She was born the wind, and she was free.
(I) A token of love
When Xie Liyou entered the carriage, this was the bizarre scene that met his eyes.
One was half kneeling, staring blankly at his own hand; the other sat with an expression... an expression like a maiden whose chastity had been violated.
Xie Liyou: "?"
Red Adornment turned and asked, "Can we leave?"
Xie Liyou lowered his eyes and composed himself. "Yes."
The Ji Family's carriage slowly rolled out through the side gate. At the sight of the silver bells on it, the guards bearing sabers and swords made way of their own accord. No one stopped them.
Red Adornment was still thinking about Ji Hanchu's look of utter loathing earlier. Her back burned with pain.
That little prig had really hit hard. There had to be a huge bruise on her back. If Tianshu found out when she returned, he would laugh at her again.
She rubbed the spot, finding it thoroughly dull, but a sidelong glance at Xie Liyou suddenly rekindled her interest.
She squeezed over. "Little fatty, let me ask you something."
The carriage was cramped already. With three people squeezed inside, even the horse was huffing and puffing. Her sudden approach made Xie Liyou jump.
He shifted away a little. "What is it?"
Red Adornment crawled over and pointed at Ji Hanchu. "Your Young Master Ji San—has he ever had a woman?"
Xie Liyou retreated almost into the corner, looking desperately at Ji Hanchu, unsure how to answer.
"You're the gate master in charge of intelligence. Don't tell me you don't know." Red Adornment pressed closer. "If you don't tell me, I'll poison you."
Thinking of "Nonaction" and "Rebirth," Xie Liyou's mind was still struggling between clinging fearfully to life and bravely embracing death when his mouth obediently answered, "No."
Only then did Red Adornment back away a little.
Xie Liyou had just breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he was, after all, the gate master ranked second, yet his position was truly rather humiliating... As he thought, his body grew increasingly limp, his limbs losing their strength. He looked up to find the girl smiling sweetly at him.
Xie Liyou felt so wronged he nearly cried. "Didn't we agree that if I told you, you wouldn't poison me?"
Red Adornment shook her head. "This isn't poison. It's only Bone-Softening Powder, and I only used this much."
She held her fingers apart to show "a tiny bit." The sincerity and composure in her eyes sent a chill through anyone who saw them.
Xie Liyou laboriously turned his head, seeking help from Ji Hanchu.
But the man remained immovable as a mountain, his eyes on Red Adornment, looking just as incapable of moving as Xie Liyou himself.
Huh?
Red Adornment lay down, resting her head on Ji Hanchu's crossed legs. "Ji Hanchu, I've never met anyone like you before. I really am terribly fond of you. What a pity that you look so gentle, but your heart is harder than stone."
Her voice reached Ji Hanchu's ears, dropping a pebble into the lake of his heart. A circle of ripples spread, then swiftly subsided.
She said she liked him. He did not believe her.
When had she ever done anything but leave him plagued with troubles before drifting away as lightly as clouds and wind? This woman had no true heart. Her mastery of lying had reached perfection.
He had run headlong into the southern wall, but he was no fool.
Unaware that this was already how he saw her, Red Adornment continued, "Sometimes I really want to turn you into a puppet and be done with it. But if you really became a witless puppet, how boring that would be. So I think about it, then let it go."
Ji Hanchu lowered his eyes. "What do you want to do?"
"Nothing." Red Adornment lifted her head from his legs and said, as though relieved of a burden, "I'm leaving."
She had no idea how many times she had said those words to him.
Every time she said them, she was always killing someone when they next met.
Ji Hanchu felt a pang in his chest. The towering turmoil inside him suddenly cooled, chilling him to the bone and leaving only a fine, lingering ache.
Red Adornment cupped his head and kissed his cheek, smiling faintly. "Ji San, I'm giving you a chance now. Make sure you remember: the next person I'm going to kill is Yin Yuanya."
She picked up the star pendant that had fallen inside the carriage and tucked it into his robes. "Go ahead and see whether you can stop me."
He had saved Yin Yuanya once. That did not mean he could save Yin Yuanya a second time.
She could use poison, or a blade, or gu, or a whip. There were so many ways to kill. She could always find one.
The carriage reached the main road. The horse knew the way and trotted toward the Ji Family residence on its own.
Red Adornment crouched to Ji Hanchu's level. He looked at her calmly, no longer lecturing her about principles or saying he would take her back under arrest.
But this was only a brief harmony. After tomorrow, they would once again fight until one of them died.
As Red Adornment tucked the star pendant into his robes, her hand touched something, and she suddenly pulled a small brocade pouch from him.
