Chapter 25: Where can an intimate friend be found (IV)

Breaths like rust, making one nauseous, spat out from the E Shou’s nose, puffing onto the crown of Li Shiyi’s head; instinctively, Li Shiyi tilted her head, the motion enraging the great, drooling beast; a strong wind moved within the cave, and an excited whining howl once again came from the E Shou’s chest, as if praying devoutly before a satisfying meal. Li Shiyi was toppled to the ground by a flick of its right foot, her shoulder as if having been firmly clamped by iron welding pincers; she could feel the E Shou’s steel-like claws about to break through her bones and flesh, with an unwavering, piercing tension. At death’s moment nearing, her senses had all been carried away; the sounds of Tu Laoyao and A Yin wailing by her ear were far away, as if on the horizon, and in the daze, it all shrank into a sharp, small point, only the aching perspiration remaining now, the thick liquid attracting her gaze. She could only barely sense the sound of her own breathing, entering and exiting at the same time as the terror, as if cutting her in half over and over.

The E Shou tilted its head, nuzzling against her neck, opening its mouth towards her; she strove to move her left hand, which hadn’t been restricted, and, with difficulty, grasped a fire talisman, and, raising her hand, slapped it onto the back of the E Shou. Although she was powerless, if she didn’t completely resist, that was unavoidably a bit cowardly.

The E Shou was infuriated; with a howl of pain, it released its claws, the scent of blood pouring out from its throat, its malicious eyes narrowing, reflecting Li Shiyi’s sneering expression. It was as if she was saying, if you want to eat, hurry up; what sort of appearance is dawdling?

The E Shou pressed its body forward, opening its mouth towards her, its white teeth like eerie, sharp blades, side by side, saliva as thick as a little finger stretching between its top and bottom teeth, the ears that had been at ease at the back of its head standing up, summoning up a chill wind that levelled the ground of the tomb chamber, blowing with a howl through the down on its ears.

Li Shiyi closed her eyes, the corners of her mouth still curled in a way that was neither stingy nor weak. Ignoring the urgent movement of the sand blowing by her side, her body was pressed down heavily, the mild scent of nephrite hitting her full on, entirely not the expected rotten scent of a ferocious beast; Li Shiyi opened her eyes, and unexpectedly, it was Song Shijiu who had crossed to the front, firmly protecting her beneath her own body. One leg inhibited Li Shiyi, a hand supporting her body and pressing her upper body upwards, a hand pressing against Li Shiyi’s right shoulder, the overwhelming furore and terror faintly discernible on her violently rising and falling chest; Li Shiyi leaned very close to her, and could sense the faintest difference in the sound of her heartbeat, as explosive as the scorching sun. This heartbeat…Li Shiyi wanted to raise a hand to tug at her, but her vision had been covered by the ends of Song Shijiu’s hair, and Song Shijiu turned her head to fiercely and ruthlessly gaze at the E Shou, the corners of her eyes the dense red of the ink wash of a blossoming flower, like the raised tail of a crouching phoenix, her joints making a crackling sound, the sound of the mountain wind beating a drum. The hair brushing against Li Shiyi’s face had also rapidly grown a cun.

A pot of warm water lit to a boil; this scene was strange enough to make the group forget to breathe, as if, with their own eyes, they were seeing a Queen of the Night cactus rapidly blooming in the dark of the night, hair floating at her temples like mist and clouds, the beauty bringing a sense of regret to mortals.^[1] She narrowed her red eyes, and turned towards the E Shou’s open lips and pine teeth, making a hurried, low call.

That call was human but inhuman, animal yet not, blue veins showing, incredibly wicked, a mass of pale, deep mist rising half a cun above the space between her brows, spreading and fluttering along with her roar, as if pressing prey back into a cage, then slowly and gracefully vanishing once more.

Calm, calm like death; Li Shiyi couldn’t remember herself having experienced deathly stillness like this before. It was as if having waged a battle of nine deaths and living still in a narrow escape, sitting on a grave mound of the bones of the dead, body weary and strength exhausted, grasping the length of a gun dripping with blood. No—there wasn’t even the flow of blood drops; all sound had disappeared; the rising dust, the fall of dew, the whistling cry of the gale, even the surrounding peoples’ heartbeats and breaths, totally stripped by the incredible matter. The pocket watch pressed against her heart made a ticking sound, its second hand stopped at the three o’clock mark.

