Chapter 55: The Five Elements and Rain Touch the Heart
"Which way to go?" Hokugawa changed the subject.
Wang Yuying looked up and saw that after climbing another forty or fifty steps, she would reach the fork in the road.
"Go to the left."
Hugu nodded, and the two of them took big strides. They soon turned into the left fork in the road, and the road gradually became flat and open. However, at the same time, there were more and more graves and tombstones on both sides, and occasionally a stone figure holding a sword stood in front of the tombstone.
Many of the generals who died for their country during this dynasty are buried here.
Wang Yuying looked down at the ground: "Actually, my parents are also buried on this mountain."
It's halfway up the mountain, less than 15 minutes' climb away.
It was a joint burial site that my father had personally chosen long ago. He also greatly admired Wei Yucheng and wished to be buried on the same mountain, looking towards each other from afar.
"That's why I brought this." Hugu lifted the cloth covering the basket of sacrificial offerings he had brought, revealing liquor, oil fruits and dried apricots, specialties from the Yangguan area.
Wang Yuying couldn't help but say, "These are exactly the same things I prepared."
Blend liquor was Dad's favorite drink, while fried dough sticks and dried apricots were Mom's favorite foods.
Hugu smiled faintly: "What a coincidence."
Wang Yuying had not been able to enter the city for three years. Only after leaving the palace in August was she finally able to pay respects to her father again. She came twice on her own. After the Double Ninth Festival, the veterans invited her to pay respects together once more.
For the past three years, my father's grave has been maintained entirely by these former soldiers from the Western Expedition who are still in Beijing. There is not a single weed around the grave, and even small cracks and collapses have been repaired. When the gold leaf on the tombstone faded, the veterans and Zhuzi Dingman would take turns contributing money to repaint it in time.
There was only a little dust on the stele. Wang Yuying had brought a silk handkerchief and was about to go to the nearby stream to wet it and wipe the stele when Hugu stopped her, saying, "Let me do it."
Hands are frozen in the cold.
Wang Yuying said, "These are my parents' graves."
She had to wipe it herself.
Hugu did not stop her any further. After wiping the tombstone, Wang Yuying remained in a kneeling position and arranged the offerings. At this moment, Hugu silently squatted down and arranged the offerings he had brought one by one, removing the plug from the shovel and placing it in front of the tomb.
Wang Yuying watched silently. When she lit incense, she lit six sticks, and Hugu naturally took out three.
Wang Yuying knelt down first, silently praying for her parents' blessings. Hugu then kowtowed three times, and remained silent for a long time while offering incense, his lips closed, seemingly unsure of what he was praying for.
Wang Yuying didn't inquire.
When burning paper money, the two people squat one on the left and the other on the right. If there is too much paper money and it smothers the fire, they will stop simultaneously. If the fire is too strong, they will take turns putting the paper money into the pile.
With their hands free, they both stood up, staring at the pile of paper money that hadn't yet burned out, waiting for it to turn to black ash. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew towards Wang Yuying's side.
"Come stand here." Hugu immediately reached out and pulled Wang Yuying's shoulder, then let go and tied her hands behind her back again.
Even if Hugu hadn't spoken, Wang Yuying would have avoided the smoke and choking. She went around to Hugu's side, remaining silent, and watched the thick smoke billow into the distance. After it burned out and they cleaned up, they continued their ascent to the summit to pay homage to Wei Yucheng.
General Wei's tomb mound has actually become a new peak, planted with ancient pines. A quiet path winds down from the top of the tomb, and there are several terracotta warriors and horses next to the stone tablet in the center.
The imperial court assigned special personnel to manage Wei Yucheng's tomb, and even the pine trees were specially pruned, but for some reason, it felt more desolate than the tomb of the General Who Conquers the West.
Perhaps it's because it's been nearly a hundred years.
The mountaintop was shrouded in mist, and looking down, it was all white. Only when looking straight ahead could one see a corner of the Linxian Pavilion, which was about the same height.
