Lu Ying had carefully dressed up today. She wore a bright red brocade robe with golden phoenixes threading through peonies and wide sleeves, paired with a green flash satin horse-face skirt sprinkled with gold. Inside the skirt, she even wore a Korean-imported horsehair bustle that puffed the skirt out like a green lotus pod.
This bold color combination that gradually dazzled the eyes was clearly Wang Daxia’s handiwork. Lu Ying felt it was too gaudy and chaotic, wanting to change the skirt to a plain color, but Wang Daxia stopped her: “Trust me, men all like this. No one understands men better than I do.”
Lu Ying thought to herself that given Wang Daxia’s “glorious years” of cross-dressing invincibly and capturing countless men’s hearts, his words should be reliable. So be it—just endure it and it would pass.
Wang Daxia examined Lu Ying’s face and took out a sharp blade.
Lu Ying’s professional instincts kicked in as she raised a Western hand mirror to block in front of her. “What are you doing?”
“Trimming your eyebrows.” Wang Daxia asked, “Don’t tell me you’ve never had your eyebrows trimmed before?”
“Of course I have.” Lu Ying lowered the mirror, though she actually never had.
Wang Daxia saw through her but didn’t expose it. He shaved off the stray hairs above Lu Ying’s eyebrows, then took out over a dozen types of eyebrow ink from the shop, applying each to the back of his hand and comparing them to Lu Ying’s eyebrow color. He picked the most similar shade and drew her eyebrows.
Lu Ying had been weathered by years of wind and sun, her skin rather dark. Wang Daxia tried a pile of rouge and powder, but they were all too pale. Applied to her face, she looked like a puppet doll with a fake face, so he gave up and instead applied a thin layer of almond honey. Well, if she was just dark before, now she was dark and gleaming.
Wang Daxia took out a needle. Lu Ying again raised the mirror. “What are you doing now?”
Wang Daxia: “Piercing ear holes. Don’t worry, I pierce quickly. It’s just like a bee sting, and my ear holes were self-pierced. Back in Fengcheng, all the girls came to me for ear piercing. Combined with Caiwei’s medicinal paste, none of the ear holes I pierced ever festered or rotted—I was the best in Fengcheng.”
Wang Daxia had sacrificed too much for his undercover career, becoming self-taught and accidentally opening up a new business venture through unintentional success.
Lu Ying had charged through countless mountains of blades and seas of fire, but was deterred by a mere embroidery needle. “I don’t want to. I won’t wear earrings.”
Wang Daxia still wouldn’t give up. He cut a piece of he jiao—a type of sticky tree resin—warmed it soft with his breath, stuck it to a flower ornament, then pasted it on her cheek. Because you had to blow several breaths of warm air before applying it, it was called he jiao.
The dexterous Wang Daxia stuck two pale gold high-quality pearls to the he jiao, then pasted them on Lu Ying’s earlobes. It looked like she was wearing a pair of pearl drop earrings without needing pierced ears.
For hair accessories, after three years of refinement as a rouge shop owner, Wang Daxia had finally changed his terrible aesthetic of treating heads like flower pots and randomly stuffing them full of jewelry. He styled Lu Ying’s hair up and adorned it with a lotus crown.
Lu Ying looked in the mirror—gorgeous clothing paired with elegant, understated hair accessories… it actually looked quite good.
Wang Daxia was very satisfied with his handiwork. “Go on then. I wish Commander Lu victory today and an early embrace of a beautiful man.”
Lu Ying’s mind exploded with a thunderous crash. “What do you mean?”
Wang Daxia thought to himself that for these three years, you and my brother-in-law have been exchanging meaningful glances. Caiwei and I saw through it long ago, but marriage is between you two, so we couldn’t interfere.
When Lu Ying suddenly came to Wang Daxia for help, he knew exactly what was happening. He dressed Lu Ying according to matchmaking standards, so now he didn’t need to pretend ignorance.
Wang Daxia said, “Please take my brother-in-law away quickly, so my wife won’t keep worrying about him. Once she entrusts him to you, she can rest easy and retire with me.”
So Wang Daxia’s enthusiastic styling of Lu Ying today came from selfish motives.
Lu Ying was twenty-eight years old this year, Ding Wu thirty—already at the age of establishing himself. At their age, some people were already grandparents, yet they remained single.
Ding Wu had feelings for Lu Ying, but with his scholarly and reasonable nature, he would definitely first bring his father Ding Rukui from Yunnan to the capital, inform his father first, then step by step entrust official matchmakers to visit and propose marriage. All the complex ceremonies and formalities couldn’t be skipped.
However, Lu Ying’s personality was like an arrow shot from a bow—direct and unstoppable, moving forward without hesitation. A simple yes or no would suffice; absolutely no dawdling.
Outside the window was Caishikou, where they had just executed by slow slicing Zhao Quan, Li Zixin, and seven other White Lotus sect leaders, plus beheadings. Blood filled the air. With only a layer of window paper between them, Lu Ying took the initiative to ask Ding Wu if he wanted to get married.
