Chapter 49 – The World’s Number One Beauty
The bronze bells chimed ethereally.
Twelve lanterns slowly rose, their thin bronze rods lifting twelve sun lamps from below. The lamps were shaped like Golden Crow Birds, with Red Pine Seeds burning on their backs to form a red sun. Each of their three claws held several flower slips woven from snow-silver thread, and bronze bells were tied underneath.
“Young Master Taiyu, please.”
Zuo Yuesheng politely gave the first turn to Taiyu Shi. On the surface, he was upholding the etiquette of a host, but in reality, he was letting him test the dangerous waters.
After all, it was their first time answering the “Twelve Questions of the White Flower,” so it was best to let Chou Bodeng get familiar with it and have a baseline.
Taiyu Shi snorted coldly and bowed to Heavenly Maiden Lian, “Heavenly Maiden, please proceed.”
Heavenly Maiden Lian knelt upright, her fair wrist holding back her sleeve. Her fingertips slid lightly over the bronze bells, and with a probe, she plucked a flower slip. “The Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, who can name them?”
Taiyu Shi replied gently, “Evening bell at a misty temple, night rain on the river. Geese landing on flat sand, distant returning sails. Autumn moon over an empty courtyard, fisherman’s evening glow. Evening snow on the river sky, mountain mist in the clear.”
“The mountain lantern shines north, how is it to be observed?”
“At the new moon, stand on Mount Penglai; at the full moon…”
As Heavenly Maiden Lian and Taiyu Shi continued their exchange of questions and answers, Monk Budu quietly stepped back and nudged Lu Jing with his elbow. “Is Benefactor Chou really confident?”
“Don’t worry.”
Lu Jing fanned himself with one hand while holding the other behind his back, his white sleeves fluttering, the very picture of foppishness.
“Young Master Chou is number one in the world.”
Although he said that, as the questions went on and Taiyu Shi’s answering speed gradually slowed, Lu Jing also began to feel a little nervous. He didn’t know if Heavenly Maiden Lian was intentionally trying to intimidate these troublemaking young masters, but the twelve questions covered everything from astronomy and geography to mathematics and rhetoric, and were as tricky as could be.
The Qin Tower was filled with whispers as many people tried to puzzle out the answers, finding them difficult to solve. By the seventh question, Taiyu Shi’s brow was furrowed. By the eighth, he was lost in thought. By the ninth, he was pacing back and forth.
The tenth question…
“Eleventh question: If a wooden pole is erected in Luo City, what is the length of its shadow?” Heavenly Maiden Lian asked softly.
Lu Jing, Zuo Yuesheng, and Monk Budu, whose brains were nearly tied in knots from calculating the celestial orbit these past few days, shuddered. Their conditioned reflex was to think, this is just inhuman, isn’t it? They weren’t given the Sun and Moon Record Table, the celestial or lunar tracks, or even the time of day. How were they supposed to calculate it?
Taiyu Shi, being from the Hundred Clans and a future Sky-Herder, was clearly as familiar with the `Celestial Calculation` as the other three. Hearing this question, he smiled wryly and asked in a gentle voice, “Is the Heavenly Maiden annoyed with me for disrupting the stage tonight and deliberately making things difficult?”
“Is Young Master Taiyu unable to answer?”
Heavenly Maiden Lian looked at him, her eyes shimmering.
“This question has no solution.”
Taiyu Shi shook his head.
“Then Young Master Taiyu’s questions of the white flower end here. What a pity.” Heavenly Maiden Lian gave a faint smile that reminded one of the shimmering light of the Qin and Wei rivers thousands of years ago. The faint annoyance Taiyu Shi had been feeling unconsciously dissipated in her smile, and he felt that it was pointless to argue with a weak woman.
Snickers rippled through the crowd.
Someone even shouted, “To use an unsolvable question to make things difficult, it truly shows that ‘only women and petty men are hard to deal with’!”
“Luo City has no shadow, so a pole erected there has no length.”
Amidst the clamor of the hall, a lazy voice rang out.
Everyone suddenly felt as if their ears had been brushed by a feather, a faint, tingling itch spreading. The speaker seemed a little drunk, his voice languid and slightly hoarse, but his tone was excellent. It sounded like clear ice being ground over fine, golden sugar.
