Chapter 122: Extra Four: Storming the Gate 3

'…' Young Master Qin said, feigning indifference: 'That I wouldn't know. Nor can I say how hard the servant who handled it struck him. But he was an old hand of the household, after all, and I never meant to do him any real harm. If he nursed a silent grudge against me, too afraid to speak it aloud, well, there's nothing I can do about that.'

Listening to all this from the side, Lan Sizhui could hold his tongue no longer. 'Young Master Qin, this… this is so far from what you told us at the start. When the two seniors asked you to speak plainly, why did you conceal so much?'

Young Master Qin said, 'I thought a Paper Talisman and a treasured sword would be enough to restore peace to my house. How was I to know I'd have to dredge up all this stale, moldering old grain?'

Wei Wuxian's tone rose and fell like a tide. 'No, no, no, this is hardly stale, moldering old grain. The situation is gravely serious, Young Master Qin. Think about it. In life you cursed this man, you struck him, perhaps you even broke his leg. If he truly never took the jade pendant to sell, then he died bearing an injustice, and who else would he come for but you?'

Young Master Qin said at once, 'I didn't kill him! And he didn't kill himself! Why come for me?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Oh? How do you know it wasn't suicide? Perhaps in a fit of rage he truly did take his own life, only it was taken for an accident. That would be worse still.'

Young Master Qin said, 'A grown man, kill himself over a trifle like that?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Young Master Qin, in our line of work the surest mistake is to assume. Every man's heart and bearing differ. Whether a grown man might be driven to suicide over a so-called trifle, that's anyone's guess. You must understand, the cause of a corpse turning may be the hatred of a stolen wife or the vengeance of a slain son, or it may be some petty nothing, like one child not letting another play in the mud when they were small.'

Young Master Qin held stubbornly firm. 'It absolutely was not suicide. A man who means to die can hang himself or take poison. Who would choose to do it by rolling down a hillside? You can't even be sure you'll succeed. It absolutely was not suicide.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'You have a point there. But Young Master Qin, has it occurred to you, what if it was precisely because you'd broken his leg that he could no longer walk steadily, and so rolled down the slope to his death? If that's the case, then rounding up, it amounts to your having killed him. Wouldn't that be worse still?'

Young Master Qin said, vexed, 'What do you mean, rounding up it amounts to my having killed him? If that's the case, then it was an accident!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'You're sure you want to convince a man who died so wretchedly that his death was merely an accident? Since he's come back, the meaning is plain enough, someone has to answer for this accident.'

For every word Young Master Qin spoke, Wei Wuxian had one to stop it cold, until Qin broke into a faint sweat and his face went iron-gray. Wei Wuxian went on, 'Still, no need to despair just yet. I'll give you one last secret for saving your life. Now, do exactly as I say.'

Young Master Qin said, 'As you say what?'

One glance at Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji knew he was about to spin some nonsense, and shook his head.

Wei Wuxian said, 'Listen well. The courtyard gate and the hall door, already broken open, must be thrown wide and kept clear, unobstructed. Closing them won't keep that thing out anyway.'

Young Master Qin said, 'Good!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Clear out everyone else in the house, all the idle hangers-on. Mind you don't harm the innocent.'

Young Master Qin said, 'They've all but cleared out already!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Good. Then find a boy brimming with yang vitality, and at the stroke of midnight set him on a long bench laid crosswise before your bedchamber to stand guard, meeting each foe as it comes, soldiers blocked by generals, floods stopped with earth.'

'That's all?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'That is all there is to it. The boy is already in place. As for the rest, Young Master Qin need pay it no mind at all, and may simply wait in Anxin until the dawn.'

He meant Lan Sizhui. At that last line Young Master Qin's mouth twitched, and he swept a glance over the gentle, delicate-looking youth. 'He guards outside the door. And the two of you?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Inside the door, of course, keeping you company, Young Master Qin. Should the guard outside fail and the Fierce Corpse break through, we'll think of something then.'

Young Master Qin truly could bear it no longer. 'Couldn't this gentleman simply guard the outer door for me directly?'

He meant Lan Wangji.

At which Wei Wuxian was struck dumb. 'You mean who? Him?'

He nearly collapsed laughing. 'Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!'

Lan Wangji caught Wei Wuxian by the shoulders, the only thing that kept him from truly toppling to the floor, and said, 'No.'

Refused so cleanly and without ceremony, Young Master Qin was rather put out. 'Why not?'

Wei Wuxian said gravely, 'Have you forgotten what I just said? It must be a boy.'