Lu Ying—truly worthy of being you.
As if struck by a club, Ding Wu’s mind went completely blank, like he had tinnitus with at least a hundred cicadas chirping in his ears: “Zhiliao zhiliao!”
But the reality was he didn’t know, didn’t know! The flustered Ding Wu had no idea what to do!
Ding Wu sat there dumbfounded. As a man, he always felt he should speak first about such matters. Lu Ying had said everything he wanted to say, leaving him speechless and unsure how to respond.
Ding Wu was first stunned, and when his brain resumed thinking, his first thought was actually: “If only Wang Daxia were here—I could ask him what to do. With all his methods, he can easily handle both men and women.”
Ding Wu shook his head, trying to shake this absurd thought from his mind.
Lu Ying sought help from Wang Daxia, and Ding Wu also wanted to seek help from Wang Daxia, but Wang Daxia wasn’t nearby. With no help available, the two froze in place for a moment, as if time had stopped.
Lu Ying waited a long time without receiving Ding Wu’s response. The fire in her heart gradually extinguished and cooled, leading to self-doubt: Had she misread all those glances and feelings from Ding Wu before? Was she being presumptuous?
She was a straightforward person—if you’re heartless, I’ll let go. At worst, she’d remain unmarried for life.
Though extremely reluctant, Lu Ying still stood up and cupped her fists: “I’m sorry for putting you in a difficult position with this question. I won’t ask again in the future. Everything will remain as before. Farewell.”
Lu Ying turned to leave. Only then did Ding Wu snap back to reality. In his urgency, disregarding all proprieties about men and women not touching, he slapped his palm on Lu Ying’s right shoulder, trying to hold her back.
Who was Lu Ying? Someone who learned horse stance as soon as she could walk, a martial arts genius who had long since developed instinctive muscle responses. As a martial artist, having something suddenly land on your shoulder was extremely dangerous. You absolutely couldn’t turn around—turning would expose the most vulnerable part of the body, the neck, for attack.
So Lu Ying didn’t turn around. Instinctively, she grabbed the hand on her right shoulder with both hands, then crouched low, powered from the waist, and executed a beautiful side throw, pinning the attacker to the ground.
Ding Wu had no idea what happened—he was just suddenly pressed to the floor by Lu Ying, unable to move, their faces only a fist’s distance apart as they stared at each other.
Lu Ying’s actions were faster than her thoughts. After subduing the attacker, she saw who she had pinned down and released her grip: “Remember, never pat a martial artist’s shoulder from behind. If it were someone used to weapons, you’d already be dead.”
Ding Wu’s head was rattled from the fall and couldn’t get up immediately: “I’m sorry. I had something to tell you and was anxious, so I touched… your shoulder.”
Seeing his condition, Lu Ying felt somewhat heartbroken and extended her hand to help him up. “I know what you want to say, but… let’s not say it. Being rejected once was already painful enough—I don’t want to hear it again.”
Lu Ying was about to leave again. Ding Wu quickly reached out, wanting to grab her wrist, but remembering the earlier lesson, he pulled his hand back and said hurriedly: “I’m not… I wanted to… No, I had never thought in this life I would marry a woman. I planned to live alone forever, and after completing the mission to destroy the White Lotus sect, I would disappear without a trace, hide my achievements and fame, then wander the world and see it properly. I thought I didn’t deserve love or family.”
“When I was ten, my family fell from grace. Father was imprisoned on death row. Yan Shifan deliberately tormented us, exiling mother to the southernmost Jiaozhi where she died of illness on the road. I was exiled to the northernmost Tieling. Mother and son were separated by north and south, and also by life and death. Fortunately, loyal servants cared for me along the way, and I also met wandering Sister Banxia. We went to Tieling together and depended on each other for survival, so I didn’t die of illness like my mother.”
“Bearing the grudges of the previous generation and enduring the fall from noble family son to exile, I’ve always lived with great burden. Actually, I’m not happy and not resigned to my fate, but to reassure my adoptive parents and put Sister at ease, I always pretended to accept fate with a tranquil nature and find joy in suffering. I’ve been deceiving myself and others. The brighter I appeared on the surface, the darker my heart became. I’ve always lived wearing a mask. I really wanted to die, but if I died, my adoptive parents and sister would be heartbroken—they were the only people in this world who cared about me. My soul has long been twisted beyond recognition. I’m actually a bad person. I’ve had many terrible thoughts that even frighten myself, I—”
Ding Wu had never shown his unspeakable side to anyone, but regarding marriage, he didn’t want to deceive the other party and had to confess everything about himself completely: “When my adoptive parents died one after another, I felt no sadness. I only felt I was about to be freed. I even once threw all the death cap mushrooms into chicken soup, planning for Sister Banxia and me to eat it together and die in our sleep, so I could die without any attachments and free myself.”
