Chapter 12 — An Adventure in the Mountain Cave (Part One)

"Was that really such an overreaction?" Wei Zhao shook his head, eyeing the feast on the table. Looks like they won't be coming down to eat, he thought. Which means all of this is mine. He picked up his chopsticks and went at it, left and right, sweeping away the four dishes and a soup like wind scattering the clouds...

Back in her room, Gu Mengyao flung herself onto the bed. She felt tragic. She felt wronged. What right did anyone have? How could her first kiss just be gone like that? If it had been some handsome boy, fine, but no, it had to be Wei Zhao, that country bumpkin, that hayseed.

"Xiaoshu, why am I so unlucky?" Gu Mengyao could hold it in no longer and burst into tears. Outside, with Wei Zhao there, she had not wanted to give him the satisfaction of a spectacle, so she had forced her feelings down. The tears had fallen, yes, but she had made no sound. Now that only she and Shen Yushu were left, she could not be bothered to care.

"There, there, Yao-yao, don't be sad. At least it was an indirect kiss, no mouth-to-mouth. He didn't get anything out of it either, did he?" Shen Yushu thought to herself: at most you swallowed a little of Arrow Brand Brother's saliva. He didn't get any of yours.

Shen Yushu would have done better to say nothing. The moment she spoke, Gu Mengyao felt all the more wronged. If they had truly kissed, she could have accepted it. But as things stood, she had come off the loser and gotten no credit for it. Wei Zhao had gained nothing, so he would feel neither pity nor guilt, and she could only count herself unlucky.

"No. I've made up my mind. Tomorrow I'm telling Daddy. This house has either me or him, him or me," Gu Mengyao said bitterly. "I absolutely will..."

Gu Mengyao cried herself out, complained herself out, and after a while drifted off to sleep. Shen Yushu shook her head, lay down beside her, and thought: it was only a bit of saliva. What's the big deal? You can't get pregnant from it. Was it worth all this?

...

After finishing his meal, Wei Zhao braced himself for a scolding. There was no help for it; his status was low. In the old society he would have been a servant, and if he upset the young miss, who knew what punishment might be handed down.

But he waited a long while and no one came down. So Wei Zhao tidied up the lunch boxes on the table and went back to his room. It was past nine already. Gu Mengyao and the others had probably gone to sleep and would not come down again.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Wei Zhao bolted the door, sat down on the bed, and began to cultivate the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art. This set of techniques had a very unusual origin: he had found it in a mountain cave.

He remembered it was when he was eight years old. On a night of the full moon, the old man had called Wei Zhao up to the summit of West Star Mountain to test how far his skills had come.

Wei Zhao did not understand why the old man would summon him to the mountaintop in the middle of the night to test his skills, but under the old man's long-standing policy of iron-fisted rule, Wei Zhao obediently went up with him.

Yet after they had traded two moves, Wei Zhao clearly sensed something was wrong. This was no test. The old man was striking to kill. Wei Zhao had just opened his mouth to say something when a great force slammed into his backside, and the old man kicked him savagely down into the valley.

Wei Zhao felt the wind whistling past his ears; he was flying through the sky like Ultraman in a cartoon. A long time passed before he hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Wei Zhao felt as though his bones would come apart. Ever since he was three, the old man had steeped his whole body in Chinese medicine every day to strengthen his frame and constitution, but a fall from such a height still knocked him silly, and he blacked out.

Watching the direction in which Wei Zhao had fallen, Old Man Wei shook his head and sighed. "Xiaoyi, it isn't that your grandfather is cruel. The chance simply cannot be missed, for it will not come again. The cave gate opens only once every five years, on the night of the Mid-Autumn full moon. If you cannot get in this time, you will miss the best age for cultivation..."

He did not know how long he lay there before he came to. He first cursed Old Man Wei roundly for his treachery, then scrambled to his feet. There was no help for it; cursing was useless now. Wei Zhao checked himself over, found nothing seriously wrong, and only then stood up.

But the sight before him gave Wei Zhao a shock. In front of him stood a giant mountain gate, archaic in design yet magnificent in bearing. Its vermilion paint gleamed in the moonlight, and the golden door rings upon it shone with a dazzling luster.

It was like something out of myth, the dwelling place of immortals. Above the great gate hung a plaque bearing four large characters: "Xuanyuan Cave Abode."

What place was this? Wei Zhao's breathing grew hurried. He had lived on West Star Mountain for many years and had never once heard that there was such a place at its foot.

Wei Zhao did not know why he had stumbled his way here, or how the old man had managed to kick him so precisely to the mouth of the cave. Yet he felt a sense of familiarity, a feeling of having seen it all before, as though he had come here once in a dream.

But rack his brains as he might, Wei Zhao could not figure out when he had ever been here. He steadied himself and, as if drawn by some force, unconsciously walked toward the mountain gate.

When he reached the cave entrance, Wei Zhao instinctively pushed at the door. Unfortunately, the gate did not budge an inch. He frowned and pulled hard at it; still it did not budge.

Just as Wei Zhao was feeling discouraged and about to turn away, something strange happened: he saw the tightly shut gate slowly begin to open.

Wei Zhao was startled. He thought someone was coming out of the cave and quickly ducked to one side, his eyes fixed on the opening. But he waited a long while and no one emerged. The interior of the cave, however, he could see perfectly clearly.

It was an enormous hall. There was no lamplight inside, yet it was as bright as day. He had no idea what produced such a dazzling radiance, lighting the whole hall brilliantly.

The marvel before his eyes made Wei Zhao's jaw drop. Beyond shock, no other word could describe what he felt. Only after he had made certain there was no living thing in the hall did he cautiously walk toward the open stone door.

With every step, Wei Zhao warily glanced around, and only when he was sure there was no danger did he go on. Of course, that was also because he had been young then, with a strong curiosity about things. The Wei Zhao of today might not have been so rash.

Then again, if not for that curiosity and rashness, the strokes of fortune that followed would never have come to pass.

~~~

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