The pouch was very finely made. Clearly, considerable patience and effort had gone into it, its stitches close and neatly aligned.
She loosened the drawstring and looked inside. It held a small jade bangle.
Ji Hanchu looked at the bangle, his gaze instantly sharpening. "Give it back."
Red Adornment looked up at him. His tone alone told her how important it was. "Who gave you this?"
It was plainly a woman's possession, kept so carefully against his body. Could his little white rabbit of a cousin have given it to him?
Ji Hanchu's voice sank. "Give it back."
"Not telling me, are you?" Red Adornment shook the bangle and tucked it into her own robes. "Then it's mine."
Ji Hanchu said, "My cousin didn't give it to me."
Oh, he had even guessed what she was thinking.
Red Adornment said, "Perfect. Give it to me, then."
She leaned over to kiss his jaw and murmured indistinctly, "A token of love."
Xie Liyou turned his face aside, wishing his eyes would go blind on the spot.
Ji Hanchu frowned.
Smiling, Red Adornment stroked his brow, rummaged inside her robes for a while, and produced a bright red brocade pouch embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in water, vivid as life.
Her senior sister had taught her to embroider it when she was learning needlework in her spare time. She had done it badly, turning the mandarin ducks into wild ducks. Unable to bear the sight, her senior sister had helped alter them, instantly bringing them to life.
She tucked the red pouch in beside the star pendant. "Courtesy demands reciprocity."
Ji Hanchu pressed his lips together lightly and did not answer.
Red Adornment brushed his Adam's apple with a curled finger and smiled. "I'll leave you something to remember me by. Perhaps I'll die beneath your blade tomorrow. If you miss me then, at least you'll have something to look at and remember me."
Ji Hanchu's brows drew into a deep frown again. He disliked hearing her say such things.
Red Adornment thought nothing of it. She took life and death lightly, and affection and love just as lightly. She was born the wind, and the wind was free. Admittedly, her heart had stirred a little for Ji Hanchu, but when she thought of the irreconcilable divide between righteous and evil that stood between them, even that little stirring dissolved into nothing.
Nothing mattered more than freedom.
Red Adornment looked at him one last time. "Ji Hanchu, remember me."
Then she flipped out through the window and swiftly vanished into the vast darkness of night.
After remaining quiet for the better part of an hour, Xie Liyou finally spoke. "Third Brother, help undo this, will you?"
Ji Hanchu turned and rose, took an antidote from his robes, and fed it to Xie Liyou. Before long, sensation returned to him.
Rubbing his numb wrists, he looked up to find Ji Hanchu actually examining the bright red brocade pouch closely. Against the white-robed young master, the bright red pouch was a contrast of vulgarity and elegance.
Xie Liyou gave a dry laugh. "The height of vulgarity is the height of elegance."
Without a word, Ji Hanchu tucked the pouch inside his robes.
Xie Liyou was quiet for a while, then could not resist asking, "You really just gave her Uncle Ji's keepsake like that?"
That was the only keepsake Uncle Ji had left him. To Ji Hanchu, it was probably a hundred times more precious than the blade in his sleeve, as dear as his own life.
Ji Hanchu nodded.
Xie Liyou heaved a long sigh. He truly had no idea what bewitching potion that poison woman from the Southern Frontier had fed Third Brother Ji to enthrall him like this.
He was clearly immune to all poisons, yet he had pretended to be drugged, cooperating with her performance of "robbing him of his wealth and his virtue."
Xie Liyou asked, "You haven't already been bewitched with gu, have you?"
Ji Hanchu tightened his hand. "No."
Xie Liyou sighed again. The only thought in his mind was that it was over, utterly over.
He patted Ji Hanchu's shoulder and said earnestly, "Even if you don't like Eldest Miss Yin, you can choose someone else. As long as she's a woman from a respectable background, the sect master won't object, whoever she is."
Ji Hanchu did not move away.
He knew what Xie Liyou wanted to say.
Yes, anyone would do.
Anyone but her.
(II) The one in his heart
Ji Hanchu sat upright again, his expression utterly composed, as though his heart had never been disturbed.
Xie Liyou said, "Tell me honestly. What exactly are you thinking?"
Ji Hanchu said, "I'm not thinking anything."
Remembering the bangle, Xie Liyou did not believe him at all. "She has a grudge against the Yin Clan. She came for them this time. You saw it yourself: she wants people's lives. If you can't bear to kill her, you can't stop her."
Ji Hanchu raised his eyes to him.
"Don't look at me like that." Xie Liyou folded his arms and smiled, glancing unobtrusively toward Ji Hanchu's chest. "The Second Gate handles intelligence alone. We have never involved ourselves in other grudges of the jianghu."