Li Shiyi, gasping for breath, gazed at Song Shijiu, stooping over her body; she inclined her face slightly, the rising corners of her eyes and her mouth not yet having drawn back the aura still somewhat seeping from them; she was pretty, her handsome yet mild-tempered features mature, lovable and beautiful enough that it made people shy away. Her breaths were like turbulent waters, rampaging in a way that was hard to inhibit, and the hand that was gripping Li Shiyi’s shoulder trembled faintly; as if having found some consciousness at last, Li Shiyi turned her hand over to support her body, gathering her into her embrace in a placating manner, patting her upper arm, and said mildly, “Don’t be afraid.”

She was calming Song Shijiu’s deep worry and panic, and also striving to make herself calm, as well; the E Shou before them was stopped in its original place, maintaining the posture of being about to bite her, its eyes opened like dead fish, it eyelashes not moving the slightest fraction; at one side, A Yin was prostrate on the ground, scratching at the dust about to crawl in Li Shiyi’s direction, the tears at the corners of her eyes half fallen, teetering, suspended, on her cheeks, their tendency to fall downwards forcibly halted. Tu Laoyao’s look of hatred wanting to crack, cryi and wail for his father and mother as he opened his mouth in Li Shiyi’s direction, the silver threads of saliva hanging between his lips and teeth, as if the product of a spider.

It was clear and easy to see that time had stopped. Li Shiyi swept a glance at the dust suspended in midair, like a gecko that had crawled halfway and frozen like a wooden puppet. But, for some unknown reason, Li Shiyi could still move; she lowered her head and cast a glance at Song Shijiu, not knowing if it the reason was her being protected under her body.

Song Shijiu clutched at her lapels, and, in her embrace, her trembling gradually calmed. With tear-filled lashes, she gazed at Li Shiyi, still sincere, innocent and unadulterated, face gentle, lovable and charming, helplessly biting her lip, the hair that had fanned out drawing back, its chaos coiling around her moist neck. Li Shiyi didn’t know why, but her heart let out a lamenting sigh, and she brushed the chewed-on hair aside, saying, “First leave, alright?”

She very rarely used speech that solicited opinion like “alright”, but to Song Shijiu, who she’d gathered up and attached herself like a small animal, she felt incredibly sensitive to her self-doubts, making her unconsciously soften her tone, but the words she let out were even a bit more gentle than she had intended.

Song Shijiu nodded and stood up, supporting herself on the wall and glanced at A Yin and Tu Laoyao, meditative as sculptures on the spot, then met Li Shiyi’s gaze, first carrying A Yin out of the tomb chamber, and then the two combined their forces to carry Tu Laoyao out.

The river outside the chamber had also stilled, and the leaping and jumping red-scaled fish were suspended in midair; Song Shijiu and Li Shiyi transported A Yin and Tu Laoyao across the river, and on the way, she cautiously and solemnly touched that red-scaled fish in the air; soft, cold, and living. Song Shijiu swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Having dragged A Yin and Tu Laoyao to the mouth of the cave, Li Shiyi and Song Shijiu were close to collapsing; Li Shiyi sat inside, gasping rough breaths as she kicked the iron door, which let out a crashing sound; Song Shijiu pushed her head out, holding her breath, and looked outwards with rapt attention; ants were crawling, rabbits hopping, and leaves were whirling, the wind blowing in threads, small birds letting out chirping calls on the ends of branches; with a couple steps, she jumped out, and with a smile, said to Li Shiyi, “Outside is good!”

Li Shiyi smiled as well, and then used her strength to push A Yin and Tu Laoyao out.

As the last cun of flesh passed out of the mouth of the cave, A Yin dragged in a breath, tears dripping down her chin, and she fell over on the ground, having no strength to make any sound. Tu Laoyao also came to life in a split second, wailing out the incomplete sound of his great, long bawling, his face, wrinkled like a baozi, crying and pounding on the ground at once, and he cried, “Shiyi-jie, ah, Shiyi-jie, how is it that you’re going to be eaten by that horribly ugly rabbit, ah! You thousand-year, ten-thousand-year tortoise, how could you die like this, ah!”

