AFTER RETRIEVING THE MEDICINE, it was time for Mo Xi to take Gu Mang home. He and Jiang Fuli returned to the hall to see Gu Mang sitting on the ground talking with little Lan-er. Or perhaps more accurately, little Lan-er was teaching Gu Mang how to talk.
"Dragonfly," she said quietly as she held up the bamboo trinket in her hand.
Gu Mang nodded and echoed, "Dragonfly."
"When dragonflies fly low, it will rain."
Gu Mang nodded along, blue eyes fixed unblinkingly on that bamboo dragonfly.
Lan-er noticed his longing gaze. She tilted her head in quick thought, then handed the little figure to him. "Da-gege, if you like it, I'll give it to you. "
Gu Mang's eyes flew wide. "For me?"
It had been a long time since this little girl had someone to talk to. A shy and gentle smile spread over her delicate face. Cheeks dimpling, she said, "Mm-hm, I'm giving it to you." Gu Mang's eyes shone in surprise and delight as he accepted the bamboo dragonfly. He lovingly cupped it in his palms as if he had received some rare treasure and gazed at it for a long time. Then he held it aloft and made it "fly" before Lan-er. One was tall and one was small, but both laughed.
Engrossed in their game, neither noticed that Jiang Fuli and Mo Xi had returned. Gu Mang tucked the little dragonfly into her hair and smiled. "It looks pretty like this."
"It looks pretty on Da-gege's head, too."
At this, Gu Mang placed the dragonfly on his own head. The two of them giggled up another storm. Then Gu Mang, after a moment's thought, pressed the dragonfly back into little Lan-er's hand. "I'm done playing with it. ''I'm giving it back to you."
Lan-er was startled. "Why?"
"I can't take other people's things whenever I want. I live with a very...very, very, very mean person." Gu Mang waved his hands in great big circles, as if supplementing his paltry vocabulary with gestures in order to fully demonstrate just how ill-natured this person was. "Very mean. When I'm in his territory, I have to listen to him. If I don't, he feeds me very spicy medicine. And howls at me."
Mo Xi blinked.
Lan-er couldn't help the pity that rose on her face. She reached out a small hand and patted Gu Mang's head. "Da-gege is so unfortunate." After a pause, she continued, "But this is just one little dragonfly, and it's not expensive, so he won't blame you. I'm giving it to you. Next time...um, next time, will you play with me again?"
"I like playing with you. But I can't take the dragonfly," Gu Mang answered plainly.
The little girl's face brightened at the first sentence, but some disappointment appeared upon the second. "It's really not expensive..." she said softly.
"You have to work to get things. This is the Xihe Manor rule," said Gu Mang. "Or you need to bed me, then—"
He was still speaking when Mo Xi hauled him away. Mo Xi shot him a vicious glare and snapped, "You want a seven-year-old girl to bed you? Have you no shame? We're leaving. Come on."
Behind the two of them, Jiang Fuli tucked his hands in his sleeves and said solemnly, "Xihe-jun, don't forget what I told you."
Chonghua's end-of-year memorial ceremony required the emperor and nobles to offer sacrifices to past generations of their martyred heroes. At Chonghua's southeastern border, there was a ravine with deep, calm waters at its bottom that flowed all the way to Baidi City of Western Shu. It was said that this river ran beyond the Nine Provinces and into the soul- river of the underworld. This was the only link between the world of the dead and the world of the living.
Chonghua was a nation that placed great emphasis on funeral rites, and its rules were solemn and strict. Every year, before New Year's Eve, the emperor led a procession of state officials to this abyssal river to offer sacrifice. This year, naturally, was no different.
Li Wei, as was his custom, took out Mo Xi's ceremonial robes the night before they were to depart. He knocked on the door of Mo Xi's study with the robes in his arms.
"Come in."
Li Wei entered the room. Mo Xi was sitting by a round window framed in black bamboo, reading quietly. No matter how many times he saw him, Li Wei would always sigh; his lord was a rare beauty indeed.
Mo Xi was tall and handsome to be sure, and the sharpness that had been hammered bone-deep into him was overpowering. All that aside, when considering his face in isolation, one might find Mo Xi's features to be exceedingly delicate and elegant. Although he was already thirty, when he traded his imperial military uniform for a set of relaxed robes to read under the lamplight, he looked refined and youthful.
But this was hardly surprising. As the empire's god of war, he always maintained the most stringent discipline and was rigorously strict with himself. He was steadfastly unaffected by the ephemeral vices of others. Thus, he was always strong and clear-eyed, as upright as a grove of pine or cypress. The aura this man commanded declared that he was at his best and would remain so forever. Li Wei wasn't attracted to men, but when he looked at Mo Xi, he frequently found himself dazed by his beauty.
