Chapter 30 – Projection of the Stars
The school of fish was like a flock of birds, arcing and swirling. The sky was stained a rosy twilight hue.
The youths stood at the bow, holding their breath in concentration. Elder Tao sat in his cabin room, his hand, withered like an old pine, holding a pipe. The Ru Fish swam past the window, the light from their scales casting reflections on his white hair. He stared out at the swimming fish for a long time, lost in thought, before finally sighing and tapping the ash from his pipe onto the table.
The Heavenly Snow Boat was finally carried down to the ground by the school of fish.
Chou Bodeng stepped onto a ladder formed by a line of Ru Fish and descended from the flying boat.
Once they truly landed in the city, they discovered it was enveloped in a continuous, fine rain, the threads of water connecting heaven and earth. It seemed the Ru Fish used this moisture to patrol the skies.
Tiny raindrops clung to Chou Bodeng’s eyelashes. He silently gazed at the city in the distance. The rooftops and archways all stood behind a misty curtain of rain, their undulating, soaring lines imprinted in the depths of his eyes, brilliant yet solitary.
A heavy thud sounded.
“Fuck,” Zuo Yuesheng cursed as he climbed up from the ground, soaking wet. “What’s going on? Even the fish play favorites?”
He had followed Chou Bodeng down without any suspicion. Just as he was about to step onto the back of a Ru Fish, the school suddenly scattered in all directions like a burst of fire. Zuo Yuesheng, stepping on air, instantly fell face-first, landing squarely in the mud.
“You all be the judge! Am I, the dignified Young Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, only worthy of a face-plant in the mud!” Zuo Yuesheng wiped the muddy water from his face and shouted indignantly.
“He’s the Little Martial Ancestor of Taiyi. In terms of status, he’s higher than your dad. What’s a Young Pavilion Master who might be ‘deposed’ at any moment?” Lu Jing, having learned from Zuo Yuesheng’s experience, had carefully used his energy to get off the boat. He was actually a bit jealous too, but seeing that Zuo Yuesheng’s treatment was even worse than his own, he instantly felt better.
As the saying goes, others ride horses while I ride a donkey, and behind me, there are still people walking…
Contentment brings happiness.
“Are… are you the immortal elders who have come to Ru City?” A person hurried out from the curtain of rain. “Ru City has rain all year round, and the air is damp. Please forgive us, immortal elders.”
The person was holding seven or eight umbrellas. As he spoke, he struggled to hand them out to Chou Bodeng and the others who had just disembarked from the flying boat. In the flurry of activity, an umbrella tucked under his arm fell to the ground with a thud. He apologized profusely and bent down to pick it up, but Lou Jiang picked it up first. When he stood up, they came face to face.
“Wait a minute!”
Lou Jiang gripped the umbrella tightly, his eyes wide.
The newcomer was a young man dressed in the deep red ritual robe of Ru City. Although he was tall, his face was very fair and delicate. For some reason, Lou Jiang found this face extremely familiar… the kind of familiar that comes from seeing it a hundred or two hundred times every day…
“You… you’re… you are…”
Lou Jiang suddenly started to stammer.
Chou Bodeng and the others had already opened their umbrellas and walked ahead. Hearing the commotion, they all turned back.
They turned to see Lou Jiang and the newcomer, one holding the handle and the other the tip of the umbrella, staring at each other for a long time. The usually composed and steady Lou Jiang was showing a rare look of astonishment, as if he had unexpectedly met someone he had been longing for yet could never reach. The person opposite him, on the other hand, looked flustered, as if he had never expected to be recognized in such a sorry state… Chou Bodeng suddenly understood why Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing were so fond of gossiping about him and Shi Wuluo. The heart of a gossip truly beats in everyone.
“I bet eight taels,” Lu Jing whispered. “These two definitely have a past. Maybe Lou Jiang is the pitiful one who was ‘jilted’.”
“What?” Zuo Yuesheng was furious. “What bastard would dare to jilt someone with the surname Lou?!… I’ll bet ten taels that Lou Jiang still has feelings for him.”
Chou Bodeng carefully looked at the young man, then at Lou Jiang, and said decisively, “No, I think it’s one-sided on Lou Jiang’s part.”
Lou Jiang, whether jilted or harboring one-sided feelings, was completely unaware of the betting going on. He just stared intently at the person opposite him.
“You… you are…”
“No, I’m not,” the other person quickly denied, trying to pull the umbrella from Lou Jiang’s hand.