Xie Liyou had always been the most detached. The world's affairs passed through his ears without lingering in his heart.
He found the prospect of dealing with Red Adornment troublesome.
Yet the one who had fallen into this woman's snare was Ji San, his closest, most devoted friend.
Xie Liyou still remembered the light abruptly dimming in Ji San's eyes when he had told him, one by one, of the deaths of the Yin Clan's disciples.
Xie Liyou was the adopted son of the eldest son of the Ji Clan's previous generation, making him Ji Hanchu's sworn brother. Others might not see it, but he could tell clearly that Ji San had, damn it all, truly fallen in love. It was the first time in over a decade, and he had encountered a woman like this right from the start.
He could neither love her nor let her go.
Damn it all.
Xie Liyou raised a hand and patted Ji Hanchu's shoulder. "Ji San, once tonight is over, forget her. Pretend you never knew her. Perhaps your heart will feel a little better."
The scene of Red Adornment speaking of a "blood feud deep as the sea" appeared before Ji Hanchu's eyes. An indescribable distress filled his heart. He did not know whether it came from the impasse between them or from her profound hatred and grievances.
He asked, "Do you know what happened between her and the Yin Clan?"
Xie Liyou smiled. "No."
Ji Hanchu glanced sideways at him.
There were actually things in this world that Xie Liyou did not know.
Xie Liyou shrugged. "The Yin Clan did plenty of despicable things back then to keep their place among the five great factions. It's no surprise someone would seek revenge. But I do have a vague guess about Red Adornment."
Without waiting for Ji Hanchu to ask, he continued, "Your third uncle, Sect Master Ji-you've seen his Wind Chaser, haven't you?"
Ji Hanchu said, "Yes."
His third uncle was a master saber wielder who loved that saber dearly.
Xie Liyou said, "That saber wasn't forged from refined iron as the outside world claims. A woman gave it to him many years ago. The sect master was still young then. He loved the saber like a madman but could never attain true mastery. Fortunately, he obtained Wind Chaser, and only then did new horizons open to him."
Ji Hanchu froze slightly.
Understanding him with their exceptional rapport, Xie Liyou said, "That woman's name was Hongxiu."
Ji Hanchu's voice tightened. "What was her relationship to Red Adornment?"
Xie Liyou said, "I don't know. Her appearance back then was mysterious. No one knew where she came from or who her master was. She only devoted herself to following the sect master."
But now, there was no woman named Hongxiu at Ji Chengxuan's side.
He had long since married and established himself, with a wife and children.
Xie Liyou said, "Back then, the Yin Clan offered the Snow-Bearing Sword Manual as a dowry and specifically sought a marriage alliance with the sect master. The engagement had already been settled. But somehow, after one journey abroad, he brought Hongxiu back, and from then on, things spiraled beyond control. A martial fanatic no longer even wanted the world-renowned sword manual. All he wanted was to break off the engagement.
"Before long, Hongxiu gave birth to a daughter. They weren't married yet.
"The Yin Clan refused to let the matter rest. They declared that if the sect master could retrieve the Snow-Bearing Sword for them from the Sword Ghost of Yingchuan, they would agree to end the engagement. He went, but when he returned, Hongxiu and the child had both disappeared."
Ji Hanchu asked, "Were they found?"
Xie Liyou smiled faintly. "On my very first day as gate master, the sect master gave me an absolute order to find her. But over a decade has passed, and there's still no sign of her alive or her body dead. Some say she died long ago, but the sect master doesn't believe it."
Ji Hanchu asked, "Did the Yin Clan kill her?"
Xie Liyou gave the same answer. "I don't know."
He really knew nothing, no matter what he was asked.
Xie Liyou said, "But I suspect so. Otherwise, why would the sect master have cut off Second Master Yin's ear and arm?"
Ji Hanchu abruptly looked up in disbelief.
Xie Liyou spread his hands. "Your third uncle really did it. If his wife hadn't knelt and pleaded with him for the sake of the child in her womb, he would have cut down First Madam Yin too."
Yin Qiqi had originally been carrying twins. A terrible fright during pregnancy had caused the children to be born with afflictions: one dead, one disabled.
So this was the fright she had suffered.
Ji Hanchu thought of the aphrodisiac that night, then of what Red Adornment had said about how his aunt had conceived. He felt as though the moral principles he had built over so many years were about to collapse.
Even these old affairs of his elders were riddled with absurdity and irony.
The brocade pouch still lay quietly against his chest, burning until his heart seemed aflame. Slowly, he thought that if this truly was the blood feud Red Adornment had spoken of, then her wickedness, her cruelty, even her heedless disregard for human lives as worthless grass when she struck, were not beyond understanding.