'…' Young Master Qin didn't believe it. 'What, you mean he isn't?!'

Long after Lan Sizhui had seen Young Master Qin out of the Little Bamboo Pavilion, Wei Wuxian was still clutching his sides, unable to stop.

Lan Wangji looked at him, then all at once hauled Wei Wuxian over and pressed him down across his lap, saying in a level voice, 'Laughed enough yet?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'No!'

Sitting on Lan Wangji's lap, he said, 'Hanguang-Jun, that face of yours is a real liar. Everyone takes you for some pure-hearted, desireless soul, clear as wind and bright as the moon after rain, chaste as untouched jade. I feel terribly wronged.'

Lan Wangji gave him a lift, settling Wei Wuxian higher up so the two of them sat closer, and said, 'Wronged?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It's an outrage, plain and simple. Look at you, clearly no boy anymore, yet others take one look at that face and pronounce you so without rhyme or reason. In my last life I never touched a girl's hand except to save someone, and not one soul believed I was still a boy.' He counted them off, one by one. 'Off to study, off on Night Hunt, and everyone whispered I dallied among the flowers. Up to the Burial Mounds, and everyone whispered I was a debauched fiend laying the world to waste. Truly, bitterness with no way to speak it, injustice with nowhere to lodge a complaint.'

Without a flicker on his face, Lan Wangji covered one of Wei Wuxian's hands and held it fast, and at the bottom of his eyes a barely perceptible ripple of laughter spread.

Wei Wuxian said, 'Still laughing — you truly have not an ounce of pity in you, a cold and merciless man. I ranked fourth, after all, on the roll of noble young masters, and yet in that whole lifetime I was kissed but once. All the while I imagined some beautiful Fairy had quietly given her heart to me, and thought that I, Wei Ying, had not lived in vain — only to learn it was you all along...'

Hearing this, Lan Wangji could finally sit still no longer.

He pressed Wei Wuxian down onto the couch and said, 'Was it so wrong that it was me?'

'What are you so flustered about, hahahahahahahaha…'

When the hour came, Lan Sizhui stood in the courtyard leading Little Apple, and waited a good while before Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji at last came ambling out of the room.

He had meant to offer a word of reminder, Senior Wei, you've put on Hanguang-Jun's robes by mistake again, but on second thought he silently swallowed it back.

After all, every two or three days the mix-up happened again, and to point it out each and every time would surely wear a man to death.

Besides, every time Senior Wei would find it too much trouble and simply make do with what he had on, so a reminder seemed pointless. Better to pretend he hadn't noticed.

Wei Wuxian swung up onto Little Apple, fished an apple out of his pack, and took a crisp bite. Looking at that apple, Lan Sizhui couldn't shake the sense that it seemed familiar, and after a moment's hesitation he said, 'Senior Wei, isn't that the fruit Young Master Qin brought?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'It is.'

Lan Sizhui said, '…The fruit the Fierce Corpse brought?'

Wei Wuxian: 'Precisely.'

Lan Sizhui: 'Is it all right to eat that?'

Wei Wuxian: 'Perfectly all right. It only fell on the ground. Wash it and it's fine to eat.'

Lan Sizhui: 'A Fierce Corpse's apple, won't it be poisoned…'

Wei Wuxian: 'That question I can answer for you: no.'

Lan Sizhui: 'How does Senior know?'

Wei Wuxian: 'Because I've already fed five or six to Little Apple… Little Apple, hold your hooves! Don't kick out! Lan Zhan, save me!!!'

With one hand Lan Wangji seized the reins of the furious Little Apple, and with the other he took the apple from beside Wei Wuxian's mouth. 'Stop eating it. We'll buy more tomorrow.'

Bracing himself on Lan Wangji's shoulder, Wei Wuxian managed to settle steady again. 'I was only trying to save Hanguang-Jun a little money.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Never need to.'

Wei Wuxian scratched lightly at Lan Wangji's jaw, his eyes crinkling. Then, as if something had just come to him, he asked offhandedly, 'Oh, that reminds me, Sizhui, are you a boy?'

He asked it with the utmost ease, yet Lan Sizhui at once sputtered and choked.

It was hardly the way of the Gusu Lan Clan, and the moment Lan Sizhui felt Lan Wangji's glance fall on him he hurriedly composed his bearing. Wei Wuxian said, 'Don't be nervous. What I told that Young Master Qin earlier was all spoken at random. Sometimes a rite truly does require a boy, but since you cut down the Fierce Corpse with a sword, whether you're a boy makes no difference at all. Though if you weren't, I'd be quite astonished…'

Before the words had even fallen, Lan Sizhui, ears and face crimson, blurted, 'I-I-I-I am, of course I am!!!'

