The Rise of Phoenixes

“The interest for this slap… wait for me.”

With a last smile and her back blocking the view of everyone in the room, she patted the old crone’s face gently and then stepped over the threshold.

Before her, the warm evening sun enveloped her, and behind, cold and surprised looks examined her. She stood in between, her shadow thin and faint.

She didn’t look back.

She didn’t look at her brother’s guiltless expression, and she didn’t look at the bitterness in her mother’s eyes. She didn’t think of her family’s betrayal, and she didn’t think of what she would have to face beyond this doorway.

She just walked peacefully into the embrace of the evening sun and deeply breathed in the golden light.

She said to herself.

“I’ll be back.”

The warm winter sun fell little by little, and the whistling wind brought with it the coldness of night.

As the sky darkened, fewer people walked the streets. The night watchman tapped his baton, and the ringing rolled desolately off the roads.

With a light rustle, a waiter of a small pub on Tian Shui street pulled down the bamboo stand, covering the window. He turned to a gloomy corner of the dark pub and smiled politely. “Customer… our store is closing…”

In that corner, a small figure leaned against the wall with a couple of bottles of cheap and weak alcohol in front of him. The shadow grunted lightly and stood up slowly, putting down a small piece of silver before leaving with the two unfinished bottles in hand.

The waiter looked at the person’s slim and weak silhouette hugged by a thin coat and shook his head wordlessly – to be out at almost midnight and still wandering… only homeless people did that, right?

Through the door, with the cold wind blowing into her face, Feng Zhiwei hugged her thin coat. Her fingers brushed her lips, and her breath was like frost.

She clung to the bottle, wandering aimlessly against the flow of people as she gradually crossed through the poor area of the East Quarters and headed to the city center.

After some walking, she spotted a river in front of her, reflecting the night sky and blurred lantern lights. Snow had gathered and covered the bluestone by the riverside and looked like crystal or ice jade.

Feng Zhiwei sat on a snow-covered bluestone and faced the water.

She retrieved the last bottle from her embrace, drinking slowly from its mouth. Soon, there was not much left and she tilted her head backward and lifted the bottle.

The bottle was poorly made with crude clay and some of the clear liquid spilled from the mouth and flowed onto her face, dripping down the corner of her eye.

She wiped her face carelessly and wet her fingers with alcohol and tears. She examined her fingers, and only after a long, long while did she lift her hands gently and cover her eyes.

The snow-covered sound on the silent night and the freezing winter wind washed over the flowing river. The shadow of a young girl sat on a bluestone; the fingers she covered her eyes with dappled by the light’s reflection off the water.

The diffused smell of perfume swept by with distant coquettish laughter, and when it disappeared past the river, there was only loneliness.

A sound broke the silence.

“Gong Zi…”

The voice was soft and flirtatious, with a cute and light petulant upturn at the end of it. Footsteps neared.

Feng Zhiwei lowered her hands and frowned, examining the reflection of lanterns and flowers on the water surface. If she remembered correctly, this was the Rouge River connected to the city, and was famous in a ten miles radius for its brothels. Each side of the river was long and filled with sellers of smiles.

It was probably some customer’s idea to bring his nightingale to the riverside for some excitement.

Feng Zhiwei remained seated—that customer didn’t care about people watching, so why would she be afraid of being seen?

As the footsteps grew nearer, the young woman cried out cutely, “Ai ya, there is someone here…” but her tone indicated that she didn’t really care. She turned to the man beside her and asked naughtily, “Gong Zi… you told me that you were going to show me something interesting…”

The figure beside her replied with a faint “wu” sound. Even his grunt was tinged with coldness and was vaguely familiar.

Feng Zhiwei caressed her bottle. At the corner of her eye was an elegant, silver-trimmed robe. The light golden Mandala Flower on his black cloak postured arrogantly in the wind.

Jade clinked as the young girl turned in her beautifully colored dressed. She walked away from the river and took a step toward the man in the elegant robe, reaching out her hands behind the man’s neck. “Then… Yin’er will wait.”

The man seemed motionless, but his tone hid a smile. “I saw a good play today, and it was brilliant. I find myself with the urge to share what happened.”

Feng Zhiwei’s heart quivered slightly and she turned her head to the couple.

The elegant, robed man’s cold smile seemed unnerving in the snowy night. He returned her gaze with a glance, and with the faint smile still on his face, he hugged the young woman’s waist as they walked step by step.

Each movement brought them closer to the riverside.

That Yin’er was drunk with the man’s gorgeous charm, and she didn’t notice as he backed her up to the river.

At the bank.

The man lowered his face and smiled again.

The young woman cried out shyly and raised her lips.

And ever so gently, the man reached out his hand and pushed.

“Pu Tong.”

On the bluestone, Feng Zhiwei buried her face in her hands and sighed.

Really… it really happened.

Yin’er was baffled and too shocked to even struggle. Luckily, the river was mostly ornamental and not too deep, but nonetheless, her lips and face had paled. It was only unclear whether it was due to terror or the icy coldness.

Feng Zhiwei gazed stupidly at the man and woman pair on the riverside. The man had clasped his hands behind his back and was looking off into the distance, paying no attention to the terrified girl and the woman sitting elegantly where she had always sat. As before, the latter was still concentrated on her drink if nothing had happened.

Yin’er felt on the cusp of a mental breakdown.

How could such people exist in the world? One pushes people into the water for no reason, and the other one doesn’t react!

She trembled in the water and slowly struggled her way to the bank. She reached her hand out and begged for the man to pull her up. “Gong Zi… Gong Zi…”

Her fingers were deathly pale, pitiful like a flower about to shatter.

The man looked down at her outstretched hand and slowly put his hands in his sleeves. He smiled faintly. “No! Your hands are dirty!”

Feng Zhiwei coughed into her rice wine.

“Gong Zi… Yin’er knows that she was wrong… Yin’er will never annoy you again…” The young girl cried in the water. “Yin’er knows… that she should have never had feelings for you…”

Her tears had washed off her beautiful makeup, revealing her young and tender face. The woman was still a girl, and because she was young, she lacked a sense of propriety. Now, after taking a dip in the cold winter river, she remembered the rumors of this man’s mercilessness, and how he hated being tied down.

She soaked in the icy water, trembling but not daring to ask for help. She didn’t even dare to try to get out of the water on her own.