Sichuan Journey - Deepening (2)
Sichuan Journey - Deepening (2)
[It had been quite some time since the Dragon Phoenix Gathering.
Death's parting silences sobs; life's parting brings a ceaseless ache.
Though love still dwelled in my heart, we were far apart, and it had been long since we last saw each other's faces.
The sleepless days of longing for you, my wife, had stretched on and on.
As the leader of a sect, I could not simply relocate without reason, so we could not meet easily.
It was truly a separation in life, and the time I spent stewing in heartache had been long.
Though I had seized a clue to the peak realm and devoted myself to training,
there was no progress whatsoever, and so I wished to journey again to Sichuan to seek your guidance.
Please forgive me for not daring to say I miss you and for poking my head out with such clumsy pretexts.
Let us meet again, hold hands, and share the tender stories we have yet to finish.]
Hong Ye crumpled the letter. It was something she had done without realizing. After reading the letter to the end, she had embraced the empty air as if Docheol were right in front of her, and that was how the accident had occurred.
"Aah...!"
Flustered, Hong Ye hastily smoothed out the letter, fetched a paperweight, and rubbed it down as if ironing. Still kneeling, she fidgeted her toes restlessly; her hands, so uncharacteristic of a martial artist, trembled violently as she held the paper.
Her cheeks flushed rosy, and the corners of her mouth kept twitching. After confirming no creases remained, she smoothed it out with satisfaction, then held it up high and wandered around the room. Given her frugal nature, the small room had just enough wall space to hang a single sheet of paper.
After pondering where to stick it so it would look pretty, Hong Ye placed the paper back on the desk and stepped outside.
*****
"...You intend to decorate the wall with a letter?"
"Yes."
Hong Ye kept an expressionless face, trying to maintain the dignity of a senior sister. To the junior martial sister, who had sharp features, that expression of Hong Ye's came across as a little foolish. The junior martial sister also found it strange that Hong Ye was suddenly asking for her help.
Though the atmosphere within the sect had eased somewhat after the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, she and Hong Ye were not all that close. Before the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, Hong Ye had been an opponent she could pick on and win, but now she was a senior sister who stood in a realm the junior martial sister could no longer reach.
From the perspective of her junior martial sister, who had several times butted heads with her and even tried to publicly humiliate her, the very fact that Hong Ye was asking for help felt unfamiliar.
"Why... why ask me for that kind of advice...."
"Because your face is pretty, so I thought you'd have a lot of relationship experience."
For an instant, the junior martial sister wondered if that was a sarcastic jab implying she was loose, but judging by the blank face and flat tone, no, that wasn't it. She felt a sudden drain of energy, as if she'd been pointlessly interpreting things badly all on her own. It had always been like this. No matter how hard the junior martial sister tried to make Hong Ye angry, Hong Ye stood as firm as a rock against the waves, as if nothing had happened.
That Hong Ye, whom the junior martial sister had once found detestable and hateful, was now, after the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, someone the junior martial sister looked upon with a strange mixture of respect and admiration.
"So, I'm planning to stick the letter on the wall like wallpaper, and I'd like some advice on how to make it look pretty."
Watching that senior sister, with a perfectly serious expression, ask, 'I want to stick a letter on the wall, so how can I make it look pretty?' — it was enough to utterly shatter the dignified image of the senior who moved like flowing water through her Taijiquan forms. So the junior martial sister's feelings about seeing this side of Hong Ye were a bit complicated.
"If you simply stick paper on the wall, won't it get damaged quickly? It'd be no different from applying wallpaper, and it might be exposed to drafts or damp and get eaten by bugs."
Hong Ye nodded as she listened to the junior martial sister's earnest advice. She rubbed her chin in thought for a moment, then looked down at her and spoke again.
"...Then, what if I speak to the Grandmaster to have a separate storage box made... and enshrine it inside...."
"...I think your husband would find that extremely burdensome. It's just a letter. It would probably be better to just keep it in a drawer."
"...What do you think about making it into a hanging scroll and putting it up?"
"...Are you serious?"
The junior martial sister imagined a love letter turned into a scroll, hanging all the way down. If her own lover did that, it would be horrifying. The junior martial sister shook her head desperately.
"No, it's better to just keep it. Your husband probably wouldn't want you to go that far, either."
Hong Ye nodded, but for some reason she still had a disappointed expression. The junior martial sister found that side of Hong Ye bewildering, but also felt a little strange, seeing her human side. The Hong Ye she had seen in the past, after all, was like a figure carved out of wood.