Although Ding Wu stood alive before her now, and she knew Wei Caiwei hadn’t died, Lu Ying still felt her spine turn cold. The Ding Wu before her seemed like a stranger, no longer the scholarly and courteous man from before. His gaze was dark and gloomy, fragile and brittle, as if he would shatter at the slightest touch.
Seeing Lu Ying’s reaction, Ding Wu retreated to his chair and sat down. “You’re afraid, aren’t you? You should go.”
Lu Ying didn’t leave. Instead, she sat beside him. “You didn’t actually do it. It was just a thought. You’ve always been good to Banxia, and Banxia has always regarded you as her dear elder brother.”
Ding Wu shook his head. “I didn’t just think about it—I actually did it. Back then, I had read many books but couldn’t take the imperial examinations or pursue an official career. Other people at the academy with far less learning than me passed the scholar examinations and were selected for prefectural school advancement. But I, with a belly full of poetry and books, could only work as a small clerk organizing household registrations at Tieling county office. I would be trapped in Tieling for life. I couldn’t accept it—I wanted to end it all.”
“That day, I stewed a pot of chicken with mushrooms, kept it warm on the stove, and went with Banxia to bury our adoptive parents. We planned to eat it when we returned that night and sleep forever. But a bear smelled the food, broke into the kitchen, knocked over the pot, and ate everything inside, then died in the kitchen. Sister Banxia thought she had mistakenly put poisonous mushrooms in the food and felt extremely guilty, constantly apologizing to me. But I didn’t have the courage to admit it was me who did it, I…”
Ding Wu lowered his head. “I’m truly worse than an animal. I owe her too much. So I used what little authority I had to register her as a female household head, exempting her from taxes and corvée labor. She could survive on her medical skills in the future. When I died alone later, I wouldn’t have to worry about her anymore. When she proposed leaving Tieling to become a traveling doctor, I appeared to try to keep her but was actually happy she could leave this place I saw as a prison. Once she established herself elsewhere, I could go die.”
“Actually, when you Embroidered Uniform Guards came to Tieling to bring me to the capital for testimony, I had already found death cap mushrooms on Elephant Mountain again and stewed them in an iron pot, ready to eat when the Guards arrived. Only then did I learn that Banxia had gotten into trouble in the capital as a suspect in the Chen Qianhu father-son double murder case, and I needed to go to the capital to confirm her identity.”
“Again I failed to die. I followed the Guards to the capital and cleared her of murder suspicion. Just when I thought I’d be escorted back to Tieling where I could die, I was captured by Yan Shifan’s people on Dragon Boat Festival, who threatened my life to force father to commit suicide. From then on, one thing followed another—I met you, had the chance to personally destroy the White Lotus sect, never had the opportunity to return to Tieling, and embarked on a different life.”
“This is the real me.” Ding Wu said, “Actually, when I humiliated myself, cursed Sister Banxia, broke with her, went mad at father’s decoy tomb cursing father’s former friends and disciples for their disgrace, betrayed the country to join An Da Khan, and accused the Ming of injustice to our entire family—not all of it was acting. Much of the time, those were my real thoughts, half-true and half-false, which made it seem particularly authentic and fooled many people. It wasn’t that my deception skills were so brilliant, but that I truly had a demonic side. Someone with a genuinely gentle and harmonious nature couldn’t be an undercover agent, much less succeed.”
Having been in officialdom for years, Lu Ying had matured considerably and no longer evaluated people in simple black and white terms. Everyone had a dark side, but she never imagined Ding Wu’s dark side could be this black.
Wei Caiwei was incredibly lucky to be alive now.
After speaking the truth suppressed for twenty years, Ding Wu felt that omnipresent pressure disappear. The feeling of removing the mask was wonderful, like being reborn.
“I actually developed feelings for you very early, from when you rescued me from the bottom of Waterwheel Lake, but I always felt inferior, thinking I wasn’t worthy of your noble righteousness. I deliberately ignored my own emotions and dared not touch them. Now everything is finally over. I’m no longer a prisoner trapped in Tieling and can stand shoulder to shoulder with you.”
“The person sitting before you was once a demon.” Ding Wu straightened his clothes and sat upright in his chair. “Becoming husband and wife requires complete honesty. You can still take back what you said earlier.”
This time it was Lu Ying’s turn to be silent. She replayed in her mind from the present Ding Wu back to their first meeting, reacquainting herself with the man before her.
Seeing her long silence, Ding Wu stood up. “I understand what you mean. I’m sorry for disappointing you. Goodbye.”
Ding Wu turned to leave. Disappointed? Yes, disappointed. Regretful? No regrets. She deserved a better man.
“Wait.” Lu Ying stood up and quickly grabbed Ding Wu’s hand. “A man who once became a demon finally decided to become a Buddha. For the rest of our lives together, you won’t have a chance to fall back into demonhood.”