After realizing that Yan Wushi had purposely teased him so as to make him angry
simply for his own enjoyment, Shen Qiao gradually calmed down: "If you anger me
again, my wound won't be able to heal over fully. If someone were to attempt to kill us,
I may not be able to protect you."
Yan Wushi laughed. "That's not a problem. I have my own plan around that."
Shen Qiao was not convinced. "What sort of plan?"
"Last time, didn't you dress me up in women's clothing? That was quite smart. This
time, why don't we both dress up like women, rent a carriage, and pretend we're going
to Hanzhong to live with our relatives. That way, we'd practically be able to cross even
the sea with just a trick."
Shen Qiao heard this, and knew at once that he was trying to get even for last time.
Though he had been unwell before, the person who had to dress up had been 'Xie
Ling'. But they shared the same body, so Yan Wushi absolutely couldn't have been
unaware.
Shen Qiao blinked. He completely avoided touching upon the subject any further and
asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Are you asking me, or are you asking how Xie Ling is feeling?" Yan Wushi asked.
Shen Qiao was silent for a moment. He responded with a soft en.
He suddenly remembered the dream he had before. The first half had been about his
shizun. Most likely it was because his chest was wounded that he had dreamt his shizun
had placed the rock on top of him. It was a strange and ridiculous dream. But the truth
was that, perhaps it was because he had, deep down, missed his shizun so intensely
that he had dreamed this.
Before, on Xuandu Mountain, their wugong studies were
truly arduous. But their shizun had sheltered them from human cruelty like that of a
great tree. By the time that he had experienced the difficulties that he did, he
remembered those bygone years, and deeply missed them. Back then, shizun was still
with them; he and his shixiongdi were as close as brothers and loved one another
greatly. They did not think of anything else except for studying wugong, truly free from
all worries. They were hardly burdened with anything.
As for the second half of the dream, it was only flashes of people he had seen in the
latter half of his life. A blur of people appeared, one after the other. The last person
that had caused him to wake up, and the only one that he could remember seeing, was
Xie Ling.
Like this, Yan Wushi asked: "Ah-qiao, do you wish that Xie Ling were still here? Or that
he hadn't been here?"
'Xie Ling' was the disposition born from the fragments of Yan Wushi's qi deviation. Any
moment that he existed naturally meant that Yan Wushi had yet to fully recover.
Seeing that Shen Qiao did not know how to answer, Yan Wushi smiled somewhat. "If
it's the former, then I'll have to disappoint you. Though I have yet to heal the flaw in my
demonic core, I have already suppressed the significant changes to my disposition that
occurred as a result of my qi deviation. From now on, Xie Ling will never again exist in
this world."
Shen Qiao was faintly taken aback. He did not speak, but his eyes slowly betrayed a
sense of sadness from within them.
He wrapped his outer robe around himself more closely, wearing a blank look. He
looked so lonely and desolate, so pitiful and lovable.
However, Yan Wushi knew very well that, underneath this seemingly weak and delicate
appearance, was the unyielding strength of a man who would not yield to any
circumstance, be it harsh winds or rain.
Had it been before, malice would have surfaced from his heart. He would have
attempted to find a way to wear him away, layer by layer, so as to see the soft flesh
within him, to see whether or not he can experience what it meant to be destroyed,
and if he could remain the same as he did before.
But now, a faint, strange sensation had welled up within his heart.
Though he had smothered 'Xie Ling', was a trace of him still left, unwilling to leave?
If someone ordinary were to say something like this, one would think that they had
overestimated their own abilities. But before Yan Wushi experienced a qi deviation, he
did indeed have the qualifications to say such a thing, despite the fact that there was a
discrepancy between his wugong and the three other men.
"That's right," Shen Qiao said. "Wu dao is a path that never ends. So what can be
considered the peak? Though this poor daoist lacks talent, I know that there is no
correlation between a soft-hearted disposition and wugong. You, Yan-zongzhu, have
your own path—and I have my own. Do not do to others what you would not have
done to you. I am mourning an old friend who is no longer here; what does this have to
do with you? I must ask that you conduct yourself with some dignity."
He had known him for a number of days, and met him sparsely. He did not even know
why Xie Ling was named Xie Ling; and yet he called him an old and departed friend?
Yan Wushi laughed bitterly in his mind. Yet his expression was as cold as frost. He
continued in a tender voice: "All right, all right. There's only the two of us here, and we
are relying on one another to live. We were only having a chat. What are you getting so
angry for?"
Shen Qiao's response to this was to pull his outer robe over himself so as to cover his
head, to express that he declined to discuss anything with him any longer.
Yan Wushi: "..."
The night passed without a word between them.
The day after, Shen Qiao woke early. By the time he had come to, Yan Wushi had
already come back washing his face by the stream. Upon meeting Shen Qiao's eyes, he
said while smiling: "Ah-qiao, lend me your Shanhe Tongbei sword."
His expression was warm and gentle, while his mood seemed good. It was as though
he didn't even wear that unpleasant mood he had last night.
