She was the Embroidery Woman's Zither Attendant.
She said she had been driven out.
And it had happened a long time ago.
She had never left. She stayed near Yan Palace, playing the zither every day, hoping that one day the Embroidery Woman would hear her beautiful music and call her back.
Her greatest wish was to return to the Embroidery Woman's side.
Curiously, I asked what she had done for the Embroidery Woman to drive her away. She said it was not the Embroidery Woman who wanted her gone, but King Yan. Yet she could not understand it. She had never offended King Yan, so why did he want to drive her away? He had even sent people after her life time and again.
She said the people who had killed her when we saw her last time were King Yan's subordinates. But despite saying so much, she never told me who King Yan actually was. She seemed wary of him. Nor did she answer why she had clearly died before our eyes last time—died beyond any doubt—yet had come back to life.
But I knew she had answers to my questions. She simply did not want to tell me.
"Why have you stopped?"
Yan Palace was clearly not far ahead, yet she had halted.
She said, "You should go. I won't. I don't want to put the Embroidery Woman in a difficult position. If I appear, King Yan will want to kill me, and she will definitely stop him. I don't want to create a rift between her and King Yan because of me. It wasn't easy for her to get where she is today."
I said blandly, "If she really intended to protect you, she wouldn't have let King Yan drive you away. If there was going