Candle shadows flickered and incense curled gently through the air in the grand mansion of Yongxing Ward. Paper servant dolls and maids worked with a clear division of labor, bustling about in perfect order. Several tall Kunlun slaves wielded brooms, meticulously sweeping every corner of the courtyard, not letting even a speck of dust escape. A few gardeners carefully trimmed the flowers and plants, which gradually became neat under their hands. Palace maids with double-loop buns tidied the rooms, conscientiously polishing the red wooden furniture. Meanwhile, the mansion’s owner, Li Ying, sat upright at her rosewood desk in the study. Before her lay a curved sword with a golden scabbard and a dried rose.
Just moments ago, a palace maid noticed movement outside the door. When she went to look, she saw nothing but discovered this golden sword and a dried flower.
Li Ying slowly picked up the dried rose and examined it carefully. The dried flower had previously fallen to the ground and was coated with a layer of dust, causing the once-brilliant petals to lose their luster. Li Ying sighed softly. She took a white silk handkerchief from the desk, as white as snow, and meticulously, carefully wiped the dust from the dried flower. Finally, the dried rose regained its enchanting color. Li Ying gazed at it for another moment, her eyes filled with bewilderment, lost in thought. After quite a while, she came back to herself. She gently bit her lip and lowered her eyes, carefully placing the dried flower back in her lotus pouch.
After putting it away, she turned her attention to the curved sword with the golden scabbard. Why had this sword appeared at her door?
She picked up the curved blade. The scabbard was made of pure gold, engraved with the image of a grassland wolf and inlaid with several emeralds—very valuable. She drew the sword from its golden scabbard. The once-gleaming, sharp blade had been corroded by yellow rust, appearing mottled and dim. Judging by the rust, this sword hadn’t been used for a long time. Li Ying stared intently—were those bloodstains on the blade?
The bloodstains clung to the blade, almost saturating the entire curved sword, showing a dried, dull, dark brown color. Li Ying frowned slightly. These bloodstains must also be quite old. This appeared to be an old sword, but whose old sword was it?
She couldn’t figure it out, so she placed the curved sword on the rosewood rack. Since someone had deliberately left the sword at her door, surely they would come looking for it eventually.
Li Ying had stayed in her new residence in Yongxing Ward for several days. During this time, she communicated with Cui Xun only through paper servant dolls. It wasn’t that she was angry with Cui Xun; she had simply lost heart.
Cui Xun understood this well. He knew Li Ying had lost heart in him, but she was like a glass moon in the sky, so pure and untainted. How could he possibly pull the bright moon down to the mortal world, to fall into his pool of filth?
He wasn’t worthy.
Yet, though he knew himself unworthy to pull the moon down to the mortal realm, he still craved the moon’s gentleness. He was an evil spirit fallen into the Asura realm, surrounded by demons and monsters. Amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, when he looked up at the moon, he still hoped the fairy in the moon might save him.
Cui Xun paced back and forth in Yongxing Ward for a long time before finally arriving with a package of sugar frost candies and knocking on the black lacquered wooden door of the luxurious mansion.
When Cui Xun went to find Li Ying, she happened to be away. Cui Xun thus waited by the fish pond in the courtyard. Shortly after, Li Ying returned. She had been with Yu Fuwei, searching for traces of Jin Ni. The two stepped into the courtyard together. In the warm sunlight, Yu Fuwei appeared handsome and elegant, his smile bright as the moon. Li Ying was delicate and beautiful, with bright, kind eyes. Cui Xun watched them for a moment, then lowered his crow-black eyelashes, looking at his reflection in the clear fish pond—pale as a ghost, exactly like an evil spirit crawling out of the Asura realm.
When Li Ying saw Cui Xun, she was momentarily stunned. She pursed her lips and said to Yu Fuwei, “Mr. Yu, please go back first.”
Though Yu Fuwei was somewhat reluctant, he nodded, “Then I shall take my leave. Princess, please be careful.”
Li Ying nodded and watched him leave before quickly walking to Cui Xun. “Cui Xun, why have you come?”
Suddenly, Cui Xun felt he shouldn’t have come here today. He lowered his eyes and remained silent. Li Ying noticed the sugar frost candies in his hand and asked, “Did you come to bring me sugar frost candies?”
Cui Xun neither nodded nor shook his head. He handed the candies to Li Ying and said, “I bought them when passing by Fumantang.”
Li Ying accepted them. Looking at Cui Xun’s seemingly thinner face, she hesitated before asking, “How… have you been lately?”
Cui Xun replied, “Very well.”
But seeing his gaunt frame, Li Ying didn’t think he was well at all.
She sighed softly and said, “Since you’re here, come in and sit for a while.”
In the study, Li Ying lowered her gaze, using bronze fire chopsticks to stir the phoenix charcoal under a white porcelain medicine pot. The flames danced like the glow of a setting sun. The pot of ginger and licorice soup bubbled, releasing steam. Cui Xun watched her quietly. Though she was a ghost, she had more of the air of human life than many living people. Just having her nearby seemed to bring peace to even the most depressed heart. Perhaps this was why Yu Fuwei enjoyed being with her.
Li Ying removed the lid from the medicine pot and used a gilt silver long-handled spoon to ladle a bowl of medicinal soup, handing it to Cui Xun. “Have you been using this prescription while I was away?”
Cui Xun shook his head. Li Ying said helplessly, “This ginger and licorice soup recipe was written by the divine physician Sun Simiao. It’s best for your cold intolerance. With time, your health might improve.”
