Zhan Zhao Adventures - Chapter Four (Part V)

Chapter Four: Partridge Sky (Part V)

The firelight within the dilapidated temple grew even more dim and bleak.

 

Young Master Huo beneath the firelight seemed to have already forgotten the matter of being angry just now. This was only because he too still could not figure out what exactly was the mysterious aspect of this boy sleeping heavily to the side.

 

Zhan Rifei had already returned to the original topic.

 

Pondering, he said: "We might as well first put down this first and second line. This third line I speak of is precisely this child himself."

 

──"Upon his arm, who cut so many scars? These scars are both new and old, varying in shape, distinctly cut at different times by different people. Who else could bear to inflict such a cruel hand upon such a child?"

 

──"Since he can hear other people’s speech, yet cannot speak, he is obviously not a mute since birth. His muteness, how was it obtained, or who harmed him into it?"

 

──"When we came from that edge of the woods to this temple, did you ever smell what kind of fragrance was upon his body, following us all along this way?"

 

Young Master Huo nodded his head. His nose had always been very sharp: "Correct, there is a kind of faint fragrance of herbal medicine. This fragrance was already there within that inn, only right now the scent is even fainter than yesterday’s. If I guess correctly, it should come from the breath upon this child's body."

 

──"Only what of this fragrance? It cannot be taken as medicine to eat either!"

 

A single sentence reminded Zhan Rifei. Within his eyes, there was already a flash of starlight. His pale face actually shrouded over with a layer of brightness for a time, making people dare not look straight at it, and within his always calm voice, there was actually a trace of being unable to hold back.

 

"Correct. In truth, these three lines, if spoken plainly, are probably one single line. I have been neglecting one person all along, and this person is mostly the key to connecting these three lines!"

 

Young Master Huo said: "Who is this person you speak of?"

 

Zhan Rifei said word by word: "This person is precisely Ge Yunfei!"

 

Young Master Huo said in wonder: "Has Ge Yunfei not already died?"

 

Zhan Rifei said meaningfully: "Only sometimes, dead people can speak too."

 

Young Master Huo stared at him with his mouth open, as if suddenly discovering how this gentle and calm person in black before him had suddenly begun to talk in his sleep. His curiosity rose abruptly: "Then this dead man, what exactly did he say to you?"

 

Zhan Rifei gave a faint smile: "Before his death, he indeed once hinted at that secret of Xingyun Villa."

 

Young Master Huo was even more in a fog: "He? When did he hint at that secret? I was right by his side at that time, how come I didn't see it?"

 

Zhan Rifei said: "Ge Yunfei's actions near death were very strange. ──Brother Huo, do you still remember what he was doing before he died?"

 

Young Master Huo's face turned slightly red in the dark, saying as if out of spite: "Was he not trying to kill this child? What kind of strange action was that then?! If it were not that the Tang Clan's poison broke out fast, and I also arrived by his side in time, this child would probably have long become a ghost beneath his blade!"

 

The smile by the corners of Zhan Rifei's mouth grew even deeper. He asked Young Master Huo a strange question, which was, however, a question Young Master Huo could not answer for a moment.

 

"If he wished to harm this child, after he stabbed and wounded this child, why did he not immediately stab a second blade cut, but instead pulled him toward himself?"

 

Young Master Huo gave a start.

 

Everything that happened yesterday within the inn upon Small Hammer Mountain seemed to still be before his eyes.

 

──Blood splashing in all directions.

 

──The pain upon that boy's lean, freckle-covered face. The pain of being wounded. The pain of being mute and unable to speak. The pain of helplessness.

 

──He himself leaped forward in order not to allow Ge Yunfei to stab the second blade cut.

 

──But he himself ultimately did not see that expected second blade cut either!

 

Within his impression, he only remembered Ge Yunfei's coarse, dirt-stained large hand that gripped deathly tight onto the boy's incessantly bleeding arm.

 

──His eyes that were opened round and wide before death.

 

──His hand that deathly refused to let go.

 

──His head that drooped upon the boy's arm.

 

Could it be, could it be──

 

Young Master Huo looked at Zhan Rifei in disbelief: "Could it be that the hint of Ge Yunfei you speak of is precisely this child?"

 

──"The treasure the Tang Clan killed so many people in succession to find is actually this child?"

 

──"What the various people of Xingyun Villa risked their lives to escort is also precisely this child?"

 

──"What the Cold Water Matriarch of the Cold Water Palace thinks of day and night is still precisely this child?"

 

Zhan Rifei smiled, slowly standing up his body. Gazing at the boundless night curtain filtering through the ruined window of the broken temple, he said softly yet firmly: "Correct. That treasure the Tang Clan and Xingyun Villa want is actually this child; it is only that besides Ge Yunfei, they do not know it, that's all. The people of the Cold Water Palace, however, know everything about this extremely clearly."

 

Young Master Huo suddenly felt ridiculous at his and the other's wild imagination: "This child is both weak and mute, possessing nothing miraculous, only his body carries a bit of medicine fragrance, that's all. Even if what you say is correct, since he is the treasure that the Tang Clan and Xingyun Villa are determined to obtain, then why did Ge Yunfei still stab to kill him before he died?"

 

──"Could it be he knew that since Xingyun Villa could no longer obtain him, he would thus not let the Tang Clan obtain him either?"

 

Zhan Rifei turned back with a smile, saying word by word: "Only because Ge Yunfei already knew this true secret is precisely this child. His stabbing to wound this child before his death was not to kill him, but to save his own life!"

 

──"He stabbed to wound his arm, just like other people who once harmed this child, it was for the sake of sucking and drinking the fresh blood upon his arm."

 

──"An ordinary man carries no guilt, but treasuring a jade brings guilt. Only because this child is precisely that Changhong Jade of the Cold Water Palace!”

 

──"As ancient legends pass down, for a hundred years the Cold Water Palace has treasured a rare treasure, the Changhong Jade, which produces fragrance when near water, and is nourished with 'Green-Flame Three-Lifetimes Water,' never shown to people."

 

──"The rarity of this jade lies in that among the poisons of the world, there is no poison it cannot dissolve. I am afraid no one expected that this Changhong Jade is actually a person, rather than a piece of jade!"

[Note] Zhang Dai of the Ming Dynasty recorded in Night Ferry regarding the Changhong transformed blood jade: "The Changhong Tomb is in Yanshi. Hong was a virtuous minister of King Ling of Zhou, killed without guilt. Stored his blood, which after three years transformed into green jade."