She might be somewhat vicious, but he already believed that, in corners even Xie Liyou knew nothing of, perhaps she had other unspoken hardships.
Look at him. She killed, and he always wanted to find some hardship to justify it, to let her kill openly and honorably. Now that she had one, he was actually the first to feel relieved, thinking how good it was that she was not truly a female rakshasa who wantonly disregarded human life.
But if she really was... if she really was, he actually...
The night wind stirred the silver bells, surging waves crashing, their chimes carrying far away. The young man's thoughts could no longer be heard.
Once one entered the jianghu, the years drove one onward-toward age, toward sorrow, toward empty longing, toward fruitless searching.
As the saying went, the countless affairs of past and present were brewed into wine in idle hours. Three parts went to laughter and conversation; the remaining seven scattered into the wind, becoming frost after the rain, settling on flagstone roads, at the mouth of Wuyi Lane, upon oil-paper umbrellas. If one savored it closely, that flavor was called the jianghu.
When they reached the Ji Family residence, a servant came to relay an order: Ji Hanchu was to go to the study.
Only one person in the Ji Family could order him there.
Ji Hanchu straightened his clothes, took leave of Xie Liyou, and followed the servant.
Inside, a man stood with his back to him before a screen, wiping a saber.
The screen depicted ten thousand galloping horses. The saber was Wind Chaser, its blade gleaming with bloodlust, yet Ji Chengxuan held it lovingly and wiped it over and over, as though tending to an exceedingly intimate lover.
Ji Hanchu rarely visited the study. Ji Chengxuan did not much like managing affairs, so a place for discussions such as the study saw little use.
The study was small and simply furnished: merely a screen, a desk, and a few chairs, with a little room to spare for two people standing inside.
Ji Chengxuan carefully sheathed the saber, picked up a sheet of paper from the desk, narrowed his eyes at it for a while, then tossed it into the fire.
Ji Hanchu saw clearly what it said: Third day, Sword Ghost's eldest disciple, slain.
He understood. "Second Uncle is back?"
Watching the ashes, Ji Chengxuan said coldly, "He's getting sloppier and sloppier."
Ji Jingsheng oversaw the First Gate, which handled assassinations. He often moved amid flashing blades and clashing swords, disappearing for ten days or half a month at a time.
The First Gate's missions were perilous, and by rights, it should have been highly valued. Yet for some reason, Ji Chengxuan and Ji Jingsheng never quite got along, even after more than a decade.
Ji Chengxuan set Wind Chaser on the weapon rack and approached with his hands behind his back. A blade scar marked his face, supposedly left when he slew the Sword Ghost years ago. Whenever he was silent, he looked rather ferocious.
Candlelight illuminated his figure, casting wavering light across the floor. He studied Ji Hanchu for a while before asking, "Do you want to marry Qingyan?"
He was accustomed to being cold and unfeeling. Even with the only son his eldest brother had left behind, he knew nothing of gentleness and always said whatever came to mind.
Ji Chengxuan said, "If you like her, marry her. There's something else. The Ji Clan has made many enemies over the years. If I'm gone one day, you'll become the family head."
Ji Hanchu glanced behind the screen and said quietly, "I have no wish to contend for the position. Since you already oversee the Ji Family, Third Uncle, my elder brother should be the next family head."
By elder brother, he meant Ji Zhiyuan, the Ji Family's second young master, who could not leave his wheelchair.
Ji Chengxuan frowned. "He's crippled. He can't be the family head."
Perhaps it was an illusion, but the figure behind the screen seemed to shudder violently at those words.
Ji Hanchu sighed as guilt welled up in his heart, but he persisted. "Uncle, I don't wish to marry Qingyan."
Ji Chengxuan asked, "Why?"
Ji Hanchu fell silent.
Ji Chengxuan guessed, "You already have someone in your heart?"
An aching sourness filled Ji Hanchu's heart, rising and falling. He had rarely involved himself in matters of love. Xie Liyou had once teased him for being like a monk, warning him not to let some female demon spirit steal his soul the moment he met one. Back then, he had thought he would never do such a thing. But when a female demon spirit really did come to tempt him and offered him a taste of sweetness, the deer in his heart had charged headlong into a wall without a second thought.
She was so adorable.
She was adorable when she put on an act and said, "Save me, young master."
She was adorable when she bent down to kiss him.
She was adorable when she lashed people with her whip.
Even when she threatened others with a blade, she was adorable.
What counterweight could there possibly be on the scales in his heart? She occupied both sides.
One smile from her, and the Little Medical Immortal's divine pedestal crumbled to dust.
