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“Your name isn’t good either, calling you that is too disrespectful,” Chu Xiang said. “Why don’t you use Chu for your surname like me from now on, as for your name… Hm…”
He met this little girl by the water where she saved his life, and she was convinced that he was the ‘evil star’, so why not–
“Chu Hexing, I’ll call you Little Xing, okay?”1Hexing, made up of the characters for river (河) and star (星), her nickname is little star. How cute.
Chu Xiang turned around and found the girl standing three metres away with a pair of big eyes shining brightly out from her excessively skinny face.
“What’s wrong with you, you’re standing there like ET,” he joked.
Chu Hexing blinked and a crystalline drop rolled down her face. Tilting her head, she asked, “Yeti? What’s that?”
…He accidentally told a joke from the future, of course an ancient person wouldn’t understand. Instead of answering, Chu Xiang smiled and took hold of the little girl’s hand. “Well, they’re people who live on stars, they… look very beautiful, their eyes shine like stars.”
Chu Hexing pondered for a while. “You… you bought me, do you want me to be your bed servant2A type of concubine, the ranking goes wife > consort > concubine > bed servant. Bed servants would often be selected from among maids. today?”
“Bed…” Chu Xiang was stunned for a moment, before slapping the back of her head. “No way, I don’t have that type of hobby.”
Ideas from two separate worlds clashed together for the first time. “I’m fourteen, I can do it!” the girl protested.
She was only fourteen… Chu Xiang gently touched the top of her head. “You’re my little sister now. What, do you think I’m such a beast?”
“Little… sister?” Chu Hexing said dumbly.
“Yes, little sister.”
Chu Hexing: “Then… Then I need to–”
Chu Xiang cut her off. “I need you to grow up safely.”
* * *
The inns had too many people, so Chu Xiang took his new sister to find a nice courtyard to rent.
It was impossible to allow Chu Hexing to keep fishing in Qianli Lake, so Chu Xiang would have to think on how they should survive in the future. In particular, the girl had a strong sense of empathy — she had watched the beggar children on the street sadly for a long time.
“Evil Star, can’t you buy them as well?”
“…I can’t possibly buy everyone,” Chu Xiang said helplessly.
Chu Hexing naturally knew this as well. She pursed her lips and forced herself not to look at her fellow children who huddled by the roadside and were driven away by guards everywhere. “It’d be great if everyone can eat,” she finally said.
* * *
The socialising season had not yet passed. Although the imperial family suffered theft, the spring banquets weren’t delayed. The Longque that they lost had the legend of being the emperor’s sword, so they dared not publicise it — if the people knew, wouldn’t they say that this dynasty’s fate was exhausted?
Chu Xiang still had to harden himself and attend those useless poetry gatherings, but he really couldn’t write a single line of poetry, perhaps he should copy some poems from the other world’s historical figures? No, forget it, this approach in ancient time-travelling stories was very… dumb, and unsuitable.
This place was called Linghe Pool while the Grand Princess was titled Qinghe, it was enough to show how much she loved lotus flowers.3Linghe and Qinghe share the 荷 (he) character, meaning lotus. This season, her pond was filled with blooming lotuses of all kinds, who knew how many gardeners she went through to cultivate this many varieties. Chu Xiang stood alone next to the lotus pond, avoiding the lively banquet in the main hall.
“Amidst warm jade and fragrant spring scenery…”4Jade is an euphemism for women, and spring (specifically ‘spring scenes’) is an euphemism for… sex.
Poetry verses were heard from afar, but Chu Xiang could only think of Little Xing’s sunken cheeks.
Then came the sound of music, dancing, and crisp ringing from bells on the dancers’ ankles, mixed with lines from ambiguous poems. Chu Xiang, alone by the lotus pond, couldn’t help but hum.
“Dirty words and erotic music,” he concluded.
As the young master in green clothes stood quietly by the pond, all the pink blooming lotuses within became his foil. Indeed, killing him would be too profane.
But there was no other way. The new arrival quietly came up behind him, being extremely careful to use the loud music to cover his footsteps. The young nobleman only looked at the lotuses and seemed to have no intention of paying any attention behind him.
I’m sorry, he thought.
He stretched out his hand, then–
In an instant, the young master who was about to be killed suddenly turned sideways, grabbed his wrist with one hand, and gently pulled him forward. Due to his momentum, the assailant had no time to brake, and so he fell head first into the pond himself.
