Chapter 33

If it were only those few lines of verse, Shen Qing might not have grasped their meaning. But once the wedding robes and wine appeared, everything became instantly clear.
“The groom’s jade-like longing remains unspent; a veil hides her beauty, making her grace more alluring. Twin shadows meet beside the bridge, such a scene awaits your understanding.”
In essence, it demanded that the two of them play the role of newlyweds, follow a ritual, and reenact the scenario described in the verse.
The groom cherishes the jade-like maiden, the groom embracing the bride.
A veil hides her beauty, the bridal veil covering her face.
Twin shadows meet beside the bridge, the newlyweds standing by the water, holding one another in shared joy.
Yet just as the two finished changing into their wedding robes, that voice surfaced again.
“Incense drifts, candles blaze, bride and groom ascend the bridal hall together!”
Hearing this, Shen Qing frowned, an ominous suspicion rising in her heart.
Li Daoxuan lifted his gaze as well, his eyes sweeping over Shen Qing.
The next moment, the voice grew festive: “First bow to Heaven and Earth, thanking heaven and earth for their creation, praying for a blessed union bestowed by the heavens!”
The words faded, but the two of them stood still like clay figures, neither willing to move an inch.
The ground began to shake even more violently. This time, impatience crept into the voice, with a hint of irritation beneath it. “First bow to Heaven and Earth, thanking heaven and earth for their creation, praying for a blessed union bestowed by the heavens!” The pitch rose slightly.
As the two walls continued closing in, inch by inch, nearing them by the second, life and death hanging in the balance, old frictions had no choice but to retreat.
Shen Qing moved first. Gritting her teeth, she dragged Li Daoxuan to the pool’s edge. Afraid he might stir up trouble again, she lowered her voice coaxingly. “Your Highness, if we want to live, our only option right now is to follow that voice. Once we’re out of here, we can think of something else, alright?”
In the dim light, reflected by the rippling water, her eyes shone with startling brilliance. Li Daoxuan looked at her and found that her gaze seemed filled with inexhaustible vitality, brimming and about to overflow, so different from the deathly stillness clinging to him.
There was no bridal hall to speak of, so the two simply stood by the water, barely fulfilling the line ‘twin shadows meet beside the bridge, such a scene awaits your understanding.’
At such a critical moment, Li Daoxuan was remarkably composed. He raised his hand and lightly hooked the Glass Heart at Shen Qing’s collar with his fingertip, his thumb rubbing against it. His lowered lashes concealed his dark, profound eyes, shutting out all scrutiny.
“Why not take this chance to be clear?” he said calmly. “What Lady Shen said that day was vague, without a set date. Tell me, when exactly will you willingly offer up the Glass Heart?”
She hadn’t expected him to bring this up at such a moment. Shen Qing froze briefly, the trembling beneath her feet growing more pronounced, while he remained unmoved, steady as a mountain. She cursed him inwardly for his slyness, her body stiffening.
She did harbor ulterior motives, she had no intention of handing over the Glass Heart so easily. But now that he had asked, she needed to give him an answer that satisfied him, or there was no telling what he might do.
After weighing it repeatedly, Shen Qing clenched her teeth. “After you and I are married, I will offer it with both hands. I will not go back on my word.”
Li Daoxuan tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Words alone prove nothing.”
Shen Qing raised her brows. “Then what do you want?”
“Simple.”
He produced a pill from nowhere. Before Shen Qing could react, he pressed it into her mouth.
His thumb slid between her lips, pushing the pill around briefly before he pressed down hard. Shen Qing gasped in pain, her throat bobbing as she swallowed it.
Though the action was undeniably intimate, there was no warmth between them, only an undercurrent of danger.
When his fingers withdrew, her lips were flushed and moist, as if painted with rouge, her eyes shimmering with involuntary tears from choking.
Bending over and coughing, she demanded, “What did you make me swallow?!”
Li Daoxuan lowered his gaze and casually wiped his fingers against his wedding robe, drying the moisture from his knuckles.
Having finally regained the upper hand, he narrowed his eyes in satisfaction. “Poison. From now on, Lady Shen will come to see me once a month for the antidote. Whenever you’re willing to offer the Glass Heart, that’s when the poison will be cured.”
Furious at having been tricked, Shen Qing couldn’t help asking, “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll never truly be willing?”
Li Daoxuan replied lightly, “Then you can die.”
The words were airy, indifferent. After a pause, he added, “But I believe Lady Shen cherishes her life too much to throw it away so easily.”
Anger churned in Shen Qing’s eyes. She closed them briefly, then spoke as if conceding, “Then it’s settled. From now on, Your Highness protects my safety, and I will give you the Glass Heart.”
She quietly swapped ‘help me eliminate evil creatures’ for ‘protect my safety.’
As for this subtle sleight of hand, Li Daoxuan merely smiled. Whether he was playing dumb or had already forgotten their earlier agreement was unclear. In any case, he neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply turned and walked briskly back to the murals, moved the cups aside, and pulled out the red bridal veil beneath them.
Under Shen Qing’s gaze, he shook the veil open and draped it over her head.
Of course, ‘a veil hides her beauty, making her grace more alluring.’ If this was a wedding ritual, how could there be no red veil?
As the veil fell, Shen Qing’s vision was instantly flooded with red. Li Daoxuan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and turned her. “Lady Shen, first bow, to Heaven and Earth.”
He repeated the words spoken by the voice.
The young man’s voice was like a spring breeze, gentle and soothing, brushing past the ear and stirring a fleeting warmth. Yet when one looked past the sound to the person himself, it felt like nothing more than an illusion.
