In the hazy light of morning, Xue Dongting suddenly caught a whiff of a very familiar scent. Her eyes shot open. Song Yuming was not in bed. Incense smoke curled up to the ceiling, wisps of smoke from an incense burner rising and wafting about in the room.
She knit her brows. That scent was really familiar. A simple, yet grand scent. Maybe this was just a dream and she was experiencing sleep paralysis. Despite the cold she got up and went to the table where sat the incense burner. She reached out and let the smoke glide past her fingertips. Suddenly she remembered something and her face fell as took several steps back, knocking a porcelain bowl off the table.
Song Yuming heard the commotion from the courtyard. He pushed the doors open and entered. She was staring at the incense burner, panic-stricken. He ran over to her. “Dongting? What"s wrong?”
She watched the smoke. “Where… Where did you get that?” Her voice was quavering.
She knew what this was. Dragon Saliva Incense! She had smelled it before, in the third prince"s manor. This incense was exorbitantly expensive. They said it was saliva from a dragon that dripped into the sea when the dragon slept and congealed into a ma.s.s. That"s why people called it “gold of the sea”. Only the imperial family could obtain this incense. Third Prince loved incense, and he regarded this one as a treasure.
She turned to Song Yuming sharply, an odd look on her face. “Who are you?”
Song Yuming"s eyes clouded briefly and he was silent. Then he said, “I"m just a fisherman.”
Xue Dongting narrowed her eyes, her tone of voice somewhat aggressive. “Then how come you have dragon saliva incense?”
Song Yuming looked at the incense burner. He lifted the lid and watched the smoke drift up. “I found this on a little island. I liked the scent so I brought some back.”
Xue Dongting started, and all her worries melted away. It would not be unusual for a fisherman out at sea to find dragon saliva incense.
Song Yuming looked at her calmly, yet he concealed some of his own misgivings. “It"s called dragon saliva incense?”
Xue Dongting nodded said diffidently, “It seems like it is all…”
“You don"t like the smell?”
She shook her head and said softly, “It smells wonderful. It just makes me think of the past.”
The fisherman smiled. “Since you don"t like it, I"ll throw it out.”
She went “Mm” absently. The fisherman took up the burner at once and went out. She abruptly came to and shouted, “Don"t throw it out!”
Song Yuming turned to her. “Huh?”
“Don"t you know, that stuff is very valuable. We can take it to the incense shop in town and sell it.”
Song Yuming thought about this. “It"s really valuable?” In fact he knew it was dragon saliva incense. Given his mysterious background, he had burned the stuff frequently. He had picked this up on a deserted island and processed it into burnable incense. But he was a bit suspicious. How did Xue Dongting, a girl who had never left her border town, know what dragon saliva incense smelled like? How did she know it was so valuable? And why was she so afraid of it?
Xue Dongting"s eyes were cast down, as if she had detected his suspicions. She said quietly, “Mama Qiao saw a lot during her time in the capital. She told me about dragon saliva incense, so I know it"s really valuable…” She lied because she couldn"t bear to recall the past. She didn"t want Song Yuming to press her on it.
He nodded, his suspicions allayed. Seeing as how Mama Qiao had come from the capital, it was not surprising she would know about that sort of thing.
Translator"s Note: The dragon saliva incense is none other than ambergris, a real aromatic substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. I translated it literally here due to the Chinese setting and because it mentioned the legend of how it came from a dragon"s saliva. Given the context, I felt “ambergris” was a bit too western.