Aug. 17th, 2022 at 12:16 PM
Since then, no one visited the First of Yefang’s Twelve Jade Buildings again.
Yefang’s guqin player Yue Changsheng did not go up on stage for a long time, declining day by day. Yefang flourished as before, having newcomers replacing the old people, just like in the old days.
And the few scattered letters Yefang sent to Zhongli Court were all immediately burned.
In winter of the 25th year of Taoguang, the Second Young Master of Zhongli Court was ambushed on the Beimang Mountain’s road by Henglian’s subordinate Taihangjian. The assassination failed, and they were all beheaded.
All seventy-six participants were decapitated, and their corpses thrown into the Luoshui river to destroy their traces. Not a single one was spared.
It was a windy, snowy night when Yefang’s bookboy, Yue Chou, visited Zhongli Court, handing over a letter from his Master, an invitation for a drink and a chat.
This was not the first time this kind of invitation had been sent. The Eldest Young Master didn’t even consider it, and resolutely refused just as he’d done in the past.
Yue Chou had long since gotten used to it, and didn’t bother much, climbing back onto the palanquin and returning.
The Eldest Young Master stared at that elegant and strong calligraphy, spellbound for a long time, then lifted his hand to ignite a corner of it with the candle, and the flames quickly swallowed up the paper.
The letter was accompanied by a few lines of unimportant idle talk, talking about the riverside plum blossoms and the new green ant wine2. It didn’t resemble an ordinary succinct invitation letter, almost as if it was expected that the person receiving the invitation would not show up, so the writer had simply just talked about everything.
This futile endeavour, and his efforts in vain, had already been going on for a year.
The sound of popping fireworks echoed out when the tall window was lightly pushed open, letting in a few strands of cold wind.
“Young Master, Ye Jun has made his move.” A low male voice floated into the room, accompanied by the snowy wind, briefly making his report, “It was Taihangjian’s ‘A Day After Autumn’, Yue Changsheng will die tomorrow evening.”
Zhongli Zixu was stunned after he heard this, staring blankly for a long time, then leaving out the door in a panic.
That year, the roads had been blocked by the heavy snow for several days. The birds and beasts had vanished, the sky was cloudy and lightless, and the landscape was the same colour except for the long embankment, broken by the heart of the lake, and the short pavilion which floated in the open space.
Yue Changsheng sat upright at the Folding Leaf Pavilion with thick furs wrapped around him, gazing at the snow. Yue Chou attended to the red clay stove fire to the side, the only remaining spot of crimson between heaven and earth, which vividly stood out in the reflection on the surface of the lake.
The wine brewing on the stove came to a boil, and suddenly the sound of a flute could be heard from the shore, it was Yan Jidao’s “Pure Serenade”3.
I could not make him stay. In drunkenness, he unmoored the magnolia boat and left.
Pushing the green waves with a paddle, he passed all the spots where the dawn orioles cried.
At the port, the willows are green; the twigs and leaves are full of parting sorrow.
After your departure, do not send me any letters. In the painted building, cloud and rain does not mean commitment.
When the song came to an end, there was silence.
The Eldest Young Master put his bamboo flute away, his face pale.
——Ye Yin did not appear.
This song was the secret code he used to meet with Ye Yin. Since Ye Yin did not respond, it meant that the Second Young Master’s spies were close at hand, so he couldn’t show himself.
When Yue Changsheng saw him again after a year, he only gave him a courteous and calm smile.
There were two blankets spread out in the pavilion, and atop the wooden table there were two pairs of bowls and chopsticks and two cups of wine. One pair was clean and unused, clearly reserved for a guest.
The Eldest Young Master’s heart fluttered: “Were you waiting for me?”
Yue Changsheng nodded.
Eldest Young Master: “Did you know I would come today?”
“I didn’t know.” Yue Changsheng said, “But this is how I do it every day.”
The Eldest Young Master was dumbfounded.
But Yue Changsheng didn’t bring it up again, and neither did he interrogate or blame him, nor did he exchange pleasantries, he only invited him for a journey around the lake.
The Eldest Young Master hesitated several times, wanting to say something, but suppressed the remorse filling his stomach and followed him onto the boat.
Yue Changsheng sat on the bow of the boat, dressed in white, his skin like cold dew, completely flawless, and he seemed almost ready to ride away into the wind and blend into the white snow.
