Chapter 64: Chapter 62-equilibrium
Everyone fell silent at her words. Zhou Zishu sat straighter in his chair but didn't press further. His brows knitted as if he was pondering something while he waited for Gao Xiaolian to release her pent-up emotions.
Wen Kexing glanced at him and picked up a steamed bun1 with his chopsticks. Like it was the most natural thing to do, he plonked it into Zhou Zishu's bowl. Gu Xiang clocked the move; she hastened to duck her head as if she had just witnessed something untoward. Only to look back up moments later. She cast furtive glances between the
two men, thought about it, and decided that the situation was unfair2. She too picked up a bun and planted it into Cao Weining's bowl. Cao Weining was instantly cowered by such a portentous favor.
Out of the bunch, Zhang Chengling alone seemed to feel any sympathy for Gao Xiaolian. He felt quite sorry as he watched her cry. But he was never eloquent and didn't know what to say. The only thing he could do was to sit beside her in silence.
Long minutes passed before he finally came up with something.
"Miss... Miss Gao," he squeezed out. "Don't be sad, my dad's dead too..."
Zhang Chengling bit his lips, cursing himself inwardly for saying something so inane. Does my father being dead mean hers deserves to be dead also? he thought. Panic rose within him.
Gao Xiaolian didn't take offense, though. She knew he meant well, so she forced a valiant smile on her lips to show her gratitude.
Cao Weining spoke up from the side.
"I've heard that, a while ago, Sir Gao escorted Sir Shen's remains back to Shuzhong in person. Did... something happen then?"
Gao Xiaolian wiped the tears from her face and dropped her gaze to compose herself. Although she was already quite mature when they first met her, she still had been a young lady raised in luxuries. One who'd be escorted by her senior co-disciple whenever she traveled, and whose character had retained a touch of naivete born out of inexperience. Yet, she had gone through so much in the short few months since that she seemed like another person. Her voice still trembled, but she reined in her emotions.
"At the time," she said softly. "Daddy told us he wanted to give Uncle Shen a last send-off with the other heroes. At first, he agreed to bring me and Brother Deng along, but he changed his mind a day before we were meant to set off and made me stay behind. I... I fought with him because of his going back on his word, but Daddy was adamant he wouldn't take me along. He even said... said a few things that weren't nice to hear. Things like how the situation was tense, and how the trip may not be uneventful, what with the Devils lurking about, and how I could only be a hindrance..."
A tear slid down her cheeks and fell. Zhou Zishu spoke in a gentle voice.
"Your esteemed father doubtless had concerns he couldn't speak of. He must have asked you to stay behind out of regard for your safety."
Gao Xiaolian nodded. "But I...!"
"You are safe now, so your father's bloodline still lives on," Zhou Zishu said. " It means that your father's efforts weren't in vain."
Gao Xiaolian bit her lips. "I wouldn't stand for it and planned to secretly follow them after they left," she continued. "But I didn't predict that Daddy... that Daddy would send for people to lock me up before he went, taking Brother Deng with him. I had already sulked for half a month when co-disciples of mine came to release me. They told me they were acting on Daddy's order, and that they had to take me to a place where we were to reunite. Already back then... I sensed that something was amiss."
Everyone was listening to her, enthralled, and the food was forgotten. Wen Kexing alone seemed unfazed. He ate slowly in a rare display of a genteel mien, not forgetting to place food into Zhou Zishu's bowl from time to time.
"I escaped mid-journey while they weren't paying attention," Gao Xiaolian went on. "I planned to go to Shuzhong and find Daddy, but I didn't... I couldn't have imagined I'd run into Brother Deng. He was gravely wounded, and there were people after him..."
Cao Weining asked, "Were they from the Devils' Vall...?"
"You recognized the people hunting him down, didn't you?" Zhou Zishu cut in. "They were people who had attended the Heroes' Council in Dongting. Am I correct?"
Dumbstruck, Cao Weining gaped at Zhou Zishu. He swallowed before mumbling, "Zhou... Brother Zhou, maybe we shouldn't say such things too lightly?"
