Chapter Ninety-Four: Saving the Day Is Like Fighting a Fire

Xuzhang and Wu Daozi noticed nothing at all of Wang Wei’s sudden movement, though Wang Jin and Du Shisanniang both start in alarm. Yet when Du Shiyi made a gesture for her to sit still and enjoy the performance, Du Shisanniang hesitated only a moment before taking her seat again. Wang Jin, meanwhile, watched as Du Shiyi said nothing more, rose at once, and quietly led Wang Wei away through the back, making a wide detour to slip behind the large curtain that covered the musicians’ platform on the other side. He could not help but wonder.

My brother seems mild enough at first glance, but in truth he is an exceedingly proud man. And yet his relationship with this Du Nineteen appears to be genuinely excellent.

The sword dance in the center of the hall was in full swing. Around them, nearly all the guests watching today’s performance were fixed on Gongsun Danniang and the three dancers, Yue Wuniang among them. No one had noticed that Du Shiyi and Cui Jianxuan had quietly slipped behind the curtain at some unknown point.

Their sudden arrival startled the three Feng sisters all at once. The youngest, Feng Sanniang, nearly sang the wrong line. When she recognized Du Shiyi, surprise and delight both lit her face; though she continued singing, her eyes followed the two uninvited guests all the while.

“Gentlemen, this place is off limits to idle visitors… huh?”

Mingguang, who had been dozing, woke with a jolt and sprang up to bar their way. Yet the moment he saw Du Shiyi, he gave a startled cry and lost the rest of his words.

By the time Du Shiyi and Wang Wei had come together before an elderly musician playing the pipa, Mingguang followed behind in confusion. All he saw was the musician’s face turning ashen and then flushed, sweat beading on his forehead, while the fingers of his right hand trembled slightly over the strings. It was obvious he was forcing himself to keep going. Mingguang’s heart lurched.

Before he could ask anything, Wang Wei lowered his voice and said, “Do not force it. Do you have the score for this passage and what follows?”

The musician, drenched in sweat, gave a slight nod and glanced toward a scroll at his side. Wang Wei said nothing more. He took it up and unrolled it in his hands, reading through it almost at a glance.

Du Shiyi knew that when it came to matters like this, where one had to salvage a performance on the spot, Wang Wei was the most reliable man to have. He turned his head and gave the monk beside him a thoughtful look. “Master Mingguang, what brings you here?”

“Anguo Temple is full of distinguished guests today. The abbot feared there might be matters here that Lady Gongsun could not attend to herself, so he asked me to come and see whether I might lend a hand if needed.”

Yesterday, Mingguang had heard that Gongsun Danniang had received a male guest brought by Luo Ying, and that the man had stayed a long while before leaving. To see him again now surprised him greatly. But when he met Du Shiyi’s narrowed eyes and his expression of quiet deliberation, he thought of Luo Ying’s present circumstances and found he could not bring himself to decide. Still, before he could even think of a way to speak, Wang Wei suddenly called out from the other side.

“Du Nineteen, come help!”

Du Shiyi turned and saw that Wang Wei had already taken the pipa from the elderly musician. His right hand moved swiftly over the strings, catching the thread of the music so seamlessly that it seemed nothing had happened at all.

Hurriedly, Du Shiyi helped the utterly exhausted musician up from the floor, then signaled to Mingguang to come support him to the side. He pressed two fingers into the man’s abdomen. Seeing the musician clamp his lips shut and grow even paler, Du Shiyi’s heart sank. At once he asked in a low voice, “Did the pain come on suddenly, as though your belly were being twisted in knots?”

“Yes. The right side of my abdomen suddenly hurt so badly I could not bear it, as if every sinew had been pulled taut.”

The question was direct, and the old musician, remembering the help Du Shiyi had once given him in Dengfeng, forced out a brief explanation with what strength he had left.

Du Shiyi no longer hesitated. He immediately told Mingguang to take the man away, adding a special instruction: “I have no needles with me at the moment. Master Mingguang, please find someone who knows acupuncture and moxibustion. First needle the Liver Meridian from Taichong to Xingjian; that should ease the pain for now. Then find a physician to treat him properly.”

When the man had been taken away, Du Shiyi turned abruptly and saw that although the three Feng sisters were still singing, all three pairs of eyes were fixed on him. He could only smile wryly.

Then, as the music finally drew to a close, Gongsun Danniang suddenly strode in, armor still on her body, her expression stern and sharp.

“What happened—ah!”

The opening sword dance had already come to an end. Outside, applause thundered like a storm, but Gongsun Danniang looked from Du Shiyi standing there to Wang Wei, who sat composedly in the musicians’ place, and showed not the slightest joy at the first act’s triumph.

In particular, when Du Shiyi explained in a few brief sentences that the old musician had suffered a sudden illness and had been helped off to rest by Mingguang, her expression changed again. Though the transition from one piece to the next had been almost imperceptible to those outside, she had used this musician, Kang Lao, for many years and knew every subtle shift in tone and feeling. She drew a deep breath, then curtly bowed to Du Shiyi.

“I had not expected it to be Sir Du who saved the performance again. I am deeply grateful.”

“This time the credit is not mine. It was Wang Thirteen’s keen ear that caught the problem. Lady Gongsun, this is Wang Shisanniang of Taiyuan, famed in both capitals.”

