Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Kiss?
Asking her to initiate a kiss?
Madam Ya had never seen anything like this before!
Of course, she had never been so close and intimate with any other scholar before.
Many of those students were always filled with desire and lust whenever they saw her. However, nobody had dared to be this direct with her.
Hence, when Xu Que said this, Madam Ya was taken aback as well.
Still, Madam Ya felt like she was in a dream and didn’t have much to worry about. She closed her eyes and mustered her courage before leaning forward and planting a kiss on Xu Que’s lips.
Passion!
Gentleness!
Strength!
Being around him made her feel warm, safe and secure.
Could it be… that this was how it felt to kiss a man?
It’s no wonder that so many women would lose sleep because of something like this!
It was such a shame that after so many years, she had been sleeping alone on a large bed and she had never experienced anything as sweet as this. The only time she was exempted from such feelings was when she dreamt.
‘So soft! Madam Ya’s little lips are truly different from those of other women!’
When Xu Que felt Madam Ya kissing his lips, he too felt something extraordinary.
However, he could also feel Madam Ya’s nervousness and lack of experience. She was even shuddering slightly when she kissed him.
All of a sudden, Xu Que thought about how the dog Emperor had sealed her here, forbidding her to leave. He then thought about how she was subjected to a lifetime of loneliness, since she had to remain pure for the dogshit Fire God. Xu Que felt that such a practice of condemning a woman to singlehood by force was an intolerable one. Something that he couldn’t stand.
He truly couldn’t stand it. He had to go and rescue Madam Ya even if it meant giving up his own body while doing so!
That’s right! In order to destroy the protection and blessing of the Fire God, all he had to do was to break… Madam Ya’s purity!
Thinking this way, Xu Que’s eyes gleamed.
Since he knew that this is needed in order to destroy the entire Fire Nation, he realized that he didn’t have much choice but to sacrifice his noble self for the greater good!
However, when he saw the gentle and charming smile which lingered across Madam Ya’s face, Xu Que suddenly recalled his purpose here. The reason he had broken into her compounds was to make her shed tears!
With that reason, he would have to make her cry. But why was he making Madam Ya laugh now?
‘This cannot do. Making her laugh meant that the mission was failing. How can I just care about my own pleasure and forsake the mission?’
But how should he make her cry?
Could it be to… make her cry while sleeping with her?
No, no, no, the Act Tough King is a true gentleman!
Although Xu Que knew that he could make her cry from how good he was, doing something like this was too vicious and lowdown and he shouldn’t even consider this.
But to fulfill a mission like this, he had to have a certain domineering approach to this while acting tough!
His head could break and his blood could leak, but he must never forsake his toughness!
He raised his head gently and turned to the side. It was then that he noticed a musical instrument by the side of Madam Ya’s bed. It was a pipa and an idea formed in his head.
Since Madam Ya had always enjoyed talented individuals and she had a deep appreciation for good lyrics, that was how he was going to accomplish the mission.
When the idea had formed in his head, Xu Que gently extricated himself from Madam Ya before speaking gently to her,
How can we not have music at such a setting? I wonder if Madam Ya would agree if you played the pipa while I sing to it? I shall create an ambience and compose a song for you. How about that?
Official sir, I shall obey your commands!
Madam Ya spoke out, knowing how Xu Que was very talented.
All he had to do was open his mouth and streams of brilliant poems could flow from it. A step was all that was needed to compose poems which had never been heard in thousands of years. Madam Ya then flipped herself off the bed and took the pipa in her embrace. She then asked,
Does the official want something with a fast beat or a slow beat?
Slow beat. You should accompany the beat of my qin…
As soon as Xu Que said this, he whipped out his qin from the system inventory and started strumming to the famous Pipa Tune.
At the same time, Madam Ya’s eyes opened wide as she started playing her pipa as well, accompany Xu Que’s instrument. As she pricked her ears to hear, she harmonized perfectly and in sync with his qin.
Xu Que exhaled deeply as he started singing.
At night, by the Xunyang River to a guest, we bid farewell. With autumn chills, maple leaves and reed flowers fell.
