Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 164

Sui Lihua and Connie

Connie awoke with a start. And - for a moment – lost her bearings.

It was a disconcerting feeling for someone who usually had control over things, including her own body.

After Connie had gathered her thoughts, she realized that she was sleeping on a large bed with a canopy made from mahogany. The decoration in the room was an assault to the sensibility of any normal person. There was only one place with such unsightly opulence in Greyvault.

“This is…the Mayor’s Mansion?” then she noticed a presence in the room. Then she saw the tall woman she summoned, sitting on a chair while playing with Chen and Yao-er. “Lihua?”

“How are you feeling, Mistress?” she asked. “This one had helped you to circulate the Energy that you had forced to go through your veins. That was a stupid thing to do. Your body is not prepared for it.”

When Connie tried to stand, she saw that there were bandages on her arms, stomach, and her left leg.

“There were many minor fractures inside you. This one had treated them as best as one could,” she said as she sat there, still; her posture straight as a plank. Lihua took a deep breath. As Connie realized what was about to happen, she braced herself.

“Were it to happen to lesser men, it would have rendered them unable to move from the pain. But you aren’t lesser men, are you?” she began to scold her the way she had scolded her many times in her old world. “You are a strong human. Oh, yes indeed! You’ll just take in the pain and revel in it as if it’s a medal of honor! You never change!” Lihua said, with an exasperated voice. “And this one is not saying it as a praise.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” Connie responded bluntly.

“Agh, men!” she said with indignation. Her hand waving vaguely in the air. “Your body has changed into that of a female, but that personality is still so…you!”

After spewing out her feelings, Lihua let out a long sigh. “One of these days, that carelessness will be the death of you.”

Connie decided to stop as she saw that the black-haired Otherworldly Demon was starting to get upset and changed the subject. “Where’s everyone?”

Lihua moved to sit by her side and placed two long and thin fingers atop her wrist. “This one had shooed them away so that this one can perform the treatment without disruptions,” Lihua spoke. “It was a very tiring endeavor. But this one does not shirk when one put one’s foot down, as you know well.”

“This one had to say, the man named Harrison wanted to let you take the master bedroom, but Illumca adamantly refused to let you sleep there. She said, and this one quote “I cannot let Connie sleep on a bed that had been tainted by the presence of that pig.”,” she covered her mouth with her sleeve and chuckled. “A fiery one, that girl.”

“That girl, and the boisterous half-horse woman also wanted to take care of you, but she was making such a ruckus that this one had to put a foot down,” she said with a bemused tone. “You are a sinful person, Mistress. To steal the hearts of two women at the same time.”

“Two?”

“Yes. Did you not notice how that one look at you?”

“Hah, you must’ve mistaken something. Akula desired to become a Hero, which is the opposite of what I am. She’s just doing her job as a Tonsulde.”

“If that’s what you say,” Lihua stated. Indeed, despite her experience, the Otherworldly Demon Lihua was not so uncouth as to meddle in the matter of a budding feeling. After all, it was nothing more than a seed. Whether it would die or bloom into a beautiful flower, that would be up to the person herself.

“Your condition has more or less stabilized, Mistress. Would you like to join the festivities? The townspeople have started a feast to celebrate the death of the Demon named Bet-Zebek.”

Connie scoffed at the audacity of her townspeople having the gall to celebrate her deed without having her actually being there. However, as she looked at her longtime friend, Connie realized that seeing the ever-reliable Lihua made her happier than having a celebration of her accomplishment.

“Rather than that…how about accompanying me for a drink, Lihua?”

After beckoning one of the servants working near the room, Connie received two clear glasses with thin stems and a bottle of red wine.

Lihua saw the glasses and stared at it with interest.

“Such fine glasses. You can practically see through it.”

Her curiosity was normal, as back in their old world, she had only drunk wine using cups made of fine porcelain, carved wood, or bronze. As for glasses, even the finest one imported from the Barbarian lands were still cloudy.

“Here in this country, they drink wine made of grapes instead of rice,” Connie said as she poured a glass and offered it to Lihua, who accepted with both hands awkwardly. After seeing Connie handling the wine glass, she quickly imitated her.

