A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 89

The tranquility of the mountain temple was disturbed by the slight commotion. As the crowd dispersed, the moonlight was as bright as before. It happened that the Abbot in charge of the Kitchen Dianzuo Damohe Shang of Taihuang Temple followed the Abbot Fangzhang, so Xie Wenjun kept Yuan Rong and Dai Qing and instructed them to prepare a vegetarian meal.

The Abbot, wearing a Kasaya embroidered with faint golden auspicious clouds, his bald head shining and reflecting the light, turned and whispered a few words to the Dianzuo Damohe Shang. He then walked over and bowed to Xie Wenjun with his hands clasped: “When Your Royal Highness the Princess Chang and the Great General were secluded to transcribe Buddhist scriptures for Empress Huixian, they did not have a meal after the afternoon. The vegetarian meal is still prepared in the temple, and we can have someone bring it up.”

Xie Wenjun nodded: “I trouble the Abbot.”

The moon was bright and the wind was clear tonight, illuminating thousands of miles. The Abbot also felt that this scene was rare and said: “Your Royal Highness the Princess Chang, Great General, if you wish to enjoy the moon, you can move to the Zen Inquiry Platform in front of the temple.”

Chen Liangyu said: “It’s a pity that the temple doesn’t prepare wine; I can’t have a few drinks under the moon tonight.”

The Abbot paused for a moment, then lowered his head and muttered: “Monks are forbidden from drinking, so I am afraid the Great General will be disappointed today.”

Xie Wenjun, however, asked her: “You want to drink?”

Chen Liangyu said: “I just said it casually. I just felt that the mountain moon shining on the forest spring would be more appealing with a pot of clear wine. It doesn’t matter if there isn’t any.”

Xie Wenjun said: “Abbot.”

The Abbot put his palms together in a respectful gesture: “Your Royal Highness the Princess Chang.”

Xie Wenjun took two steps toward the Abbot. The Abbot was alarmed and bowed his head even lower, his twelve circular scars (Jieba) aligned on his head like stars.

Xie Wenjun questioned: “Taihuang Temple has no wine?” Her question showed she had some certainty.

The Abbot was sincerely terrified and reluctant to answer truthfully, saying: “Replying to Your Royal Highness, Buddhist disciples do not touch alcohol.” He then talked about other pure rules and precepts, all being ambiguous evasions.

Xie Wenjun said: “I am asking you if there is wine in the temple?”

Just as the Abbot was about to prevaricate again, Xie Wenjun said calmly: “The wine business of Taihuang Temple is no longer running?”

The Abbot realized that the secret sale of wine by Taihuang Temple had been exposed. He looked embarrassed and forced a smile: “Your Royal Highness the Princess Chang, this… this selling of wine and liquor in the temple is truly a last resort…”

Seeing that the Abbot had touched his bald head and was about to pour out his bitterness, Xie Wenjun immediately grabbed Chen Liangyu’s arm and pulled her away, striding towards the simple lodging (Liaofang): “No need for tedious talk. Bring two pots. You conduct your business; I will pretend not to know about this matter and will not punish the monks of Taihuang Temple.”

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness the Princess Chang, for your mercy.”

Yuan Rong and Dai Qing followed, carrying the clothes Xie Wenjun was to change into. When they arrived at the entrance of the Liaofang, Lin Yin and Pu Ping’er stood side by side in their armor next to the pillar and bowed: “Greetings to the Princess Chang, Great General.” The look in their eyes toward Chen Liangyu was much clearer now.

Chen Liangyu glanced sideways at Lin Yin and Pu Ping’er, walking past them with her chest held high, completely innocent: “Twelve scrolls of Buddhist scriptures need to be offered before Empress Huixian’s spirit tablet. Tomorrow, each of you will transcribe two scrolls.”

Lin Yin: “Yes.”

Pu Ping’er: “Yes.”

Chen Liangyu said: “Vegetarian food and wine have been prepared at the Zen Inquiry Platform. You two remove your armor and come along.”

Although it was described as enjoying the moon, the reality was that Xie Wenjun wanted to secretly hold a farewell dinner for Dai Qing. Lin Yin and Pu Ping’er understood this and therefore did not decline, returning to their rooms to change their clothes.