Wang Yuying remembered that the last time she came to pay respects to General Wei, the sun was shining brightly, the clouds and fog had all dispersed, and she could see the entire capital city when she looked down.
"Isn't it my turn to clean the grave this time?" Hugu spoke first. "I truly admire General Wei."
Wang Yuying laughed: "I admire him too, we can wipe it together."
Hugu smiled and went to squat down by the stream. Wang Yuying rolled up her sleeves, soaked her handkerchief, and wrung it out, but found that although Hugu was doing the same thing, he did not roll up his sleeves.
She couldn't help but remind him, "Be careful not to get your sleeves wet."
When you wring out a cloth, water droplets inevitably splash and get it wet.
"Oh dear, it's still wet!" Wang Yuying thought that wet sleeves would be cold against the skin in the dead of winter and would be hard to dry in a while. She put down the wet handkerchief in her hand, wiped her hands clean, and then took out a dry silk handkerchief and handed it to Hugu: "Use this to absorb the water so you don't catch a cold."
Hugu neither raised his hand to take it nor said a word.
Wang Yuying finally sensed something was wrong and stared at his cuffs: "Take a look down at your sleeves?"
Hugu remained silent for a moment, then did as she said. Wang Yuying quickly noticed a deep, sunken scar near his radius—as if he had been strangled by something for a long time.
Suddenly, a cold, hard object popped into her mind: shackles!
"Was it caused by the shackles?" she asked directly.
Hugu closed his lips in tacit agreement.
"What happened? When did this happen?" Wang Yuying asked repeatedly.
“Three years ago, there was infighting among the royal powers,” Hugu said calmly. “According to your calendar, the chaos began on the first day of the seventh month of the fourth year of Yuanjia, and by this summer, the situation has been quelled both internally and externally.”
Wang Yuying's heart softened: he had been crippled only a few days earlier than her, and it turned out that he had also survived countless near-death experiences during those three years.
No wonder Hugu was so composed and mature when they met again this time, like a completely different person.
"You can use this." She handed the handbook back to Hugu Xumi so he could warm his hands.
Hugu shook his head: "Once something is given away, there's no reason to take it back."
Wang Yuying did not insist any further, but she was also deeply saddened. Afterwards, they worked together to clean the tomb and arrange the offerings, remaining silent throughout.
As she prepared to light incense, Hugu Xumi spoke up: "Wait, I have something else to give to General Wei."
Wang Yuying turned her head and watched as Hugu took out a sheepskin scroll from his bosom, unfolded it layer by layer, and at the bottom was a broken sword. Only three inches below the blade was brown and blue rust.
Back then, Wei Yucheng fought to the bitter end, finally plunging his broken sword into his heart. Wang Yuying had a sudden realization: "What is this?"
Hugu nodded. It was indeed Wei Yucheng's broken sword. Back then, the Han people took the remains but not the broken sword, and now it had been returned to its rightful owner.
He knelt down on one knee, placed the broken sword in the center of the offerings, and as he stood up, Wang Yuying handed him three sticks of incense: "You go first."
Hugu did not hesitate and offered incense and kowtowed first, then it was Wang Yuying's turn. After they finished, the two stood side by side. The clouds and mist were still heavy, and the dark green pines looked like the marks of time. The soldiers and horses in front of the monument seemed not to be stone sculptures, but real people and horses petrified, serving as the most loyal guards of Wei Yucheng.
An old wind blew past my ears.
The whistling wind made Wang Yuying feel the vastness of the world, and that she was like a speck of dust that had accidentally fallen into this place.
She turned and headed down the mountain, her lips trembling slightly.
Actually, something was constantly on my mind, and I couldn't get it off my mind. When I went up the mountain, I kept blushing because of this random thought.
But in order not to disrupt the worship, he held back until the important matters were finished before speaking: "Amitabha, there is something I want to ask you."
"you say."