Zhou Zishu leaned back in his chair. "According to Miss Gao, Sir Gao was in the company of masters from the most prestigious clans on that trip," he said in a light voice. "They had strength in numbers. So, why would the Devils attack Deng Kuan at such a juncture? Wouldn't that be counterproductive?"
Gao Xiaolian began to tremble. "You're right... It's as you've guessed, they were people from orthodox clans. They said my father was Uncle Shen's murderer. That he was the mastermind behind the Zhang family's massacre and the death of Taishan's grandmaster. And that he had colluded with the Devils to... to obtain the Crystal Armour. They also said that Daddy had a hand in what had happened with Rong Xuan and the theft of each clan's secret manuals back then. That he refused to speak about the past only to preserve his own reputation, going so far as to kill witnesses. All of it so he could hog the Armour for himself..."
Zhang Chengling opened his eyes wide. Jumping to his feet, he exclaimed, "What? He...?!"
Zhou Zishu gave the boy a stern look. "Brat. Sit down."
"Shifu! She said... she said..."
Gao Xiaolian's voice rose. "It's not true. They are lying! They are slandering my father! My father wasn't that kind of person!"
"You are right," Zhou Zishu said evenly. "Sir Gao wasn't that kind of person. Miss Gao, please continue."
Zhou Zishu's voice was low and deep; it seemed to possess an unusual calming quality. Gao Xiaolian glanced at him and felt that she had overreacted somewhat. Embarrassed, she dropped her eyes to reprise her narration.
"Brother Deng told me to run... I was scared and fled without knowing where I was headed. I only tried to avoid crowded areas at all times. Brother Deng's injuries were really serious, I wonder if... I wonder if..."
Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing exchanged a glance. Judging from Gao Xiaolian's words, things didn't bode well for Deng Kuan.
"Afterwards, while you were on the run," Cao Weining said, "you came across Granny Black-Bane by chance and accidentally betrayed your identity. That's when they got greedy and decided to abduct you, right?"
Gao Xiaolian nodded. "I didn't reveal my identity by accident. The people after me caught up. Granny Black-Bane and her gang decided to interfere and snatched me away... They were convinced the Armour was in Daddy's possession. And since my dad had passed away, the horrible thing could only be in my hands..."
Clearly, the tale of yet another Zhang Chengling.
At that moment, Gu Xiang butted in. "Oh, right, right! After we parted ways in Dongting last time, Brother Cao and I ran into Lord Seventh and his lot — Lord Seventh said they were gonna find a way to save Zhou Xu. So, for a while, we looked for you together. Only, you guys flew the coop to who knows what hovel where even birds wouldn't shit so you could hook up..."
As Gu Xiang's words grow more and more florid, Cao Weining hastened to clear his throat.
For his part, Wen Kexing gave a start. Ignoring the gibberish, he asked, "Did you say Lord Seventh knows of a way?"
Gu Xiang nodded. "The Great Shaman came up with some ideas. He asked us to contact them when we found Zhou Xu... And, as I was gonna say, I heard from them that the bunch of gals in black were actually the remaining
supporters of Nanjiang's Dark Shaman3 from way back. The Great Shaman cleaned them out pretty well early on. But then, they conned another lot of dumb girls from who knows where into tagging along as their disciples. That's how they survived an extra few years and, this time round, they had come to try their luck in muddy waters. The Great Shaman said it was an excellent opportunity to net them all. And since Brother Cao and I had nothing better to do, we volunteered to tail them. Mind you, we did it purely as a good deed, too. But then we ran into Miss Gao. Well, we've hit the jackpot in accumulating merits this time, haven't we!"
Wen Kexing stared at her, rather taken aback. A frown appeared on his brows but he said nothing. He turned to Zhou Zishu instead.
"What do you think?"
Zhou Zishu remained silent for a while before sighing.
"People who know the truth are nearly all dead, with a lone one still standing. The winners and the losers are now obvious, so what need have you to ask me such a question?"
At the same moment, Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman, the two persons under discussion, had also settled at an inn. Lord Seventh was in rapture as he played with a chopstick — looking rather like a child, he was trying to make it stand upside down atop the table. Unfortunately for him, the chopstick's head was not flat; it was slightly convex, and he had been working on it for quite a while already, without success. Still, he persisted in his fiddling, so taken with the task that he left his meal to cool.
