A Prophet - Chapter 21 (Part 5)

Chapter 5 - The Military Statistics Second-in-Command Hunts Down the Fortune-Teller

Just as Grandfather was visiting masters to discuss the Dao and planning the grand strategy, Jiang Feiyan of Lingnan was running herself ragged with busyness. The War of Resistance had ended, and local common people were eager to come knocking on her door to seek divinations the moment Jiang Feiyan returned. Even the people of Hong Kong, separated only by a narrow strait, took boats over to consult the oracle. The title of "Immortal Maiden Huici's chief disciple" was by no means an empty boast: "After Five Mothers comes Sister Yan; the Mother wins the Sister in three parts charm, the Sister beats the old Mother in a single pulse of fragrance."

Some Hong Kong businessmen were no longer coming purely to seek divinations; they were even more eager to catch a glimpse of Jiang Feiyan's exquisite beauty and inhale the delicate fragrance emanating from her person.

One day, Jiang Feiyan was in the middle of receiving a tycoon from Hong Kong when the foot-soldier reported: "Major General Feng has arrived."

Because of his repeated meritorious service in gathering intelligence during the Anti-Japanese War, Feng Siyuan of the Military Statistics Bureau had been promoted to major general.

"Oh my, my great general has arrived..." Jiang Feiyan said with a smile inside the study.

"Sister Yan, please don't say that. The great general is being played right in the palm of your hand by you!" Feng Siyuan replied.

Jiang Feiyan felt that Feng Siyuan's tone was off, but she still smiled and said, "What's this? Could it be someone has made our great general unhappy? Come, let me massage the general's shoulders." As she spoke, she walked over.

Feng Siyuan grabbed Jiang Feiyan's hand and slowly pushed it aside.

"You?" Jiang Feiyan felt that something was even more wrong.

"Am I really that fun to play with?" Feng Siyuan suddenly said.

"What do you mean?" Jiang Feiyan feigned displeasure.

"Haven't had your fill of playing yet?" Feng Siyuan said coldly.

"With the general speaking like this, Feiyan truly doesn't know how to reply!" Jiang Feiyan tried her utmost to maintain composure.

"Good! Good! Very good!" Feng Siyuan let out a cold laugh and suddenly muttered, "The greedy are bound to be impoverished; the gentleman takes this as a great warning, and the Buddhist gate also regards it as the foremost of the five precepts. Thus, as an Abao, the fault lies not in the physiognomy, but in the single unit! It seems Sister Yan truly regards me as a 'Big One'!"

Jiang Feiyan's head buzzed with a loud ringing. What was going on? How did he know everything? Where had a flaw been leaked? Jiang Feiyan's mind raced at lightning speed: "Heh heh, what is the general talking about? Is it some sort of folk ballad?"

"Hahahahaha!" Feng Siyuan suddenly threw his head back and laughed aloud, his laughter filled with boundless sorrow. "Ever since I was twenty-five years old, I, Feng Siyuan, fell in love with a person. She was six years older than me, extremely beautiful, dignified and graceful, both refined and intelligent. She was thoroughly versed in yin and yang, capable of summoning wind and rain. In the eyes of others, she is an immortal being, but in my eyes, she is simply a good woman. She possesses a wife's gentleness and a mother's compassion, and sometimes when she weeps, she has the pitiful charm of a young daughter. Every time, lying in her embrace, I am able to forget the conspiracies and struggles of reality, able to enjoy a moment of peace. Countless times, I have drifted to sleep breathing her natural fragrance, and I have entered my dreams resting on her name. I felt this was the only pure land in this filthy world, the only place that could make me quiet down! But I was wrong, I was wrong! I truly was wrong! That was not a pure land; it was a conspiracy, a place dirtier than anywhere else in this world! I held you in my heart, yet you held someone else in yours! I truly don't know what kind of feeling it was for you, every time you slowly stroked my head and coaxed me to sleep, while your heart was thinking of someone else?"

"You..." Jiang Feiyan wanted to speak.

"Do not speak!" Tears had already streamed down Feng Siyuan's face. "Let me finish what I have to say. You have been constantly utilizing me, using me as your protective umbrella! Utilizing me to obtain the intelligence you wanted! Utilizing my infatuation, utilizing my stupidity! I never imagined, never imagined... that I, a seven-foot-tall man with a background as a master secret agent, would actually be played in the palm of her hand by a pugilistic swindler!"

