Inside the banquet hall of the royal palace of Yue City, lanterns blazed like silver dragons and rare delicacies covered the tables. Amid the sound of music, the ministers of the kingdom of Changsha sat in their rows, all of them looking toward the young man seated in the second most honored position, right next to the Prince of Changsha.

This young man named Xie Changgeng was the Prince of Changsha’s newly acquired son-in-law — just three days before, he had come to request a betrothal, asking to marry the Prince of Changsha’s one and only beloved daughter.

After three days of deliberation, the Prince of Changsha had finally given his consent. It was settled that after three years, once the royal daughter turned sixteen, the marriage would take place. Xie Changgeng had cheerfully agreed, and the two had at once become father-in-law and son-in-law, which had given rise to tonight’s grand banquet.

The ministers naturally knew this young man’s background.

Never mind his distinguished bearing, refined speech, and polished manners — in truth he was the chief of a band that had risen to prominence on the Yangtze waterways over the past two years. He could not quite be called infamous, but being the leader of river bandits and pirates, his name as a great outlaw was known to one and all.

At first, upon hearing that the Prince of Changsha had actually agreed to give his royal daughter’s hand in marriage to this man, the ministers had been astonished without exception — yet who among them would fail to understand the deeper intention behind their lord’s decision?

Since the Prince had recognized him as his son-in-law, how could they dare show anything but respect?

And so they all followed the lord’s lead, raising their cups to toast him repeatedly.

The banquet thus proceeded with host and guests alike in high spirits, the atmosphere lively and celebratory, with laughter and voices filling the hall. Yet who would have known that at this very moment, beside the side door in the northwest corner of the banquet hall, behind the curtain that hung all the way down to the floor, a young girl was hiding?

The girl had jet-black hair and snow-pale skin. She appeared to be around thirteen or fourteen years of age, and though her figure had not yet fully come into bloom, she was already graceful and willow-slender, having grown into a beauty that was beginning to captivate.

Yet at this moment, her brow and eyes carried a look of reluctance, as though she were not quite willing to be here, but had been unable to resist her sister-in-law’s persuading, and so had come.

Her sister-in-law brought her lips close to her ear and said in a low voice, “Don’t worry, younger sister. That man truly is a fine-looking gentleman — young and handsome, and his manner of speaking is refined and polished; there is not a trace of brutishness or roughness about him. If you don’t believe me, take one look for yourself and you’ll know your sister-in-law hasn’t deceived you.”

This girl was none other than the royal daughter Mu Fulan.

Her sister-in-law, Lu Shi, had heard the news of the betrothal and noticed that her young sister-in-law had been despondent and out of sorts ever since. She had quietly gone to look the man over herself first.

Given this Xie fellow’s background and origins, she had steeled herself for the worst — which was why she had been utterly unprepared to find that he was such a man of distinguished quality. She had let out a long breath of relief, then come back and described what she had seen to her young sister-in-law. When she found that Mu Fulan had little reaction, she assumed it was because she did not believe her. Wishing to set her mind at ease, she had half coaxed and half led her here.

She reasoned that once Mu Fulan had seen the man with her own eyes, even if her heart still resisted this match, at least she would not be so fearful and distressed.

Her father the Prince had agreed to the marriage proposal of a river outlaw who had appeared out of nowhere, and was giving her away to him.

Though she had understood from a young age that marriage was not a matter she could decide for herself, from the moment she learned the news, Mu Fulan’s spirits had sunk low.

Before her eyes drifted the image of the bright, smiling eyes she had happened to encounter on Junshan just a few days ago. Her heart grew even more desolate.

In front of her sister-in-law, she had tried with great effort to conceal it, but she could not quite manage to carry herself with her usual composure.

Knowing that her sister-in-law had noticed, and that she cared for her and did not want to see her suffer, she smiled, then raised a narrow sliver of the curtain and gazed out with a languid, unhurried look.

The banquet hall blazed with light, filled with laughter and talk. Amid so many people, her eyes at once fell upon the man seated in the second most honored position, just below her father.

It was simply that his appearance was far too striking. Even surrounded by a crowd of heads and voices, he stood out alone in splendor — like jade, like green-blue kingfisher feathers — such that once one’s eyes fell on him, they could not look away.

Her eyes went still.

Though she could only see his profile, she recognized him at once. This man — he was the very person from just a few days ago, the one beneath the old cypress on Junshan who had helped her rescue the hatchling that had fallen from the cliff! As though sensing a mysterious bond between them, he seemed to know, without any forewarning, that she was hiding here watching him. With no warning at all, he slowly turned his head, and both of their gazes, without veering to the left or right, landed precisely on the curtain behind which she was concealing herself.

