Jiangnan could not keep her; he could not ask her to stay.
(I) A game of longing
Red Adornment did not release Yin Qingyan's sealed acupoints. Instead, she picked her up and tossed her straight into the room next door.
Ji Hanchu tried to help, but she refused no matter what. When he persisted, she began turning her prayer beads with a sinister look.
Ji Hanchu could only give up.
On her way back, Red Adornment stopped by Liu Xinlü's to collect the wine and carried it openly into the room. With Ji Hanchu's superb medical skills, if he could not even smell what was in it, he would truly disgrace his fine reputation as the Little Medicine Immortal. She had no intention of tricking him into drinking it; she planned to use brute force and pour it down his throat.
Red Adornment opened the door and swaggered inside.
The tall, slender young man inside had already taken off his outer robe. Hearing her, he paused slightly but did not turn around.
He wore only a long, white inner robe, his back toward her, revealing a large patch of purplish black beneath it. His skin was so clean and delicate, yet now he was injured so hideously. It was all Ji Jingsheng's fault. That saber strike had nearly killed him; who knew how much it had hurt the little stick-in-the-mud when it landed?
Red Adornment walked over and tested the water. "Hurry up and bathe. The water will get cold."
Ji Hanchu looked at her. His gaze fell on the wine bottle in her hand, and his brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
Red Adornment raised the bottle, utterly unabashed. "Will you drink it yourself, or shall I pour it down your throat?"
Ji Hanchu looked away. "Stop fooling around."
Red Adornment stepped forward, hugged him tightly, and drew a deep breath. "I'm serious. Hurry up and choose."
Before, Red Adornment might not have been able to overpower Ji Hanchu, but now that he was injured, that was another matter. Besides, he had feelings for her, and feelings were the greatest weakness of all. She was quite confident she could force it down his throat.
Ji Hanchu fell silent for a while, his hands behind his back, then said quietly, "This drug won't work on me. My father tested all kinds of medicinal substances on me from childhood, and I've developed immunity to every poison. Though the stupefying poison in this wine is potent, it will only weaken my limbs a little at most."
"Oh," Red Adornment said, looking disappointedly at the wine jar. "Liu Xinlü told me this stuff was good."
Ji Hanchu said, "Just tell me what you want to do. Why resort to poison again?"
Red Adornment struggled with herself but did not say it. She untied Ji Hanchu's sash and pushed him toward the bathtub. "Soak first."
But Ji Hanchu caught her hand, staring straight at her as though he wanted to see into her heart. "What do you want to do?"
What did she want to do?
There were many, many things she wanted to do.
Red Adornment pulled her hand back and looked out the window. Autumn lay heavy, the night desolate, the dark canopy of the sky stretching without end. Rain dripped from the eaves, striking the ground with crisp sounds, splashing up and stirring rings of ripples.
Jiangnan's misty rain fell upon the fields of the heart, where love took deep root.
Red Adornment said, "I'm going to kill Yin Fangchuan." She had already stayed in Jiangnan far too long.
Ji Hanchu let go and said nothing.
Red Adornment set the wine bottle on the table and looked up at him. "Will you stop me?"
Ji Hanchu let her look, a slow torment beginning in his heart. Yin Qingyan was still next door, yet she had come to ask whether he would stop her from killing Yin Fangchuan.
These past days had been too peaceful. Everyone had pretended to maintain a surface peace, and after so much pretending, even Ji Hanchu had almost forgotten that Red Adornment had originally come to kill.
Now she had pierced that false facade, and there was no need to keep pretending. Yet the first thing he felt was regret.
The wind picked up, making the candle flame sway from side to side and casting overlapping shadows.
Red Adornment slowly raised her head.
She asked, "What would you do if I killed Yin Qingyan?" After all, she was truly innocent.
Ji Hanchu answered swiftly. "Repay her with a life."
Red Adornment's smile faded. "You would kill me for her?"
Ji Hanchu shook his head and reached out to embrace her of his own accord, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and rubbing his chin against the crown of her head. "I would atone with my own death."
Red Adornment curled quietly in his arms, her head buried against his chest, and did not answer for a long time.
Much later, a muffled voice came from against his chest. "Ji San, I always underestimate you."
For a moment, Ji Hanchu did not know what to say. Their love and grievances had reached the end, and their stolen tenderness was nearly spent.
Red Adornment stayed silent for a long time, holding him without letting go. She so rarely acted like a young girl that Ji Hanchu's heart melted with tenderness. Then he suddenly heard her say, "You're so good. I can't bear to leave you."
Ji Hanchu very much wanted to say, If you can't bear to leave me, then don't go.
But he could not. However lovely Jiangnan's spring was, it had already passed. Autumn would leave and winter would come, and soon another cycle would begin. Jiangnan could not keep her; he could not ask her to stay.
Red Adornment rose onto her toes and looped her arms around his neck. She seemed to hesitate, her lips parting and closing several times before she finally asked softly, "Ji San, have you ever seen the sunset over the great desert, or stars stretching ten thousand miles?"