The Eldest Young Master stared blankly at him. This person who was like a banished immortal would turn into dried up bones along the yellow sand tomorrow. All sorts of feelings obviously welled up in his heart, but he couldn’t talk about them.
“You actually listened to me today.” The lonely boat floated towards the heart of the lake, and Yue Changsheng withdrew his gaze from the misty water, calmly saying, “I probably don’t have long left to live.”
Zhongli Zixu was startled when he heard this.
Yue Changsheng: “Don’t worry, Eldest Young Master. There is nothing in the sky above the lake, and there’s no place to hide, not even the most skilled assassin would be able to find out what you and I spoke about today.”
Eldest Young Master: “You….. you know everything?”
“How could I? I’m just an ordinary man, how could I prophetise like a god? But your acting skills are clumsy, so I could make a close guess.”
The Eldest Young Master sighed with worry, staying silent.
“Don’t shed tears until you see the coffin.” Yue Chansheng got up and handed him the golden hand stove in his arms, “I invited you while alive and you refused to see me, I had to be half dead before you knew to look for me.”
The Eldest Young Master was at a loss for words for a while, mumbling: “…..I’m sorry. If I had known that today…..”
Yue Changsheng casually asked: “Oh? So you know regret now?”
The Eldest Young Master hung his head, sadly nodding: “I shouldn’t have used you as a front, gotten you involved and costed you your life.”
“Wrong.” But Yue Changsheng shook his head, “Think again.”
The Eldest Young Master stared blankly at him, not understanding his meaning. After careful consideration, he still had no idea, so he could only shake his head.
Yue Changsheng lowered his head to look at the reflection on the heart of the lake, inarticulately saying: “I’m going to die in the end, but if it weren’t for you avoiding me like a scourge, I could have at least had a happy year.”
The Eldest Young Master’s heart was greatly shaken.
He lingered in the bordello scene all year round, so how could love be on par with life?
“You are a mortal man through and through, there is no need to force yourself to withdraw from the world.” Yue Changsheng spoke again, “If someday you have a person you like, don’t miss them again like me.”
He leisurely sat upright amidst the goose-feather snow4, without the slightest trace of the bleak desolation of someone meeting death.
“Just now, I heard your Pure Serenade.” He said, “Your flute playing is too bad, why don’t I teach you?”
After a night of wind and frost, the sky was almost light as Yue Changsheng sent him back ashore.
“Keep the parasol and the cloak.”
The Eldest Young Master had hastily arrived in an unlined garment, and he’d long since been frozen blue, but he still refused.
“I’m a dead man, what does it matter if I catch a cold or not?” Yue Changsheng draped the fur over his shoulders without letting him speak, carefully tying a knot on his chest, and spoke softly into his ear, “The dead are already gone, but the living must still try to live. Who dares assert who the most pitiful one is between you and me?”
Yue Changsheng put the parasol into his palms, and covered the back of his ice-cold hands with his own, transferring heat from skin to skin. The Eldest Young Master absent-mindedly thought, turns out the world could still have such genuine warmth.
“Go. Don’t turn back.”
Yue Changsheng withdrew his hands, and that thread of fleeting warmth suddenly froze over.
He turned around and stepped into the boundless land, as the blizzard of wind and frost came down on him.
That man behind him was left in place, gradually getting farther apart, fading away into the vast expanse of heaven and earth.
He did not look back.
“No need to feel ashamed.” He said. “If you never liked me at all, then that’s even better.”
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1 The Yue character in Yue Changsheng’s name means moon. Top.
2 Refers to freshly-brewed wine that has yet to be filtered, which has a floating green foam residue that resembles ants. From the short poem “As Liu Shijiu” by Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, in which he writes about inviting friends over for a drink. Top.
3 Yan Jidao was a poet from Northern Song, this poem “Pure Serenade (Qingping Music) - I could not make him stay” is written from the perspective of a courtesan who is saying farewell to her lover. Translation taken from here. Top.
4 A metaphor for heavy snowfall. Top.
2 Refers to freshly-brewed wine that has yet to be filtered, which has a floating green foam residue that resembles ants. From the short poem “As Liu Shijiu” by Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, in which he writes about inviting friends over for a drink. Top.
3 Yan Jidao was a poet from Northern Song, this poem “Pure Serenade (Qingping Music) - I could not make him stay” is written from the perspective of a courtesan who is saying farewell to her lover. Translation taken from here. Top.
4 A metaphor for heavy snowfall. Top.
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