Chapter 21: Only fearing the flowers would go to sleep in the deep night (IV)

Song Shijiu pursed her lips and looked at him heavily, then immediately leaned back, placing her mouth near A Yin’s ear where she was listening to the neighbouring table’s gossip, and said quietly, “Tu Laoyao said you gained some weight.”

A Yin was intently concentrating, and didn’t have any time for his words, and only twisted her lips, cursing under her breath, “Fuck him!”

Song Shijiu, satisfied, drew back, turning back with her eyelids lowered, and said to Tu Laoyao, using both his name and surname, “Tu Laoyao, fuck you.”

Using what she’d just learnt in a vivid manner, even her tone and stress was precisely the same as A Yin’s; Tu Laoyao had never met an innocent and pure young lady who cursed like this, both amusing and laughable; he folded his legs and cracked a couple melon seeds, and leisurely tilted his head, pointing upwards, and said, “Your mother’s arrived.” Silly little girl, I don’t dare to raise my voice to Shiyi-jie, so I still can’t control you.

Song Shijiu was moody, and Tu Laoyao spat out melon shells and scoffed at her. “Hei, you haven’t even lived ten days, and you’re a scholar discussing romance.” It was too amusing.

Li Shiyi sat down in front of the table, having changed into a pair of lightly coloured clothes, and saw Tu Laoyao’s right ankle crossed over his left thigh, swinging back and forth, and Song Shijiu biting her lip, her face indignant; seeing her, unexpectedly, she was very reluctant to look at her, the mood incredibly delicate. “When are you returning to Beijing?” Li Shiyi asked Tu Laoyao.

Tu Laoyao considered it for a moment; having come to Jiaodongdao, his comments made, this was the time for the two forces to part. It was just that Li Shiyi was always someone who didn’t bother about trifles; when someone was allowed to go with her, when they were going to leave was a question that she would never ask; having been asked at this moment, it seemed like there was a hidden meaning. Tu Laoyao, becoming for a moment aware and clever, replied, “What plans do you have?”

Li Shiyi said, “That tomb A Tang just mentioned, I want to go take a look.”

“In this frigid weather!” Tu Laoyao’s tone rose, and seeing Li Shiyi’s resolute manner, slowly carved a sentence: “You really want to go?”

Li Shiyi nodded, and Tu Laoyao considered it for a while, then said, “Since I’ve already come, I’ll go into this tomb with you.”

Li Shiyi started to speak, then hesitated, before saying, “I originally didn’t want you to stay.” She looked at Song Shijiu; that tomb sounded like it was a bit dangerous; she’d just flipped through a book, and hadn’t found any clues, and had originally wanted Tu Laoyao to first take Song Shijiu back to Beijing, but looking at Song Shijiu’s eyes, liquid and babbling, the words backed up in her mouth, then softly retreated. It was as if those lotus root arms were once again embracing her neck, a small, kittenish voice saying by her ear, “I don’t want to.”

Tu Laoyao could see it clearly, and with some meaning pointed out with a laughing voice, “The lady’s grown, she can’t help herself.” Words said, he shook his shoulders, and went to seek A Yin, not far away, to go joke with. Song Shijiu pursed her lips and watched Tu Laoyao leave, angry at his agile retreating form for a bit, and only then drew her gaze back, meanderingly met Li Shiyi’s pensive gaze. Li Shiyi drank a mouthful of tea, looking at her, without any intent to speak, but seemed to have made her decision and was waiting for her to open her mouth. Song Shijiu imitated her and drank a mouthful of tea, looking at her some more, and suddenly felt that sitting like this was incredibly good, too.

Li Shiyi clenched her fist, pressed against her lips, and coughed lowly. Song Shijiu moved her lips from her cup of tea, and suddenly thought of something important, and asked Li Shiyi, “Say, we’re a mother and daughter, right?”

Li Shiyi’s expression abruptly became surprised, and she watched her for a two or three moments, and then shook her head. “Naturally we’re not.”

