When the door wouldn’t open, Yi Sa’s palms were tired from knocking, so she switched to pounding with her fists.
Finally, a roaring voice came from inside: “Are you crazy?! Can’t you let people sleep?”
Then the door was yanked open from within with such force that it seemed like a fierce beast was about to spring out.
Yi Sa looked up: “What’s wrong, am I not allowed to come find you?”
The young man before her had just crawled out of bed, his hair disheveled, the small topknot on his head tilted like a squashed rice ball.
Upon recognizing the visitor, Ding Yudie’s aggressive expression instantly rearranged itself into a cheeky grin: “Wife, it’s you.”
He was the youngest water ghost of the Ding family, from the same generation as her – Ding Yudie.
He was originally named Ding Yudie (with a different character for ‘die’).
Yudie, meaning ‘jade plate’, represented royal genealogy – showing how his father’s feet might have been planted on earth, but his heart soared in the clouds.
Unfortunately, as this son grew up, something seemed off. He developed rather effeminate tendencies – not quite like a woman, but carrying an unmistakably feminine air.
Since his school days, people whispered behind his back that he was gay.
He suspected it himself. When his peers began showing interest in women, he remained not only indifferent but somewhat repulsed.
When receiving the water ghost title, Yi Sa noticed him because he was narcissistic and antisocial, almost universally disliked.
So she deliberately befriended him. Experience had taught her that such people were often the easiest to befriend. Unlike those who smiled at everyone like central air conditioning, with them, you could never tell if it was genuine or just habit.
Ding Yudie quickly considered her a confidante, partly because he truly had no friends, and partly because she was a water ghost – making her worthy of being his confidante.
Once, he confided his adolescent troubles to her on QQ.
At that time, public consciousness wasn’t very open, and young Ding Yudie’s thoughts weren’t mature. He asked her: “Yi Sa, if I am gay, would you agree to a fake marriage with me?”
Yi Sa asked: “Fake marriage… what would that involve?”
Ding Yudie thought for a moment: “Just wear some pretty dresses at the wedding, walk around with me for a bit. Don’t worry, you’ll get all the gift money, and I’ll block anyone trying to make you drink. Then you can leave with the money and keep whoever you want.”
Yi Sa said: “Sure.”
Ding Yudie was deeply moved.
Of course, as he grew older and perspectives changed, he realized fake marriage was completely unnecessary. People could stay true to themselves, and be happily single, and more importantly, he discovered he wasn’t gay.
He didn’t like men, nor did he like women.
He declared to Yi Sa that he was “asexual” and showed her statistics: research suggested asexuality should be considered a sexual orientation, currently making up about 1% of the population.
Such uniqueness might cause anxiety in some people, but Ding Yudie was elated, feeling he was special.
He changed the characters in his name from “jade plate” to “jade butterfly.”
His appearance changed accordingly. He favored the trendy male Taoist hairstyle: sides shaved to bluish stubble, hair tied in a small bun at the back, adorned with a flower-piercing butterfly – an antique left from opening some ancient tomb. The butterfly was crafted from gold leaf as thin as cicada wings, the flowers made of kingfisher feathers around a ruby. Together weighing less than a coin, it quivered as if about to take flight when pinned beside his topknot.
His online name was “Flower-Piercing Butterfly”: symbolizing how he fluttered through the flowers of both men and women, never lingering.
His avatar showed a butterfly perched on succulent grapes, with the signature: “Among thousands of water grapes, the flower-piercing butterfly looks best.”
It even rhymed, though rather shameless.
Yi Sa felt he wasn’t asexual, but narcissistic: he loved himself so much there was no room in his heart for anyone else.
In some ways, being friends with Ding Yudie was safe.
He already thought highly of himself and looked down on most people from the three families. Jiang Taiyue said he was “effeminate,” Ding Changsheng kept trying to boss him around, and Yi Yunqiao unnecessarily wrapped her hair in curlers with questionable taste…
His conclusion: Yi Sa was the only one worth talking to.
Yi Sa pushed past him into the room: “With all that commotion earlier, Grandmother Jiang went over, and you didn’t even go check?”
Ding Yudie said: “Not interested.”
Better to sleep than waste time on uninteresting people and things.
Suddenly remembering something, he said to Yi Sa: “My condolences.”
“You mean Brother Jiang?”
“Your would-be brother-in-law, quite the romantic. Hasn’t dated anyone all these years, showed real devotion to your sister.”
That was true. They say after the Three Rivers Source incident, traumatized by Yi Xiao’s tragic death, Jiang Jun locked himself in his room for nearly a year, refusing to see anyone, often throwing things and smashing bowls, and even attempting suicide.
