Chapter 9: Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir of life (V)

Translator's note (08.09.2023): Hi everyone, I've been informed by members within the fantranslation community of etiquette surrounding fantranslation I wasn't previously aware of. In light of this, I'm making this note to add some information. First of all, I've taken down the links to Earless Translations' translation of Wen Guan on my Wen Guan project/chapters page, and I'll be going back and starting my translation from chapter one, rather than "continuing" Earless Translations' work. However, I still want to acknowledge the work that was put in there, and link that translation of novel, which can be found here. This may take me a while, but I greatly admire those involved in that translation, and do not intend to offend. Secondly, I want to mention douqi, the editor for Earless Translations' translations, as the title for this chapter, as well as the English-language title for this novel, are her work. As I want to respect that, I will also, from henceforth, be using the title "Wen Guan" on my blog rather than using her translation. This chapter will remain up since I've already posted it and linked it elsewhere, but I hope that the effort I've taken here will be enough to rectify any slights.

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Goosebumps had appeared on Tu Laoyao many times before, but never once had they been like this, wave after wave, like tides over his whole body. His neck shook, quivering, even though Li Shiyi’s clear, bright autumnal eyes^[1] remained calm, and he looked up at the back of Song Shijiu’s head, pinching her knuckles to compare to his own, her hair still velvety and covering her ears, and then pulled at her hands, five fingers like small nests, fingernails not even having grown half an inch. “Sure enough, she hasn’t grown.” He pulled away and thought deeply, arms bent haphazardly, and then crossed his arms in a more elegant way and stroked his chin.

A Yin curved her body and leaned forward, sitting across from Li Shiyi, knowing she had a plan, and quickly said, “How come?”

“Perhaps it’s a crafted illusion, and not of the human world,” Li Shiyi softly voiced her conclusion.

Tu Laoyao opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak, but then hesitated, unable to make a sound, and looked around, then furtively pinched the yellow Herb of Yao flowers and considered for seven or eight seconds, before he pointed at Song Shijiu and said, “Then because she hasn’t grown, or changed, she’s not human?” As he spoke, he lightly tapped under the table, clearly having a hard time accepting it.

“Also,” Li Shiyi said, “I ate a lot yesterday.”

“En.” A Yin held the silk handkerchief between her fingers to her cheek, brows somewhat raised, earnestly listening to her words.

“I’m still hungry.” Li Shiyi calmly cast her gaze to where Song Shijiu was pawing at the two empty bowls. In such a case, even if the colour and scent were correct, in the end, after a period of time, the longing for food became too strong—but it was hard to eat without a physical stomach.

A Yin slid her ring finger into her mouth and poked around for a moment behind her lip, part of her thinking deeply, while the other part unconsciously bit at her finger, and suddenly heard a sound coming from the door, where Granny Xia entered, bringing a box of food inside, smiling lovingly, white-haired and with wrinkled skin, and greeted them, putting the basket on the table, and took out a few plates of peanuts and fruit, and said, “Madam-xiansheng, you’re going on a journey, the housekeeper tasked me to bring you some dried fruits to eat on the road.”

Because of her age, her movements weren’t very nimble, and even as she smiled, her hands trembled, and A Yin hastily uncrossed her legs and reached out a hand to Granny Xia to support her, her own slender and pale hand^[2] with its gold bracelet in Granny Xia’s withered, ancient hand, and clutching her, A Yin said, “Granny, be careful.”

It was easy to steady Granny Xia, and turning over her hands, she gathered the peanuts back up, putting them all into a plate on the table, and then finally straightened her waist, and feeling a chill at the back of her neck, froze as if she had been shocked by electricity.

Tu Laoyao’s index finger shook without his permission, and he stood, dumbfounded, for just then he saw Li Shiyi pull back her long legs swiftly and stand, and in two or three moves, come behind Granny Xia, and raise her hand, her expression cold, and moved her hand to slap the talisman Tu Laoyao hadn’t noticed until then was in her palm to the back of Granny Xia’s head without caring for gentleness.

