I Never Said I'd Only Met One Transmigrator

A-Xu eventually gave up on her dream of inventing.

On her sixteenth birthday, she went alone to the willow tree behind the mountain and spent half the day silently staring into space.

At dusk, Li Shiyi carried two huge baskets of ancient books up from the foot of the mountain, panting heavily.

"Brother, I want to become a poet."

"Little sister, aren't you thinking a little too much?"

A-Xu glared at Li Shiyi in annoyance, then picked up a thick book and started reading on her own.

She really did read, and took it very seriously.

Li Shiyi was a little surprised, but he didn't disturb her. He simply brought her books one after another and kept her company as she read.

Spring passed and autumn came; summer gave way to winter snow.

The two of them finished moving every last book from the Li Residence's Book Pavilion to the lakeside behind the mountain.

Whenever summer came, Li Shiyi would lean against the willow tree by the lake and yawn out of boredom.

It was cool in the shade. A-Xu would rest her head on his legs, with a book covering her face as she kept cool.

Li Shiyi would stare blankly at the sky as clusters of willow catkins drifted down overhead, like snow that would never melt.

Once A-Xu had read almost all the books, she began making up fascinating stories to tell Li Shiyi.

Some stories were long, and she would tell them over several summers and winters. Others were so short they were like the cicadas' cries that occasionally rang out on a summer day.

Li Shiyi had no idea where that girl came up with so many strange and wonderful stories.

They were wild flights of fancy, impossible to verify, just like stories from another world.

A-Xu said she wanted to become a poet and needed to read more books to build up her knowledge.

But Li Shiyi couldn't be bothered to keep carrying books back and forth for her.

He tossed her into the Book Pavilion, only bringing food for the little bookworm now and then around mealtime.

The little bookworm in the Book Pavilion devoured one book after another. Li Shiyi kept her company as she made her way through floor after floor, putting up with that little girl's endless chatter for many years.

As A-Xu read more and more books, her attainments in the Literary Dao grew higher and higher. This showed most clearly in her everyday conversations with Li Shiyi.

"Brother, did you bring anything to eat?"

"Brother, did you bring food?"

"Brother, brought food?"

"Brother, food. Understand?"

"..."

"Hungry."

Not long afterward, the little bookworm finished devouring every book in the Book Pavilion, and the lazybones sunning himself beneath the willow tree once again had a companion.

That day, A-Xu asked Li Shiyi a very strange question, one he never managed to figure out.

"Brother, have you ever wondered... why, out at sea, we always see the mast first, then gradually see the whole ship?"

"Think about it. Think carefully."

A few years later, when the Great Ancestor's Birthday Banquet came around again, Li Shiyi and A-Xu followed their father to Chang'an City.

A lot happened in Chang'an City at the time.

For instance, young people from many ancient southern clans came to Chang'an. On the surface, they had come to wish the Great Ancestor a happy birthday, but in truth, they wanted to compete in the Literary Dao against Chang'an's scholars and talents.

They competed in poetry and prose, as well as Qin, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting.

The water towns of Jiangnan in the south were a sacred land in the eyes of Tang Kingdom's scholars, dotted with Temples of Literature and filled with poetry.

Those lands all belonged to ancient clans and aristocratic families, who revered their ancient surnames above all else.

But ever since Du Qing, Grand Secretary Du, had implemented the New Policies, the Literary Dao Fortune of Great Tang had gradually gathered in Chang'an City.

The southern clans refused to accept this, so they did everything they could to compete with Chang'an and prove who was superior.

The old scholars and sour old pedants of the clans knew they couldn't beat Grand Secretary Du, so they planned to save face through the younger generation.

The southern clans sent just one young man to compete in the four arts of Qin, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting.

But he won. One man defeated every talented scholar in Chang'an. In all four arts, no one in Chang'an City could match him.

The result was much as the old scholars from the south had expected: there really was no one in Chang'an City who could beat that young man from an aristocratic clan.

So they were proud and arrogant.

The talented scholars of Chang'an City were silent and ashamed.

But at the time, no one downstairs knew that Grand Secretary Du, hailed as the Literary Dao Leader, was playing chess on the top floor with a listless girl dressed in white.

Outside the building, everything was in an uproar. Inside, no one even lifted an eyelid.

Grand Secretary Du played very slowly, and A-Xu found it so boring that she even began to yawn.

The young man from the aristocratic clan, who had been acting so high and mighty outside, entered the building with an air of pride and confidence, only to find... no one paid him any attention.