The Great Shaman observed him in silence for a long time before he heaved a sigh.
"Beiyuan, stop playing," he said in a gentle tone of the kind used to coax children. " Come on, eat your food properly."
"Uh-huh," Lord Seventh acquiesced with his gaze still fixated on the chopstick.
The Great Shaman proceeded to feed the man, one bite at a time. Though the Great Shaman of Nanjiang possessed a frigid demeanor, his patience seemed bottomless when it came to that man.
For his part, Lord Seventh appeared accustomed to it. He opened up and munched on whatever was pressed to his lips. After a while, the Great Shaman couldn't resist asking, "What are you doing?"
"I want to make this chopstick stand on its end," Lord Seventh said.
Not understanding what he meant, the Great Shaman frowned. He plucked the unfortunate chopstick from the guy's hand and jabbed it lightly downwards. The table's surface seemed to be made of tofu as a hole was poked into it — lodged firmly within, the chopstick stood on its end.
Lord Seventh glared at the Great Shaman. "You're using brute force. It doesn't count."
The Great Shaman gave an indulgent chuckle and said nothing. He resumed watching the other man in silence whilst feeding him. Lord Seventh reprised his tinkering.
"If one can't stand on its own, I'll have to find another," Lord Seventh soliloquized. He picked up another chopstick and added it to his game.
It took another good while before the two chopsticks stood on their ends, each resting against the other in a precarious balance. Lord Seventh had succeeded. He retrieved his hand with the greatest caution and spoke in the lowest of voices, afraid that he may blow over his hard work.
"Equilibrium — isn't easy to achieve."
Not getting it, the Great Shaman asked, "What do you mean?"
"For any situation to attain an outcome that is both enduring and stable, a state of equilibrium must be achieved," Lord Seventh stated. "Harmony is a sort of equilibrium, division is another. The path to equilibrium is thus..."
The Great Shaman pinched the bridge of his nose. "Beiyuan," he cut in. "Don't you start rambling?"
Lord Seventh didn't take offense. He seemed accustomed to interruptions as well. As if nothing, he continued:
"Many prerequisites are necessary to the obtention of equilibrium, and it is a state that is exceedingly difficult to achieve. First, both parties must be an even match. There can't be a side that is strong and another that is weak, for the stronger side is sure to engulf the weaker one. Yet, both parties being evenly matched is not sufficient on its own, for both parties may still fight until mutual extinction. No. In addition, there have to be some elements of fated, or human-conceived limitations, which cannot be overlooked. Limitations that serve the purpose of having both parties harbor a degree of apprehension, and make them think twice before opening hostilities, for fear of, so to
speak, 'breaking the valuable vase whilst aiming for the menial mouse'4... Generally speaking, situations, where such a perfect and elegant state of equilibrium is achieved, are the result of lucky happenstances and other fortuitous causes. Simply put, they are the designs of the heavens. In cases they are the craft of men, they would require a gradual maturing of the plan and a careful laying down of every piece. And if a single wrong step is taken, the entire game is lost. Whereas destroying an established equilibrium is always the easiest thing."
As he spoke, he reached out to remove one of the chopsticks from his creation. The other one obligingly fell over. Right onto a plate of flaky pastries whose crispy exteriors are fissured with small cracks.
Lord Seventh smiled. "Just like so, you would only need to take away one of the pieces to destroy it. But then... Why would you want to make such a move?"
"What have you figured out this time?" the Great Shaman asked.
Lord Seventh gathered his teacup and took a sip. He shook his head, a smile creeping across his lips. "That remains unspeakable. Unspeakable."
1. They are eating xiaolongbao. The sheer number of Wikipedia articles on food items never ceases
to amaze me.
2. Feeling that a situation is unfair is expressed as "feeling unbalanced in the heart" in Chinese. The author echoes the chapter's title here.
3. could be alternatively translated as "practitioners of dark voodoo from Nanjiang".
4. idiom translated literally
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