“Now, now – show him Sui Mo. Land a few hits, and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“Come on Sui Mo – your ‘tiger palms’, make them a bit harder. You’ll get him before he escapes.”  

“Right – it’s a good opportunity! He always annoys us with his flexibility. Get a hit and avenge your seniors!” A few of the onlookers hollered and joined in the fun.

“There he goes again – a kick, a kick. Get him!”

Sui Mo rounded a kick towards An Jin’s shin. Before it could reach and break a few bones on his face – An Jin propelled himself against the pillar, rose up in the air and rotated a few times to evade, and then fell back a few meters away from Sui Mo. He crouched down and looked concentratedly at Sui Mo, preparing to attack again –

Then they started exchanging close-fists. An Jin was still fluid, and his fists equally unpredictable. Sui Mo exchanged a few serious moves. They both didn’t break out in sweat – neither did anyone hear a single pant.

Others kept cheering at this turn of events.

Finally, it was Sui Mo who exasperatedly lowered his hands and straightened up, saying, “That’s enough. It's not like you can bully me into confessing something so untrue - okay? You are always so eager to pounce – don’t tell me you want to compare the swords next?” 

An Jin stood up laughing, rubbing his neck shyly, “No, I am not. And this is not bullying brother Mo – thank you for the guidance! But can you still tell me which book it is?”

An Jin continued to drag Sui Mo down, till they were sitting down over a thick carpet. A spread of platters full of desserts and small tea-cups and their refills lay together held in porcelain jars. Another brazier burned close by. 

“Now, An Jin, let's stop here. Okay, I confess. I did hide it from you in the beginning. And no, there is nothing shameful about it! I just thought you wouldn’t be interested in these things so it didn’t matter whether you knew of it or not. I just didn’t want you to report me wasting my time in such activities to teacher Li. You can be a passive tattle-tale at times you know. Especially when you start chattering about things you like - or as in this case, dislike.”

“I do not! Don’t hide things from me - I really never go telling all your secrets to everyone, you know. When we go back to Imperial Academy together, you can show it to me there. I don’t think you have brought that book with you, have you?”

“No, of course not! How can you even think of that-!?”

“And this pair has successfully derailed our conversation. Just like always.” Luo Chen whispered to his companion, snickering at others' antics. They too were now sitting over the carpet, leaning against the pavilion marble pillars. “They are good – teacher Li wasn’t lying when he complimented them. Their fists complement each other.”  

“Undoubtedly – a hard and soft style. If they can learn to balance each other’s edges they will form a good pair. This season of the Academy's Martial art competition has a group fight. What about inviting these two to form a group?” Yu Mingyang looked serious.

“It’s a good idea – I’ll ask them before we go back…”

After some while, Luo Chen couldn’t help but discuss something different. “Second prince’s entourage hasn’t arrived yet. Something must have happened to them. They would have reached before the ceremony began, but there is no sign. It's already noon - what do you think might have happened to them? I don’t think any of us has even received a letter of some sort?”

“There was a landslide in Shijiazhuang, I think. It's a small town a little away from here. I heard my old man talk about that on the way here, I forgot to tell you. If anything, he must have gone there first to survey the disaster struck area. He will arrive here, if he has time. Of course, official duties are more important than a brother-in-law’s coming of age ceremony.” Yu Mingyang said. “I still think this Wei house has made too much out of a personal ceremony – even my sister’s wedding wasn’t this elaborate and mind you, she was marrying the newly titled number one scholar of that year!  I just don’t know why our teacher’s thought of sending all of us here first. Accompanying the prince doesn’t seem to explain the right intention…” Yu Mingyang whispered.

Although the others around the two seemed to be engrossed in their own conversations, many ears were listening to them. A few even stopped their own conversations, lowered their voices to hear some more.

“Ha -! Look at who’s talking? As if brother - as if that could ever be true. You know more than that. I know you. Tsk.” Luo Chen said, laughing a bit. “You cannot stay still till you have got your hands around those juicy details, or some nice gossip before you let anything rest. You don’t seem restless to me, right now. It can only be that your old man slipped something more in his drunken stupor last night, did he not?”

