Roi céleste

Chapitre 27

...

My eyes rolled back, and I finally managed to faint.

Thirty-six cups of mutton wine

Mutton wine, a magnificent sight, arranged on a mat; others sit and boast of the mutton wine.

...

However, I still failed because I hit my head on the wall while falling down...

I gritted my teeth and endured it, pretending to still be unconscious, and slumped against the wall on the bed.

My heart suddenly started beating very fast, and I could hear the sound clearly in my ears. Many chaotic thoughts were churning in my heart with each beat, one after another, one after another, all scattered and crashing against my chest.

My heart is filled with countless thoughts.

I lay in bed, too afraid to move, but there was no sound around me. I even wondered if what I had seen before was just a hallucination, and that Qingjiu had actually left long ago.

Just as I was lost in thought, I felt the soft blanket being pulled back over me, followed by the sound of footsteps leaving and the door closing.

I still didn't dare to open my eyes, let alone move, and just lay there woodenly.

Not long after, the door was pushed open again. I didn't know who came in, but the footsteps were a bit heavy, as if they were bringing something in.

Then I was turned over, and the touch of that hand on my skin was warm, like the lingering firelight in winter.

A slightly damp, warm towel was used to wipe my wound. After a while, a slight burning sensation came from it, and I smelled a bitter odor. It seemed that medicine was being applied. Finally, bandages were carefully wrapped around my wound, and I was dressed in an undergarment. I was then moved to the center of the bed and covered with a quilt. The person even carefully tucked in the corners of the quilt for me.

I became increasingly afraid to open my eyes.

I thought the person was about to leave, but then I felt a warm touch on my forehead. The weight slowly moved up and pressed down on my hair. The hand was very light, just pressing lightly on my hair, but it never left.

I can even imagine that person sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning slightly down, as if they've been watching me the whole time.

This action inexplicably reminded me of the soft sunlight falling sparsely on peach blossom branches.

Then I slowly fell asleep.

Then, after what felt like half a night, or perhaps a thousand or ten thousand years, I suddenly opened my eyes and saw a man sitting on the edge of the bed, reading documents. His flowing black hair cascaded over his light rose-colored robe.

“You are…” I stammered.

The man put down the document, turned his head to look at me, and did not speak, but smiled. His beautiful phoenix eyes curved into a crescent moon, with light flickering within them, like a firework that flashes by.

I was in a daze for a moment, then suddenly reached out and pinched myself, muttering, "I was just dreaming...it doesn't hurt at all."

The person by the bed frowned and reached out to grab my wrist, which I had pinched red. I mischievously slapped his hand away, tilted my head back, and blinked at the handsome man in front of me. I noticed that he was sometimes thin and sometimes fat. When he was fat, he was round and plump, like a... big peach.

"Oh! It's you, Fat Peach Spirit!" I suddenly pointed at him and exclaimed.

The now-thinner, plump peach spirit helplessly grasped my hand and whispered, "Could it be that you've fainted from illness..."

"I'm not sick!" I shouted. "Fat Peach Spirit, you promised me that as long as I come here, you will go and steal delicious peaches for me."

The plump peach spirit, who had suddenly become exceptionally beautiful, said in a doting voice, "Peaches aren't tasty anymore. Next summer, I'll go and steal lots of delicious peaches, okay?"

I stared blankly at the fat peach spirit. The more I looked at him, the more he resembled someone, but I couldn't remember him at all. Frustrated, I said, "You, you, you cheated!" I was so angry that my teeth itched. Suddenly, I grabbed his hand and bit it. Then I realized I had gone too far and quickly let go. I saw that there was already a tooth mark on it. I felt extremely guilty. "What should I do? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—it hurts, doesn't it? Why don't you bite me too!" I immediately stretched my hand out in front of the fat—no, the skinny peach spirit.

The skinny peach spirit looked at me with a smile, and suddenly said inexplicably, "This is not bad either." Then she reached out and touched my head, and deliberately ruffled my hair.

This gesture seems familiar... Hmm, let me think, let me think, but I just can't remember who would do this to me...

I scrunched up my face, looking distressed, and crawled out of bed, stretching my upper body out to lie on the skinny peach-like girl's lap. "Let me lie down here, skinny peach-like girl, let me think. I feel like you look like someone..."

