Ninth Lady craned her neck to see whether Cui Jiuyang had emptied his cup. Cui Jiuyang turned it upside down to prove he had not cheated.
Satisfied, she said, "Good, then I'll finish mine too!"
She tipped back her head and drained the wine.
Small though the shop was, its elderly owner knew his craft. Each of the four dishes had its own distinct flavor, and all were quite good.
The two talked and drank.
Before they knew it, the moon had risen above the willow branches, and half the wine was gone.
Ninth Lady seemed especially happy that day. As the drink went to her head, she began slipping into her bold, swaggering ways again.
Cui Jiuyang felt the time was right. Any more drinking, and they might be talking nothing but drunken nonsense, so he prepared to tell her he was leaving.
But just as he hesitantly opened his mouth, Ninth Lady spoke too. Together, they said, "I have something to tell you."
Both froze, then burst out laughing. Once their laughter subsided, they pointed at each other at the same time. "You first."
Ninth Lady widened her eyes. "So who's going first?"
Cui Jiuyang picked up a fried meatball and chewed it. "You first. I'm listening."
Ninth Lady laughed, then suddenly fell quiet.
She tilted her head, gazing at the moon on the horizon as she considered what she wanted to say, without uttering a word.
Cui Jiuyang waited a long while. When she still said nothing, he leaned over to see her face.
One moon hung in the sky, another lay in the canal. Both shone on Ninth Lady's face, and he could clearly see two streams of tears falling without pause.
Startled, Cui Jiuyang said, "Hey, everything was fine. If you have something to say, just say it. Why are you crying?"
Ninth Lady turned toward him and wiped her tears. She stared at him, angry and tearful. "You know perfectly well I have feelings for you. Why do you pretend you don't?"
That single question left Cui Jiuyang speechless. How was he supposed to answer?
He rubbed his nose awkwardly, taking a long time before he said, "Ninth Lady, at least tell me how you came to have feelings for me."
She raised her cup, drained it again, and said, "How would I know how you got into my heart?
"Back at the chamber of commerce, you asked me to blow on that sheet of white paper. I knew you'd saved Sister Wang and were a good man, so I played along.
"You were just a street-corner fortune-teller, yet you spoke to Fifth Master Yang as though he were some uncle next door, as if you were the great chairman of the chamber of commerce.
"After we left, you chatted even more happily with the rickshaw puller than you had with Fifth Master Yang. Then you didn't seem like someone who put on airs at all."
"I'd never met anyone like you.
"You're clearly greedy for food and women, just an utterly ordinary man.
"But when trouble comes, you find some way to deal with it, as if you won't stop until you get what you want. You aren't even afraid of dying. That turtle was enormous, yet you went straight down into the water right in front of it.
"When the Divine Tomb collapsed, you carried me out even while you were coughing up blood. Right then, I felt that nobody in my whole life had ever treated me so well!"
"It was the same at the Jidu Shrine. You knew all your meridians would be severed, but you still risked your life to kill that huge snake, as though your own life meant nothing! You saved me again that time!"
"How would I know where these feelings came from? All I know is that I have them!"
She poured out a long torrent of words, every sentence filled with grievance, as though liking him were something she had been forced into against her will.
Cui Jiuyang shook his head. Moved though he was, he could only tell her the truth. "Ninth Lady, I know how you feel. But... I'm going to die."
At those words, Ninth Lady even forgot to cry. "What did you say?" she asked urgently.
Cui Jiuyang explained everything about his remaining lifespan, clearly and from beginning to end.
When she finished listening, her tears poured out again, and she sobbed bitterly. "You're really going to die?"
Cui Jiuyang hurried to comfort her. "There's still a way to fix it, isn't there? Why are you crying again?"
Ninth Lady could barely speak through her sobs. "I... I thought that to save you... never leaving the Jidu Shrine again for the rest of my life... was already an enormous sacrifice..."
"How could I have known... that saving me had almost cost you your life?"
Cui Jiuyang was speechless. He hurriedly asked what this business about never leaving the Jidu Shrine meant.
By the time Ninth Lady had finished explaining through her tears, he was shocked and deeply moved by her devotion.
Hadn't she entrusted her entire life to him too?
He could not help growing despondent himself.
The two sat facing each other in silence, with only the moon in the sky and its reflection in the water shining toward each other from afar.
After a long while, someone tossed a stone into the water, shattering the reflected moon.
