Volume Three: Dream of Three Lifetimes Beneath the Moon - Alas, why must the fierce wind blow so hard? A brief dream, fallen blossoms in the mist

Your three-inch tongue that never wears out has provoked my three feet of merciless steel.

- Anonymous

Fortunately, the brigand merely paused in surprise before speaking again to Hu Shi'an, who was harboring schemes of his own:

"Seems I've heard rumors myself, saying you and this Lady Rui were quite the loving pair. Why are you so quick now to hand her over for me to enjoy?"

Thank heaven! As long as he isn't thinking of killing me! The scoundrel Hu Shi'an hurried to explain, hoping to dispel the robber's suspicions and make him understand that his suggestion came from the very bottom of his heart:

"You don't know the truth, brave sir! Actually, Lady Rui and I were only playing at love-as a son of a gentry family in Shandong, how could I possibly take a lowly whore like her to heart?! All this time I've spent with her, I was merely coveting her fine flesh and amusing myself!"

"Ridiculous woman, she really thought I'd buy her freedom and let her leave this life-actually, I've already gambled away all my money. I'll have trouble explaining myself when I get home, and will have to invent a convincing lie to muddle through. Where would I find money to spend on her? Never mind taking her home as my wife and disgracing my family!"

"In fact, I've been struggling to find a chance to get away myself. Your arrival tonight, my lord, has truly rescued me from a pit of fire!"

Those words had probably been bottled up inside the fellow for a long time. Now that he had a chance to pour them out, they flowed as smoothly as running water, a great torrent spilling forth. When he finished, he squeezed out an equally heartfelt, fawning smile and watched Xing Yan beside him, waiting for a favorable response to these words from his innermost heart.

Xing Yan was not particularly surprised by Hu Shi'an's speech. If anything astonished him, it was that the fellow could be so utterly heartless as to speak such cold, cruel words with such bluntness in front of Lady Rui, who had been his lover for so long-

This fellow is even more shameless than that scoundrel Chen Kui!

While passing judgment in his mind, he also listened for a reaction from behind the screen-

To the boy's bewilderment, the faint sobbing he had heard earlier had now fallen utterly silent...

Uh...

Xing Yan turned to Hu Shi'an and said:

"Actually, young master, there's something you don't know either. For some reason, I've lately felt quite drawn to cultivating the Way-so I'm keeping away from women for the time being..."

"Ah? Since you're drawn to the Way, brave sir, does that mean-"

At these words, Hu Shi'an's heart instantly leaped with joy, and he cautiously asked:

"Does that mean you'll spare us, my lord?"

The boy did not answer at once. For a moment, silence settled over the room again...

A short while later, Hu Shi'an, whose heart was tossing between hope and fear, and Ling Yier, who stood hidden nearby in equal bewilderment, finally heard the boy speak:

"I cultivate the Way precisely to follow my own heart!"

Ling Yier saw it clearly from where she stood. As soon as those utterly sincere words fell, the boy set his iron sword aside, then...

His fists rained down!

When Hu Shi'an first heard Xing Yan say he was drawn to the Way, he could not help secretly rejoicing, hoping the robber would release him to accumulate spiritual merit. While he was praying for this, the robber beside him abruptly declared, "I cultivate the Way precisely to follow my own heart!" Before he could puzzle out what that meant, he felt the chilly weapon at his neck being moved away!

Could I really be escaping this disaster?

Unfortunately, before he could rejoice, a sudden, fierce pain struck his back-Xing Yan's powerful fists, driven by anger, fell upon him like raindrops!

The blows left the fellow grimacing in pain. Seeing that things had gone badly wrong, he hurriedly mustered all his strength and darted aside.

Seeing the shameless wretch try to flee, Xing Yan hurried after him, intending to tackle him-but Hu Shi'an, who had already rounded the table, somehow lost his footing and fell flat on his face with a thud, sprawling on the floor!

Wonderful! This fellow deserves his bad luck, tripping even on level ground!

Little did he know that this tumble on level ground was courtesy of Ling Yier. The girl had now grasped the situation: the Young Master Hu whom the boy had singled out was a beast wearing a human face! Seeing the detestable fellow try to escape, Ling Yier swiftly darted over and casually stuck out a foot, sending him face-first into the dirt!

Knowing nothing of this, Xing Yan merely praised his luck inwardly and rushed forward. His left hand seized Hu Shi'an by the back of his collar and pinned him firmly down, while his right put all its strength into a succession of punches, each delivered to the fellow's back!

Although Xing Yan deeply loathed this heartless wretch, he did not dare make too much noise. After a dozen or so hard blows, he was about to stop-but the man beneath him had only cried out in pain at the beginning and was now utterly silent. Not quite understanding why, Xing Yan nevertheless favored him with a few more.

Hu Shi'an had his own reason for not daring to shout. Despite having the brazen nerve to lead Lady Rui around by the nose, he was, underneath it all, merely a coward who clung to life and feared death. When the fists first struck him, he had cried out once or twice in alarm-but then he suddenly remembered that icy sword and hastily fell silent, terrified that making too much noise might stir this vicious robber to kill him and silence him forever...

Thus, though there was no wailing to heaven or pounding the earth in the room, fists were still striking flesh.

