Ballad of Ten Thousand Gu

II

In this chapter, Yue Chi and the narrator enters Su Bai’s dream to go back into her past.

[Part II]

I sat before the desk, and slowly recounted to Yue Chi my only meeting with Su Bai.

Yue Chi sat facing me, his expression as stoic as a still lake. Only when he heard me describe her sorrowful cries at the base of the city tower did he suddenly recoil.

Later, I said to him, ‘I once wove a dream for her. If you really wish to find her, I can bestow you her dream. I will transform it into her past, and we can search for her from the memories. Perhaps we will be able to find her then.’

‘What do you want?’ He lifted his head and asked.

I thought for a moment, and as there was nothing I wanted, I only asked him, ‘Did you ever love her?’

His eyes cast downwards, shielding the emotions within his gaze. A long moment passed before he finally answered, ‘From when she vanished three years ago, I have been searching for her. Ah Lai told me that she fled because she did not wish to obey my orders, and that she hated me, to the extent that she would rather die than to see me once again.’

‘Except,’ he paused. His voice remained emotionless, yet it now carried a trace of surety, ‘I do not believe.’

‘What basis do you have to not believe?’ Without reason, I was struck with anger by his confidence, and could not help but continue in a huff, ‘If my master were a man like you, I would definitely run as far as I can, and choose death over you.’

‘You are different from her.’ Hearing my words, the corners of his mouth lifted in a faint smile. ‘In my world, she is the only person who exists. I watched her grow up, and I have done so for over ten years. In this world, there is no other person who better understands her than myself. She loves me. Even if she died, she would also choose to die by my side.’

He spoke without a hint of uncertainty. Fuming, I gritted by teeth, silently indignant for Su Bai. But I endured it, only rolling my eyes as I said, ‘Tonight, we enter her dream.’

‘Alright.’ He nodded without hesitation.

That night, I made the arrangements and then asked Yue Chi to bring that woman who accompanied him – his most powerful gu, Jue Sha, to keep guard outside the door.

Following that, I made him lie down, and wove a red thread around his entire body, before twining the other end of the thread around myself. Later, the both of us slept on a bamboo couch and closed our eyes.

Not long after, I saw a bright light ahead, and walked towards it, only to see that Yue Chi had long been standing there awaiting my arrival. As I neared him, the place dissolved into a battlefield and I was immediately besieged with the battle cries of soldiers and the furious whines of war horses from all directions.

Frightened, I shivered and hurriedly asked Yue Chi, ‘Where is this?’

Yue Chi did not speak, his gaze intent upon a distance.

I followed his gaze and looked over, only to see Su Bai.

That was the last day I had seen her – at the base of the city tower, crying as she hugged the body of the young General.

Her sobs were unrelenting, and silently, Yue Chi and I drew near. Within this dream, the both of us were like spirits. Others could not see us and we could not touch them.

Yue Chi and I stood next to the two of them, and we soon heard the young General say to Su Bai, ‘Young Lady Su, we, all along… all along, we’ve been searching for you. That conniving Prime Minister hated General Su… wanted… wanted to kill you. But the remaining Generals of the Su family, in this battle… all were killed…’

Su Bai stood there, stupefied. In that instant, a rush of arrows pierced through the skies and Su Bai violently reacted, swiftly releasing the venomous gu insects from her hands, allowing them to block the onslaught of arrows.

Holding the young General’s body tight within her arms, she rolled across the grounds before leaping onto the back of her massive snake, rapidly navigating the snake across the field as they fled.

The speed with which she accomplished all these was immensely quick, and if it were not for Yue Chi who held onto me in a dead grip as we chased after her, she would have long disappeared into the crowd right before our very eyes.

She fled without pausing the entire way, and finally managed to evade the pursuing troops at the hilltop. As she panted for breath, not even a moment had passed when a couple of horse-riders suddenly appeared from the sides. The newcomers were all dressed in clothes of Southern Zhao.

Su Bai looked at them, before she asked furiously in between her rapid breathing, ‘Why did you not come to my aid earlier?’

‘The battle is about to be over.’ Was the incomprehensible reply from the other party.

Su Bai froze, just as she heard him continue, ‘Will a Han person like you really help Southern Zhao? Princess Ah Lai has already told us – you only wish to seduce the Gu Master, so that you can completely annihilate Southern Zhao in the future.’

His words having fallen, he took out his knife, slowly walking towards her.

Yet Su Bai smiled. Her smile was faint even as her fingers tightened around the young General’s ice-cold body, knuckles whitening. ‘So this is what you actually think?’

She began to laugh. ‘I risked my life for Southern Zhao, killed my countrymen for Southern Zhao, but in the end, this is what you truly think of me?’

Finally, she released the gu insects from within her sleeves and used her great python to open a path for them, swiftly fighting her way out of the encirclement. A sleet of arrows rained in her direction, and her exposed back was a marked target pierced with arrows. Even as she violently spat out a mouthful of blood, her grip on the snake’s body remained unrelenting, while her other arm tightened around a corpse.

Pressing her face close towards that dead person, she said, ‘Su San, I don’t believe what you’ve said.’

‘Su San, even if I can never return to Great Yue, even if the common folk of Southern Zhao believe me to be a spy – I still have a home.’

‘Su San, my Master once said to me, he will give me a home. I believe him.’

As she said these words, her tears began to land on Su San’s ashen face, mingling with the blood on his cheeks as they slid down his face.

I could not help but glance at Yue Chi who stood by my side.

I asked him, ‘What were you doing then?’

He did not reply, only dragging me along as we followed closely behind Su Bai.

The moon which hung in the sky was bright, its glow illuminating the grounds, allowing me to see with clarity Yue Chi’s eyes, which remained as lifeless as the stagnant waters of an abandoned well, devoid of a hint of emotion.