Chapter 98: Yet with the xiansheng's closed jade coffin (IX)

Li Shiyi hadn't chosen to ride a boat, and had only bought a few short-distance train tickets, following the map to travel from one town to the next. Only on leaving the southwest did she sense that the world was truly in chaos; all over were malnourished and sickly refugees, the majority of which couldn't enter the city, only cowering and cringing as they crowded the outskirts, mixed in with the beggars.

Her gait was hurried as she walked between the peace and the unrest, listening to the youths within the city weep with the longing for tanghulu, and also listening to the children outside the city, whose chests stuck to their backs with hunger.

The money in her possession wasn't much, but distributing change along the road, after four or five days, her financial situation was somewhat tight. Luckily, she'd always had a plan, and had set aside her travel expenses as one, and the savings for emergencies as another, and only the remainder was to help the needy along the road. Each time she tossed out a sesame seed cake, she'd always think of Song Shijiu.

She'd been this certain that Song Shijiu wouldn't take a train or a boat, and also certain that she'd previously measured the multitude of states of the mortal world through footsteps, the same as she had, and would also pull back her skirts and crouch down, extending a hand to hold out a piece of cake.

Li Shiyi regarded herself as someone who wasn't extremely gentle, but she would always give people some leeway. Just as she walked neither rapidly nor slowly, she gave margin to Song Shijiu in her reflections. And, it could be said that she followed blindly in suit as she trod around the cities and waters, and gave the margin of pursuit to herself.

She didn't know what sort of mentality Song Shijiu had had when chasing after her at that time; if she wanted to understand, a hundred footsteps wouldn't be enough, a thousand footsteps wouldn't be enough, and she feared that she'd have to walk countless steps, walking past countless people.

Her character was too slow; she would have to spend a great deal of time in order to heat a jar of wine and hold up the fragrant, fermented honey and ask her beloved to drink.

She set the wine cup down; the three characters of "beloved" had caused ripples to flood her heart from the disturbance, and she shifted her gaze, reclining on the inn's railing and looking downwards onto the bustling, tide-like passersby, bodies stiff as if being pushed forward; she suddenly thought that this was Xiangxi, and, at the time, she'd studied driving away ghosts with her shifu, and had come once to visit an old friend.

She pushed aside the red rope on her hand, her fingers curling atop the wood railing, tapping it thrice; once light, once heavy, and once as soft as pushing a door open. The art of this trade, she hadn't used in a long while; at the time, hungry and full at turns, how could she ever have thought there would be this sort of stroke of luck, from an earthen tomb, Fujun-daren would emerge, the chicken-feeding young woman being the Yama from the fiends and monsters in folktales, and the infant who'd been taken out was actually Zhu Jiuyin, greater than the jianghu?

Look; regardless of where the train of thought had come from, Li Shiyi's final stop was all the same.

She lightly lifted her lips in a smile, smiling at her state of mind being both empty and destined; her thoughts were always unhurried, but when she would pay, in the sound of her cuffs rustling, she would think of Song Shijiu, or when her chopsticks knocked against the bowls and plates when she ate, she would think of Song Shijiu, and when she closed the bolt during the night, in the slight swaying aftershocks, she would think of Song Shijiu. She missed the domestic and the trivial, and inevitably when merely a sound would emerge, it would be as if it could conceal the pounding in her heart somewhat, yet wouldn't sound too world-shaking, fearing to disturb the painstaking control.

She didn't dare to miss Song Shijiu too much; she feared she'd feel she was lonely.

The scarred skin plaster she hadn't used in a long while was pasted to her face once more, the outmoded guapi hat gathered up a headful of hair, and she hunched and pulled her neck back, wearing a worn, grey jacket with her hands in her pockets, not even her gender conspicuous.

At one side, the dust billowed upwards, the sound of hoofbeats striking aggressive; Li Shiyi coughed lightly, narrowing her eyes and waiting for the group of arrogant soldiers to drive their horses by. The hoofbeats overturned a couple of vendors' stands, and the peddlers, well-accustomed, didn't even let out shouts of surprise, silently picking up fruit with lowered heads. On the other side, an infant was startled into bawling by a whip, rather heart-rending; as the wife swayed the child and coaxed, she followed the along the aching back of the young child, her own distress congealing into beads of tears.

Li Shiyi tilted her face and watched, walking to the middle of the road, and picked up the fallen tiger hat of the child up, about to pass it to the wife. Holding that hat, she was somewhat stunned; once upon a time, there had been a powder-carved, jade-cut infant, who had neither cried nor bawled, gnawing on a white flour mantou, wearing old clothes which covered her fingers; what tiger hat or rattle-drum? What others had had, she hadn't had anything at all, but she always swayed her sleeves, curving her glinting eyes and smiling at her.

From infancy to adulthood, she'd truly never amused Song Shijiu, but she was truly this satisfied, not even having the slightest excess of greed.

The young wife took the hat, body bent as she thanked Li Shiyi; Li Shiyi turned around, about to leave, and suddenly heard a burst of sharp whistles from behind, the sounds of surprise and alarm rising and falling in succession, a stiff, huge metal thing rushing over from the disorderly, scattered dust, with the puffing air vents like a fierce tiger's harsh gasps while hunting.

The hood of the car instantly came before one's eyes; in an instant, Li Shiyi leaped and dodged aside, her right hand customarily drawing back, instinctively protecting her back.

The sound of brakes rose suddenly, so ear-piercing they seemed to be clawing at one's ears, the wheels leaving tire track after tire track on the ground, the engine sputtering as it shook, shaking the car as if it were an elder struggling and gasping, coming to a stop in fits and starts. Li Shiyi lowered the hand in midair, her heart thudding with premonition, blinking as she gazed at that Western car.