Heavenly Maiden Lian’s hand, which was about to hang the snow-silver flower slip back on the lantern branch, paused, and she looked back in astonishment in the direction of the voice.
Seeing her reaction, the guests in the Qin Tower erupted.
He actually got it right?!
“This young master has answered correctly.” Heavenly Maiden Lian nodded gently. “The `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances`, Volume Three, `Annals of the World`, states: The Central Continent is unfixed, its shadows often drift. They appear according to its direction, and their measurements are irregular, just as Luo City has no shadow. Therefore, a pole erected in Luo City has neither length nor shortness.”
“The… the `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances`…”
Zuo Yuesheng’s eye twitched.
The `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances` was a book widely recognized as “full of nonsense,” with an unknown author and an unknown time and place of writing. Its content was extremely absurd and bizarre, obscure and difficult to understand, and full of errors. Some had tried to interpret it as a book of prophecy, but not a single image could be matched with the present world. As early as several thousand years ago, it had been definitively declared by great scholars of ancient literature to be the ravings of an anonymous person falsely attributing it to the ancients.
The `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances` had six volumes, each with 1,180,000 words. Since it was declared “nonsense,” no one was willing to study it anymore, let alone memorize its minute details.
To put such a question in the questions of the white flower… was it that they never intended for anyone to answer it?
It was simply absurd.
What was even more absurd was that someone had actually answered it.
For a moment, people looked in the direction of the voice, their gazes a mixture of admiration and the thought that he might be crazy.
“…To even know the `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances` by heart,” Monk Budu was speechless for a moment, then nudged Lu Jing again, thoroughly impressed. “This humble monk finally understands why you were so calm. Benefactor Chou is truly learned.”
Lu Jing smiled awkwardly.
In fact, he didn’t even know what the hell the `Comprehensive Record of the Six Balances` was… The reason he was so confident was purely because Chou Bodeng was the one among the three of them who read the most and the fastest, and who could “read ten lines at a glance and remember it all.” If that fellow Chou could finish a book as long and smelly as the `Records of Ancient Stone Steles` in one night, what in the world could stop him!!!
He didn’t know what was wrong with Chou Bodeng, a great profligate. Besides drinking, his greatest hobby was actually reading… all sorts of things…
Lu Jing had asked him why.
Chou Bodeng had looked indignant and said a bunch of things like “it’s all because there’s no internet, no computer, no phone,” and so on. Lu Jing didn’t know what the internet was, or what a computer was. He just felt that Young Master Chou was definitely crazy. Weren’t dice fun enough! Weren’t cockfighting and dog racing fun enough!
At that time, Chou Bodeng had looked at him with great pity, to the point that Lu Jing had the illusion that his own mental entertainment was incredibly impoverished.
Oh, the term “mental entertainment” was another one of Young Master Chou’s inventions.
Ting-ling-ling.
Heavenly Maiden Lian moved the twelve lanterns to draw everyone’s attention back, saying, “Is this young master willing to answer these Twelve Questions of the White Flower?”
As she spoke, she tried to confirm if the person coming out was the Little Martial Ancestor of Taiyi that Meiniang had mentioned.
Unexpectedly, Chou Bodeng didn’t come out at all, still lying lazily in the private room, his voice heard but not his person seen. The others, who wanted to see the true face of this “prodigy,” were both greatly disappointed and somewhat dissatisfied, thinking, the Heavenly Maiden invites you, what kind of unromantic and rude person would stay in the private room and not move?
Heavenly Maiden Lian pursed her lips and smiled, then lowered her head and plucked a snow-silver flower slip.
“Ruibin and Zhonglu, what is the interval between their sounds?”
Hearing this question, Lu Jing was stumped. From the literal meaning, it seemed to be asking for the distance between “Ruibin” and “Zhonglu,” but what was “Ruibin”? And what was “Zhonglu”? And how was the distance between these two things to be calculated? How could he not even understand the question anymore?
Was he really that stupid!!
“Ruibin corresponds to the middle of the Mao month. Fifteen days later corresponds to Yi, which is Zhonglu. The interval is fifteen days.”
In the private room, Chou Bodeng drained his cup.
