The Demon Zither’s effect on the human mind shared similarities with the Fear Array set by Yin Huadi on the day of the Purification Ceremony—both could evoke one’s inner terrors—yet they were distinct. That night, when Zhu Yixin, Qiao Songlin, and I experienced it firsthand, what appeared in our minds were not the things we feared most. For instance, what I saw was entirely an annotation of the "Jade Hook Slant" itself—the chilling white bones within the ruined palaces of a fallen kingdom. What Qiao Songlin saw seemed more like a preview of the Great Jing’s future. My fifth sister was the most unusual; she refused to tell us what she had seen no matter what. After she had secretly checked on Zhang Zhuyi’s condition that night, she suffered a rare bout of insomnia and went so far as to ask Qiao Songlin out for a meeting. The two of them sat in the courtyard talking until midnight, which happened to coincide with Xia Ji’s intrusion, allowing them to intercept the enemy.
I found myself admiring Xie Bin’s simple and transparent nature. Beauty could not stir his soul, and demons could not seize his mind. If the Demon Zither’s ultimate destination truly lay with such a person, it would be a blessing.
Wei Qingming listened without revealing much emotion, then asked, "Brother Xie, the zither sounded the moment you struck the strings? You truly are its destined one."
"Not quite," Xie Bin mused, his brow furrowing.
Reminded by her, we all remembered. In fact, the first few notes of that piece were not heard at all, as if the Demon Zither had not yet woken up, or perhaps its throat was not yet clear upon waking, lazily refusing to make a sound!
Only then did a trace of a smile touch Wei Qingming’s lips, her eyes narrowing slightly. She unexpectedly veered off-topic, telling us a ghost story: "As you all know, the Demon Zither, Jade Hook Slant, was acquired from Leitian. Leitian is governed by the Demon Race. This object was buried in the fields for a long time and was unearthed only a few months ago; it has claimed several lives since then."
As she spoke, she leisurely chose a chair and sat down, beckoning me to sit beside her and gesturing for the others to do the same. She continued in an almost joking tone, "Initially, the villagers who touched it fell into fits of madness, falling off cliffs or into wells. The local magistrate was bold, however; he used a pretext to confiscate the zither and turned around to offer it as a bribe. After passing through several hands, the Demon Zither claimed the lives of several more officials, and that magistrate was eventually seized and his clan executed. However, a clever strategist suggested it would be better to give it to a foreigner. Furthermore, since the Maritime Trade Commissioner, Eunuch Han, was extorting heavy bribes and committing many injustices, and had a rift with the local Governor, the Demon Zither eventually found its way into Eunuch Han’s hands. Young Master Li has already explained the subsequent events to you all."
She stopped there, and Yan Xiangjun asked impatiently, "Eunuch Han was already on bad terms with the Kingdom of Lei; perhaps there was some other mystery behind his death. It might not necessarily be the work of this Demon Zither. But it has harmed so many people—it can't all be human interference, can it?"
"The reason it is attributed to this zither is that the deaths of these people were truly bizarre," Wei Qingming said with a faint smile. "Anyone who touched it could pluck the strings. Those who did would hear demonic whispers in their minds, constantly instructing them to do something—for example, demanding they retrieve something from a well, leading the bewitched to fall in and drown. Several victims were heard muttering the zither’s commands repeatedly before they died. That is how they perished."
Everyone looked at each other in surprise, because none of us who had heard the zither that night had received any instructions from it!
"There is another peculiarity," Duan Qimo noted. "The deceased and those affected were the ones who plucked the strings, not those who merely listened."
"Exactly," Wei Qingming said. "So, Brother Shen, there is no need to panic. On the contrary, Brother Xie should be more careful."
This last remark was entirely a joke. Shen Yinian wasn't comforted in the slightest; he gave a sheepish twitch of his lips as a polite smile. Xie Bin, however, threw his head back and laughed, joking back, "Quite right, quite right! From now on, I must stay far away from cliffs and waters. I certainly mustn't go looking for my own death!"
"Therefore, the truth should be considered from the opposite perspective," Wei Qingming returned to the main point. "It is not that the Demon Zither was sleeping and needed a destined person to wake it, but rather that it had long been awake and was instead sealed by someone before it entered our Great Jing. They merely borrowed a portion of the zither's power, modified it, and guided it according to the situation to use as a mechanism for inciting chaos. As for why it only sounded when it reached Brother Xie’s hands..."