“To reunion of old friends,” Connie spoke as she offered the tip of her glass.

“…and to songs of old times,” Lihua elegantly tipped the side of her glass until it touched Connie’s. “Gānbēi.”

“Gānbēi.”

The two then took a sip of the wine. “This is…quite tart, and it dries out one’s mouth quite a bit. But it is not unpleasant.”

Lihua ruminated on the foreign taste, finally realizing how far they were from home. “The chill of Fall…” she began. “Even though we are in a different world, the melancholy brought by this season is still the same.”

Connie sat at the windowsill and laid her gaze out to her town.

The Guest Room was located facing the South, allowing its occupants to gaze at the main road. Connie could see the townspeople were making merry at the square. A bonfire had been built by the people and they were dancing and singing around it. She also saw the distinct figure of Akula carousing with them. It seemed that the townspeople were no longer apprehensive of her.

Nick was standing on a table bragging about his exploits while quaffing a flagon of ale; which was refilled upon emptying by the men around him who were eager to hear his story. Caelin and his party members sat with them, indulging the middle-aged man in his drunkenness.

And even though the moon hung high in the sky, many of the taverns’ lights were still burning. Greyvault had seen no reason to be happy for many years due to the oppression by the gangs and the Ex-Mayor; thus, when they had something to be happy about, they pulled out all the stops.

“Indeed,” Connie replied automatically. “Indeed.”

Connie then sat down opposite of Lihua, who seemed to have something to say.

“Mistress…this one wishes to know,” she asked with low voice. “What…happened after I and Huo Nanfeng were taken out by Rainbow Phoenix and her Elders?”

Seeing the expression on the tall woman, Connie sighed.

“…It felt like it was a long time ago.” The blonde-haired girl began; a pained expression on her face. “…I’ve also met Baoli again…after more than a hundred years.”

“Y-you’ve seen young Baoli?! How was she? Was she well?!”

Connie felt a bit heartened by the pure show of worry she saw when Lihua burst out with the question.

She then sat down and put her glass aside and began telling her story. From the time Lihua and Huo Nanfeng - another of Connie’s loyal Contracted Beast - was taken out of commission due to the attack of three of the Righteous Faction’s Four Holy Beasts, up until her last moment as Wang Tian Gu in her old world.

Lihua listened intently until Connie was finished. Once she did, the woman asked with a trembling voice.

“Those - those hypocrites! Turning a family to fight against each other!!” the beautiful woman flung her sleeves hatefully before kneeling forcefully with both hands cupped in a show of deep regret. “Forgive me, Mistress. We have failed you!”

Connie saw the distressed expression on her face and gave a silent nod. This female Demon after all, was very attached to Baoli when she was very little.

She first met Sui Lihua in her past life before she took on the name Wang Tian Gu. Sui Lihua was a prideful Demon who spared her life when she took on a mission to subdue her because she – in a disguise as a poor scholar - beat her in a competition of poetry.

She met her a second time as Wang Tian Gu and became the latter’s Contracted Beast after a duel that lasted for a full day. She was also there when Wang Tian Gu took in Baoli; whom she quickly taken a shine to. For though she was a Queen to her cauldron of bats, she had never conceived a child.

She remembered how angry and distraught Sui Lihua was when they failed to stop the Righteous Faction – who was helped by the dragons - from kidnapping Baoli. They spent more than a hundred years traversing various countries to find her. But they hid her too well. And by how Baoli treated Wang Tian Gu at their last meeting, the Righteous Faction had also instilled their insidious ideology inside her head.

“If only we had made a Contract back then…” the black-haired woman spoke regretfully.

“We would never have made one were it not for that event,” Connie added.

“We have all failed. We knew that raiding the Hundred Island Congregation Headquarter was a foolish thing to do. But the allure was too great. Even that ‘bastard’ of a sworn brother of mine had to sacrifice himself for a mutual destruction with that old shit from the Green Dragon Mountain.”

“Long Zhan…one of the few Cultivators who was the closest to reaching the Ascending Heaven stage,” Sui Lihua bit her lips as she was reminded of the old man with a sword made entirely out of Whispering Jade. “What happened to the Great King after the fight?”