He howled for a while, crying heavily, and only after he twitched for a while did he realise something was amiss, and raised his eyes halfway to cast a glance in all directions; the sun was shining brightly, the mountain’s appearance clear and bright, and a courageous centipede crawled over the back of his hand, and then bored into the leaf litter.

Li Shiyi closed the iron door, and sat at the entrance of the cave, gasping in great breaths; Song Shijiu crouched in front of Tu Laoyao, watching him cry, his complexion at one moment blue, at one moment white.

Unexpectedly, A Yin was the first to react, elbow supporting her body in rising, asking Li Shiyi with a choking sound, “What happened?”

Having, unexpectedly, in a single blink, arrived outside, was a type of crossing that would usually make a person amazed. Li Shiyi cast a gaze at Song Shijiu; Song Shijiu, a bit embarrassed, said, “It seems like it was me.”

When all was said and done, the reason was something that she couldn’t say, either; it seemed that she’d stopped time in that cave, but if asked how it had stopped, her mind would be as if stoppered up with paste, unable to think of anything at all.

A Yin pondered it for a bit, and then said, “Your…magic, how long can it maintain for?”

Song Shijiu shook her head.

Tu Laoyao had used his hands and feet to crawl up, and, sticking out his belly, ran towards the bottom of the mountain, calling, “Then we should flee quickly, ah! What are you doing being still!”

On bestowing something for merit, how about sending out a reward.

Only on arriving at the bottom of the mountain did the group slow their pace; the small shop’s proprietor was still sitting on the rattan chair, dozing off; seeing them, his spirit unexpectedly returned, and he called out to them, “Did you find it?”

Tu Laoyao replied, “Ah, we did.”

The proprietor’s expression was disbelieving, and looked him up and down, saying, “You came out?”

“Ah, we did.”

The proprietor furrowed his brows and drew back, shifting his cotton-shoed feet, and let them pass.

Returning to the city, finding a restaurant and drinking a few cups of tea, Tu Laoyao was still a bit dizzy, and, turning towards the others, asked about the experience within the cave, still remaining puzzled despite having thought about it quite a lot, though his expression looking at Song Shijiu had gained a bit of revere, and didn’t dare to just order the silly girl around with a smile anymore. Having said a few more words, he placed aside his cup, and asked Li Shiyi, “Are we staying here, or not?”

Just as Li Shiyi was about to open her mouth, she heard A Yin say, “How about we go back all together?”

Li Shiyi asked her, “We aren’t going to go see our shifus?”

A Yin bowed her head, silent for a while, and then said with a smile, “Having gotten muddled into this state, what are we doing going to see them? Since they’ve been burnt to ashes, they haven’t been able to recognise me in a long while.” Her fingers tapped against the table by the tea cup’s side, and at a thought, she expressed an appearance of frivolity.

Li Shiyi murmured to herself for a moment, then said, “If you don’t want to, then we won’t go.”

On the matter of her and her shifu, she’d said everything when she’d laid her to rest; going or not going, it didn’t make a difference.

A Yin laughed, standing up and raising the hem of her outfit, and said, “If it’s like that, then let’s go.”

The group paid and hired a car, and finally started on their journey back.

A Yin’s head rested against the car’s wall, rocking and swaying, and finally, unable to bear it, stuck her head out, and cast a glance backwards. When she had been six she had been about to be sold to a low-grade brothel to work, and now, she’d still become a prostitute, wasting the majority of her shifu’s pedigree; if her shifu were to know if it in death, she didn’t know if she would be angry enough so as to discharge smoke from her grave.

Li Shiyi’s head drooped; her bangs faintly swept across her clear, penetrating eyes; Song Shijiu sat at the side, her hands put, orderly, on her knees, turning her head to look out the window without making a sound. Li Shiyi let out a faint sigh, and raised her head, gazing at the road ahead. When they’d been in the tomb, she’d heard the Song Shijiu at her side’s lips trembling, telling a lie to the E Shou one character and pause at a time. She had said: “I don’t like Li Shiyi.”

-

< LAST | HOME | NEXT >

- 

Translator's notes:

[1]: From Su Shi’s Song dynasty poem “On the Chinese Privet” (题毛女贞, Ti Maonüzhen).