Floofy broke out from under a shrubbery chasing a butterfly. Silky chirped from atop a tree, and the grey fox barked, climbing up like a cat. The sky had darkened, and the stars gleamed upon the firmament like specks of white paint splattered on an ocean canvas.
The air was colder, and the cries of the animals changed. There was the hoot of an owl, and the soft call of crickets. And with the cool came a mellow scent of mint, from the bluegrass and the budding leaves.
But it didn’t disturb the graveyard.
Yung got to know about Su Nanya’s mother. The vixen complained, and Yung lent her an ear. This honoured matriarch seemed to be rather controlling, according to her. But Yung came to the conclusion that her mother was simply trying to make up for lost time.
Time she had spent cultivating in some obscure cave, that she could have spent with her daughter. Yung could not imagine it.
Is this what immortality has to offer?
One moment, his child would be born. And within a blink of an eye, the child would be an adult.
The years they lost could never be regained, and the bond would never be the same.
Do immortals not think of the implications?
Su Nanya then spoke of her fiancé. She didn’t give a name, but drew parallels with Youjin Chao. For they both were of extreme Yang, refusing to settle with one fair maiden. So self-centred, so self-righteous. An outcast given a roof, who then burnt the home down.
Yung speculated if the guy was another main character archetype. He sure sounded like one. Separated from his lover for many years, then back with a harem in tow? A red flag if he’d ever seen one.
He never wanted to meet the man. Definitely not because Yung was afraid! He didn’t steal Su Nanya. No sir!
“Sing us a song.” Said the cheery maiden playing in his embrace.
“I… People make fun of my singing. I don’t have a good voice.” Yung blushed.
Su Nanya pouted, "Dare you deny us our right? You did not have any complaints whilst you sang the Tapestry of Tribute." She whistled, and Floofy scampered down from the tree with Silky sitting on her snout. The fox curled up beside Yung.
Su Nanya had taken out a pipa in the meantime.
It was a magnificent instrument, nestled upon Su Nanya's lap, just as she sat on his. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, and with a slight move of her butt, she was settled in nicely. She held the bottom part with one hand, and strummed the strings with the other. Not that Yung didn't enjoy the soft body pressing onto him.
The pipa was both beautiful and enchanting. It was crafted from the finest materials that Yung couldn’t name, with a polished, glossy finish that reflected the light of the moon and the stars, in a soft glow of gold and silver. The body was shaped like a graceful, slender hourglass, with curves that were both sensuous and delicate. The neck was long and slender, tapering off to a feeble point at the top, where the tuning pegs were inserted. There were fox murals curved upon the imperial brown shell, with gold lines streaming along the grain.
The strings of the pipa were magical, as they gave off a shimmering glow with each strum of Su Nanya’s fingers. She didn’t start playing yet, but the mere sound they created painted the graveyard in a hauntingly beautiful melody.
The fireflies showed themselves, and the spring flowers danced too, the scent of life in the air.
“Our dearest of servants, do sing the song you always hum.” Su Nanya said, her eyes an innocent curiosity.
“Promise you won’t laugh?”
“We are not so crude.”
Yung knew that. Su Nanya was the most elegant girl in the world. He closed his eyes, then let himself go into the cool fleeting flow.
"You taught me the courage of stars before you left.
How light carries on endlessly, even after death."
His throat croaked. But he held the tears in. He saw his sister, Frankl, smile at him. But it was a broken smile. She was a strict sister, stricter than their mother. But Yung knew that in the whole wide universe, she loved him the most. And she cried for him the most. And she would miss him the most.
Frankl, she didn’t like this song.
His brother Freud loved it though. He would sing along with equally deaf tones. He first heard this song live, at some concert by a kid. Or was it a Ted Talk? But after that, he’d shared it with Jung.
It had never left the paralysed man’s heart since.
His other sister, Adler, liked the music more than the lyrics. She thought the lyrics were too depressing. Jung had spent nights arguing with her, that it was a song of hope! But Adler always insisted that since someone had to die to bring that hope, it wasn’t hopeful at all. Jung thought Adler had missed the entire point. Or perhaps Adler could parse meaning in the music that Jung had missed?