Everyone craned their necks, waiting for her conclusion. She gave a leisurely smile but shook her head. "I have not yet deciphered that part."
Naturally, everyone was utterly disappointed. Yan Xiangjun wasn't afraid of bruising her ego and gave a loud "Tch" to tease her. Lord Wei merely sat there smiling, unmoved. I, however, knew very well that she already had a calculation in her heart; she simply couldn't state it clearly in public.
The next scene was the backyard, the place where He and Zhou had disappeared during the night, and where Yan Mingqiu and Xia Ji had fought. One side was the east of the building—climbing over the defensive wall array led to the Dan River and the East Mountains—while the other was the west, the warehouse area, which was the direction Xia Ji had fled while fighting. Between the two lay a garden, not very large, which was exactly where the young lords and ladies had enjoyed the snow and composed poetry the morning after the Haoqiu Banquet.
Brother Yan had been sunbathing until he snored, only to be woken by his sister’s palm striking his shoulder. He arrived with his mouth wide open, yawning. Wei Qingming’s gaze toward him was dark with a cold smile; she had likely already decided how to avenge that "torn sleeve" incident... Brother Yan simply pretended not to see it, saying with a grin, "Taking so long, I'm already hungry."
"I shall host the banquet at noon and treat Brother Yan to a fine meal," Duan Qimo interjected with a smile.
"Aye! Sounds good, sounds good!" Yan Mingqiu waved his hand in agreement. When he lowered his arm, Wei Qingming moved her sleeve away with great distaste, unconsciously standing several steps further from him. My mood, which I had spent so long coaxing back to health, soured again... Having no other choice, I hurried up to her, also grinning as I took hold of her sleeve, swaying it slightly left and right. This actually worked; seeing me acting so cutely, Lord Wei’s expression finally cleared, and she at last smiled.
Without waiting for anyone to ask, Yan Mingqiu launched into a long-winded, rambling, and highly dramatized reenactment of every move and stance from that night. It was so tedious that both the experts and the laymen among us grew sleepy, and even I began to feel a bit hungry... As he spoke, he gesticulated wildly to demonstrate the techniques, clearly intending to invite "Junior Brother Wei" to recreate the thrilling scene with him. How could Lord Wei possibly pay him any mind? She listened coldly and quietly until he finished, offering not a single word of evaluation, only saying, "That is all for today."
Yan Mingqiu choked for a moment, clearly not having had his fill of boasting, but there was nothing he could do. Furthermore, the hunger pangs in his stomach were acting up, so he had to shut his mouth with lingering regret and obediently follow Duan Qimo out of the building. The others let out a long breath, all showing relaxed smiles. Boss Jiang and Boss Huang, who had been as quiet as castrated roosters all morning, finally broke into smiles that looked like the pleats on a steamed bun. They crowded around Lord Wei with fawning concern, calling out "Hard work, hard work," nearly offering to massage her arms and legs. One couldn't blame them; today, Lord Wei had suffered a rare affront to her dignity, and her aura had been so oppressive it felt as though a thunderstorm or a tidal wave might break at any moment... Even my instincts as an *yao* had been triggered, leaving me somewhat trembling.
Ever since I met Duan Qimo, every time we saw each other, she was the one footing the bill. Although I knew this was the way of the business world, I couldn't help but feel a bit of sorrow for our demon race. The private room she booked was in Fu Pavilion, which was also one of the Thirteen Pavilions, though it specialized in Wuyue private cuisine. Aside from the pastries, which were somewhat delicate and refreshing, everything else was either too salty or too sweet for Lord Wei. Only the clear stewed soup was palatable to her. After we were seated, the two bosses, unaware of her eating habits, kept urging her to drink and eat. I smiled and blocked them all, explaining that my lady was a vegetarian. They persisted for two rounds before confirming that this wasn't a sign of Lord Wei’s displeasure, after which they sat down and ate their own food.
Finally, a bowl of "Fallen Moon and Brasenia Soup" was served. I hurriedly snatched the most beautiful bowl for Lord Wei and presented it to her. She looked at me with a tender smile and, fearing I might burn myself, quickly took it. She picked up a floating ball with her spoon—it was primarily made of sea bass supplemented with several kinds of fish surimi, representing the "fallen moon." The moon from the sky rolled into my own bowl; two moon-balls, white as jade, bumped into each other, round and endearingly affectionate. We looked at each other and smiled, our hands joining beneath the table.