Across from them, Ying Yuqiao understood something from the “add fifteen days,” vaguely guessing that this question was about astronomy and calendar science. He turned back to look at Taiyu Shi, who was from Kongsang, “Brother Taiyu, is what he said right or wrong?”
Taiyu Shi’s face was grim as he slowly nodded. “The ancient calendar used the twelve musical pitches to correspond to the solar terms. The spring equinox thunder corresponds to the sound of Ruibin. Add fifteen days, and it points to Yi, then the clear and bright wind arrives, corresponding to the sound of Zhonglu.”
But this middle antiquity calendar had long been abandoned. Only a Sky-Herder who had long studied calendar laws would know a thing or two. Who was this person answering the twelve questions now? Did he also know the ancient calendar?
“In a drought, one builds an earth dragon. In a flood, what does one prepare?” the Heavenly Maiden continued to ask.
“Dig a pond in opposition to it, to correspond to the weather.”
“The five elements are subtle and profound. What do they speak of?”
“Water is said to moisten and descend, fire to blaze and ascend, wood to be crooked and straight, metal to yield and change, and earth to permit sowing and reaping.”
The Heavenly Maiden’s pace gradually quickened, and the questions became stranger and more tricky.
Chou Bodeng’s tone remained the same from beginning to end, lazy and casual, answering as he pleased. The people in the Qin Tower were initially indignant that he didn’t come out, but gradually, no one whispered anymore, their faces filled with astonishment—especially when the Heavenly Maiden asked an extremely difficult arithmetic problem. It wasn’t that there weren’t people in the Qin Tower who were good at arithmetic. Hearing the question, they solved it a little in their minds and knew that it would take at least a day and a night of non-stop calculation with paper and brush.
But the person in the private room who hadn’t shown his face still gave the answer casually.
Lu Jing and Zuo Yuesheng saw the expressions on everyone’s faces clearly and were secretly pleased, thinking: A bunch of ignorant fools who have never seen the world. Young Master Chou is a ruthless person who can mentally calculate the celestial orbit and check four people’s work at the same time. A mere arithmetic problem is nothing to him!
The faster Chou Bodeng answered, the uglier Taiyu Shi’s face became.
They were both answering the twelve questions, but the person who hadn’t shown his face was advancing like a hot knife through butter. Didn’t that just make him seem all the more shallow and ignorant?
“In Cao Province, what god, with a rumbling belly, sings?”
“In the marsh, there is a Thunder God, with a dragon’s body and a human’s cheeks.”
Heavenly Maiden Lian put down the last snow-silver flower slip, letting out a soft sigh of relief in her heart.
Once one entered the Qin Tower, one’s body was no longer one’s own. But she had always hoped to be able to choose someone she didn’t dislike to spend the first night with through the Twelve Questions of the White Flower. She had not expected that this faint dream would also be shattered by Meiniang… At first, when she intervened in the conflict between Zuo Yuesheng’s group and Taiyu Shi, she was actually a little reluctant. But as the twelve questions passed, she couldn’t help but feel a trace of anticipation for the person she was about to meet.
At least he wasn’t a truly ignorant person, was he?
She smiled sweetly, “Young Master, congratulations on passing the Twelve Questions of the White Flower.”
“Young Master Chou is number one in the world!”
Lu Jing couldn’t hold back and raised his arms in a cheer.
“Young Master Chou is invincible!” Zuo Yuesheng saw the expressions on the faces of Ying Yuqiao and Taiyu Shi, which looked as if they had swallowed a fly, and gleefully joined in the cheering to annoy them.
“Bravo!”
Cheers erupted in the Qin Tower. The crowd, while jealous, also applauded and cheered in genuine admiration.
Amidst the cheers, Heavenly Maiden Lian pursed her lips and smiled, feeling that the rumored profligate was not as detestable as he was made out to be. At least in some aspects, he overlapped with the young hero in her heart.
“Young Master, I request a meeting.”
Heavenly Maiden Lian lowered her head, her cheeks slightly flushed, making the applauding crowd feel even more sour.
Was this the difference between people? The fairy you crane your neck for, afraid you won’t see her, is softly waiting for a man to come out and meet her. What was even more infuriating was that the person being invited hadn’t shown up after all this time.
Lu Jing coughed and was about to say something on Chou Bodeng’s behalf when he heard Chou Bodeng inside respond lazily:
“No.”