The passersby on either side still didn't dare draw great breaths, and didn't know which master this was; as they tidied up, they cast furtive glances; that car seemed to have been burnt heavily, puffing and wheezing, as if having lost a hunt, somewhat unhappy. With a "ka", the car's door seemed to have been smashed open, and, from within the rolling, thick smoke, a familiar figure leaped out.

"Li Shiyi!"

Li Shiyi furrowed her brows, and then rapidly let them loose, her pupils expanding in disbelief, her gaze looking from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top, and then finally returning to their original indifference, gazing cooly at the person before her.

That was right; it was precisely this expression; the person before her was even more certain that he hadn't recognised the wrong person. He grinned as he came over, still with beady eyes and a wide, wide mouth drawn up, about to extend a hand to pat Li Shiyi's shoulder, and then aloofly withdrew it, neck shifting a feew times in his Western-style collar, and then he said, laughing loosely, "Shiyi-jie."

Li Shiyi scoffed, raising a brow. "Tu Laoyao."

It was Tu Laoyao, yet it wasn't that Tu Laoyao of before; now, his figure was cut out in an excellent suit, and his large stomach had drawn in a bit, his leather belt and the toes of his boots polished to a shine, and even brighter was his oiled, swept-back hairstyle, each strand clearly visible, piled neatly and evenly, giving off wealth like shark fins.

"This is…" Li Shiyi looked him over, and then looked over that Western car.

He was foolishly cheerful for a moment, and only with great effort drew out of the joy of reunion; not saying anything further, he took Li Shiyi's bag, and walked to the mouth of a nearby alley, incoherently searching for something to say. "The letter I sent you all, did you receive it? How come you didn't respond with a couple phrases; ai, you educated folk, respectable, yet when handling matters, you don't pay particular attention, that is what it is, but there always ought to be a letter, so as not to make one anxious, right?"

He lowered his head, and patted Li Shiyi's bag, weighing it, and asked once more, "How come there's only this little bit?" He wanted to speak but hesitated, face full of an "I fear you've been living rough" expression, gazing restrainedly at Li Shiyi.

Yet Li Shiyi still seemed not to pay any mind, her face dull and colourless, only asking him, "Merely because of a lack of a reply, you came looking?"

"Ah," Tu Laoyao nodded.

"You didn't take a boat?"

Tu Laoyao laughed. "Don't I get seasick? Lucky I didn't take a boat; otherwise, how could we meet?" He clutched a corner of Li Shiyi's bag, swaying it back and forth, treading on the flagstone beneath his feet; his heart was greatly moved, but in the end, he was a man, and could never be called effeminate.

Li Shiyi could see it, and pressed her lips together in a laugh, and then looked over his Western attire properly, and asked him, "You've gotten rich?"

Tu Laoyao laughed even more vigorously; the foremost of his dream scenarios was, when meeting an old friend again, to have someone ask "you've gotten rich"; especially these words coming from Li Shiyi's mouth, it caused him to be even more at ease, but he'd made a great deal of progress, and only extended a hand to brush his temples, and pulled his mouth back, holding the smile back, and said, "Thanks to your luck. After you left, that Commander Lu came to the residence to look a few times, and seeing you weren't there, said that a disciple was as good."

"Disciple?"

Tu Laoyao hummed a couple times, and loosened his neck. "That's me." Without waiting for Li Shiyi to respond, he hurriedly said, "Relax, relax, I didn't let you down; I studied that superficiality, which was more than enough to deal with that man. And it ought to be me who got rich; I made up a couple stories for him, and he actually rose three ranks. Hearing I wanted to look for you, he hurried to give me a car. I practiced with this car for the past half month, and came to the Xiangxi seat with a hop and a skip, and now I can be counted as having retired." He cast a glance at that car, determining that he didn't want it anymore.

Having finished speaking about himself, only then did he let out a gasp of hindsight, and glanced all about, asking, "It's just you? What about Shijiu, A Yin, that fool Yama, or the little attendant ghost?"

Li Shiyi explained the reason simply; Tu Laoyao opened and closed his mouth in shock a good few times, and only after a long while did his teeth move, and he chewed on the air a couple times. He gazed at Li Shiyi, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. "Shijiu, I'm afraid I've seen her."

Li Shiyi furrowed her brows.

Tu Laoyao thought for a moment, and then nodded. "She's in Anhui."

Li Shiyi's breaths were disorderly, and she settled them for a couple moments, and took her bag, about to go east; she'd just taken two steps when she stopped once more, doubtfully raising her brows. "If you saw her, why didn't you call for her?"

Tu Laoyao blinked a couple times, his calves shivering somewhat, "I, I, I, well, I thought she ought to be together with you." He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and added, "That woman looked a lot like Shijiu, but wasn't too foolish, and I didn't dare to recognise her." He gazed dazedly at Li Shiyi, and then looked at the sky.

Li Shiyi sighed, and turned around, continuing on.

Tu Laoyao followed after, slapping himself from one side to the other in his mind, and gazed at Li Shiyi's back, his gaze gradually loosening and falling between her rising and falling shoulders. With a few steps, he advanced, shoulder to shoulder with Li Shiyi, and suddenly called out in a whisper, "Shiyi-jie."

Li Shiyi tilted her face, looking at him.

To Laoyao cheered up, sighing with regret with neither thought nor intellect, "It's like we've gone to the past. In the past, it was also the two of us; that A Yin and Shijiu and the foolish Yama, they were all afterwards." He thought of that winter in Beijing; it had also been a guapi hat and a grey cloth jacket, and he'd sought for Li Shiyi on the corner, neither a man nor a woman, following behind her with a deep step followed by a shallow step.

Like that year, he put his hands in his sleeves; the suit was stiff and firm, not too comfortable, but his posture had become more at ease. "Hehe, what fun," he laughed.

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