After being spun in the water from some time, making several swooshing sounds, the boat stabilised and came to a standstill. Xiyu opened her eyes and looked upwards at the sleeping Dongyue, who still had his arms curled around her. Her heart warmed, and a smile spread across her pale face, partially concealed by the sheer material of her veil. Perhaps, many Muxue women would have desired this man of Han descent. But she, Muxue Xiyu, had her doubts.
The more she looked at him, the more she felt drawn to him by his charming features. He was one man who would make her panic and her heart skip a beat, but she would often keep her emotions well-hidden and under control. Nevertheless, she found it challenging to prevent herself from wanting kisses from him when she was in her sensual phase, so, fortunately, it was not a full moon tonight.
Under the bright moonlight in the sky above them, she was able to perceive his manly features. What good was a man so handsome if he would just end up leaving? Her heart ached as she contemplated the facts. With her right index finger, she lightly traced the shape of his lips.
‘You’re just another man like others, aren’t you?’ she asked him in her mind, heaving a low sigh. The sound of the cicadas calling in the darkness muffled her sighs. She didn’t want to open her heart to just anybody after she saw Hanshan leave. She needed to be wary. But if the gates of Muxue were still open, were there chances she could help Dongyue and the others to go, before she lost her heart to someone she couldn’t trust?
She was adamant that she would reencounter the pain of betrayal if she trusted him, like the idiot Xu Hanshan. In her mind, all men were the same. Once they had another woman, they would go against their principles and beliefs to neglect the other women in their life, like what she had seen with her father, her uncles and also the neighbours. Her father had left her mother when she was young, over a minor argument. Her mother suspected a woman was involved, and she was right. Women’s instincts were always right.
Albeit all these points, she was aware that she had never rested so well like how she had in Dongyue’s embrace. As a witch, her sleep had been prone to unexplained disturbances, which she blamed on the Chinese proverb: ‘What you worry about in the day turns into what you dream at night’. Among these worries, one of them was the issue of Pei Xinyi’s resurface.
Pei Xinyi had finally returned after being thrown out of the town and hidden in the crystal caverns far from the woods Xiyu had lived in. She insisted on finding the answers through mediation and self-reflection. Hence, the fact she had come back hinted that she was after something.
Xiyu was sceptical. Why did she follow Dongyue that day, and how had she known his identity?
She remembered her past controversy with her distant cousin, which had been going on for some time.
At twelve, she and her cousin Pei Xinyi, the only child of her maternal uncle (her mother’s brother, to be specific) would often be at loggerheads. During their teenage years, this Miss Pei had been envious of her friendship with the Han boy. She had wanted a lot of things, and in the end, Xiyu had claimed her own rights. Pei Xinyi, having no backing in Muxue, naturally lost the war.
Pei Xinyi was even jealous of her icy beauty. Why a woman wanted so much and was so devious, Xiyu could not fathom.
How had Pei Xinyi known about Zhan Dongyue? Xiyu wondered. Something was not right. Someone from the town must be feeding her with information. Wait till she gets her hands on this bugger, she swore. She was not worried about Dongyue, but about the island. She was weak, and without the power of a ritual, there was no possible way she could get powerful enough to guard the island.
“Miss Muxue,” Dongyue whispered in his sleep, snuggling against her. He was still fast asleep, so Xiyu made no attempts to push him away. She watched the surroundings outside the boat. They were no longer in the lake, and as she expected, they had entered a completely different location. Earlier, she had said that the spot she had wanted to go was inside the lake, but that was not the case. How would these ordinary humans understand that the lake was a magical portal to transport them to another place within the island, the magical hills of Xuancang?
What mattered was that they had arrived at her destination, after all. She was glad that it had all went as planned. She would award them handsomely out of the coffers of the Crimson Fairy for their efforts.
“Miss Muxue, Miss Muxue,” he groaned in his sleep. “Please accept me. Miss Muxue, I like you.”
She felt awkward hearing him confess his feelings to her in his sleep, but as she peered at him, he woke up suddenly.
She shook him off her and headed towards the edge of the boat, where they had ascended earlier. A magical ladder materialised, allowing her to disembark smoothly. By then, the other men had woken up as well, and they both followed after Xiyu. Dongyue glanced towards Xiyu and noticed how she was averting his gaze. Had she heard him mutter something in his sleep?
The hills were covered with a pinkish shade of snow, unlike the pure white snow in the town. The simple-minded men, including Dongyue, had no qualms that they had arrived at the bottom of the lake, which was nothing but a lie by Xiyu. There was no benefit in telling them about the portal; she reminded herself.
Her heart was beating very vigorously, but it was not because of Dongyue. Inside the hills, resided an older man, a sage, that was bound by chains. The sage was mighty and had been secured and sealed in the mountains in the fear he would one day hurt them. It was a sad story, for the sage to have his family turn against him. Indeed, the very people who had chained him were his descendants, people who were related to him by blood.
And in these same hills, a chest containing some objects dear to her was buried. This was what she deemed her birthright. If her information was right, the chest should hold answers to the questions she had all her life. The trunk held secret manuals for her magic power, an invincible weapon that she could unlock given her blood as a Muxue, and a letter from her forefathers.
Muxue Xiyu, you’re almost there, she told herself.