Chapter 79
Chapter 79
A Showdown (1)
“Cui Wang, what’s wrong with you? W-why…… are you looking at me like this?”
Zheng Wan was harrowed by his look.
The moonlit night was excessively quiet; not even a single insect chirp could be heard in the State Preceptor’s residence. All the servants had their heads bowed, hardly daring to even breathe.
Cui Wang slowly retracted his hands into his sleeves. It felt as if someone had raised an active volcano on his chest, but the raging emotions could not find the way out no matter what, and could only turn into increasingly turbulent magma within.
“Send Third Lady Liu back to the guest house,” he said.
“Cui Wang!”
Zheng Wan called out disapprovingly. “She——”
“Go!”
Outside the window, a flock of sparrows nesting in the trees were so startled that they fluttered up.
The servants were also frightened; they rushed before Third Lady Liu and said respectfully, “Please.”
In their impressions, the State Preceptor was an actual immortal who fed on the wind and drank dewdrops, a being who was out of this world. Usually, he rarely even had any facial expressions, much less talk to them, but right now, he was so irascible that he seemed like a different person—one look at him charged them with terror.
Liu Yi did not understand what had happened; she looked worriedly at Cui Wang, then finally bobbed a curtsy under his cold gaze.
“This civilian shall take her leave.”
The group scattered off in a flurry.
There was only one lamp left in the room, as well as Cui Wang and Zheng Wan.
Only then did Zheng Wan realize that something was wrong with Cui Wang.
Cultivators were always cool and sweat-free, but fine beads of sweat were still coming out of Cui Wang’s forehead and nose bridge. His lips were blue, as if he had just had a bout of serious illness.
“Cui Wang, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Zheng Wan only thought that he might be having some difficulties while having a breakthrough; she took out a handkerchief from her waistband to wipe his sweat, but unexpectedly, he dodged backwards as if avoiding the plague.
“Scram.”
Zheng Wan’s expression suddenly became a little embarrassed.
No one’s heart was actually made of iron. As she rushed over in the night in the carriage, she had thought about how she was going to placate and coax him—— but now that she was here, she was so pierced by his gaze that she couldn’t utter a word.
Cui Wang was usually very easy to coax; just a few tears, and some softly spoken pretty words, and everything would pass.
“Cui Wang, are you……” Tears spun in Zheng Wan’s eyes, then rolled down. “…really going to ignore me from now on?”
“Zheng Wan——”
Cui Wang cast his eyes down at her and suddenly smiled.
“Your tears at this moment— are they true or false?”
Zheng Wan was taken aback. When she raised her head, the expression on her face was dumbfounded.
Cui Wang cupped her lower jaw again and looked at her carefully. Her skin was smooth and fair, her brows like distant mountains; it truly was a beautiful facade that even rouge and powders marred it unnecessarily. He asked another question:
“How many more new faces have been created under this beautiful skin?”
“Cui Wang, what do you mean by that?”
Zheng Wan stepped back, intending to flick his hand away. Unexpectedly, his fingers were like iron clamps, holding her firmly in place; her jaw smarted from his grip. “Cui Wang, have you taken a fancy to that Third Lady Liu? If you want to cast me aside, just tell me in advance, why do you have to vilify me like this?”
“Vilify?”
Cui Wang smiled, “Zheng Wan, who can speak as well as you? You can coax people’s souls and gouge out their hearts.”
Zheng Wan intuited that something was not quite right, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. The Cui Wang before her was cynical, cold, and unprecedentedly caustic.
“The words you’re saying now are what it truly means to gouge out one’s heart.” Zheng Wan bit her lip, feeling like the current Cui Wang had frozen into an icy hedgehog, leaving one with nowhere to bite. “Just what exactly has happened?”
“You want to hear it?”
Zheng Wan nodded. “Yes.”
“Well, listen then.”
Cui Wang flicked his sleeves, and a gust of wind swept the door closed. At the same time, a long, red sandalwood box was suddenly flung in front of Zheng Wan, opening with a sharp clack.
Pieces of paper scattered in the wind, then lined up in front of Zheng Wan again.
She opened her eyes to look at them, but heard Cui Wang say:
“Everyone in the Great Liang knows that Lady Zheng Wan is a master of calligraphy and painting, but no one knows that each stroke from her left hand has the strength of gold on paper, powerful like silver and iron. Wan’niang,” he turned slowly and whispered in her ear, “Did you think that you’ve concealed it very well?”
Zheng Wan’s face suddenly turned pale.
Three sheets of plain wax paper were pressed flat and laid out in front of her.
Cui Wang said, “Read.”
Zheng Wan picked up a piece of paper.
“Boil wine in the Plum Garden to cook the swan geese.1”
“A meeting with the brocade fur coat in the woods of Yan Garden.”
“Causing ripples in the Wind, catkins2 will fall in Gui’s west.”
These were the wax pills she had delivered to the eldest princess. There were three in total; nothing could be gleaned from them at first glance, and even if they fell into the hands of others, they would only be regarded as meaningless scrap paper.
But she had clearly instructed Aunt Anqing to burn them; why had they fallen into Cui Wang’s hands, and be neatly lined up in front of her like this?
Could it be that Aunt Anqing had betrayed her?
No, that’s impossible.
Footnotes:
1 Swan geese: In Chinese, it’s 梁雁, liang yan; the significance of this will become clear very soon in the story.
2 Catkins: In Chinese, it’s 柳絮, liu xu, a reference to Liu Yi, based on the homonym ‘liu’.