Just as Hong Ye had always been distant with the junior martial sister and the other junior sisters, the junior martial sister had likewise not been on good terms with Hong Ye. They had never had a proper personal conversation, nor had they ever trained face to face. The junior martial sister, too, among those who looked down on Hong Ye for being of the Southern Barbarian bloodline, had sneered at her, and since Hong Ye had never properly shown her skills, the junior martial sister had thought she was just a woman who had lucked her way into becoming a direct disciple.
She had even thought that her own talent was superior and that Hong Ye had only risen to that position because she received the Grandmaster's favor.
But after the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, the way she looked at her had changed. There were still elders who looked unfavorably upon a woman of Southern Barbarian origin becoming the direct disciple. However, the disciples who had attended the Dragon Phoenix Gathering with her had directly seen and heard of her achievements, and little by little, they came to acknowledge Hong Ye's skill.
The sight of her flicking away masters who unleashed intense, invisible attacks as if toying with a child, making them miss their marks and subduing them in a single strike—this had made a definitive impression on the young disciples who had yet to properly venture out into the world.
On top of achieving clear results at the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, the man she was set to marry was also a reasonably outstanding martial artist. The unfavorable glances of the elders could simply be ignored, and so with each passing day, Hong Ye's standing within the sect was rising.
"Anyway, this is the first time I've done something like this, so that was a big help."
Hong Ye said that. At her words of gratitude, the junior martial sister felt awkward and slightly ashamed. It was because old memories had come to mind. When Hong Ye had grown close with Docheol of the Crimson Ring Sect, the junior martial sister had provoked them by talking about a cat sitting on the stove, and there had also been times when she had trusted in her own talent and tried to publicly pick a fight.
[If you had given me a hint, I would have gladly stepped aside. You must have felt stifled because of tactless the junior martial sister and junior brothers.]
Looking back now, it was an embarrassing, idiotic thing to do. The junior martial sister's ears still burned red even now.
But Hong Ye had lightly brushed all of that off and stood firmly in her place. The sight of her standing there so calmly was, to the junior martial sister, like a mirror reflecting her karma, and like a thunderous roar crashing down upon her arrogance.
The junior martial sister called out to Hong Ye.
"Senior Sister Hong Ye."
"What is it?"
The junior martial sister fidgeted with her fingers as she asked.
"Why... why did you ask for my help?"
Hong Ye tilted her head and answered again.
"Because your face is pretty, and I thought you'd have a lot of relationship experience."
The junior martial sister asked.
"...Am I not the rotten junior sister who defied you and tried to humiliate you? Did you not think I would intentionally give strange advice to harm you?"
Hong Ye gave a faint smile at the junior martial sister's words. When she, who never changed her expression in front of others, smiled, the junior martial sister's eyes went wide and she froze. Hong Ye spoke.
"I used to hate this sect. I hated so deeply the ones who looked down on me as petty and lowly because I was of the Southern Barbarian bloodline."
The junior martial sister felt a sharp prickling in her chest. Clutching the hem of her skirt tightly, she even trembled in fear of what resentful words Hong Ye might spit out. It was a strange thing. She had once vowed to make sure Hong Ye would come to hate her, but now that the moment of true feelings had arrived, her body began to shake.
"I resented the martial arts that never improved no matter how anxious I grew, and I hated the Grandmaster who took me in as his adopted daughter."
But there was no shadow on Hong Ye's face. Smiling even brighter than before, she continued.
"One day, I even went to the Grandmaster directly and asked. 'Why did you bring me into the sect?' 'Why did you take me, of Southern Barbarian blood, as your child and teach me martial arts?'"
"So, what did the Grandmaster say?"
Hong Ye spread her legs. Bending her waist, she moved her hands forward as if wading through water, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. The flow of qi that had been circulating in the air shifted along her hands, forming the rippling pattern of the Taiji and achieving harmony.
The junior martial sister stood rooted to the spot, watching the spectacle. The faintly visible Taiji pattern subsided again as Hong Ye relaxed her stance.
"Four Ounces Deflects a Thousand Pounds."
The junior martial sister looked at Hong Ye with a bewildered expression. Hong Ye shrugged and said this.
"My reaction was the same when I first heard it. But now...."
Hong Ye looked at the junior martial sister, who stood facing her, for a long while with a serious face. The junior martial sister, who used to go around with an expression like a stray cat, was now, before she knew it, wearing the face of a dignified martial artist.
"...Now, I can somewhat understand what the Grandmaster said."
"...Four Ounces Deflects a Thousand Pounds."
The junior martial sister muttered the words Hong Ye had left behind, still with a bewildered face. Hong Ye turned around and walked away.
The sun was bright.
Gazing at the sun, the junior martial sister once again repeated the Taijiquan forms alone and muttered.
"Four Ounces Deflects a Thousand Pounds."
What it meant, she still could not understand.