WJ Chapter 109.2

Peach Blossoms (1.2)

Ah Ku stepped forward sharply, gripping Yun Changliu’s wrist with force. “Since you’ve looked into it, you ought to know what kind of life I was living at the Manor back then! Father kept his distance from me, Mother didn’t dare protect me, even the Manor’s disciples looked down on me in secret! No one knew my cold or warmth, no one heard my sorrow or joy — I didn’t know what the point of living like that was!”

Yun Changliu said nothing, and pain and sorrow flickered through his eyes.

Ah Ku suddenly cut himself off, realizing he had gotten a little too agitated. He stepped back and looked at Yun Changliu with complete sincerity:

“The Young Sect Leader’s grace is something I cannot repay in a single lifetime.”

“Ah Ku would be willing to die for you.”

Having said that, the blue-robed young man lowered his head. His expression in the shadows flickered, as though he had made up a great resolution, and then he said softly, “…I… have something I need to tell you…”

“—What kind of talk is that?! If you dare to die, I will die before you!”

Those ice-cold words detonated beside his ear like thunder, and Ah Ku’s heart lurched with the shock.

He raised his head sharply, and there was Yun Changliu’s expression of rare fury. The Young Sect Leader was glaring at him with fierce intensity, and his voice was sharp:

“You said it yourself, back then! Your life is my life, your death is my death; you make medicine for me, and I keep you from harm… those were your own words, and I gave you my promise on them!”

Ah Ku’s face had gone white, and the second half of whatever he had meant to say died in his throat. Yun Changliu grew more agitated still, his words tumbling over each other. “You know perfectly well that I… I… how can you still say such things?! If the day ever comes when it is you who must walk into danger and die for my sake, what use is there in me being Young Sect Leader or Sect Leader?! I… I would have no face to go on living!”

“…”

Ah Ku held his breath and looked at Yun Changliu for a long moment, then curved his lips into a smile. “…Just a joke. Look how frightened the Young Sect Leader got. Be careful, or you’ll bring on a flare of the poison just from getting upset.”

“You and your careless words — you’re the one who upset me!”

Yun Changliu shot him a cold look and could not stop himself from scolding him a few more times, until Ah Ku offered a string of apologies and he finally let the matter rest.

And yet only a little while later — after the two of them had walked in silence out of that lane — it was the Young Sect Leader who softened first, calling gently, “Lin’er.”

Yun Changliu said it with a gentleness that could almost be described as tender and earnest. To hear it, Ah Ku felt a prickling, tingling numbness run straight down his spine. He turned away with embarrassed awkwardness and muttered, “Don’t… don’t call me that.”

Yun Changliu was relentless. “Lin’er is clearly a better name than Ah Ku.”

Ah Ku ignored him. Yun Changliu went on, talking to himself. “I’ll call you that from now on. Lin’er.”

“Come to think of it, you always call me Young Sect Leader. I’d like to hear you call me by my name too.”

“Call me ‘Changliu’ once and let me hear it. Or if you like, you can call me ‘Liu’er’ — that’s fine too.”

“Lin’er? Why aren’t you responding…”

“Lin’er, say something.”

“Lin’er, won’t you just call me once.”

Events proved that the ordinarily detached and undemonstrative Young Sect Leader Yun Changliu, when he set his mind to clinging to someone, could be extremely formidable at it.

Several calls of “Lin’er” in succession, until Ah Ku had nowhere left to hide his face, until at last at some moment he could endure it no longer and burst out in exasperation. “Stop — stop calling that!”

The handsome face the lantern-lit young man turned around revealed was tinged with a faint flush of red, and Yun Changliu felt his heart give one heavy, lurching beat.

Ah Ku’s cheeks were burning, and he waved his sleeve in indignation. “Young Sect Leader! That sort of nickname is what elders call their juniors — it’s like how the Sect Leader calls you that because he’s your father. And you’re calling me Lin’er of all things — aren’t you ashamed?! Weren’t you the one who doesn’t like to talk much?!”

