Yu Xuan seemed not to understand his meaning and didn’t answer.

“Have you ever thought about why Qi Teng wanted to help you? Why would General Fan look at you differently? Sometimes, it’s not about whether you’re willing or not, but whether they need you and whether you can be of use to them.” Wang Yun’s originally gentle voice suddenly turned ice-cold, just like the light wavering on their bodies – though it appeared warm-colored, it was actually like cold water rippling, only letting their skin feel the chill.

“Yu Xuan, regardless of your identity or background, I neither know nor care about these things. I only know that you are the chosen one. Whether in the past or present, someone highly values you. Just nod your head, and wealth and glory will be yours for the taking. In the future Shu Prefecture, people will forget about the currently envied Qi Teng, and you will take his place as the object of admiration. Isn’t that good?”

“What I want, I can never obtain. So even if I got everything else – even if I got everything in the world – what meaning would it have?” The wind was clear and cold, and Yu Xuan’s voice seemed to take on this coldness, becoming rigid and detached.

Wang Yun laughed and said, “What’s the point of acting like this, to make me think your hands are clean? Sometimes killing people is just a simple matter – just one more hole in the chest is all it takes, isn’t it?”

Huang Zihua pondered the meaning of their seemingly disconnected conversation but still couldn’t quite understand. As she listened to their words, she felt a chill rising slowly from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, an ice-cold terrifying sensation that made her body rigid, only able to crouch behind the shrubs, unable to move.

She heard Yu Xuan’s voice as if coming from the horizon, with an unclear, dazed feeling: “You need to say no more. I thought you would speak about matters more relevant to what’s between us, yet I don’t know why you’ve come to act as a messenger, speaking of incomprehensible things.”

Wang Yun chuckled, asking mercilessly, “Incomprehensible? Could it be… that you’ve forgotten everything that happened while you were in Qi Teng’s household? Have you forgotten Master Shan Fa, forgotten that little red fish Agashnie?”

Yu Xuan suddenly stepped back. Through the shrubs, Huang Zihua saw his profile. Under the swaying lamplight and water reflections, his perfect face showed a slight distortion. His whole body was trembling, a desperate and terrible ashen color enveloping his features, making him almost uncontrollably lean backward, his entire weight pressing against the railing.

Amidst his heavy breathing, the sound of string and bamboo instruments rose from the front – it was time for Madam Gong Sun’s sword dance to begin.

Huang Zihua slowly backed away several steps, creeping backward through the shrubs.

She saw Wang Yun walk toward the nearly collapsed Yu Xuan, extending his hand, his voice gentle and without any abnormality: “There are too many eyes and ears here, I shouldn’t have said these things. You can go back and think it over carefully – perhaps you’ll come to understand.”

Everyone in the venue had returned to their seats. Gong Sun Yuan walked to the front of the crowd, bowing deeply to everyone, and said, “On this fine evening with beautiful scenery, I, though unworthy, wish to dance with everyone, called ‘Sword Qi Hun Tuo.’ Some of you present may have seen this dance before, but my daughter’s version today will surely be completely different. Today’s dance has flowers and butterflies, not about sword glints and blade shadows, but rather suited for flowers under moonlight and paired butterflies in flight. Those interested may enjoy it with their beloved, to not waste its deep meaning.”

The crowd, hearing this, couldn’t help but smile knowingly.

Li Shubai turned his head to look at Huang Zihua. Huang Zihua smiled slightly at him, then seemed to sense something amiss. She hesitated for a moment but finally looked toward Yu Xuan, finding him just taking his seat, his expression slightly rigid. Seeing her look his way, he turned his gaze away.

In her heart, a faint sense of melancholy suddenly welled up. In this prefecture lord’s mansion, among the garden pavilions, how much laughter had they shared? Her entire girlhood had been spent here, together with Yu Xuan.

Now, though the scenery remained the same, the two of them had completely changed.

While lost in thought, she noticed Qi Teng had already inconspicuously stood up and retreated to the back of the seats. There, a green gauze cabinet was set up, with a young woman sitting inside.

Qi Teng gently knocked on the door of the green gauze cabinet. She turned her head and smiled sweetly at him.

Huang Zihua knew this must be Zhou Ziqin’s sister. Although she couldn’t see her features in the darkness, just from that upward tilt of her face and the snow-white skin that seemed to glow in the darkness, it showed she must be a beautiful young woman – indeed, what girl at sixteen or seventeen wouldn’t be pretty?

