In the seventh month, on the flowing fire day, ground-breaking was forbidden, marriage was proclaimed auspicious, greatly favoring the southwest.

At the banks of the Hongzhu River, dawn broke. The sky was faintly bright, and in the east where heaven and water met, the morning glow was burning half the sky red like raging fire. Below the sky, the endless river surface was reflected in red, and from afar, it looked like a river of fresh blood gently rippling with waves.

“The bride wears red robes, marrying Aya brings fortune to enjoy, red precious pearls scatter all over the ground, white brilliant trees grow over one’s head…”

Faintly, children’s singing voices came from behind the reeds along the riverbank. The nursery rhyme became clearer and clearer, accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums. The lively, festive music gradually approached and soon spread throughout the entire Hongzhu River banks.

“Stop!” An aged, hoarse voice rang out from behind the reeds, and all the music immediately ceased.

“Let’s stop here. Please bring out the wedding boat.”

“Yes, Village Chief.”

Some water sounds arose from beside the tall reeds. After the splashing sounds, a bamboo raft wrapped in large red silk floated out. On the raft sat a woman dressed in bright red wedding attire, her head covered with a red veil, hands folded and placed on her knees. Though her face couldn’t be seen, judging from those fair and delicate hands alone, she was very young.

The bamboo raft slowly left among the reeds, drifting toward the blood-red river surface. Faintly, it seemed someone was crying behind the reeds for a moment, then could no longer be heard.

“Send off the bride, music up!”

The joyful, lively music once again rang out from behind the reeds, accompanying the bamboo raft carrying the red-clothed bride as it drifted to the center of the river. Under the crimson morning glow, the bamboo raft beneath the bride began to sink bit by bit into the water. Before long, her shoes and skirt were soaked in the river water, then the entire bamboo raft slowly sank into the river, until the bride’s entire body was submerged in the water, leaving only the red veil on her head floating on the river surface, gently swaying with the water waves.

At some point, the joyful wedding music from within the reeds by the riverbank began to become long and mournful. Listening more carefully, it had already transformed into funeral music. In the gradually fading funeral music, the glow on the horizon gradually weakened, and the sun emerged from the river surface, emitting silver-white, piercing light. A new day had arrived.

“Splash!”

Suddenly, right where the red-clothed bride had just sunk and where the red veil was floating, a head emerged from the water, perfectly lifting the large red veil from the water surface, which now hung wetly over the head.

Then another woman’s head was pulled out of the water, her black hair already disheveled, her snow-white face completely bloodless, making the red wedding dress on her body appear even more blood-like, creating an eerie and terrifying feeling.

“Yan Qige, Yan Qige, you come out here!” The person with the veil on her head tilted her neck back and roared angrily, spitting out river water from her mouth while looking around. Finally, she spotted that white-clothed man beside a patch of emerald reeds.

Yan Qige stood on a blue bamboo raft, holding a lantern in one hand and habitually placing the other behind his back. He approached gracefully over the water with the wind, his robes fluttering like an orchid or jade tree—truly so beautiful it was beyond description.

Soon, Yan Qige stopped beside the person floating on the river surface. He slightly bent his waist and extended his hand, using his slender fingers to slowly lift the red veil from the head of the person in the water. However, what was revealed under this bright red veil was not a shy, beautiful maiden with a powdered face, but an angry face—it was indeed Yusang.

“Come up,” Yan Qige extended his hand toward her.

“Yan Qige, it was you, definitely you, certainly you who deliberately pushed me down,” Yusang accused angrily.

Yan Qige didn’t directly answer her words, but instead pointed to the red-clothed bride that Yusang was supporting against her chest, saying, “Be good, listen, first get this bride up, otherwise she’ll be soaked to ruin.”

“Why should I listen to you? Even if she’s soaked to ruin, it has nothing to do with you. If you wanted to save her, why didn’t you save her yourself? You pushed me into the water—aren’t you afraid I’ll be soaked to ruin too?”

“You’re a demon, and a bamboo demon at that. How could you be so easily soaked to ruin?”

“I was sleeping peacefully, even having dreams, when suddenly I fell into the water. How frightening that was.”

“Alright, alright, next time, next time I’ll do it when you’re awake.” Yan Qige casually placated her, borrowing Yusang’s hands to get the red-clothed bride onto the bamboo raft and lay her down flat, then pulled Yusang up as well. Seeing that although her clothes were completely soaked, she had no injuries, Yan Qige finally turned around and crouched down to check the bride’s pulse.

Once Yusang was on the bamboo raft, she wrung the water from her clothes while making faces at Yan Qige, who was examining the bride’s injuries, and began complaining and grumbling without good humor.

Yan Qige let Yusang scold him without paying attention, until after he finished the examination and confirmed that the woman had only choked on water. He helped her expel the accumulated water from her lung cavity. Seeing that Yusang seemed to have no intention of stopping her complaints, he finally stood up and said, half-coaxingly, half-deceptively, “Saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. If you think about it this way, you’ll know I’m doing this for your good, performing good deeds and accumulating virtue, doing more charitable acts. Perhaps some bodhisattva or immortal master will see this and enlighten you to attain the Way, which would surely be greatly beneficial to your cultivation.”

“You say I’m a demon and push me into the water, but you know magic too—why don’t you go into the water yourself? Why don’t you perform good deeds and accumulate virtue?” Yusang retorted all of Yan Qige’s words without good humor, rolled her eyes, turned around, and continued wringing water from her clothes.

She had expected Yan Qige to come up with other excuses to shirk responsibility and lecture her again, but unexpectedly, Yan Qige suddenly fell silent. Yusang, who was looking down while wringing her clothes, after a while, suddenly had a flash of insight, realizing she might have hit upon something. She slowly turned around, looked Yan Qige up and down, then stretched her neck forward sneakily and tentatively asked, “Could it be… could it be that you actually can’t swim?”

Upon hearing this, Yan Qige’s expression immediately darkened. The coaxing manner he had just used with Yusang was instantly gone, replaced by his usual frosty face.

“So… so you really can’t swim, I…” Yusang exclaimed as if discovering something incredibly rare, excitedly opening her mouth to tease him, but when Yan Qige’s icy stare swept over her, she lost her courage and swallowed back the mocking words she was about to say.

“I simply feel sorry for these clothes—they were newly made just last month, and they’re made of brocade and silk materials.” Yan Qige turned around, placing his hands behind his back and gazing into the distance across the river surface.

“Mm, I understand, I truly understand.” Yusang nodded while suppressing her laughter, but in her heart, she was thinking something completely different from what she was saying aloud.

So this person, who always looked so composed, never changing expression no matter what he encountered, with his superior demon-subduing and evil-exorcising magic, was afraid of water. She had finally discovered his weakness. Yusang secretly rejoiced in her heart.

As night fell, a fire was lit behind the reeds along the Hongzhu River banks. Beside the fire pit was a thatched hut that could barely accommodate one person, with a height only half that of an ordinary house. The hut was built by bundling together dried yellow reed stalks, but it was constructed with great care, each bundle securely tied with straw rope. Inside the hut was a small table, only half the size of a table used in ordinary households. On the table was set up an incense altar with three tripods, in which were inserted many remnants of burned incense, as if people frequently came to offer incense and prayers.