One look at Ji Hanchu's expression told Ji Chengxuan everything. Candlelight shone upon his inscrutable face. He abruptly turned to look at Wind Chaser on the weapon rack.
Ji Hanchu could see only Ji Chengxuan's back and had no idea what he was thinking.
Only after a long silence did Ji Chengxuan say, "Then forget it."
Ji Hanchu withdrew through the door. The room remained quiet.
After a while, Ji Chengxuan walked over to Wind Chaser, gently picked it up, held it before his chest, and began carefully wiping it again.
Without looking back, he merely addressed the person behind the screen. "You heard everything?"
For a long time, no one answered.
(III) The Beautiful Ghost
The Ji Clan's Five Gates were not housed in the main compound. Instead, they occupied a separate courtyard no smaller than the main one.
When Ji Hanchu returned to the Five Gates, he happened to see dappled shadows beneath a tree. A lonely figure sat up in its branches, fiddling with a wooden carving.
He walked beneath the tree and called, "Second Uncle."
The man's hands stopped. Lowering them, he looked at Ji Hanchu, then lightly leaped down from the tree and stood before him.
It was none other than Ji Jingsheng, master of the Ji Clan's First Gate.
Ji Hanchu approached with a smile. "When did you return, Second Uncle?"
Of everyone in the Ji Family, he was somewhat close only to Ji Jingsheng and Xie Liyou.
Ji Jingsheng first gave him a long, searching look without answering. His features were sharply defined and did not much resemble Ji Chengxuan's. Because his mind was a little simple, his eyes always seemed to be wandering.
A faint trace of blood still clung to him. For someone who always lived on a blade's edge, that smell could never be washed away.
Ji Jingsheng suddenly frowned, set the wooden carving very carefully on a tree root nearby, and wiped his hands.
Ji Hanchu immediately knew what he wanted and hurriedly said, "Don't test my saber skills today, Second Uncle. Another day."
Ji Jingsheng tilted his head. "Tomorrow?"
Ji Hanchu could only agree with a rueful smile.
Then Ji Jingsheng carefully picked up the wooden carving again, plopped down on the tree root, and resumed carving it meticulously.
Ji Hanchu sat beside him, patted his shoulder, and asked, "Did your journey go smoothly, Second Uncle?"
When Ji Chengxuan slew the Sword Ghost, he had offended an entire sect. The Sword Ghost's eldest disciple had hounded him relentlessly, attempting assassination time and again. Finally, unable to endure the harassment, he had issued an order to hunt him down and kill him.
Ji Jingsheng's hands paused, his gaze drifting hazily into the distance.
Ji Hanchu waited patiently for him to speak.
Ji Jingsheng reached behind his waist and took two long arrows from the quiver on his back. Besides his skill with a saber, his archery was first-rate.
One arrow said to the other, "Draw your saber."
The other arrow said... the other arrow said nothing.
"If you don't draw your saber, don't accuse me of winning unfairly when I kill you."
"Mm... if you've already killed me, how am I supposed to accuse you?"
"...stop talking nonsense. Draw your saber."
"No. You're not the one I want to kill. Go away."
"...draw your saber."
The two arrows clacked together in a flurry of blows.
Ji Hanchu's heart tightened. "Who gave you trouble?"
"Don't know."
Ji Jingsheng huffed, tossed the arrows aside with a clatter, and lowered his head to play with his wooden carving again.
Ji Hanchu asked, "Did he hurt you?"
Ji Jingsheng said, "A draw. Didn't get hurt."
Relieved, Ji Hanchu asked with a smile, "As long as you weren't hurt, Second Uncle. This person's background is mysterious. Could he be a disciple of the Sword Ghost?"
"No. The Sword Ghost wasn't as good as him." Ji Jingsheng shook his head and raised a hand, counting out one, two, three, four, five fingers. "I called for help. Five people. Six of us fought him alone, and it was a draw."
"..."
Ji Jingsheng smacked his lips and said dejectedly, "I couldn't beat him. I said I surrendered, and he was so happy. He left with his saber on his back."
Ji Hanchu did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Fortunately, Ji Jingsheng was not fond of fighting. His disappointment soon passed, and he picked up his treasured wooden carving and began working on it again. Wood shavings gradually piled up over the ground.
He loved woodcarving, but his carvings were always a mess. He had made countless pieces, yet only today's had anything approaching a recognizable outline.
Ji Hanchu glanced at it and vaguely made out a woman's form.
The thought of women...
Ji Hanchu's brows drew together slightly, and his heart ached.
He took the pouch embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in water that Red Adornment had given him from inside his robes and rubbed it in his palm. Only after a long silence did he say, "Second Uncle, I think I've fallen for a girl."