Ji Hanchu heard her and stared in a slight daze, then slowly shook his head.
Red Adornment poked the corner of his mouth. Seeing his foolish expression, she smiled and bit his lip. "Silly boy. The nights in our Southern Frontier are beautiful, no worse than your Jiangnan. Would you like to come look at the stars with me?"
A lone plume of smoke rose over the vast desert; armored steeds kept company with frozen rivers.
Jiangnan harbored delicate beauty; the frontier bore the blazing sun. Past Yinzhou's twelve cities, across the Qingchuan River, where one heard the hundred thousand wronged souls of Despair Cliff sing a funeral song, and west through Jialing Pass lay the Southern Frontier.
That was Red Adornment's home.
Neither spoke.
Red Adornment's smile gradually vanished.
She released her hold on Ji Hanchu. It was as expected, nothing to be disappointed about. She was just a little sad.
Her chest felt stifled, as though something were blocking it.
He and she were too different. Their separate paths would never lead to the same destination. Her hatred could not shake his righteousness, and his love could not change her heart.
Then forget it.
Red Adornment tipped Ji Hanchu's chin up and looked deeply at him, touching his brow with a slightly cool finger. "Pretend I never asked."
Ji Hanchu took her hand and laced his fingers tightly through hers. "Red Adornment, I..."
Red Adornment pulled her hand free. "You don't have to say anything. I know I'm not worthy."
That question had been the most irrational thing she had ever done in her life. She had gone mad, wanting to take him home and dream of staying together.
How could she not fall in love with Ji Hanchu? This man was handsome and upright, knew propriety and when to advance or retreat, understood her suffering, respected and cherished her. He was far too easy to love.
So she had asked, and then the dream had ended.
It was good to wake up. Otherwise, she would almost have forgotten who she was.
Red Adornment kissed his forehead, took his hand, and nestled into his embrace. She freely licked and rubbed against his soft lips.
"Kiss me again..." she murmured. "One last time."
(II) Flowers born of bone
Steam filled the air, their bones entwined, and the love in every movement became passion, lingering and tender.
The candle crackled, sweat streamed, and the water had already cooled. Desire grew stronger amid the rippling water. Outer and inner robes floated across its surface, which reflected two figures like an ink painting in the water.
Ji Hanchu pressed his palm against the back of Red Adornment's hand, his fingers locked with hers. His tall body covered hers, every muscle taut. Fire burned in his heart, but his eyes resembled the gloomy night sky at that moment, filled with bottomless despair.
Leaves fluttered in the night wind. The cold moon, having glimpsed someone's secret thoughts, slipped behind the dark clouds and sighed while no one was there.
They had met in the mortal world and been fortunate enough to understand each other; the one they had found was good, and had given them true joy.
And so-
"Go."
Go.
Leave this place.
When Red Adornment woke, Ji Hanchu was already gone.
His scent still lingered beside her, but he was nowhere to be seen. His clothes were gone, and so was the star pendant.
Red Adornment opened the window and glanced outside. Dark clouds hid the full moon, and all was quiet. It seemed only a little over an hour had passed.
Where had he gone?
Her body ached a little, leaving her uncomfortable. She had meant to share more tenderness with him when she woke, but she had not expected him to disappear.
Never mind. It saved them even saying goodbye, and she did not much like goodbyes anyway.
Red Adornment changed her clothes and first went to look in Yin Qingyan's room. The little white rabbit was fast asleep, the corners of her eyes still red.
She released Yin Qingyan's sealed acupoints. "There's no grievance or hatred between us. I won't kill you."
Then she laughed softly again. "I wonder who will marry your cousin someday. But it doesn't matter. I'm definitely the one he loves most."
The little white rabbit slept peacefully, not even twitching her brows. Her sleeping face was adorable; one glance showed she had no worries.
Perhaps her greatest sorrow was that the cousin she liked had fallen in love with someone else. But that was all right. Plenty of people loved her, after all, like Qi Jin, who would even give his life for her.
Such a simple, clear-hearted girl, like a delicate Jiangnan flower blooming in the Yin Clan's dark swamp.
Red Adornment teased her and frightened her, yet envied her so much. Apart from her senior sister and master, no one had ever loved and protected her. No one treated her as the Yin Clan treated Yin Qingyan, as though pouring out every ounce of effort simply to hide the darkness before her eyes and let her see only the brightness of the human world and the grandeur of its mountains and rivers.
No one had ever treated her that way. Never.
Red Adornment opened the door and walked out, glancing once more at Yin Qingyan before closing it.
"Farewell forever, little white rabbit."
Red Adornment did not sleep again. She could not.
After gathering her caltrops, prayer beads, Crescent Moon, and the Bone-Setting Whip, she left the inn beneath the moonlight, her hands behind her back.
On the silent stone-paved road, only her lone shadow walked in solitude.
An owl cried now and then, accompanying her toward the final reckoning.
Raindrops hung beneath the eaves, and bleak moonlight illuminated the bluestone road. Red Adornment stopped and glanced down beside her feet. At some point, a second shadow had appeared there.
