Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xu Yan told me that during the past ten years, he had acquired yin-yang eyes. With the aid of incense, he could see me.

“What about the crown prince? The emperor?”

“Naturally, they cannot see you.” After a moment’s thought, he added, “The dragon aura protects them. Your soul has only just re-formed and remains unstable. You cannot stay in the palace for long.”

“Then where am I supposed to go?”

He paused in a way I found rather suspicious, then said calmly, “You will stay with me.”

I pulled his robe tighter around my chest. “You and I are both unmarried. I still have a reputation to protect!”

Xu Yan gave me an indifferent glance. “I cultivate the Dao. A woman’s charms cannot move me.”

I felt both annoyed and disappointed.

“Fine. Then have several outfits made for me.”

If I could not move his heart, I could at least empty his purse.

He adhered firmly to the austere ways of a Daoist. “One will suffice. I am the only person who can see you. There is no need for waste.”

What a miser!

I slapped the table. “Then just have them make me a dudou!”

His face slowly turned red.

So did mine.

I covered my face and choked on my embarrassment for a long while. At last I gathered enough courage to break the silence. “I thought my soul would scatter. Why didn’t it?”

Xu Yan was quiet for a long time. “Perhaps your life was not meant to end.”

He told me that when I leaped from the city wall, killing blades of light erupted from my red robes. Along with the cinnabar talismans painted over my skin, they rose into the air and became one deadly incantation after another.

The talismans flew like birds through rain, crossing ten miles in the blink of an eye.

The people saw only crimson light enveloping the city. One instant later, it vanished. In the next, every soldier assembled outside the walls had had his throat cut.

“It was the most terrifying forbidden art I have ever witnessed,” Xu Yan said, “and the most painful.”

For the moment I bore that heaven-slaying power, my body crumbled to dust.

Only a red garment remained between heaven and earth. It drifted down at last upon ground soaked in blood.

A hundred thousand soldiers who had cast off their armor witnessed that overwhelming crimson radiance. They knew Princess Ruyi had sacrificed herself for the kingdom and devastated the invaders.

They took up their weapons again. Their worn straw sandals struck the earth, leaving a bloody print with every step.

They swore to defend their home to the death.

The frontier tribes never dared invade again.

The emperor raised a cenotaph for me and buried the red garment within it.

Afterward, the people made offerings to me. With simple yet foolish faith, they prayed for Heaven to grant me rebirth.

But that was impossible.

Once the forbidden art was complete, it could not be reversed.

Unless an even greater forbidden art was laid over it.

I looked hesitantly at Xu Yan. “Were you the one who gathered my soul?”

He gave a faint, dismissive smile. “You think too highly of me. I possess no such power.”

I could not tell whether he refused to admit it or truly had not done it.

In any case, the moment the crown prince’s voice sounded outside the door, we both cut the conversation short.

“Xu Yan, has Sister Ruiniang come back?”

I knew the crown prince had no yin-yang eyes and could not see me, yet I sprang up nervously and hid behind Xu Yan.

The crown prince pushed open the door and gave a puzzled sound.

“Xu Yan, why aren’t you wearing your Daoist robe?”

Before Xu Yan could answer, he peered behind him and made an even more puzzled sound.

“Why is your robe floating?”

I hurriedly dropped it.

Xu Yan looked over his shoulder at me.

Our eyes met. Uselessly, I covered my chest again.

This young lady has a lovely figure. What of it?

Xu Yan looked away, bent down, and picked up his robe. His long fingers folded it with unhurried care.

“It is too warm in this hall,” he said. “I did not wish to wear it.”

The crown prince frowned. “Warm? It doesn’t feel warm to me.”

Fortunately, he did not pursue the matter. “Did you find anything unusual? Has my Sister Ruiniang returned?”

Xu Yan lifted his eyes and lied without a flicker of emotion. “Nothing unusual.”

The crown prince fell silent. After a long while, he sighed. “It has been ten years. Is she truly never coming back?”

Xu Yan said nothing.

The crown prince wiped at his eyes. “At least I carried out her last wish.”

Xu Yan looked up. “What last wish?”

I knew disaster was coming. I lunged forward and tried to kick the crown prince over.

Of course my foot passed through him, and I crashed straight into the carved wooden door.

The crown prince had already blurted, “She told me to watch you for her. After she died, I wasn’t to let you like any other girl—or any other boy.”

Xu Yan gave me a peculiar look.

I struggled valiantly against the door, but that one look sapped the last of my strength. I fell, slamming the door shut with a bang.

The crown prince, oblivious, turned toward the door that had moved without any wind.

“Is this door broken?”

Xu Yan’s lips curved. “Yes. Very broken indeed.”

The spirit-revealing incense was nearly spent. Xu Yan invented an excuse and sent the crown prince away.