With that, he turned in a huff and walked ahead without a word. Yun Changliu snapped back to himself and hurried after him, tugging at his sleeve and calling “Ah Ku” over and over, coaxing him patiently for a long while before the irritation finally eased.

After that, Ah Ku brought the Young Sect Leader toward the river. The wide riverbank was teeming with people, and countless souls were stooping to set their cupped lanterns onto the water’s surface — everyone releasing river lanterns.

The whole river blazed with radiance, colors shimmering against each other.

They each bought a river lantern and found a slightly quieter, more secluded spot along the bank.

Ah Ku held his bright paper lantern reverently in both hands. In the deep dark of night, the blue-robed young man bent his head, eyes closed, lips moving in sincere prayer — his bearing was one of extraordinary devotion.

Yun Changliu was somewhat surprised. He had assumed Ah Ku’s temperament was the sort that put no stock in immortals, Buddhas, or the supernatural.

He could not help wondering quietly: What wish was Ah Ku making?

Was there even a single word of it that was on his behalf?

Two river lanterns, two small flames, drifted slowly away across the water.

Yun Changliu watched those river lanterns for only a few breaths before his eyes drifted back, unable to help themselves, to Ah Ku. He found him gazing fixedly at the river’s surface, the glow of a thousand lanterns reflected in his eyes — his expression somehow not quite right.

But before Yun Changliu could pinpoint what seemed off, Ah Ku turned with a smile. A sudden whim seemed to strike him, and he said, “Young Sect Leader, let’s take a boat!”

“…”

Yun Changliu felt that the person in front of him simply went wherever the mood took him, making a fuss over one thing after another. But this trip had been his accompaniment of Ah Ku’s outing after all, and he had no particular preferences of his own — so he let him have his fun.

And so Ah Ku led Yun Changliu downstream along the river, walking for quite some time before they found a few boats.

A white-haired old boatman, missing a front tooth, sat on the bank with his legs crossed, squinting at the river lanterns.

Ah Ku stepped forward and politely asked to borrow a boat. He had expected it to take some persuading, but the old boatman was surprisingly agreeable — seeing two pleasantly handsome young men, he went straight away to untie a small craft. Ah Ku gave him one tael of silver, which made the old man so happy he couldn’t stop grinning.

Yun Changliu stepped onto the boat first, taking hold of the fir punting pole with both hands. The Young Sect Leader turned back to see Ah Ku boarding as well, and said, “Sit down. I’ll pole for you.”

Ah Ku didn’t stand on ceremony with him. He sat down beside the Young Sect Leader, pointed toward the heart of the river where the lanterns drifted, and said, “Let’s go out there.”

Yun Changliu set the long pole against the riverbed and pushed; the water parted in rings, and the boat moved forward, cleaving the dark current.

The Young Sect Leader had never learned to pole a boat, but his internal energy was deep and powerful — what ordinary boatman could compare to the force behind one push of his?

The small boat glided gradually out to the river’s center, surrounded on all sides by the soft glow of floating lanterns.

A fisherman’s song drifted over from somewhere, soaring and resonant — the voice was unmistakably that of the old boatman. Ah Ku’s eyes lit up, and he murmured an admiring word before leaning over the side of the boat to peer out.

The little boat swayed on the water’s movement, and Yun Changliu hung up the punting pole, letting it drift. A river lantern floated over unhurriedly and Ah Ku, with great interest, stretched out a hand to intercept it, gave it a nudge, then let it go on its way.

Yun Changliu seemed happy too. He opened his mouth and said, “Do you like listening to songs? I’ll sing you something.”

Ah Ku laughed. “All right — what will the Young Sect Leader sing? A fisherman’s song?”

“I don’t know that kind,” — Ah Ku’s words had clearly been nothing more than a tease, yet Yun Changliu answered in earnest; he thought for a moment and said, “It’s an ancient song from a former dynasty. You should have heard it before.”

Ah Ku said, “All right, I’m listening.”

So Yun Changliu stood at the prow of the boat, holding the pole, and began to sing in a clear, floating voice:

Shang Ye— I wish to know you well, to love you and never part.