"When you gave me that box, I initially thought it was filled with fluorite, but when I opened it and saw the shimmering brilliance, it was all purple jadeite. This is too precious, so precious... it transcends the friendship between gentlemen, it's more like..." She still said it, without even trying to lower her voice, "...the longing for love, the affection between a man and a woman."
It wasn't like a younger brother treating his elder sister-in-law with respect, nor like friends; it was more like a man showing affection to a woman.
Moreover, during a casual chat at the welcome banquet, I learned that he had never started a family.
"I can't help but overthink things, and since we met again, you've taken such good care of me!" She looked up and turned her head to look directly at Hugu Xumi.
Their eyes met, and they remained silent for a moment.
Hugu tilted his head, a faint smile playing on his lips: "Who says close friends can't exchange valuable gifts? And what kind of rule forbids me from showing affection to an old friend? Zuo Botao, who shared life and death with Yangjiao; Yu Boya, who broke his zither to thank his soulmate; Baozi, who shared gold with his mother; Fan Shi, who traveled a thousand miles to mourn Zhang Jie. Are these all expressions of love and longing between men and women? You Han people say, 'How can we say we have no clothes? We share our robes,' and soldiers help each other. Is that also for ulterior motives? When we are truly loyal to each other, why should we avoid each other? When we can entrust our lives to each other, why should we care about personal relationships?"
Hugu turned around and hurried down the mountain.
Wang Yuying felt her face burning with embarrassment at what she was being told, but she only stood there for a moment before quickly chasing after Hugu. After five or six steps, she simply started running.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hu Gu saw her running down the steps and slowed down.
Wang Yuying caught up: "I'm sorry, I misspoke and hurt you. I apologize, but... but..."
They were indeed kindred spirits in the northern frontier back then, and they were very happy to reunite now, but... Zuo Botao died for Yang Jiao'ai, and Yang Jiao'ai committed suicide in return for Zuo Botao. She felt that she and Hugu had not yet reached such a profound friendship that transcended life and death.
She still felt something was off.
A sudden downpour began, pouring down like a torrential downpour.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Yuying and Hugu were soaked. The road down the mountain was long, and Wang Yuying wanted to find a pavilion to take shelter from the rain. Hugu also looked around and said, "There's a cave over there. Let's go there to take shelter from the rain!"
Following his directions, Wang Yuying covered her head and ran over. Hugu Xumi accompanied her. Along the way, there was a section of road that was originally a dirt road, which became even more muddy after the rain. Although Wang Yuying did not slip and walked as well as before, Hugu Xumi still raised his hand to support her shoulder.
Once inside the cave, the rain outside intensified, obscuring the stone steps, paths, trees, and even distant mountains from view. Raindrops strung together like a curtain, more like a whip, relentlessly battering everything in their path.
The wind and rain forced their way into the cave, and Wang Yuying moved further inside to take shelter. Hugu gathered some longer branches and stones from the vicinity and used them to block the cave entrance, thus mitigating the wind and rain. During this time, he heard noises inside the cave and glanced back to see Wang Yuying piling firewood and making a tinderbox—it was too dark inside the cave, and in the dead of winter, it was best to dry wet clothes as quickly as possible.
By the time Hugu finished his work, Wang Yuying had already started the fire all by herself, and a vibrant, warm glow danced on the ground.
"Come and roast some meat," she invited him, sitting on a rock beside the fire.
Hugu Xumi strolled slowly toward the fire. When he got closer, his gaze started on her face and then swept down her body, pausing several times before finally withdrawing his gaze and turning to pick up another stone and some dry branches.
He moved the stone to the other side and sat down opposite her across the fire. He then took out his dagger, chopped some dry branches, and threw them into the fire as kindling. He kept his head down, but asked, "Haven't you finished speaking?"
Wang Yuying pursed her lips. Yes, there was more to say after "but." But she hadn't yet found the right words to express herself clearly without hurting anyone.
"Are you implying that we haven't reached the level of friendship between Yang and Zuo yet?" Hugu had already guessed.
Wang Yuying nodded.