Though it sounded like an overly dramatic romance novel, given Jiang Jun’s conditions, it wouldn’t have been hard to find someone better, yet he remained single all these years – quite remarkable.
Really couldn’t understand how Jiang Xiaoguang had agreed to it.
Ding Yudie said to her: “Always thought your ‘Brother Jiang’ sounded fake. Look at you, not even crying? Your eyes aren’t even swollen.”
Yi Sa gave him a sidelong glance: “I’ve only seen him a few times in these ten-plus years. If I were crying dramatically now, that would be fake… Let me borrow some clothes.”
The suitcase was open, and she crouched down to rummage through it.
Ding Yudie came over to snatch them back: “Hey hey, I’m 1.8 meters tall, you’re just 1.65, you little Wu Dalang, why are you borrowing my clothes? These are all trendy brands…”
He suddenly stopped, gripping one leg of the pants, his expression gradually becoming intriguing. Yi Sa held the other leg, equally unyielding. If they kept this up, the pants would surely split.
Ding Yudie let go first: “Sasa, are you hiding a man in your room?”
Yi Sa snorted, knowing that without an answer, he would surely dig to the bottom of this – Ding Yudie was the type who wouldn’t even glance at uninteresting things if thunderstruck, but once interested, he was like a bee fixated on a flower, wouldn’t leave without tasting the nectar.
She threw him a coy glance, implying it was a secret.
Then she pulled the pants over her shoulder, grabbed a white T-shirt, and seeing some underwear, took that too.
Beside her, Ding Yudie kept exclaiming: “Damn, that T-shirt cost 700, how dare you, damn, you’re even taking underwear…”
Yi Sa gathered everything and walked to the door. Before leaving, she reminded him: “Don’t tell anyone, it’ll hurt my reputation.”
Of course not. Ding Yudie watched her open the door and couldn’t resist asking: “Is he handsome? Don’t lower our family’s standards.”
Yi Sa threw him another coy glance: “He’s quite the beauty.”
Back in her room, opening the door, she glimpsed Zong Hang still standing in the bathroom. Yi Sa wondered: “Taking so long to wash?”
She went over with the clothes and discovered he was soaking his injured hand in water.
Zong Hang explained: “This hand swelled up overnight and hurts a lot. When I was washing up and touched the water, it felt better, so I just… kept soaking it.”
Yi Sa made a sound of acknowledgment and handed him the clothes: “Here, change and come out, I need to wash too.”
She helped close the door behind him.
After a busy morning, finally getting a moment’s peace, Yi Sa yawned and walked to the window for some air, watching the deckhands walking back and forth. Suddenly something occurred to her:
— Ding Changsheng said they needed to keep things from these deckhands, tell them Jiang Jun wasn’t lost, he’d been found, just a false alarm.
— But Zong Hang was actually “lost,” so why weren’t the deckhands making a fuss about that? Who had covered it up? Ding Xi?
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Zong Hang had just changed and was about to come out when he heard the knock and quickly retreated inside.
Yi Sa gestured for him to stay put, went to the door herself, first looked through the peephole, then opened the door a crack with an annoyed expression, asking Ding Yudie: “What now?”
Ding Yudie pressed his face to the crack: “Sasa, I came to see the beauty.”
Yi Sa smiled, then suddenly changed expression: “In your dreams!”
She forcefully tried to close the door from inside, but Ding Yudie had anticipated this move and quickly pressed his palm against the door. They were locked in a stalemate, one inside, one outside…
Ding Yudie furrowed his brows and puffed his cheeks, struggling to speak: “You believed that? Am I that bored? I just ran into the old bridge guy, came to pass on a message…”
Really? Yi Sa’s grip loosened slightly, Ding Yudie breathed a sigh of relief…
Quick as lightning, Zong Hang suddenly rushed forward and slammed his back against the door.
Bang! The door closed.
Ding Yudie’s cry of pain came from outside: “Ouch, what the…”
Turning to look, Zong Hang seemed to think he’d done something good, still pressing against the door.
Yi Sa burst out laughing, gesturing for Zong Hang to step back: “It’s fine, let him in.”
Ding Yudie came in rubbing his forehead and gave Yi Sa an irritated look, then his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw Zong Hang: “So this is the handsome little brother?”
Yi Sa said: “Have some shame, he’s several years younger than you… What message?”
Ding Yudie was about to speak but stopped.
Yi Sa knew what he was concerned about: “He’s one of us, he can ride the water and has dealt with crocodiles too, not some completely clueless landlubber.”
Ding Yudie relaxed: “Tonight while everyone’s here, we’ll hold a water memorial for Jiang Jun at the spot where it happened, show our respects, and then we can disband… Hey, what should I call you?”