Lou Jiang held on tight, and the two were locked in a tug-of-war.
“Yes, it’s him.”
Elder Tao’s aged voice cut in.
“You’re not mistaken.”
As soon as he heard Elder Tao’s voice, the newcomer immediately let go, covered his face with his sleeve, and turned to flee.
“Where are you going?” Elder Tao Rong scolded. “You don’t even greet your master when you see him? Did I teach you to be such an ungrateful bastard?”
Lou Jiang stumbled a few steps, unable to believe it. “He’s Zhou Ziyan?”
“That’s right,” Elder Tao Rong exhaled a puff of smoke and said heavily. “Mind Illumination at three, Unconfused at six, Soul-Fixing at twelve, and Enlightenment at sixteen. He is the only disciple of the younger generation to have left a sword mark on the Pavilion’s stone. The former number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, and now the number one talent at nursing babies.”
Lou Jiang clutched the umbrella and staggered back several steps.
The young man’s face was indeed very familiar, because he had truly looked at it a hundred or two hundred times every day.
Lou Jiang hadn’t always been so composed and steady.
The reason he had become this way was because he had once overheard the elders talking, saying that while his talent was indeed excellent, it was still far inferior to the Zhou Ziyan of the past. Their words were filled with regret. Lou Jiang, who considered himself the leader of the younger generation of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, had never expected there to be a day when he was inferior to someone, and “far inferior” at that.
Lou Jiang spent three days and three nights going through the sect’s disciple records and finally found the entry for “Zhou Ziyan”… This person was indeed the number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion. Lou Jiang was stunned by his cultivation record. It was just that for some reason, the records only went up to his Enlightenment at sixteen, and then there was no further news. It also seemed that no one in the sect ever mentioned him.
That single word, “far,” had spurred Lou Jiang to study with extreme diligence, vowing that one day he would replace this person in the eyes of the elders. He had even secretly copied the portrait of Zhou Ziyan from the disciple register and, whenever he felt restless in his cultivation, would use it as a target to practice the accuracy of his flying sword…
In Lou Jiang’s imagination, one day in the future, he would cross paths with Zhou Ziyan.
At that time, after a clash of sabers and swords, a fierce battle between dragon and tiger, he would cast a disdainful gaze and declare from a superior position: “The Mountain Sea has new talents in every generation. You are no longer yesterday’s number one.”
But Lou Jiang had never imagined that when his long-time rival walked out of his imagination, he would be… he would have such an image!
“Teacher, can’t you give me some face in front of my junior brother?” Zhou Ziyan lowered his sleeve and smiled awkwardly. “What do you mean ‘nursing babies’? At least use ‘City Diviner of Ru City’…”
—No wonder Lu Jing thought Lou Jiang had been “jilted.” This former number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s appearance was truly misleading. Though his clothes were proper and his hair was neat, on his back were two babies in two colorful cloth slings!
As he spoke, the two babies were woken up and began to cry one after another, “Waa, waa.”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, be good, be good.”
Zhou Ziyan reached his hands behind his back and rocked the two children with such practiced skill that it was clear he was already a master of childcare.
Lou Jiang’s face looked like the sky was falling.
Chou Bodeng and the others were dumbfounded.
Elder Tao, furious, pointed at Zhou Ziyan with his pipe and said to Lou Jiang, “Why are the Pavilion Master and the elders unwilling to mention him? You think it’s some unspeakable secret? Pah! It’s because they’re ashamed to mention him! He reached Enlightenment at sixteen. Pavilion Master Zuo almost broke with tradition to make him an elder in the Pavilion directly and was about to convene the inner cabinet to discuss it. But this guy was dead set on resigning from the sect to go back to the inner cabinet and be an oracle master. Nine oxen couldn’t pull him back. Since then, he hasn’t made any progress! If you ever use this kid as a role model again, watch out, or this old man will whip you!”
“It’s not that I haven’t made any progress…” Zhou Ziyan said sheepishly. “Didn’t I get promoted from oracle master to City Diviner?”
“You still have the nerve to say that?” Elder Tao threw his pipe at him. “You were at the Enlightenment stage when you left, and after more than ten years, you’re still at the Enlightenment stage. Don’t call me teacher anymore. I don’t have a disgraceful student like you.”
Zhou Ziyan immediately shut his mouth.
Lou Jiang turned around and walked unsteadily towards the Heavenly Snow Boat.
