NOVEL NEXT Proofread by Fu Tianying
As the night grew darker, the lanterns were all lit up. The streets along the Datong River were still busy with pedestrians coming and going, for it was the Zhongyuan Festival (the traditional Chinese holiday to pray for ancestors and souls) and it was a convention that people would put lanterns on the river at night of this day.
Besides the cries of roadside vendors and hawkers, what was more attractive was a wide variety of goods such as clay dolls, gilding gourds, lifelike monkeys, and exquisite lanterns which attracted pedestrians to appreciate and purchase.
The woman in white walked towards the Qingfeng Dam. She was tall and elegant with half-piled hair. With a silvery mask covering the lower side of her face, she glanced right and left with her bright eyes which were shining just like stars.
Seeing the woman in white, some pedestrians moved aside for her subconsciously, discussing in a whisper.
“What a beautiful lady! Where did she come from?”
“She is like a fairy in the sky. Is she a fairy descending to the earth?”
Having heard the whispers, the woman in white walked at a brisk pace, with pride on her face. A gust of wind blew, her sleeves were fluttering, setting her figure off to advantage; now she almost looked like a fairy indeed.
Walking to the bridge of Qingfeng Dam, she stopped and looked down. Among those colorful lanterns floating on the river, most of them were eggplant lanterns. The poor had not enough money to buy lanterns, so they just picked big eggplants, cut them in halves to make lanterns with bamboo shade pieces around and a small candle in center. Those eggplant lanterns floated on the river, flat and steady, which formed a sense of beauty while floating with colorful lanterns.
Suddenly, someone fell into the river and the crowd became noisy. After a while, the person disappeared. Those who wanted to go down to rescue were always be deliberately or unintentionally stopped or pushed away. At that time, the woman in white jumped into the river.
For a while, the drowning man was dragged to the riverside and the crowd helped to pull him to the bank. It occurred to the crowd that the drowning man was a young man dressed like a scholar. Then after coming back to the bank, the woman in white expertly pressed the abdomen of the young man and squeezed the water out.
Waking up in confusion, the scholar saw a woman in white watching him. She wore a mask with a pair of eyes shining like stars. He struggled to sit up and asked, “You saved me? May I ask your name for repaying you later?”
In the twinkling of an eye, the woman hatched an idea and answered seriously, “I am a daughter of Dragon King. I just happened to be here to save you and you do not have to take it to your heart.” Then she stood up, walked a few steps towards the river, jumped down and disappeared without leaving any trace, just like a dragon flying into the river.
At that time, the crowd on the riverbank began to cheer and screamed out, “She is the daughter of Dragon King! The daughter of Dragon King!”
Wanjin Building was one of the most famous brothels in Shuntian Prefecture. At this point, two young men dressed like the noble were drinking their fill in a private room. One of them raised his wine cup and toasted to a slightly plump scholar in deluxe brocades, “Childe Hu, you would take the first place at in the metropolitan examination as long as Wu Zhong drowned to death. Let me toast to the future Number One Scholar! (the title given to the scholar who achieved the highest score at the highest level of the Chinese imperial examinations).
The guy who was talking was Tian Zhonghua, the eldest son of Tian clan, one of the clans of guarding the first dam of Datong River. It was he who plotted to push Wu Zhong down to the river.
Childe Hu drained his wine cup with one gulp, “God knows how he, a poor guy from the countryside, was praised by the learned scholar, Qian, and recommended to enter the Imperial College! Even worse, Scholar Qian wanted to accept him as a disciple! My uncle asked Scholar Qian to do him a favor by being an instructor of me, but he refused. What if he accepts Wu Zhong as a disciple? Then I would be an object of universal derision!”
Tian Ronghua chimed in and agreed that Scholar Qian was as blind as a bat.