“It’s not advisable to do the same thing more than thrice,”5事不过三: an idiom that comes from Journey to the West, meaning that you shouldn’t do the same thing more than three times because your fortune will turn and things will eventually develop in an unexpected direction Chu Xiang said as he stood there and apathetically watched the person splashing around in the water. “You’re… Zhao… Zhao something?”
The man in the water choked on a large mouthful of water and bubbles popped up around him. He was obviously a landlubber, so Chu Xiang reached over and barely dragged him to the edge of the pond where he collapsed. It was impossible to bring him any further; Chu Xiang rotated his wrist, thinking, I’m no longer that legendary captain who can fight one against a hundred, so weak.
As his dusty memories were uncovered bit by bit, Chu Xiang said hesitantly, “Zhao Linzhi, right?”
This drenched person wasn’t a killer, but a scholar attending the Spring Banquet, and he seemed to be one of the Four Young Masters or something.
“That’s weird, why would you kill me?” Chu Xiang asked.
“You don’t know?” Zhao Linzhi asked in reply.
Chu Xiang: “What should I know?”
“Then you think by yourself, when did you offend the Grand Princess.”
Chu Xiang became solemn. He truly couldn’t remember these things, however, from Zhao Linzhi’s reaction and the previous two attempts on his life, it was a fact that the Grand Princess wanted to kill him — the Grand Princess was the only one who wasn’t afraid of the Iron-Clad Guards on the streets. But she didn’t mobilise the Iron-Clad Guards and neither did she use any official forces, instead she found some miscellaneous people to take action. This meant that he did not commit a crime but offended her in a private capacity.
‘Offended her privately’? Chu Xiang frowned.
“I… I didn’t want to kill anyone either,” Zhao Linzhi struggled to say as he lay at the water’s edge, “We’re classmates, we know each other. I can only say, you can’t stay in Tianyan, just run.”
Chu Xiang nodded. “Thank you.”
Then he kicked him back into the water.
Back when he led his team to fight their way through the pirate-infested expanse, it wasn’t forgiveness that they relied upon.
* * *
When Chu Xiang returned to the main hall, his was not the only discordant voice.
A game was currently being played, more specifically, it was a fancy way of playing meandering drinks.6A drinking game found in many historical Chinese novels. My impression of the rules: the players sit around a flowing stream of water and a musician plays nearby. Something is sent floating down the stream, usually a cup of wine. When the music stops, whoever is closest to the cup picks it up and has to compose a poem according to the theme; if they can’t, they drink. A normal game used water, this one… used a beauty made of water.
The dancing girl poured wine everywhere as she spun in a brisk, exotic dance. With a golden wine jug on her head, she danced flamboyantly all over the place; whenever she paused next to someone, she would pour them wine, then asked them to take a bright flower from her head, whereupon they would stand and make an impromptu composition.
Among these nobles, Lord of Western Tang Lan Jue stood out, even Chu Xiang couldn’t resist giving him a couple more glances.
The young lord sat at his table, paying attention to neither singing nor dancing nor eating, he only stared at the empty cup by his hand. The dancing girl hesitated for a while, but the lords sitting above signalled to her, so she went over and charmingly filled up Lan Jue’s cup.
Then things became quiet.
Western Tang’s Lan family. Because the previous lord had offended the late emperor, he had been banished from the court and deprived of his fief; later, when the current emperor ascended to the throne, he granted amnesty to the world, but the old lord had already died in a foreign land. The new emperor felt pity for him, so he redistributed half of the confiscated Tang fiefdom to the Lan family’s youngest son, who was today’s Lord of Western Tang, Lan Jue.
Lan Jue slowly stood with his cup of wine as everyone watched, although most of them were laughing. Everyone knew that as a boy, the Lord of Western Tang grew up in a place of exile — there were no teachers of poetry, literature, etiquette, or music there, only barbarians from the plains and exotic beasts. Famously, at ten years old, the Lord of Western Tang led a team to kill the leader of the Snake Tribe. Equally as famously, this man was illiterate.
Most of the nobles present thought that Lan Jue wouldn’t even be able to write his own name. As for poetry, it could only be a joke.
Poetry?
Lan Jue did not have any unexpected talent in this area. “I don’t know how to write poems,” he admitted frankly.
Laughter came from all corners.
Up on the main seat, the Grand Princess was not present. Her consort was just a civil servant dependent on her for everything. “If you can’t compose a poem, you have to drink wine as a penalty,” he politely reminded him.
Seeming to be completely unable to understand the prince consort’s olive branch, Lan Jue continued, “I didn’t come to the capital to write poems either.”
