Chapter 24: Foreknowledge Obtained From Others[1]

I helped Fu Wanxi to arrange the bowls, chopsticks and spoons around the round mahogany table. A total of five bowls, five pairs of chopsticks, five spoons and five chairs. For a simple reunion between Fu Wanxi and myself, she had invited many guests.

Her quick and light footsteps sounded as she walked briskly down the hallway and entered the dining space with a plate of stir-fry assorted vegetables and meatballs coated with a thick orange sweet-and-sour gravy. Placing down the heavy dishes, she dabbed at her forehead with a handkerchief while smiling. "I'll bring over two more dishes. During this turbulent time of war and conflict, it isn't appropriate to be lavish."

I nodded in understanding and helped to arrange the plates on the table to make space for more. "How many people will be joining us?"

"I've invited our friends! There's me, you, Yi Yan-gege, Ji-gongzi, and Yan-guniang," she said, counting with her fingers.

Question marks floated in my head. "I understand if you've invited General Yi, since you've mentioned that he is your senior brother from Wuchang Manor. But why the other two? Have you already made friends with Ji Kai and Yan Shuzhen?"

"Aren't they your friends?"

"What?" I met Fu Wanxi's gleaming eyes and in my state of fluster I blurted out the first thought that crossed my mind. "Yes, I suppose they are. It's a reunion for us too."

With a smile, she started heading out of the room again. "I'll go get the rest of the food. You can call them over for dinner!"

After adding five bowls of rice, a dish of braised tofu and another dish of steamed chicken to the table, dinner was served. Four heads turned towards General Yi Yan expectantly as if eyeing a prey. He was the owner of the manor and had the highest status amongst us. It was only after he had picked up his chopsticks and invited us to "move our chopsticks" that we unabashedly helped ourselves to the meal.

Yi Yan picked up a meatball with his chopsticks and placed it in Fu Wanxi's bowl. "Did you cook all of this yourself?"

"Of course not," she replied while still chewing a mouthful of rice. "Your cook did all the work. But I was the one who purchased the ingredients with my own money. I'm afraid that if it were up to me to cook this, the food would be inedible. I can't let Ah Yu be disappoint!"

Gazing at Fu Wanxi indulgently, Yi Yan dipped his head slightly before shaking it with a soft laugh. A smile tugged at my lips at this sight before me. Sheng Yi and Fu Wanxi, when seated side-by-side, were the definition of a talented man and a beautiful woman—an ideal couple. At first glance, anyone could tell from his figure and appearance that the handsome young man cladded in dark red robes with gold embroidered birds and clouds was a brave and talented person well-trained in martial arts. However, if one observed his mannerisms and speech more carefully, one would also be able to tell that Sheng Yi was well-versed in the arts and in literature beyond military books. As for Fu Wanxi, enough praises had been given to her in regard to her jade-like beauty and genteel nature—as along as she remained still and did not run around with a mission to uphold justice in jianghu.

"You must be Ah Yu-guniang," said Yi Yan, suddenly looking up at me. "I heard from Xi'er that the both of you travelled together to Guizhong City but were separated due to the influx of displaced villagers. She has repeatedly ordered me to look for you over the past few days. It's a good thing that Ji-xiong managed to find you."

I placed my bowl on the table and rested my chopsticks over its rim. Lifting up my cup with both hands, I proposed a toast. "Many thanks to General Yi for taking me in. If it were not for you, I will never be able to see Ah Xi again."

"Any friend of Xi'er is also my friend. In tough times, our friends are our support on whom we can rely on." Yi Yan laughed as he raised his cup in response before taking a sip from it. Gesturing towards Ji Kai, he suddenly added: "But shouldn't you also be thanking Ji-xiong? He was the one who treated you."

I turned to look at Ji Kai, finding that his eyes were already on me. But he immediately dropped his gaze, his lashes pointing downwards. I lifted my cup again and held it out in his direction before nodding casually: "Thank you for your help, Physician Ji."

"Don't mention it. It was nothing." His calm eyes swept over me and he returned with a brief nod.

