Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan
Chapter 16 - Each With Their Own Plans
Take responsibility for you?
You saved me, and now you want me to take responsibility?
Meng Fuyao blinked her eyes. Why did the logic of thissentence sound so strange?
This Yuan Zhaoxu, his ability to use his words to disguisethe false as true, and reverse common sense, was truly at an expert"s level.
Fuyao admitted that she was not his opponent, and so couldonly retreat a step, leaving that radius of entrancing fragrance. Rubbing hernose, she changed the topic, "I actually have an idea, only it will beslightly dangerous ..."
"Then let"s follow your idea then." Yuan Zhaoxudidn"t even inquire about her plan, only carelessly replying.
Meng Fuyao stared at him. "Do you know what I amthinking of?"
"You"re thinking of planting incriminating evidence andframing someone else, giving them a taste of their own medicine." YuanZhaoxu"s smile was confident and detestable.
Fuyao twisted the corner of her mouth while staring fixedlyat him. After a while she cursed him. "Tapeworm!" --------------
Inside the deep mountains of early autumn, there werealready some signs of winter"s coming. Maple leaves held the early colors offrost red, the red in the cold moonlight looking beautiful yet eerie.
The Profound Origin village"s "Wind Listening SmallPavilion", today held some special guests. The guest"s status was lofty -Tai Yuan Empire"s Third Prince Qi Xunyi [1]. Pei Yuan"s wounding, according tonormal proceedings, shouldn"t have moved a prince to personally come. However,Qi Xunyi was different. His mother, an imperial concubine, was Pei Yuan"s aunt;he was Pei Yuan"s closest cousin.
Qi Xunyi resided in a single courtyard. The other esteemedguest who had come with him lived in the east courtyard of the "WindListening Small Pavilion". That person had entered his room very early,not allowing anyone to attend to him, seeming a little unusual.
Lin Xuanyuan had welcomed the guests during the day, andfirst accompanied them to visit Pei Yuan at the Orchid Pavilion. Then he hadstayed at the Wind Listening Small Pavilion for half the night, before finallysaying farewell. Treading on the night frost of moonlight, he walked towardshis own rest chambers, his expression containing some worry.
After he left, the Wind Listening Small Pavilion returned tostillness, and lamps were snuffed out one by one. No matter what would happentomorrow, sleep was still a necessity.
A silent, still night.
The rising crescent moon coldly hung above the cloud tops,the lunar glow like distant flowing water.
"Whoosh."
In the chilly luminance, a streak of black shadow, like akite with a broken string, drifted past the courtyards; drifted past the patio;drifted past the entrance hall; and drifted up onto the second floor of thatsmall building with flying, painted eaves.
The dark shadow was like a falling leaf, hanging for sometime on the eaves of the second-floor. Swaying a little underneath the eave,the figure transformed into a streak of black smoke, swinging into the highestwestern loft of the Wind Listening Small Pavilion.
So light, so swift, so silent.
Even a closed-eyed, dozing little bird on a Banyan tree nextto the building, was not alerted.
The black shadow floated into the bead curtains, penetratinginto the inner room. Underneath a black mask, there peeked out a pair ofresplendent pupils - Meng Fuyao"s eyes.
"Who!"
The black shadow had just flashed through the door, beforein the dimness instantly came a deep, icy shout.
The voice of the man inside the room was cold and clear,completely unlike the drowsiness of someone who had just been awakened.
With a sharp glint in her eyes, Meng Fuyao noiselesslysneaked in like a monkey. With a fling of her sleeves, a dim dark daggersilently shot out of her sleeve. Like a venomous snake, in a flash it hadalready arrived in front of the heart of the person on the bed.
The man only sneered, and flicked his sleeves. What clearlywas soft, thin sleepwear, turned as hard as steel and smooth as jade in onemotion. With a screeching sound, when the dagger met the robes it actually slidoff, directly deflecting towards the edge of the bed.
Meng Fuyao also reacted to the change in situation withextraordinary speed. The moment the dagger was deflected, she immediately did abackwards somersault, like a large hawk flipping over the man"s head with a"hu" sound. Landing on the other side of the bed, without eventurning her head, she backhandedly sliced towards him, directly piercingtowards the opponent"s back.