She stood frozen, unable to react for a moment. Then she saw the corner of his lips curve upward as he smiled faintly at her — and only then did she come back to her senses.

He had discovered her! He was smiling at her! Her face flared hot at once. Her hand gave a start, and the curtain she had been holding slipped from her fingers, falling closed before her, swaying like a gentle ripple of water in the wind, concealing her once more behind it and out of his sight.

Mu Fulan still stood there without moving.

Then she heard someone whispering beside her ear, “Well? Did you see him? He’s the one sitting beside Father Prince. Your sister-in-law didn’t deceive you, did she…” Mu Fulan’s face was burning crimson, her heart beating fast. Not daring to linger a moment longer, and not daring to lift the curtain even once more for another look, she turned and broke away from her sister-in-law, then fled as though running for her life, dashing in one breath all the way back to her own private chambers.

She closed the door and told her attendants that no one was to enter. She herself threw herself face-down on the bed, pressing her face into the covers, utterly still.

Everyone said that the old cypress was a spirit tree, blessed with the power to bring about destined unions.

Or perhaps the great deity of Junshan had looked upon her with compassion.

For otherwise, how could she have been so fortunate — that the young man on Junshan that day, the one she had seen and could not forget, had turned out to be the very man her father was giving her in marriage?

Before her eyes appeared once more the image from that day — the moment she had turned her head in helplessness, and seen that still, quiet figure standing on the mountain path.

The mountain wind stirred the leaves and fluttered the hem of his robe. He stood there in silence, his gaze resting on her — as though he had been waiting there for a very long time, waiting for her to come running toward him and ask for his help.

She turned over, raised her hand, and pressed it over her own burning face. Joy, like honey, welled slowly upward from the very deepest place in her heart.

……Back in the banquet hall, Xie Changgeng slowly drew his gaze back from that hanging curtain in the corner.

He still sat composed at the banquet table, talking and laughing with the ministers of the kingdom of Changsha, his expression revealing nothing. But inwardly, he was thinking back on how that girl had looked when he had caught her in the act of watching him just now — the startled, flustered manner of her retreat.

The smile at the corner of his lips deepened.

He had finally gotten his wish after all — he had been the one to help her rescue that little bird.

Three years. He would wait another three years, then come back to marry her, and make her his true wife.

By that day, he would have become the Military Governor of Hexi — the youngest military governor the court had ever seen — and his betrothed, the royal daughter of the kingdom of Changsha, that girl from those days, would at last have grown up and would be on the verge of becoming his wife.

In the ancestral home in Xie County, he and she had bowed before heaven and earth. Then he had watched as she was escorted into the bridal chamber amid the congratulations of relatives, friends, and colleagues.

He had waited too long for this moment — far longer than merely three years.

He was so desperately eager to see this girl who was his for all of this lifetime.

He quickly left behind those guests who wanted to make him drunk for their own amusement, and amid their lingering, teasing catcalls, stepped forward toward the room where she awaited.

He walked to the door, from behind which shone the warm red glow of the wedding candles, and stopped.

Just before she had been welcomed through the main gate of this ancestral home, he had had a long, heartfelt talk with his mother. He told his mother that the woman who was about to arrive was not only his wife, but the powerful support that had carried him through the past three years, enabling him to rise swiftly and attain high office.

He would marry only her, with no divided heart.

He wanted his mother to treat her as a beloved daughter of her own.

And on this night — on this wedding night that was about to begin, the night that belonged to them — there would no longer be any messenger from the court to disturb them. That party of envoys bearing an imperial edict had been intercepted by an unknown band of riders that ambushed them on the road just as they were approaching Xie County at dusk.

Their wedding night would brook no interference from anything else.

He drew a long, deep breath, steadied his heart, raised his hand, and gently pushed open the door that had been left ajar for him. He stepped forward and crossed the threshold.

He saw his delicate young bride sitting quietly at the edge of the bed in her wedding garments, a red veil draped over her head, awaiting his arrival.

He walked toward her, walked to stand before her, and reached out to lift her veil.

She bowed her head deeply, endlessly shy and tender.

Her lashes like feathers, they screened away her beautiful eyes, unwilling to look at him.

He gently lifted her chin and gazed at those beautiful eyes before him — full of bashfulness and timidity, yet at last looking back at him. He smiled at her.

As though caught by his smile, she no longer looked away. She held his gaze for a moment, then parted her lips and said softly, “Just now as I sat here waiting for you to come, I didn’t know why, but I kept feeling as though I had been here before, in some past time…” Xie Changgeng looked at her steadily, and smiled. “Like a promise made in a former life, fulfilled in this one. You were always meant to be my wife.”

She thought her husband was teasing her, and she bit her lip and said nothing more — yet inwardly she was brimming with joyful happiness, and a soft blush of color rose across her delicate face.