“He managed to survive by the thinnest of thread. Now, he is still recuperating inside me, but I don’t dare to awaken him. Not until I regain my former strength. He is too unruly for me to control,” Connie said with a tired sigh.

“What happened in our world left me with many regrets. But at least I managed to see her one last time before I went away,” Connie closed her eyes with a contented smile.

Suddenly, she heard a familiar twang in her ears. A note that shivered cold and lonely in the air, before being followed by another one. This one more muted. The sound came out of the window two doors down from where they were. Lihua’s ears twitched twice as she took them in.

“Slight hesitance, imperfect slide of the note,” Lihua spoke as she sipped on her grape wine. The unfamiliar dryness that sucked up all the moisture in her mouth grew on her. “Amateurish, still. And lacking emotion. Understandable, the boy is still young. Hmm, there is also a faint sensation of divinity. A gifted one, looks like,” Lihua stopped as she was about to take another sip. “The Language of Fleeting Cloud…Mistress, did you hand down the score for this?”

“I didn’t. Autumn Rain Cicada did, it seems. In regards to the Four Arts, I cannot compare to him when it came to music. Best I let that pompous drunkard teach him himself.”

This made a question appeared in her mind. “What do you mean by, teaching him himself?”

But by then Connie had taken the bottle on the table and downed it in one go, ignoring her question. Drowning her melancholy with wine; she then began to hum alongside the melody.

Alone on the riverside, I felt cool breeze caressing my cheek.

The evening mist blurs a stone bridge, as outlines of a boat flickers and fades.

A snowdrop melted into the wine in my cup, as faraway children bade their parents good night.

I look up at the bright moon above, to a sky we no longer share.

My heart is lost, left amongst the stars.

And I raise a toast, to the fading memory of your smile.

It was a loose poem, crafted without deference to the rules. Shamelessly borrowing the melody of her departed friend as a bridge for the prose.

“A wonderful poem, Mistress,” Lihua said while wiping the side of her blindfold that had begun to be wet from tears.

“Forget what I have spoken. Doubtless I would also forget the words in waking,” she said as she opened her eyes, glassy with memories of her past life. “Tonight, let us drink until we pass out.”

The two of them then ordered more bottles of wine from the servants. They then shared the drink between them, with Connie drinking more than half the bottles by herself.

When she finally fell asleep from drunkenness, Lihua carried her into bed and tucked her in.

“This one prays that the Young Mistress can find her own way in life, away from the bloody life we have led,” Sui Lihua said with a solemn expression.

When Lihua walked out of her room, she saw a figure leaning on the wall with both arms folded under her ample chest.

“Good evening, young Illumca.”

“Is Connie okay now?” she asked.

“Manners, dear.”

“I – “ Illumca opened her mouth, but stopped midway when she saw the woman’s silent stare. She could feel it through her blindfold. “Good evening, Sui.”

“Madam Sui, please.”

“M-Madam Sui.”

“...we can work on that later.”

“Then, Connie…?”

“Yes. She’s asleep. Normally she could have drunk twice the amount she drank tonight. But sometimes…melancholy and wine…are too much of a drug.”

“…I wanted to enter,” she began to speak. “But I haven’t seen her like this since I’ve met her.”

“You must understand, I have been with her for many years. There are things that only she can share with this one, someone who shared those experience with her. Regardless her trust in you,” she scolded her with a straight face. “And even if it’s your forte to eavesdrop due to your occupation as an Assassin, it’s still a breach of that trust.”

“Y-you noticed?”

“This one is a bat, dear. One can sense you even through a wall. Your lack of presence notwithstanding.”

“I just…want to know more about Connie. A-are you going to tell her?”

Lihua sighed. “Trust is the basis of all relationship, young one. And betraying that trust does not help. You need to understand that despite her physical body, Mistress is a man. And a man does not wish to show weakness in front of others, especially not the ones he loved. Do you understand?”

“I…I understand.”

“Very good. Let us keep this to ourselves, shall we? Now, go ahead and get some sleep.”

Illumca stared at the woman, blinked a few times, and bowed slightly to thank her.

“Oh dear, such a handful young woman. This one hopes that the others are not as hard to handle as her.”