In the dead of night, the empty Qin Manor stood with its gates flung wide as promised, and Young Master Qin had been waiting a long while.

Lan Sizhui took up his post before Young Master Qin's door, without helm or armor, yet looking remarkably steady and dependable. Seeing that the youth still carried something of a newborn calf's spirit, Young Master Qin's brows unknit a little, but in the end he wasn't easy. Once inside the bedchamber he shut the door, turned, and said, 'Is it truly all right to let this young gentleman guard the door? If the warding fails, my household will only have one more death on its hands…'

The two were already seated calmly at the table. Wei Wuxian said, 'There'll be no death. Young Master Qin, count up the days this Fierce Corpse has been raising trouble. Has there been a single death in your manor?'

Young Master Qin came and sat as well. Wei Wuxian set one of the Fierce Corpse's pears on the table. 'Eat some fruit, calm your nerves.'

Days of strain had left Young Master Qin somewhat dazed, and he picked it up and brought it toward his mouth, just about to speak, when a strange sound came, thud thud, thud thud.

In an instant a chill, dank current seemed to wind into the room, and the candle flame on the table flickered and trembled.

The pear dropped from Young Master Qin's hand and rolled away, and his right hand went back to the hilt at his waist.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The strange sound grew louder, and nearer. With each strike the candle flame shuddered, as if in fear.

From beyond the door came the bright clear ring of a long sword leaving its sheath, a faint dark shadow swept across the paper window, and in an instant the strange sound vanished, replaced by the sounds of leaping and lunging through the air, and the great crash of splintering woodwork.

Young Master Qin's face went green. 'What's happening out there?!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Just a fight breaking out. Pay it no mind.'

Lan Wangji listened a moment, then said, 'Too much.'

Wei Wuxian understood. What he meant was that, from the rush of the blade and the cadence of the steps, Lan Sizhui's sword came fast and fierce but lacked composure and weight. The force was strong enough, but it ran counter to the guiding spirit of Gusu Lan Swordsmanship. If essence, breath, and spirit could not be unified, or the style grew muddled, then at the higher reaches of cultivation there might come a divergence, and progress would prove hard to come by.

He said, 'It's good enough already. Sizhui's still young, he can't quite rein in his strikes. When he's grown a bit, when he's sparred with more people, he'll understand.'

Lan Wangji shook his head, listened a moment more, then suddenly looked toward Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian, too, was a little surprised. He had caught it as well, just now a few of Lan Sizhui's strokes were not Gusu Lan Swordsmanship at all, but the swordwork of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan.

But he had never taught that to the younger generation of the Gusu Lan Clan, and he ventured a guess. 'Sizhui and the others often go out on Night Hunt together with Jin Ling. He probably picked it up without meaning to while they sparred.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Not proper.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'So you'll punish him when you get back?'

Lan Wangji said, 'Punish.'

Young Master Qin said, 'What are you two talking about?'

Wei Wuxian picked the pear up off the floor and set it back beside Qin's hand. 'Nothing. Eat something, calm your nerves, don't be so tense.' Then he smiled at Lan Wangji. 'But, Hanguang-Jun, you're really something. That I can tell it's Yunmeng swordwork, well, fine. But how can you tell?'

There seemed to be a small catch before Lan Wangji said, 'We've crossed blades several times. I simply remembered.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'That's exactly why I say you're something. I only crossed blades with you using Yunmeng Jiang Clan swordwork those few times, what, more than ten years ago? And you remembered even that, caught it the moment you heard it. If that isn't something, what is?'

As he spoke he pushed the candle toward Lan Wangji's side, wanting to see whether his earlobes had gone red, but Lan Wangji saw through his wicked design, laid all five fingers firmly over the hand Wei Wuxian had on the candlestand, and pushed it back to him. In the candle's coming and going the flame swayed as if drunk, lighting Wei Wuxian's pair of eyes brimming with laughter and the upward curve of his lips, and at the sight Lan Wangji's throat stirred faintly.

At that very moment both men gave a start, and Wei Wuxian let out a soft 'Hm?' Young Master Qin braced as if for battle. 'What is it? Is there something wrong with this candle?'

After a wordless pause, Wei Wuxian said, 'No, this candle's very fine. A little brighter and it'd be finer still.'