Xie Wenjun looked at Dai Qing, then at Yuan Rong. The two were still wearing the single-layered padded cloaks they had on during the day, which should be a bit cold now. She said: “Go back and add a layer of clothing.”

Yuan Rong wanted to stay and serve Xie Wenjun while she changed. Chen Liangyu took the clothes they were holding and said: “You two go.”

The two curtsied and headed toward the Yongning Palace.

Chen Liangyu stepped over the threshold: “I was just about to rest, and the candles were extinguished. I will go light them.”

Just as she was about to look for a tinder to light the lamps and candles, the two ancient, simple doors behind her suddenly closed. The moonlight was instantly blocked by the tightly shut wooden doors, and the surroundings plunged into a sudden darkness, enveloped by the thick night.

Arms like creeping vines silently wrapped around her neck. Before her vision, immersed in the dark ink, could recover its clarity, she was caught in a burning hot kiss.

She closed her eyes.

The clothes she was holding scattered all over the floor.

Xie Wenjun hooked her neck, their hot, humid breaths mingling, and their breathing gradually became rapid. “Say it again.”

“What,” Chen Liangyu lowered her head to meet her, their lips touching lightly, saying vaguely: “Say what again?”

Xie Wenjun pressed forward, step by step, forcing Chen Liangyu back to the inner part of the Liaofang, where a curved-leg Luohan bed a type of daybed was placed.

The quilt was half-turned back, and the lingering warmth was still present.

“Those words you said earlier…”

Chen Liangyu’s hand gently lifted with a slight tremor, cupping Xie Wenjun’s face, her gaze deeply embedded in her eyes: “Your subject wishes to be recorded in the official histories alongside Your Royal Highness, with our names carved side-by-side.”

Before the rest of the words could be spoken, she was pressed down onto the bed by Xie Wenjun.

The kiss deepened.

The bed in Taihuang Temple was crude, and the craftsmanship was poor. The “creak, creak” sound of it swaying was particularly noticeable in the silent night.

The Luohan bed had three railings. Chen Liangyu was half-lying and half-leaning, turning to meet her. Xie Wenjun freed one hand and hooked it onto her lapel with a hint of urgency, trying to undo the restraint.

Chen Liangyu pressed down on the hastily fumbling fingers and said: “Your Royal Highness, this place is not suitable.”

This was a Buddhist sanctuary, and the Liaofang was close to the Yongning Palace where Empress Huixian’s spirit tablet was enshrined. It was a holy place for cultivation and spreading the Dharma; engaging in intimacy here would be a blasphemy to the deities.

“Just today,” Xie Wenjun said.

Xie Wenjun struggled free from the restraint, and her warm lips forcefully covered hers. Her fingers reached for the collar, almost succeeding, but Chen Liangyu held her front lapel tightly, refusing to let go. Lin Yin and Pu Ping’er’s simple lodgings were only separated by a single wall from Chen Liangyu’s. She was afraid of causing too much of a ruckus and dared not resist excessively.

Chen Liangyu said: “The temple has precepts…”

“When have I ever kept any precepts?”

So-called precepts and rules are ropes used to bind the weak.

“If I had to keep all the rules in this world, the ones I should keep the most are the ancestral laws in the palace, to be a decorous but useless ornament.”

In the struggle, Xie Wenjun tore off a carved eagle-patterned toggle knot Pankou from Chen Liangyu’s lapel.

The sound was crisp.

Xie Wenjun was startled by such a small sound and stopped the tearing. The corner of her mouth curled into a beautiful arc and she said: “You need to change out of this clothing, A’li.”

Must she take it off? Both their breaths momentarily froze.

A moment later, her lower lip was enveloped again.

Her eyes had adapted to the darkness in the room. The silvery moonlight outside the window still poured in gently. A layer of mist welled up in Chen Liangyu’s eyes.

“Let me go.”

An almost inaudible whimper.

Being in the mountain temple, her heart adhered to the pure rules of Buddhism, unwilling to break through that taboo. Lin Yin and Pu Ping’er were entering to change clothes and would come out of the adjacent lodgings soon. Chen Liangyu kept her breathing extremely light, not daring to make any slightly louder noise.

This image of being worried about one thing and neglecting the other made her seem fragile and vulnerable.