The applause came to an abrupt halt.
Everyone looked bewildered, suspecting they had misheard. Otherwise, how could someone so bluntly refuse the Heavenly Maiden’s invitation?
Heavenly Maiden Lian was slightly stunned and subconsciously asked, “Why?”
“Why should I see someone who isn’t even that good-looking?” Chou Bodeng retorted matter-of-factly.
The Qin Tower was silent for a moment, then erupted with a “boom.”
People from all directions glared fiercely at them, scaring Lu Jing, who had been so arrogant for so long, into hiding behind Zuo Yuesheng… Damn it, these people were so indignant they were about to charge over and tear them apart, weren’t they?! It was clear that the saying “lust clouds judgment” was true! In the face of beauty, there was never a shortage of hot-blooded fellows.
Not… that… good-looking?
A crack appeared in Heavenly Maiden Lian’s smile, and her nails nearly snapped the bronze bell.
Lu Jing listened to the jeers from outside, poked his head out, and, with great loyalty, defended Chou Bodeng by arguing with them, “Young Master Chou isn’t wrong. Compared to him, the Heavenly Maiden is just… just so-so! You’re all just frogs in a well to think she’s the number one beauty in the world!”
Zuo Yuesheng thought to himself, you’re already cowering in hiding, how dare you add fuel to the fire?
Splat.
Vegetable leaves and tea snacks were thrown at them like rain.
Zuo Yuesheng’s brow furrowed, “Whoever throws anything else will have to answer to the Mountain Sea Pavilion later!”
Hisses rose from all around, and someone in the crowd, pinching their voice, shouted, “Young Pavilion Master Zuo, in a place of romance, you don’t talk about romance. Does your father know you’re so arrogant?”
Zuo Yuesheng wiped his face and cursed inwardly at how malicious this person was.
His father could even dress as a woman and sing in a brothel, so how could he possibly act arrogantly in one?
“That’s right, that’s right!”
“A place of romance has its own rules!”
“…”
The verbal attacks were as loud as a boiling cauldron.
The Heavenly Maiden suppressed the blood rushing to her chest, regained her faint smile, and bowed gracefully in the direction of Chou Bodeng’s private room. “A-Lian has been shown great favor and elevated to the status of Heavenly Maiden. I dare not claim to be the number one beauty in the world. Although this humble girl is a woman of the pleasure quarters, I also know the principle of ‘if one hears the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening without regret.’ If this young master is willing to let this humble girl see what true first-rate beauty is, this humble girl will immediately resign as Heavenly Maiden… and die without regret!”
As she spoke the last words, her tone was firm and resolute, and she even had a bit of the fiery spirit of a woman of the martial world.
The crowd, on one hand, cheered for her, and on the other, loudly urged this fellow who claimed the “Heavenly Maiden was far inferior to him” to come out and show his face.
“You all are really noisy.”
A lazy, weary voice suppressed all the clamor.
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing stood on either side, parting the beaded curtain like fawning attendants.
Heavenly Maiden Lian was suddenly stunned. Across from her, the cold and arrogant Ying Yuqiao and Taiyu Shi were also stunned. Everyone who saw that red-robed figure was stunned… The young man walked past the two distinguished attendants and into the gazes of the people. His features were haloed by the clear light falling from the sky, the corners of his eyes were tinged with a flying red, and his glance was boundlessly bewitching. With raven-feather hair, snow-white skin, and fire-red robes, the entire Qin Tower suddenly dimmed, and all the rich and vibrant colors of the world were poured into him alone.
The entire hall was silent.
The young man walked toward a swordsman in the corridor and reached out to borrow his sword. The swordsman stared at him blankly and subconsciously handed over the sword he regarded as his life.
“You…”
The swordsman was lost in the glance the young man had just given him. The brilliance of the clear moon flowed over his dark pupils, but the corners of his eyes were haloed with a hazy, lazy crimson, like a sword stuck in a spider lily, so cold yet so bewitching. The swordsman lost the ability to speak, instinctively wanting to follow the young man’s departing figure and grab him.
The young man suddenly leaped down, his wide sleeves fluttering, like a bewitching vermilion blooming in the moonlight.
A gasp of shock went through the entire tower.