Su Nanya played her pipa. With each crystal strum, The fireflies rained up in a gentle whirl of golden light, and the night birds stopped their calls to join the spectacle.
Yung sang, and sang, and finished the song.
“Again.” Su Nanya said.
Yung loved it when other people loved the songs he loved. He hoped Su Nanya would become one such person.
"With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite.
And how rare and beautiful it is to even exist,"
So he sang. His mother had put him in a singing class when he was a kid. He gave up after one week. He also gave up the drawing class, and the karate class. The writing class stuck for a month, but the greatest success came from the cooking class.
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Yung loved to sing. But he didn’t like people hearing him sing. He felt self-conscious. But the point was moot since he had a habit of meditating while humming, whenever a stressful situation arrived, and people inevitably asked what he was doing.
Su Nanya adjusted her grip on the pipa, and gently stuck the strings in a rhythm Yung could not understand.
Then, something amazing happened.
The clouds moved away from the sky, letting the pearly light fall without any of the shadows.
"The moon is beautiful," Yung whispered, the Japanese saying slipping out of his mouth. With hues of deep blue and neon purple, craters abounded on its ashen surface. So different from Gaia's, yet so similar too.
“Again.” Said the vixen.
The music tunes swam in the air, taking a life of their own. They searched for meaning, and found it in the stars. And ever so slightly, the sounds from the pipa matched the music of the song from Yung’s past life.
He stroked Su Nanya’s hair. It had curls going down, yet so silky at the top. His was curly too, but more a knot than not.
"I couldn't help but ask for you to say it all again.
I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen.
I'd give anything to hear you say it one more time.
That the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes,"
Yung had never lost any family when he was Jung. He supposed for his family back on earth, he would be the first to go. Even his grandparents from both sides were alive, each almost reaching a hundred.
He would never see them again. Moira had cut the universes for good.
He would never hear his mother’s warm voice, or his father’s wise words. When he had lost his senses to his disease, his nephew ended up creating medical VR technology that sent sound straight to his brain. Yung regretted not thanking the boy more.
He would never get to talk philosophy with Frankl, never support their favourite football team with Freud, and never help Alder come up with new beats.
He would never read bedtime stories to his youngest niece, never talk dinosaurs with his youngest nephew.
"With shortness of breath,
I'll explain the infinite,
And how rare and beautiful, it truly is that we exist."
Yung didn't know how many times he sang Saturn, but the east sky had taken an orange glow. Su Nanya's pipa played on; with each pluck of a thread and twang of a cord, the music came to life. It fell into place in perfect harmony. Though it was far from the original music of the song, it was close enough. In spirit, in emotion.
Yung didn’t feel tired at all. As the night passed and the next day broke, Su Nanya put the pipa away. She embraced Yung once more, keeping her gaze level with his. There was something lovable there. She smiled, her tears glistening like diamonds. “How was our melody?”
“Nostalgic.” He replied. He had the best girlfriend in the world.
***
Yung stood in front of a large cave. Behind that rocky outcrop of the cave’s entrance was a tunnel that delved underground. It was on the northwest bank of the Dim gold lake. Youjin Chao was there with him, alongside the cultivators from the Youjin clan, such as Youjin Chun, Youjin Gangkai, and a few others.
Ziyou Ling stood by the older boy's side, glaring as discreetly as possible at the small golden fox lazing on Yung's head. Su Nanya had shrunk down further and now actually resembled a plushie.
"This is one of the side entries." Said the grizzly-haired Youjin elder who was going to lead today's hunt, "Leads a tunnel under the earth, right below the branch family graves. After headin' down, the left fork goes to the rice fields. We got guards all over since the voidfiends been rampaging recently. We take the right fork."
"I heard there was another attack last night," Yung said.
"True," The grizzly-haired elder nodded, "Ruined three sections of harvest they did. The damn buggers. We leave now. The tunnels are crawling with the fiends, so be careful. We can't babysit you kids all the while."