He said to Lan Wangji, 'Those last few strokes Sizhui did were the prettiest of all. But they don't sound like your clan's swordwork, nor mine.'

After a moment, Lan Wangji knit his brows. 'Perhaps it's the Wen clan's.'

Wei Wuxian saw it at once. 'Most likely Wen Ning taught him. That's fine too.'

As they spoke, the great crashes outside went on without pause, clang upon clang, the commotion mounting, and Young Master Qin's face grew greener still. Even Wei Wuxian felt it was getting out of hand, and called out, 'Sizhui, we've said more than ten lines in here. Even if you were tearing the house down, you should've finished by now.'

From outside Lan Sizhui answered, 'Senior Wei, this Fierce Corpse dodges extremely fast, and what's more, it keeps avoiding me!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Is it afraid of you?'

Lan Sizhui said, 'No, it can fight, but it seems it doesn't want to fight me!'

Wei Wuxian said, marveling, 'It doesn't want to hurt someone uninvolved?'

He said to Lan Wangji, 'Now that's interesting. It's been a long time since I saw a Fierce Corpse this reasonable.'

Young Master Qin said fretfully, 'Can he do it or not? Why hasn't he brought it down yet?'

Before Wei Wuxian could open his mouth, Lan Sizhui spoke again. 'Hanguang-Jun, Senior Wei, this Fierce Corpse's left hand is a claw, but its right hand is a fist, as if it's clutching something!'

At this, inside the room Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji exchanged a glance. Wei Wuxian gave a slight nod, and Lan Wangji said, 'Sizhui, sheathe your sword.'

Lan Sizhui said, startled, 'Hanguang-Jun? That thing in its hand, I haven't yet—'

Wei Wuxian rose to his feet. 'It's all right! Sheathe your sword, there's no need to fight anymore.'

Young Master Qin said, 'No need to fight anymore?'

Beyond the door Lan Sizhui said, 'Yes!' and sure enough, with a ringing note, sheathed his sword and leapt clear. Within the room, Young Master Qin said, 'What's the meaning of this? That thing is still outside, it hasn't left!'

Wei Wuxian got up. 'No need to fight anymore, because the matter's all but settled. Only one last step remains.'

Young Master Qin said, 'Which step?'

Wei Wuxian kicked the door open. 'This step of mine!'

The two wooden doors flew apart with a bang, and a black, murky figure stood stiff before the threshold, hair hanging loose and wild, face caked with filth, only a pair of upturned, all-white pupils savagely vivid.

At the sight of that face Young Master Qin's color changed utterly, and even as he drew his sword and recoiled in haste, the Fierce Corpse swept in like a gust of black wind, its left hand closing around his throat.

Lan Sizhui stepped in from the doorway, alarmed at the sight, and was about to rush to the rescue when Wei Wuxian held him back. Lan Sizhui thought to himself that this Young Master Qin, hard-natured and unlikable as he was, certainly hadn't done anything to warrant death, and surely the two seniors would never stand idly by and watch the Fierce Corpse kill him, and so he steadied himself a little.

The dead servant's five fingers were like an iron hoop. Young Master Qin's face went purple and swollen under their grip, the veins standing out, and the sword that had long since bored who knew how many holes in the Fierce Corpse drew no more response than if it had been thrust into a sheet of white paper.

The Fierce Corpse slowly raised its right fist and moved it toward Young Master Qin's face, as if it would smash him into a bright burst of colors, brains scattered. The other three in the room kept their eyes fixed on the scene, and Lan Sizhui in particular could scarcely hold back the hand on his sword.

Just as he thought Young Master Qin's head would burst the next instant, the Fierce Corpse's five right-hand fingers loosened, and from between them slid a flat, round object.

A black cord was joined to the object's end, and the Fierce Corpse moved to loop it around Young Master Qin's neck.

Young Master Qin: '…'

Lan Sizhui: '…'

It took three tries to barely get it over Young Master Qin's head. The whole laborious motion was so clumsy and stiff that it was, frankly, very hard to feel threatened by.

Seeing that it neither moved to kill nor seemed about to strangle Young Master Qin with that thin cord, the two let out a breath in the same instant.

But before that breath had fully left them, the Fierce Corpse landed another blow, swift as a thunderclap that leaves no time to cover the ears, heavy and vicious, and Young Master Qin cried out as blood streamed from his nose and mouth and he crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.

