in the daytime we rode galloping horses, hunting wolves by bow, and at night by the light of the oil-lamp I listened to him reading, using yellowed fragments of paper to teach me how to write, with the cold winds of Mobei whistling outside the window."
"A few times I dreamt of camel bells ringing in the silver-white desert night, and Master would sit in the courtyard blowing the Qiang flute2, its sound intermittent and remote, drifting in all directions."
"These dreams repeatedly appear in my mind, winding around in a loop to go and come back, as if they would never stop. Yet they always break off at the same ending, which is the scene where Master lifts the Seven Stars Longyuan to stab at me."
"He wanted to kill me, that was true."
Xie Yun closed his eyes and let out a breath.
"And then?" he softly asked.
"And then I woke up, at the doorway of Ci"en Temple, my whole body riddled in scars, and my hand in a rigid grip on this Seven Stars Longyuan. The blood groove along the sword-edge was filled with blood, a lot of blood, but none of it mine."
Shan Chao softly pushed the sword back into the scabbard, his vision deep and concentrated, as if gazing on a portion of his life.
"From that day on I lost all my memories, and do not know who am I, or where I am headed. I do not understand why am I still alive, could it be that at the last moment I wrested the sword and slew my teacher? Yet if I did, how did I get from Mobei to Chang"an? If he is not yet dead, why does he not seek me for revenge?"
"I had been waiting for him all along, and finally realised that if I did not move to find him myself, this matter would not have a genuine conclusion."
There was a slight chirps of insects from the distant gra.s.ses, intermittent, appearing and disappearing.
The moon overhead bore through a dark cloud, slowly reaching its culmination.
"Your memories could have been sealed by someone using secret techniques." Xie Yun said in a m.u.f.fled tone, "perhaps in this world there are secrets whose cruelty exceed imagination, and forgetting them is the best protection…"
Yet Shan Chao shook his head, and said: "n.o.body would easily abandon their own past, Miss Long. No matter how unbearable the truth, it is all evidence that someone had existed before."
Xie Yun"s breath paused a bit, as Shan Chao turned over to sit directly on the railings, nodding his head in slight apology as he put his palms together.
"This entire way I have hardly faced Miss, due to the great distance between men and women, such that we have barely exchanged more than a few words. Tonight we have talked intimately while being comparative strangers, with great offence, pray Miss forgive me."
Xie Yun"s arms were crossed over his chest, his left shoulder leaning against a verdant and luxurious old tree in the courtyard. After looking Shan Chao up and down, he suddenly said coldly:
"Does Master believe, that Commander Xie in Chang"an could be your Master?"
Shan Chao"s movements paused, shaking his head: "I hope not."
"Why?"
Shan Chao laughed mockingly at himself.
"I do not fear Miss"s ridicule, although Master wants to kill me, yet every day and night, as the Big Dipper turns and the stars move, in the great desert of ten thousand li there only he together with me were mutually dependent for survival for those years…"
"I have affection towards him in my heart, and I hope that he is not… the same type as Xie Yun."
Xie Yun"s expression was wooden.
"Miss Long?"
"……"
"You"re right," Xie Yun gave a brilliant smile, his eyes crinkled to be incomparably amiable: "It is late, Master should hurry to rest in peace."
Xie Yun brushed the ground as he turned around to leave. Shan Chao blinked in puzzlement, finding something amiss with these words, but hardly paying attention in his anxiety: "Miss please forgive me, I still have a trivial matter which I fail to understand, please wait a moment!"
Xie Yun"s footsteps stopped, only to hear Shan Chao sincerely talking behind him: "This question was not appropriate to be asked at the banquet, if there is anything rude, I truly beg for Miss"s forgiveness — I only wanted to ask, of a weak woman imprisoned in the Xie manor like Miss, how do you know where famous sects of the martial arts community such as Kongtong and Qingcheng are located, and that they are a distance from Jiangnan?"
Xie Yun slowly turned around, meeting Shan Chao"s eyes.
"I, this young girl…"
Xie Yun"s words had yet to conclude, and suddenly at this time, from near quarters came a disorderly cacophony of collisions and collapses, and then an sharp female scream cut across the horizon —
"Ghost!"
"Men! There"s a ghost—!"
After several seconds of silence, the light of lanterns appeared, as footsteps followed, and the servants and disciples on night patrol yelled as one.
Shan Chao and Xie Yun simultaneously stared.
After half a quarter"s3 time, the inner hall of Sword-Forging Manor.
Shan Chao, Xie Yun, and Chen Haiping who had hurried over upon hearing the news sat at the lower half of the hall, and Fu Wenjie who was the last to arrive was carried in by people, sitting opposite them with a deathly pale complexion.
And on the main seat Fu Xiangrong was wrapped in an outer robe, shivering as she nestled against the Old Madam"s embrace, with a few of her personal maids crying together below. Within them a slightly older girl gathered her wits, sobbing and sniffling: "Mistress heard a movement outside, and after a few of us lifted the bamboo blinds, we saw that female ghost on the courtyard floor… smiling at us… her face covered in blood…"
"Ah!" Fu Xiangrong gave a cry of fear, quickly covering her ears.
"My good child, do not fear," the Old Madam immediately consoled her gently, before speaking angrily to the maid: "Even if speaking in reply to the masters, you should reply more tactfully! Where do so many G.o.ds and demons come from! Our Sword-Forging Manor has decades of brilliant reputation, walking upright and sitting straight4, what lonely soul and wild ghost would dare to visit?"