The group of cultivators entered the cave, their footsteps echoed through the damp and eerie silence. The wooden support structure near the entrance gave way to natural rock formations as they ventured deeper. The rocks, once rough and jagged, had been smoothed out over time by the constant drip of water and the movement of man, as evident by the footprints of renyao crisscrossing the cave floor, mired occasionally by the imprints of large beasts too.
The flickering light from their torches cast dancing shadows on the walls, revealing intricate stalactites and stalagmites that adorned the cavernous space. The air grew thicker in wild qi with each step they took, carrying a pungent scent that mingled with the mustiness of the underground.
It was compost, Yung realised, as he gently placed a scented napkin on Su Nanya's snout. Miss Maid had given him some deep pointers about proper princess care, along with a supply of princess peculiarities.
The vixen sneezed, then went back to lazing.
The continuous water dripping added an eerie soundtrack to the jaunt, each droplet hitting the cave floor with a hollow echo. From a distance, faint roars of voidfiends travelled through the cave.
“They bring the wastes down this tunnel.” Said a Youjin cultivator after seeing Yung look around with curiosity. She looked to be in her twenties, “Fertilizer for the fields.”
“From the northern fiendbutchery?” Yung asked.
The woman nodded, "The clan's been working with the Free Sparrow gang to do the same for the southern butchery. But the caverns there aren't as big, with different soil compositions. It will take some time."
“I hear that most of the folks who used to work in the Dim gold mulberry plantation, with the foxmoths, were then given work in the paddy fields down here after the flock left.”
"The clan expanded the fields as much as possible, since it feeds the city. But there's an upper limit." The woman shrugged, playing with a dagger.
“And now the fiends are ruining that too.”
“Yup, so—” The woman stopped, and Su Nanya perked up on Yung’s head. Floofy came running and circled Yung with low yelps, Silky flying like a dizzy bee behind her.
“Get ready. The beasties are here.” The grizzly-haired elder called out, and every cultivator there, including Yung, hoisted their weapons and shields.
Youjin Chao popped a few pills, giving Su Nanya a discrete but hopeful look. Ziyou Ling gripped her spear; a slow current of yellow qi covered her tight arms. And Youjin Chun readied her thin sword, dim gold threads already forming with her Spirit qi.
Yung simply went stealth, taking care not to cut the empathic links with his allies in the process.
The first voidfiend came spearing in, rising a loud screech. It was bisected in midair by the dim gold threads crisscrossing the cave.
Tens of zombie rabbits followed. But the result was the same.
Every Youjin cultivator other than Youjin Chao had one manner or other of their Dim gold severance activated, leaving no room for resistance.
The group trudged down the wide tunnel as the dead bunny corpses littered the dark halls.
“SCREEEEEEE!”
Yet more fiends came without regard to their lives, emitting that nauseating stench in their locust-like horde.
Sometimes the ceiling would gradually lower, as did the walls narrow. But it would open up again, with the evident touch of renyao maintenance preserving the continuation of the dark path.
Youjin Chao dashed ahead of the group when the next large cavern appeared. It was a room with two forks. One on the right, the other on the left.
The older boy jumped like a missile into a group of maniacal rabbits, twirling in midair as his rusty blade rendered the fiends into ribbons. But when he landed, dozen more fiends dashed at him to return the bloody favour.
He blocked a few using his sword as a shield. Ziyou Ling’s spear skewered the rest. The ones that tried to flank, the Youjin heiress took them on with elegant control.
When the room was cleared, Yung took hold of the surroundings. This was probably the fork the grizzly-haired elder talked about.
The left tunnel was walled up by a stone wall, with clear formations etched onto it. It glowed faintly, with a host of dead rotten voidfiends littering its base. These weren’t killed by their group. Perhaps by whatever protection the wall offered?
They went to the right fork as planned. For a hundred steps, the path sloped down at a fifty-degree angle, Yung having to touch the wall for balance as he treaded the mossy floor.
When he entered the next cavern, the place was already littered with fiend corpses, and Youjin Chao was tying a herbed bandage around his wounded left wrist.
“It will heal,” The older boy said with a dark expression.
The group took stock, and then down they went once more.