When the old woman was stunned, Tu Laoyao suddenly saw that in the middle of her forehead, above the space between her brows, a hissing cry unlike any human sound was let out, and a ball of hazy vapour issued forth, and then quickly disappeared back into her torso. Tu Laoyao didn’t dare to speak, and only after drawing in a few rough breaths, managed, “Is it, is it restrained?”

Li Shiyi nodded, and sat back down next to the table to have tea.

Only after seeing Li Shiyi’s leisurely and carefree attitude was Tu Laoyao able to release the breath that had been suffocated in his chest, and with a ge-deng, the stone that had been in his heart fell heavily to the ground, and only then was he able to relax his neck and find his inquisitiveness to ask, “How did you know it was her?”

“Just now when I held her hand I felt the bones.” A Yin held the handkerchief and brushed her face with the silk, and smiled sweetly as she added, “Ghost bones, not human bones.” Like Li Shiyi, one glance was sufficient for her.

“Ghosts also have bones?”

“Three hun make one po, seven po make one ghost^[3]. Hun is incorporeal, without a form, po is tangible but has no form, ghosts are tangible and have a form, like humans,” Li Shiyi explained.

Tu Laoyao nodded his head, looking pensive, and cast a glance at the puppet that looked like Granny Xia, and sat down with his legs up, raising his hand seriously to point at her, and said with a shout, “Speak, tell your story!”

A Yin gazed at him in astonishment, while Li Shiyi also paused, expression complicated, and it was only then that he smiled apologetically and said, “I’ve been to the opera, and they always investigate like this.”

Li Shiyi’s gaze was clear and sharp^[4], seeming to concentrate shadow and light, and she looked at Granny Xia with a face turned down, and said with a light voice, “How about we look at the painting.”

They had never left the tomb ever since they had taken the painting—they were trapped in it. Li Shiyi tilted her head toward the bright world outside the window, the clouds which seemed as if rose flowers, tinted red, and thought deeply before she said, “Yesterday leaving the tomb, there was a red cloud by the moon, and now, it’s still hanging on the west side, weeping red blood, its form dark, exactly like vermilion seal^[5] on the silk scroll.” She saw Granny Xia’s pupils dilate, and her lips pull back as if she wanted to speak, then waved her hand, and the talisman at the back of Granny Xia’s neck ignited, a small hole opening up in the middle of the dark blue flame, swiftly devouring the talisman, its ashes sinking into her skeleton.

Tu Laoyao broke into a cold sweat at the sight, and A Yin tapped the table with her fingers a few times, lips crooked, not knowing how to calm him, yet also teasing him for his lack of experience in the world, and said, “It was nothing, nothing at all.”^[6]

The reanimated puppet of Granny Xia moved her head stiffly, straightening her hunched back, her hand that had stopped searching^[7] trembling as it rose up, extremely tenderly adjusting her bun, bloodless and lacking flesh like the claw of a chicken, only dried yellow skin leathery on her skeleton, covered in pulsing veins. Stubbonrly, she struggled to bring her fingers into the orchid shape^[8], and when all her fingers were unable to slide into position, she dropped her chin and crossed her eyes, folding her hands like a gift.

This scene was truly really bizarre, the sunlight passing through her aged and rough appearance, and yet from her clearly desiring eyes, a beautiful appearance was outlined, a woman made by nature, left behind once again, seeming as if able to hear the turning gears of fate. “That truly wasn’t a seal, but actually was my^[9] dearly beloved^[10]. My surname is Ji, and my given name is Shao.”

Her voice was as hard and rough to listen to as a jackdaw’s, and yet its cadence was attractive, seeming to stubbornly guarding the youth that had long faded away, thoroughly causing one to tremble with frightening paranoia.

“Ji Shao…” Li Shiyi narrowed her eyes and said, “Xia Ji?”^[11]

“‘Kill three husbands and one monarch, one country and two ministers are lost’, Xia Ji.” Xia Ji’s cloudy eyes were long dead, but they had originally been quick and sharp, and they still were seductive where they flitted at the corners, the morning sun setting on the ravines that criss-crossed her face, filled with the faded years.

“Isn’t that a lie?” A Yin peeled a peanut, and continued, “Xia Ji was a well-known beauty, how could she look like this?”