Red Adornment looked up at the sky and laughed softly. Her clear laughter rang through the empty street, piercing and unrestrained.
Looking at the moon, she murmured, "I don't want to kill anyone else. Why must you insist on seeking death?"
How strange. How strange.
Qi Jin emerged from the darkness and stopped a few steps from Red Adornment. His face was as cold and stern as ever, and he watched her silently, a large saber in hand.
"You can't beat me, and I only want to kill Yin Fangchuan tonight." Red Adornment pressed her palms together and intoned, "Amitabha." "My Buddha is merciful. For the Buddha's sake, I'll give you a chance. Be sensible and get lost."
Qi Jin held his saber across his body, his gaze vicious. "Enough nonsense."
Red Adornment said, "What good will killing me do? Ji San doesn't like the little white rabbit at all."
Qi Jin said, "I don't know whether killing you will help, but not killing you certainly won't."
Red Adornment considered it. That was indeed true.
But she really did not much want to kill today-or rather, did not want to kill anyone else. Qi Jin must have stumbled into dog-shit luck, catching her in a merciful mood that scarcely came once in ten years.
Red Adornment twirled a blade of grass in her hand, a lie rolling straight off her tongue. "You can try to kill me, but you should know that by the time you've killed me-oh, no, been killed by me-the little white rabbit will already be done for."
Qi Jin's hand paused. "What have you done to the young lady?" he demanded.
Red Adornment spread her hands. "Nothing much. Just fed her a potent drug, tied her up, and shut her in a room."
After a pause, she put on an expression of sudden realization. "I think I forgot to lock the door, too."
There Is an Inn was a mix of fish and dragons. Most of those coming and going were jianghu travelers, with people from every creed and walk of life. Who knew which man might reap that benefit?
This was indeed something that madwoman would do. Qi Jin gripped his saber, even his voice trembling. "Give me the antidote!"
"Here." Red Adornment tossed the grass at him. "This."
A savage light rose in Qi Jin's eyes. He slashed at Red Adornment, his move treacherous and ruthless, sweeping forward with the force to topple mountains and overturn seas.
Ji Hanchu's saber technique emphasized domination, like mighty waves crashing against the shore. There was little ornament to it; every move carried his full strength, direct and powerful.
Qi Jin's saber, however, exhausted every cunning trick, aiming only for vital points, striking without mercy or room for retreat.
Even so, his fierce blade never touched so much as the hem of Red Adornment's clothes. Light as a swallow, she dodged with ease.
That strike was already an arrow at the end of its flight. Exhausted, Qi Jin propped himself up with his saber and panted.
Red Adornment snatched the saber and slammed it against his waist. He pitched forward, and she planted her foot directly on his chest, provoking him as she pressed down. "Just think. Perhaps someone's in the little white rabbit's room right now, pinning her beneath him and defiling her. It might be one man, or perhaps a whole group..." A vicious allure smiled from the corners of her eyes. "Won't you hurry over and get your share?"
Qi Jin's face darkened, veins bulging, his eyes wide with fury. He looked angry enough to cough blood.
Red Adornment poured oil on the fire. "You can still make it if you go now. Otherwise, the little white rabbit really will become braised rabbit meat, devoured down to the last scrap."
Qi Jin said, "Where's the antidote?"
Red Adornment laughed loudly. "I told you, it's you! Don't you love her enough to die for her? Don't tell me you've never thought about having her. I'm giving you a chance now. She'll need a man tonight anyway. It's just a question of whether that's you or someone else."
Qi Jin had never even considered such a thing. "Stop your nonsense! Hand over the antidote!"
Red Adornment lied without a twinge of conscience. "Why don't we make a trade? Cut yourself down, and I'll go back and cure her."
Without hesitation, Qi Jin turned the saber's point toward his own abdomen and moved to stab himself.
Seeing this, Red Adornment immediately flicked a caltrop at his saber, knocking it far away.
He really was devoted, ready to die or kill at a word. For Yin Qingyan, he truly feared nothing.
He had come despite knowing he could not beat her.
That made her even more envious, and more jealous too.
Red Adornment sighed softly. "Though you're inferior to Ji Hanchu in every way, he really can't match you in this. You're so good to the little white rabbit."
She lifted her chin slightly and added, "This poison won't kill her. Go back and watch over her."
With that, Red Adornment dusted herself off and turned to leave. Unexpectedly, Qi Jin spoke behind her. "The Third Young Master treats you the same way."
Red Adornment stopped and turned to look.
Qi Jin said, "After you failed to kill Second Master Yin, the Yin Clan issued its highest kill order against you and sent its best assassins to intercept and kill you. But he secretly dealt with all of them."
Red Adornment straightened, surprise flashing through her eyes. "How?"
Qi Jin said, "Killed them."
Otherwise, how could her days have remained so peaceful after she had killed so many people?
The only one who had managed to reach her was that fake waiter who had been made into a gu human.
Assassins who could not accomplish their mission had no reason to remain alive. Once they accepted the kill order, it was a fight to the death. Unless one side died, they would never stop.
