Chapter 30 — Strange Arts
劍問蒼天 · Page 2 of 8
Tian Lingsu hesitated, then raised her head and looked at Zhang Qingyue. From childhood, this youngest junior brother had always been the companion closest to her after her parents. Now, in her heart, a vague thought seemed to stir: since when had Junior Brother Xiaofan always been so gentle with me?
Yet the thought only flickered past. Her heart was full of sorrow now, and at last she said to Zhang Qingyue, her voice choked with tears, "It's all because of Senior Brother Qi Hao!"
Zhang Qingyue's face went white in an instant, and his fists clenched involuntarily. He clenched them so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms.
"You still don't know, do you?" Once Tian Lingsu had begun, she held nothing back from this junior brother. But Zhang Qingyue was screaming inwardly: I know, I know, I've known all along!
The moonlight fell cold over the whole world.
"Senior Brother Qi Hao and I are in love. I told them—I truly, truly like him." Tian Lingsu had calmed a little, and did not notice that with every word she spoke, Zhang Qingyue's face lost another shade of color.
"But Father shouted at me, said I was being foolish—even Mother, who has always doted on me, turned pale and took Father's side. How could it be like this, Xiaofan?"
Zhang Qingyue lowered his head so that Tian Lingsu could not see his face, and said in a low voice, "How did Master and Mistress find out?"
In her agitation, Tian Lingsu did not notice the flaw, the strangeness in his words. Her mouth trembled, and she was almost weeping again: "I wouldn't have imagined it either, but later I learned that Senior Sister Wen Pei and the others from Xiaozhu Peak who share my quarters told Uncle-Master Shuiyue, and Uncle-Master Shuiyue told my mother. I'm so close with Senior Sister Wen Pei and the rest—I warned them again and again, but they still let it out, I—I—"
Her eyes stung, and at last the tears spilled over.
Zhang Qingyue said hoarsely, "Perhaps Master and Mistress have your best interests at heart. They are your parents—they would never do you harm!"
Tian Lingsu wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and cried, "What do they know! All they know is faction and prejudice. All they know is that Senior Brother Qi Hao is Uncle-Master Cangsong's prized disciple on Dragon Peak, all they know is that if I were with Senior Brother Qi Hao they would lose face in the Canglan Sect. They never once thought of me."
With a measure of grief, a measure of anger, and even a measure of resolve, she said, "What are face and reputation compared with my happiness? I really wonder whether they care more for face or for me, their daughter!"
Zhang Qingyue jerked his head up and looked at this senior sister who had suddenly become a stranger to him.
What grief was in that gaze!
Lost and helpless, like a fledgling that has lost its parents standing alone in wind and rain, grief shot through with a thread of terror—it pierced his very soul like a blade!
Zhang Qingyue was defeated by that gaze almost at once. A sorrow such as he had never known rose from his heart. If he could bear this woman's pain for her in this moment, he would shoulder any hardship, no matter how great—but he did not know what to say, and could only call softly:
"Senior Sister!"
"I want to be with him," Tian Lingsu said with utter resolution, and if she spoke to Zhang Qingyue, she spoke still more to her own heart and to the Tian Buhui couple who were not there. "I must be with Senior Brother Qi Hao. We have sworn our vows to each other. Even if Father and Mother oppose it, even if we must wait till the seas run dry and the rocks rot, we will be together."
She looked up at the night sky and swore this to the bright moon. Cold moonlight fell quietly upon her; she was beautiful as a lily blooming in the night with sorrow upon it, dazzling in her beauty—so dazzling that one forgot the desolate, dying shadow beside her.