“What’s wrong with him?” Lu Jing asked in a low voice.
“His fanboy filter shattered. He can’t accept reality for a moment,” Chou Bodeng answered, holding his umbrella and pinching his chin.
Clang.
Lou Jiang, hearing this, slammed his head directly into the flying boat.
“Who the hell is his fanboy—”
Lou Jiang turned his head and roared ferociously.
The two babies, who had just quieted down, were frightened by him and started crying again. Zhou Ziyan began to skillfully soothe the children again. Elder Tao started puffing smoke from his nostrils like a train… The Ru Fish swam gracefully. Chou Bodeng looked around and suddenly didn’t feel that this city was “solitary” at all.
***
Zhou Ziyan, holding a baby in each arm, led the group through the streets and alleys.
“Ru City produces scarlet silk, its color so vibrant it is unparalleled in the world…”
As Zhou Ziyan walked, he introduced the city to them.
The silk industry in Ru City was extremely prosperous. Almost every household had a cloth rack at its door. The dyes used for the cloth were stored in ceramic vats, glowing faintly. Zhou Ziyan explained to everyone that the Ru Fish of Ru City shed their scales once a year. The people of Ru City would collect the shed scales, grind them into powder, and the cloth dyed with this powder would be the exact same color as that Red Ru Fish.
The people of the city called the cloth obtained in this way “Bestowed Red,” its status equivalent to the people of Fu City ladling water from the Reed River to brew wine with fallen leaves.
Chou Bodeng held his umbrella and walked behind Zhou Ziyan.
On the poles on both sides of the street hung red cloths and scarlet silks of varying shades. Red Ru Fish of all sizes darted back and forth between the bolts of cloth, like fish in the sea chasing waves. The rain fell on the silk, and the more the water washed it, the redder the cloth became. Occasionally, the dye in a vat would be splashed into the air by the tail of a swimming fish, turning into a streak of light before dissipating, like a small firework.
Along the way, Red Ru Fish would constantly come over, bumping Zhou Ziyan’s hand with their foreheads, patting his cheek with their glittering tails, and hooking his hair with their fins.
Zhou Ziyan seemed completely used to this.
The school of Ru Fish was magnificent and beautiful when gathered together, but when scattered throughout the city, they seemed lively and cute, whether following people, chasing each other in groups of three or two, or hiding and appearing suddenly in corners. Zuo Yuesheng and the others couldn’t help but reach out, wanting to play with them, but as soon as their hands extended, the Red Ru Fish would dart away like lightning.
On the contrary, there were quite a few Red Ru Fish around Chou Bodeng, who was concentrating on holding his umbrella and walking.
They chased his sleeves and hem, played hide-and-seek around him, and occasionally bumped into the back of his hand. Chou Bodeng caught a small fish that had bumped into him, and it didn’t struggle.
“The little ones are a bit naughty,” Zhou Ziyan apologized for them.
Chou Bodeng shook his head, indicating it was fine.
He brought his hand in front of his eyes.
He was actually just loosely cupping it; a small Ru Fish of this size could easily swim out. But it stayed quietly, its peach-blossom-like gills opening and closing, the light from its body shining through the cracks between his fingers, bright and dark. Chou Bodeng had the feeling that he wasn’t holding a fish, but a small star.
“This is the first time I’ve seen them so close to someone from outside the city,” Zhou Ziyan remarked. “They like you.”
Like… him?
Chou Bodeng opened his hand. The small Ru Fish gently touched his fingertip, then wagged its tail and swam out from under the umbrella.
They could stay in the rainless air, but not for too long.
“I see that Immortal Elder Chou’s red robes are made from the scarlet silk of Ru City,” Zhou Ziyan said to Chou Bodeng. “Are you interested? I can take you to see the divine fish that bestows the red.”
“With so many fish, can you tell which one it is?”
Zuo Yuesheng asked. He was actually a little curious about Zhou Ziyan, this former number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion. Once, when his old man was drunk, he had slammed the table and cursed this name for half the day, and in the process, had also cursed him for half the day, saying that if he had one-tenth of Zhou Ziyan’s promise, he wouldn’t have to worry so much.
But Zuo Yuesheng wasn’t like Lou Jiang. He was big-hearted and broad-minded. Reverse psychology was useless on him. He had no desire to be “one-tenth” of anyone.
Wasn’t being a profligate more enjoyable than being a genius?