Qi Jin said, "With the Third Young Master's martial skills, why do you think he couldn't block Sect Master Ji's strike? He stepped in to take it for you, because by then he was already exhausted from dealing with spies and assassins on your behalf. He could only take that strike head-on."
So was that why he had kept hiding in the tree, refusing to leave no matter how she hit or cursed him? Because he had to protect her, he would not leave, and could not leave.
Red Adornment pressed her lips together and slowly clenched her fingers into a fist, digging them into her palm.
Qi Jin picked up his saber and continued, "The clan head already knows about this. He has never concerned himself with what happens to the Yin Clan, but when it involves the Third Young Master, he will certainly intervene."
The implication was that once Ji Hanchu returned, it would be far more than a minor punishment to teach him a lesson.
Red Adornment was silent for a while, then asked, "Why are you telling me this?"
Qi Jin was no magnanimous man; he repaid even the smallest slight. He sheathed his saber, his eyes gleaming with bloodlust and the mocking amusement of someone anticipating a spectacle.
"Xie Liyou just received a secret order from the clan head and took him back to the Ji Family."
Red Adornment's heart lurched. She turned to leave.
Qi Jin lightly tapped his scabbard. Amid its metallic ring, his voice was cold. "Everyone from the Yin Clan went, except Madam Yin. The young lady often used to stay with the Ji Family, so she didn't notice anything amiss. But now she knows the young lady may have met with danger and has sent people to search for her. She's very worried, and has been waiting for news in the main courtyard all night."
Red Adornment raised an eyebrow.
Qi Jin sneered. "Don't you enjoy toying with others? Have a taste of being caught in a dilemma yourself."
He knew Red Adornment wanted to kill Yin Fangchuan, and had deliberately said those things for her to hear. He wanted to see whom she would choose: Yin Fangchuan or Ji Hanchu.
Red Adornment studied his gaze for a while, then suddenly smiled.
She had misjudged him. Now she thought Qi Jin was truly naive-too naive to be a man of the jianghu.
Red Adornment loosened her hand and stroked the nail marks in her palm. "So you didn't come to kill me. You came to beg me."
Qi Jin frowned. "Beg you? What could I possibly need to beg you for..."
Red Adornment said, "To kill Yin Fangchuan, of course."
Qi Jin's expression instantly stiffened. "Nonsense! Why would I want to kill Madam Yin? She's the young lady's mother. I..."
Red Adornment chuckled. "It's precisely because she's Yin Qingyan's mother that you want her dead. She doesn't like you. She only wants her daughter to marry Ji San. But you can't kill her yourself. If you did, the young lady you pine for would be even less willing to marry you. So you came here pretending to kill me, all to tell me that she's alone at the Yin Clan tonight, and that their defenses are lax now. You want to borrow my hand to kill her. Then, once Yin Qingyan gives up on Ji San, no one will stand in the way of you marrying her."
Taking a desperate risk to kill with a borrowed blade was a fine stratagem, but Qi Jin had not used it skillfully enough. He was too impatient, and the trap he had laid was riddled with holes.
Qi Jin fell silent.
After a long while, he looked away and said hoarsely, "But what I said about the Third Young Master was true."
Red Adornment said, "The part about the little white rabbit being drugged with an aphrodisiac was false."
Qi Jin froze.
Red Adornment reached for the Bone-Setting Whip behind her and gave a cold smile. "You're very lucky today. I happen to be taking care of this trouble for you too. Hurry up and leave. Let's pretend neither of us saw the other tonight."
Qi Jin moved closer and asked, "You really aren't going to find the Third Young Master?"
Red Adornment shook her head.
"You told me yourself that this is a rare opportunity. Of course I can't let it slip."
Qi Jin said, "But the Third Young Master is already wounded, and the clan leader still intends to subject him to family discipline. Even if he survives, he'll lose half his life."
Red Adornment shook her head again and glanced at him. "Qi Jin, have you ever known the terror of nearly being cooked and eaten?"
Qi Jin narrowed his eyes, puzzled.
Red Adornment continued, "If you had, you would know how precious the person who gave a girl her life anew and raised her would be to her, when even staying alive had been a luxury."
She turned her Buddhist beads once, thinking of Ji Hanchu's face, of him in every moment, every vivid expression. But when she raised her head, her expression had turned sinister and terrifying again.
She smiled at Qi Jin, a biting chill surrounding her, her voice carrying a clear-eyed cruelty. "My choice will never change."
Red Adornment stepped back. Under Qi Jin's gaze, she leaped into the treetops in a few bounds, her figure passing through the clouds as she hurried away.
Her choice would not change.
Never.
She had suffered as a child. Only after her senior sister rescued her had she begun to live well. Her senior sister treated her so kindly that she had thought no one else in the world could ever treat her better.
But now she knew there was someone else who cherished her this much, who had shattered his beliefs, broken his moral code, and stained himself with blood for her.
But nothing could be done. They did not walk the same path.
Red Adornment thought how sad that was. If only they walked the same path.
