Chapter 30 — Strange Arts

Night had come again, deep and still.

Zhang Qingyue tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and even the monkey Xiao Hui beside him had opened his eyes wide and was blinking up at him. As for the other senior brothers, they had long since begun snoring loudly, and even Da Huang lay curled on the ground, fast asleep.

Moonlight poured in through the window like water, spilling across the floor like frost and snow.

Zhang Qingyue rose quietly. Xiao Hui immediately darted into his arms. He held the monkey, stroked its head, and walked outside.

The corridor was silent and empty, not a sound to be heard.

He smiled bitterly to himself. Ever since arriving at Jietian Peak, there had scarcely been a single night he had slept peacefully. At the thought of tomorrow's match with Lu Xueqi, an indescribable nervousness still clutched at his heart.

Just then, the monkey Xiao Hui in his arms stirred uneasily. Zhang Qingyue looked down and saw that, in the moonlight, Xiao Hui's bright clever eyes were fixed on the shadows ahead.

In the darkness, a figure seemed to flit past.

Zhang Qingyue's heart stirred, and he followed.

The figure did not run fast, and as it ran its shoulders seemed to shake without cease, as though it were weeping. Watching from afar, Zhang Qingyue recognized Tian Lingsu, and his puzzlement deepened; at the same time, seeing his senior sister weep so, an inexplicable sorrow rose in his heart.

Tian Lingsu ran all the way onto the sea of clouds, to the edge of the central platform. Seeing no one about, she seemed unable to hold back any longer, and crouching on the ground, she wept aloud.

Zhang Qingyue had never seen his senior sister so grief-stricken. His mind went blank for a moment, and he walked slowly to her side and called softly, "Senior Sister, you—"

Tian Lingsu gave a start and sprang up, turning around. Seeing it was Zhang Qingyue, she relaxed, but then her heart ached again, and she could not help but throw herself into his arms and weep loudly against his shoulder.

Zhang Qingyue's body went rigid in an instant, as though every inch of him had been turned to stone, unable to move so much as a finger.

Her sobs echoed in his ears; from his shoulder he felt the faint warmth of her body, as though a scene he had often glimpsed in dreams had today somehow come true. A wisp of elusive fragrance drifted faintly toward him.

Zhang Qingyue simply stood there, gazing into the distance. Though a thousand impulses urged him to embrace this woman, in the end he did not.

Perhaps if I truly held you, my life would be different from this moment on?

At that moment Tian Lingsu drew away from his shoulder. Zhang Qingyue felt a hollow emptiness in his heart, and dimly sensed that he had lost something.

His shoulder was already soaked with tears.

Tian Lingsu rubbed her reddened eyes with her hand and saw Zhang Qingyue's shoulder, wet with her weeping. Her face flushed, and she said, "I'm sorry, Xiaofan."

Zhang Qingyue shook his head and said, "Senior Sister, what's wrong?"

Tian Lingsu was about to speak when something at her feet gave two squeaks. Looking down, she saw that Xiao Hui had followed them. Silently she bent down and gathered the monkey into her arms.

"It's never happened before, Xiaofan, never before." The woman stood in the dark moonlight, desolate and beautiful, and said to Zhang Qingyue with a touch of sorrow, "Father and Mother have never scolded me like that."

Looking at that beautiful face in its grief, Zhang Qingyue felt a tearing pain in his heart, as though all her sorrow had been brought on by him. He steadied himself with effort and said gently, "Senior Sister, what happened? Why did Master and Mistress scold you?"

Tian Lingsu hesitated, then raised her head and looked at Zhang Qingyue. From childhood, this youngest junior brother had always been the companion closest to her after her parents. Now, in her heart, a vague thought seemed to stir: since when had Junior Brother Xiaofan always been so gentle with me?

Yet the thought only flickered past. Her heart was full of sorrow now, and at last she said to Zhang Qingyue, her voice choked with tears, "It's all because of Senior Brother Qi Hao!"

Zhang Qingyue's face went white in an instant, and his fists clenched involuntarily. He clenched them so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms.

"You still don't know, do you?" Once Tian Lingsu had begun, she held nothing back from this junior brother. But Zhang Qingyue was screaming inwardly: I know, I know, I've known all along!

The moonlight fell cold over the whole world.

"Senior Brother Qi Hao and I are in love. I told them—I truly, truly like him." Tian Lingsu had calmed a little, and did not notice that with every word she spoke, Zhang Qingyue's face lost another shade of color.

"But Father shouted at me, said I was being foolish—even Mother, who has always doted on me, turned pale and took Father's side. How could it be like this, Xiaofan?"

Zhang Qingyue lowered his head so that Tian Lingsu could not see his face, and said in a low voice, "How did Master and Mistress find out?"

In her agitation, Tian Lingsu did not notice the flaw, the strangeness in his words. Her mouth trembled, and she was almost weeping again: "I wouldn't have imagined it either, but later I learned that Senior Sister Wen Pei and the others from Xiaozhu Peak who share my quarters told Uncle-Master Shuiyue, and Uncle-Master Shuiyue told my mother. I'm so close with Senior Sister Wen Pei and the rest—I warned them again and again, but they still let it out, I—I—"

Her eyes stung, and at last the tears spilled over.

Zhang Qingyue said hoarsely, "Perhaps Master and Mistress have your best interests at heart. They are your parents—they would never do you harm!"

Tian Lingsu wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and cried, "What do they know! All they know is faction and prejudice. All they know is that Senior Brother Qi Hao is Uncle-Master Cangsong's prized disciple on Dragon Peak, all they know is that if I were with Senior Brother Qi Hao they would lose face in the Canglan Sect. They never once thought of me."

With a measure of grief, a measure of anger, and even a measure of resolve, she said, "What are face and reputation compared with my happiness? I really wonder whether they care more for face or for me, their daughter!"

Zhang Qingyue jerked his head up and looked at this senior sister who had suddenly become a stranger to him.

What grief was in that gaze!

Lost and helpless, like a fledgling that has lost its parents standing alone in wind and rain, grief shot through with a thread of terror—it pierced his very soul like a blade!

Zhang Qingyue was defeated by that gaze almost at once. A sorrow such as he had never known rose from his heart. If he could bear this woman's pain for her in this moment, he would shoulder any hardship, no matter how great—but he did not know what to say, and could only call softly:

"Senior Sister!"

"I want to be with him," Tian Lingsu said with utter resolution, and if she spoke to Zhang Qingyue, she spoke still more to her own heart and to the Tian Buhui couple who were not there. "I must be with Senior Brother Qi Hao. We have sworn our vows to each other. Even if Father and Mother oppose it, even if we must wait till the seas run dry and the rocks rot, we will be together."

She looked up at the night sky and swore this to the bright moon. Cold moonlight fell quietly upon her; she was beautiful as a lily blooming in the night with sorrow upon it, dazzling in her beauty—so dazzling that one forgot the desolate, dying shadow beside her.

Standing high upon the platform, the rising sun's warmth fell softly on Zhang Qingyue, warming his body but not his heart. He stood expressionless on the stage, facing Lu Xueqi, who stood across from him, beautiful as a fairy.