Chapter 15 - I’ll never trade (1/2)

Moxi got married?

I glanced blankly from Moxi back to the woman.

“Moxi!”

She happily got up when she saw Moxi coming in. At my presence, she immediately stopped and hesitated: “She is…”

I clung onto Moxi’s neck. “My name is Sansheng.”

“Sansheng…”she muttered my name as her face suddenly darkened. “Sansheng?

You’re Sansheng?” As though she didn’t believe me, she looked to Moxi for confirmation.

Seeing her sad expression, I couldn’t help but also look at Moxi. Moxi, however, ignored the both of us. He strode to the bed, laid me down, removed my shoes and socks for me, and then got up and hastily wrote “ask for the army doctor” onto a piece of paper to hand to the other woman.

She froze for a while before finally smiling sadly and staggering out of the tent.

“Is she… your wife?”

He was cleansing my wound for me when I said this.he heard my words. He raised his head to look at me, a smile gradually rippling in his eyes. He gently shook his head.

I nodded and said sternly: “Good, because I won’t let you.”

With the same gentle smile, he pulled my hand and gently wrote onto my palm:

“Besides Sansheng, I’ve never had anyone.”

I was surprised to see him write so seriously. I scratched my head and at length cleared my throat, putting on a mature mien while caressing his hair and saying:

“You’re so dashing and I’ve been away from you for so long that I really wonder how many girls have lost their hearts to you. But you’re so cold and slow… I feel sorry for these poor girls. Is it a good thing that you’re like this or not, I wonder sometimes.”

At these words, Moxi stared at me with a slight chagrin.

Most of the time, I didn’t know why he was angry. This time, I didn’t know the reason either. Not wanting to bother guessing, I said, “But Sansheng has always been selfish. Your being unfriendly and indifferent to other girls… is more to my liking.”

“Moxi, have you drugged me with something? Why do I like you so much? Why am

I so reluctant to let others touch you even for a tiny bit?”

He kept peering at me, his eyes gleaming bright.

At this time, the army doctor arrived. Moxi diverted his gaze and gave his seat to the doctor.

Since my wound was made from my own spell, it was only natural that the doctor couldn’t detect anything. He just announced that it was an external wound before bandaging it and taking his leave.

Having the space to ourselves again, I eagerly caught Moxi’s sleeve so I could complain to him about how much I’d missed him. I hadn’t even warmed his sleeve, however, by the time a soldier called for him from outside the tent.

Moxi’s face sank as he immediately got up and walked out. I watched his sleeve leave my hands, the soldier’s calling ringing into my ears. I sighed. Twenty years had really been too long of a separation.

Sansheng may still be important to Moxi, but she wasn’t the most important anymore.

The war would not stop just because the general had picked up a woman on the side of the road.

I saw Moxi very little after we reunited. With the coming of the last battle, there was a strange air hanging above the army, almost restless, almost unsettled, and almost charged, even. Moxi was so swamped that he didn’t even have the time to rest.

I didn’t care at all what the outcome of the war was going to be; I only cared about Moxi.

Recently, as I followed the rapidly marching troops, I had been pondering what it was Moxi could not seek as part of his trial. He was now a general. He had power, he had riches. What could he possibly want but couldn’t have?

Because we’d been separated for so long, I thought I should ask Moxi directly for an answer.

When night fell, I asked several night-watchmen before I was told Moxi had left the military campground with Miss Ah Rou.

Ah Rou was the woman I saw the other day. I heard she was Bai Jiu’s foster daughter and had been very close to Moxi since childhood. She was almost universally considered to be the general’s wife. After hearing that, I had faintly nodded and declined to comment.

But today, in the middle of the night…

I couldn’t help myself from feeling hurt. I quickened my pace and circled the camp for a long time before I at last found their figures in the forest.

Ah Rou was sobbing: “Moxi, how did it become this way, how…?” I halted, turned and hid behind a tree. “He is after all the master who raised you,” Ah Rou said in misery. “Why do you have to drive him into a corner? Do you want the kingdom that much?”

I froze at her words. I slightly stuck my head out to see Moxi indifferently extracting his sleeve from Ah Rou’s hand while writing something onto her palm. Ah Rou widened her eyes in surprise: “Moxi, are you mad?!”

Moxi stared at her quietly.

“Even though you two aren’t blood related, she is like your sister, your mother. You actually want to… you really want to…” Ah Rou suddenly came to realization: “The reason you want the throne… Moxi, you want to reach the top so that nobody can stand in your way? So that you can marry her?”

Moxi’s expression iced up. He wrote a few more words onto her hand and in the end left by himself.

Ah Rou stood in place for some time. She seemed to recover eventually, but when she took two steps, as if she had lost all her strength, she leaned on a tree and slowly slid to the ground. I thought for a little while before finally coming out. I offered her my hand, waiting for her to pull herself up.