The skinny peach spirit chuckled softly and said gently, "...Who?" As she spoke, she shifted her legs, and I, who was now lying down more comfortably, was quite satisfied.

"I just can't remember. It seems like it's someone I really like."

She felt the body next to her tremble slightly. "...Do you still remember your name?" The skinny peach spirit's voice sounded a little strange.

"Hmm...hmm...um, it seems to be called Qing—Qing Ba!"

Suddenly, the skinny peach spirit froze. I tried to look up in confusion, but he pressed me back down with his hand. I could barely lift my eyes and could only see his pointed chin, which looked like a jade cone.

I could vaguely sense that he was trying to suppress some emotion in his heart. In the rise and fall of his chest, it was like a slow, turbulent tide, and the faint, damp breath on my nose was oppressive and sad.

Feeling this way, I obediently lay back down. I heard the thin peach spirit's low voice in my ear. "...Not Qingba."

What is that?

"...I don't know." The skinny peach spirit's voice was completely flat, like a stagnant pool.

"Hmm... I always felt it was a name very similar to Qingba, could it be Jiu? But it doesn't seem to be that character..." I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

The skinny peach spirit's body was as stiff as ice, and he never spoke again.

"You're a peach blossom spirit, you must know a lot, right? So... tell me, I like him, does he like me back..." Before I could finish speaking, I fell asleep again.

It was vaguely a dream, and someone was softly calling my name. The voice was so gentle, so tender and sad that it made me want to cry, but I had no strength at all. I couldn't open my mouth and couldn't respond.

Then a soft touch came to my lips, so light, so very light, like a petal brushing against the water, or like the subtle fragrance of peach blossoms lingering, dreamlike and ethereal, like a lament, and finally, it inevitably dissipated into the air, never to return, gone forever.

...

When I finally opened my eyes, I sprang out of bed with a jolt and quickly looked towards the side of the bed. There was no one there, nor any documents or chairs.

Only the cold, clear sunlight of late autumn lay silently on the ground.

I patted my chest and breathed a sigh of relief, but I still felt depressed, with a strange feeling that I couldn't quite put my finger on, a sense of loss, or something like that.

While eating breakfast, I couldn't help but stop the maid and ask, "Last night... um, was anyone left in my room?"

"No, miss. Everyone left during the day, and no one has come since."

I nodded blankly.

I never saw Qingjiu again after that.

It took ten days to half a month for the wound to finally heal, but it left a long scar. I told myself that a tough woman like me doesn't care about such things. During this time, Yin Liuchuan was persuaded for some reason to stay and help Tian Shu Palace.

With the formidable strength and diplomatic skills of Tian Shu Palace, sects large and small within a thousand miles were happy to do Tian Shu Palace a favor, sending their experts to help suppress the martial artists attacking the Taihang Mountains. On a deeper level, Qing Jiu's act of voluntarily incurring a debt of gratitude shattered any future alliances these surrounding sects might have formed. Because of this debt, once Tian Shu Palace stabilized, it would refrain from interfering in the surrounding areas, and Tian Shu Palace was happy to have this protective barrier.

Afterwards, several key figures of the Taihang Mountain Alliance were killed by Qing Jiu himself or by his men. From then on, the Taihang Mountain Alliance could not reverse its decline and suffered defeat after defeat. Finally, the siege of Tian Shu Peak ended with the Taihang Mountain side signing a huge indemnity and giving up a lot of interests, turning into a farce. Tian Shu Palace, which had been questioned before, became famous, and for a time no one questioned its status as one of the three major powers in the martial arts world.

Seizing this new opportunity, Tian Shu Palace began to expand its previously shrinking profit-generating businesses, such as escort agencies and martial arts schools, regaining its coverage of half of Jiangnan. Furthermore, the number of new recruits Tian Shu Palace recruited each autumn was significantly increased.

After this battle, Tian Shu Palace entered a golden age of development.

The reason I know this so clearly is because I use these words to tell myself that Qingjiu is very busy, extremely busy.

In fact, he was very busy, often traveling all over the country outside the palace.