In the firelight, Hugu's face was sometimes bright and sometimes dark. She heard him say, "But you are honest and straightforward. Whenever you meet someone you get along with, you are full of sincerity. I have witnessed this several times in the northern frontier. I thought to myself, how can someone be like a bamboo, swaying in the wind, but once it stands upright again, it will still be facing the wind next time?"
"Are you praising me or scolding me?" Wang Yuying asked.
"Let me put it another way. How can there be people like the mountain spring water of our Northern Barbarians, which is almost drunk dry, yet still flows clear and pure, willing to die for their beliefs rather than risk their lives, even if it means dying nine times over without regret?"
"You're flattering me. Is that how you use Qu Yuan's words?"
Hugu smiled and said, "I know you built the courtyard house so that I could stay overnight."
"Yes." Wang Yuying's right sleeve was already dry, so she turned to dry the left one and took off her wet deerskin coat to dry it. "But I didn't think much about it at the time. I just felt that it was not easy for my friend to come all this way. It was dark and snowing. It would be too disloyal to send him away."
“I understand,” Hu Gu smiled faintly. “If it weren’t me, you would have done the same to any other friend.”
Wang Yuying also laughed: "Back then, I considered myself an elder and always felt that I should take good care of you, my younger brother."
Why did he call her sister-in-law?
Hugu suppressed his smile behind the flickering flames, and did not immediately respond as he had before.
The rain continued to fall outside the cave. He got up and straightened the branches that had been blown askew by the door. Then he gathered about ten more pieces of firewood, sat back on the rock, chopped them into smaller pieces, and threw them into the fire one by one: "Once, I dismounted too casually and got carried away with my joy, and I sprained my ankle. Afterwards, I went to your house for drinks, and no one talked about it anymore. We thought it was over. But when you saw me off, you suddenly brought it up again, saying you were worried and insisted that I lift up my trouser leg to check."
Just like how I insisted he roll up his sleeves.
"When you saw my swollen feet, you escorted me all the way to the inn and even helped me find a doctor. At that time, you didn't know my true identity. I suddenly felt like playing a trick and pretended that I had no money to pay for the consultation, so I asked you for a loan, promising to repay it later. Although His Majesty was in charge of your household expenses at that time, I saw the difficulty on your face that you tried to hide but couldn't. I knew you were worried that we had only known each other for a short time, less than three months, and that I might default on the debt and disappear, never to be seen again. But in the end, you didn't say a word of difficulty and still paid for my medicine."
Wang Yuying frowned. Why did her memory differ from Hugu's? At that time, Xu Heng went to the inn with her. Hugu had difficulty walking, and Xu Heng helped Hugu along the way.
However, she was indeed worried that Hugu wouldn't repay the money, but she couldn't bring herself to refuse, so she lent it to him anyway. On her way home, she anxiously asked Xu Heng, "Will Ami repay this money?"
Xu Heng shook his head: "Most likely not."
"What should I do?" At that moment, she felt both guilty and worried that Xu Heng would be angry and scold her.
Xu Heng just smiled helplessly: "If I can't pay it back, I can't pay it back. Who told me to marry a silly wife? I'll just have to work harder to earn more money in the future." He then advised Wang Yuying, "This matter is over, so don't dwell on it anymore."
...
After recalling the past, Hugu Xumi closed his lips, seemingly waiting for Wang Yuying to speak, but what awaited him was an even longer silence.
So he parted his lips again: "I grew up in the royal court, and I've seen all sorts of hypocrisy, backstabbing, and hierarchical relationships. You are the only true friend I've ever had in my life. So whether you're a man or a woman, why can't I treat my only true friend with sincerity? What's wrong with that?"
After the firewood in the bonfire crackled for a while, Wang Yuying, who had been holding her head up, finally managed to clearly lock onto Hugu's eyes behind the fire—his eyes reflected her, but unlike Jing Ye and Zheng Yangzhi, there was still no trace of admiration or longing in them.
