She got out of bed, dragged out a rectangular gold-lacquered wooden box from underneath, and placed it in front of Beitang Ken: "The masked man threatened me before your arrival. He insisted that I must keep you here and personally hand this box to you. He... he forced me to swallow a pill. If I obeyed, he would give me the antidote. If I refused, my appearance would be completely ruined within three days. I..."
"Get behind me," Beitang Ken interrupted her, then slowly opened the gold-lacquered wooden box. A familiar light flashed, it was not a hidden weapon or a poisonous mist; lying in the wooden box was his own Lingxi sword! Beitang Ken was startled and grabbed the Lingxi sword, his five fingers sinking deeply into the grooves on the hilt.
"Ah?! Is it really the Lingxi sword?!" Ye Nichang turned pale, and she reached out in surprise, placing her five fingers in the remaining five grooves on the hilt. The Lingxi sword was thus naturally held by the two of them at the same time.
"Beitang Ken, let go! Ye Nichang will use you again!" The door of their room banged open, and Ding Xiaocuo, panting heavily, shouted. Beitang Ken stared at this girl who was yelling like a madman with confusion.
On the other hand, Ye Nichang seemed as if she hadn't noticed Ding Xiaocuo at all, just staring blankly at the Lingxi sword and murmuring, "Why... no response at all?" Her nails were almost digging into the sword hilt, "Impossible... impossible..."
"The Beitang family's Lingxi sword can only be opened by Beitang Ken and a woman who truly shares a heart-to-heart connection with him!" Ding Xiaocuo angrily pointed at her. "You'll never understand what a heart-to-heart connection is; you only exploit him!"
"You..." Ye Nichang's face turned deathly pale. "What nonsense are you talking about?" Ding Xiaocuo squinted at Ye Nichang disdainfully. "The one you admire has always been that old man named Zhao Zhi!"
Ye Nichang was struck as if by lightning. Her previously calm and charming demeanor vanished in an instant, and forgetting herself, she shouted, "What did you say?"
"The fourth son of Emperor Zhenzong[1], Prince Xin: Zhao Zhi[2], the older brother of the current emperor," Ding Xiaocuo's tone was certain. "Many years ago, he failed in his attempt to seize the throne and was exiled beyond the Great Wall. However, his ambition to become the emperor never died. He colluded with the Khitans while searching for the underground treasure left by Taizu[3] Zhao Kuangyin outside the Great Wall. Once successful, he plans to work hand in glove with the Khitans externally and use the treasure as military funds internally to easily conquer the Imperial City. And the key to the treasure is hidden in the Lingxi sword!"
Ye Nichang rushed at Ding Xiaocuo as if possessed, but Beitang Ken grabbed her. "Continue," he urged.
Beitang Ken remained strangely calm. Ding Xiaocuo walked up to him with a throwing caution to the wind attitude, and continued, "Your family has been the Royal Swordsmith for generations. In the past, under the command of Taizu, the Beitang family forged the Lingxi sword and concealed the key to the treasure within it. After Taizu's passing, the Beitang family, following a secret imperial edict, has guarded this sword from generation to generation to protect the treasure from falling into the wrong hands. Ye Nichang's father was originally a Khitan spy infiltrating the Song kingdom. Zhao Zhi has had dealings with the Ye family for a long time, and upon learning that the key to the treasure was within the Lingxi sword, he, aware of your, the Jade-Faced Ghost King's, exceptional skills, feared it would be impossible to snatch it by force. Hence, he began planning a perfect kidnapping, with the full cooperation of Ye Nichang of course."
Ye Nichang's breathing became erratic, and even cold sweat broke out on her nose. Ding Xiaocuo disdainfully added, "You've never truly liked Beitang Ken. In your eyes, he'll always be nothing more than a tool to obtain countless treasures for you! Even if he were to bring you all the treasures in the world, you'll not be satisfied. What you truly desire is to become the empress of the nation and wield power over the world!"
"I..." Ye Nichang's body began to tremble. She looked in horror at Beitang Ken who was frozen like a statue, "Don't... don't listen to her nonsense! It's not like that!"