“I can tell,” Zhou Ziyan smiled and pointed to two fish. “Look, this one is a deep dan color, and this one is a light tong color. Its tail is a bit longer, and this one’s is a bit shorter… They’re very easy to recognize.”
Zuo Yuesheng and the others silently watched as two fish that were practically identical in size, shape, and color swam past them together.
…Very easy to recognize?
“But I’m the City Diviner, so I don’t need to recognize them to know who is who,” Zhou Ziyan smiled and added as an explanation.
“There must be over a hundred million fish in Ru City,” Ye Cang suddenly interjected.
Zhou Ziyan looked at this tall, thin youth with a serious expression and strange clothes following behind the Little Martial Ancestor of Taiyi in surprise, and nodded slightly.
“Even for a City Diviner, it’s not a simple matter to recognize so many fish,” Ye Cang said.
He used to be an oracle master in Fu City, and the most talented one at that.
The fish in Ru City were as numerous as the leaves on a Fu tree, and even Ye Cang wouldn’t say that he could recognize the difference between every single leaf on a Fu tree.
Elder Tao Rong snorted heavily.
The somewhat listless Lou Jiang suddenly understood why Zhou Ziyan had “made no progress” since resigning from the sect and returning to the city… A guy who could recognize every single fish in the entire city would be lucky to have any time to cultivate at all!
“Ahem, ahem…” Zhou Ziyan quickly changed the subject. As he passed a house, he handed the child in his left hand to a woman who had just come out of the house. “Auntie Yang, you’re done hanging the cloth.”
The woman took the child and smiled gratefully at Zhou Ziyan. “Ziyan, are you receiving people again? This must be Liu family’s Huzi. Leave him here too. I’ll take him to Sister-in-law Liu later. Business is more important.”
The people of Ru City, perhaps because they were born and raised in the misty rain, spoke with a soft and gentle accent.
“I thought the two children were his.”
Chou Bodeng said in a low voice to Lu Jing and the others.
Lu Jing and the others nodded silently.
—They had thought so too at first.
Soon, Chou Bodeng and the others witnessed just how many children Zhou Ziyan had taken care of in this city… Any toddler who could walk would stumble over to grab his sleeve and hug his leg. Those who couldn’t walk would pull themselves up in their cradles and babble at him. And Zhou Ziyan seemed to have a special way with them. His sleeves seemed to hide an endless supply of candies and pastries, and he could pull out a piece at any time to send them on their way.
“He’s single-handedly running the entire city’s kindergarten.”
Chou Bodeng remarked.
No wonder Elder Tao cursed him as the “number one talent at nursing babies,” and no wonder the Mountain Sea Pavilion looked like they were about to strike his name from their records.
Any sect that had a rare genius and waited with high hopes for him to grow into another pillar of the sect, to shine brightly and stun the other sects, only for this genius to go astray halfway through his growth, giving up a world-renowned reputation to hide in a small corner and raise fish and nurse babies…
Anyone would be furious!
Chou Bodeng felt that in his previous life, Zhou Ziyan would have been a prime example of someone who got into a top university, dropped out midway, and went back to his hometown to raise pigs.
He might even have made the news.
“Actually, I’m more curious about one thing…” Lu Jing looked left and right. “Why don’t any of them use umbrellas? Why don’t their clothes get wet in the rain?”
“Amitabha,” Monk Budu said, fiddling with his Buddhist beads and smiling. “Benefactor Lu may not know, but the people of Ru City are given a Life Scale by a fish after they are born. Those who receive a Life Scale become like fish, adapted to the rain and fond of the damp. However, the Life Scale is only revealed during the grand ceremony.”
Zhou Ziyan looked at Monk Budu in surprise. “Has this master been to Ru City before?”
“I cannot be called a master, I cannot be called a master,” Monk Budu said smugly. Ever since his “Three Crossings and Three Non-Crossings” saying had spread far and wide, very few people had addressed him with such respect. For a moment, he felt quite nostalgic. “This humble monk just happened to hear someone mention it.”
“Master is very knowledgeable,” Zhou Ziyan said. “That is indeed the case… Ah, we’ve arrived at the City Divination Department. Please, come inside.”
This was the first time Chou Bodeng had entered a City Divination Department.
In Fu City, Chou Bodeng had not been interested in the City Divination Department at first. Later, during the Fu City incident, heavenly fire had inundated several streets in the east of the city, destroying the City Divination Department along with them—part of this was likely due to the former City Diviner Ge Qing’s intention to destroy evidence with the fire. From the time Chou Bodeng woke up until he left, Fu City was still busy cleaning up the streets and caring for the Fu tree, and had not had time to rebuild the City Divination Department.