At Du Shiyi’s nod and smile, Wang Wei rose with the pipa in his arms. When Gongsun Danniang came forward to thank him, he demurred modestly for a few words, then looked to Du Shiyi and said, “Though I managed to bridge the passage for the moment, there was little enough left, so no mishap occurred. I know the score for the first piece well enough, but when I glanced over it just now, I saw that the next one is a new composition. If each piece is to be handled this way, I am afraid I will need your help, Du Nineteen.”

“Me?” Du Shiyi pointed at himself in disbelief, only then remembering that Gongsun Danniang was standing right beside him. “Isn’t Wang brother overestimating me a little?”

Wang Wei, having seen the splendid seat Du Shiyi had occupied, the reactions of the singers and musicians when he brought Wang Wei into the hall, and now the subtle change in Gongsun Danniang’s expression upon entering, understood at once that Du Shiyi and Gongsun Danniang must be on excellent terms. So he could not resist pressing him, half amused and half challenging: “Not only is there no one else who can take over at the moment, but this is also Lady Gongsun’s first sword dance since returning to Luoyang. If there were any regret left in it because of this, could you bear that? My plan is simple. The others are on horizontal flute, cymbals, and drums, and there is no time to summon another musician. So for the piece just played by the old musician, the two of us will alternate. That will give us time to familiarize ourselves with the score, and it will also ease the burden a little.”

Du Shiyi glanced over and saw that Gongsun Danniang’s eyes had brightened as well. The three Feng sisters, though too shy to speak, were all looking at him expectantly, while even the musicians playing the other instruments—who naturally held the cultured gentlemen before them in high respect—showed no discouraging words and instead gave him kind smiles. He was left with nothing to say.

Thinking that, in name at least, he had studied for only two years, yet taking both his past and present lives together his experience was not far behind Wang Wei’s, he had no choice but to nod and agree.

So when Yue Wuniang, having just finished thanking the guests with sweat on her brow, came around behind the curtain, what she saw was Du Shiyi and Wang Wei, those two uninvited guests, leaning together over the music and discussing it in low voices. She stared, utterly dumbfounded.

“Master… what is going on here?”

“Something unexpected came up, so Du Nineteen brought Wang Thirteen of Taiyuan here to save the performance. Thanks to that, or the next piece would have had to be carried entirely by a solo pipa.”

Gongsun Danniang lifted her brows, then drew a deep breath. “Wuniang, prepare for the next round. This is your new dance’s first appearance, and you must win the house with it!”

“Rest assured, Master!”

Yue Wuniang glanced once more at Du Shiyi and Wang Wei, who had not noticed her coming in at all, then drew a deep breath of her own, her face shining with confidence. Had she not spent the last three years studying and grinding away so diligently for a day when she could burst forth with the same pride and brilliance as her master?

After the first sword dance, and after a somewhat long wait, the guests at last saw the belated second performance. Unlike the first, the dancer who entered to the rhythm of the song was not clad in armor. She wore foreign-style clothing, her face fresh and lovely as a flower. At first glance she seemed no more than a quiet, demure young lady from an ordinary household, spinning thread and weaving cloth beside a loom with calm and practiced movements, from time to time letting out long sighs.

Only when the bright, clear singing rose again with the soft sound of the flute and pipa did the audience understand what this new sword dance was meant to be.

“Click, click, click again and again, Mulan weaves at the door. One hears no sound of the loom, only the girl’s sighs. They ask what she is thinking of, what she remembers…”

This Ballad of Mulan, widely known among the people since the Northern dynasties, was one almost everyone present could recite by heart. Thus, when Yue Wuniang changed openly into men’s clothing before the crowd and openly donned armor and helmet, many ladies of rank gave low cries of wonder.

Ever since Princess Taiping’s day, women dressing as men had become a fashion openly practiced by the daughters and wives of great houses, and with Princess Pingyang of the Tang’s early years having once led an army of women into battle and defense, the sentiment here ran especially deep. So when the horse was saddled and bridled, and Yue Wuniang leaped into the saddle, some lady, overcome with excitement, cried out in admiration. The sound was instantly taken up by many others, and even Du Shisanniang, who had been worried the whole time because her brother had not returned, looked suddenly moved, her fists clenched tightly.

Wang Jin, meanwhile, was only half paying attention, his thoughts drifting to the pipa his brother had sent that servant boy off with. He had wanted to go over and see what was happening, but since the message delivered to him said to stay where he was and remain patient, he could only force himself to sit cross-legged and wait.

“Fighting ten thousand miles to the frontier, crossing passes and mountains as though flying. The bitter north wind sounds the watch drums, and cold moonlight glints on iron armor.”

Feng Yuanniang’s voice was hoarse, yet it carried a deep resonance no less powerful than a man’s. Though she could never reach the higher notes the way her two younger sisters did, Du Shiyi’s pipa now used sweeping strokes to render the successive battles, and with her rough, dark voice supporting it, the result was unexpectedly harmonious.

Even Wang Wei, who had urged Du Shiyi into this performance and was at that very moment urgently reviewing the long score for the next sword dance, could not help but raise his head and look at Du Shiyi thoughtfully.

And to think he had said Du Shiyi had studied the pipa only two years, and feared he might disappoint those who had trusted him. Yet he had been steeped in musical theory and the art of sound since childhood. He could clearly feel it: Du Shiyi’s sense of music was truly excellent.