Chapter 104 — The Inquiry
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 7
Zhou Yixuan flushed. "I am old and feeble, how could I have stopped a great wild boar? And besides, are you a weak girl? Never mind a wild boar—even a tiger came and you still..."
Xiaowan suddenly coughed, and Zhou Yixuan said no more.
Xiaowan turned and gave the Wild Wolf Daoist, sitting off to one side, a lovely smile. "Daoist, I'll be counting on your care from now on."
The wild dog hurried to his feet. "No—not at all. If there's any rough work, just let me do it."
Zhou Yixuan snorted from a distance.
Just then, from outside the pavilion came a cold, even voice. "So you've run off to here."
The Wild Wolf Daoist's body tensed, and he turned to look; beside him Xiaowan had already blurted out, "Ah! It's you!"
On the old road outside the stone pavilion stood a young man, his face expressionless, a gray-furred monkey perched on his shoulder. It was Ming Li.
It was the first month of autumn. Though it was noon, the sun was not so fierce as in summer, and a cool breeze blew now and again outside the stone pavilion.
But inside the pavilion, with the arrival of this uninvited guest, the atmosphere had suddenly fallen silent.
The Wild Wolf Daoist sat to one side, his face flushing red and pale by turns, staring at the ground, plainly rather tense. Ming Li stood on the other side, still expressionless, not glancing much at the Wild Wolf Daoist but watching Zhou Yixuan.
Xiaowan looked at the Wild Wolf Daoist, then at Ming Li, and after a long while said cautiously, "Um, Young Master Zhang... Ming Li, you—why have you come?"
Ming Li glanced at her. "I've come looking for your grandfather."
Zhou Yixuan was taken aback. "Looking for me?"
Ming Li nodded. "Yes. I would ask the senior a question."
Xiaowan promptly relaxed. She smiled secretly at the wild dog to set his mind at ease, then turned to Ming Li with considerable interest. "Ah! A man as formidable as you—what would you want to ask my grandfather?"
As she spoke, she suddenly noticed the little gray monkey on Ming Li's shoulder, its beady eyes rolling, grinning at her and baring its teeth. She was instantly charmed and laughed. "Ha, I'm the one who gave you candied hawthorns that day! Do you remember me?"
"Chee-chee, chee-chee." The monkey Little Gray chattered and nodded vigorously, then suddenly leapt from Ming Li's shoulder into Xiaowan's arms. Plainly the monkey had a fine impression of those candied hawthorns.
Xiaowan beamed and reached out to catch Little Gray, but the moment it landed in her hands it sagged with a sudden weight, far heavier than she had expected, and she nearly dropped it to the ground. Luckily she reacted quickly and put forth more strength, steadying herself and holding Little Gray firm—but she was astonished. Only a few days had passed, and by the look of it Little Gray had not grown much at all; how had its weight suddenly increased by more than half? How very strange!
Ming Li watched Xiaowan tease Little Gray, giggling without pause, looking utterly delighted, and deep in his eyes there seemed a faint trace of a smile, which vanished at once as he turned to face Zhou Yixuan.
Zhou Yixuan shrugged. "I am a man of nine measures of talent and six cartloads of learning; there is nothing under heaven I do not know. But that you should come to ask me—now that is strange. Out with it, what is it?"
Ming Li paid no mind to his self-praise and said calmly, "That day in the Death Marsh, a fish-headed monster ambushed your granddaughter. Do you remember?"
Zhou Yixuan started. The Wild Wolf Daoist and Xiaowan, hearing this, both looked over at once.
Xiaowan, holding Little Gray, said, "That's right! The monster was terribly vicious. If not for Young Master Ming Li and Sister Ping'er striking in time, it would nearly have done for me."
Ming Li kept his eyes on Zhou Yixuan. "You said at the time that the monster was one of the Fish People, one of the sixty-three strange tribes of the southern border, is that so?"