The maid stammered in explanation: "All of us did see it, that female ghost was dressed in burial clothes, and she looked like… looked like…"
"I see that clearly all of you are up to no good, and collaborated to frighten your masters for amus.e.m.e.nt!" the Old Madam"s age was old and her personality more stubborn: "No need to say anymore, men, bring them down and shut them in the woodshed, for interrogation after daybreak."
The maids burst into tears, with some pleading with the Old Madam, and some crawling up to embrace their mistress"s thigh, the scene immediately bustling with noise. Shan Chao"s lips parted, apparently seeing that the maids were rather pitiful and wishing to lend a few words, yet before he could speak, suddenly Fu Xiangrong gave a screech: "There is a ghost! I just know it"s her, that woman is not resigned—!"
Everyone shook, even the Old Madam stared blankly, before she hurriedly replied: "Don"t talk nonsense!"
"It"s clearly so! That woman came from a small family and managed to climb up to our house, and relying on my brother"s fondness, she didn"t care about her in-laws! In the end she had no fortune and could not bear a son, and died on the birthing bed, and still she comes out every few days to haunt us!" Fu Xiangrong"s long shapely eyebrows rose in anger, growing more furious: "This time I must invite monks and priests to conduct a ritual, and beat her until her soul scatters!"
The Old Madam hurriedly coaxed her daughter: "Bear it for now, our house is currently managing a major event, afterwards you can do any ritual you want…" while she also threw an order: "Drag these maids out! I"m upset by their crying here!"
Xie Yun studied with great interest as opposite him Fu Wenjie"s complexion shifted between green and white, and only after he had appreciated it enough then did he shift his head slightly: "Eldest Young Master Chen."
Chen Haiping was now extremely confused by Xie Yun initiating the conversation, but after a moment of confusion he still could not help it, "—ah, Miss Long?"
Xie Yun said with a smile: "This young girl fails to understand something, and would like to consult Young Master Chen. The female ghost that Young Mistress Fu spoke about, could it be the Young Master"s bed-warmer girl?"
— he said the words "bed-warmer girl" very smoothly and naturally, by the side Shan Chao could not help but raise his eyebrows slightly, glancing at him.
"Miss is exceptionally intelligent, to have guessed half of it." Chen Haiping gave a sigh, speaking in frustration: "As things should be I should not criticise my aunt"s family matters, but the person that my younger cousin is not a bed-warmer… but the former Young Madam5 of Sword-Forging Manor, the cousin-in-law that my older cousin officially wed, who died a year ago in a difficult childbirth."
Xie Yun made an expression of appropriate concern, politely lifting his fingers, indicating for him to continue.
As it turned out the Sword-Forging Manor"s Young Master Fu Wenjie had suffered a qi deviation in his youth while practising martial arts, and injured both his legs, henceforth being unable to walk, making it difficult to match him with an appropriate match in the aristocratic families of the martial arts community. The Old Master was still present at the time, and decided to act for him in betrothing the daughter of an ordinary family. Although there was no substantial family estate, yet the woman was tender and virtuous with the countenance of a flower and a face like the moon6, with a good relationship with Fu Wenjie, already expecting a year after marrying in.
This was originally a happy occasion, but after a few physicians examined her pulse they all claimed that it was a girl, which left the Old Madam unhappy.
The Old Madam originally disliked this daughter-in-law — most parents would feel that their children are the best under the heavens, and the Old Madam was the same, believing that her son was a compatible match with a princess. This daughter-in-law was of humble origin, and yet she had some literary talent, already leaving her mother-in-law dissatisfied; seeing that the relationship between her son and daughter-in-law was very good, with her son even speaking up to defend when she was deliberately grinding down the daughter-in-law, in the Old Madam"s view, this was no different from the son that she raised to adulthood being taken away by another woman.
After knowing that her daughter-in-law was pregnant with a daughter, the Old Madam"s dissatisfaction was aggravated day by day, with several crises erupting between mother- and daughter-in-law. Just at this time when the house was in unrest, a physician who appeared out of nowhere offered up a medical prescription to the Old Madam as tribute, claiming it able to change the female into male — if regularly taken until birth, the female foetus could be turned into a male foetus, and a plump little boy would definitely be born.
The Old Madam was delighted, and immediately ordered people to decoct the prescription to give to her daughter-in-law. Fu Wenjie felt that this prescription was unreliable, but at this moment the unrest at home had already reached the levels between water and fire, and if a son was truly born, the future contradictions between mother and daughter-in-law would logically be entirely solved; thus counting on a tranquil future, he acquiesced to the existence of this "female to male" prescription.
n.o.body in the Sword-Forging Manor expected otherwise, but Man proposes and the heavens disposes, could biological gender be easily altered by the power of humans? The Young Madam had taken the foetus-changing medicine for months, and one day she went into labour, and sure enough it was a difficult birth, struggling for a day and night, before finally gave birth to a deformed child which looked both like a boy and a girl, which gave two cries after falling to the ground and then stopped breathing.
And the Young Madam herself, after the birth went into exhaustion and metrorrhagia, with her soul slowly slipping away, never again getting up from the birthing bed.
n.o.body had expected that a joyous birth would suddenly turn into a funeral, with the Young Master having lost both wife and child, thus he became a widower to this day.
1 Wikipedia page here.
2 羌笛 - this flute is a cultural instrument, which sounds a bit like this:
3 In order to facilitate translation, kè 刻 (≈14.4 minutes) will now be translated as quarter
4 ZH: 行得正坐得
5 ZH: 少夫人 - t.i.tle used to indicate the wife of the young master.
6 ZH: 花容月貌 - used to describe a woman"s beauty.
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