Chapter 19

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Chapter 19: Song and Dance

Ji Yunhe mangled her hair by the creek, trying to figure out a new look.

Changyi sat next to her and watched, somewhat puzzled. "If Qing Ji was so fond of the man back then, how would you convince her that you're him?"

Ji Yunhe looked at her own reflection in the water and replied, "Qing Ji would surely be impossible to convince. But this is a cloud of emotions born from her grudge. She looks crazy and her brain is foggy..."

Changyi frowned again.

No need to wait for him to speak, Ji Yunhe already knew what this righteous and simple big-tailed fish was thinking. "Hey, big-tailed fish," she defended herself, "you have to know that she is just a pile of emotions abandoned here by the jade phoenix. She is not an entity and she is not alive. Plus we have no choice but to lie to her. You don't want to be trapped here forever, do you?"

The beautiful blue eyes looked down.

Ji Yunhe suddenly felt like she was coaxing a child...

She walked to Changyi's side and patted his shoulder.

"Li Shu had to give his life to help the jade phoenix escape. This is our only chance to get out of here." Ji Yunhe touched the box of antidotes that she was keeping close and her eyes glowed. "So I have to lie to that possessed demon, and I have to untie that knot in her heart. No matter what the method."

Changyi looked up again at Ji Yunhe, not expecting her to look so emotional.

"What's your plan?"

Ji Yunhe blinked away the determination and austerity in her eyes. She smiled and returned to her normally relaxed self.

"I..." she gave a crooked smile, "plan to go and 'reveal my identity' to her, then follow up with poems and songs to express my feelings. If that's not enough, then I will go with the flow, take her into my arms and sooth her… In short, tell her I love her."

Changyi shook his head in disapproval. "You lack sincerity in your words. It is not convincing."

"No sincerity? Unconvincing?" These words seemed like a challenge to Ji Yunhe. She squatted down, closed in on him, then raised a hand and reached for his long silver hair. "Of course..."

She lifted a strand of his hair to her lips, and before Changyi could react, gave it a soft, tender kiss.

"Having met such a gentleman, this true heart of mine, naturally, cannot stay with oneself."

Ji Yunhe held Changyi's hair steadily against her lips, her gaze was three parts tender and seven parts fierce, like a hook wanting to pull his heart out from his eyes.

But...

The blue eyes were like the sea that took in a hundred rivers, leisurely accommodating all of Ji Yunhe's tender loving provocations.

Changyi's face remained calm and serene.

It was like a punch landing on cotton. Ji Yunhe watched his waveless eyes for a while, then admitted defeat. She even felt like apologizing for her rude behavior.

The lips still pressing against his hair felt numb from embarrassment.

Ji Yunhe cleared her throat, released him, patted her hands, and stood up under his indifference.

She rubbed her nose and turned around awkwardly.

"You fish have no idea how things work in the human world. Anyway, if I do this to that possessed demon, nine out of ten it will succeed."

Ji Yunhe could not help but glance at him again. His face still looked as calm as ever. She decided she was dealing with a wall and changed the subject.

"Um, so, you seem to heal pretty fast. You fish people have pretty good health. Wait for me here. If I succeed, we will be able to get out. Just wait."

Ji Yunhe waved her hand and fled.

Changyi remained seated in the same position. The end of his lotus tail rested in the stream and fluttered a few times.

He watched her fade into the distance, then silently lowered his head and pulled up the strand of hair that she had kissed. He held it in his hand for a while, then turned and looked at his reflection in the water.

The ice blue eyes were now much darker than before.

Changyi sat in silence. After a long time, the color of his eyes was still a dark blue.

Suddenly, the huge tail whisked the water in the stream, breaking the silence with a loud splatter.

Cool water splashed over his head, wetting his body and hair.

The stream disturbed by his tail rippled a while then regained its calmness, and the mirror-like surface once again reflected the color of his eyes. The dark blue had finally receded, restoring his ice blue tranquility.

Ji Yunhe jogged all the way back to the pool.

She brushed off her feelings of embarrassment and cleared her throat.