"Do you think I'm exceptionally easy to deceive, exceptionally fun to play with? Is that it? Is it?" As Feng Siyuan spoke, he closed in on Jiang Feiyan step by step, then grabbed her by the collar. "Tell me—is that it?" His voice made the entire room ring with a buzzing vibration.

Jiang Feiyan did not speak. She silently gazed at him, two lines of tears slowly rolling down the corners of her eyes.

Feng Siyuan froze. He slowly loosened his grip, then abruptly pulled Jiang Feiyan into a tight embrace: "I was wrong, I was wrong! Don't trick me anymore! Don't trick me anymore!" As he spoke, his tears poured forth in a torrent.

The two of them wept for a long time before Jiang Feiyan softly said: "Did you think I had it easy when I was deceiving you? I suffered through the torment every single day. I am not afraid of lustful ghosts, nor am I afraid of bastards who wipe their mouths clean and walk away after finishing their meal. What I fear most is a sentimental person like you—to deceive you is to deceive myself. Now that you know the truth, you are in pain, but I have been in pain since the day I met you. I hid it for so many years, and today since you've torn the secret open, I am liberated as well! Whether you want to kill me or carve me up, do as you please..."

"As if I could ever bear to kill you..." Feng Siyuan let out a long sigh. "Sometimes I truly wish I could be like Director Dai, treating anyone who harms his own interests by ordering their execution without a second thought. And that's not to mention that you've deceived me for so long; because of love, I don't know how many of your traps I've slipped through, nor how many secrets I've leaked..."

"What you say is true! I did deceive you for a long time, and I also extracted many secrets from you, but if you think carefully, have I ever harmed you? Have you lost anything because of me? I deceived you for the sake of my own survival. People like us have lives inferior to a general's; our lives are not controlled by ourselves—we need to rely on the shelter of others... Moreover, I have always paved the way for you as well. For example, when I had you introduce Grandfather to Director Dai, wasn't Director Dai extremely pleased in the end? Once he was pleased, it was a great meritorious achievement for you. Of course, you could say that I did this to set up a larger game and extract greater benefits. But the actual situation is indeed that no one was harmed; we didn't want to hurt anyone, we were merely striving for survival, merely striving to protect ourselves..." Jiang Feiyan said.

"Have you ever loved me?" Feng Siyuan suddenly asked.

Jiang Feiyan fell silent. After a long while, she said: "Human beings are not plants or trees, how could they be devoid of emotion? You and I have known each other for so long, and... and we have shared physical intimacy on multiple occasions. To say there are no feelings would be a lie, but... but there is even more guilt."

"Yet do you know how much I love you?" Feng Siyuan shed tears once more.

"It's not worth it, it's not worth it. Feiyan is merely a swindler who strayed into the mortal dust; she is not worth a general being like this." Jiang Feiyan wept as well.

"I know you've always kept that Grandfather in your heart, but he doesn't appreciate it at all. Aren't you tired?" Feng Siyuan said.

"Then let me ask you, have you loved me for so long—aren't you tired?" Jiang Feiyan retorted.

"Not tired, not tired at all!" Feng Siyuan said.

"The principle is the same. Where there is love, there is everything, and you won't feel tired," Jiang Feiyan said.

"Then... then may I ask you a question?" Feng Siyuan's face suddenly turned red.

Jiang Feiyan looked at him: "I know what you want to ask. You want to ask whether Grandfather and I have ever been together, am I right?"

"Don't think of us who walk the pugilistic rivers and lakes as so filthy. The country has its laws, and the brotherhood has its rules. Sometimes we rustic folk are far cleaner than you high officials sitting in the halls of government! Under the sunlight, you are human beings; once the lights are turned off, you are ghosts. But we are ghosts under the sunlight—by day or night, in public or behind closed doors, we are always the same. Grandfather is upright and benevolent in his conduct; he would never engage in sordid affairs, let alone marry me..." Jiang Feiyan said.

"Why? You have money and connections; he should have taken you and run away long ago!" Feng Siyuan asked.

"Your President Chiang has even more money and connections; why hasn't he run away?" Jiang Feiyan retorted.

"That's not a joking matter! President Chiang wants to pacify the four seas and unify China," Feng Siyuan said.