Holding his carving knife, Ji Jingsheng kept his head lowered, his gaze intent.
Ji Hanchu continued, "My heart has never stirred before, and I truly can't make sense of my own feelings. I only know I've never liked anyone the way I like her. If I could, I would marry her."
Ji Jingsheng finally finished his carving and blew on it in little puffs, trying to clear away the remaining wood shavings.
As though he had pondered it for a long time, Ji Hanchu lowered his head, and his voice sank as well. "But I can't marry her."
Someone had taken up residence in his heart, but that girl lived on the unorthodox path. She had killed many people and was preparing to kill Yin Yuanya as well.
Yin Yuanya was Third Uncle's father-in-law and his elder brother's maternal grandfather. If he married her, he would betray faith and righteousness, and neither heaven nor earth would tolerate it.
If possible, Ji Hanchu also wished to find a way to betray neither the righteous path nor her. But that was too difficult. The two were as incompatible as fire and water; righteousness and evil could not coexist.
Seeing his despondency, Ji Jingsheng turned and waved a hand before his eyes.
Ji Jingsheng showed him the wooden carving and said with a smile, "I want to marry her too." Then he mimicked his tone. "But I haven't found her yet."
Ji Hanchu came back to himself and forced a smile. Tipping his chin toward the carving, he asked, "Who is she?"
Ji Jingsheng cradled the carving against his chest like a treasure, a silly grin all over his face. "She's Little Xiuzi."
Ji Hanchu froze. "Who?"
Ji Jingsheng said, "Little Xiuzi."
Then he added dejectedly, "But I still can't find her."
Deep in the stillness of night, Ji Hanchu walked back to the Third Gate's courtyard, dazedly feeling that what he had learned today had exceeded all his expectations.
His head ached a little. The matter of Hongxiu and Red Adornment circled in his mind, while righteousness and evil fought in his heart, leaving him deeply agitated.
He sighed and pushed open his door.
Inside, candles blazed brightly, and the very culprit behind his distress lay half-reclining on the square table with a smile.
She had even found time to change. Her blue-black dress hugged her body, its edges embroidered in silver thread. Her midriff and calves were exposed, her waist too slender to fill a hand. On her fair little feet were purplish-red shoes, with no socks or stockings, leaving the tops of her feet entirely bare. A silver bangle hung about her ankle, engraved all over with snakes. She was dressed entirely like a woman of the Southern Frontier.
Her appearance mingled innocence with seductive charm, stealing souls and captivating spirits.
Seeing him arrive, Red Adornment winked at him and rolled over, resting her slender arms partly on the table and revealing snowy wrists like gathered frost.
Swinging her calves, she chided, "Why are you only coming back now, Young Master Ji San?"
Ji Hanchu reached back to close the door, moved a little closer, and asked, "Why are you here?"
"I was worried about you." Red Adornment hopped off the table and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I was afraid someone might make trouble for you, so I sneaked in to see you. You little stick-in-the-mud, hurry and tell me. Did those people give you a hard time?"
Ji Hanchu could not take in her words. A jumble of feelings filled his heart. He sighed and used every ounce of his strength to push her away.
"No."
Red Adornment stumbled from his push, but she was not annoyed. She merely circled around in front of him and softly kissed the corner of his mouth.
Ji Hanchu seized her hand and was about to apply force when she stopped him.
Rising onto her toes, she whispered in his ear, "You promised to keep me safe and sound tonight. Tonight isn't over yet. You can't go back on your word."
How had those words become something entirely different from what he had originally said?
Red Adornment wrapped her arms around his waist and tightened her hold. "Don't push me away. Every time you do, it hurts terribly. Since you said you would keep me safe, you can't let your words end up in a dog's belly."
Ji Hanchu let out a long sigh.
She relied on his love to run wild, so utterly fearless.
He wanted to say more, but nothing came out. A voice in his heart said, Set all that righteousness aside for tonight. What harm is there in forsaking the path for a day?
Your divine pedestal is so cold and desolate. Why not come down and see the mortal world first?
His heart had already been turned upside down, yet his face remained calm. At last, under her expectant gaze, he put his arms around her and said softly, "All right."
The person in his arms trembled with laughter.
She leaned into his embrace, her red-painted fingers tracing circles at his collar. Breathing in the refreshing medicinal fragrance on him, she sighed in satisfaction.
Secretly delighted, Red Adornment said, "Ji Hanchu, I learned a saying from the Central Plains. I want to say it to you."
"What saying?"
She tilted her face up, lifted his hand, and kissed its back, praising him. "Like piled stones of jade, like ranks of emerald pines. My beloved's beauty stands alone, without equal in the world."