On the other side, Yan Mingqiu was already feasting greedily on old duck, mandarin fish, and lion’s head meatballs, refusing nothing—in fact, the greasier it was, the more he ate...
Halfway through the meal, as he was unceremoniously using both hands to tear apart a whole pheasant placed before him, he suddenly felt a sharp wind pierce through both his sleeves, pinning both his wrists together and driving straight into the sandalwood tabletop. Simultaneously, I had drifted behind him, pressing a single chopstick against his throat. It turned out the chopstick pinning him was one I had thrown using the "Falling Rain, Scattering Flowers" technique, a fusion of throwing and hidden weapon methods.
He was wearing a narrow-sleeved robe with side slits, and the sleeves were about a finger's width away from his wrists. This move was actually extremely precise. Given his cultivation level and reaction speed, it should have been impossible for me to hit him. I had cheated a bit, timing my sneak attack for the exact moment his fingers were stuck between the pheasant bones and couldn't be easily withdrawn. But to the laymen, it undoubtedly looked like I had absolute dominance, holding his life in my palm in an instant.
The entire table was shocked. Duan Qimo, who didn't know the depths of my abilities, looked astonished. Yan Xiangjun wasn't at all angry that I had humiliated her brother; she rested her chin on her hand and chirped a single word with a beaming smile: "Deserved!"
That big idiot Yan didn't even care about losing face; he even dared to give a roguish grin. I propped his head up with the chopstick and said fiercely, "If we're sparring, then spar properly. If you dare use those rogue tactics again, just you try me!"
"I was wrong, I was wrong," he replied with a laugh. "I shouldn't have teased—*ack!*"
I didn't give him a chance to talk any more nonsense. I jabbed the chopstick heavily against his throat and then applied an illusion, making it so that for the rest of the meal, even a grain of rice would be difficult for him to swallow, let alone chicken...
Thus, while everyone had been in awe of Lord Wei at the start of the banquet, by the time it ended, everyone was avoiding me as well. This allowed us, the "virtuous couple," some peace and quiet...
On the carriage ride back, I sat on Lord Wei’s lap, coaxing and kissing her. In truth, she had stopped being angry long ago; I knew that, but I was just using it as an excuse to kiss, hug, and take some liberties. Eventually, she laughed and tickled the sensitive skin on my neck, then pulled me back into a tight embrace as I giggled uncontrollably, nearly falling off her lap. She sighed with emotion, "I never expected that I, Wei Tian, would one day have Ah Zhi stand up for me."
"Little beauty, if anything happens, just tell me. Sister will stand up for you!" I said with a grin, pinching her cheek.
She smiled faintly. "Yes, Sister."
Those three ordinary words were spoken by her in a voice so low and deep, so full of meaning, so soft and husky, that they made my whole body tingle with heat. It truly felt like the way a kept boy would call his wealthy patroness; she was so practiced at it, it felt a bit too real...
To regain the upper hand and not lose momentum, I pretended not to notice that my face was as red as the shrimp at the banquet. I put my hands on my hips and glared. "You say it so naturally. Have you really had a fling with some wealthy lady before?"
"I haven't. If Sister doesn't believe me..." She actually leaned into my ear, her eyelashes drooping as she whispered with a low laugh, "You can interrogate me when we get back."
...I admit defeat.
In terms of being shameless, no one in the world can rival Lord Wei. This quality, so essential for an official, is her greatest asset. I believe that one day, she will rely on this single skill to bring ruin to the country and its people...
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 玉钩斜 | Jade Hook Slant | The name of the Demon Zither (Yaoqin). |
| 雷阗 | Leitian | A region or territory governed by the Demon Race. |
| 落雨分花 | Falling Rain, Scattering Flowers | A martial technique involving projectiles/hidden weapons. |
| 馥楼 | Fu Pavilion | One of the "Thirteen Pavilions" (十三间楼), specializing in Wuyue cuisine. |
| 魏天 | Wei Tian | Wei Qingming's full name (Tian being the given name). |
| 姐姐 | Sister / Jiejie | Used here as a playful/flirtatious term of endearment. |
| 落月莼菜汤 | Fallen Moon and Brasenia Soup | A specific dish; "Fallen Moon" refers to the fish surimi balls. |
