Chess Game
After that meeting, I never saw Lord Nanhuai again. I suppose that grievance, if it could even be called a grievance, had been properly settled. If one day we met in the underworld, it would save me the trouble of explaining.
Ji Yu, however, began calling me over more often.
In the first days after I became Ah Zhi, I actually saw Ji Yu very rarely. Most of the time, it was Xia Wan or Lai Ying who came to teach me the rules, while the other girls passed on Ji Yu’s instructions. He seemed very busy, and he did not appear to be in any rush for me to do anything.
The first time I went to his room, he was dressed in a plain white inner robe. A chessboard was set before him. Propping his forehead with one hand, he looked at me with smiling phoenix eyes.
“Do you know how to play chess?”
That was what he asked me.
I shook my head. “No.”
Resting his cheek on his hand, he did not seem to mind. He pointed to the seat opposite him. “Sit. I’ll teach you.”
I agreed and sat across from him. He gathered all the pieces from the board and placed them into a rattan box. Beneath the flickering lamplight, his fingers were pale and slender. There were thin calluses on the pads of his fingers and in the web between thumb and forefinger — the hands of a fine chess player.
“Do you know why I am going to Fan?” he asked as he collected the pieces.
“I do not.”
“Then try guessing.”
I lifted my eyes and met his gaze. There was a trace of sharpness beneath his careless smile. So I thought over everything he had done recently and replied, “Young Master came from Yu. I heard that Wu and Zhao formed an alliance and sent troops to war against Yu. Yu has long been weak and has suffered defeat after defeat. The armies of Wu and Zhao have already pressed straight towards Yu’s capital, declaring that Yu’s destruction is only a matter of time. They also said that if any other state comes to Yu’s aid, once Yu is destroyed, they will attack that state next. Yu and Fan have always been on good terms. Is Young Master travelling there this time at the request of the ruler of Yu, to ask Fan for reinforcements?”
Ji Yu smiled but neither confirmed nor denied it. He merely asked, “Who told you I came from Yu?”
I looked at him.
So that was it.
He knew that those eight girls would not tell me anything. It seemed their distance from me — even Zikou rarely mentioning their previous travels or matters concerning Ji Yu — all came from his instructions.
He was still guarding against me.
That was normal.
I shook my head. “No one told me. Earlier, when I was putting away Young Master’s clothes, I saw a deep-purple robe. That style is, in Yu, the most honourable form of dress after that of the royal clan. It was very new, and placed right on top, so it should have been newly received. Given Yu’s current situation, they must have had something to ask of Young Master to give you such an honourable gift. Then it is most likely related to this war. Yu borders Song and Fan. For Young Master to travel by water through Song to Fan is also the fastest route.”
Ji Yu rubbed the chess piece in his hand. After a moment of silence, he looked at me with a smile that was not quite a smile. “Your guess is correct. Sometimes, I truly am curious. How do you know so many things?”
The state of the world, the customs of each kingdom, rites and music, ranks and dress codes.
“When the Grand Astrologer of Qi was still alive, I studied under him. In daily life, I read a few more books and listened to a few more stories. After Qi fell, I also wandered outside for a while and saw something of the world.” I said it calmly.
Ji Yu laughed softly. His eyes held a little inquiry and a little approval. The white piece in his hand landed at the centre of the board, and he said leisurely, “Let’s play chess.”
Following Ji Yu’s teaching, I played a round with him, exchanging moves back and forth. He was very patient, guiding me step by step, and clearly held back to let me. It seemed he had leisure today and wanted to pass the time with me.
I thought of something and asked him, “I heard from Xia Wan that we will arrive at Pu City tomorrow, and the ship will dock there to replenish supplies. May I go ashore?”
“You want to go to Pu City?”
“I can return before sunset. I won’t delay the ship’s departure. If you are worried, you can have someone accompany me.”
Ji Yu smiled and did not really stop me. “Go then. I’ll have Li Ding accompany you.”
Among Ji Yu’s many servants, the nine personal maidservants, including me, held the highest status. Beneath us were the male servants, more than twenty of them, all strong and sturdy men. Li Ding was the leader of these servants.
He was a man of immense strength and usually silent.
The next morning, I arrived a little earlier than the appointed time, but Li Ding was already waiting. He did not smile much. After greeting me once, he said nothing more, simply carrying a lamp as he walked beside me. I followed him off the ship.
