The Wolf and the Lily of the Valley

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ruyi had been folding the sleeves of his grey cotton uniform in two folds all morning. The size of his uniform was too huge for his petite frame that he looked like a scare crow in baggy sack clothes in the middle of a dry field. He went over to Chen Xiao's room this morning to ask about where he could get his uniform altered, but Chen Xiao was not there. One of the students whom he came across with on his way to the master's study said that Chen Xiao got up early for his private lessons with a reputable scholar outside of town and will be away for a couple of days. Fortunately, the student was studying to become a tailor, and was kind enough to lend his sewing kit to Ruyi. And so, he continued trudging the lonely corridor to the master's study with a sewing kit in his arms. The directions given to him by the head student before he left the headquarters was straightforward, and it was true, the Lone Wolf's private study was in the most secluded part of the school. The corridor was wide but there was nothing in there except walls that seemed never-ending and an open garden with green in abundance. Although he's bragged about his experience as a village doctor's apprentice, Ruyi had little to close to nothing direct encounter with sick patients. Nevertheless, his average knowledge about plants easily made him recognize the open garden to his right to be of substantial purpose. There were plants he immediately perceived to be for treating poison and even near-death illnesses, plants that only in the books he thought existed.

The spectacle the garden brought to his curious mind proved his pre-conceived judgement of this forlorn place wrong, that all he could think of was jump right into the stacks of healthy soil, feel the softness and pureness of earth on the soles of his feet, breathe the freshness those exotic plants generate, and soak in the tepid sunshine in the early morning of fall. But then, the daydreaming that was meant to make him feel better, was intervened by another vision of ethereal beauty that Ruyi thought was an apparition brought about by the intoxicating view of the garden.

Sitting peacefully at the centre of the garden, where heaps of leaves standing tall like those of the wings of an albatross that extend beyond the roofs of Wu Xing, was a magnificent beast, immaculate white—reflecting all the rays of sunlight that could get through the baldachin of thick shrubs and trees, and the unique enclosed architectural structure of the south wing with walls impenetrable and securing—and the size twice that of a normal beast of its kind. Ruyi felt his heart lurched out of his chest watching it sleeping peacefully, as though the little voice in his head was telling him to keep his footsteps as gentle as possible. It was a sight to behold—one if its kind, he thought. Then, the most exciting part happened when the beast woke up from its deep sleep, and its pair of ruby red eyes met with his stupefied ones. All he could do was admire its sublime presence and get lost in those pair of spellbinding eyes. There was something in those eyes though that Ruyi could not explain; despite its docile appearance, those eyes were expressing a foreboding story of what is yet to come, and which sent chills to his spine. The wolf sat there calmly, watched him walked his way to the only door there was.

"Are you by any chance the peculiar Ruyi from Chongmin?" a man just came out of the door. He did not appear brooding like the wolf. Instead, the man was in possession of an amiable appearance as one could easily tell from his smile.

"Yes, I am," he answered with a last look at the beast.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Extraordinary!" Ruyi answered.

"You have to be careful when you're around her. She's a vicious warrior," said the man.

"Undoubtedly."

"I believe the Lone Wolf is waiting for you." He stepped aside so Ruyi could enter the door.

"Thank you."