Then he drew a porcelain bottle from his sleeve and motioned for me to enter.

It was an artifact for storing souls. I had read about such objects in the forbidden books.

I rubbed my chin. “It’s almost as if you knew you would find me today.”

His hand stilled. “I also require ritual vessels when subduing demons.”

Fair enough.

I obediently dissolved my form and tried my best to squeeze into the mouth of the bottle.

Unfortunately, I had been a ghost for less than a day and was not yet practiced at ghostly movement.

When I became stuck halfway in, I had no choice but to ask Xu Yan for help.

“Give me a push.”

Xu Yan was silent for a very long time.

“This is uncomfortable!”

Still he said nothing.

“Aren’t Daoists supposed to be free of earthly desire? Then a mountain should not be a mountain, water should not be water, and that should not be—that!”

Before I finished, a hand pushed firmly against my waist and bottom.

He moved with such speed and force that he clearly wanted no more than a second of contact.

Oh, this was interesting.

I climbed back up to the bottle’s mouth to study his face.

The Daoist master stood in white, his expression as cool and pale as his robes.

But a trace of pink showed at the base of his neck, betraying the delicacy of his current thoughts.

The crown prince had certainly kept his promise. Ten years later, Xu Yan was as innocent as ever.

I pressed my advantage. “Don’t forget to have that dudou made!”

The bottle was stoppered at once.

Hmph. Miser.

Xu Yan’s home still stood on the old grounds of the Imperial Preceptor’s estate.

Only the plaque above the gate had changed.

I understood. Before my sacrifice, Father had already been gravely ill.

Seeking a way to save the kingdom, he had dragged his failing body through divination after divination until his vital essence was exhausted.

Sometime in the ten years since my death, he too must have passed away.

I had been a poor daughter. I had not even seen him to his grave.

Xu Yan lowered his gaze to me. “Master is buried on Qixia Mountain. If you wish, I can take you to pay your respects.”

I sniffed. “No. If someone saw paper money and incense moving by themselves, I might frighten them.”

I floated to a polished bronze mirror. Its surface was smooth and bright, but it held no reflection of me.

Through my transparent form, it showed Xu Yan behind me, handsome and aloof.

That was the difference between a living person and a ghost.

Saddened, I drifted away from the mirror and changed the subject. “Light incense for me. Tell Father Heaven has shown me mercy and my soul did not scatter. Tell him Ruiniang thanks him for caring for her in life and will repay him in the next.”

The words sounded wrong as soon as they left my mouth.

In a much smaller voice, I added, “If there is a next life.”

Xu Yan stared at the bronze mirror in silence. I had no idea what occupied his thoughts.

I slipped around him and headed for the door.

“Where do I sleep? In my old room?”

A hand closed around my wrist.

The touch was warm and carried that faint scent of herbs and trees.

Xu Yan looked at me, calm yet brooking no argument. “You will sleep in my room.”

What?

My face must have turned crimson in an instant.

Carefully, tentatively, trying desperately to conceal my delight, I asked, “Do you mean… what I think you mean?”

Xu Yan arched a brow. “And what do you think I mean?”

I squirmed for a moment, then answered in a rush, “That we’ll consummate our marriage?”

His eyes glinted with amusement. “In your dreams.”

Xu Yan explained that my newly gathered soul was unstable. Keeping me where he could watch over me was safest.

That made sense.

He was now the greatest Daoist master under heaven. If anyone in the world could protect me, it was Xu Yan.

The trouble was, sleeping before his eyes demanded extraordinary restraint from me.

Xu Yan loved cleanliness and bathed every day.

Now that I occupied his room, even his yin-yang eyes could not reveal my form without spirit-revealing incense.

The incense was precious, and he was not extravagant enough to burn it all night.

Therefore, he chose to rely on my morals.

“You would not peep, would you?”

I nodded as rapidly as a chick pecking rice. “Never. Of course not.”

Reassured, he stepped behind the screen.

One or two candles cast every motion of his undressing in silhouette.

The blurred shadow was hazy and enticing.

I sat outside the screen, staring eagerly at the last short length of spirit-revealing incense.

Yes! At last, it went out.

Water splashed behind the screen, and a figure rose from the bath.

What? Finished already?

I flew inside as fast as I could and strained my eyes with all the power I possessed.

Xu Yan had already put on his inner robe. The collar covered him from throat to waist.

I was crushed.

Truly. I had missed it by the narrowest instant.

Perhaps I imagined it, but the corner of Xu Yan’s mouth seemed to lift.

Then he looked toward my position and asked with apparent confusion, “Your Highness, did you come in?”

Dejected, I drifted back outside and curled into my old spot. “No. I never moved.”

Xu Yan called evenly, “Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“When you came in just now, you knocked over the small table beside the screen.”

“…”