My Senior Sister Says She Will Marry No One But Me - Chapter 52

As previously arranged, Qin Shanshan had privately instructed everyone that Du Yunge had been coaxed by her sweet talk and came willingly, so they should treat her politely for now to extract the secret of the Miaoyin Sect’s treasure.

The Hu people were not particularly cunning; over the years, Qin Shanshan might have been the only exception. Hearing this, they readily believed it and praised their Saintess Mayila for her extraordinary charm, capable of making the Central Plains’ number one beauty follow her far from home. “Rest assured,” they said, “as long as you haven’t obtained the secret of the Miaoyin Sect’s treasure, we will treat her with courtesy. Once you have the secret, how to deal with this foolish girl is entirely up to you. Just let us know whenever you need us!”

That evening, it was no surprise that among the gazes Du Yunge received, several—though trying to be discreet—were blatantly filled with pity and sympathy:

The entire Wuzaka tribe knew their saintess’s nature.

When she was in love, she would treat you like a precious gem cradling you in her palms, fearing you might break, holding you in her mouth, fearing you might melt. If anyone so much as touched a strand of your hair, she would glare coldly or even start a fight, displaying a disregard for kinship that rivaled the tyrants Xia Jie and Shang Zhou in Central Plains history. But once her affection faded, the warmth and passion she had once shown would turn to icy indifference. No matter how close you had been, she would discard you without a second thought, as if the person who had been inseparable from you just yesterday was someone else entirely.

Given the strained relations between the Hu and Han people, the tribe generally turned a blind eye to their saintess’s behavior. As long as she didn’t harm their own, her antics were tolerated. If she targeted Han girls, so much the better after all, Han girls wouldn’t dare pursue her for responsibility, and mistreating them was no different from accidentally stepping on an ant.

By the time the welcome banquet ended, Du Yunge was exhausted and didn’t want to move a finger. She barely managed to maintain her graceful demeanor until she reached the tent Qin Shanshan had specially prepared for her, closest to her own. There, she waved off the three or four maidservants:

“I’m not used to having people around when I change clothes.”

Earlier, one of the maids had immediately stepped forward to help Du Yunge remove her cloak, the black fox fur cloak Qin Shanshan had taken off and draped over her on their way back from the banquet. Since this was a routine Qin Shanshan used with every new beauty, no one paid it much mind. They merely sighed, lamenting that yet another foolish girl was about to be ruined by Mayila. “What a tragedy,” they murmured. “Why do these beautiful girls, as if blind, throw themselves like moths into her tent?”

However, Du Yunge truly didn’t dare let this seemingly frail young woman get too close. After all, she was in someone else’s territory and had to be cautious no matter what. She sidestepped, avoiding the maid’s outstretched hand, and said indifferently:

“You may leave. I will call for you if I need anything.”

Strangely enough, as soon as the maid had reached out her hand, she had felt a faint, lingering chill surrounding her, as if she were being watched by some fierce, large predator. Yet the moment she withdrew her hand, the sensation vanished entirely. It was truly baffling.

These maids were either Han Chinese or of mixed Han and Hu descent. Compared to their counterparts from other clans, who were often sallow and emaciated to the point of being barely recognizable, the people of the Wuzhaka clan seemed to live rather decently. This indicated that Qin Shanshan’s faction, which advocated for peace, held considerable influence.

After exchanging glances, the maids bowed in unison and withdrew. As they were leaving, the one who had tried to help Du Yunge change her clothes seemed to have something to say, but her companion, hidden by their clothing, pinched her arm hard. The pain twisted her features into a grimace, making Du Yunge’s teeth ache just watching that pinch had definitely not been light.

In too much pain to speak, the maid could only follow her companions out of the tent, which had once belonged to Qin Shanshan but now served as Du Yunge’s quarters.

Once outside, the maids scattered as if fleeing from something ominous, leaving the one who had wanted to speak standing alone in mere moments. The only one who stayed behind was the companion who had stopped her, who said coldly:

“Do you really believe that sickly qin player’s words? Are you actually planning to seek help from the Sect Leader of the Miaoyin Sect?”

“Wake up! Only an inexperienced girl like you would be fooled by that delicate, useless pretty boy! If his sister really were the Winter Guardian of the Miaoyin Sect that’s the Miaoyin Sect we’re talking about! The legendary sect with gates carved from white jade and roofs of gold and colored glaze would they let the brother of one of their esteemed guardians wander destitute beyond the Great Wall?”

The maid repeated her rebuttal in a low voice, for what felt like the hundredth time:

“Because the Miaoyin Sect has a rule: once you join the sect, you sever all ties with the mortal world. So it’s entirely possible that the Winter Guardian doesn’t know her brother has fallen into such hardship…”

“And what if he’s using that very rule to deceive you?!” Her companion was so agitated she nearly stamped her feet. But in Hu territory, it was unwise to speak too freely, who knew when someone might betray them? She spat out one last angry remark before leaving:

“It’s only because we’ve known each other for years that I bother to keep an eye on you! Don’t you realize that if you really try to pass on that message, those girls who already dislike you will sell you out to the Hu in an instant? That sickly man would never withstand torture and interrogation. With both witnesses against you, you wouldn’t stand a chance! When they’ve skinned you alive, you’ll finally understand that I was right!”