Pu City was covered in heavy fog that day. Everywhere was a vast whiteness, making it hard to distinguish directions. Feeling my way along the small paths, I asked for directions until we reached a village on the outskirts of the city. I stopped a thin old man and asked, “May I ask, is this Lu Family Village?”
The old man nodded.
“Does Lu Shi’s widow, Madam Lu Zhou, live here?”
The old man looked at me in some surprise, then looked at Li Ding beside me. He said, “Madam Lu Zhou starved to death during last year’s famine. Why are you looking for her?”
I was silent for a moment and did not answer his question. “Then is his child still alive?”
“His younger son died of illness two years ago. Now only his eldest son remains, and he is being raised by Lu Shi’s younger brother.” The old man shook his head and sighed. “He died in battle and didn’t receive much compensation. He left behind an orphan and a widow, and then they ran into a disaster year. It was truly miserable.”
The fog thinned slightly, and I saw that we were standing among fields, only the crops were sparse and scattered. I asked the old man to take me to Lu Shi’s son. The old man said that today was the anniversary of Madam Lu Zhou’s death, so Lu Shi’s eldest son should currently be at the village graveyard.
The timing was rather coincidental.
Li Ding and I followed the old man to the village graveyard. At that time, the fog was still thick, making the graveyard appear gloomy and eerie. As the old man approached the graveyard, a flock of crows suddenly began crying out one after another. He looked a little frightened and turned back to me. “Miss, why don’t you wait here? Douzi should return soon.”
I shook my head and reached out to Li Ding. “Lend me the lamp. I can go alone.”
“Young Master ordered me to protect you well.” Li Ding did not agree to let me go alone, and he did not look at me either.
I looked at Li Ding for a while, then said, “Today is the full moon day. I heard that in Zheng customs, entering a graveyard on the full moon is taboo. I thought you were from Zheng.”
A trace of wavering finally appeared on Li Ding’s always stern and silent face. He looked at me in confusion. “How did you know…”
Halfway through the question, he stopped and answered, “This lowly one was originally from Zheng, but after following Young Master through many states, I also understand the principle of following local customs.”
I nodded and did not insist further. After thanking the old man, I entered the fog-filled graveyard together with Li Ding. Although Li Ding said he did not mind, he was still somewhat tense. When that child appeared in the fog, I saw that he had become rather stiff.
People of Zheng respected ghosts and gods the most. This truly was difficult for Li Ding.
The child was kneeling before a gravestone, burning paper offerings. When he saw us, he groped his way up from the ground and stared at us with a pair of round eyes. Meeting in such a graveyard on a foggy day like this, he must have been badly frightened too.
“Are you Lu Shi’s son?” I bent down and asked him.
He was thin and weak, just like those sparse crops, and looked only a little over ten.
He nodded fearfully, looking at me and then at Li Ding. Even his voice was trembling. “You… what are you?”
It seemed he had taken us for life-claiming ghosts.
I took a bloodstained letter from my robes and handed it to him. “This is the letter your father never managed to send before he died. He entrusted me with bringing it to your mother. Since your mother has already passed away, I will give it to you instead.”
He accepted the letter blankly and opened the envelope. After looking at it for a moment, he raised his head helplessly to look at me. “I… I can’t read.”
I took the letter from his hands and looked at his mother’s gravestone. “Then I will read it.”
> “My wife, Hongfang, seeing these words is as seeing my face.
> The war is urgent, and the casualties are many. In tomorrow’s battle, I fear I may not return. If I do not return, do not wait foolishly for me. You are still in your prime and may yet find another good match. I miss you terribly and often remember how we depended on each other in youth and hoped to grow old together. I wish that for the rest of your life, you may be protected by a good man. Dalang and Erlang are especially dear. After years without seeing them, their faces have already grown blurred in my memory. Thinking of this, my tears will not stop. I only hope that all of you remain safe and well.”
The gravestone stood quietly in the heavy, cold fog. Even the crows no longer cawed. It was as if someone really was there, listening to this letter. The letter-writer Lu Shi had found had written many characters incorrectly, but the prose itself was decent enough. I supposed that by now, Lu Shi had already met his wife in the Yellow Springs, and he should have been able to tell her every word of this letter without missing a single meaning.
He often remembered how they had depended on each other in youth and hoped to grow old together. He wished that for the rest of her life, she might be protected by a good man.
In the end, his wife had never had the chance to marry anyone else. She had died as his wife.
