Song of Everlasting Regret - Chapter 14

Yu Jingqiu returned to the Chengxin Waterside Pavilion and placed the sword Jie E on the long desk. She sat in a daze. Even though she had grown accustomed to life without parents over the years, she could not help but feel profound sorrow now that she knew her heritage and that both parents had passed away.

However, the pain was not so deep that it became uncontrollable. Under Lou Xuanzhi’s protection and guidance, she had grown up peacefully and in ignorance for seventeen years; her temperament was naturally light and tranquil. Furthermore, because she had no memories of living with her parents, her hatred had not reached a bone-deep level.

It was just that she had once expected and fantasized about her parents, so now she felt a deep sense of regret and an unerasable melancholy. Her heart was as gloomy as the dark clouds in the sky that day.

What gave her some comfort was that her elder sister was still alive. She was now her only relative, making her incredibly precious. Yu Jingqiu even projected her expectations of her parents onto her sister, leading to a baseless yearning for her. The fact that her Master had forced her to swear an oath to prevent her from seeking her sister only made her desire to see her sister spiral out of control.

She walked out of the house and stood at the edge of the pavilion, looking down at the lake. Her reflection shimmered on the water’s surface. Looking at her own features, she thought: If we are sisters, we should look somewhat alike. She studied her face, sketching her sister’s image in her mind and wondering about her personality.

She sat in the pavilion for a full day. Early the next morning, hurried and chaotic footsteps echoed from afar.

The voice arrived before the person—always Yun Yao’s style. “Senior Sister!”

Yu Jingqiu, unable to shake her melancholy, felt somewhat weary. The lake behind her was shrouded in mist, making the world seem hazy. Standing amidst it, she looked lonely.

Yun Yao was about to speak, but seeing this scene, she swallowed her words.

Yu Jingqiu asked softly, “What happened?”

Yun Yao hesitated for a moment. “A’Jing… A’Jing has gone down the mountain.”

Yu Jingqiu recalled Lou Xuanzhi’s words. Being soft-hearted, she could empathize with others’ hardships. Her guilt toward Lou Jing added a layer of tolerance and heartache. Lowering her eyelashes, she said slowly, “She was scolded by Master and felt unhappy. She likely went down the mountain to clear her head.”

“No. A’Jing said that since she caused the trouble, she would clean up the mess herself. She said as long as the matter isn’t resolved, she won’t return to the Qian Yuan Sect for a single day.”

“Nonsense!” It was a scolding, but it lacked force and failed to intimidate. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“How could I possibly stop her? Senior Sister, should we inform Master?”

The sliding doors facing the lake were wide open, and the cold breeze from the water brushed her face, its crisp coolness clearing her mind. Yu Jingqiu shook her head. “Yesterday, Master coughed up blood due to a surge of anger and is still resting. Telling him this might provoke him again and worsen his injury. Jing’er would also face another scolding.”

“Are we to hide it for her, then?”

Yu Jingqiu pondered for a moment and said, “This matter still needs a senior to decide. Uncle Lou Yan is gentle and has always had the best way of advising Jing’er. If anything truly happens, he can step in to handle it. Go and consult him.”

“Alright.” Yun Yao left the pavilion to find Lou Yan, her steps light as she grumbled, “How old is she now? Still throwing a tantrum and running away from home.”

Yu Jingqiu glanced at Jie E on the desk. She moved her hand, but ultimately picked up her own sword and called Lang Ye from the adjacent house.

Yesterday, Lang Ye had been called in for questioning. He was there when Lou Xuanzhi and Lou Jing argued over the Cao Ruxu incident, and he had heard all the angry words. When he recounted them to Yu Jingqiu, she finally realized that Lou Jing had left out of spite. Because of Lou Xuanzhi’s words, she was truly going to handle the mess herself.

Yu Jingqiu and Lang Ye took a small path down the mountain, hoping to catch up with Lou Jing.

They assumed that to investigate leads, Lou Jing would surely return to Xuzhou City.

Unexpectedly, Lou Jing headed straight for Xinyang.

The Caoliu Mountain Manor was in Xinyang.

A father and daughter argue, and both sides suffer.

Lou Jing tossed and turned all night, Lou Xuanzhi’s scolding ringing in her ears.