While she was still thinking, the rhythm began beside her, and Gong Sun Yuan had already entered the water pavilion. Her silhouette behind the gauze screen took an opening stance, with one long and one short sword in her hands. The cold gleam penetrated through the thin gauze-like rippling water waves behind a curtain.

Before everyone could react, those two water-like waves turned, and the slender figure had already nimbly spun out from behind the curtain. The cowhide lanterns in front covered the side facing the viewers, all light focused on her.

In the bright light, she danced holding her swords. As the sword light turned and folded, the bright light drew out circular arcs, as if a divine child carried the sun and moon down, breaking countless new moon traces in the darkness. Yet these new moon traces were moving, like water waves and flowing clouds, reflecting the lamplight, surrounding her body with brilliant radiance.

The new moonlight suddenly scattered as she leaped and danced in the water pavilion. The sword tips trembled, the sword light dispersing into starlike points of light. That brilliant and bright sword light became the stars revolving around her body, flickering with the golden embroidered radiance of her attire, dazzlingly bright, making it impossible for anyone to look away.

Such a passionate and dazzling sword dance right from the start left everyone in attendance stunned by her artistry. Zhou Ziqin was so shocked his jaw dropped, the melon seeds he was holding scattered down with a rustle, yet everyone’s attention was so focused on Gong Sun Yuan that no one paid him any mind.

Just at this moment when heaven and earth seemed to rise and fall with her, Gong Sun Yuan suddenly stopped her movement. The long and short swords suddenly came together, and the brilliant lamplight also became dim – it turned out Yin Luyi was standing beside the lanterns, raising her hand to turn the cowhide paper on the lantern, causing the light to suddenly dim.

Only the lantern behind the gauze screen remained, its light shining through from behind the screen. In the backlight, only Gong Sun Yuan’s silhouette could be seen, her movements as if frozen. The silhouette of her dance pose was set against the brocaded gauze screen behind her like a magnificent peacock, wearing five-colored hues like sunset glow. The swords in her hands had disappeared, and one could only see her spinning like the wind, her clothes, skirt hems, floating ribbons, and hair all spinning, surrounding her body like surging clouds or rotating halos. Even the gauze screen was moved by the wind around her body, floating up like a five-colored misty cloud surrounding her.

She spun behind the gauze screen, then suddenly stopped.

Yin Luyi’s hand gestured to the musicians at the side, and the music that had been playing suddenly stopped. In the silence, only a thread of flute sound came through, as if weeping and telling tales. Gong Sun Yuan stood with lowered hands, her silhouette as if frozen, and at this time, fragrant mist pervaded the air, flower petals filled the sky above the water pavilion – it turned out Yin Luyi had pulled a rope by the pavilion, slowly tipping several bamboo baskets that had been arranged on the eaves, spilling all the flower petals they contained, which fell gradually throughout the courtyard with the night wind.

The crowd looked up at the flying petals, praising them repeatedly.

General Fan was the most dramatic, jumping up and saying, “I want to go up close and see if those flower petals are real or fake!”

Huang Zihua saw him stand up and rush to the front, almost knocking over the lantern beside Yin Luyi, then deliberately grabbing Yin Luyi’s sleeve, shouting, “Oh my, sister, help me up…”

Yin Luyi was focused on helping Gong Sun Yuan when he suddenly grabbed her sleeve, startling her so much that her hand shook, causing the cowhide lantern light to suddenly waver.

She turned to look at Fan Yuanlong and saw him taking advantage of his drunken state, giggling while gripping her hand tightly. She couldn’t help but struggle a bit, saying softly, “Please… please watch the dance carefully, to avoid disturbing others.”

Not just the crowd, even Fan Yingxi, seeing his son’s unseemly behavior, stamped his feet and cursed silently, about to call Qi Teng to pull him back, but turning around, he couldn’t see him, then remembered he had gone to the back to accompany the Zhou family’s young lady.

Zhou Ziqin was about to squeeze through, but he was behind his father and couldn’t move his chair for the moment. Then they saw Yu Xuan, sitting on the right side of the third row, stand up and approach the drunken Fan Yuanlong from behind, saying, “Young Master Fan, are you drunk? There’s wind over here, come get some fresh air.”

Yu Xuan was half a head taller than Fan Yuanlong, and Fan Yuanlong was drunk, so although he struggled, he was still forcibly carried away by him.