"That's right. Everyone has their own mission, and Grandfather also has to manage an entire faction. The great have great matters, and the small have small matters!" Jiang Feiyan said.

"Then does Grandfather really have such strong self-discipline? You are so beautiful, has he truly never been moved?" Feng Siyuan asked again.

"Being moved in one's heart and making a physical move are two different things. Just like how many of your Kuomintang soldiers are fond of Madame Soong Meiling, but they only think about it in their hearts. Can you drag them all out and execute them by firing squad?" Jiang Feiyan retorted.

"Heh heh," Feng Siyuan chuckled. "Makes sense, makes sense."

"You keep asking me, but I haven't asked you yet. How did you ever discover our affairs?" Jiang Feiyan finally found an opportunity to turn the tables.

"Sigh. If you want people not to know, the only way is not to have done it in the first place. Men act while heaven watches; there always comes a time when the truth is uncovered. Do you remember back in 1936, when Grandfather teamed up with Wang Yaqiao's subordinate Zhang Enrui to set up a honey trap and swindle my Military Statistics colleague Xu Huaijin?"

Seeing that Feng Siyuan was so clear on the details, Jiang Feiyan had no choice but to nod and acknowledge it.

"Xu Huaijin later fled from the Military Statistics Bureau, escaped to Hong Kong, and subsequently went to Nanyang. This man had a close personal friendship with me, and when he left, I even provided cover for him. In 1944, during the latter stage of the Anti-Japanese War, taking advantage of the domestic chaos, this man sneaked back to the mainland and somehow managed to locate the grave of the courtesan Huayue Rong, whom he deeply loved. As a result, he discovered that a Kuomintang company commander named Zhang Enrui was buried together with her in a joint grave. He had me investigate who Zhang Enrui was. Through Military Statistics intelligence records, I found out that he was a subordinate of Wang Yaqiao. After Wang Yaqiao died, Zhang Enrui followed Li Jishen, and later entered the army of Li Zongren of the Guangxi clique. In 1940, during the Battle of South Guangxi, he was pierced through the chest by a bullet, and before dying he left a dying wish to be buried together with Huayue Rong. Right up until that moment, my colleague Xu Huaijin suddenly realized in a flash of insight that he had been conned! Consumed by burning anger and humiliation, he tore open Huayue Rong's grave on the spot and opened her coffin, intending to destroy her remains to vent the hatred in his heart! As a result, however, he discovered Huayue Rong's last will and testament inside the coffin. After reading the letter, he learned that Huayue Rong had truly loved him and had even been willing to die for him! Having read Huayue Rong's final brush-stroke, Xu Huaijin almost collapsed; he knelt before the grave and wept for a full three hours! Huayue Rong herself could never have imagined that the letter she believed at the time could never possibly be sent would be read with his own eyes by her beloved eight years later! Xu Huaijin meticulously gathered Huayue Rong's remains piece by piece, wrapped them in cloth, and left the mainland. Before leaving, he told me that he would never return in this lifetime, and that he was going to take Huayue Rong to a place where no one could find them..."

By the time Feng Siyuan reached this point, his eyes were red, and Jiang Feiyan was already streaming with tears.

Feng Siyuan walked over and pulled Jiang Feiyan tightly into his embrace.

Jiang Feiyan wept silently as she said: "Don't be as foolish as Xu Huaijin; I'm simply not worth you being like this. I am growing old; only by applying powder and rouge every day, painting my eyebrows and tracing my eyes can I barely look presentable. You had better hurry and find a young woman to marry..."

Feng Siyuan held Jiang Feiyan even tighter: "Love cannot be replaced. If it can be replaced, then it is not love."

"Yet you are a major general, and I am a swindler."

"What I love is Jiang Feiyan, regardless of whether she is a swindler or not," Feng Siyuan said word by word.

"Report!" A junior secret agent shouted loudly from outside the door.

Feng Siyuan wiped away his tears: "Wait a moment!" He then wiped away Jiang Feiyan's tears as well, placed a kiss on her, and walked outside.

"A telegram from Director Mao!" As he spoke, the junior agent handed the telegram to Feng Siyuan.

Feng Siyuan opened it and couldn't help drawing in a sharp, cold breath: The order was to arrest Grandfather!