The sound of her peeling the peanuts caused Tu Laoyao to snap out of it, and in a daze he reached out and grabbed a few broken shells from her handkerchief, also unable to find anything amiss, also set his heart on peeling, and only after finishing to listen to A Yin’s words did he touch her elbow and said, “Who? Someone you two recognise?”

Since he was too ignorant to have a meaningful conversation with^[12], A Yin laughed sarcastically, keeping calm in the face of the unexpected.

“This is exactly what I originally looked like.” Xia Ji gave a flurried laugh, serenely looking at A Yin’s youthful and full brows, though whether it was regret or resentment was unclear.

The Beijing team gathered came to and cleared their throats hastily and babbled, and she cut them off. “Stop clamouring, stand still, and Xue Liang and I will ask again—listen to what Xue Liang has to say.

”I was born ordinary, and I came upon the Herb of Yao by chance. ‘All its leaves harmonious, its flowers yellow, it is in fact grave dodder^[13], serving to flatter the person.’ Ah, flattering the person, with fine brows and a broad forehead^[14], this is how an immortal beauty appears.” She took a few steps one at a time, like a weak willow tree supported by the wind, as if a train^[15] was twisted around her legs, her bearing that of a beautiful lady.

“After achieving a beautiful appearance, I was exceedingly anxious, fearing that one day I would become ugly again, just like my original appearance. After that, I discovered that after eating the Herb of Yao, it was impossible to spit out, but there was another thing; whoever escapes the power of aristocrats and monarchs, that is precisely—systematically^[16], for one year^[17]. The years are like floodwaters, and a beautiful woman in winter is past her prime.”

She was beautiful even in ill health^[18], and her brows furrowed as she continued. “I searched everywhere for a cure, prayed every day, and at last in an ancient temple at the foot of a mountain, the gods favoured me, and I met a lady^[19]. The lady listened to my grief-stricken words, and, pitying me, said she could bestow me everlasting time, but…only in exchange for eternal love.

“I gave my not yet developed love to obtain unextinguishing agelessness, everlasting as the stars and constellations, the light of the sun. For fifteen years, I was as splendid as the peach and the plum, my name spread by everyone beneath the heavens, and I secretly tasted the forbidden fruit at my childhood sweetheart’s^[20] side. But after three years, barely three years, he became withered, and we parted forever as he found eternal rest. My father was furious, and married me off to the Chen state^[21], where my husband and I were harmonious mariage, gambling and splashing ink, and had between us a pair of children, and when the youngest was still a child, my husband passed away in the prime of his life. Soon after, I was given to old Lian Yinxiang of the Chu state^[22], and before long, he became weak and died on the battlefield. But while my age was without a doubt, my appearance seemed as if to only be sixteen, teeth beautiful and even like rows of melon seeds^[23], eyes lustrous.

“It was only then that I realised the meaning of the lady’s words, that I myself took the light from my beloveds’ bodies, that not one person could accompany me hand in hand in old age, accompany me in spending the last years of life.”

A Yin took her handkerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes, while Tu Laoyao sat, calm and collected, on the stool and shifted back a further from Xia Ji. Song Shijiu circled Xia Ji twice, and then returned to Li Shiyi and climbed onto the stool by herself and cast her legs to the side as she sat, grabbing A Yin’s hand and eating the peeled peanuts, considering A Yin’s description, and unconsciously put her right leg atop her left knee, swinging it like a swing.

Li Shiyi glanced at her, and curled her fingers and tapped the top of her crossed legs, and Song Shijiu pursed her lips and put her feet down and sat up properly.

“Afterwards, I met him.” Xia Ji raised her head, her eyes brilliantly bright and colourful, combing through the long-sealed memories like the teeth of a wooden comb. “He was known as Qu Wu. Him and I, our hearts were sealed, and we pledged our undying love, and thinking of my own situation, I did not want him to die of old age, so in the autumn I went again to seek that lady, to beg her to take back what she had bestowed upon me by spiritual force, because without him, what meaning did never growing old or dying have? The lady…she laughed, and said I had made a deal with time, and that time would repay me in double^[24]. At the time, I didn’t understand the lady’s meaning. I asked Qu-lang^[25] ah, Qu-lang, if I became utterly grotesque, would you still pity me and love me? Beloved ah, beloved, if my appearance isn’t beautiful, will your heart still be pleased by me? Beloved ah, beloved, if my appearance isn’t beautiful, will your heart still be pleased by me?!”