“Fine! I will tell you then. It's hardly any big secret, alright -?” Yu Mingyang bent down and took up a piece of dessert, completely unperturbed at being seen through.

“There just happens to be a plan for us in store. Are you happy now? Indeed, there is! I kid you not when I say this. But the plans are not for here. We are to catch up with another entourage, and join them in the exploration of the ‘Mysterious Mountains’ of Jinghai down south. For whatever reasons, we are to tag along with them. I only know this much. You know my old man seems to talk a lot when he is drunk, but actually, he will never say more than he really can let others know. Even if I make him drunk like a drowning horse, he will still not talk of those official secrets with me!” Yu Mingyang explained nonchalantly. 

“At least you do know something.” Luo Chen tilted his head distractedly, while he drank some more warm tea to drive away the chills. “It’s a funny business, ha! Our grandfathers won’t talk, our fathers are silent. But they all treat us like some porcelain dolls, always fussing about something or the other. I haven’t talked to my father so much in eighteen years of my life as I did these past three months! And that says a lot about them, doesn’t it?”

For some while, they both stayed silent.

“It stinks of mystery. I don’t like it. But what were we talking about? That ‘White Lotus’ thingy, An Jin?” Here Luo Chen raised his voice to an eavesdropping An Jin, taking him aback. Although a little startled, An Jin raised his drooping head doggedly and met Luo Chen eyes as if to affirm while rubbing his nose in embarrassment.

“As you guessed, it is indeed a book. ‘Three thousand blossoms’ - is what it's called and is kind of a long running series. Definitely a classic, mind you. The author has been running it for five decades now, and has remained anonymous for all this time. So, you know it's old. And mysterious. Even my father used to secretly read them, when he was our age - maybe your father’s might have done that too. My mother would always become angry whenever anyone recalled a certain young maiden’s title, you can guess why.” He chuckled a little and then continued, “It came out in a recent volume, the ‘White Lotus’ thing. Dajin, Daxia, Qi, Jing, Xia, Wu, Samhan, Oserthim… every known nation on our Tianxin continent, and their countless beauties were put together and then each ranked in a single list of some hundred people. They called it their special edition - if I am recalling it right. So, the competition was brutal. You can just imagine its reach among us young people and popularity, especially with maiden’s – many will die just to see their names coming up in there for even once in their life. Someone tried to dig a little deeper into who the author was, but to his surprise found nothing – so, he went and wrote an article for the weekly pamphlet for scholars. Now some people think it’s a complete organization to be able to reach out into so many places, while others hold the opinion that the author must be a well-connected adventurer – a Jianghu person. But it’s really funny to guess what their original purpose can be – if they are a powerful organization that is. That's like hitting an egg with a sledgehammer – completely disproportionate. What can you do by recounting names of beauties of a certain place and of a certain period, make a marriage brochure out of them? If someone does have so many resources at hand, why don’t they use it for something else?”

He didn’t look too amused when he summarized the events.

“How can Senior brother Luo be so sure that they actually don't do something on the side? They might as well be running a secret alliance somewhere, funded by the sales of these books. What if what everyone thinks is a silly project of searching about a maiden's name and qualifications, assigning them a title – they are, in fact, doing something underhanded in secret and just pushing this book out to make money to support their actual cause?” An Jin interrupted. “There are so many things that someone of their caliber can actually do. Don’t you find it strange that people still haven’t found their real purpose in all these years? Or who the author actually is?”

“Or,” Sui Mo interrupted suddenly, “you are over-reading into it. They can just be a few merchants who travel all around and hear of ‘beauties’ from the people they come in contact with. And it does sell, doesn’t it? People of all kinds buy into the fuss, and purchase the book. Just think about the profits. Many merchants will go to the farthest point of Samhan if needed, if they could be sure that something of this sort sells and sells fast. Let’s not let our imaginations run wild, shall we?”

“A good point.” Luo Chen said, looking ponderous. “But let’s talk about something else. We have been in Jinghai for some days now, almost a fortnight. Apart from seeing the actual ‘White Lotus’ and making an acquaintance with her this morning, have you found something interesting? Heard any strange tales-?”

