CH 54

A gentleman would not mention those shameful years.

The despicable things Ye Zhao had done were simply… Tsch. Gods and mortals alike were angered.

Fooling around on the marketplace, speaking some ear-cutting language, drunkenly breaking bones, breaking legs in a midnight alley fight over personal grievances, chopping off people’s arms, hounding them to death… If not for the excellent correction of her attitude and her atonement by meritorious acts, many of the Northern Desert dwellers would have dragged out this fellow, replete with evil, for a summary execution.

“Aiya,” Hu Qing very considerately said, “as someone whose bones and nose you broke in back alley fights, I know very well what kind of morality you had back then. Don’t try to hide it. What did you do to your poor cousin Xiyin? Let’s hear it.”

“Actually, it wasn’t a big deal…” Ye Zhao’s calm gaze began to shift slightly to the left, dodging his stare.

Hu Qing stroked his chin, measuring her up with half-narrowed eyes, and sighed. “Well, if she’s the woman you were telling me about, then she should know even better than you, right? We’re friends who can speak freely, and since it’s not that big of a deal, cover it up like a secret. You can hide for a while, but can you hide it forever? We’ll know in a little while.”

Ye Zhao knew his talent for gathering information; if he’d set his mind on investigating the issue, there was no way she could hide. She was forced to hesitantly tell him, “It’s entirely because of my stupidity and it has nothing to do with her. Plus, it happened when we were young, so you can’t mock her.”

“Does it have something to do with her reputation?” Hu Qing asked. “I think I heard people say something about it.”

Ye Zhao nodded seriously.

“You damaged her reputation?”

Ye Zhao nodded gravely.

Greatly interested, Hu Qing moved a stool over, slowly sat down, and took a sip of the strong tea to sober up. “Keep talking.”

Looking at the man she’d selected as the best match for her cousin, ruthless and callous, she finally started talking. “Xiyin is obsessed with dancing and extremely talented.”

Hu Qing’s eyelid twitched. He drank a cup of tea. He could somewhat understand.

The customs of the Great Qin may be open, but women did not go without prohibitions. Actresses and dancers belonged to a low rank. They were not domestic prostitutes, used to entertain guests, or women who sold themselves to brothels. But they were playthings. Whether they were sought after by high ranking officials or not, they could not change their discriminated status. Therefore, decent families forbade their children from learning those brothel skills. Among the common music instruments, only the qin and xiao were hailed as the instruments of a gentleperson by the scholars and literati, and could be learned through practice. Even the pipa was regarded as a little frivolous, because it came from abroad, from the western regions,[1] and mostly played in pleasure houses and marketplace stalls. As for dancing, the art of displaying one’s body, it was even more a skill learned only by women who sold themselves.

The Liu family belonged to the military. Though Liu Xiyin’s father was only from a branch family and a minor official, it would be shameful if people knew that she liked dancing. And her being left with a tainted reputation did not only impact a woman’s ability to find a good match: even her siblings’ upbringing would be under suspicion.

Ye Zhao was a jerk, who would have rather lost face than renown, rather taint her siblings’ reputation than accept to compromise. That was why her family simply wanted to cover up their daughter’s identity, just for fear that her cousins lost face. They only planned to wait until she grew up and send her wandering the country, to be known as a Taoist priest or a Buddhist monk, single for the rest of her life. As for being later granted a marriage by the Emperor and the fact that Xia Yujin, a fool with more money than sense, married her, it was an unexpected joy and the Ye ancestors almost laughed themselves into rising from their graves.

Liu Xiyin’s family’s status wasn’t high enough to be qualified for an imperially granted marriage. She depended only on her virtues, looks, speech, and actions to find a good husband. There was absolutely no room for mistakes. As it happened, she was six years old the first time Ye Zhao sneaked her out to play. When she came across Miss Gongsun performing a sword dance, she fell in love, as though bewitched. Her elegant sleeves, flowing around her as though she could reach the moon in the sky, her fluttering skirts, as though she could walk over the wide expanse of the misty sea, and, in her hands, the sword, like a living, flying dragon, soaring between the heavens and the seas. It was as though she had fallen into another world, as beautiful as a dream. Then came the Lingbo dance, the Tuanshan dance, the Nishang dance. The dancers were like goddesses descended among mortals, their every movement indescribably beautiful.

When she was young, she watched them obsessively, imitating the movements in her sleeves. Back home, behind closed doors, she secretly practiced on her own. From her reflection in the water, in the mirror, she seriously performed dances that would never be acclaimed.