Li Shiyi’s eyes were dark, her long lashes casting shadows. Having listened to Xia Ji she said in a voice softer than that of a mosquito, “He replied, my heart would be pleased by you, just as the mountains and the seas remain.”

Xia Ji’s head rose artlessly, and her eyes were filled to the brim with emotion, but when all was said and done, the age had entered her blood, and not even a drop of new tears remained. “The lady took back her blessing, the one I explained so carefully returned, but after no more than two or three days had passed, I became like this.” Old Xia Ji smiled and continued, “My dear beloved, ah, the beloved I swore my undying love to, suddenly wet himself from fear, shouting that I was a monster and a devil, at the same time losing his head out of fear, and killed me daily in the once-happy qin^[26] room. I was in my forties and appeared beautiful and full of colour, and three husbands had died and one country had been lost, but Qu-lang treated me like a rich flower. And yet when the beauty was gone, I became a monster to him.” She murmured something, but Li Shiyi couldn’t hear it clearly.

“He said what?” Tu Laoyao asked A Yin quietly.

Of course, A Yin’s ears couldn’t capture her words either, but she earnestly whispered into his ears secretively, “A man’s mouth is a deceitful ghost.”

Li Shiyi swept her gaze towards her, but she could more or less guess the remainder of the story wasn’t much different. Before facing death, Xia Ji’s dearly grievance and her dearly beloved were one and the same and attached to the painting, and because of its antiquity, the painting was auctioned off, and met many lovers in the mortal world, and the essence of its hun was refined into a ghost’s po, hiding in the painting to take revenge on the human world. A few months ago, Master Wu took it home with him, and hung it in Madam Zhao’s room, and Xia Ji possessed Madam Zhao, lingering with Master Wu day and night, taking his vitality, which was why Master Wu’s appearance deteriorated. After Madam Zhao died, the painting was buried in the coffin, and mixing with her yin energy, grew even more capable, disguising itself as the Herb of Yao to confuse grave-robbers, but Li Shiyi and the others who had not been bewitched by the Herb of Yao were trapped in the painting the moment it had been opened.

Li Shiyi pondered for a while, and then came upon the important thing that had been overlooked and asked, “That lady, what was her name?”

Xia Ji said, “The name of that lady, it cannot be said by mortals, I only called her Lady Ninth.”

“Nine?” Li Shiyi furrowed her brows. Three peoples’ gazes compounded on Song Shijiu.

Song Shijiu gave a hiccough, a peanut shell sticking to her chin, and moved her small hands to and fro, her head swinging back and forth like a rattle drum.

“Lady Ninth.” She pronounced the emphasis with a childish voice as she repeated it, and said with a voice of grievance, “I’m small.”

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Translator's notes:

[1.] The description 秋水 (qiu shui), literally “autumnal waters”, is a traditional descriptor of beautiful women’s eyes.

[2.] The term 柔荑 (ruo ti), meaning a sprout, shoot, or tender bud, is also used to describe women’s hands as slender and pale.

[3.] 魂 (hun) and 魄 (po) are the two types of soul in Chinese traditional religion and philosophy. According to tradition, hun is the ethereal, yang soul which leaves the body after death, associated with the divine (神, shen), and po is the corporeal, substantive yin soul which remains with the corpse, associated with ghosts (鬼, gui). The number of each within a person varies based on tradition; one Daoist tradition proposes 三魂七魄 (san hun qi po), where the three hun may stand for the three principles of social order (三纲, san gang), consisting of the relationships between the ruler-subject, father-child, and husband-wife, while the seven po may stand seven apertures (七窍, qi qiao) in the head, ears, mouth, eyes, and nostrils, or seven emotions (七情, qi qing), joy, sorrow, fear, anger, worry, fright, and grief.

[4.] I’m unable to find a precise explanation for the phrase 剪水 (jian shui, literally “cutting water”) used to describe Li Shiyi’s gaze, and have made a guess based on the information I can gather and translated it as clear and sharp.