The Wuchang Saint lived a hundred years ago. Even though history books were full of his merits and good deeds, they never recorded his personal life.

Perhaps the writers thought a saint did not need personal life.

Ji Yunhe could not guess what kind of personality he had from the books, but she could deduct from the demonic attachment's story. He was most likely not a cold, heartless person. Maybe he even had real feelings for Qing Ji.

Otherwise, with Qing Ji's trust and love for him, why would he bother tricking her into a seal. He could have just killed her instead of making promises to be together.

This Ning Ruochu was likely a righteous demon master with a kind and loving heart.

Ji Yunhe sorted everything out in her head, made a solemn face, and proceeded toward the attachment.

The bird was in human form again on top of the pool. But she did not sit still like before, instead, she was dancing.

Of all the demons, the jiaoren sang the most beautiful songs, and birds danced the most beautiful dances.

According to legend, when a phoenix danced in the nine skies, a hundred birds would come and pay their respects. Though the jade phoenix was not a true phoenix (The chinese character for the jade phoenix is actually a youth version. Once it matures it will become a true phoenix), its dancing was still among the best in the world.

She floated on the mirror-like water and danced amidst a frame of withered lotus flowers and black smoke. It was like a moving painting, breathtaking and surreal.

The woman in the painting searched high and low, paced back and forth, lingered and waited. But she would never get to see the one who had made the promise.

Ji Yunhe was enchanted and watched until the attachment took a turn and saw her standing there. She abruptly stopped her dance.

The rippling water soon became still.

"Who are you?"

Same question as last time. This possessed demon really did have a foggy brain. She had forgotten Ji Yunhe again.

"Don't you remember me?" Ji Yunhe asked her. "I'm Ning Ruochu."

The attachment's body stiffened and her feet unsteadily took a step back.

She stared intently at Ji Yunhe, then asked with trembling lips, "What took you so long?"

No probing, no doubting, the attachment just believed her.

Ji Yunhe felt that even if she had not wrapped her chest, pulled her hair up, and deliberately lowered her voice, the attachment would still believe she was Ning Ruochu.

Ji Yunhe had no idea why.

Perhaps the possessed demon was just simply mentally incomplete. Perhaps she had waited too long and was confused. Or perhaps... waiting for Ning Ruochu was a task that she needed to complete.

Just like how Ji Yunhe and Changyi had to find a way out, this possessed demon, too, had a goal. She was born out of the jade phoenix's obsession, so she needed to receive closure in order to be free.

She would have accepted it no matter who came and claimed to be Ning Ruochu.

Ji Yunhe could not think of any other explanation.

The attachment walked step by step toward her. Ji Yunhe did not know what the real Ning Ruochu would say at a time like this, so she simply stayed quiet, and walked step by step toward the pool.

The two came closer to each other. One could not leave the water, while the other one did not step into it.

She looked at Ji Yunhe, reflecting her shadow inside those blood red eyes.

"You said you would come and keep me company." Her eyes teared up. "I waited for you for a long time."

Crying again? She's such a crybaby.

The jade phoenix was a world-famous powerful demon. She would never cry so easily, so it made sense for this piece of stripped emotion to contain her most hidden inner vulnerabilities.

"I'm sorry." Being stared at like this by a crying woman, Ji Yunhe apologized out of instinct.

The real Ning Ruochu would probably have said the same thing.

And these two words triggered everything.

The demonic attachment stretched out her arms and wrapped them around Ji Yunhe, embracing her. The body was cool like water, but the words were tender and warm.

"I knew you would come."

Ji Yunhe suddenly thought of another possibility why this possessed demon believed her so easily.

Because she... or Qing Ji herself, believed that Ning Ruochu would definitely come, and that she would see him again.

So when someone entered the Ten Square Formation and claimed to be Ning Ruochu, whether it was a man or a woman, a god or a ghost, she would believe it.

Not because she believed that person, but because she believed in Ning Ruochu.

That he would definitely keep his promise and come find her, no matter in what form.

Qing Ji endured a hundred years of loneliness here in the formation. Maybe she had a lot of hatred, or resentment, and maybe these emotions were terribly strong... But in the end, they were all dissolved by a simple apology.