"Isn't this exactly what Zhao Zhi promised you? Once he becomes the emperor, you would be the empress, the mother of the nation. This kind of man is your 'love,'" Ding Xiaocuo mercilessly pushed on, "You guys thought that by knowing the location of the hidden treasure beneath this stone house and obtaining the Lingxi sword, everything would fall into place. However, you didn't anticipate that this sword couldn't be opened by sheer force! The ten indentations on the hilt weren't designed for aesthetics but were prepared for the descendant of the Beitang family and his true soulmate. Only when both of them simultaneously place their fingers in the indentations can it be opened. You've always been confident in Beitang Ken's feelings for you, thinking you're the only one in his life. So, you continued acting, 'painstakingly waiting' for Beitang Ken to come and rescue you. Once he arrived at the stone house, you planned to deceive him into opening the sword with you, obtaining the key!" Ding Xiaocuo paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "In case of any obstacles, you even considered cutting off his arm to fulfill your ambition of becoming the empress!"
"You..." Ye Nichang's face was almost green, as if she had been stripped naked in public. She shouted uncontrollably, "Who the hell are you?"
"I am..." Ding Xiaocuo's brain worked quickly, "I am just born with divine power. Believe it or not, I can pry into people's hearts."
Pry into people's hearts? She didn't appear to be joking. Both Ye Nichang and Beitang Ken were startled. Ding Xiaocuo smiled, "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is, Ye Nichang, you don't deserve his affection. If you truly love each other, the Lingxi sword wouldn't have remained unresponsive just now!"
A deathly silence filled the room. "Beitang, do you... do you believe her?" Ye Nichang rushed to hug him. "After all these years of knowing me, do you really believe her?"
Beitang Ken stared into Ye Nichang's eyes, pushed her away, and said, "I don't know the secret of the Lingxi sword, nor do I know how to unlock it. My parents never mentioned it. I just wanted to come and save you. The Ye family raised me, and I don't want to say anything more... just go." For no reason, he believed every word Ding Xiaocuo said. There was a kind of honesty in her eyes, in her demeanor, that made him see the truth. He wasn't saddened by being deceived, nor did he harbor resentment; he was actually a little relieved.
"You bi*ch! You ruined my plan!" Seeing Beitang Ken treat her this way, Ye Nichang went mad and charged at Ding Xiaocuo, knocking her to the ground. Just as Beitang Ken moved forward to intervene, a gust of cold wind swept in from the doorway, extinguishing all the lights in the room.
When the lamps were lit up again, Beitang Ken discovered that both Ding Xiaocuo and Ye Nichang were nowhere to be found.
"Sir, please stay Sir!" Ye Nichang staggered on the icy ground on the empty land, chasing after the masked man and hugging his leg, pleading, "I'm Beitang Ken's fiancée, the woman he loves most in this life! I can definitely open the Lingxi sword! Please tell the prince to give Nichang another chance! Nichang can definitely..."
"The prince will find another way. Miss doesn't need to trouble herself about opening the Lingxi sword anymore," the masked man interrupted, coldly pushing Ye Nichang away, then disappearing into the snowy wind.
"No... No!" Ye Nichang lay prone on the ground, her heartbreaking screams of a beast shot in the heart by a hunter. Ding Xiaocuo rubbed her neck, coughing as she sat up from the snowy ground. When the masked man appeared earlier, Ye Nichang was gripping her neck desperately, and somehow, he managed to lift her away as well.
"You bi*ch!" Ye Nichang turned around, her eyes red, and despairingly lunged at Ding Xiaocuo. "It's you! If not for you, I would have been the future Empress of the Song Dynasty, bringing honor to my ancestors! Bi*ch! Bi*ch!" Despair made Ye Nichang's strength become unusually immense. Straddling Ding Xiaocuo, she tightly clamped her neck, seeking to kill to vent her hatred.
Ye Nichang, you and Beitang Ken should never have had any connection at all! It was my youthful ignorance, fueled by resentment, that bound Beitang Ken to you with a red thread! Beitang Ken's feelings for you are just forcibly imposed by that red thread, existing only in name but lacking substance, tangible but without true emotion! I'm originally a lingxi, having come to this world only to rectify Beitang Ken’s fated marriage, which I ruined! Ding Xiaocuo struggled, and the things that had been stirring in the depths of her heart finally surfaced. Memories dormant for nine hundred years surged forth like a lightning storm, striking every vein in Ding Xiaocuo's body.
A ball of white light burst from Ding Xiaocuo's feet, rapidly spreading throughout her body. Wherever the white light passed, her clothes dissolved, revealing thick scales on her exposed skin. A wave of intense heat lifted Ding Xiaocuo into the air. Ye Nichang covered her mouth in shock, watching Ding Xiaocuo spin uncontrollably in the air. The intense light turned half the night sky into daylight!
