Chapter 86: Dreaming nine times of the lord for ten nights in the pavilion (XI)

Three drops of the night dew, on tenterhooks, dripped down from the branch; the sleeping fishswayed to and fro five times; Song Shijiu walked seven paces, until only half a shadow's distance remained between her and Li Shiyi, yet still didn't hear her denial.

Her entire entrustment, her full heart of affection, her green plum, her bamboo horse, all her dreams of hugging and kissing the mountains and rivers, and her entire unsteady memories, at this moment stood within the curtain of the night, as cold as a pearl of green jade, not having the boldness to deny her own guardedness against her.

Song Shijiu gazed at Li Shiyi, her eyes unmoving, her eyelids twitching, then twitching again. She finally understood, when she'd looked at her before, what that vast, boundless sense of emptiness was; it was because she and Li Shiyi had both lived for too long; when the memories crammed full of emotions came thick and fast, the association and affection of the past few months between herself and her had been pulled to extreme frailty, like a piece of dumpling skin that, the more it was pulled, the longer it became; she could clearly see that the middle portion was gradually becoming transparent, and the not too evenly taut fibre would collapse at the first blow, but she couldn't stop herself from tugging her hands from either side.

What was a sense of helplessness? Fearing yet having no choice but to fear; this was a sense of helplessness.

She lowered her head, then raised it once more, her gaze thrown onto Li Shiyi's face like a gust of fierce, forceful wind, the sound of birds' panic-stricken wingbeats, and A Yin's urgent cry of alarm; Li Shiyi lowered her lashes; Song Shijiu's open right hand paused a cun away from the tip of her nose.

Within her palm was a twisting, roaming killing intent, and it jostled and charged between her slender, fair fingers, as if needing only her to lightly bring her fingers together, and then she could crush the people before her who had yet to realise the truth; yet Li Shiyi only lightly pressed her lips together, her gaze passing through the glimmer between her fingers, gently meeting Song Shijiu, whose breaths rose and fell.

The Shengsheng withdrew its jaw and shifted away the hand covering its eyes, and saw Jiu-daren tilt her face, shifting her gaze down one cun at a time, and then finally stopping on Li Shiyi's lowered left hand. That had still held the stem of a copper smoking pipe, gentle as the breeze and light as the clouds; her wrist held strength, and forcibly obstructed A Luo's extended right hand.

But in the end, it was a bit too late. The umbrella opened in a revolving circle over Song Shijiu's head, blossoming slowly like the royal crown of a Queen of the Night cactus flower.

Song Shijiu raised her head and gazed at Ti Deng, which ought to have been in A Luo's hand; the clear glow falling beneath the umbrella was incredibly beautiful, like fluttering fireflies, and fell into her deep black pupils, a beautiful lantern lit up for her.

When the light entered one's eyes, their life would be cut short. So, this was Ti Deng.

She watched silently, and then withdrew her hand, pressing her lips together desolately, and then turned and left.

A Yin shifted her heels, wanting to chase after her, yet seeing Li Shiyi's lowered eyes gazing at the ground, her chest emptied, as if it were withdrawing.

Li Shiyi understood Song Shijiu too well; she was a clever woman, with a heart with seven cavities; if she couldn't bear to part with her, then when she turned around, she would pause slightly and tilt her face partway, her eyelashes fluttering with reluctance, leaving the leeway for pursuit to Li Shiyi. Yet this time, she hadn't. Just then, Li Shiyi had gazed at her without blinking, and hadn't caught a single beat of hesitance. That meant, then, that she didn't want Li Shiyi to chase after her.

Li Shiyi sighed, her index finger curling and drawing the smoking pipe back, and grasped it in her palm, then looked at Ti Deng, then met A Luo's gaze.

A Luo raised her hand and retrieved Ti Deng, extending her neck and attentively stroking the side of the umbrella; only after stroking it a few times did she speak, and say in a low tone, "I ought not have acted, yet…because of her, I lost you."

She'd never before told Li Shiyi she had, time after time, dearly hoped to find her like this, so much so that even this sentence had never been stained with unnecessary emotions, narrated evenly and neutrally as if saying that the weather today was especially good.

