Chapter 53: 47 chapters I have a friend
“What zither are you playing in the middle of the night?”
“I was seeing Ziyu off.”
Zhao Rong choked on a sip of wine.
“Wenruo, is it that once your zither music stops, five hundred axemen will jump out of the water surrounding Lake Heart Pavilion and come in to chop me into mincemeat?”
Lin Wenruo was startled, looked up, smiled slightly, and the zither music continued inside Lake Heart Pavilion, while outside, the night was as dark as ink. “Ziyu is joking,” he said.
“The rain has stopped, and Ziyu, weren’t you planning to leave at dawn?”
...
“That’s your excuse for disturbing people’s sleep in the middle of the night.”
Lin Wenruo looked over at the estate sleeping under the moonlight and sighed. “Qinqchi’s zither music is hardly a disturbance to anyone’s dreams; in the end, wasn’t it only you, Ziyu, who sought it out?”
“Among all these common folk, only you, Ziyu, understand me.”
Zhao Rong, with a serious face, said, “I was up at night to relieve myself, and your zither music made it impossible.”
“…”
Lin Wenruo opened his mouth but did not ask if he had managed. He said irritably, “Then you shouldn’t keep drinking.”
A perfectly refined activity had been vulgarized by this man before him.
Zhao Rong blinked, seeing that he had successfully broke Lin Wenruo’s composure, and suddenly felt less melancholic. He walked over to the zither that had appeared in the pavilion and sat down to play it.
Among the four arts of the Confucian scholar, the zither was foremost, yet Zhao Rong was not proficient in it, knowing only some basic musical scores, finger techniques, and playing techniques. This was mainly because he had previously shown no interest in it, finding it useless for governing and had not studied it seriously.
“It seems Wenruo was waiting specifically for me, knowing I would get up at night to relieve myself.”
Zhao Rong caressed the zither, its ancient cracks indicating its old age, the wood old and thick, its color a subdued black emitting a faint green hue. Touching it felt cool, and with a gentle pluck, it emitted a clear, crisp sound like that of jade striking jade, as ethereal as music from the heavens, carrying a cold, immortal essence. Zhao Rong’s eyes brightened and he exclaimed, “What a fine zither.”
Lin Wenruo looked resigned. “Ziyu, can we stop discussing such vulgar matters?”
“Who said it was vulgar?” Zhao Rong, enamored with the zither’s wonders, even as a novice could sense its uniqueness. Unable to let go, and hearing Lin Wenruo’s words, he casually replied, “The matter of relieving oneself is something even heroes must bow to, and chaste women must loosen their robes for it. I see nothing vulgar about it.”
Lin Wenruo shook his head, smiling, lowered his head, and continued to play his zither, but soon stopped helplessly and looked at the person “causing trouble” beside him.
“Ziyu, can you stop torturing … can you stop playing? I was wrong to have taken this Jade Sound out.”
Zhao Rong’s ‘Mad Demon Zither Technique’ abruptly ceased. He shrugged, picked up the wine jug, leaned back casually against the railing, his right hand holding the jug extended outside the pavilion, and gazed into the distant night.
From here, he could admire the distant majestic mountains; the outline of the wild mountains was clear against the dark sky. Through the anonymous misty mountains, occasional points of light twinkled like pearls dropped by immortals.
Among the many mountains, one tall mountain looked familiar. Upon closer examination, its shape was square and directly facing Zhao Rong, pitch-black with a bright moon hanging above. Zhao Rong realized in a moment of clarity; it was that cliff with carvings, and surely during the day, one could see the words ‘Serenity and Non-Action’ from within the pavilion. He wondered if there might be an ancient-robed elder mumbling to himself beneath the cliff, a solitary hermit on his way.
Zhao Rong raised his right hand, his long sleeve slipping down, and poured out the wine. Sorrow entered his throat.
“Wenruo.”
“Yes?”
Zhao Rong took a sip of wine. “I have a friend, who encountered a vexing issue… He had a childhood sweetheart, the kind that grew up together, who secretly loved him since childhood, but he was unaware and even misunderstood her.”
Zhao Rong paused, seeing that Lin Wenruo was sitting quietly listening, he continued,
“Later, my friend did something very hurtful, which made the childhood sweetheart leave heartbroken. But soon after, my friend came to his senses, cleared up the misunderstanding, and he realized… he actually cared about her too. But she had gone to a faraway place, and even if he traveled thousands of miles to find her, she might not forgive him because… the hurt might have been too deep.”
“Wenruo, what should he do?”