Ji Hanchu was briefly stunned. The scorching feeling in his heart surged back, crashing wildly through him along with irrepressible joy.
The beautiful ghost of the wild mountains had come to devour a human heart again.
The teahouse was in disarray. Gazing at a painting of a female ghost, the young scholar sighed. "If a beautiful ghost truly existed in this world, I fear no one could escape that fated calamity."
Someone protested, "It's ordinary mortals like you who couldn't escape. Would an immortal from heaven fear her?"
The young scholar scoffed.
"An immortal? If an abstinent immortal truly fell into the mire, he would sink faster than us mortals, and end up filthier."
(IV) Ruin His Path
Red Adornment held Ji Hanchu, hugging him here and kissing him there, only stopping once she felt she had gotten her fill.
She complained, "The blood dirtied all my clothes. I searched forever and only found this outfit I wore when I first came to the Central Plains. Is it pretty?"
Ji Hanchu said, "Very beautiful."
It was true. The blue-black made her skin look even fairer, and made her seem smaller and more docile. He had thought she ought to wear fiery red, yet now he saw that mysterious, fathomless blue suited her better.
He noticed the silver bangle at her ankle and the Buddhist prayer beads on her wrist. A vague anticipation rose in his heart, and he asked, "Where's the bangle?"
Red Adornment said, "What bangle?"
Ji Hanchu said, "The jade bangle you took from me."
Red Adornment tilted her head and made a great effort to remember. It had clearly happened only hours ago, yet she still put on such an act.
Ji Hanchu's expression was peaceful as he looked at her gently.
Sure enough, after her elaborate pretence, she raised a hand to touch the jade-set silver hairpin in her hair and said carelessly, "I accidentally broke it while changing. I simply had it made into a hairpin. That counts as putting it to good use."
Ji Hanchu could no longer sustain his smile.
The atmosphere instantly grew heavy, all tenderness vanishing. The candle flame crackled, and Ji Hanchu's expressionless face looked somewhat frightening in the shadows.
Red Adornment pouted and asked, "Are you angry? Was that thing important?"
Ji Hanchu slowly closed his hand around hers. His hands were beautiful. Since he seldom wielded blades or spears, they looked more like a scholar's hands.
Red Adornment had even wondered before whether those hands had never killed anyone.
But now she knew that could not be true. However gentle Ji Hanchu might be, he was still a man of the martial world. The way he gripped her wrist made his anger plain. She even had the illusion that he might reach out and take her life in the next blink.
For the first time, Red Adornment felt apprehensive facing him, weighing her chances of winning if they fought.
The wrist in his grasp was slender, the red nail polish reflecting an alluring beauty. Its owner's eyes were innocent, her appearance pitiful.
In the end, Ji Hanchu released her, turned his back, and said, "Leave."
Red Adornment circled around him. "Are you angry?"
Seeing her approach, Ji Hanchu turned and headed for the door.
Red Adornment reacted faster. She squeezed in front of the doorway and spread both arms, firmly blocking his way.
"You're not allowed to leave!"
Ji Hanchu was so angry he nearly trembled. Yet when he remembered that he had not explained things clearly to her, his anger had nowhere to go. He could only direct it at himself.
Red Adornment hugged him, hopped forward to block his path, and tilted her face up. "I lied. The bangle is right here inside my robes."
Ji Hanchu pressed his lips tightly together, the tips of his ears faintly red.
Red Adornment lowered her head a little, showing him the hairpin at the back.
"Look closely. It isn't the same piece of jade. Really."
Ji Hanchu pulled his hand free, drew out the hairpin, and held it before his eyes for a careful inspection. It truly was not the same piece of jade.
He silently slipped the hairpin back into place.
Red Adornment knew he had realized his mistake, and immediately grew smug. "How can you not even tell a joke from the truth? I was only teasing you, and you went and worked yourself into a temper."
Ji Hanchu stared into her eyes and asked, "Where's the bracelet?"
Red Adornment grinned. "Guess. Maybe it's inside my clothes. Want to look for it yourself?"
Ji Hanchu would never dare. His genuine feelings for her were already unacceptable to the righteous path, so ordinarily, she was always the one kissing and embracing him, while he almost never responded. To take the initiative himself was a hurdle in his heart he could not cross.
No wonder they said Red Adornment had a sharp eye. He really was a hypocrite behind a righteous facade.
"Take it out and show me."
Red Adornment refused to let up. "No. How can you ask someone to take out something you've already given them? What if I take it out, and you take it back and won't return it? I don't care. If you want it, look for it yourself."
As she spoke, she curled her leg toward him, the silver bracelet around her ankle pressing against his, cool to the touch.