Lou Jing thought to herself that since Lou Xuanzhi had the energy for a long talk with Yu Jingqiu, he must be recovering well. He refused to see her and was angry with her; she was angry too. It was hard to say if it was grievance or if she was just being stubborn, but she simply wanted to leave that place for a while.

Her descent from the mountain was indeed partially out of spite, provoked by Lou Xuanzhi’s words. To her, his words were like spears and halberds piercing her heart, a pain others could hardly understand.

Diction, tone, and expression can all become sharp swords. Family members always know exactly how to step on each other’s wounds—it truly is a case of “knowing the enemy and knowing oneself.”

She had tried to yield for the sake of harmony, but often when she took a step back, others took a step forward. She felt this was wrong. This is my territory; I do not invade your boundaries, so do not invade mine. Since the other party provoked her first, it was his fault; was it a mistake for her to defend and counterattack?

He initiated the offense, yet I am expected to yield.

If this was how the world worked, she felt the world was simply absurd.

That night, the Caoliu Mountain Manor people slandered her first. She only wanted to catch the thief and clarify things face-to-face, making that man apologize for his words and actions toward the Qian Yuan Sect. Later, when she fought Cao Ruxu over the woman, she stopped as soon as she flicked his sword away. It was Cao Ruxu who spoke recklessly, insulting her mother. As a son or daughter, who wouldn’t be pierced to the bone hearing such filth directed at their parents?

To not avenge such an insult would be to fail as a daughter!

Just because Cao Ruxu was dead, the one who started the trouble was suddenly in the right? Because a life was lost, a grudge was formed, and due to the entanglements of the martial world, they claimed her actions burdened the sect. Does the world not care for right and wrong, only for gains and losses?

She felt her only mistake was perhaps a moment of compassion in helping that woman. That woman was the mistress of a Feihua Alliance demon; her goodness or evil was unclear, but Lou Jing simply pitied her as a mother. Thinking of her own mother, she felt a trace of sympathy. She wanted Cao Ruxu to show some restraint; the woman was defenseless and capturing her would be easy—why kill her?

That was why she had argued with Cao Ruxu.

But in the martial world, not everyone shares the same spirit. It’s common for a few mismatched words to lead to drawn swords and a satisfying fight. It was only because she wasn’t alone and had a sect behind her that she couldn’t act so freely.

The sect was her home and her reliance, but also her shackles.

Lou Jing opened her palm, glanced at the shard of the sword with the inscription, gripped it tightly, tightened her travel pack, and entered Xinyang City.

Her claim that she would clean up the mess herself was not just a heat-of-the-moment decision.

She felt that the crux of the issue lay in the fact that Cao Ruxu’s death was mysterious.

Too much time had passed since her last exchange with Cao Ruxu, and her memory of some details was not perfectly clear. She wasn’t 100% certain that her sword strike hadn’t been fatal. She wanted to confirm it. If Cao Ruxu truly died from her sword, then fine—a life for a life. She would simply deliver her own life to the swords of Caoliu Mountain Manor.

But if he didn’t…

No matter what, she would investigate until the truth came to light so that Caoliu Mountain Manor would have nothing left to say. She refused to bear a fault that wasn’t hers.

Caoliu Mountain Manor was located at Youqu Mountain near Xinyang City.

The manor was established by a couple—the husband surnamed Cao and the wife surnamed Liu—hence the name Caoliu Mountain Manor. It now had a hundred-year history, deep martial arts foundations, and successful business dealings. With nearly a thousand disciples and guests, the mountain was entirely populated by their people.

On this night, with the silver moon hanging high, a figure swept through the old forest of the manor’s back mountain cemetery like a black wind, landing as lightly as a raven’s feather.

She wore night-travel clothes and a black-faced drama mask. Her steps were light, landing without a sound, blending with the shadows of the tombstones.

This nighttime intruder was Lou Jing.

She carried a sword on her back and a hoe in her hand. After a search, she found a new grave. She blew on a fire-starter to illuminate the headstone—it was indeed Cao Ruxu’s.