When Ye Nichang opened her eyes again, there was no trace of Ding Xiaocuo. Standing before her was a monster she had never seen before — a creature with the body of a tiger, the head of an ox, the feet of an elephant, and snow-white scales covering its entire body, with a curved horn growing from its forehead, marked with a white stripe in the middle. It looked not only strange but also incredibly grotesque. The monster shook its head, emitting an unpleasant low growl from its throat, and its forelegs anxiously kicked the ground.
"You... you..." After Ye Nichang regained her senses, she stared blankly at the monster in front of her. After a while, she suddenly burst into insane laughter, clapping her hands and shouting at it, "You're actually a monster! A monster! I see! Oh, I see!"
The monster's small eyes observed this almost deranged woman, and hot air puffed out from its nose. "You're so ugly! He won't like a monster! Hahaha!" Ye Nichang clapped loudly. "Heaven has eyes! Ugly monster! You'll scare everyone away! Everyone!" She actually started singing in excitement, happily spinning in place.
"Ugly monster! Ugly monster! Shame shame shame! Haha, I can be the empress! I can be the empress!" She laughed and cried, collapsing on the ground in a faint.
The monster lowered its head, hesitated for a moment, then quickly ran towards the stone forest.
She almost remembered everything.
Yue Lao's Palace, being a matchmaker, and cutting Beitang Ken's red thread. From the first day she traveled back to the Northern Song Dynasty and encountered him, the path she walked, the things she did — this entire trajectory existed as early as nine hundred years ago. Virtually the same, and different routes to the same destination. Nine hundred years ago, to atone for her own mistakes, she descended to the Mortal Realm and met Beitang Ken. Nine hundred years later, she returned to the past to make up for her mistake, and once again encountered Beitang Ken. The trajectory of nine hundred years and the fate nine hundred years later overlapped because of the lost Lingxi sword.
Yue Lao had warned that when rectifying this mistake, she must not use her magic powers, or her human form would be lost and her true form revealed, irrecoverable for three years. In the stone house, she had used the powers of a lingxi to pry into Ye Nichang's heart and learn all the truths. With little regard for anything else, she had only one thought: Save him! Beitang Ken, leave Endless Plains! Don't seek me! Don't go up that mountain wall!
From afar, she saw him. In the faint light on the horizon.
His black attire stood out vividly against the snowy landscape, and he shouted her name loudly. Filled with joy and anticipation, she was about to take a step when she suddenly halted.
"Monsters are really so ugly and disgusting," he had said. "He won't like a monster!" Ye Nichang's mocking laughter still echoed in her ears. She was a demon, an ugly lingxi; a fact that would never change. Beitang Ken, the outstanding Jade-faced Ghost King, who hoped to herd cattle beyond the Great Wall and roam the world with someone by his side, would not choose an ugly monster…
In her heart, the deepest fear of her lifetime emerged. Her steps involuntarily began to retreat. Three years; she would come back to find him in three years. If, at that time, he still remembered her... she turned away before he discovered her.
The next day, she kept feeling uneasy and wanted to go see him, to check if he was still searching for her whereabouts in the Endless Plains. Passing through the stone forest, she was shocked by the bodies and blood strewn everywhere. Most of the dead were Khitan soldiers, with a few Han people among them. She ran wildly along the blood trail, chasing all the way to the mountain wall that resembled a thrusting sword. The accumulated snow on the ground had been torn apart by some sharp force, revealing the soil underneath. The masked man leaned against a large stone, his body stiff, one of his arms severed, and a deep wound on his throat. And he… Half kneeling on the ground, a bloody hole exposed in his chest, he was tightly holding the Lingxi sword in his right hand; he had plunged it deeply into the ground, supporting him from falling.
She walked up to him dazedly. His eyes were open, stubbornly fixed on the direction she had walked. Beitang Ken was dead.
Footnotes:
[1] He was the third emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty. He ruled from 997-1022 A.D.
[2] Zhao Zhi is the name while Prince Xin is the title. Xin means trust or faith, so ironically, he is the Trustworthy Prince.
[3] Taizu means Great Ancestor, a posthumous title for Zhao Kuangyin, the founder of the Song dynasty.
No comments:
Post a Comment