Yet, it was also extremely captivating.

Xie Wenjun embraced Chen Liangyu’s shoulders from the back, pressing her onto the woven cushion pillow at the head of the bed, and then leaned over: “To be recorded in the official histories together, with equal fame for ten thousand generations, this is not enough for me…”

“Not enough…”

“I also want to be with you year after year, morning till night. We must stake our whole life on this, to exhaust the joy of your present day.”

The hand that was tightly clutching her lapel somehow let go. Chen Liangyu slowly, resignedly, climbed onto Xie Wenjun’s back.

The doors on the left and right sides of the Liaofang opened sequentially. The sounds of the doors opening and closing were dissolved in the night. Military boots landed on the ground, and two lines of footsteps approached the Liaofang door.

Lin Yin wondered: “Why is it dark?” She peeked inside through the carved window lattices. The window was covered with thin paper, and it was pitch black inside, so nothing could be seen. “I clearly heard the sound of the door closing just now, it was loud. The Great General should be inside.”

Pu Ping’er did not speak, she turned around in place once, also full of suspicion.

Chen Liangyu’s mouth was tightly covered. Seeing the two dark figures reflected on the door, her whole body stiffened, and she dared not move even a single finger.

Xie Wenjun took advantage of the brief moment when she was frozen, gave a sharp tug, and in an instant, the clothing spread out on the Luohan bed seat.

Lin Yin walked back to the door and knocked three times: “Great General, are you inside?”

No one responded.

“Strange.”

Chen Liangyu was increasingly afraid of making any sound. She thought to herself that if she had known this ordeal would happen today, she should not have brought the two of them to Taihuang Temple, especially Lin Yin.

Lin Yin waited at the door. After a moment, there was still no sound inside the room: “Could something have happened?”

Her voice carried a sense of urgency.

Force the door open!

Chen Liangyu suddenly remembered that the door was not bolted shut, only slightly ajar. Either Lin Yin or Pu Ping’er only needed to touch it lightly, not even having to push, and the door would swing open.

The Liaofang was simple; the Luohan bed had no canopy or place to hang curtains. At this moment, she felt like a silk doll at the mercy of others, her crescent moon-like back embraced and forced to bend.

“Your Royal Highness…” she pleaded in a low voice.

Her entire body shuddered.

Xie Wenjun restrained her; the commotion outside seemed irrelevant to her as she focused on her task.

The two figures outside the door, one was static, the other was moving excitedly.

Pu Ping’er was relatively composed as always. After turning around once, she did not move again, seemingly pondering something while biting her knuckles: “Could she have already moved to the Zen Inquiry Platform with the Princess Chang?”

Chen Liangyu clenched her mouth, desperately trying to suppress the gasp that was about to escape, her head uncontrollably tilting backward.

Lin Yin dashed forward three times, her shadow moving up and down, far and near, shouting: “The Princess Chang seems to have gone back to Changning Palace to change clothes with the two female attendants, Yuan Rong and Dai Qing. They walked past outside my room. I didn’t hear the Great General pass by. Her usual walking momentum is like fire and thunder, enough to fatally crash into someone. She definitely wasn’t among the people who walked past.”

Lin Yin saw that Pu Ping’er was not worried at all and pushed her.

“Say something. It’s pitch black, and no oil lamps are lit. Could she have been assassinated? Is she dead?”

She was close to being dead.

Chen Liangyu was tense both physically and mentally, trying her best to control her breathing. She thought that the first thing she would do upon returning to the Northern Territory was to throw Lin Yin into the deep mountains and forests of Qiliandao and make her run through a military formation again.

Xie Wenjun leaned close and whispered in her ear: “Your soldiers truly put your safety first in everything they do.”

Chen Liangyu’s hand wandered in a panic, finding a corner of the quilt on the bed seat. She leveraged her arm and flipped it, completely wrapping herself and Xie Wenjun, only revealing a pair of eyes.

Every rustle of the clothing was a huge commotion.

Every rapid gasp was quickly swallowed.

Outside the door, Lin Yin’s sole noise abruptly ceased. Chen Liangyu knew she was about to do a stupid thing that she would regret for the rest of her life.

Sure enough, Lin Yin’s figure settled: “Ping’er, ram the door!”