"I'm sorry, I was just being paranoid and narrow-minded." She got a definite answer, but suddenly felt empty inside. She quickly raised her hand to press her chest, then stood up and shook and patted her now-dry deerskin coat. "Okay, okay, it's all over now. I'm almost dry. Ami, how about you?"
After she stood up, she looked down from her vantage point and realized that Hugu Xumi was still soaking wet. It seemed that he had stepped in much more mud than she had, and his white robe below the knees had turned yellow and stuck to his body. She guessed that the legs of his trousers were the same.
"Why are you still wet? Are you too far from the fire? Don't press against that stone wall, it's damp. Get closer, it's okay, the fire won't whip your robe." Wang Yuying spoke rapidly in her anxiety.
Hugu Xumi looked up at Wang Yuying, then lowered his head again after a moment, pulled open his robe collar, and said slowly, "The robe is too thick. It seems I need to take it off."
Wang Yuying nodded and immediately turned her back to the fire: "You roast it."
After the fire, Hugu Sumi slowly untied his plain robe, leaving it wide open to expose his chest. Water droplets accumulated on his body rolled down his abdominal muscles. He paused and waited for a while before completely removing his robe and undergarments, leaving him bare-chested. He twisted the robe with force, causing the muscles on his arms to bulge.
He moved extremely slowly, his eyes fixed on Wang Yuying's back.
She actually believed his words. It turns out that women can also be like Liu Xiahui, keeping their eyes straight ahead and not having the slightest thought of looking back to peep.
Hugu Sumi's gaze swept over her fair neck. Her clothes were almost dry, no longer highlighting her curves as they had when she entered the cave.
On the ground, the slowly flickering flames resembled red tongues, cautiously licking the withered branches.
"I'm all better," Hugu Xumi calmly informed him.
After a while, Wang Yuying turned around and suddenly noticed something on the ground: "What is this?"
She approached to pick it up, but Hugu, a quick-witted person, merely extended her right hand an inch forward with her palms together before swiftly withdrawing it.
Before Wang Yuying even picked it up, she had already seen it clearly. Her heart sank. She picked it up and looked at it. Sure enough, it was made of iron, shaped like a small date, about the size of a man's thumb, with several holes on it. It was a whistle.
The two parts are called arrowheads, and if a pole is attached to them, they have a formal name – the Northern Barbarian Arrow.
Primarily used for battlefield communication.
Our dynasty also has a similar object, called "Cloud Piercing Arrow." The saying goes, "One arrow piercing the clouds, and a thousand armies will come to meet it."
However, the Cloud Piercing Arrow has a single whistle and arrowhead, which cannot kill people but can only send messages. Only the Northern Barbarian Whistling Arrow has a separate whistle and arrowhead, which can kill enemy soldiers with a single arrow while sending out a message.
The rain outside the cave lessened a bit. As the curtains were drawn, Wang Yuying composed herself, gripped the whistling arrow, and looked up at Hugu Xumi: "It seems this rain won't stop anytime soon. Since you sent this, I'll borrow an umbrella."
Hugu did not make excuses such as "there is no rod in front of us" or "we can't fire it," but said directly, "This thing is not suitable for use in the capital."
Wang Yuying pondered, seemingly aware that launching the Northern Barbarian whistling arrow in this dynasty was tantamount to declaring war.
Then why bring such a thing to the capital?
Hugu deliberately followed Wang Yuying's gaze, and their eyes met in mid-air. He explained, "This is for self-defense."
Looking into Hugu's eyes, Wang Yuying wondered, was he afraid that Xu Heng would kill him?
It's something Xu Heng could do, but Hu Gu might also lie.
Thinking about it more carefully, Hugu's answer was extremely frank from beginning to end. If he really had any sneaky thoughts or ulterior motives, he would definitely have kept the jingdi safe and wouldn't have foolishly dropped it on the ground. Even if he had dropped it, he would have picked it up before she saw it and hidden it in time.
Wang Yuying returned the whistling arrow to Hugu, remaining noncommittal: "Then let's wait a little longer, and go down the mountain when the rain subsides."
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