(III) I have no regrets
Night, at the Gusu Ji Clan.
The main hall in the principal courtyard blazed with light. Many people stood on either side, while a white-clad figure knelt quietly in the center, his back perfectly straight. Everyone around him harbored their own schemes, but his expression remained calm, showing no fear.
Ji Chengxuan stood opposite Ji Hanchu with a short whip in hand, his brow furrowed and his gaze somber as he looked at him.
Ji Chengxuan said nothing, and neither did Ji Hanchu. Those around them wore differing expressions: Xie Liyou was worried and agitated, Ji Zhiyuan was expressionless, Yin Qiqi had cried her eyes red, and Yin Nantian, the Yin Clan's leader, stood a short distance away with his hands behind his back, his gaze cold.
A silent standoff.
After a long while, Ji Chengxuan slowly spoke, his voice low and hoarse. "Did you kill Yin Yuanya?"
Ji Hanchu shook his head. "No."
Ji Chengxuan's heart settled. "What about the assassins and spies the Yin Clan sent?"
Ji Hanchu slowly lifted his eyes and said softly, "I killed them."
"Did you know whom they were trying to kill?"
"Yes."
"And you knew why they wanted to kill her?"
"Yes."
Ji Chengxuan bent forward slightly. "Why?"
Ji Hanchu looked at him and said, "I don't want anyone to hurt her."
Yin Qiqi wiped her tears, soaking her sleeves. If Ji Chengxuan had not stopped her, she would have rushed over and struck Ji Hanchu over and over.
Weeping, she demanded hoarsely, "Why did you have to protect her? If you hadn't, if you hadn't..."
If Ji Hanchu had not insisted on protecting her, how would Yin Yuanya have met such a gruesome death?
Kaiyang had killed him. Even he had not expected Yin Yuanya to be so fragile that a single strike would finish him. He had believed Yin Yuanya truly was an unrivaled master and had mustered all his internal energy, making the blow so powerful that it shattered Yin Yuanya's bones and sinews. In the end, blood had poured from his seven orifices, and he had died with his eyes open.
This was no peerless master. Tianshu had lied to him. But that was no great matter. It was not the first time Tianshu had lied to him, and Kaiyang did not care.
As for that man, if he was dead, he was dead. He had simply been outmatched. If his family wanted revenge, they were welcome to come at any time.
The people of Seven Stars Valley were born lacking a measure of compassion and humanity.
But the Yin Clan cared. They laid all their hatred at Red Adornment's feet, and at the feet of Ji Hanchu, who had helped her.
Ji Hanchu turned and bowed deeply to Yin Qiqi and Yin Nantian, sorrow entering his voice. "I'm sorry. I let my selfish desires go too far."
As he spoke, his heart ached, and he thought of Red Adornment again. From her scattered words, he had pieced together the entire course of the story: a little girl who had nearly died in a famine was fortunate enough to be rescued by a benefactor, recovering her life and regarding her savior as a second parent. Sadly, that benefactor entered the Central Plains and, through a cruel twist of fate, died at the Yin Clan's hands. Indignant, the girl swore to settle this blood debt.
Was the little girl in the story wrong? It seemed not.
Were the Yin Clan wrong to demand a reckoning? It seemed they were not either.
Then who was wrong?
Ji Chengxuan said gravely, "Do you know what you're doing? Is this what my eldest brother taught you about how to conduct yourself?"
Ji Hanchu said again, "I'm sorry."
After a pause, Ji Chengxuan raised his hand. He still could not help feeling tender concern for the nephew before him. "Capture her and hand her over to Clan Leader Yin yourself. Then go to Yin Yuanya's grave, offer three cups of wine, and kowtow to beg forgiveness."
At this, Yin Nantian glanced at Ji Chengxuan, his brows knotting tightly. Yin Qiqi looked even more as though she wanted to speak but held back.
Red Adornment had killed so many people, and Ji Hanchu had been involved. Life after life, all dismissed with a simple chance to "atone through meritorious service."
Ji Chengxuan was treating their Yin Clan entirely as outsiders, determined to favor his eldest brother's only son.
Ji Zhiyuan's expression was not pleasant either. Sitting in his wheelchair, he looked at Ji Hanchu's slender back, then at the red scratches a woman had left on his neck, and suddenly smiled.
He wheeled himself over to Yin Nantian and looked up. "Since my third brother knows he was wrong and wishes to repent, please forgive him. My maternal grandfather's death was the work of that demoness, not something my third brother intended."
Yin Nantian's gaze was icy. He stepped before Ji Hanchu, a savage fury in his eyes that could have swallowed him whole, and said coldly, "Knows he was wrong? Repent?"
He gripped the sword at his waist, his eyes filled with the scene of his younger brother's gruesome death. Yin Yuanya had amounted to little, but he was still his only blood relative. Yet Yin Yuanya had died so horribly, his corpse left in the street. He could not let it go. Not even in death could he let it go.
With a swish, Yin Nantian drew his sword and pointed it straight at Ji Hanchu's throat, his eyes stretched wide with fury. "You said just now that your selfish desires went too far. Tell me, then-what selfish desires were you harboring?"