The hall once again fell into silence.
“Western Tang is located within Jinzhou, where locust plagues have ravaged the population for many years, and one can see refugees everywhere you look. But now I see that your mansions in the capital are still full of singing and dancing! Yesterday, Consul Qin7More specifically, he’s an officer in charge of diplomacy and relations with barbarians/border tribes/ethnic minorities and Chief Justice Zhang8The highest ranking judicial officer in the court jointly hosted a feast, I even saw many aristocrats purposefully inducing vomiting to eat more pastries, did you know that–”
“Lord Lan, today is the grand Spring Banquet, the timing is perfect, isn’t it a bit depressing to say that?” someone suddenly said.
“It isn’t as if anyone will blame you for not being able to compose poems, so don’t blame everyone around you.”
“That’s right…”
The one who spoke first was a nobleman so fat that his eyes weren’t visible, dressed in luxurious yellow clothing, and exactly the Consul Qin that Lan Jue had mentioned. The other person who spoke up was an energetic old man who held a jade cane which was topped with an exquisitely carved jade hibiscus; unfortunately, this was Chief Justice Zhang.
In fact, Lan Jue had expected to get this result from the moment he entered the capital, maybe he was just delusional to hope that there was a chance.
While soldiers starved and waited for resupply, the capital’s noblemen caroused nightly, as if the world’s turmoil was a mere passing fancy.
He slowly drank the wine in his hand, tasting little of the alcohol but much of blood.
“Since Lord Lan can’t compose anything and doesn’t want to take the penalty, might I take his place?”
A voice suddenly came from the side, from a young man in green with a smile on his lips and his brows arched into crescents. With his elegant appearance, he seemed like a stalk of green bamboo among the pathetic nobles.
“Isn’t this Chu Xiang? I haven’t seen you for a long time, I heard you’ve been sick?” From their probing, any lords from the countryside would rather throw away their faces than write poetry, so he probably really didn’t know how to do it. Thus, the prince consort sitting on the main seat began to smile. “Since you’ve recovered, I have no objection to you writing for him, after all, Sir Chu’s poems are enough to be passed down through the ages.”
Passed through the ages? Chu Xiang’s smile gradually widened into a grin. That would be good.
Lan Jue recognised this man as the weak young man who took action against the assassins back then, and also as the one who bought that girl on the street. He guessed that the man might be trying to save him so he silently stood aside, but he still couldn’t help but feel frustrated because he knew that it was impossible to succeed. Just as he was thinking on what he should do, he heard the young man say softly:
“Orioles sing of spring, jade dew heralds hibiscus blooms.”
This had already reached Chu Xiang’s limit. Meanwhile, the noblemen frowned to themselves, wondering why someone from Tianyan’s eminent Four Young Masters, with a name spread far and wide, couldn’t even make a poem which rhymed. Only the yellow-clothed consul was stunned for a moment as he caught sight of Chief Justice Zhang’s hibiscus cane beside him.
Lan Jue raised his eyebrows; looking at the young man’s brazen gaze, he seemed to have guessed something.
Immediately following this, the young man’s voice became clearer and colder, though he still smiled as he said:
“Autumn brings winter’s frost, all freeze bar none.”
The hall was filled with a deathly silence.
Then, Lan Jue’s solitary applause floated out, like snow in autumn.
Author:
Chu Xiang: My games are scolding people!
Translator:
Just those three (unrelated! Unrhyming!) lines of poetry killed me, so much respect to people who do this regularly.
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- 1Hexing, made up of the characters for river (河) and star (星), her nickname is little star. How cute.
- 2A type of concubine, the ranking goes wife > consort > concubine > bed servant. Bed servants would often be selected from among maids.
- 3Linghe and Qinghe share the 荷 (he) character, meaning lotus.
- 4Jade is an euphemism for women, and spring (specifically ‘spring scenes’) is an euphemism for… sex.
- 5事不过三: an idiom that comes from Journey to the West, meaning that you shouldn’t do the same thing more than three times because your fortune will turn and things will eventually develop in an unexpected direction
- 6A drinking game found in many historical Chinese novels. My impression of the rules: the players sit around a flowing stream of water and a musician plays nearby. Something is sent floating down the stream, usually a cup of wine. When the music stops, whoever is closest to the cup picks it up and has to compose a poem according to the theme; if they can’t, they drink.
- 7More specifically, he’s an officer in charge of diplomacy and relations with barbarians/border tribes/ethnic minorities
- 8The highest ranking judicial officer in the court
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