Song Shijiu cheered up, a great weight falling from her mind, and, beaming, she rested her head on her arms, looking at her with eyes as lustrous and bright as a honey juicy peach. Li Shiyi furrowed her brows, in a rare moment wanting to say something but hesitating. Only after deliberating for a long while how to phrase it, she said, “If you want my money, you don’t have to look for some pretext.” She had thought on it, and seemed to understand why Song Shijiu had such weight on her mind today; most likely, not having a father or a mother, not knowing her origins and not having a destination, she was afraid of being discarded by her, and not having a source of income herself, being unable to eat. It was this that made her think she had to have a mother. She thought of Song Shijiu’s sobbing, tearful appearance as she said she was “unloved by a father or mother”, and her conscience ached dully.

Song Shijiu’s heart clenched. “Money?”

Li Shiyi said, “If you want something, don’t worry about spending it.” She thought a moment, then added, “Since I brought you out of the tomb, I’ll never disregard you.”

Song Shijiu gazed at her earnest expression, her mouth keeping the words “I’ll never disregard you”, for a moment not knowing whether to cry or to laugh; she looked at Li Shiyi’s mouth, which wasn’t firmly and solidly pressed shut, which against reason was bright and glossy in colour and lustre, its curve beautiful; any words she spoke would be pleasant to listen to. She sighed, and hid her head in the crook of her arm.

They rested another night in A Tang’s inn, and only on the second morning packed up their things to leave. Song Shijiu hadn’t slept well, and had gotten up incredibly early, and hadn’t plaited her hair, only holding back her fine black hair with a headband, which gently hung on either side, which, accompanying her fair face with its small point, had the still air of a student. She grasped the bannister and walked downwards, and heard the sound of A Yin and Li Shiyi quarreling with subdued voices. Tu Laoyao, sitting by the side, as usual, had shrunk on himself, the large and small bags piled on the table; A Tang had opened the doors early, turning over the tables and chairs and scrubbing the floor, and, holding up a cup of tea, sat at the inn’s doors, lost in thought. Li Shiyi’s hands were in her sleeves, and she leaned against the wall below the stairs, not making a sound, just listening to A Yin sneering, “Gold, silver; after all, that’s most important in our Shiyi-jie’s eyes; just hearing these two words, you want to get into that tomb.” Yesterday, she’d only paid attention to chatting and leisure, and only this morning had heard Tu Laoyao say that Li Shiyi wanted to go into the tomb.

Tu Laoyao, trying to resolve the dispute, said, “Ai!”

A Yin turned and glared at him, her brow raised high, crossing her arms across her chest, and interrupted him. “What is it? Did I malign her? We agreed to come see our shifus; she didn’t forget to touch the coffin halfway through; clearly she’s a good disciple, never forgetting the familial business of our trade. This is rare, too; not even in those days when your shifu was around did I see you this eagerly attentive.”

Li Shiyi’s tongue pushed against her jaw, and she slowly swept a glance around, still now speaking; raising her head and seeing Song Shijiu had come downstairs, she called to her, “Shijiu.”

A Yin glanced at Song Shijiu consideringly, and tucked away her anger, just pulling back and scoffing, “Go! Go, interest yourself only in profit!” She sat down and folded one leg over the other.

Song Shijiu, seeing she was angry, went over and tugged at her hand. She heard Li Shiyi say, “If you don’t agree, not going is fine too.”

“Bullshit!” A Yin burst out, and struck Song Shijiu’s palm, face cold, not saying any more.

Li Shiyi’s retreat was a method that had been tried a hundred times; it would definitely eat her alive.

As it ought, she scolded herself.

Li Shiyi came over and asked her, “Then, will you go or not?”

A Yin pointed at Song Shijiu and Tu Laoyao, and sneered, “If this lady doesn’t go, who would deal with the corpses? The old, feeble, sick, and disabled?” The two people before her, she managed to summarise in a line of four characters; Tu Laoyao, in her expression, understood that “weak” was Song Shijiu, and the others by the side were all him. Li Shiyi laughed quietly, and immersed herself in packing the luggage.