Each city’s City Divination Department had its own unique style.
The City Divination Department of Ru City was built on a lake. Long bridges and winding corridors lay across the silver waves, the water mist was hazy, and rainbows were like a dream. The oracle maidens who came and went all wore scarlet skirts, their waists slender, moving like the swaying tails of swimming fish. The oracle masters’ ritual robes were also red. Some were tall and sturdy, others were delicate and beautiful, their steps like fire. Chou Bodeng, in his red robes, walking on the corridor, actually looked a bit like a member of the City Divination Department.
There were no candles lit in the main hall. Instead, there were round, lustrous pearls.
Zhou Ziyan respectfully invited Elder Tao to sit at the head of the hall. Elder Tao set down his pipe and turned to look at Chou Bodeng.
Chou Bodeng didn’t look at them. He went to a seat by the door and sat down, concentrating on admiring the lake water outside. The others had wanted to sneak over too, but after a fierce glare from Elder Tao, they could only shrink their necks and sit down obediently, looking at Chou Bodeng with some envy… mainly because since arriving in Ru City, Elder Tao had been radiating a low pressure that was quite stressful.
“I understand teacher’s reason for coming.” After Elder Tao finished speaking in a gruff voice, an embarrassed look appeared on Zhou Ziyan’s fair, delicate face. “If teacher wants to use the teleportation formation, this student naturally has no objections. It’s just that teacher has come at a very inconvenient time…”
“Hmm?”
“The gate of Ru City’s teleportation formation was accidentally gnawed on by a fish a few days ago…” Zhou Ziyan said with embarrassment. “It’s still under repair.”
Elder Tao frowned. “How long will it take to fix?”
Zhou Ziyan calculated for a moment. “Two days, I think.”
“…” Elder Tao smoked his pipe without saying a word.
Zuo Yuesheng and the others beside him looked at Elder Tao expectantly. It was their first time in Ru City, their first time seeing such a city where fish and people coexisted in the sky. They had been looking left and right, east and west, on their way here, wishing they had two more pairs of eyes. Now, hearing that the teleportation formation was broken, they were quite excited.
Elder Tao glared at them.
“Arrange some lodging,” he said, very displeased. “The farther away from this broken City Divination Department of yours, the better.”
Zhou Ziyan repeatedly agreed. Seeing that Elder Tao was about to get up, he quickly spoke again. “This student has another matter to ask…”
Elder Tao slammed his pipe on the table, the sound so loud it startled Zuo Yuesheng and the others.
Zhou Ziyan was taken aback.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Elder Tao didn’t look at him. “That matter, don’t mention it again.”
“Ziyan knows,” Zhou Ziyan’s straight back bent slightly. “What Ziyan wanted to say was not that matter… Ziyan just wanted to implore the Elder to perform a Heaven-Worshipping Ritual for Ru City tomorrow.”
He lowered his head and looked at the tea on the table.
“The Ru Fish have awakened early. Ziyan thinks that perhaps holding a Heaven-Worshipping Ritual might allow Ru City’s Miasma Moon to pass sooner.”
***
Chou Bodeng sat down on the waterside wooden planks.
Just now, after Zhou Ziyan had stopped calling himself “student” and addressing Elder Tao as “teacher,” the atmosphere in the main hall had become very heavy. He didn’t like that kind of oppressive silence, so he simply got up and left. After coming out, he found that the corridors of the Ru City Divination Department were a labyrinth, with waterside pavilions and towers every few steps. After wandering around, he soon lost his way.
After walking for a long time without being able to find his way back, Chou Bodeng gave up and simply sat down wherever he was.
He looked down at the lake water.
In the water were many translucent pearls about an inch in diameter, emitting a soft white light. They drifted with the waves at the bottom of the lake, winding away like little lanterns that had fallen to the lakebed, and also like the projection of another world’s starry night sky.
“Those are Ru Fish eggs.”
Just as Chou Bodeng was about to reach out and scoop one up, Zhou Ziyan, who had finished his conversation at some point, found him here.
“Do you love this city that much?” Chou Bodeng asked suddenly, pulling his hand back without turning around. “Willing to do anything for it?”
Zhou Ziyan was startled, his hand nearly flying to the hilt of his sword.