Ji Hanchu looked at her face, then lowered his eyes to her delicate collarbones.
Southern Frontier clothing favored intricate, daring designs. This outfit was beautifully cut, making her look all the more slender and captivating.
Red Adornment reached back and looped both arms around his neck, her breath fragrant as orchids as she asked sweetly, "Ji San, you really do like me, don't you?"
She had noticed it as early as their first meeting in the medicine hall. This third young master, with his air of an immortal, looked at her differently. It was a man's most primal stirring and tenderness toward a woman. He had plainly fallen for her at first sight.
The little mute had told her before that if a man fell for a woman, he would bring her to his side even if he had to steal or snatch her away. That was the beastliness and possessiveness in a man's very blood and bones. Unless he kept her firmly by his side, he would never feel she belonged to him.
She wanted to see which he valued more: righteousness or her.
Red Adornment said, "Do you know? When I first laid eyes on you, I actually liked you from the bottom of my heart, too."
She kissed the corner of his mouth and said, "I've never met a man like you. Never... Ji San, although I deceived you, my feelings aren't false. When I said I wanted to go home with you, that wasn't false either."
Sweat dripped from Ji Hanchu's forehead, drop by drop, landing on the fabric over her shoulder and leaving a faint trail of moisture.
Red Adornment continued adding fuel to the fire, tiny stars glittering in her eyes, her allure tantalizing.
She leaned close to his ear, her voice soft and faint. "I've put that bracelet away safely. I couldn't bear to throw away something you gave me. Ji San, we've only been apart this little while, and I've already started missing you. What about you?"
Ji Hanchu's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he wavered on the boundary between righteousness and love. Red Adornment truly knew how to cling to someone. Like a spider spirit, both hands were stuck to him, her body soft and boneless.
Her scent drifted into his nose, yet another catalyst.
This time, Ji Hanchu could be certain she had used no aphrodisiac.
But he could no longer restrain his feelings.
She was more poisonous than any aphrodisiac, leaving him unable even to play dumb.
Ji Hanchu raised his hand. Clever as she was, Red Adornment noticed at once, and the moment he moved, she held him even tighter.
"Don't push me away."
Ji Hanchu felt as though he were burning. His heart beat faster, his mouth and throat grew drier, and he gazed at her. Though his body held tremendous strength, he could not push her away at all.
He even thought this was a dream, that the female rakshasa in his dream wore Red Adornment's face, luring him with her smile and killing him with her words.
"Red Adornment." He forced himself to recover his reason. "Nothing but lies comes out of your mouth. I won't believe you."
Red Adornment smiled, feeling only that Ji Hanchu now was more entertaining than any story she had ever read in a storybook. Storybooks were dead, but Ji Hanchu was alive and warm. He was a thousand, ten thousand times more entertaining than a storybook.
She freed one hand to stroke his lower lip. His scorching breath and heaving chest spoke of the unrest in his heart. Her lips curved into a smile. "How about this? Ji San, give me a kiss. If you do, I'll consider letting Yin Yuanya go."
Those words brought Ji Hanchu back to his senses. Only after letting her run rampant for so long did he belatedly remember that their positions should have made them irreconcilable.
Overwhelmed by shame, he was both embarrassed and agitated. "Shut up!"
At a time like this, it would have been strange if Red Adornment were willing to shut up. She pressed coyly against him, calling him "dear brother" over and over, wicked to the core and beautiful beyond measure.
Ji Hanchu was angry with himself and with her. He truly wanted to throw her aside, yet could not bear to.
The two remained locked together, unable to part, when the sound of a wheelchair turning came from outside. It was not loud, and two sets of footsteps accompanied it as it approached from a distance. With a creak, it stopped outside Ji Hanchu's door.
The person standing outside knocked, and the seated person spoke. "Third Brother, may I come in for a chat?"
The shadows of the two entwined figures froze against the door.
The person outside chuckled and instructed the standing person to turn the wheelchair around. With both their backs to the pair inside, he continued, "Is this more convenient? Please let go of Third Brother first, miss. As it happens, I have something to say to you, too."
Red Adornment stared in disbelief again and again, held herself back again and again, then looked back at Ji Hanchu. His expression was mortified as he said quietly, "It's my elder brother."
After speaking, his expression changed again, revealing traces of worry and embarrassment. He insisted on calling out a denial that only gave him away. "It's not what you think."
Red Adornment: "..."
This man really was...
Still, Red Adornment turned her eyes toward the door. What remarkably convenient timing.
"We'll come in, then," the person outside said.
Red Adornment could bear it no longer. Abandoning even her usual pretense, she spoke through gritted teeth. "So annoying."