I returned to my meal with a smile and continued my conversation with Fu Wanxi and Yi Yan, but from the corner of my eyes I saw that Ji Kai had ceased moving his chopsticks. One hand was under the table while the other was swirling his cup of tea slowly. He stared contemplatively at his bowl, eyes slightly unfocused.

Shuzhen's chopsticks suddenly dropped a few pieces of green vegetables into his bowl. "Are you alright?" she asked in a gentle voice that was full of concern. Something pricked at my heart.

Her action broke Ji Kai out of his thoughts. Noticing the additional food on top of his rice and Shuzhen's retreating chopsticks, he muttered a thank-you before stating that he was able to help himself. But Shuzhen was not one to take heed of his hints of rejection. She picked up a meatball coated with the clear red gravy and placed it in Ji Kai's bowl with a dazzling smile. "Have some of this. I know that you like to eat foods with this kind of sweet-and-sour sauce."

Realising that I was staring, I averted my eyes and swallowed the piece of meat in my mouth which had turned bitter.

That night, Fu Wanxi and I lay side by side, staring up at the ceiling of her room in the general's manor. She had insisted that the bed was large enough for the two of us and that she had many things to tell me about; and as such, we should share a room.

I heard the rustling sound of her head moving against the pillow as she turned in my direction. "A few days ago, I overheard Ji-gongzi and Yan-guniang coming up with plans to locate you; but at time point in time, I had not informed Yi Yan-gege about your situation yet. Are they friends from your hometown?" she queried, rousing me from my dreamy silence.

Crossing my arms over myself while wondering what she was trying to get at, I replied disarmingly: "Yes."

"And are you close friends?" She followed up quickly.

My lips twisted as I answered with a readiness that even caught me by surprise. "Yes—and no. I guess that we were close friends, but we've not seen each other for many years."

"Ah, because you joined Wuchang Manor as an outer disciple?"

"Yes," I replied, feeling that it was a pretty logical answer. It was also consistent with my cover story. But I crawled up into a sitting position and looked down on edge at Fu Wanxi through the darkness of the night. Did she just put me through cross-examination as if I was a witness on the stand? "General Yi is the person that you have been looking for, right? The person that you asked Xiao Rui and Zhanpeng-shixiong about back in Bei Yue," I reflected.

She slid herself up to recline against the bed frame and I saw her head bobbing up and down. "That's right, but—it doesn't mean anything to me anymore." Her words trailed off with notes of nostalgia. I mused on the meaning of her words but could not really make much sense of it.

In The Eighth Verse, although Sheng Yi was the more important protagonist (the other being Gao Zhanpeng) and Liu Mengjie was the more important deuteragonist (the other being Fu Wanxi), they did not end up as a couple. The author, for some reason, had paired the characters up in this way: Sheng Yi and Fu Wanxi; and Gao Zhanpeng and Liu Mengjie.

Fu Wanxi's current state of mind seemed suspiciously strange. Shouldn't she be over the moon to be reunited with the young man that she fancied and chased all over Wuchang Manor? Unless at this point in time, she was feeling as if her feelings were not being reciprocated. In that case, General Yi had to step up his "the-general-chases-his-wife" game.

"I used to think that he meant the world to me, but he was someone who had to shoulder the responsibility that his family placed upon him. In the end, our fate was only meant to be short-lived." She unexpectedly threw out an explanation before finishing with a smile, as if she was simply narrating black and white facts from a history book. But without waiting for my reply, she curiously asked: "Actually, what is the relationship between you and Ji-gongzi?"

A sudden flush rose beneath the surface of my skin. I opened my mouth to make a casual and dismissive remark but I found myself frowning instead. Friends who are now acquaintances? A friend who became a ghost and then return again but is still a ghost? An old friend with whom I can rekindle a friendship with anytime?

"Ji Kai is like the earth, and I was like the earth's moon. He's a friend who used to mean the world to me, but he escaped from the responsibility that his family placed on him." I concluded with a laugh. "Reuniting with him after so many years I should be more than happy, but my heart has grown cold."