"You finally came."

Ji Yunhe's heart twitched.

The black smoke swirled and grew around the demonic attachment, celebrating her closure to a century of pain and suffering.

It danced like the feathers of a black phoenix and gracefully ascended into the sky.

A song sounded from the distance, seemingly unintentional, but it matched the rhythm of the dancing smoke.

The most beautiful dance and the most beautiful song, like a divine, heavenly combination. Ji Yunhe appreciated the perfection unfolding before her.

Then the song stopped and the dance dissipated. All that was left was the distant call of a phoenix, which soon faded away into nothing as well.

Ji Yunhe looked at the boundless golden sky and spaced out for a long time. Then a low sound of rumbling woke her up.

A large whirlpool appeared in the middle of the water where the demonic attachment had been, and it drained down at an astonishing speed.

Ji Yunhe froze. It was too late to think about the situation. All she knew was that this was the eye of the formation and their only way out. With this sudden and unexpected change, they probably had to leave right away or be trapped forever.

Ji Yunhe immediately took off and ran. Not to jump into the pool, but toward Changyi.

She did not want to become a second Ning Ruochu and make someone wait for a hundred years.

She made the promise, she had to keep it.

But before she was able to get far, the big-tailed fish already dashed over from the other end of the stream like an arrow.

He was faster than her legs by an immeasurable amount.

Ji Yunhe complained, "You can swim by yourself! Why did you make me carry you everywhere?!"

Being scolded as soon as he arrived, Changyi felt a bit perplexed. "We were not at the stream earlier."

"Forget it, there's no time to bicker," Ji Yunhe said as she rushed to his side. The two of them stood where the stream merged with the pool, and she pointed a finger. "Let's discuss this."

"Discuss what?"

"Look, earlier when the pool was overflowing, water flowed into the stream. Now with the pool sinking, the stream is pouring into the pool instead. There is nothing in this Ten Square Formation, so logically there shouldn't be water either. And among the five elements, water is the main source of life. Now with the water rapidly receding, according to my understanding, it means the way of life here is being cut off. This Ten Square Formation will soon become a dead formation. To get out, we have to jump now."

"Then let's jump."

"But this is just my guess, which could be wrong. It is also possible that if we jump, we will be trapped instead. What's down there and what will happen to us, I don't know."

Changyi turned his head to look at Ji Yunhe. "Both choices are uncertain, so what do you want to discuss with me?"

"Do you know rock, scissors and paper?"

Changyi: "..."

He was silent for a moment and asked, "What is that?"

Changyi thought it must be some kind of an extraordinary spell or magic weapon for her to bring it up at a time like this.

"Come." Ji Yunhe held out her hand.

Changyi followed and also extended his hand.

"This is rock, this is scissors, and this is paper," she said while demonstrating on her hand.

Changyi earnestly noted them down.

Ji Yunhe stared at his eyes and continued, "I'll count to three and you randomly gesture one of them. One, two, three!"

Ji Yunhe made paper, and although Changyi was confused, he made a rock with his hand.

She wrapped her palm around his fist. "I made paper that could wrap around your rock, so I win."

Changyi was dumbfounded.

The sound of water draining still roared inside their ears. He asked her, "So?"

"I've decided that if I win, we jump. If you win, we stay." She held his fist and smiled. "So, let's jump."

Changyi was confused again. This jiaoren that was always calm and waveless no matter how scary the situation, now had a face full of question marks.

"Just like that?"

Wasn't this a matter of life and death?

"When we have no choice, we might as well leave it up to fate."

Ji Yunhe did not wait for him to respond. She looked at him with a smile and fell backward into the draining pool, her hand still holding on to his with no intention of letting go.

A human hand was so much warmer than his. The heat seemingly channeled through his arm, into his heart, and down to every single scale on his tail.

Long silver hair flew in the air, a strand of it still grasping onto the residual warmth left by her lips.

Changyi silently watched her as she pulled his body down into the darkness.

He did not struggle or resist.

He felt that compared to him, this girl who jumped into an unknown abyss with a smile was more like...

… a demon.

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