Ah Ku’s eyes widened slightly in quiet astonishment. He had not expected the Young Sect Leader to sing… this song.

In all fairness, Yun Changliu’s voice leaned cool and clean, and singing this kind of long, drawn-out ancient melody gave it the quality of a phoenix’s cry echoing through an empty gorge — the effect was all the more beautiful for it.

Yet this song — this song was unmistakably the most fervent, the most faithful of love songs!

Though the mountains crumble and fall, though the rivers run dry.

Ah Ku lay back, and his eyes quietly reflected the sparse stars scattered across the dark winter sky overhead — just like the river lanterns drifting on the water below.

He lay on the boat, watching from the side as the Young Sect Leader’s snow-white wide-sleeved robe was lit up and dimmed in turn by the lanterns floating past.

Gradually, the lines of Ah Ku’s brow and eyes softened. The corner of his lips curved into a very faint smile.

Though thunder rolls in winter, though snow falls in summer.

Yun Changliu’s eyes were half-closed, his knuckles lightly tapping the punting pole to keep the rhythm.

He seldom raised his voice when he spoke, but when he truly sang, he gave himself over to it fully.

The clear, cool song grew gradually more impassioned, swirling without end between the river’s surface bright with a thousand floating flames and the sky above studded with its sparse scattering of stars.

When heaven and earth are joined as one— only then would I dare to part from you.

The ancient song was not long. By the time Yun Changliu had finished, the last notes still lingered and echoed over the broad riverbanks.

The Young Sect Leader closed his eyes for a moment. He rarely sang openly like this before another person, and had no idea how it had sounded. When he was singing he had not felt it, but now that it was done a faint, tentative nervousness settled over him.

Ah Ku suddenly spoke. “Young Sect Leader — you sang this song for me to hear. Do you know what these words mean?”

Yun Changliu turned back. “It means: I am willing to be with you always, and will never be parted from you.”

He answered with perfect composure — yet he watched Ah Ku’s expression grow slightly complicated. So the Young Sect Leader could not help tilting his head in puzzlement. “…Is that wrong?”

“…” Ah Ku held back a smile, keeping his face perfectly serious, and nodded. “Right — that’s exactly what it means! It’s so lovely, Young Sect Leader. Would you sing it again?”

Yun Changliu had the persistent feeling that… something seemed not quite right somehow.

And yet being praised for singing beautifully filled him with quiet pleasure, and without thinking too deeply about it, he did indeed sing it through once more.

As Ah Ku listened, he slowly curled his fingers tight.

He drew a quiet breath, and said to himself:

…It doesn’t matter. It’s all right.

So what if they must draw from the heart’s blood — so what if it is nine deaths and one life.

Wager on that one chance at life. Come through it alive, and everything will be fine.

Ye Ru had survived the heart-blood extraction and come out living — could he really be weaker than that child?

He would not die. He would certainly live through it.

He still had to accompany the Young Sect Leader into the Wuze Realm, watch the Young Sect Leader take the seat of Sect Leader, spend forever being sheltered and cherished by the Young Sect Leader — relishing the satisfaction of being the one the Young Sect Leader held in his heart alone, even as ten thousand people looked upon him with admiration…

He still had to cook many delicious things for the Young Sect Leader, take him to all kinds of places to play, be with him through the scenery of all four seasons, and gradually, bit by bit, straighten out all those baffling little peculiarities of his…

—Only once this ordeal was broken through, the Fengchun Sheng poison truly resolved, they would have a long, long lifetime together. To know each other well through all of it, to be by each other’s side through all of it.

He wanted to live. He wanted to walk forward alongside his Young Sect Leader.

He felt sure — certain — that he would survive this.

The little boat was still rocking slowly, gently, on the water, and the rocking made Ah Ku feel dizzy and light-headed, as though he had drunk too much.

And so he closed his eyes, seeming to sink down into that vast sea of stars and lantern-light.

—After wine, one forgets that the sky is mirrored in the water; a boat full of clear dreams pressed down upon the river of stars.