“What do you have in your mind? Like something other than soggy legs, weather-beaten bodies and continuous rain? If there was anything that could succinctly describe being here in Jinghai, these are the right words, I tell you. I have never been to a land as wet as this place in my life!” Yu Mingyang retorted.

"What about murder? Will that be too macabre of a topic for present?” A boy joined in.

“Definitely, but who cares. If it's between us, and no words go about, why not? Let’s talk about that.” Luo Chen replied looking at the few faces that had come closer together. They were all from the same Imperial academy - and there was no outsider at the moment. Although some of them had only come to Jinghai for the first time in their lives – there were still many who were originally from this place. The speaker, Ji Si, seemed to have had something to do with Jinghai, either his father or grandfather was in the local governing body.

“I heard, there was a maid found dead in her ladyship’s courtyard. I don’t know if it’s true. It was all the rage of town a few days ago. A very brutal death – everyone says she looked paper-white, almost sucked off of her…insides.”

“Which ladyship?” An Jin perked up. “Amazing. A murder. Go on, tell us who was murdered? Who is this lady you speak of?”

“Who else? That white lotus, of course. The one by whose purity everyone swears by. Who would have thought that such an event would come out from the backyard of such an accomplished woman?” Before Ji Si could reply, he was interrupted by another gravelly voice. 

An Jin looked up at the slowly rising head of the speaker. He wasn’t familiar with this person, Song Muchen.

He was from another group of senior-most Scholars, quite different from his own small circle of acquaintances – at least their group had never been as well renowned or popular, as the one in which Song Muchen belonged to. If he remembered correctly, many of the Second Prince’s closest confidantes were in that group. Many people seemed to be coming closer once they saw who was speaking. They walked around and then sat in close proximity, as if quite interested in the talk. Now almost all the twelve members were sitting in close proximity.

“A maid got murdered. A waiting maid who had accompanied the lady Wei growing up. What happened- how do I know? Heard some rumors that some secrets were spilled? What was it about – nothing that will see the light of the day in my opinion. But a washerwoman seemed to have been dragged to the Yamen a few days ago. She was yelling about how her sister-in-law was innocent and she had only talked of something when she was drunk; maybe it was the same case.” Ji Si continued to explain the events, supplying to each question put to him in a single breath.

“Ah -! I was there! I was just in the opposite restaurant pavilion facing the Yamen. But I thought they were dragging a mad woman to do away with her – she didn’t look right. I even heard someone swear that she was just a lunatic.” An Jin recalled. “I searched a little deeper into it – because I have seen mad people, and she struck me in particular. I don’t know how, or why. But I went around and heard a little. Guess what? Her whole family had suddenly committed suicide like a mass hysteria took over them. It was said that they were all very heartbroken by the sudden sinking of their small business – the woman’s father-in-law was a tofu seller – with no one in the family left to support them, they could only seek death to avoid poverty – sounds horrifically made up. It will not take a genius to see that there was something fishy going on behind the scenes. Senior brother Song, do you know more about this?”

“I don’t know, unfortunately.” Song Muchen spoke languidly, sighing in between and then drawing out his words in slow, clipped tone. His eyes though seemed to have dulled, unfocused as if chained in a reverie. He turned his head to look at An Jin who had addressed him and replied. The focus of his eyes made An Jin feel awkward – but he still heard him say, “Only that the maid in waiting, was of lowly birth. No one cares if she died an unjust death, even I or any of us sitting here. I mention it because she was maid to her ladyship – the eternally pure, ‘White Lotus of the Western Mountains’ and we people usually don’t associate such an accomplished lady to deal with their subordinates in such a high-handed manner. That's it.”

“Senior brother thinks it was a punishment served out by her ladyship? Why? Is it a hidden secret that none of us can know of?” Someone prodded on. “Come on – have some faith in us, Senior brother Song. We won’t spread rumors. What we hear will always remain in our hearts.”

An Jin agreed wholeheartedly. He was nodding his head while looking around.

“I don't know if it will help satiate your curiosity, but someone spoke of how the maid was found gossiping, right? That is correct information actually. Maybe it might have been the cause of the incident.” Here he lowered his voice, taking in a white jade cup from the serving platters and filling it with some hot tea.