She extinguished the flame and, by the moonlight, pressed her palms together before the grave. She murmured, “Cao Ruxu, though there was a grudge between us, once a person dies, the lamp goes out; everything should have ended there. But your cause of death is suspicious and has burdened the living. Opening your grave and disturbing your rest is unkind of me, but I must seek clarity. If it truly was my sword that took your life, I will slit my throat before your grave to repay you. If not, I trust your spirit in the underworld wouldn’t want to die for nothing and would want the real killer found. If you don’t want me to open the grave and harbor resentment, feel free to come find me, Lou Jing, at midnight when souls return.”

The Caoliu Mountain Manor’s sword style emphasized the harmony of heaven and man. In the past, burial customs weren’t so strict—bodies were often burned and ashes scattered in the rivers. Now they were more refined, but it still only involved sealing the coffin and erecting a headstone without other elaborate structures.

After opening such a grave, it would be easy to restore. Even if the soil was fresh, it wouldn’t attract attention unless someone looked closely in the coming days.

To make this trip, she had been lurking around Youqu Mountain for over half a month, scouting the area to map out the paths, the manor’s sentry posts, patrol routes, and guard-shift times. Naturally, this information was for the outskirts; she wasn’t so arrogant as to think she could enter the manor itself undetected.

Thus, she was exceptionally careful and never entered the inner manor.

She didn’t intend to enter the inner manor anyway; what she sought was Cao Ruxu’s corpse. Normally, cemeteries are located on the back mountain, far from the main gate. Lou Jing’s search proved this correct.

The cemetery indeed had no heavy guards, only a few servants who maintained the graves. The old man in charge at night was always lazy, which gave her the chance to enter, open the coffin, and investigate.

Acting secretly like this was to avoid leaving any evidence for others to find.

Once the soil was shoveled away, the coffin was revealed. Lou Jing gathered her internal energy in her palm and pushed the lid aside.

Cao Ruxu lay within, his clothes tidy and his face clean, hands crossed over his belly.

He had a “Water-Avoidance Bead” in his mouth—a common medicinal bead in the martial world used to preserve a body from decay for several months. Back in Xuzhou, the Cao family had placed it there fearing the body would rot during transport.

Thus, his body had not yet decayed or smelled, though it was stiff and cold, his skin ghastly white under the moonlight.

Since his body did not have the bright red, scorched appearance of the servants in the derelict garden, Cao Ruxu’s death was likely not at the hands of that Feihua Alliance stranger.

There was no reason for that stranger to kill the servants with palms but pick up a sword to stab Cao Ruxu.

Lou Jing’s eyes flickered.

Was it a frame-up? But then why not kill the servants with a sword as well to leave no trace of the palm strikes?

Lou Jing unbuttoned Cao Ruxu’s clothes and found no obvious internal injuries. Observing his tongue and lips, it didn’t look like poisoning. Aside from the sword wound on his shoulder from her, there was another wound right in the center of his chest.

This chest wound was the fatal one!

This confirmed that it was indeed not she who took Cao Ruxu’s life.

Lou Jing narrowed her eyes and suddenly flipped the body over. She discovered that this wound was small in the front and large in the back.

The murder weapon was narrow in the front and wide in the back. Such a mark could only be caused by an attack from behind.

Who would sneak attack Cao Ruxu from behind? Lou Jing did not know, but she was certain it wasn’t the stranger. If that person wanted to kill Cao Ruxu, even with a sword, there would be no need for a sneak attack from the rear.

That day in the garden, besides the stranger, there was only Long Chou’s subordinate. If he had attacked Cao Ruxu before dying, the other servants would have shouted. But they didn’t; they even had the presence of mind to try and capture the woman in the ruined house, which meant Cao Ruxu was alive at that time.

But if it wasn’t those two, who could it be?

A sudden night wind rose, stirring the chilling aura of the cemetery. The icy wind swirled from below, tossing Lou Jing’s hair.

Lou Jing suddenly remembered the strange sound in the wind behind her when she left the garden that day.

At that time, someone else had entered the derelict garden.

Now it seemed there was only one possibility.

Cao Ruxu had been knocked unconscious by her palm, which ironically saved him from being killed by the Feihua Alliance stranger. After they left, he regained consciousness, only to encounter a different enemy.

Who was that killer?

If it was a member of the Feihua Alliance, why did they act separately from the stranger? If it was a righteous martial artist from the Zhongwu Hall’s side, who held such a private grudge against Cao Ruxu that they would stab him in the back?