Yet Li Shiyi suddenly remembered A Luo had waited so long for A Yin; when she'd been extremely helpless, she'd withdrawn into the seat, and called out that "A Heng".

Li Shiyi fell into silence; she was just about to speak, when she heard the sound of a woman, like the cry of a bird. "As if it were because of daren!"

The sound was ethereal, as if it weren't human, but rather as if it had washed up from within a ripple. The entire group was startled, and looked around the surroundings, yet didn't see a trace of a person, on the Shengsheng, eyes bright and full of expression, gazing at the tranquil surface of the lake. So, the few people focused their gazes on the shore, and after a short while, sure enough, ripples appeared, a fish the size of the palm leaking out from within the lake, and then hurriedly falling back in.

The fish was entirely golden yellow, its head flushed red, its body round and full, like an exquisite, delicate hydrangea.

"Henggongyu?" A Luo asked, surprised.

The Henggongyu, Li Shiyi had read of in the Shenyijing; it was a strange beast of Mount Zhongshan, and had grown within a glacier, its scales unparalleled in hardness, impervious to sword or spear. In the day, it had the form of a fish, and at night, it could take on a human form; all its life, it feared the black plum the most; if black plums were boiled in water, it would instantly transform.

The Henggongyu, hearing Yama-daren call it, jumped out a couple times more, making an arrangement that counted as a greeting, then immediately sank into the water, and spat out rumbling bubbles. The bubbles became smaller and smaller, and soon, disappeared from view. Waiting another ten or more seconds, the surface of the water by the shore began to form small, windless waves, and then gathered into a thin layer of mountain fog; when the water parted, it stole into everyone's breaths and pores, as if they were dreaming a beautiful dream of heart's content.

Within the mist, a small, flickering light was lit; it rose and fell, slowly shifting, drawing a bit closer, and then a bit closer, and only then could the uneven skin surrounding that lamp be seen.

What lamp was that? It was clearly a gathering of crocodiles, their copper bell-large eyes wide, gazing grimly at the shore.

In the terrifying brightness, the surface of the lake began to lap and sway, and from within the water, a bare, nude woman emerged, her lacquer-black, long hair wrapping around her wonderfully handsome body, as if carrying a few strips of long kelp; she parted the water's mist, and stood, damp and dripping, yet didn't shiver in the slightest.

Unexpectedly it was A Yin who trembled in her place.

For a moment, the group looked at each other without speaking; in the end, A Yin's reaction was the quickest, and in a few steps, she advanced, her back cutting off A Luo's line of sight, and then raised her hand, and took off her own overcoat, moving forward to wrap it around her, asking as she fastened it the buttons tightly, "Just now, it was you who spoke?"

A Luo allowed her to finish her motions and return to her own side, and only then took her own cloak off, and draped it over A Yin's shoulders.

The Henggongyu, bundled up tightly in A Yin's clothes, only with great difficulty struggled and got her hands through the sleeves; as she put it on, she spoke: "It was; I'm A Yu." A fragile, tender young woman; when she spoke, her head shook and swayed, and two locks of hair dangled down, like long fish's whiskers.

She had returned because of Jiu-daren, and only because of sensing the undulation of qi had swum over; yet, first, she'd noticed Ling Heng and Yan Futi were here, and had been so scared she didn't dare make a sound, watching as Yan Futi repeatedly blamed Jiu-daren, and only then hadn't been able to stop herself from speaking.

"That case from then, I couldn't be clearer on." She sat cross-legged by the side of the lake, extending her hand to pat the head of the closest alligator, as if clapping a gavel, about to narrate the story^[1] in such detail.

Li Shiyi looked in the direction that Song Shijiu had disappeared in, and restrained the faintly uneasy feeling, determined to put reason first, and listen to the reason.

A Yu looked very young and immature, yet when she spoke, she sounded incredibly old; in a few words, she succinctly explained the matter of the Taishan seat and Zhu Yan with clarity; Li Shiyi's eyes widened, her mind unconsciously drawing the outline of an arrogant, aggressive Song Shijiu, her gathered, long hair swaying behind her head, her crossed toes also swaying; Li Shiyi's brows seemed to also calmly and collectedly sway. Her complexion finally showed a weak point when the Henggongyu spoke of "seduction"; A Yin dazedly lowered the hand holding the handkerchief, and A Luo also dazedly tapped her index finger against Ti Deng.