The man now seemed to become angry, and suddenly leapedhorizontally from the bed. Folding like a piece of snow white soft satin, hetwisted his body in a bizarre manner, and avoided Fuyao"s fierce blade. Then astreak of white sword light came slicing out from his waist, rising like thebright crescent moon. In that instant, the bedchamber was brilliantly coveredin the glow, completely illuminating every detail of Meng Fuyao"s figure.
Her slender, feminine body was intricately outlined by thesword qi, her contours flowing like liquid waves. Her small chin was like anexquisite brook; her fullness swelled like billows of ocean waves; arriving atthe waist, the curves swirled into an enchanting vortex that made one"s heartjump and want to immerse inside, throwing caution to the winds.
The man was counter-attacking with his sword when, seeminglyshocked by this beautiful scene, he slightly hesitated.
Meng Fuyao, bathed in the sword light"s glow, immediatelytook this opportunity to cover her head and directly sprint towards the window,as if she didn"t dare to fight face-to-face with the opposite side. A grimlaugh, containing a sharp, murderous aura, suddenly erupted behind her."Where do you think you"re going?"
The sound was slower than the action - in that instant, swordlight formed a razor-thin line. Like a streak of flashing lightning that splitapart the air, it raced directly towards the back of the Meng Fuyao currentlyfleeing in a hurry.
The power behind the sword was swift, and if she continuedto sprint in a straight line she would definitely be skewered. Without anychoice, Meng Fuyao instantly executed an iron plate bridge, the back of herhead hitting the ground [2]. The sharp sword point rubbed the tip of her noseas it flew past, and suddenly, her face strangely and noiselessly split apart,neatly dividing into two and falling onto the ground.
That person started, then waved his hand in a beckoninggesture. The sword light flipped around, the hilt impacting Fuyao"s shoulderand smashing her down onto the floor.
Moonlight shone through the window"s gaps, falling on thegray-colored "face" on the ground. The two halves of the face masklightly rocked in the night breeze.
Meng Fuyao, whose mask had been cut apart by the sword qi,glanced back in panic at the person inside the room.
The moon"s glow illuminated her face.
It shone on a face with an enormous scar that, because ofher shocked expression, twisted hideously.
That scar was something could give rise to horror deepinside a person"s heart; with only a glance it would become hard to forget,making one unwilling to continue to look.
If it was only a scarred face, then perhaps it wouldn"t beas horrifying. Yet, the ruined face was paired with such a poeticallycontoured, entrancingly beautiful figure - this type of top and bottomcontrast, could only have people lamenting at the world"s unjustness. Truly,the heavens did not permit such a thing as a perfect beauty to exist.
The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at her, hisexpression revealing some shock and pity.
In this moment of surprise, Meng Fuyao immediately shot up like an agile leopard. With a point ofthe tip of her foot, she flipped out of the long window like a dark, elasticspring, in an instant pa.s.sing through to the outside of the window.
She escaped through the ends of the banyan tree, causingthousands of small branches to sway and dance in the air, and soft "hua lala" sounds to rustle out.
A loose leaf floated very high, drifting past the burstopened, still slightly oscillating window, and fell towards the man"s swordtip. But a few chi before it landed,it suddenly shook, then disintegrated in mid-air, transforming into a smallpile of dark green powder.
The man didn"t move throughout.
His sword light coagulated into rippling waves, and thousandsof dazzling light beams lit up his appearance. He had dark hair like ink, andhis tall stature stood straight like jade. A pair of upturned phoenix eyesbrilliantly flickered, containing hints of both malevolence and n.o.bility. [3]
He dusted his sleeves, immediately brushing that pile ofdark green dust into a cloud of green mist that slowly rose in the silentstillness of the room.
The wind fluttered the pearl and jade hangings. Behind theman, a door that connected with the eastern side of the pavilion noiselesslyopened all of a sudden.
Within the doorframe, a vague, white figure was sunk insidethe blurry darkness.