On the boat was the guest, on a horse arrived the host. Alas there was no music; still we raised cups for a toast,
Drunk without joy; in sadness we had to say goodbye. The river was misty then, reflecting the moon up high.
Suddenly across the water came the sound of pipa. The host forgot to leave and the guest didn’t depart.
Towards the sound in the darkness we inquired about the player. The playing stopped but the player hesitated to answer…
The lyrics were paired very naturally with Xu Que’s high voice as he sang. The sounds of the pipa and the qin caused the story to almost come alive before their eyes.
To ask the musician to join us, we moved our boat closer. Adding wine and brightening lamps, we resumed the dinner.
Only after many pleas did she come out of her place, still holding the pipa that shadowed half of her face.
When the line ‘still holding the pipa that shadowed half of her face’ was sang, Xu Que looked right into Madam Ya’s eyes.
Madam Ya was taken aback by this as well, as she inadvertently took the role of the female lead in the story.
She was rather curious as well. Xu Que sang this beautiful song as though he had a purpose. A story to tell her.
She plucked the strings and turned the pegs to tune. Even before the music started, we already felt boon.
Her notes were restrained but full of sentiment as if she was voicing her lifelong disappointment.
The bass strings rumbled like thunderstorms pelting. The treble strings rustled like lovers whispering.
Rumbling and rustling interwove at a fast rate, like large and small pearls falling on a jade plate.
…
Yet a dark and gloomy feeling had grown. At this moment, silence eclipsed any sound.
In each stanza, Xu Que’s lyrics and songs were already brilliant but were made better by the sounds of their instruments playing together. Just hearing the lyrics would be enough to dampen anyone’s mood for it was such a sad song. The line ‘at this moment, silence eclipsed any sound’ was particularly effective!
She said that the capital was originally her home. She lived in the neighborhood of the ancient tombs.
An accomplished pipa player at the age of thirteen, she was with the music school and on the elite team.
Over the years, she indulged herself in pleasure and feast. Autumn moon and spring breeze were noticed the least.
Then her brother enlisted and her aunt was deceased. As time went on, her beauty gradually decreased.
Fewer and fewer carriages stopped by her door. Finally, she married a merchant when a youth no more.
The merchant was profit-minded, always on the road. He went to Fuliang to buy tea two months ago.
…
In this uncaring world we are two wretched drifters, treasuring this encounter even though we’re strangers…
The beautiful chords and tune was played to emphasize the sorrowful story. A pipa playing lady didn’t have a choice but to marry the merchant. This further reiterated Madam Ya’s loneliness and sadness in the depths of her heart.
The pipa lady married the merchant, who only cared about profits but was never around and flourished at her expense…
Wasn’t this a representation of how the Fire Emperor married her off to the Fire God as a sacrifice? He benefited from this but sacrificed her life and happiness.
There are way too many pitiful women in this world!
And most of these women were often oppressed by the same means. Thinking up to this point, Madam Ya was already teary eyed. Before long, tears started to stream down her cheeks.
Xu Que was also sighing out incessantly. He never thought that the song which he plagiarized would also affect him as much as it had affected Madam Ya.
He saw that Madam Ya was tearing but didn’t make any attempts to console her. This was because the song had said ‘In this moment, silence eclipsed any sound’. Hence, he remained quiet while he secretly collected her tears.
Madam Ya then slowly placed the pipa down and looked at Xu Que. The line ‘In this uncaring world we are two wretched drifters, treasuring this encounter even though we’re strangers’ echoed in her mind.
Also, Madam Ya still felt like this was still inside her surreal dream. Maybe it was only in her dreams that this unobtainable and multi-talented Li Bai could become so bold and brazen to personally come down here and accompany her?
Since it was just a dream, why should she care so much then?
Why should she worry about the Fire God?
Why should she care about the well-being of the nation?
Why should she care about the protection of the Fire God?
Everything… disappear!
She then stood up and walked towards Xu Que before she allowed her robes and every inch of clothing on her body to fall off, completely exposing every bit of her body to Xu Que.
Official sir, it’s time we took a break…
The warm and gentle tone in her voice was coupled with a certain insistence as she pushed Xu Que gently onto the bed.