Mo Xi flipped another page in his book and skimmed a couple of lines. Before Li Wei could say anything, Mo Xi turned to him and knitted those sharp brows. "What is it?"
"Oh, oh oh!" Li Wei shook his head and returned to his senses. "My lord, it's getting late. You'll need to be awake before dawn tomorrow, so you should go and wash up soon."
Mo Xi glanced at the water clock. It was getting late indeed. He rose and said, "All right," then paused, remembering something. "Where did Gu Mang go?"
"Isn't my lord taking him along to the memorial ceremony? This subordinate sent him to get himself in order. I told him to clean himself up a bit."
Mo Xi nodded. Li Wei was always meticulous and took care of most things without Mo Xi needing to worry about them.
In the courtyard within the deepest recesses of Xihe Manor, there was a hot spring where Mo Xi usually bathed. Chonghua had many ground-fed hot springs, and almost every noble residence had one such pool. It was said that Wangshu Manor's hot spring represented the peak of extravagance; they had everything from beds to reflexology stones and an aromatherapy terrace. Bat totems were chiseled into the sides of the pool, and the waters that flowed over them shone a dazzling gold.
Mo Xi, however, was not particularly interested in indulgence. His hot-spring pool was the simplest in Chonghua, and the most natural. It was hewn of mountain stone and surrounded by greenery. Its shape was the same as when it had been carved, and he'd never bothered to have it renovated.
Xihe Manor's hot spring differed from the hot springs of other nobles in another major way: servants. When other noble lords bathed, they required servant girls, aromatherapists, and even pipa performers—in short, anything they could ever need. But Mo Xi had never allowed anyone inside his hot spring to serve him. Years of military campaigns had instilled in him an instinctual vigilance toward others. He couldn't fully relax if anyone else was around, even if they were loyal servants who had been with him for many years.
The courtyard containing the hot spring was filled with dense mist, and fallen flowers lay scattered across the limestone path. Mo Xi entered the small black bamboo pavilion—this was where he changed. The pavilion was furnished very simply, with only a crooked side table, a stone bench, a bamboo clothes rack, and an enormous bronze mirror from Yue Manor, which was as tall as he was.
Mo Xi undressed, one layer after another, and left his clothes neatly folded on the table. He undid his inky hair and tied it into a high ponytail before stepping out toward the springs.
The water was clear and the night was still, with bright moonlight above, and fragrant flowers all around him. Waves rippled as he slipped into the pool. Lotuses nourished by spiritual energy grew within the hot spring, the blossoms ranging from brilliant sunset reds to lustrous jade whites. However, none of them rivaled Xihe-jun's reflection on the water. The hazy steam rising from the water's surface made his features seem even more refined in contrast.
He slowly relaxed the tension in his spine and leaned back against the hot stones of the pool, his eyelids drifting shut. His surroundings were quiet. There was only the murmur of flowing water, the soft sounds of flowers landing on the surface, as well as...
Several sloshing noises in quick succession, followed by a loud splash—
Mo Xi's eyes flew open just in time to receive a faceful of water. He couldn't believe his eyes—Gu Mang had swum out from some hidden corner and surfaced with a noisy splash. His blue eyes were dark and gleaming like brocade, and a lotus leaf was draped over his head.
At the sight of Mo Xi's bloodless face, Gu Mang wiped off the water on his own, unperturbed. "My lord also came to wash up?"
"You...!" Mo Xi felt as if there was some obstruction in his chest. He was unexpectedly struck speechless. He glared at the man in front of him, ears ringing with fury and bewilderment. Only after a long moment did he manage to bite out, "What are you doing here?"
"Li Wei told me to take a bath," said Gu Mang. "So I looked around and found this place."
"You'd better get the hell out!"
"But I'm not clean yet..."
"Get the hell out!"
Gu Mang had no other choice. He was tactful; he knew that Mo Xi's temper was bad, and in any case, he didn't want to fight with him. Without another word, he stood up—the lotus leaf still on his head—and walked up the steps. Unlike Mo Xi, who was accustomed to wearing a layer of underclothes even in the hot spring, Gu Mang had undressed down to nothing. As Mo Xi watched him step out of the water, those slender, strong legs were immediately visible through the mist... As if scalded, Mo Xi turned his face aside at once. His ears had reddened completely.
"Hurry up and get dressed!"
"Mm-hm." Gu Mang stepped ashore, the sounds of his footfalls signaling his departure.