She looked at me, startled: “Aunt… auntie Sansheng.”

I ignored the way she called me and said, “I already heard everything.”

Tears immediately pooled in Ah Rou’s eyes, delicate and pitiful. She cried: “Auntie, only you can persuade Moxi now. Please persuade him, please!”

“Why should I?”

If Moxi wanted the throne, I wouldn’t be the sole reason like Ah Rou said. He was the God of War; his heart would always think for the common people. No matter how he reincarnated, that duty and pride would always be ingrained inside of him.

He must have had his reasons for wanting the throne, but no matter what the reasons were, I had no right to persuade him to give up his goal.

Ah Rou was taken aback by my question. “Because, because… foster father… he will be ruthless to foster father, he…”

I sighed: “Moxi is too kindhearted to be ruthless to your father. But I can’t say the same for your father, Bai Qi.” I didn’t want to continue explaining to her. I pulled her up and said as I turned to leave: “It was my mistake to have left Moxi with you people all these years. None of you understand him. He must have not lived very happily.”

By the time I got back to the camp, I heard the sound of zither coming from Moxi’s tent from a distance away. Pleasantly surprised, I picked up my pace. I smelled the scent of plum blossoms the moment I lifted the curtain and stepped inside. The chords paused as Moxi looked up at me. Although he was smiling, his smile did not reach his eyes.

My heart ached, but I did not show it. I smiled and played the fool, walking around

Moxi to give him a big hug from behind. I hung onto his neck, loathing to let go.

He slightly stiffened. I pressed close to his ears but did not speak, letting each other listen to the other’s warm rhythm.

I don’t know how long had passed before Moxi, as if finally recovered, gently patted my hand and motioned me to sit beside him. He took out a bough of plum next to the zither table and then wrote onto a sheet of paper: “I remember plum blossoms were your favorite. Today, I came across this flowering bough so I brought it back for you.”

I received the bough, held it in my hand and admired it over and over, inhaling the familiar scent.

“Do you like it?”

As if they were softly strummed, my heartstrings made a quiver when I saw the four hesitant words on the white parchment.

“I love it.” I took his hand and caressed the hard callous on its palm. “All the flowers in the world can’t be exchanged for the one you picked for me.”

He curled his fingers around my hand, clasping so tightly that it hurt me.

“Moxi, play a song for me. I always loved listening to you when you were younger.”

I smiled: “I want to hear something exhilarating!”

Moxi gave a nod. His fingertips swept across the strings to weave a soaring melody.

There was a murderous intent like that which swept across battlefields, there was an imperious spirit of world domination, and there was even a trace of retrospection from a hero who stood alone, all sonorously played.

The piece came to a crescendo towards the end, but in it was a certain vicissitude.

The notes next quickened, as if every unspoken feeling was now being poured out.

While the residual resonance was still lingering in the air, I suddenly asked, “Moxi, do you want the throne?”

His hands stilled the strings, bringing the unfinished reverberation to a halting stop.

He didn’t look at me, staring at the strings instead when he nodded.

I laughed and said, “Then fight for it. I’ll follow you.” I placed the plum bough on top of the strings, caught his right hand and whispered, “This time, I won’t leave you.”

After that night, Moxi became even more swamped.

On the day they would be attacking the imperial fortress and right before going to the battlefield, Moxi suddenly dismounted his horse and, in front of everyone, clasped me in his arms. Despite feeling uncomfortable by the hard armor, I didn’t push him away. I let him linger by my side like a child for a while before I patted him on the shoulder: “Don’t worry, go.”

But how could I let him go to the battlefield alone? If I had to guess, what Moxi couldn’t seek as part of his trial was the throne. If he was destined to lose the throne, then I could at least help him stay strong after his defeat. We’d find a quiet place and live in peace for the rest of this life.

By the time he finished his three trials, the three lifetimes he promised me would also end. From that point on, we’d go our separate ways. He’d still be a superior god in Heaven while I’d continue to be an undying spirit in the underworld.

A perfect arrangement, wouldn’t you say?

When Moxi’s figure went out of sight, I recited an invisible spell and trailed behind the army.

The last battle played out with little suspense. So hopeless was the emperor’s plight that the soldiers defending his city were merely putting up futile resistance. The siege was smoothly carried out with nary a hitch in the plan. Just past noon, Moxi led his army into the city straight to the palace.

A strange feeling told me things were going too smoothly.

As if to confirm my suspicions, a white solitary figure was standing on the palace wall waiting for Moxi by the time he arrived, looking down at him and his army from above.

Bai Qi.

He must be forty or fifty by now. For a mortal, it was a feat for him to still have the energy to kick up a ruckus.

He waved his sleeve at which time archers suddenly emerged on the wall. They drew their bows, all pointing at Moxi.