The wedding candles burned high and bright, the lamplight swaying. She hesitated for a moment, then at last summoned every last bit of her courage and said, “Husband, let me help you change your clothes…” Her voice was faint as the hum of a midge, and before the words were even finished, they could no longer be heard.

Xie Changgeng pressed down the boundless tenderness welling up within him, extended his arms, gathered her into his embrace, and one by one, removed the hairpins from her hair.

Her long hair fell loose. Her outer garments gradually fell away. Her body trembled lightly in his arms. “Husband, I am frightened…” He bent his head and with his mouth, gently caught hold of her pleading voice, and caught hold too of those softest, most tender lips in all the world.

The embroidered bed curtain hung low. A night of tender, lingering closeness.

At daybreak, Mu Fulan opened her eyes within the embrace of her new husband. Still slightly drowsy, she had not yet had time to savor the shyness and joy of having, overnight, gone from maiden to new bride — when a sudden, unexpected piece of news left her stunned.

Early that morning, a party of court messengers sent by the imperial household arrived at the Xie family residence, bearing a supremely urgent piece of news: Prince Jiangdu had raised a rebellion, and the court was summoning Xie Changgeng at once to go and quell the revolt.

This party of messengers had originally been expected to arrive the night before, but had inexplicably been held up along the way for an entire night, then inexplicably released again this morning. Now they had hurried here in great haste, naturally anxious and flustered. They presented the imperial edict and stood waiting to one side.

The wedding candles had only just burned through the night before, and today her new husband was already to leave home — and who could know when he would return?

She was desolate beyond measure, yet she knew that a man must pursue his achievements and glory. She could not hold him back — and moreover, the imperial command weighed as heavily as a mountain, so how could she bring herself to say a word of restraint?

With deep reluctance, she let go of her grip on his sleeve, held back the tears that were just about to overflow, and said softly, “I’ll go and pack your things right away…” She sat up and was about to get out of bed — when a pair of large hands reached across and clasped her hands in return, then drew her entire person upward and set her down on the edge of the bed.

He crouched down before her, picked up her silk stockings, bowed his head, and carefully helped her put them on with great care, then prepared to help her put on her shoes.

Mu Fulan was astonished and could scarcely believe what was happening. When she finally came to her senses, she quickly tried to pull her foot back, but he held onto it.

He finished putting her shoes on, then took her hand and helped her to stand. He leaned close to her ear and asked, “I want to take you with me to Jiangdong. Are you afraid?”

Mu Fulan was taken aback.

Before she had crossed the threshold into this household, she had come to know certain things about him. She knew that he was a devoted and filial son to his widowed mother. Now that she had entered the family, if he were to go away, she would naturally remain at home to serve his mother in his stead.

She could scarcely believe her own ears. She stared at him wide-eyed, and when she saw that he was looking back at her with a warm smile — not looking as if he were simply placating her — she hesitated, then said in a small voice, “Can I truly go with you?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why not? The imperial edict says nothing about my being unable to bring my beloved new bride along with me.”

They had only been married for a night, and already he was calling her his “beloved wife.”

Her heart gave a resounding leap. Her face quietly flushed red, and in those beautiful eyes of hers, still carrying a faint mist of sleepiness, a light of delighted happiness shone out. Unable to contain herself, she sprang up and threw herself into his arms.

“I’m not afraid! I want to go!”

She nodded vigorously, her two arms wrapping tightly around his neck as though she feared that if she loosened her hold for even a moment, he would take the words back.

Xie Changgeng caught this girl — this girl who could, in a moment of surprised delight, forget all else and fling herself into his arms — and in that instant, his heart went utterly, completely soft.

He had trampled across mountains and rivers, mended the rifts in the heavens, and stood at the very pinnacle, witnessing the most magnificent and sweeping waves this world had to offer. He had also fallen into the abyss, living through the darkest and most soul-devouring hours this world had to give.

And had she not done the same?

Yet now they had met again.

He would protect her well, shield her from the wind and rain, and let her live without fear or worry.

Even if the west wind drove the waves of Dongting Lake into old age, even if many years hence they were already white-haired, she would forever remain — just as she had been that day on Junshan — that girl who had lifted her skirts and come running toward him to ask for his help.

A moment later, seeing that her two arms were still wrapped around him and she was making no move to let go, he bent a finger and gave a light flick to her forehead. “If we don’t get people started on packing, I won’t be taking you with me.”

“I’ll pack right away!”

His delicate young wife immediately released him and rushed to open the door, calling for people to come in and start getting things ready.

He clasped his hands behind his back and watched her retreating figure — as joyful and lively as a happy bird — and no longer able to hold himself back, the smile that had been rising within him all along quietly found its way to the corners of his lips.

(The End)