Waiting for things to all be done being put away, A Tang still remained sitting at the doorway, in a meditative state, motionless; today, she hadn’t combed her hair, the pitch-black hair pushed to one side, the tips of her hair somewhat moist with water, which had been blown by the cold wind into bits of ice, but she was totally unaware of it, only raising her hand to perfunctory smooth her fingers through it.

“We’re leaving,” Li Shiyi said, walking up behind her.

A Tang said mildly, “The day’s snowy, the road will be slippery; go slowly.”

But Li Shiyi sat down by her side, and said, “You didn’t finish yesterday’s story.”

A Tang’s eyes, like overflowing mountain water, were a bit surprised, and she turned her head to look at her, asking with a smile, “What?”

Li Shiyi looked around, her gaze falling on the shop front, which leaked wind, and asked her, “How much money do you make in a month?”

A Tang thought a moment, then said, “This place varies; at most, fifty, and at the lowest, probably twenty.”

“Yesterday you said, when you bought that jiaoren, you spent a few hundred,” Li Shiyi said, pursing her lips, and continued, “what was the reason that would make you spend this much money, just to light a few lamps?”

A Tang gazed at her deeply, and waited for the cold wind to rise again, and only then turned her head, and with a smile, said, “It’s going to be high tide.”

A Yin and the others saw Li Shiyi sitting with A Tang at the doorway, and were puzzled, and picked up the luggage to go over and listen. A Tang called a greeting to them, and leaned her head next to the door, and said, “As a matter of fact, you’re the first to ask me.” She added, “I’m waiting for someone. I’ve been without a father or mother since birth, and I was raised from childhood in a pirate’s harbour; the sea is the same as the underground, and you rely on the heavens for business, hungry at one turn and satisfied at the next, malnourished and sickly as a big radish.” She didn’t know who had given her the name Tang Yu; it was probably a teaching master who’d been snatched. Tang was the flowering crabapple’s tang, and the Yu was the green jade’s Yu. “The past few years, the maritime travel tightened, and we hid away to the west, but we were bombed, and, carelessly, I fell into the sea; I was lucky to escape death, and washed up on Zucheng’s shore, and a was rescued by a fair-faced youth.” The youth was born beautiful and fair, as if having rarely seen the sun, but was actually sickly, with some defect in his eyes. “He looked after me for six or seven days, and soon after wanted to return home, and I asked if he would come again? He said his eyes weren’t good, and he couldn’t remember the way, and was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find the road to come back. I said I would build a small house by the sea, and light the brightest lamps, and he would be sure to be able to find me. He laughed, and said that was good, and he could see it with a single glance. I worked at the shore for two years, and having some money, I turned the house into an inn. The wind at the coast is great, and the lamps would always go out at night, and I feared he wouldn’t be able to find me, so I spent a great amount to buy that jiaoren, and boiled its fat and made lamps.”

A Tang spoke disjointedly; the mermaid ointment lamps brightened and darkened with her words, but from start to finish didn’t go out. Finally, A Tang laughed, and looked outside, and said, “But I don’t know—when will he be able to come back?”

The hope in her gaze was distinct, and it made her look like a thirteen or fourteen year old young lady.

Having heard it all, Li Shiyi gazed at the wind blowing from a distant, and lightly smiled, saying, “I heard say, the jiaoren’s origin is in the South Sea, incredibly far from here. That you ran into one is good fortune.”

A Tang raised her brows, surprised, the corners of her eyes curving up in a smile. “Since it’s good fortune, then I can wait.”

Li Shiyi didn’t comment, standing up and gathering up the things, and nodded to Song Shijiu and the other two, and in the cold winds, bid farewell to A Tang and her small inn.

A Yin choked on a mouthful of cold air, and bundled her coat around her, faintly coughing, still thinking of the lamps in the inn, and said, “I still don’t know—at the end of it, did the jiaoren resemble a fish, or a human?”

Li Shiyi gazed at the sea mist pervading the road before them, and said, “My shifu said, she’d met a jiaoren once. A jiaoren can change form once in their life; when they change into human form, their eyes have mist in them, and their vision is unclear; after seven days of transformation, they won’t be able to return to a human appearance again.”

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