Perhaps because his mind had been damaged, Gu Mang was often forgetful. By the time he came out of the water, he had forgotten which nook or cranny he had tossed his clothes into. He looked around and noticed the neatly arranged ceremonial robes Mo Xi had placed on the black bamboo table.
His clothes and Mo Xi's clothes were both clothes; he couldn't find his, so why not accept this convenient alternative and wear Mo Xi's instead? With this thought, Gu Mang scratched his head and walked over.
The robes fluttered as he shook them out. He started pulling them on, layer by layer: inner robe, then belt, then silk ribbon. After he had put on everything else, Gu Mang's eyes landed on this ribbon. He held it in his grasp, confused and unsure of where to put it.
Silk ribbon...silk ribbon...where was it supposed to be worn?
He stood in front of the hazy bronze mirror and held it up to his body to test out the possibilities. It was too thin to be a belt and too thick to be a hair ribbon. He stared blankly at his reflection for a long time. Suddenly, a sharp pain bored into his skull. Gu Mang brought a hand to his forehead as a series of memory fragments flashed before his eyes.
In that familiar scene, on the deck of a boat, a man with indistinct features stood before him and rasped, "Gu Mang, turn back."
Turn back...
He didn't know why he'd see something so odd, but he dimly sensed that he'd been crookedly wearing a blue and gold ribbon just like this one. He heard himself scoffing as he spoke to that man, who had come to look for him in despair:
"No matter how much of my life I devoted to your honorable country, no matter how many merits I achieved, I could never dream of attaining this kind of pure-blooded nobles' ribbon—all on account of my birth."
That man's voice was bloodthirsty, grief-stricken, and furious. It was strange how someone working to repress so many emotions and shouldering so many contradictions could speak so calmly and persistently.
The other figure replied, "That's the merit ribbon. It belongs solely to the descendants of the martyred heroes. Take it off."
"Is it? This was worn by a cultivator who looked pretty young. I cut off his head and saw this ribbon was quite well-made. It'd be wasted on a corpse, So..."
So what? The scene flashed by and Gu Mang snapped out of his daze. He was simultaneously amazed by the dialogue that had suddenly appeared in his mind and startled by the sense of déjà vu that this ribbon had evoked. He looked at himself in the bronze mirror. He hesitated. In the end, standing before his reflection, he raised the ribbon with trembling hands and tied it over his forehead—yes, this was the place. There seemed to be a dormant longing in his heart, a kind of indescribable anguish and urgency. It was like he had been waiting to wear this ribbon for a long, long time.
Throughout all of this, Mo Xi hadn't spared him a glance. When Gu Mang finished dressing, he returned to the side of the pool. "I'm done; should I wait for you?" he asked.
Only then did Mo Xi turn his face, expression stormy and lips pressed into a thin line. What he beheld left him frozen in shock. A furious surge of hatred, mixed with a fiery stream of something he couldn't name, roared through his head.
"Gu Mang..."
There amid the moonlit flowers, Gu Mang stood in ceremonial robes that gleamed like snow, the hems of the sleeves shimmering gold. Three layers of belts crisscrossed around his waist and the train brushed the ground—but these details were all insignificant. It was the blue and gold ribbon on Gu Mang's forehead that made Mo Xi's eyes begin to redden. That was... That was the ceremonial emblem worn by the descendants of Chonghua's heroes...for the most honored of their deceased ancestors!
Generations of the Mo Clan had served their nation, so this ribbon was an essential part of their family regalia whenever they offered sacrifice.
The one Gu Mang wore had belonged to Mo Xi's father. Mo Xi felt the twist of a knife in his chest. The agony of splitting flesh seemed to rush at him from the past. Nearly apoplectic, he raged, "You... How dare you!"
Gu Mang was startled. "Huh?"
"Who let you touch those things?" snapped Mo Xi. "Take the soul emblem off your head!"
Gu Mang didn't know why he was suddenly filled with a new and insistent defiance. He took a step back and said two curt words to the man in the hot spring: "I won't."
These simple words ignited an explosion, like sparks landing in sizzling oil. Gu Mang saw Mo Xi's eyes blaze bright, fury raging within them. His gallant face turned terrifying; Gu Mang could almost see the city of rationality in Mo Xi's eyes burn down, scorched wood falling and flames flaring in his gaze.
Mo Xi emerged from the water with a loud splash. His snow-white inner robe gaped open as water steamed from his sturdy, heaving chest. His eyes were violent and hot, his entire body emanating an aura of terrible wrath, like black storm clouds pressing in on city walls.
Gu Mang turned to run. Mo Xi was still in the pool, but he reached out and caught hold of Gu Mang's wrist. With a swift jerk, water splashed across the stones as he pulled Gu Mang bodily into the spring.