Shen Qiao responded, guardedly: "I got a stomach ache after eating yesterday. You
didn't shave the birds' feathers well enough."
Yan Wushi responded: "Oh? That's because I realized that it was better to pluck the
bird feathers by hand. This time I won't use your sword to shave bird feathers."
Shen Qiao was still concerned. "What are you going hunting for? Why not let me do it
instead?"
The moment he stood, a dull pain throbbed throughout his ribs.
Yan Wushi watched as he frowned. He said, gently: "You were wounded because of
me. I'll go. In any case, I'm not taking your sword to shave any birds' feathers."
Shen Qiao did not believe that within the short span of a night, Yan-zongzhu would
suddenly possess a heart filled with gratitude. But because his wugong had
experienced such a setback, it would be better for him to carry a sword on his person,
just in case if he did run into any danger. At the very least, he would not lack the
capability to strike back. After much thinking, he decided to hand the sword over to
him.
Yan Wushi took the sword and headed out. Before leaving, he was considerate enough
to roll up some leaves to bring water to Shen Qiao to wash his face.
It was only the beginning of spring. The cool water against his cheeks cleared his mind
at once. The effects of the yu congrong fruits were truly extraordinary. Although his
chest wound had yet to completely heal, he felt that it had improved quite a bit after
waking up. Even the pain that had come with breathing had eased up somewhat.
He sat cross-legged to circulate his qi and heal his wounds. After quite some time, Yan
Wushi finally returned.
"You left the mountain?" Shen Qiao asked, astonished.
"I didn't," Yan Wushi said, "I just walked around to see what the situation was like for a
bit. If nothing out of the ordinary happens, I think that we should be able to leave the
mountain by this evening."
Shen Qiao nodded. He noticed that he carried a long tree branch that acted as a
skewer for two fish. He then asked: "How did you get those two large fish."
"There's a lot of rain in the spring. Of course the fish are more delicious."
Shen Qiao suddenly experienced a somewhat foreboding feeling rise up within him.
"How did you gut and scale them?"
Yan Wushi didn't even raise his head. "I used the sword, naturally."
"I did not give you the Shanhe Tongbei sword so that you could scale fish with it!"
Shen Qiao shouted furiously.
Yan Wushi sighed.
"Ah-qiao, you really didn't reason anything out. You said that I couldn't use it to shave
bird feathers, and I promised you that I wouldn't. But now, here you are saying that I
can't use it to scale fish. In any case, aren't you getting half of these fish anyway? Or
are you saying that, now that your sword smells like fish, you won't be able to use
jianxin on your opponents any longer?"
He wore an expression that said, "You've gone and deliberately made trouble. You're
lucky that I'm lenient and forgiving towards you." Shen Qiao was so angry that he
nearly picked up a nearby rock and flung it at him.
--
She cursed him, hoping that his lover would remain unsatisfied with him.
—IF YOU BRING UP THE TOPIC OF FABRIC ALTERATIONS, across all of Tongsu
County, one would consider He Ji one of the most famous alteration business of them
all.
Any outsider would think this. And the owner of He Ji, Su-niang, would think this as
well.
She wasn't very old—she hadn't even turned thirty yet. Yet she lived as a widow for a
little over ten years. Back when she had just married into her husband's family, hardly
two years passed before her husband died of an illness. At that time, Su-niang was
pregnant with his child; her parents-in-law felt deeply guilty, and gave her money to
open the fabric alterations business. Afterwards, when her parent-in-laws passed away,
their family property was passed onto her brother-in-law. A shame that he was
incapable, though. After several years, he'd squandered it all. On the other hand, it
was Su-niang's fabric alteration business that became bigger the more that she worked.
She did not only open a business in Tongsu County, but she even had a branch of He Ji
in the capital of Fengzhou, Liangquan County.
But Su-niang did miss her homeland. Although she had property in Liangquan County,
she often remained in Tongsu. Today, Su-niang woke up bright and early to look over
one of her stores. The shopkeeper, upon hearing that the business owner was coming,
quickly came to welcome her.
At that moment, someone had come in from the outside.
"I'm sorry, keguan¹. Our owner has come to audit accounts. For the moment, we
aren't..." The shopkeeper quickly approached him and said, smiling.
However, he only said half of what he had wanted to say, before he found himself
awestruck by the other man's facial features and imposing manner and unable to say
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more.
Yan Wushi frowned. "You aren't doing business today?"
Su-niang pushed the shopkeeper away and said, sweetly: "We're open, and we even
came to greet you. Where does it look like we aren't doing business? My employee
was improper. Allow me to apologize to you on his behalf, langjun. May I ask, what sort
of fabric does langjun want to purchase today? We have ready-made clothes here, and
many different styles as well. If you'd like to choose the material first, then the fastest
we can have it prepared is two days."
She had done merchant work for over ten years. Her first-hand knowledge and
speculations were not like that of usual married women but who would have thought
that upon seeing this person, she felt as if she were looking at the sky from the bottom
of a well.
His features and mannerisms were extraordinary. No senior official in their prefecture
could even compare, let alone one of their county magistrates.
***
1 keguan: address to a customer. patron.