When a man went so far as to sacrifice himself for a woman, what other selfish desire could it be?
Ji Chengxuan disliked this scene, especially the Yin Clan's aggressive manner, which stirred memories he could not bear to revisit.
"Clan Leader Yin, this is the Gusu Ji Clan! Have you come into my home to discipline my family's child?"
Yin Qiqi pressed her lips together, a trace of humiliation rising in her eyes.
Yin Nantian would not listen. He swung his sword and pressed it directly against Ji Hanchu's neck. "Ji Hanchu, speak for yourself! Where were you wrong, and how will you repent?"
Ji Chengxuan dropped the whip and drew Wind Chaser with a backhand motion, shouting, "Put down your sword!"
Yin Nantian said, "Ji Chengxuan! Don't go too far!"
Weapons drawn, the two stood on the brink of a battle, one saber and one sword, neither willing to yield.
In the silence, Yin Nantian's face twisted.
A moment later, a pair of hands picked up the short whip. Ji Hanchu raised his head, every inch of his expression fearless.
He said slowly, "Third Uncle, simply punish me."
Yin Nantian sneered. "Punish you? Will punishing you bring my second brother back to life? Ji Chengxuan, take a good look. This is the fine child your Ji Family raised! A damn immortal physician? Have you gone eight lifetimes without seeing a woman? Did you feed your conscience to the dogs?"
The words were unbearable to hear. Ji Chengxuan's face darkened further and further, but in the end he restrained himself and said nothing more.
The Ji Family had been in the wrong first.
He sighed, put away Wind Chaser, and took the short whip from Ji Hanchu's hands, unable to quite steel his heart.
Under the family rules, nearly a hundred lashes would fall. Even a body forged of iron could not withstand them.
Wanting to help Ji Hanchu, Xie Liyou wiped away his sweat and said quietly, "Clan Leader, Third... the Third Young Master already knows to repent. Please show leniency."
Ji Chengxuan clenched the short whip, his gaze burning as he looked at Ji Hanchu and asked, "Hanchu, do you repent?"
Everyone's eyes clung like shadows to the kneeling figure.
"I..."
Ji Hanchu's voice was low and hoarse.
After that single word, he bowed his head deeply, as though sinking into tender memories.
In truth, that girl was not so bad.
She was bright, free, and ardent. She loved openly and hated openly.
She was the mighty wind and blazing sun over the boundless snowfields, innocent and romantic, radiant beyond measure.
Ji Hanchu loved being with her. She made him feel life's primal impulse, charging headlong, growing wild without having to obey any rites or rules.
He lowered his eyes, a sense of finality in his voice, wrenching yet resolute.
"I have no regrets."
The night wind blew cold, stirring dead leaves that spiraled to the ground.
The sky was dark, without a single star. From behind the Yin Clan's tightly shut gates drifted a faint scent of blood.
As the wind blew, a sorrowful wail seemed to rise, like living beings sighing, like ghosts weeping in the night-
"The lives you owe others-it's time to repay them."
That night, some remained steadfast in love and exhausted every scheme, some repaid tooth for tooth and avenged their hatred, and some were covered in wounds yet would not repent even through a hundred deaths.
Everything reached its conclusion at this moment.
And a new cycle began.
It was past midnight.
In the Ji Family's small ancestral hall, the spirit tablets of the previous generation's eldest son and his wife occupied the third central position. Behind them, higher up, stood a gilded statue of the Buddha.
Amid the faint scents of incense, candles, and sandalwood, Ji Hanchu knelt on a cushion, his lips deathly pale, cold sweat covering his forehead, his whole body trembling without cease.
He had changed into fresh clothes. The old ones had dripped blood as they were removed, clinging to his wounds. Fortunately, the blood had not dried and bound them to his torn flesh.
Ji Hanchu looked at the Buddha, and the Buddha looked back at him, so gentle, so compassionate.
He asked the Buddha, "Tell me, did she succeed tonight?"
The Buddha could not answer.
Ji Hanchu said, "This is the last one."
The Buddha remained quiet and still.
Ji Hanchu lowered his head and murmured, "I think I may have gone mad..."
He could have told everyone that Red Adornment intended to kill Yin Fangchuan tonight, but he had not.
He had become her accomplice through and through.
He had transgressed propriety and rules, defied the righteous path and its great principles. Of the Ji Family precepts-"Keep the heart clear and honor propriety; restrain oneself and maintain discipline"-he had fulfilled not one.
Ji Hanchu asked softly, "Tell me, who was truly wrong?"
After a pause, he shook his head again and said self-mockingly, "Perhaps I was the most wrong of all."
He knelt before the statue, asking the Buddha's forgiveness, yet could not help thinking that only the guilty needed forgiveness, and he did not feel guilty.
But if he did not feel guilty, that became a true sin. For he had protected a demoness who had killed countless people and indulged her final slaughter. For the little immortal physician to do such a thing and remain unrepentant to the death-how shocking that was.