After finishing speaking, Zhao Rong took another drink, quietly watching the listener inside the pavilion.
Brief silence fell in Lake Heart Pavilion.
Lin Wenruo nodded, picked up a Night Light Cup from beside him, gestured to Zhao Rong, who tossed the wine jug over, and Lin Wenruo caught it, filled the cup, and tossed it back.
Lin Wenruo lightly sipped the drink, looking into Zhao Rong’s expectant eyes and slowly said,
“Is this friend you’re talking about actually you?”
Zhao Rong: “…”
The young Confucian Scholar, carrying a wine pot, quickly shook his head.
Lin Wenruo swirled the Night Light Cup. “You need not hide, there is no one else here.”
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Upon hearing this, Zhao Rong sighed and said candidly, “All right, I can’t hide it from you, actually the friend I was talking about is…”
“Su Xiaoxiao!”
He earnestly said, “It’s the person who traveled with me, whom you’ve met. Su Xiaoxiao and I share a close relationship; she always treats me as a kind, caring, handsome confidante, rushing to share everything with me. I am embarrassed to refuse; you know, that’s my flaw. So, I wanted to ask for her, how should she handle this?”
Lin Wenruo’s expression turned dubious as he glanced at the pair of Black and White Jade Tokens hanging at the other man’s waist, then his face settled back into calm, and he slowly said, “Oh, that matter is easy to handle.”
Zhao Rong looked expectant.
Lin Wenruo’s mouth curved into a slight smile. “Don’t go looking for her anymore, why should you demean yourself, humbly running off to see her demeanor? Waiting for her to trample down your dignity?”
At these words, Zhao Rong’s expression darkened and his gaze lowered to the ground, he couldn’t even pay attention to the personal pronouns “you” in Lin Wenruo’s speech.
Seeing Zhao Rong’s expression, Lin Wenruo raised his eyebrows and continued to guide him, “Since it has come to this, don’t bother trying to salvage it, at least this way you can certainly maintain your dignity. After all, you rejected her, you left her, you are the superior one. In the future, you will always stand above, making her look up to you, making her feel inferior and heartache whenever she recalls this incident. Between the two of you, you are the proud winner.”
Zhao Rong’s frown deepened, his lips tightly pressed together as his eyes stared fixedly at the ground, seemingly penetrating the lake beneath the pavilion.
Lin Wenruo stared at the young Confucian Scholar in front of him, who remained silent, and then continued persuasively with a smile, “Ziyu, we men, especially we Confucians, should not lose our spirit, even in matters of love. Though this is a misunderstanding between both sides, you might be regretting it now, but time will erase everything, and thinking of her later would at most bring a slight regret.”
At this point, Lin Wenruo paused, a brief spark in his eyes, but it was quickly extinguished, and he immediately regained his composure, sighing deeply, and said emphatically:
“Ziyu, there are countless women in this world, how can you be so entangled over just one? If you do not resolve this, when you meet other women in the future, won’t it be more troubling? Like me, now having collected several beautiful concubines, um, I’ve even forgotten exactly how many, let it be, if I were like you now, investing my heart into each, wouldn’t I exhaust myself? How then could I support this teetering edifice of Zhongnan Country?”
“We Confucians should focus our energies on serious matters; romance can be a part, but can’t upset the primary order!”
“So tell me, Ziyu, what do you really think? Can you be firmer, please?”
Moonlight poured down like water.
It quietly lay on the lake, pavilion roof, columns, railings, zither, stone slabs, and a Confucian Scholar’s profile.
His face, slightly thinned, under the moon’s silver glow, solidified into a silent marble statue.
The eye not concealed in shadow, dark and indistinct.
His tightly pursed lips were as dark as distant mountains.
A gaze was intensely fixed on him.
Two distinctly black and white Jade Tokens hung quietly at his waist, a hair’s breadth apart, yet motionless, facing each other through the air.
And in the distance, it seemed an elusive maiden was slowly waiting for his answer.
A lacquer wine pot, carved with black patterns, was suspended just beyond the railing, held by a palm bruised from frequent intense practices.
The cold black lacquered surface and the slightly warm skin repelled a great deal of blood.
Five slender fingers, tips wan and pale.
The next second.
The palm opened, no longer gripping tightly.
The wine pot fell, splashing the lake water.
The retreating blood slowly returned.
“Okay,” he said.
His brows slightly relaxed, though he was still somewhat hesitant and reluctant, he had made his decision.
He exhaled lightly.
Looking up, it was like a torrential downpour of starlight.