Hu Shi'an endured the beating as best he could, paying back the sinful debts of his romantic exploits, and Lady Rui's bedchamber was secluded enough that no one was likely to grow suspicious for the moment. Still, Xing Yan remembered how deep and quiet the night was and did not dare prolong matters. He had only come to teach the fellow a lesson, after all, and could not really do much more to him. So, after a few further blows, the "brave outlaw of Great Solitary Mountain" stopped.

Xing Yan stood, about to deliver a threat. But one glance at the scene on the floor left him laughing despite himself, and he cursed with a rough chuckle:

"You really are a lazy rogue! I've already stopped, so why are you still lying there playing dead?!"

Even after Xing Yan stopped, Hu Shi'an continued rolling from side to side as though he were still being beaten!

Seeing the fellow put on such a performance left Xing Yan both annoyed and amused-

But a moment later, when he looked more closely, Xing Yan's smile suddenly froze on his face:

Hu Shi'an, who was "playing dead," had clothes that kept fluttering, accompanied by dull thumping sounds, as though someone really were still beating him mercilessly!

-Needless to say, this was Ling Yier again. Hating evil with a vengeance, she was having a splendid time kicking him over there!

The sight gave Xing Yan quite a fright. He hurriedly rubbed his eyes and looked closely-but beneath the dim yellow candlelight, Hu Shi'an was now barely moving, merely lying there and groaning softly.

Uh... it's so dark in this feeble light-I must have been so worked up that my eyes played tricks on me!

Reassured, Xing Yan stepped forward and barked at the coldhearted wretch still suffering on the floor:

"Get out!"

"If I ever see you filthy scum within Raozhou again, I'll truly carry out heaven's justice!"

Though the words were exceedingly hostile, Young Master Hu, who was still lingering on the floor, heard them as a proclamation of pardon. Disregarding his pain, he scrambled up and shot out the door like a wisp of smoke-and vanished without a trace.

Watching Hu Shi'an scurry away like a rat with his head tucked down, Xing Yan felt greatly relieved. He looked around the room, thinking that, now his concern had been settled, this was no place to linger. He had best leave at once.

Xing Yan was just about to step out through the door when a soft voice drifted from behind the screen:

"Please stay a moment, righteous sir."

Only then did Xing Yan remember that the woman within the red gauze bed curtains behind the screen had been silent for a long time.

Lady Rui called me a righteous man. She must have understood what was happening just now.

Although the upright Xing Yan felt that tonight's business had gone quite smoothly, somehow all these sudden turns of events left a faint unease in the sixteen-year-old boy's heart-yet he could not tell what exactly was wrong.

Despite hearing Lady Rui ask him to stay, Xing Yan had no intention of stopping. He continued toward the door.

"Righteous sir, please hear one word from me-"

The "righteous sir" pressed resolutely onward.

"I have a poem to offer in response to yours-"

The "righteous sir" abruptly froze.

Then Ling Yier, still hidden nearby, heard a faint voice drift from behind the screen, seemingly devoid of all emotion, reciting softly amid the wavering candlelight:

"Through autumn frosts, leaves and blossoms grew sparse; I still recall my first fall into dust. Before my door, a market; in my heart, still water. Only three years I asked, with tears like pearls..."

When that drifting voice faded, silence returned to the room.

After hearing the poem, the boy turned back and gazed at the screen. He stared for a long while, but in the end could find nothing to say.

...The wide-open door had now been closed. The people in the room had departed, and the stillness proper to an autumn night returned.

Only a wisp of night wind slipping through the crack in the door carried a lingering sigh.

Everything that happened in that room that night was like fallen leaves swept away by an autumn wind, leaving no trace. For the next three years, Lady Rui, one of the Flower Moon House's four beauties, continued to laugh and smile as before, betraying not the slightest sorrow-even after the lover who had sworn his love by seas and mountains left without a farewell, and everyone wrung their hands in pity for her.

Much could happen in three years. For instance, the country boy who once loved reciting poetry and playing music in the Flower Moon House had long since left Raozhou.

Many stories had unfolded, yet none seemed to have anything to do with Lady Rui of the Flower Moon House.

Until, three years later, on another bleak autumn night, Ying'er, the little maid who still attended her, happened to hear restless movements from Lady Rui's bedchamber. Receiving no answer when she called, she pushed open the door to look inside, only to discover that Lady Rui had swallowed poison and closed her eyes forever.

Alas! A celebrated blossom had withered just like that.

That pure blossom, that unsullied lotus, had never escaped the pit of fire; her fragrant soul and lovely bones now lay buried beneath green hills and yellow earth.

When Lady Rui died, her complexion looked as it had in life. Only at the corners of her eyes had a few teardrops seeped out.

Beside Lady Rui's pillow, they found a piece of plain silk bearing several lines in delicate, neat small-script calligraphy:

"A woman of ill fate has neither kin nor friends. That I had the effrontery to remain in this world was only to observe three years of living mourning. Though my parents showed me no affection in raising me, I owed them the kindness of bearing and nurturing me. Now that this duty is fulfilled, nothing remains to bind my heart."

Below it, in pale ink, was a little poem of only twenty-eight characters, written out several times:

Through autumn frosts, leaves and blossoms grew sparse

I still recall my first fall into dust

Before my door, a market; in my heart, still water

Only three years I asked, with tears like pearls