I folded the letter and handed it back to his son. The child probably did not fully understand its meaning, but his eyes still reddened. He received the letter like a treasure and placed it inside his robes, then looked up at me with hopeful eyes.
“Noble lady, was my father a hero?”
A hero?
In this world, how many heroes could there truly be?
I looked at him for a moment, then shook my head. “Your father was only an ordinary person.”
One of the countless ordinary soldiers who died in Song’s wars of expansion.
“But your father loved all of you very much. Now, of the people he loved most, you are the only one still living in this world.” I bent down and said to him, “That is what matters most.”
Finally, I bowed to the gravestone once, then left with Li Ding. It was noon by then. The sunlight gradually grew stronger and the fog dispersed, leaving only a thin layer of moisture in the air that no longer obstructed the view much. From far behind us came the sound of a child crying. Li Ding seemed somewhat unable to bear it. His steps paused, but in the end, he still did not turn back.
I returned to the ship after only half a day.
That night, when I was learning chess from Ji Yu, he asked me, “You went to Pu City just to deliver a letter for this man called Lu Shi?”
I nodded.
“What was special about him? You do not seem like someone who would concern herself with this sort of idle matter.” He placed down a piece on the board and captured a large number of pieces.
I paused, thinking over my next move, and met his deeply smiling eyes.
“On the road when Qiqi and I were being sent to the capital of Song, we passed through a battlefield. He crawled out of a pile of corpses, gave me his letter, name, and hometown, then breathed his last. I originally did not want to bother with it. I simply did not have time to refuse.”
Ji Yu seemed to believe me and yet not believe me. He laughed softly and shook his head. Then he pointed to a place on the board. “Place your piece here.”
I followed his guidance and placed my piece. Supporting his chin, he said slowly, “Do you still have any grudges left unavenged?”
“I have never had any grudges.”
“Han, Zheng, and Cai were destroyed. The King of Song was assassinated. Did you not avenge the fall of Qi?”
“That was Qiqi’s vengeance, not mine.”
Ji Yu lifted his gaze from the chessboard. The corners of his beautiful phoenix eyes tilted upward as he looked at me, carrying a faint hint of provocation.
“Your homeland was destroyed. Your royal father and mother took their own lives. In a single night, you fell from a princess high above others to a maidservant. You do not resent it?”
I laughed softly. I seemed to have answered this question for quite a few people. Back when I had first started helping Qiqi take revenge, she too resented me for being too heartless, for being unmoved by Qi’s destruction.
But since the Son of Heaven of Zhou unified the four seas and enfeoffed the feudal lords, several hundred years had already passed. Now, the Zhou royal house was declining, the feudal lords stood divided, and the states attacked one another. The fall of a state was nothing rare.
“In the past hundred years, how many states, great and small, have fallen? Why should Qi be unable to fall? Most rulers of fallen states perish with their states. Why would my father be an exception? Qi had already reached such a state. Even without those four states uniting, sooner or later, another state would have invaded. Its destruction was only a matter of time. If I truly had to resent someone, I could only resent my royal father for being poor at governing. And he has already died for his state. There really is nothing else to resent.”
Ji Yu looked at me for a long while. In his usually smiling eyes, there was a trace of surprise.
“But they were your parents and kin.”
“So?” I looked at him.
He was silent for a moment, then slowly said, “In that case, you do not resent me either? I threatened you into becoming my servant and took away your freedom.”
“Freedom is certainly good. It is a very, very good thing. But in the end, it is a luxury. If one cannot even preserve one’s life, if even food and warmth are uncertain, where is there room to speak of freedom?”
I placed a piece on the chessboard and raised my eyes to meet his sharp gaze.
“That day, I had bribed soldiers and also buried a sum of treasure outside the palace. After escaping, I would temporarily have had no worries about food or drink. But after all, I have no strength to even truss a chicken. In this chaotic age, fleeing alone while carrying treasure would likely have been full of danger, and my life would have been uncertain. You took away my freedom, but you also protected my life and provided me with fine food and splendid clothes. This was originally a very fair transaction. Why should I resent you?”
He looked at me for a long while, then looked back at the chessboard and smiled as he shook his head.
“Changsheng Jie. A draw.”
I lowered my eyes. “Young Master’s guidance was excellent.”
He returned the chess piece in his hand to the rattan box and slowly said, “You truly are… an interesting oddity.”
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