Ballad of Ten Thousand Gu

[Part III]

Without rest or sleep, Su Bai ran for three days.

Three days later, she buried Su San's body in a place blooming with camellia, before she returned to Southern Zhao, secretly trespassing the palace of the Gu Master.

She had only just entered when she saw Ah Lai who had been keeping watch there.

Ah Lai remained smiling as she often was. She was dressed beautifully in embroidered robes and wore jewellery which jingled as she moved gracefully. She clapped her hands, then exclaimed, 'Ah, Su Bai, you've finally returned?'

Wordlessly, Su Bai stared at her, her eyes as sharp as a hawk's. Yet I saw that her hands trembled, as though she was forcibly suppressing something. Slowly, she asked Ah Lai, 'Why?'

'What, why?' Ah Lai's face was a picture of innocence.

Su Bai continued, 'I will never rebel against Southern Zhao. You know this.'

'I do not.' Ah Lai's expression abruptly cooled. With great derision, she said, 'I have never trusted you Han people, who are as crafty as you are cunning. Especially you, Su Bai, descendent of the Su family, a family who has never in a hundred years produced a traitor towards Great Yue. I am not the only person – no one in Southern Zhao will believe in you. Even if it were Lord Yue Chi, it will be the same.

'You wish to seduce Lord Yue Chi. Of course, we will beat you at your own game and use you in return. From the very beginning, we're all the same kind of people, our hands stained with blood of the innocent – why do you pretend to be otherwise?'

Ah Lai lifted her head arrogantly, her eyes filled with contempt. 'Do you really believe Lord Yue Chi loves you? Since you've fled from the battlefield, how dare you return today? Let me tell you this – Lord Yue Chi is about to give you away!'

'Give... give me to someone else?' Su Bai paled as she said through trembling lips, 'I don't believe... Master will never...'

'Do you still remember your father's archenemy, that conniving Prime Minister of Great Yue?' Ah Lai walked down the steps and drew closer to her. Smiling, she continued, 'He has an extremely powerful gu. With it, Lord Yue Chi will be able to create the 'Jue Sha' gu – the dream gu all Gu Masters wish to create. That Prime Minister is willing to exchange you for it, and Lord Yue Chi has acceded to his request.'

'I don't believe... I don't believe...' Su Bai repeated over and over, before she suddenly shouted, 'Master promised me he would give me a home. He would never lie to me!'

Ah Lai did not reply, her smile complacent. After a long moment, she slowly said, 'If you don't believe me, why don't you ask him that for yourself?'

Ah Lai left.

I saw the ghastly white face of Yue Chi who stood next to me, his body trembling. I had a premonition that something terrible was about to happen, and sure enough, I saw a dispirited Su Bai slowly make her way towards Yue Chi's room, before she knelt on the grounds outside the door.

Her body was still injured from her wounds, but when she knelt, her back remained completely straight, her posture unyielding. The fine rain in the autumn skies of Southern Zhao fell steadily on her back, blood-red flowers blossoming across the grounds as her blood melded with the rainwater which stretched across the compound.

She knelt for a long time, so long that I thought she would perhaps kneel in this manner for all of eternity, when she finally opened her mouth and called the man within the room.

'Master.'

It was already nightfall.

That man's shadow was reflected in the window panes of his room, and she knelt there, her head raised, her eyes unswerving from his reflection. The person within the room did not open the door, continuing to read his book even as he addressed her.