"Oh dear, he must have done something to hurt you," said Fu Wanxi as she leaned over to rub my hands, her warmth in sharp contrast to my cold hands. "But I don't think that your heart has grown cold," she chuckled before continuing, "I saw that your eyes were blazing earlier when Yan-guniang was openly flirting with Ji-gongzi at the dinner table."

"Huh?"

"If you felt like you were eating vinegar earlier, your heart couldn't have grown cold towards him," she said in a sing-song voice. "I'll leave you to muse on it."

Feeling my cheeks blushed even further, I shook my head profusely. "No, I wasn't jealous. He escaped from his family, cut off all contact with me to live in seclusion, but let her in on his secret. I was merely furious at him. They've been each other's support for so many years now, if they are to—together—in a relationship, then I should give them all my blessings."

Fu Wanxi said nothing but kept an enigmatic smile plastered on her face. She burrowed back under her blanket and intentionally let out a long sigh. "Well, I have another gift for you as part of our reunion. You'll be happy to know that I've asked the both of them, separately, about their relationship with each other—and with you—and they have expressly stated that they are not a couple. Ji-gongzi has absolutely no interest in her, but I can't say the same for that girl who is burdened with a one-sided love."

"Really?" I asked, my heart lurched as the surprise within me increased. "Did you really ask them that?"

"Of course. I even observed them in great detail: Yan loves to chase Ji around, always revolving around him—like the earth's moon. While Ji does interact with her, there is a kind of intangible distance between them." A scoff escaped from her. "I'd say that you're like a star in the sky, shining brightly for the earth to see. So don't beat yourself down because of a broken friendship."

Mulling on her words and the echoed analogies, the corner of my lips quirked. "Of course, I'm dazzling like a star," I said while tossing my hair back, before lying back down under my blanket. "But what did they say about me when you asked them about their relationship with me?"

Fu Wanxi yawned as she turned her back against me and then replied perversely, "You should hear it directly from them. Maybe not from that woman called Yan—her thoughts are not needed. But if you're really curious about what Ji-gongzi thinks, you can ask him yourself."

***

When I woke up the next day and shook off the fumes of sleep, I discovered that the sun was already high up in the sky. There was a tense atmosphere around the general's manor and there was no one in the inner quarters. After changing and washing up quickly, I made my way to the front hall of the residence.

The front gate was wide open as groups of soldiers in full armour lugged heavy crates out of the manor, before loading them onto horse-drawn carts.

As I searched around for a familiar face, something reached out from beside me. "Ah Yu," whispered Fu Wanxi as we hid around the corner of a building. "Yi Yan-gege and your friends departed for the encampment at the frontier this morning. Only the garrison troops have remained behind to protect Guizhong City. I've asked around and found that there will be a troop that will be delivering resources to the military camp today. I'm going to sneak us in so follow me."

"What—did they just leave us behind?" I exclaimed in shock at the sudden turn of events; and as Fu Wanxi turned to leave, I clutched onto her arm to hold her back in urgency. "Wait, do you have a plan?"

"Of course, I always have a back-up plan. I just didn't expect that I'd have to use it this time," she said with a proud grin. "I've acquainted myself with the people at the apothecary—so well that I managed to persuade them to let us accompany those physicians who will be following the troop delivering the medical herbs today to serve as military doctors at the encampment. But we'll have to disguise as males."

I thought for a brief moment before nodding in silent acquiescence. The plot of the book had already derailed given that Fu Wanxi was not captured and brought to the military camp before. If we did not find a way to join the others at the frontier where the imminent campaign was about commence, subsequent events in the book will be severely disrupted and our mission would be impossible to complete.

Steeling my resolve with gritted teeth and hands balled into fists, I marched behind Fu Wanxi as we slipped out of the general's manor and scuttled in the direction of largest apothecary in Guizhong City.

***

[1]: Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Chapter 13 The Use of Spies): "Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge. ... Knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men."