The twelve bronze bells were shaken by the wind stirred up by the young man’s descent, their ringing continuous, ethereal, and distant.
One bronze bell was flicked up by Chou Bodeng, sent flying into the air.
The snow-silver flower slip unfurled, and the words on it flashed in the moonlight.
“Who rides the yellow dragon, with a green snake in his ear?”
“South of Chi, west of Sha, it is Emperor Xia Yu!”
“Who hunts on Mount Heng, and for what does he hunt?”
“The Sky-Herder hunts in the south, to herd your bears and boars!”
The young man in red walked around the twelve lanterns, flicking the bronze bells into the sky one by one without a break. He recited as he walked, answered as he recited, four characters per line, two lines per stanza, gradually becoming like a song.
His voice was clear and peerless, his song high and distant.
It was once said that the “Twelve Questions of the White Flower” of the Qin Tower, when all the flower slips were connected, actually formed a magnificent and grand song of questioning heaven, questioning the heavens above and the netherworld below, seeking the eight wildernesses and tracing the four corners. This saying had been around for a long time, but no one had ever been able to answer all the snow-silver flower questions. So no one knew if there really was such an ancient song.
Until today, when a seemingly drunk, dreamy, and intoxicated young man came with the moon, this mystery was suddenly revealed.
The clear stream of the Qin and Wei rivers was shattered, but no one cared about that short-lived plain white peony anymore. Heavenly Maiden Lian was indeed a rare beauty, but her clear and elegant beauty was not worth mentioning in front of the young man who looked down on heaven and earth and answered his own questions. The Heavenly Maiden’s gaze was rain, was ripples, but his gaze was the karmic fire that burned the world, was the wisdom that did not ferry, was the grim magnificence that turned all beings upside down.
He questioned and answered, drunk and wild, decadent and bewitching, utterly invincible.
He didn’t look at the Heavenly Maiden, didn’t look at Taiyu, didn’t look at anyone, yet the corners of his eyes and brows flowed with so much bewitchment.
The entire Qin Tower fell silent on this night.
The number one romantic gilded den, which had stood on Red Railing Street for a thousand years, withstanding the impact of countless newcomers, was defeated on this night. The thousands of charming and bewitching women, their music, their talents, their romance, their peerless beauty, all came to nothing on this night.
When the proud sun rises, the firefly-like faint stars will disappear in its light.
The last bronze bell landed with a clang.
“When drunk, where do I return? Where will my bones be buried?”
“I sleep drunk in the mountains and seas, the rivers and streams will bury my bones!”
The young man laughed out loud, spun around, and the Red Pine Seeds carried by the twelve Golden Crow Birds on the twelve lanterns were flicked high into the air, colliding in mid-air to form a red sun, which crashed with a boom into the moon-like opening at the very top of the Qin Tower.
In the shadows, Meiniang was startled and was about to rush out to stop it, but it was already too late.
Glazed tiles fell from the sky like a flurry of snow, and a great fire “poofed” into existence on the roof of the Qin Tower.
***
The long Red Railing Street boiled over with activity.
“Fire—fire—”
First, a night watchman screamed at the top of his lungs, his soul nearly leaving his body. Then, the entire street was thrown into chaos: prostitutes with disheveled hair, terrified young servants, and disheveled clients and drunks, furious madams, and warriors and thugs with sabers and swords… The sounds of directing firefighting, shouting to catch people, and cursing were all mixed together in a chaotic mess.
Zuo Yuesheng pushed his way through, clearing a path in front.
The three of them ran for their lives.
“If you’re going to crash the party, crash the party. Why burn down the building?!” Lu Jing asked, panting as he ran.
The Red Pine Seed was also known as “Fire Essence.” A single one could burn for a thousand years and could only be contained in cold copper to restrain its fierceness. Once released from its container, it could instantly cover several kilometers. Just now, Chou Bodeng had flicked up twelve Red Pine Seeds with his sword, not only burning the dome of the Qin Tower but also setting fire to most of its roof!
Not only that, but the fire spread in an instant, quickly involving the buildings on either side and setting fire to most of Red Railing Street.