Noticing the white figure, the man"s eyes immediatelyradiated a sinister expression. Yet after turning his head, he had alreadyrecovered to his usual calm, unexpressive face. His voice also held somemeasures of respect and deliberate intimacy. "Sir Zong, my apologies fordisturbing you."
"The Third Prince has no need to be so polite."The white-clothed man walked out of the darkness. With a far-away gaze, helooked out of the window at the still swaying tree branches, a pondering expressionin his eyes. "I had not slept yet."
He turned his gaze towards the table surface, a littlehesitant. Qi Xunyi immediately said, "This tea set I have not touched yet,feel free to use it."
Smiling apologetically, the white-clothed man used the setto pour himself a cup of tea. His movements were dexterous and steady, his palmslender and clean. There was no light inside the room. Under the moon"s glowhis side profile was gentle, his eyes and lips seeming paler than normal,making one think of early spring"s newly blossomed cherry trees.
Lightly sipping some tea to wet his lips, he thoughtfullystared at the fallen tree leaves in the mud below. Faintly, he spoke. "Theseleaves ... originally they should not have fallen ..."
Qi Xunyi disapprovingly glanced outside the window with anextremely minute furrow of his brows. Then he laughed, "Sir Zong is amedical pract.i.tioner and has a parent"s heart, even having pity for flora.Xunyi completely admires you." [4]
"You can just call me Zong Yue." Lightly smiling,Zong Yue put down his tea. "Ever since I was born, I have liked plants.Seeing flowers and leaves fall before their time, I cannot help but feel a littlesadness. Third Prince must think me foolish."
"You can also just call me Xunyi." Qi Xunyigenerously laughed, "Names are given so that people can use them, Sirneeds not be so troubled."
His laughter was forthright, but his eyes never stoppeddarting around. Zong Yue averted his gaze, faintly smiling but not speaking.
Qi Xunyi stared at his eyes, slowly saying, "That scenejust now, you must have seen as well."
Zong Yue"s expression had little change, only shallowlynodding his head.
"Which sect did that person come from? Looking at theirtechniques, it seems like ..." Qi Xunyi"s words were hesitant, his eyesshining brilliantly.
Zong Yue fell silent for a short while, then spread his facein a smile. "The Prince is known to be number one under the heavens interms of knowledge, your research and studies covering all topics. This wickedguest"s actions, in your highness" heart, must have long been seen through.Unfortunately, Zong Yue is too unperceptive and cannot discover much, otherwiseI would have also helped your highness in solving this case."
Qi Xunyi"s stare deepened, then he smiled and waved hishand. "Sir Zong is too modest. Actually, this small prince is not boldenough to bother Sir with such meaningless, mundane affairs either. How aboutSir rest early, my younger sister"s wounds still have to rely on Sir." [5]
"Princess Yuan"s wounds are not light, especially sinceinside them still remain corroding bone powder that will cause the wounds todeepen. Curing will not be a problem, but completely recovering her originalappearance will be very difficult." Zong Yue"s eyes showed some regret,"However, I will do my best."
"Then it will be all up to Sir." Qi Xunyi lightlybowed.
Zong Yue silently returned the favor, then drifted away.
Right after his figure vanished inside the side door, QiXunyi"s agreeable and cool expression immediately disappeared without a trace.He fixed his eyes on where Zong Yue had left, with a deep gloominess in hisvision. After some time, he spat towards the ground with loathing, and softlycursed: "b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
1. Qi Xunyi = "齐寻意", Qi is surname, Xunyi means "seek meaning"
2. Using your body to create a bridge. In Chinese it"scalled "Iron Plate Bridge", English doesn"t really have a specificphrase, it"s just called "doing a bridge"
3. If you"ve ever come across the "upturned phoenixeyes" phrase before and wondered what it looked like, here are someexamples. Male:
Female:
It"s considered an attractive trait in both genders
4. A parent"s heart = a gentle heart, compa.s.sionate
5. Pei Yuan is not actually his younger sister but hisyounger cousin, but "sister" can be used to refer to female relativesbesides just an actual sister.