Ji Hanchu bent forward and kowtowed, then straightened. "Go save those in suffering and deliver all living beings. If her sins truly cannot be forgiven, then let all retribution fall on me alone."
From now on, you protect all living beings. I will protect her.
The Buddha looked at him, his eyes filled with regret and sorrow.
Sorrow that the little immortal beneath his seat had betrayed the proper path and fallen into the mortal world without so much as looking back.
The Buddha asked, Are you truly willing to trade your illustrious reputation for defiance of all orthodoxy?
Ji Hanchu closed his eyes briefly. "I am."
With this departure, he would betray his clan and his path. He could never return to Jiangnan. Like her, he would deceive the world and steal a false reputation, become infamous, condemned in speech and writing by the righteous-a rat crossing the street, everyone crying out to strike it.
But he had no regrets.
Looking into the Buddha's eyes, Ji Hanchu felt a trace of desolation. He turned, walked to his parents' spirit tablets, and knelt again, kowtowing.
"I'm sorry," he said. "You need not forgive me."
(IV) Puppet play
Ji Hanchu left the ancestral hall. Xie Liyou stood at the entrance.
Xie Liyou watched him emerge, his lips parting and closing, wanting to speak but holding back.
In the entire Ji Clan, in all of Five Gates, the person who understood Ji Hanchu best was none other than this master of the Second Gate, who had been adopted by the Ji Family's eldest son and grown up alongside Ji Hanchu.
From the moment he had said "no regrets," Xie Liyou had sensed something.
He walked to Ji Hanchu's side and gazed at the ancestral hall's doors, his voice calm. "Ji San, can you not leave?"
Ji Hanchu said nothing.
Xie Liyou folded his arms and leaned against a tree, murmuring, "All for a woman..."
He rarely showed his emotions like this, for he lived for himself and hardly paid attention to people or matters beyond his own affairs. But today, Ji Hanchu had broken his composure. His only brother, his only family, was about to take the road of betraying his clan, from which there was no return.
Ji Hanchu said quietly, "I'm sorry."
Xie Liyou tilted his head. "What do you have to apologize to me for?"
Ji Hanchu staggered closer. "Where's Second Uncle?"
Xie Liyou said, "He took a new assignment and went to Luojing. Won't you wait for him to return?" After all, Ji Jingsheng could count as half a foster father to him.
Ji Hanchu shook his head. There was no time. At daybreak, the Yin Clan would discover Yin Fangchuan's corpse, and things would probably become even more troublesome. He did not want matters to grow thorny.
Ji Hanchu said, "Tell Second Uncle 'I'm sorry' for me."
"Why that again?" Xie Liyou scoffed. "Ji San, you haven't wronged anyone. You've only chosen what you wanted. So long as your heart is clear, that's enough."
After a pause, he asked, "Will you ever come back?"
Ji Hanchu was silent for a while, then gently shook his head.
Xie Liyou curved his lips in a smile full of bitterness. "Then whatever you do, don't tell me where you're going." The Intelligence Gate answered directly to the sect master and concealed nothing. That had always been an ironclad rule.
Ji Hanchu nodded, stepped forward, and patted his shoulder. "I'm leaving. Take care."
Xie Liyou was deeply dejected, his face hidden in the shadows of the trees, difficult to make out. He took a palm-sized pouch from inside his robes and tossed it to Ji Hanchu.
Ji Hanchu caught it and opened it to find a pouch full of gold leaves.
Xie Liyou turned his back and waved him away. "I've moved the Five Gates' people farther away. Hurry and leave before daybreak."
Ji Hanchu froze for a moment. "Thank you."
Xie Liyou waved. Even after Ji Hanchu had left and his footsteps had faded, he never turned around.
If he couldn't make him stay, he wouldn't try.
A lifetime was too short. If they couldn't meet again in this life, they would surely meet in the next, or the life after that.
Day broke. Ji Hanchu was gone.
Xie Liyou sat on the roof, then lay back wearily.
The sun shone with a lingering chill upon his ample body. He narrowed his eyes and thought of his foster father, the Ji Family's eldest son, who had died young.
It had been a long time since he had thought of his foster father, and a long time since he had felt so despondent.
"Ah, they've all gone..." He raised a hand to cover his eyes, his heart aching beyond measure.
What was so good about that woman? He truly couldn't understand how she could make Ji Hanchu abandon his family, the righteous path, his reputation, and his standing.
Xie Liyou closed his eyes and felt the sunlight blanket his face, his mind filled with Ji Hanchu. Back then, Ji Hanchu would read medical books without turning a page for ages, sitting in a daze for hours, sometimes curving his lips in a smile, sometimes lowering his head in thought.
Although he never said it, Xie Liyou knew he was thinking of Red Adornment.
Ji Hanchu had once asked him, "If someone's burden of killing is too heavy, can they still enter the six paths of reincarnation after death?"
Xie Liyou believed in neither Buddhism nor Daoism, so of course he didn't know the answer. Yet he understood the true wish hidden beneath Ji Hanchu's question-he was still hoping to pray for another life.