Zong Hang was stunned for two seconds before realizing he was being addressed.
His real name couldn’t be used anymore, and “Long Song” had been exposed.
He hesitated: “A… Apa.”
Ding Yudie was surprised: “Southeast Asian? How are you so fair-skinned? By the way, have you heard about the Seven Trials and Eight Tests?”
Zong Hang was confused for a while before realizing the latter part was directed at Yi Sa.
This person’s speech was scattered, following his whims, and not even using subjects.
Yi Sa shook her head: “What about it?”
Ding Yudie clicked his tongue: “You really… staying abroad away from the information center, next time I’ll have to update you on internal gossip — this round of Seven Trials and Eight Tests was another total failure. Forget water ghosts, there wasn’t even material for eight legs, probably only good for a few ‘shakers’… I’m a water ghost from the Ding family, Ding Yudie.”
Was that… a self-introduction?
Zong Hang’s reaction was still slow: “Oh… hello, total failure, that’s really… too bad.”
Ding Yudie raised an eyebrow: “What’s too bad?”
Zong Hang stammered: “Not… not having more water ghosts.”
Ding Yudie said: “That shows you don’t understand. Ever heard about breaking porcelain in the South Sea?”
Yi Sa had heard it before and didn’t want to hear him showing off again, so she went into the bathroom to shower.
Ding Yudie began his lecture: “In the South Sea, there was a treasure-hunting team salvaging shipwrecks. After ten-plus days without finds, they finally brought up a box of porcelain. Wow, very valuable, everyone was happy.”
“The next day was even better, they found another sunken ship full of porcelain. Are you happy?”
Did he need to ask? Zong Hang nodded: “Happy.”
“Why?”
“More to share.”
Ding Yudie said: “You’re still naive.”
“The team leader waved his hand and said, ‘Break it!'”
“Know why? Things are precious because they’re rare. Breaking that shipload ensures this box remains priceless. If they didn’t break it, with so much flooding the market, would it still be valuable?”
Zong Hang understood: “But they didn’t need to break it, seems wasteful…”
Ding Yudie interrupted: “You mean just leave it there, don’t salvage it, right?”
He gave Zong Hang another assessment: “You’re not ruthless enough.”
“If you don’t salvage it, what if someone else comes to salvage it someday? Once they bring it up, what would your goods be worth then?”
He pointed to himself: “People all have selfish hearts, all have some meanness. Before I became a water ghost, I racked my brains trying to become one. After getting this title, I never wanted to see more water ghosts appear… Get it? Think about it carefully, consider this a lesson from me. We’re family now, I won’t charge you.”
Zong Hang didn’t understand how he’d become “family” with him, but this Ding Yudie seemed quite approachable and eager to teach.
A thought suddenly struck him, and he glanced at the bathroom door.
The water was running loudly inside; Yi Sa should be showering.
He lowered his voice: “Can I ask you something?”
Ding Yudie also lowered his voice: “Go ahead, little brother.”
“How many water ghosts are there in the Yi family?”
He thought it would be some deadly secret, but this was just common knowledge.
Ding Yudie gestured to him: “Three families, eight water ghosts. Our Ding family is yang-dominant, all three are male; Yi family is yin-dominant, two females; Jiang family is most harmonious, has both men and women, but with Jiang Jun’s accident, now it’s three families, seven water ghosts.”
Only two? Zong Hang almost gave up hope: “The Yi family never had more?”
“They did, but she died. Why bring up the dead? For example…”
Ding Yudie nodded toward the bathroom: “Yi Sa’s sister was also a water ghost, just died too young. But we don’t mention it, why bring up tragic past events? Yi Sa never mentions it either, she doesn’t like people bringing it up.”
Zong Hang was caught off guard: “Yi Sa had a sister?”
“Yeah,” Ding Yudie’s desire to show off came up again, “‘The wind whispers and the trees sigh, thinking of you brings only sorrow’ – Yi Sa, Yi Xiao, their names might seem plain at first glance, but they’re quite sophisticated. Think about it, a gust of wind blows, the trees sway, and you stand alone thinking of your lover, isn’t that poetic…”
Ding Yudie suddenly felt it might not be as poetic as he thought.
This verse came from Qu Yuan’s “Nine Songs” in the “Mountain Ghost” section, about a mountain ghost waiting desperately for her lover in the dense forest, but the lover never appears.
When Yi Jiuge named his daughters, did he even want them to have happy marriages? Especially since…
Mountain ghost, water ghost, just one character different.
The two sisters even set a precedent in the three families, both being water ghosts.
He cautioned Zong Hang: “Pretend you don’t know and don’t say you heard it from me.”