A Yu said, "That day, daren was determined to seduce you; for fear that my own suggestion had a problem, secretly hid in the residence's pond, so as to avoid chaos breaking out."

"Chaos breaking out?" A Yin interrupted.

A Yu nodded. "Our daren, she has shortcomings. When she drinks excessively, she's reckless, and when she's reckless, she forgets."

A Yin hissed, yet she heard an inaudible "en" by her ear. "En?" A Yin and A Luo turned their heads, doubtfully gazing at Li Shiyi's thoughtful face.

Li Shiyi drew her soul back, and shot a glance at the two, then suddenly asked A Yu, "How did you know?"

A Yu said grimly, "It's known by everyone on Mount Zhongshan; it's said that when daren was still a snakeling, she drank too much exquisite, thick morning dew and tugged at Yu-daren's sleeve, calling for her mother."

So, it was this recklessness; A Yin swayed her handkerchief, coughing internally a couple times, and then nodded to A Yu. "Continue speaking."

"Who could have guessed that a mishap truly occured," A Yu said, patting the alligator's heads once more. "That Ling Heng…daren drank the wine, yet she furrowed her brows, and said it wasn't right, and, suspecting Jiu-daren had tampered with it, the two's words weren't as they ought to be, and they fought once more.

"The two daren were dizzy, and they fought at one turn, and stopped at one turn, pursuing each other to the Naihe bridge; Jiu-daren staggered, about to tumble, and Ling Heng-daren reached out a hand and tugged her, yet she saw Jiu-daren, in the panic, push her away with both hands, carelessly shoving Ling Heng-daren into reincarnating.

"When Jiu-daren pushed Ling Heng-daren, her hand was pinched in the motion of time, and so, she pushed Ling Heng-daren a few decades into the future. And then, daren's centre of gravity wasn't stable, and she stumble down herself as well. That time…1924, winter; the twentieth year that daren had lived in the Taishan seat."

The group descended into silence; the memories in Li Shiyi's mind was upended like a paper horse carousel lantern; from the laughter of high-heeled shoes propped up on the desk, to leading the first, clumsily-learnt dance, skirts swaying to and fro, to the mountain god's temple, playing the first song of the horizontal dizi, and finally, falling to the infant's first, small hiccough after opening the coffin.

So, it was like this.

She held her own arms, as if gathering up all the twining, rambling fates, stroking up and down, and then raised her head once more to ask the Henggongyu, "That passion-causing nectar, since it was used for creating passion, how come it causes one to become muddleheaded, and almost entirely lose their memories?"

The Henggongyu was puzzled as well, head swinging like a child's drum rattle; Li Shiyi was just pondering it, when she heard a hesitant sentence by her side. "It was me."

A Luo stared vacantly, even herself having some trouble believing it; she swallowed, and gently yet difficultly supplemented the emptiness of sentiment. "At that time, Zhu Jiuyin had lived for too long in the Taishan seat, and for many times, had sought out Ling Heng to fight; I discussed it with Wu Qian, how to send her away. In my place, Wu Qian requested Meng Po's soup from Meng Po, in order to induce her to swallow it, and, once it had caused her to forget the past, drive her away once more." She paused, and then added, "In order to ensure efficacy, I even specifically asked for the most dense soup base."

She had somewhat an inability to speak, her complexion so wan it was almost pale, and awkwardly and embarrassedly, she looked at Li Shiyi, only then saying, "That day, I saw her sitting in the teashop, facing a newly-bought jar of blossom nectar, looking about with an incredibly happy appearance. Conveniently, A Heng passed by, and, when she was leaning against the railing, looking at her, I sent someone to swap out the blossom nectar.

"Swap it out for…for Meng Po's soup."

-

< LAST | HOME | NEXT >

 

-

Translator's notes:

[1]: Specifically referencing 评书 (pingshu), folk art where the performer narrates stories from history or fiction.