Fortunately, the Mountain Sea Pavilion was famous for its lantern market, and fires were a common occurrence. As soon as the sparks started, everyone reacted faster than a rabbit. The experienced patrol and firefighting team of the Mountain Sea Pavilion was instantly in position and began their numb and proficient firefighting work… The problem was, a fire on the territory of the Mountain Sea Pavilion wouldn’t cause any deaths, but the arsonist, whether intentional or not, would be hunted down by everyone.
Mainly because the repairs afterwards would cost money.
As the number one brothel that had stood for a thousand years without falling, the Qin Tower naturally had its own masters guarding it.
Previously, when they were fighting with Taiyu Shi and Chou Bodeng was crashing the party, it was a conflict between juniors, and the cultivators guarding the tower wouldn’t really make things difficult for a few second-generation scions over such a small matter. But setting fire to the building was a different story!!!
As soon as he saw the fire, Zuo Yuesheng made a decisive decision. He sold out his teammate, pushed Monk Budu into the murderous crowd, and shouted, “Monk, sacrifice yourself for the people for a bit. I’ll reward you with three hundred taels of silver later!” Then, he and Lu Jing grabbed Chou Bodeng and ran for it.
“Run, run!” Zuo Yuesheng urged as he cleared the way. “If we get caught, we’ll have to pay for it ourselves.”
Chou Bodeng was being pulled along by them, his eyes slightly closed, his head nodding, half-asleep.
It was a rare moment of quiet.
Lu Jing was speechless.
“Damn it,” he cursed. “He’s really drunk.”
The three of them wanted to escape quickly, but the street was crowded with people, making it difficult to move. Just as they were about to be caught, someone said crisply, “This way,” and pulled them into a hidden alley.
“Thanks… why is it you?”
Zuo Yuesheng looked in astonishment at the girl in white cowering in the alley, Heavenly Maiden Lian.
“You… you… you…”
Heavenly Maiden Lian raised her index finger to her lips, signaling them to be quiet, and pressed herself against the alley wall.
Several gusts of wind swept over their heads.
“Alright,” the Heavenly Maiden lowered her hand and answered Zuo Yuesheng’s earlier question. “I escaped.”
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing looked at each other, not understanding why this woman was so magnanimous… Lady, just now, that fellow Chou mercilessly crashed your party! Your magnanimity in repaying grievance with kindness is truly moving, and also truly alarming!
Heavenly Maiden Lian shook her head gently, “No matter how glorious the Heavenly Maiden is, she is still just a helpless duckweed in the wind, at the mercy of others… If I had the chance, who would want to be a rootless duckweed, swaying with the ripples? Since I risked my life to run out, I never thought of going back alive. I won’t hide it from you three young masters. In the tower, someone wanted me to deliberately get close to one of you.”
“Who?”
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing asked subconsciously.
Heavenly Maiden Lian didn’t answer directly. A fire dragon swept past a nearby painted building, half-illuminating the alley. She walked over on the flagstones that were like paved glaze. Only then did Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing realize that she had run out barefoot. A small bronze bell was tied to her ankle, and it made a light, pleasant sound as her toes touched the ground.
She was no longer the cold moon fairy kneeling on the white jade platform, no longer so perfect, but she had suddenly become alive, a pretty and simple young girl.
“You.”
She walked up to Chou Bodeng, stood on her tiptoes, and gazed intently into his eyes, into the deep blackness hidden under his long lashes.
Lu Jing sucked in a breath of envy, and sourly poked Zuo Yuesheng, thinking to himself, being good-looking really has its advantages. After crashing the party, the girl is still willing to throw herself at him.
“I’ll tell you who wanted to test you. Will you take me away?”
The Heavenly Maiden tilted her head up, pleading, her eyes shimmering with tears. Even a woman would be moved with pity.
“Are you trying to seduce me?”
Chou Bodeng asked with some confusion.
“But you’re not that good-looking.”
The Heavenly Maiden’s tears were stuck on her eyelashes, unable to fall.
Chou Bodeng was about to say something when he suddenly sensed something and looked in one direction of the alley. Then he raised his chin slightly, “Hmm… at least you have to look like him, right?”
Him? Like him?
Lu Jing and Zuo Yuesheng, who were watching the show, suddenly felt a chill run down their spines. They turned their heads stiffly and looked in the direction Chou Bodeng had indicated.
A young man in black with a scarlet saber stood there, his lips pressed into a straight line, not saying a word.