[5.] The term Qi Xiao Huangshu uses is zhuyin (朱印), a type of seal stamp given to worshippers and visitors to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan, which is known in Japanese as shuin. The seal left by the stamp is red, and then the the person’s name, date of visit, temple or shrine name, as well as relevant deities or other messages are written on top in black ink.

[6.] The phrase 雕虫小技 (jiao chong xiao ji) is used to describe insignificant skills, minor accomplishments, or insignificant talents.

[7.] The phrase used in the raws is 停在推测的手 (ting zai tuice de shou), which translates literally as “the hands that stopped at speculation”, but I’m not sure exactly the intent of the author in using that phrasing, so I’ve changed it to “searching” instead.

[8.] “Orchid-shaped fingers” (兰花指, lanhua zhi) is a hand gesture in traditional Chinese opera, in which the actor touches the tips of the middle finger and the thumb while raising the remaining three fingers, used to show grace and delicacy.

[9.] Granny Xia is using the pronoun 吾 (wu), an archaic personal pronoun.

[10.] The phrase used is 心头血 (xintou xue), literally “heart’s blood”, used to mean something dear to the speaker.

[11.]: Xia Ji was a Chinese noblewoman (born 630 BCE) of the Spring and Autumn period (770 BCE to 481 BCE), known for her exceptional beauty, who reportedly married multiple times.

[12.] Qi Xiao Huangshu uses the phrase 夏虫不可以语冰 (xia chong bu keyi yu bing), literally “a summer insect cannot discuss ice”, a phrase attributed to Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou) in his book Zhuangzi, in which the full phrase is “a summer insect cannot discuss ice—it is bound to a single season”, which refers to those lacking in basic knowledge or experience hinders one's cognition on a certain topic.

[13.] The term used is 菟丘 (tu qiu), which has no corresponding compound word as far as I am aware, so I’ve chosen to translate it as the sum of its parts—one definition of 丘 (qiu) being grave, and 菟 (tu) being the parasitic plant dodder (Cuscuta).

[14.] An inverted version of 螓首蛾眉 (qin shou e mei), of someone “with a broad forehead and fine brows”, referring to eyebrows that are slender and curved like silkworms, and a forehead like the 螓 (qin), a cicada with a square head.

[15.] 裾 (ju), the sloping front piece of a Chinese gown.

[16.] Qi Xiao Huangshu uses the idiom 子丑寅卯 (zi chou yin mao), which refers to the first four of the twelve Earthly Branches, indicating something is done in an orderly or systematic way.

[17.] 春夏秋冬 (chun xia qiu dong) are the names of the four seasons, starting with the spring, and can be used to emphasise that the speaker means a full year.

[18.] The idiom 西子捧心 (Xizi peng xin) means literally “Xishi touches her heart”, and is used figuratively to describe women who are beautiful even as they suffer in the throes of illness.

[19.] The term 大人 (da ren), used as an honourific, is not inherently gendered. The usage of the feminine pronoun in the next sentence is why I’ve translated it as “lady”.

[20.] 青梅竹马 (qing mei zhu ma), literally “green plums and hobby-horse” can refer to either innocent children’s games, or to a couple who grew up as childhood friends. In this context, it means the latter.

[21.] The Chen state was a vassal state of the Zhou dynasty existing from 1045 BCE to 479 BCE.

[22.] The Chu state was a vassal state of the Zhou dynasty, lasting from some time in the 8th century BCE until 223 BCE, when it was destroyed by the Qin during the Qin’s wars of reunification.

[23.] The idiom used is 齿如瓠犀 (chi ru hu xi), taken from a line in Shijing, known in English as the Book of Songs, a classical Chinese work that collects roughly three hundred poems by various anonymous authors. This phrase is taken from the poem 硕人 (shuo ren), and the full line is also the apparent origin of terms 柔荑 (ruo ti) and 螓首蛾眉 (qin shou e mei) as descriptors.

[24.] This bit relies on the wording of the raws; the time referred to is the shichen (时辰), a form of traditional Chinese measurement of the day that encompassed two hours, also known as double time.

[25.] 郎 (lang) is used here as “darling” or “lover” (by a woman addressing a man).

[26.] 琴 (qin) can be used to refer both to the guqin, a type of Chinese instrument, or musical instruments generally.