These words were clearly lacking in self-control now, Shan Chao mocked himself with a small smile, thinking in his heart this was simply nonsense, I don"t even have a mother, what d.a.m.n use is such a blessing?
"Well, what does Master intend to do now?" Fu Wenjie studied Shan Chao up and down, his eyes bloodshot, and his expression awfully frantic: "You know the entire matter now, and my person is here, so are you planning to kill me as revenge for those souls who died a wrongful death, or plan to bring me before the officials?"
"….."
Shan Chao hesitated, only to hear Fu Wenjie speak with no lack of ridicule: "Perhaps Master has secret circ.u.mstances, and is unwilling to contact the officials; or Master is unwilling to commit the sin or killing as one who has left home, so you are incapable of killing me… then you may as well have me arrested, and announce my crime to all under the heavens, such that henceforth I would be unable to establish myself in the Jianghu martial-arts circles and be persecuted by everyone, to the extent that some day I would be killed by some other righteous swordsman acting on behalf of the heavens, and by this they would make their name amongst thousands, well?"
Shan Chao only felt that this was fairly absurd: "Why would I do such a thing!"
"Then," Fu Wenjie coldly laughed: "Since you cannot personally kill me, nor can you kill me by means of another person… looks like you can only allow all of this to pa.s.s, and let me walk free away from here?"
Shan Chao subconsciously wanted to refute, yet slightly choked there.
He had escaped from Ci"en Temple, and at the moment was unaware of circ.u.mstances in Chang"an, thus he could not expose his own whereabouts, thus the path of reporting to the officials was not feasible.
Arrest Fu Wenjie and hand him over to the people of the martial-arts circles? The Mysterious Demon School was outside, at that time who would be murderer or victim was still yet known!
Fu Wenjie seemed to see Shan Chao"s hesitation, and a corner of his mouth crooked up: "If Master finds himself embarra.s.sed, I may as well give you a third choice."
He walked towards a corner of the secret room, and that place as laid out according to a lady"s chamber unexpectedly contained a dressing table, and tidily arranged upon it was a flower petal-edged bronze mirror, a small flower pouch, an adornment box of red sandalwood and so on, presumably the goods used by his wife in life. Fu Wenjie seemed to treasure them considerably, as he carefully opened the adornment box, to see that the inside had been divided into three layers, pearls and nephrite and flowering jadeite in a dazzling line-up; the bottom layer contained a case of red wood, which he retrieved and opened to release a strange perfume in the underground room.
That box contained a blossom.
Shan Chao"s pupils slightly contracted—it was the Snow Lotus that everyone had been looking for!
"If Master finds it difficult to make a move, there is no harm in letting me leave, and then take this blossom to exchange with the Mysterious Demon School—the Mysterious Demon School may be an evil sect of the Jianghu, but they truly do have great influence, and for some reason persistently seek this Snow Lotus which could cure all poisons. With this as a bargaining chip, the next half of Master"s life would be spent in high position and great wealth, with family wealth in myriads of strings, which could all be gained in pa.s.sing…"
Fu Wenjie used two fingers to pinch the Snow Lotus, his eyes slanting, as he seemed to gaze at Shan Chao with great interest.
"Well, Master? The flourishing circ.u.mstances of this world can only be bought by the wealthy. I see that Master has a handsome appearance, and filled with life, after tasting the joyous flavour of mortal life, you would forget the bitter days of cultivation with an oil lamp before the statue of Buddha, yes?"
He did not even attempt to cover up the ridicule in his tone, as if completely a.s.sured as to the choice of this young monk before him.
Shan Chao"s sharp brows jumped slightly.
—with the antidote, the Eastern Palace"s Crown Prince"s poison could be easily solved, and perhaps Ci"en Temple could be absolved peacefully of the power struggle between the Empress Wu and the Crown Prince.
Yet, this person Fu Wenjie…
"What is Master hesitating for? Oh, perhaps Master holds righteousness in your heart, and is not attracted to these filthy things of the secular world." A flash of jeering shone in Fu Wenjie"s eyes before it stopped, and with deliberate slowness he held up the Snow Lotus by his mouth, and smiled: "In that case, there is no meaning in preserving it, I may as well eat it…"
Shan Chao shouted: "Stop!"
Fu Wenjie turned a deaf ear, opening his mouth with his posture about to swallow the Snow Lotus.
Shan Chao immediately strode forward, reaching out to seize it, yet Fu Wenjie also practised martial arts, immediately turning to dodge. The two people crossed a few moves in the low secret chamber, Shan Chao"s skill obviously much higher than Fu Wenjie"s, yet he was disadvantaged by holding back to avoid harming the surroundings, his few attempts were constantly avoided by the other, thus his heart could not help but sink.
Fu Wenjie coldly laughed: "Very good, it seems that everyone wants this Snow Lotus, in that case…"
Shan Chao swung his sword in a horizontal chop, complete with its scabbard, to strike Fu Wenjie"s hand which held the Snow Lotus.
Right at this time, Fu Wenjie glimpsed the long sword that Shan Chao had been holding in his arms throughout this whole time, and his face abruptly changed: "Seven Stars Longyuan?!"
Shan Chao did not answer, the scabbard head circ.u.mventing more obstacles to strike the Snow Lotus, yet Fu Wenjie struck out to roughly palm the blossom in his hand, rushing forward to seize his sword: "Bring it here! Why do you have the Seven Stars Longyuan?!"
—how could such a fragile thing as the Snow Lotus stand up to such rough manhandling, Shan Chao"s pupils shrunk, and in the chaos the other seized the scabbard in a death grip.
"Impossible!" Fu Wenjie blurted out in rage: "What relationship do you have to do with the Secret School!"
Whoosh—
Bang!
A pebble as large as a fingernail flew like lightning, and Fu Wenjie immediately screamed as he clutched his ribs, staggering as he fell back, and spat out a spray of blood!
Shan Chao abruptly froze, only to hear a gentle, low and rather magnetic young male voice come from the underground tunnel behind him, the final syllable even seeming to carry a very pleasant, and slightly lilting laugh:
"He has no relation to the Secret School, but he does have a relationship with me."
Shan Chao slowly turned around. At that moment he was under desolate moonlight in a boundless desert, with a desolate wind sweeping along as it whistled past before his eyes, which disappeared in the twinkling of an eye into the dark night in the distance within his memories.
An incomparably familiar yet incomparably unfamiliar silhouette, thin and tall and straight, stood smiling not far in the dusky corner.
"……" Shan Chao opened his mouth, his voice turned very strange due to his hoa.r.s.eness and forbearance:
"How should I address you, Miss Long, Commander Xie, or…"
"…Master?"
Translator"s Notes Chapter 16: The Tang Code
In the context of the novel"s setting (circa 665 CE), Tang China would have had in effect the Tang code, which promulgated in 652 with 502 articles in 12 sections, and enhanced with a commentary in 653.
Within the Tang code, the penalty for an offence is determined by two factors: 1. the offence itself, and 2. relational position (i.e. degree of kinship, social position etc).
Thus in Chapter 11, when the Fu family"s crime of killing a servant girl to replace Fu Xiangrong was revealed, the Fu family would still have received a lower penalty for her murder than if an ordinary person did it. A commutation of sentence would have been entirely possible because the Fu family had a higher social position.
However, the extermination of the entire Fu family by Fu Wenjie"s hand included parricide (the matricide of Old Madam Fu) as well as depravity (killing the Old Madam, his sister, and a lot of family servants), which is one of the Ten Abominations in ancient Chinese law. Fu Wenjie can expect no clemency for his crimes in this case.
- LLS
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