"That madman..." Xie Liyou cursed with a laugh. "He can't even make sense of this life, and he's already thinking about the next."
Sick in the head!
He's drunk a soul-bewitching potion!
Xie Liyou had no idea how long he lay on the roof. He lay there as the sun grew warmer and warmer, until a young disciple called to him from below.
"Gate Master Xie! Gate Master Xie!"
Xie Liyou crossed his legs. "I'm not receiving visitors today." Even if the Heavenly King himself came today, he wouldn't want to move.
The young disciple said tremblingly, "The sect master has summoned you to the study."
"..."
The Heavenly King really had come.
Xie Liyou spat and nimbly climbed to his feet, a faint worry stirring within him.
By the time he reached the study, that faint worry had become real.
Ji Chengxuan sat behind the desk, with Wind Chaser and a red brocade pouch on its surface. Hearing Xie Liyou arrive, he raised his eyes to him, his gaze indescribably sharp.
Xie Liyou was somewhat afraid of Ji Chengxuan, both revering and fearing him. He braced himself and said, "Sect Master."
Ji Chengxuan closed the door, pushed him in front of the desk, and motioned for him to look at the things on it.
Mandarin ducks played in the water on the red fabric, as vivid as life.
Ji Chengxuan said, "This brocade pouch was found among the bloodstained clothes this morning. The servant washing them said it belonged to Hanchu."
Xie Liyou answered woodenly, "I see. Then we'd better keep it safe..."
Faced with Ji Chengxuan's terrifying gaze, he swallowed the rest of his words.
Ji Chengxuan picked up the brocade pouch, his fingers brushing over its exquisite embroidery. Those mandarin ducks playing in the water were so vivid. The underlying stitches were plainly clumsy, like a beginner's work, yet once a second person had altered them, they had instantly come alive.
That person's hands had been skilled at needlework and woodcarving alike. She had always boasted to him that those hands alone were worth ten jin of gold leaves.
Ji Chengxuan pressed his hand against the brocade pouch, turned, and fixed his eyes on Xie Liyou. "Who exactly killed the Yin Clan's people?"
Xie Liyou tried to muddle through. "Probably an enemy of the Yin Clan. Sect Master Yin offended quite a few people when he fought to reclaim the Snow-Bearing Sword back then. It might have been a descendant of the Sword Ghost of Yingchuan."
Ji Chengxuan tapped the desktop. "Xie Liyou."
His tone was mild, but Xie Liyou knew it heralded his anger.
"You're the master of the Second Gate. You should know exactly what the Second Gate is supposed to do." Ji Chengxuan sat behind the desk, his fingers stroking Wind Chaser. "The Gusu Ji Clan doesn't keep useless people."
They were clearly a beautiful pair of eyes, yet their gaze sent a chill down one's spine.
Ji Chengxuan asked again, "Who killed the Yin Clan's people?"
Xie Liyou swallowed and said hesitantly, "A young girl."
"How old?"
Xie Liyou thought for a moment. "In her teens, roughly."
Ji Chengxuan's hand stilled on the saber.
Watching his expression, Xie Liyou guessed what he was thinking. After much hesitation, he finally said, "Sect Master, she looks... a little younger than the third young master."
When Hongxiu disappeared, the Ji Family's eldest son had not even married yet.
So Red Adornment was unlikely to be Ji Chengxuan's daughter.
Ji Chengxuan said nothing in response. After a moment's thought, he asked, "What's her name?"
Xie Liyou said, "Red Adornment."
Ji Chengxuan murmured the name twice, his eyes settling on the brocade pouch and Wind Chaser. A moment later, he looked up at Xie Liyou. "Have you found her?"
That "her" naturally meant Hongxiu.
Xie Liyou shook his head.
Hongxiu had appeared under strange circumstances back then, her origins unknown. She herself refused to say where she came from, saying only that it was a secret. In choosing to be with Ji Chengxuan, she had already severed contact with her sect and was unwilling to reveal even the slightest thing about it.
Apart from a Chasing Wind Saber, she had left nothing behind.
Ji Chengxuan had searched for her for more than a decade. Even now, he no longer knew what he was persisting for.
In truth, he had come to believe she might already be dead, and he suspected the Yin Clan could not be free of involvement.
But he had no conclusive evidence of exactly how she had died, so there was nothing he could do but keep searching, day after day, year after year.
Ji Chengxuan picked up the brocade pouch. "Did Red Adornment give this brocade pouch to Hanchu?"
Xie Liyou nodded.
Ji Chengxuan asked, "Why didn't you report it?"
Caught in a difficult position, Xie Liyou spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum. "Sect Master, you said you didn't want to hear a single word about anything involving the Yin Clan."
That was indeed what he had said, but Xie Liyou had also had his own selfish reasons.
Ji Chengxuan gave a cold snort, tucked the brocade pouch into his robes, and told him, "Come."
Xie Liyou asked cautiously, "Sect Master, where are we going?"
Ji Chengxuan opened the door and headed toward the separate courtyard.
"We're going to find Hanchu now and get a clear answer."