Murong Hong seemed to have noticed that someone was following them, so they split up and left Phoenix Town. The carriage was then stopped in front of a tall mountain. Tang Ziyu thought that the mountain looked familiar. She suddenly remembered that it was the Qilin Mountain between Phoenix Town and Qilin Town! It was the same place she had come from, and now she had actually come full circle and returned. Murong Hong had disguised himself as an old man, while Tang Ziyu looked like a village girl. She had been made to be mute, so she could only follow Murong Hong. The two of them walked into a cave, and Murong Hong led her a few steps to the left, then to the right, and finally backwards. After walking in this way for a while in an eight trigrams formation, the two of them actually arrived at a very special place.
Murong Hong pulled her and they jumped, and the two of them slid down the passage to the outside of the mountain. There were a few small houses here, like an idyllic paradise. Tang Ziyu was stunned by the scenery before her. How could this be? Where the hell was this place? Murong Hong released her pressure points and knew that she could not leave now. ‘Zi Han, we’ll never go out, okay? Just the two of us, you playing the flute and me playing the flute, how about we be a pair of immortal lovers?’ Murong Hong excitedly said, ‘In fact, I once wanted to live here with Yue Qing, but he refused no matter what. But you are different from him. I knew as soon as I saw you that you are the one I want!’
‘I’m a man!’ ‘Of course I know. I love you. Women are not good, they are all dirty and very treacherous. Just look at my two sisters. They did anything stupid to get Yue Qing, but they didn’t love me as deeply as I love you, so I got Yue Qing and they got nothing. But Yue Qing has disappointed me, he is no longer perfect, but you are different, I knew it when we played together, our hearts will connect. Tang Ziyu finally realised what was so strange about Xiao Fu and Xiao Ya. They were men dressed as women! That was why they both wore ribbons around their necks!
Tang Ziyu looked at this man, and he was indeed the one who had hurt Yue Qing, and he was also a conceited and arrogant person. Although his ideas were really very avant-garde, even in his own time he was not ordinary, and his kind of love might also be accepted by other people. However, no matter what, love that is forced cannot last. She had also been raped by Mu, so she knew that feeling, so she could very much understand Yue Qing’s feelings. But at the time, Mu was unconscious, and if he had been conscious, he would not have done that to her. In fact, in a sense, the reason she would love Situ more than Mu was also because her first time was forced by Mu.
Murong Hong washed his face with water, revealing his refined face, ‘Let me wash it for you.’ ‘Thank you, but I’m afraid I’ll dirty your hands,’ Tang Ziyu glared at him. ‘Why did you say that?’ was hurt. Murong Hong looked at her. Since she had been so calm from the beginning, he had thought that she might be a decoy from Xiao Yun Villa, but he was not afraid, and he would not let go. Every day, he spent time with Tang Ziyu. Although she could not speak, just sitting next to her made him feel very happy.
‘Because I am a woman!’ Tang Ziyu washed her face and glared at Murong Hong again. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, Murong Gongzi, but I am a woman dressed as a man.’ ’ Impossible, Xue’er said she touched yours…‘ “That’s a fake. Your family is famous for disguise, but mine is famous for jade craftsmanship. If you like this jade stick, you can take it.” With that, Tang Ziyu threw the jade stick in front of Murong Hong.
’I don’t believe it!’ Murong Hong suddenly became very agitated, pulled Tang Ziyu over, tore off her clothes, and was shocked when he saw the cloth wrapped around her chest. But he was not disheartened, and after a few movements, he removed the cloth, and the two round breasts that had been imprisoned for several days immediately jumped out and appeared in front of Murong Hong’s eyes. His head grew big with a bang, and he pushed her away, ‘Get out of the way!’
Tang Ziyu snorted, put her clothes back on, picked up the jade staff on the ground and put it in her pocket, then leisurely looked at Murong Hong, and now all that was left was the wood. Murong Hong was still in shock, his mind in a complete mess, so all he could do was sit down and watch Tang Ziyu. Tang Ziyu took the jade flute Murong Hong had prepared for her and began to play it. In fact, she was still a little nervous. Mu Wu had told her that Murong Hong hated women, to a pathological degree, and it seemed that was really the case. But did she really hate him that much? Hey, he didn’t care that he was a man, but he cared that she was a woman. Maybe that’s just how unpredictable the world is.
She couldn’t think of any particular tune, so she just played something random. When she realised what she was playing, she realised she was playing ‘Butterflies’. She knew that the man in front of her would not kill her for the time being, but she really had no idea when Mu would come to save her. She would accept this mission, half for Yue Qing and half for herself. Because she had thought about it, if she died, then she wouldn’t have to face the choice of whether to go with Situ and leave Mu one day.
In the last letter she wrote to Situ, she only wrote a few words: ‘A delicate pair of dice’. Mu Xiaotian asked her what it meant, but she just smiled and didn’t tell him, because she didn’t want to make him sad. The meaning of those words was: ‘A delicate pair of dice with red beans embedded in them, engraved with a bone-deep longing, do you know?’ She knew that if one day she was by Situ’s side, she would miss Mu and Yue Qing again. She didn’t want to be in such pain again, so she was willing to take the risk.
She thought of Situ Ping, the man she loved and resented at the same time. No wonder someone had written about the sorrows of a woman. If Murong Hong really would kill her, then so be it. Although the hairpin in her hair was an assassin’s weapon given to her by Mu, she had no intention of using it from the beginning, because she and Murong had no hatred between them, and she had no need to kill him. In a sense, Murong Hong had even helped her take a free trip, albeit not voluntarily, but it was indeed free.