After saying that, she turned and left without a backward glance, clearly convinced that her companion was beyond help so far gone as to believe the words of a musician who had been wandering beyond the frontier for years. And this musician even had the audacity to claim he was the blood brother of Winter Guardian of the Miaoyin Sect! What a colossal joke! Anyone who believed that was a fool!

And yet, the world never lacks fools.

When the maid, who had been silently ostracized by her companions, stealthily made her way to the tent piled high with miscellaneous items, she heard the sound of heart-wrenching coughing from afar. She hurried inside and, upon lifting the curtain, saw a man curled up amidst a heap of discarded cotton and straw, his body reeking heavily of medicine.

She rushed over, dampened a cloth with some clean water she had saved, and gently wiped the face of the man, whose pallid features were marked by a heavy aura of death, hoping to rouse him enough to hear the good news she had brought:

“Sir, the Sect Leader of the Miaoyin Sect has arrived today!”

At these words, a sudden gleam flashed across the man’s face, as if a person with severed meridians had been given a Great Recovery Pill or a gravely ill patient had been revived by a full bowl of century-old ginseng soup. He seemed to experience a momentary resurgence of vitality, urgently grasping the maid’s wrist as he asked:

“How do you know?!”

“It was the Saintess of the Wuzhaka Tribe who brought her back, saying something about… the treasure of the Miaoyin Sect. She told us to serve her well and not show the slightest disrespect until she reveals the secret of the treasure.” The maid frowned, struggling to recall Qin Shanshan’s exact words:

“‘As for the rest, we’ll discuss it after we’ve tricked the secret of the treasure out of the Miaoyin Sect Leader.'”

However, upon hearing this shocking news, the man’s expression relaxed instead. He let out a long sigh and murmured, “If those were the Saintess’s exact words… then I can rest easy.”

“You’ve worked hard all this time, miss. From now on, you needn’t trouble yourself to pass information to me. If my estimation is correct, the Miaoyin Sect Leader will surely come to seek me out on her own.”

And indeed, Du Yunge did have plans to meet the musician who had given Qin Shanshan her Han name. However, it was already late, and venturing out rashly would be too risky. Besides, in this unfamiliar place, it wouldn’t be easy to find him.

So, she first changed her clothes and removed her makeup and hairpins. Just as she was about to retire for the night, she suddenly noticed, in the flickering candlelight, a figure gracefully descending from above the tent, landing right by her bedside. She quickly lifted half of the door curtain and whispered:

“Senior Sister Xue! Over here!”

Sure enough, it was Xue Shuyan. She slipped effortlessly into Du Yunge’s tent without alerting anyone else. After glancing around the interior and deeming it suitable for her sect leader, her eyes fell upon the wounds on Du Yunge’s face, which had been treated with high-quality medicine and would fade completely in a few days.

Xue Shuyan’s heart stirred slightly. She wanted to ask Du Yunge why she shouldn’t go to rescue her, but she already had an inkling of the reason Du Yunge had always been a kind-hearted girl, and it was just like her to want to protect her mixed-heritage senior sister on this land, ensuring she wouldn’t suffer unjustly. So, Xue Shuyan abandoned the futile question and asked instead:

“What is the name of that piece?”

Among the manuscripts left by Du Baoqin, there were only two compositions. Although Du Baoqin herself had repeatedly emphasized in various places including but not limited to notes, prefaces, and summaries that she had left three pieces, Du Yunge had searched through the original manuscripts over and over, nearly tearing them apart, yet she never found the third.

The names of the first two pieces, however, were quite lovely. The one Du Yunge had played earlier was called “Sojourn,” which had the effect of unsettling the mind and releasing internal energy, making it suitable for playing before an enemy. Coincidentally, the note she had struck on Wangyou Mountain, at the cost of damaging one qin and nearly ruining the Feipao Lianzhu, happened to be the first variation of “Sojourn.” The other piece could calm the mind, promote the circulation of internal energy, and, over time, greatly enhance one’s inner strength.

“The one I played earlier is called ‘Sojourn,’ but it’s not very pleasant to hear. Senior Sister, once I find the Jiuxiao Huanpei, I’ll play the second piece for you. It’s very beneficial for stabilizing one’s cultivation.”

Xue Shuyan nodded. “That sounds good. But what is the name of the second piece?”

Du Yunge thought for a moment and replied:

“Returning Geese.”

In the rivers and lakes, there are returning geese can they carry a message to my thatched cottage?

No one knew what thoughts the founding sect master of the Miaoyin Sect, Du Baoqin, had harbored when she composed these two pieces, or why she had given them such names, evoking a sense of longing and unattainable yearning.

But the past is ultimately elusive. Even the first empress since the founding of the dynasty, along with her countless illustrious achievement’s expeditions beyond the frontier, pacifying Yizhou, promoting agriculture and weaving, enforcing strict rewards and punishments had been reduced to a faint silhouette and a few lines of text in the cold pages of history. How could the founding master of a mere martial arts sect possibly preserve every detail of her life for future generations to fully understand?

Even such remarkable figures… could only be swept away by the relentless tide of time, their well-known names and unresolved stories submerged in the era of arduous beginnings and the clamor of war, a time that belonged solely to them.

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