Li Shiyi said, "That guy's eyes turned solemn and reverent when he saw Grand Secretary Du. He looked like he was facing a formidable enemy, and also like he'd admired him for a long time."

But the young man from the aristocratic clan didn't recognize the girl in white who was playing chess with Grand Secretary Du at all.

That didn't matter, though, because after standing beside the chessboard and watching for a while, he turned pale and fell silent.

The game was so complicated that he couldn't understand it, but he could clearly tell that Black Stones were struggling and in danger.

A-Xu was playing White Stones.

"In the end, the game was a draw. It wasn't because Grand Secretary Du had turned the tide. A-Xu was just so sleepy that she wanted to go home and sleep."

A-Xu was very good at chess.

After that night, Grand Secretary Du never played chess with her again.

But the shameless old man deliberately set up chess games downstairs at the Northward Roaming Pavilion for ten days.

A-Xu played against the young men, middle-aged men, and old scholars of the southern clans.

From the oldest to the youngest, she missed no one-and didn't lose a single game.

Her beauty startled the winds and rains; every move of hers settled Chang'an.

The cool, aloof girl in white gave everyone in Chang'an City an indescribable shock.

That was when A-Xu first entered the public eye. It was also when she began her dazzling, brilliant story.

--

The merchant caravan's carriage swayed gently. Inside, Luo Ziwei was gnawing on the sweet potato in her hands. It was soft and sticky, and her cheeks puffed up.

Gu Baishui lifted the curtain and watched the rain drift down outside the carriage. He yawned silently.

The two of them had joined this caravan, though it hadn't taken much effort.

The caravan's leader was a merchant from Chang'an City who had traveled far to do business in the Western Regions. Only recently had he returned to Tang Kingdom from a distant place.

The people of Chang'an City were more or less warmhearted, so when the old merchant saw two young people, stiff as a pair of logs, stranded beneath a tree in the heavy rain, he naturally stopped his carriage.

The old merchant asked where they were going. That girl, Luo Ziwei, wasn't very sharp, so she honestly told him she was headed to Luoyang.

Luoyang City and Chang'an weren't actually on the same route, so Gu Baishui, that scoundrel, cunningly lied and claimed he was going to Chang'an, hoping the old merchant would give him a ride.

But he hadn't expected the old merchant to think it over and decide that Luoyang wasn't very far either. He planned to go to Luoyang first to pick up some goods, then return to Chang'an City.

So, by a twist of fate, the two of them were assigned to an unused carriage and set off, swaying along the road.

"I remember you first told me that the Transmigrator was Li Shiyi?"

"Mm." Luo Ziwei chewed the sweet potato in her mouth and answered indistinctly.

Gu Baishui asked, "But judging from the story you've told so far, that girl called Li Xu seems more like the Transmigrator."

"Why?" Luo Ziwei blinked.

Gu Baishui thought for a moment, then said, "My Second Senior Brother is a chatterbox. He likes telling me all kinds of strange stories, just like the A-Xu you mentioned."

The Linen-Clad Girl nodded unhurriedly. "Anything else?"

Gu Baishui raised his eyes. "The A-Xu in your story said that out at sea, we see the mast first, then gradually see the whole ship. My Second Senior Brother asked me about that too."

"Second Senior Brother said that we actually live on a sphere, that the moon is a small sphere and the sun is a big one. Because of something called Universal Gravitation, we're held to the surface of the sphere."

Luo Ziwei froze, then knitted her brows suspiciously. "Really?"

"I don't know. I've never even been down the mountain. How would I have seen the sea?" Gu Baishui said indifferently. "But I discussed it with Master. Master said that after I go down the mountain, I can try walking all the way around and see whether I can return to the mountain from the other direction."

Luo Ziwei asked, "Do you plan to try it someday?"

"Try what?"

"Walking all the way around."

Gu Baishui shook his head. "I'm not an idiot. Why go to all that trouble?"

"Master said so, so it must be possible. Otherwise, if I wandered off and got lost, wouldn't he have to come find me?"

"A lot of questions don't need a definite answer. You just need to use your brain a little. I actually have pretty good innate understanding."

Luo Ziwei pondered for a moment, as if she thought that made sense, and nodded lightly.

"So you think A-Xu was a Transmigrator from another world?"

Gu Baishui didn't deny it. "Isn't she?"

"She is."

Unexpectedly, the Linen-Clad Girl gave him a simple answer without hesitation.

Gu Baishui paused, then asked again, "What about Li Shiyi?"

Luo Ziwei didn't answer. She took a big bite of the sweet potato in her hands, and after a long silence, she finally said softly,

"I never said... I'd only met one Transmigrator."