Yin Luyi gratefully bowed her head to Yu Xuan, then quickly attended to the last basket of flower petals.

Fan Yingxi awkwardly apologized to everyone, and people could only say, “It’s just drunkenness, no great harm done.”

By now the flower petals had finished falling, and Gong Sun Yuan’s silhouette was projected on the flower-patterned gauze screen. As the light shone through, one or two butterflies slowly began to fly out from around her body. One, two, three, gradually appearing on the gauze screen.

Fresh flowers fell to the ground, butterflies filled the sky, and everyone’s attention was immediately drawn away again, each looking up in admiration. Huang Zihua looked up at the butterflies, then followed their trajectory down to look at Li Shubai sitting there.

A red flower petal had landed in his hair.

She hesitated for a moment, but finally raised her hand and gently plucked off that flower petal. He felt the movement in his hair and turned to look at her, while she smiled slightly at him, holding up the flower petal in her hand to show him.

She saw Li Shubai’s bright eyes, like southern stars on this night.

Gong Sun Yuan’s silhouette remained still, her sleeves floating lightly, until all ten pairs of butterflies had flown out from her sleeves. Only then did she wave her sleeves, and that golden-embroidered red brocade outer garment suddenly fell to the ground. In her thin, transparent gauze, alongside those flying butterflies, she danced gracefully.

This time, her movements were gentle and slow, as if truly flying wing to wing with the butterflies. Her toes stepped lightly, her gauze clothes fluttered, behind the gauze screen, her sleeves illuminated by the lamplight became half-transparent like dragonfly wings, her raised fingers like the pose of orchid flowers.

Zhou Ziqin, watching Gong Sun Yuan spinning with the butterflies, couldn’t help but proudly and somewhat showily say to Huang Zihua, “Chonggu, do you know how hard it was for me to catch these ten pairs of butterflies? I spent the whole afternoon with the servants looking for them!”

Huang Zihua quickly responded perfunctorily, “How exhausting, how exhausting.” Her eyes couldn’t bear to leave the water pavilion for a moment. And now the Sheng and xiao played together, the rhythm became urgent, and Gong Sun Yuan danced more and more rapidly. Yin Luyi turned the lantern, the light suddenly brightened, and Gong Sun Yuan in the bright light was as clear as the rising sun. Her light clothes, complex dance steps, and changing silhouette were like torrents colliding, like ice and snow cascading, like purple lightning crossing the sky.

A clear qing bell broke through all the dazzling dance steps, and Gong Sun Yuan suddenly ended her dance, lying like a fish on the ground.

Everyone was still immersed in her amazing dance, unable to come back to their senses. After a long silence, the crowd finally burst into applause, too excited to contain themselves.

Gong Sun Yuan rose like a cloud, bowed to everyone, wearing a faint smile, then took Yin Luyi’s hand and paid respects to those outside the venue.

Li Shubai clapped and smiled, saying, “After many years apart, Madam Gong Sun’s skills have advanced further. This dance reminds me of when I first watched your ‘Sword Qi Hun Tuo’ at the Great Ming Palace. As a youth, I first learned what it meant to show one’s edge, with sword qi surging. And now this piece, combining hardness and softness, emphasizing beauty over magnificence, is also remarkable.”

“Back then in the Great Ming Palace, I was only in my twenties, at my peak of physical strength and agility, that was my prime,” Gong Sun Yuan’s breath was still unsteady as she wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, smiling and saying, “But now as age advances, my body can’t take it anymore, so I can only change the middle section to slower dance movements. Speaking of which, this was personally adapted by Aruan for me.”

Huang Zihua heard the endless regret and melancholy in her voice, and Yin Luyi also gently stroked her hand, as if comforting her.

Fan Yingxi knew nothing of her circumstances, his eyes just sliding back and forth over them, smiling and saying, “Madam Gong Sun has been famous throughout the world for over twenty years, truly with amazing dance skills that leave people in awe. I wonder if you might be interested in coming to the Military Commissioner’s mansion…”

Before he could finish speaking, suddenly a shrill scream came from behind, it was a young woman’s heart-rending cry.

Zhou Ziqin, hearing this, immediately cried out, “Ziyan!”

Zhou Pang’s face also changed color, and he quickly turned around, following Zhou Ziqin as they hurried toward the green gauze cabinet at the back.