Having struck the man down, the Fierce Corpse turned, as if it would leave at that. Lan Sizhui, watching agape, set his hand back on his hilt at the sight, but somehow the whole situation felt absurd, and being too earnest about it seemed more absurd still, so he honestly didn't know whether he ought to act. Wei Wuxian, however, was already half-dead with laughter, and waved Lan Sizhui off. 'Leave it be, let it go.'

The Fierce Corpse turned its head and glanced at him, gave a nod, and then, dragging one broken leg, limping and hobbling, went bounding and hopping out the door.

Watching its figure flee for dear life, Lan Sizhui stood dazed a moment before he said, 'Senior Wei, this… is it really all right to just let it go like that?'

Lan Wangji bent to examine Young Master Qin, his face all over blood, and said, 'It is.'

Lan Sizhui's gaze returned to Young Master Qin, and only now did he have the presence of mind to look closely at the thing hanging from his neck, and it turned out to be a jade pendant.

The red cord that held the pendant seemed to have tumbled in the earth for years, filthy beyond words, so that it looked black, though the jade itself was still a smooth, lustrous white.

'This is…'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Returned to its rightful owner.'

Once Lan Wangji had confirmed that Young Master Qin was merely unconscious and in no danger of his life, the two of them took Lan Sizhui and left Qin Manor.

Before going, Wei Wuxian thoughtfully helped Young Master Qin close all three doors.

Lan Sizhui said, 'It wasn't easy.'

Wei Wuxian vaulted onto Little Apple. 'What? You mean Young Master Qin? One punch from that Fierce Corpse and the whole affair was settled. That was easy enough, surely!'

Lan Sizhui said, 'I do not mean Young Master Qin; I mean that Fierce Corpse. In the records I have studied, the grievances of a vengeful Fierce Ghost or Fierce Corpse were often grudges sown in life over no more than a measure of rice, and after death they came demanding lives, raging as if gone mad in their haunting. Yet this Fierce Corpse...'

Standing before the great door clawed beyond recognition, Lan Sizhui looked back one last time, still finding it a little incredible. 'For the two years after it turned, it was up in the mountains looking for a jade pendant it had lost in life. It's the first time I've seen a corpse turn not to kill and take revenge, but to do something like this.'

Wei Wuxian fished out another apple. 'That's exactly why I said it's been many years since I saw Evil Spirits this reasonable. Had it been one even a little more given to grudges, at the least it'd have taken off one of Young Master Qin's legs, and at the worst it wouldn't be strange for it to slaughter his whole household down to the chickens and dogs.'

Lan Sizhui thought it over. 'Senior, Sizhui still has a doubt unresolved. Its leg, was it really broken by Young Master Qin? Was that why it lost its footing and fell to its death?'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Whether it was or not, the point is it didn't lay that account at Young Master Qin's door itself.'

Lan Sizhui said, 'Mm, and, was one punch truly enough to satisfy it?'

Lan Wangji said, 'By the look of it, yes.'

Wei Wuxian took a loud, crunching bite of his apple. 'It is. As they say, a man fights for one breath, and the dead find no rest because that one breath is lodged in the chest. It threw the fruit, it returned the pendant, it struck the man, that breath was let out, and so it's no longer lodged.'

Lan Sizhui said, 'If only every one of the Evil Spirits were this reasonable.'

At this, Wei Wuxian laughed. 'What foolish talk, child. Even living people, once resentment takes hold, are past all reason, and you expect Evil Spirits to reason with you? You must understand, in this world everyone thinks himself the wronged one.'

Lan Wangji drew in Little Apple's reins and said in a level voice, 'Very lucky.'

Wei Wuxian agreed. 'That it is. This Young Master Qin was truly very lucky.'

After holding it back a good while, Lan Sizhui still couldn't keep it in, and said earnestly, 'Still, I can't help feeling, isn't one punch perhaps a little too few…'

'Hahahahahahahaha…'

Whether he had yet to recover from that one punch the Fierce Corpse had dealt him, or had given up on Wei Wuxian entirely, in the days that followed Young Master Qin never came knocking again.

But seven days later, word of him reached them from within the city.

It was said that one morning, the corpse of a young man in tattered burial clothes was suddenly found by the roadside, half rotted and reeking foully. Just as everyone was debating whether to roll it in a mat and dig a pit somewhere to bury it, this Young Master Qin had a great fit of charity, put up the money to help gather the bones, and gave them a proper, decorous burial, so that for a time he was praised by all.

By the time Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian left that city, they passed Qin Manor, which had long since been fitted with two glossy black, imposing new doors, people coming and going, all trace of the previous days' foul gloom and deserted gates swept away, restored once more to a scene of contentment.