Yin Liuchuan went back to the palace on business. Before he left, he told me that he would come back to see me when he was done. I really wish he would never come back and could go and take a dozen or twenty wives.

So, without Yin Liuchuan, that scourge, and with the people of Tian Shu Palace running around like crazy, I was extremely idle for a while. Although it was great to be able to earn a huge amount of money just by sitting around like this, I was very uncomfortable.

The consequence of being so bored that I felt moldy was that I started having insomnia.

On the seventh night, after I sat on the cliff behind Tian Shu Palace, feeling the cold midnight wind, Qing Jiu arrived.

He paused for a moment when he saw me, then turned his phoenix eyes to look at the cliff in front of me, and his brows suddenly furrowed.

My heart skipped a beat. As I racked my brains trying to figure out how to speak to him, the Grand Palace Master Qing spoke calmly, "The back cliff of Tian Shu Palace is a forbidden area. Miss Qing, please do not come here again in the future."

Ah, you've become Miss Qing now.

The tall, elegant man before me, his cold purple robes appearing even more chilling in the clear moonlight, maintained a humble and refined smile, yet his eyes held nothing but indifference and aloofness.

Wasn't he just like this when I first met him?

In the end, it turns out that I was the only one who changed.

Life is full of many things, so many that it often keeps the moon asleep while people remain awake.

I looked away, bowed my head, and said, "Sorry to bother you." Finally, I pretended not to care and left unhurriedly.

Later, I asked Huamei if she had found any wounds on the Palace Master's hands a few days ago.

As soon as I asked the question, I regretted it. Hua Mei told me, "I do remember now. When we were dealing with those small fry in the Taihang Mountains, during the sand table exercise, I noticed a row of teeth marks on the back of his hand—could it have been you, you audacious woman, who bit him?"

I forced a smile. "Anyway, the wound will be gone in no time."

Anyway, what I thought I had accumulated little by little, maybe even just a little bit of difference, or even just simple affection, was gone in an instant.

People might lose more after revealing more of their desires.

When will my mind be completely at peace, like a gossamer thread a hundred feet long?

...

Note:

1. Untitled, Anonymous

Flowers bloom and fade as they always do; the moon waxes and wanes as it always does. Life is full of affairs, so many that it often keeps the moon asleep while people remain awake.

2. "Daily" by Li Shangyin

Spring sunshine vie with the sun's rays every day, the apricot blossoms fragrant along the mountain town's sloping paths. When will my heart be free of all worries, able to reach the length of a hundred-foot gossamer thread?

Thirty-Seven Cups of Cornelian Cherry Wine [Image]

Cornelian Cherry Wine: The method for making Cornelian Cherry Wine is the same for everyone; it's best served in a white bowl. It warms the stomach, wards off evil, cures all diseases, and prolongs life better than wolfberry soup.

...

After a few more days of drifting aimlessly, it was the eighth day of the ninth lunar month, and tomorrow is the Double Ninth Festival.

The poem says, "Alone in a foreign land, I am a stranger; on every festive occasion, I miss my family all the more." Although I have no relatives, I regard Luowu Mountain as my home. I wonder if they will find that one person is missing when they climb the mountain to admire the chrysanthemums tomorrow.

While I was feeling down and sullen in my room, a maid came to deliver a message saying that a very beautiful girl had come up the mountain to find me and was currently in the main hall.

My heart skipped a beat, and I rushed into the hall. There I saw a woman sitting there, wearing a thick coat. She had delicate features and fair skin, and it was none other than Li Yiyao.

Without saying a word, I rushed over and hugged her tightly. I don't know what I said, but I started crying for some reason.

As a result, Li Yiyao's eyes also reddened, and she burst into tears, her cries reaching the heavens, attracting countless guards and servants. This caused the entire atmosphere of sadness to dissipate, and I could no longer squeeze out a single tear, so I could only hug and comfort Aunt Li.

Li Yiyao, who was tugging at my sleeve and wiping away her tears and snot, sobbed, "I just thought it must be really hard for you to spend the Double Ninth Festival alone on Bald Mountain. I set off half a month ago, enduring all the hardships of the journey, just to be with you for the Double Ninth Festival. How about that, are you touched?"