Surrounded by peril, the two of them seemed untouched by the outside world. Together, they bent toward the pool, creating an oddly convincing wedding tableau.
Setting aside their earlier unpleasantness, a strange, subtle feeling crept into Shen Qing’s heart. Ever the optimist, she thought this might as well be early practice, when they truly performed the rites in the future, perhaps she’d be able to suppress some of her misgivings.
Once the first bow was complete, the eerie voice spoke again: “First bow to Heaven and Earth, thanking heaven and earth for their creation, praying for a blessed union!”
“Second bow to the elders, in gratitude for parental upbringing!”
The two bowed once more, to the pool.
“Husband and wife bow to one another, wishing for harmony and mutual respect!”
The more Shen Qing listened, the stranger it felt. Harmony and mutual respect sounded almost like mockery.
When the bows were finished, the voice finally vanished, but the walls kept closing in. Only when they were nearly upon them did the water finally stir.
The lone wooden bridge on the pool suddenly sank beneath the surface. Then the water split apart as if boiling, parting to either side. From the opening, a small boat slowly rose and drifted to a stop before them.
So this was the true way across.
Everything went far too smoothly. Instead of relaxing, Shen Qing grew even more alert, uncertainty creeping in, should she really step onto this boat?
Before she could think further, her waist tightened suddenly. She heard Li Daoxuan calmly recite, “The groom’s jade-like longing remains unspent.” His arm tightened around her waist until she was pulled fully into his chest. Only then did he lift the veil with one hand.
Resting his chin lightly atop her head, he said as if in praise, “Indeed, longing that cannot be dispelled. Since that’s the case, Lady Shen, why don’t you test the path for me?”
With that, he shoved her hard toward the boat.
Caught completely off guard, Shen Qing was pushed violently into the boat. She fell seated, causing the already unstable vessel to sway wildly and slide several lengths across the water.
When she looked up again, the two walls and the murals vanished into dust behind her. The wall lamps were gone, plunging the pool into deeper darkness. Through the gloom, she glimpsed a figure in red descending through the dust, landing at the bow.
Like a feather, he touched down without disturbing the boat in the slightest.
Once the boat steadied, it glided calmly toward the opposite shore.
The vanished voice reappeared and began singing again:
“Spirit money strewn, coffins black, white, and yellow.
Gongs and drums resound, soft red bridal sedan.
Red meets white, the suona cries,
In life together, in death entwined.”
The tune twisted once more. “Azure heavens vast, green waters in waves. Long bows in the mortal world, alone I cross the nether river”
It sang the melody over and over, tirelessly. The eerie part was that although the shore was clearly in sight and the boat never stopped moving forward, they seemed trapped in a looping refrain, unable to reach land.
Li Daoxuan soon sensed something amiss. Half an incense stick’s time had passed, they should have reached shore by now.
The boat was too small, and Shen Qing lacked Li Daoxuan’s qinggong, so she stayed seated and cautiously dipped her hand into the water. The strange green smoke did not appear.
Seeing this, Li Daoxuan lightly tapped his toe and tried to leap to shore. Yet just like before, green smoke burst forth and forced him back.
When he returned to the boat, the voice happened to be singing: “Alone I cross the nether river”
At those words, both of them looked up at once.
No matter how fast Shen Qing reacted, she was still slower than Li Daoxuan. Before she could resist, he shoved her into the water.
Water splashed high, wetting the instigator’s robe. He glanced at the struggling figure below, then casually removed his wedding robe and tossed it into the pool.
The black garments beneath were like his heart, beneath the red exterior lay utter darkness.
Shen Qing finally surfaced, one hand gripping the edge of the boat, the other wiping water from her face. She looked up to see him gazing down at her with a teasing smile.
Grinding her teeth, she snapped, “Li Daoxuan, what do you mean by this?” She was so furious she dropped even the honorific.
Li Daoxuan replied calmly, “Didn’t you hear it? ‘Alone I cross the nether river.’ With you on the boat, how am I supposed to cross?”
The logic was flawless. Even Shen Qing, sharp-tongued as she was, couldn’t immediately find a retort.
She glared at him, murderous intent churning inside. He was clearly pleased with himself, satisfaction written all over his face. Yet no matter how handsome he was, it couldn’t quell the killing intent surging in her heart. Suddenly, as if thinking of something, she fell silent and turned her gaze toward the shore.
It had to be said, this method truly worked. One in the boat, one in the water, it still counted as crossing the pool. At last, the boat reached land, and Li Daoxuan stepped ashore as he wished.
When he turned back to glance at the water’s surface, he found it completely empty. The person who had been baring her teeth and bristling only moments ago had vanished without a trace.
Li Daoxuan did harbor a teasing, manipulative streak, but he had never truly intended for Shen Qing to lose her life. While on the boat, his attention had remained fixed on her surroundings the entire time, monitoring her safety. The moment anything stirred beneath the water, he would have hauled her out without hesitation.
Yet in the mere instant it took him to turn around, Shen Qing had silently disappeared.
Li Daoxuan’s brows knit slightly. He strode to the water’s edge in a few steps and called out, “Shen Qing?”
The water lay deathly still.
“Shen You’an?” he called again.
Time passed, yet Shen Qing still did not surface. Just as Li Daoxuan was about to draw his sword and enter the water himself, Shen Qing suddenly burst out from below. With a sweep of her arm, she flung up a curtain of water and grabbed hold of his lower leg, crying out, “Save me! There’s something in the water!”