That someone coughed-from beneath the table.
Ninth Lady and Cui Jiuyang tilted their heads to look and discovered the Turtle Chancellor.
The Turtle Chancellor clasped his hands in greeting. "Chief Priestess, it's about time we returned."
"When did you get here?" Cui Jiuyang asked.
Looking rather embarrassed, the Turtle Chancellor stammered, "Around the part about having feelings for you."
Ignoring the Turtle Chancellor, Ninth Lady gazed wistfully at Cui Jiuyang. "If I hadn't had a drink today, I wouldn't have dared say any of this. And you, you short-lived wretch-when were you going to tell me you were dying?"
Cui Jiuyang thought for a moment before answering, "I'd intended never to tell you."
Ninth Lady picked the Turtle Chancellor up off the ground, turned, and walked away.
Her final words drifted back on the night breeze. "Don't die. I'll wait at the Jidu Shrine for you to bring a Numinous Treasure and take me out!"
Warmth surged through Cui Jiuyang's heart. He raised his cup and drained it. "I'll be there!"
Deep into the night, Cui Jiuyang returned to the guild hall carrying two Celadon Porcelain Gourds.
An indescribable heaviness filled his chest. Ninth Lady's affection weighed upon his heart, a feeling unlike anything he had ever experienced.
Feeling he had not drunk enough, he lifted a wine gourd and took another swig.
Hmm... wait a moment...
Why was the liquid in this wine gourd so tasteless... was it actually water?
There were only two wine gourds. The one he had been drinking from was already empty. The one in his hand was the one Ninth Lady had half finished.
Oh... she hadn't been drinking wine.
Volume Three: Money can sway the gods
Preface:
The people aren't people, the officials aren't officials
Their great mouths gape twenty feet wide
They swallow silver ingots, then hearts and livers
They eat until the children have no bowls
They eat until the old men's tears run dry
Heaven above, stop your snoring
Open your eyes and look at me
My father and mother lost their lives
My little children were thrown onto the mountain
When will it be my turn?
I'll set my own bones alight
And burn until even your... heart aches!!!
Chapter 60: Lost
East of Jining City, beyond the Wuxin River and Sheephead Mountain, lay the boundary of Jining Circuit.
There was a place called Yangshan County, which already belonged to Langya Circuit.
Yangshan County was a fine place. Rugged mountains and treacherous waters surrounded it on every side, yet amid those mountains lay a stretch of level ground large enough for a county.
As far back as the Spring and Autumn Period, people had built a town here. Men farmed and women wove, living in peace and tranquility.
Thus, the very first page of the Yangshan County Gazetteer boasted of its unrivaled scenery and the peace it enjoyed even in troubled times.
The mountain at the westernmost edge of Yangshan County had no name. But after the locals called it that often enough, it became West Mountain.
On this brilliantly sunny day, Old Man Li drove his five sheep toward West Mountain to graze.
He was an honest, unassuming man who had farmed all his life. Now that he was old and no longer had the strength to grow grain, he had given most of his land to his son.
He planted vegetables on the smaller portion he kept, raising chickens and grazing sheep in his spare time to help support the household.
Even with all that hard work, his daughter-in-law still called him lazy behind his back, saying he wanted easy money.
Old Man Li could only nurse his grievances in silence. Even easy money had to be earned first.
The eggs were still warm when his daughter-in-law took them all from the nest, saying his grandson needed them to grow.
After a year of grazing, just when a sheep was ready to sell, his daughter-in-law remarked that every family slaughtered pigs and sheep for the New Year, then led one away to be butchered.
Old Man Li worked all year merely to keep himself fed. He could not even save enough for clothes; if he wanted something new to wear, he had to hold out his hand to his son.
His son was a fine fellow too. When his father had nothing to wear, rather than offer money for new clothes, he took off his own short jacket on the spot and went home bare-chested.
Old Man Li could not even keep it overnight. That very evening, he had to return the jacket to his son. He could hardly let his son go out bare-chested the next day, could he?
As Old Man Li walked along the mountain path, he watched the ewe's swollen belly, hoping she would deliver a lamb. Then he could sell it and at least get himself some new clothes.
The five sheep bleated as Old Man Li followed them step by step. He plucked a blade of sweet-leaved grass and held it in his mouth, savoring its flavor.
Halfway up the mountain, they reached a small, level patch covered in grass. The ram leading the flock bleated excitedly and went forward to graze.
Before you continue