Cui Xun simply said, “It’s unlikely to get better.”
He spoke in a flat tone, but Li Ying felt her heart sink hearing it. She said, “You’re only twenty-three years old. Why be so pessimistic?”
Wrapped in white fox fur, Cui Xun looked like a refined gentleman. But only he and Li Ying knew how many horrific scars covered his body beneath that elegant exterior. He took a sip of the ginger and licorice soup with a white jade spoon shaped like an animal head, avoiding further discussion of the topic. Instead, he asked, “Have you been looking for Jin Ni these past few days?”
Li Ying answered, “Yes.”
“Any trace of him?”
“No,” Li Ying said. “Jin Ni has vanished completely. We can’t find him in Chang’an or any prefecture or county.”
The ginger and licorice soup tasted spicy and sweet, spreading warmth throughout the body. Cui Xun felt the bone-deep cold ease somewhat. He said, “Jin Ni was formerly a captain in the Baiqisi, responsible for spying on officials’ movements. Naturally, he’s skilled at evading capture.”
“But surely he can’t be impossible to find in all of Great Zhou.”
Cui Xun took another sip of ginger and licorice soup. He hesitated slightly but still replied, “It’s normal not to find him because Jin Ni understands bird language.”
“Bird language?”
Cui Xun nodded: “Not only does he understand bird language, but he’s also skilled at training owls to work for him. No matter how many soldiers search for him, as long as his trained owls fly overhead as lookouts, he can still escape.”
Li Ying was dumbfounded. No wonder they couldn’t find Jin Ni anywhere in the Great Zhou. He truly was difficult to locate. She couldn’t help asking Cui Xun, “I’ve never heard of this. How do you know?”
Cui Xun had anticipated this question. The gilt bowl decorated with auspicious beasts was now almost empty of the licorice soup. He set down his white jade spoon, revealing emaciated wrists with scars so deep they reached the bone. He seemed reluctant to discuss it, but finally lowered his eyes and said, “I learned it while in Turkic lands.”
“Turkic lands…” Li Ying murmured. She wanted to ask Cui Xun how he had learned this while in Turkic territory, but she restrained herself and didn’t ask. Cui Xun didn’t want to tell her and didn’t wish to discuss past events with her. So why should she embarrass herself again as she had the other day?
She fell silent, and so did Cui Xun. An awkward atmosphere suddenly enveloped the study. After a long while, Li Ying finally said, “When you return, have your mute servant brew you a bowl of ginger and licorice soup daily. Your health cannot continue like this.”
Cui Xun nodded silently. Li Ying looked at his face, pale to the point of bloodlessness, and felt an inexplicable sourness in her heart. She pursed her lips and said, “Cui Xun, please… be kinder to yourself.”
Cui Xun looked at her and nodded silently again. Li Ying knew that although he nodded in agreement, he wouldn’t follow through. This man probably never knew how to be good to himself. People said he was cruel and heartless as a rakshasa, but in truth, he was most cruel and heartless to himself.
After Cui Xun left, Li Ying remained seated at her rosewood desk for a long time without getting up. During these days away from the Cui residence, as long as she didn’t think of Cui Xun, her mood could be described as calm. But as soon as she thought of him, it was like waves surging, impossible to calm again.
After seeing Cui Xun today, she felt even more confused. Her heart was filled with a mixture of emotions—sourness, disappointment, pity, sadness—leaving her mind in such disarray that she couldn’t sort out her thoughts. She couldn’t even spare attention for Jin Ni’s whereabouts.
She reached out to open the package of sugar frost candies Cui Xun had brought. She picked up an amber-colored candy and absently put it in her mouth. The candy melted instantly, filling her mouth with a fragrant sweetness. But no matter how sweet the candy was, it couldn’t untangle the mess in her heart.
She didn’t notice that the golden-scabbarded curved sword on the wooden rack suddenly emitted a faint green light. The sword flew up from the rack, circled the study, then fell to the floor.
The crisp sound of the sword hitting the floor finally brought Li Ying back to her senses. She looked puzzled at the sword. Hadn’t she placed it on the wooden rack? How had it fallen to the floor? She stood up to retrieve the sword, but a voice seemed to come from within it. Li Ying stepped back in fright. What was inside the sword?
The voice sounded like a young woman’s murmur. Li Ying listened carefully and heard the name “Cui Xun.”
Cui Xun?
Before Li Ying could react, the curved sword emitted another beam of green light. Then, a beautiful young woman dressed in nomadic clothing gradually appeared before her.
The young woman’s hair was braided into two long black plaits. Golden hoop earrings hung from her ears, and she wore boots made of sheepskin. This attire was that of a Turkic woman. The young woman wore a silk collared nomadic robe with dark blue wolf patterns embroidered on the cuffs. The dark blue wolf pattern was the symbol of the Ashina clan. Ashina, meaning “noble wolf,” was the surname of the great Turkic Khagan’s family. Since the young woman’s clothes bore the wolf emblem of the Ashina family, was she a member of the Ashina clan?
Li Ying couldn’t help but ask, “Who are you?”
“Who am I?” The young woman’s voice was very pleasant, though tinged with faint sorrow. She was also very delicate in appearance, with an oval face, curved willow eyebrows, and skin as white as jade. She didn’t look Turkic but rather like someone from the riverlands of the Central Plains. The young woman said vaguely, “I am… Ashina Jia.”
“Ashina Jia?”
If she were Ashina Jia, then who was Consort Hui in the Daming Palace?