The full name of Childe Hu was Hu Chunqiu. His uncle, an official, took Liu Jin a powerful eunuch in imperial court as the adopted father. Relying on his uncle’s power, Hu Chunqiu had always been arrogant and domineering. He once tried to be the disciple of Scholar Qian but was rejected. Wu Zhong, out of nowhere, was allowed by Scholar Qian to attend the lectures in Zhongtian Pavilion and was praised many times, which annoyed Hu Chunqiu extremely. Thus, he invited Wu to enjoy the sight of river lamps and arranged Tian Ronghua to pull Wu Zhong down to the river, taking advantage of the mussy crowd in the Zhongyuan Festival. Having known that Wu Zhong couldn’t swim, Hu tried to prevent people from saving him, trying to drown Wu to death.
The door opened when they were celebrating. An attendant rushed in with an anxious face.
“Wu Zhong was not dead!”
“What!” Hu Chunqiu and Tian Ronhua answered in utter astonishment.
“I did push him down to the river, but he was…was saved.”
“By who?” Tian Ronghua added, “Who upset my plan?”
The attendant paused for a moment. His face was thick with disbelief, “It was…was the daughter of Dragon King…”
“Nonsense! I would be the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Taoism) if there is a daughter of Dragon King!” Hu Chunqiu broke out into curses.
“It must be the excuse you figured out to fool me!”
“I dare not. Lots of people saw it. That woman jumped into the river and disappeared. If she were a mortal, how could she stay under the water for such a long time? For almost four hours under the water!”
“An expert swimmer can indeed hold his breath and swim to a place with few people. However, on such a festival, few can hold his breath for such a long time, let alone a woman. Women are not allowed to swim in the area under the control of the five dams, so it is quite odd,” Tian Ronghua thought about all the expert swimmers in his mind but could not think of a woman who could do it.
“Cut the crap. What’s the next step? Any good ideas?” Hu Chunqiu asked impatiently.
“I have got an idea. Why don’t we set fire to the inn where Wu Zhong is lodging?Then we can take the opportunity to steal his baggage. He cannot stay at the Imperial City for having no money. Even though he struggles to stay, making a living will definitely delay his progress of study,” Tian Ronghua said with an evil smile.
“That’s great! But be careful to make it a low-profile campaign this time. There are so many people in the inn. It would become a big trouble if they were burned to death.”
“I know. I will arrange someone to throw some torches and scream out. You can rest assured that no one will be hurt. But the guards of Ma family may disrupt our plan so we have to get out of sight of the guards of Ma family for that inn is right beside the Ma family.”
“The Ma family in charge of the second dam, which is against your family all the time? Well, I will deal with Ma family as long as you get this thing done,” Hu Chunqiu said casually.
“I will arrange proper people right away and ask them to set on fire when most people fall asleep. Wu Zhong would not recover his strength after being saved from drowning. He certainly won’t bring the baggage in panic while trying to escape the fire.”
The attendant left in a hurry after being told a few words by Tian Ronghua.
The moon was bright and it was about eleven o’clock at night and the busy streets slowly became quiet. Almost no one was seen on the street. Occasionally, the night watchman passed and shouted while ringing the gong, “Watch for fire in dry days! It is eleven o’clock at night!”
A man sneaked up on a corner of that inn with a bucket of stuff in his hand. He took out the stuff from the bucket, and it turned to be cotton cloth soaked in kerosene. Then he carefully took out the flint. Probably out of nervousness, he hit it several times, but failed to catch on fire.
At this point, a cold voice was heard behind, “Need any help?”
As soon as that man turned back, he saw a woman in white standing behind. She was like a ghost with her face half covered by the long drooping hair which was dripping.
“A ghost!” that man screamed out. Throwing away the flint in his hand, he ran away immediately, just wanting to get rid of the ghost right away.
The woman in white pushed her hair aside, revealing a pretty face. She, with disdain, kicked off the cotton cloth on the ground, laughed in a crisp and arrogant voice, “When I began to play with fire, you were still a baby!”