Chapter 19 – A hand and a foot (1/2)
Chapter 19 – A hand and a foot
Part 1
April 19. Afternoon.
The setting sun of this spring afternoon shone in through the window onto a camellia, which rested in the corner of the room. The leftover alcohol from last night still remained. Some of Tan Lanfang’s hair and fragrance also remained on the pillow.
The room was as quiet and peaceful as when she had left. The only difference was that now the room was empty.
“Ingot?”
He must have regretted what he’d said last night, and snuck away.
Tan Lanfang forced herself under control, not allowing any pain or disappointment to show on her face. “He’s gone,” she said coolly. “That’s fine. People who should leave cannot be made to stay.”
She didn’t look at Grand Miss Lei’s face. She slowly walked over to the bed and pulled a hair off the pillow.
—Was this one of her hairs? Or his?
She stood there stupidly, looking at the hair, for who knows how long. Then suddenly she felt a chill in her feet that pierced to her bones.
She’d seen a shoe. Ingot’s shoe.
There is nothing frightening about shoes. But when she saw the shoe, her face suddenly filled with an unspeakable panic and fear. And when she turned, she found that Grand Miss Lei’s face had the same expression on it.
“He didn’t leave,” said Tang Lanfang. “Not by himself.”
“Oh?”
“Who would leave wearing one shoe?” She grabbed the gauze bed canopy to prevent herself from falling down. “Also, he was completely powerless. He wouldn’t even be able to get past the courtyard.”
“Oh?”
“Without my command, no one would enter the courtyard, nor would any of the guards let him leave.”
“And yet moments ago you were convinced he had left,” said Grand Miss Lei. “Why didn’t you think of these things then?”
“I don’t know.” She sat down. “I really don’t know.”
***
Actually, she did know. She just didn’t want to say. So again, the old man said it for her.
“Because you love him already, but you don’t know if he really loves you. Your heart is twisted up in a knot, and when you didn’t see him here, you felt flustered. How could you possibly think of anything else?”
“What about you?” asked Grand Miss Lei. “Are you flustered?”
“Honestly speaking, my heart is flustered to death,” he said with a bitter laugh. “If something’s happened to him, I’ll go drown myself in the ocean.”
Grand Miss Lei walked over and stroked Tan Lanfang’s hair. “Don’t worry, I guarantee you that nobody in the world would dare harm a single hair on his head. Not even Gao Tianjue would have the guts to do that.”
The old man sighed and shook his head. “That’s what I used to think.”
“What do you think now?”
“I just remembered that Gao Tianjue is a woman.”
“So what if she’s a woman?”
“No so what,” he said with a sigh. “It’s just that if a woman runs into a charming young man like Ingot, sometimes they can do just about anything. No matter how old she is, or who she is.”
With a shriek, Grand Miss Lei said, “Don’t tell me you think Ingot would be interested in an old granny like Gao Tianjue?”
“Old men are always interested in young women, why can’t old women be interested in young men? In any case, Gao Tianjue isn’t that old, and furthermore…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, because he had just caught sight of something very strange.
This was something even more strange than Ingot’s shoe.
Right now, anyone who saw something like this, in a place like this, would be completely shocked.
***
And then, Grand Miss Lei and Tang Lanfang both saw it, too.
Part 2
A black cloak, a black headband, and a silver mask which glittered brightly in the afternoon sunlight.
The waters of Daming Lake rippled under the same sun.
Gao Tianjue stood quietly on the shore, looking somewhat changed. She looked tired, as if she had something weighing on her mind.
—Was this change because of the damned scoundrel Ingot?
Ingot wasn’t there. She was alone.
—And what of Ingot? Where was he? Dead by her hand?”
It would be such a pity for a charming youth like him to die. How could she bear to do it?
***
A small boat floated nearby, anchored under the shade of a willow tree. A gray robed man stood there, head lowered in respect, not daring to look at Gao Tianjue’s face.
After a long time passed, Gao Tianjue slowly climbed into the boat, her footsteps seeming a bit heavier than usual.
Her mood was undoubtedly somber.
Killing is not something that makes you happy, especially when the person you kill is someone you didn’t want to die. Anyone’s mood would be somber in a situation like this.
Part 3
Everyone has feet, so a foot is nothing strange or frightening.
And this foot had not been chopped off, nor was it dripping with blood in a burlap sack.
It stuck out from underneath the bed, and normally feet do not stick out from underneath beds.
But when Tang Lanfang and Grand Miss Lei saw the foot, they were both shocked.
Because this foot did not belong to Ingot.
It was a woman’s foot, and a good looking one at that, slender, sparkling and perfect. It looked as if it had been painstakingly carved by a master craftsman, from a slab of perfect jade.
How could there be a woman’s foot sticking out from this bed, in this bedroom?
***
The old man’s eyes stared fixedly.
The more a man appreciates women, the more he will appreciate their feet. Generally speaking, a man of this age knows how to appreciate women.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t appreciate anything, because standing next to him was a very jealous wife.
Grand Miss Lei gave him a slap.
“Lift your eyes up! Or do you want me to dig them out?”
“No, I don’t.”
The old man quickly slid away to stand by the door. He couldn’t stop from sighing.
“If a man can’t even look at a woman’s foot, what is the point of conducting oneself properly?”
This time, Grand Miss Lei pretended she didn’t hear, and instead asked Tang Lanfang: “Didn’t you just say that without your order, no one would dare enter this place?”
Tan Lanfang nodded, but then shook her head: “Besides me, there’s one other person who could come in.”
“Who?”
“Little Cai.”
“Who is Little Cai?”
“A girl.” Tan Lanfang thought for a moment before saying, “She’s my adopted daughter.”
“Is this her foot?”
“No, that’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because her foot is like mine, the second toe is a bit longer than the big toe.”
Grand Miss Lei looked at her with a strange expression, then looked at the foot. “Then whose foot is this?”
The old man couldn’t hold back any longer. “If you want to know who she is, why not just pull her out from under the bed and have a look? If you’re not willing to touch her, I can do it.”
“If you dare to touch her, the second you do, I’ll chop off the foot, braise it in soy sauce and cook it until it’s falling apart, then make you eat it.”
The old man lifted his head up. “Why would you ask me to eat someone else’s foot? You know that I won’t eat anyone’s foot except yours.”
Grand Miss Lei couldn’t help but laugh. But as soon as she touched the foot, she stopped laughing.
The foot was icy cold, without the slightest bit of warmth, just like that of a corpse.
As soon as she stretched out her hand, she pulled it back, then called to her husband. “Okay, you do it.”
“How come you’ve suddenly stopped being jealous?” he said, looking surprised.
“Who said I’m not jealous? I’m always jealous of living people, with no exception.” She sighed. “But to be jealous of dead people is going a bit too far.”
***
Just who was it under the bed? Was it a dead body?
When the old man pulled the person out from under the bed, Tang Lanfang’s heart almost stopped beating.
Part 4
The sunlight gradually grew dim, as did the reflection of the mountains on the surface of the lake.
Gao Tianjue slowly walked onto the boat. A middle-aged man in a gray robe stood by the pearl curtain, hands at his side respectfully. He reported, “We’ve already sent six shifts of men into the water, but we still haven’t found the corpse.”
“Humph.”
“He’s definitely in the water,” said the man, sounding utterly certain. “We’ve had men guarding the banks of the lake since last night. Even if he’s not dead, he wouldn’t be able to escape the shores.”