“Dance is the fusion of heaven and earth. It’s the crowing of the oriole, the opening of the peacock’s tail, the willow tree in the wind, the rippling of the water, the beautiful and moving fall of the leaves in autumn, all displayed in the movements and rhythm of the body. Liu Xiyin, although she was only seven years old, realized this. She had an extraordinary talent and a serious temper. Without any master’s guidance, she only relied on observation and emulation to study hard and master it. Her youth and immaturity jumped out from her posture, but you could feel the beauty of her intentions and her unique style.” Ye Zhao sighed. “I was thirteen years old, a time when I was undisciplined and out of control. Xiyin’s father happened to be serving as county magistrate in Yongguang City, near Jingyang County. She was sent to my house from time to time and I found out that she was shy, an easy crier, but she was also very pretty and cute, so I often made fun of her, like scaring her with a king ratsnake. But she was good tempered and rarely got angry, so we gradually got along better. One day, she hid in her room to practice, but I saw her — it was breathtaking. I encouraged her. She was very happy, but also very sad that the world forbade girls from ordinary families to dance. No matter how hard her efforts were, no one would ever see their results. I was moved by her words, so I proudly promised her I would find her an audience that would not tattle. She didn’t agree at first, but she couldn’t stand up to my pestering…”

“You’re kidding me…” Hu Qing supported his forehead with his hand. “At that time, the only people you befriended were bullying bastards who only knew how to play around and then turn around to fawn over you. This plan was simply stupid.”

“I was stupid back then,” Ye Zhao despondently said. “And Xiyin was too young. The two of us made a mistake. We misjudged the severity of the situation. I used my qinggong to carry her out of the house. I won’t mention what happened when I took her to a field on the outskirts of the city to dance and party. Anyway, a drunk guy with a loose mouth discovered the truth, even though I knocked five of his teeth off. When the Ye and Liu families learned of it, Xiyin’s father flogged her severely. She didn’t get up from her bed for two weeks, then she still had to copy Buddhist scriptures, and was confined for six months.”

“And what about you, the main culprit?” asked Hu Qing.

“My father had me kneel as punishment. I climbed over the wall and ran away.”

Hu Qing sighed. “You had no shame.”

“If he’d come with a police stick or a flogging staff, I would have obediently knelt down and withstood the beating, but he rushed at me with a machete![2] I wasn’t stupid enough to stay there!” Ye Zhao angrily replied.

Hu Qing didn’t say anything for a long time, looking at the remnant of trepidation on her face. “What happened later?” he asked again. “Was she angry at you?”

Ye Zhao shook her head. “I don’t know. I wandered outside for more than two months. I waited for my father to leave before coming back. People at home forbade me from seeing her. I sneaked away to play with her from time to time, but we never left the house together again. She likes to keep things to herself, so even if she was angry, I couldn’t see it. But it’s been so many years already. She can’t be that petty — she would have let it go, wouldn’t she?”

“Nothing else?” Hu Qing asked after giving it some thought.

Ye Zhao scratched her head. “I only caused her to take a beating this one time. There can’t have been anything else that serious, right? She didn’t mention it for so long, there’s no way she still resents, right? She must have let it go,[3] otherwise why would she have sent me winter clothes when I enlisted in the army? The layers of fabric were thick and sewn so sturdy and warm!”

Hu Qing, having thought about it for a while, had probably figured it out. He was about to open his mouth.

But Ye Zhao carelessly said, “You just like to bring up old gossip.”

Hu Qing swallowed back his words. “Exactly,” he said with a smile, “I love recalling how long you bullied me for the most.”

“Men shouldn’t be too narrow-minded and petty but instead magnanimous!” Ye Zhao affirmed.

Hu Qing was taken aback, but his eyes very quickly narrowed in a smile. He gently bowed his head and said, “You’re right, General, but foxes have small, narrow brains.”

Wouldn’t it be a pity to let the opportunity to aggravate twin jerks Ye Zhao and Xia Yujin go?

He probably wouldn’t get to see such fun much in his life.

So, narrow-minded and petty, he kept moving his stool closer, shelling melon seeds and sipping fragrant tea, while he watched the drama unfold in the prince of Nanping’s mansion and looked for an opportunity to stoke this fire.

[1 ↑] Lit. 胡乐 húyuè, “Hu music / central Asian music” according to MDBG.

[2 ↑] Lit. 鬼头刀 guǐtóu dāo, “ghost-headed knife.” Baike google says it was mostly used in executions, and it seems to be a short, stocky, and single-edged (like all 刀 dāo) blade.

[3 ↑] The part “How could she still think… wouldn’t she?” in Ye Zhao’s previous line and this bit: “there’s no way she still… let it go” are exactly the same in the original text. This is probably an oversight from the author, pre-editing.