As promised, her Master arrived in the late morning after she had tidied up in the mixing room for the day. Cui Xi actually found it a little disconcerting that his timing was so accurate and wondered if he had been secretly monitoring her. A person of his means likely had a number of hidden guards and it wasn’t too unusual to have them follow people around. She brushed the thought away as it didn’t really matter in the end and she went to receive him with a sweet smile.

 

“Tu’er[1]!!” he smiled in return. “Are you glad to see me?” he asked mischievously, his eyes bright.

 

She puffed a bit of air out of her nose, trying not to laugh.

 

“Master,” she greeted. “I don’t know…should I be?” she asked, putting on an innocent expression.

 

“Hah! Stinky disciple! How can you say such a thing to your Master?” he frowned, patting her on the back. “I missed you,” he said, his smile returning.

 

She had stiffened a little when he had touched her, but then relaxed. He was entirely non-threatening today. Also, he really was too pretty to resist. In comparison to that other crazy person, she could consider him a harmless odd ball. A week after the encounter, her pride still stung over the incident with the Seventh Prince.

 

“Tu’er…you’re thinner…” her Master admonished, frowning with concern.

 

He reached for her mask, but she dodged skilfully. He sighed but gave no other sign that he would take it from her. He grabbed her hand instead.

 

“Please,” she said, and then led him into the covered pavilion area that her courtyard shared with the pleasure house where the dancers normally did their practice. It was a little breezy today and the water of the pond below rippled. Occasionally, the surface was disturbed by large koi lazily flicking their fins.

 

Xiao Yu entered a moment later and quietly put out tea and cups at a low table and then went to sit in a corner, while Xiao Hei slunk in, sabre stuffed into his belt. He looked somber, but perhaps a little bit more sulky than usual. He was also still brooding over the incident from the previous week.

 

Stopping in the center of the pavilion, Cui Xi turned and cocked her head at her Master.

 

“I didn’t expect you to come so early. Are you going to teach me to dance, Master?” she asked.

 

He nodded. His light eyes seemed to laugh.

 

“Yes. I also brought you a few gifts since I’ve accepted you as my disciple.”

 

Her eyes lit up craftily. Gifts are good! At least this would not be an entirely useless arrangement! Besides, after last week’s fiasco, she needed something to distract her. Her mood immediately began to improve.

 

“Alright! Tu’er will go change into dancing clothes,” she lightly slipped out of his grasp and ran out of the courtyard.

 

Her Master sat himself down at the low table and folded his arms across his chest wondering what she was doing. He didn’t have to wait too longer before she had run back dressed in a flowing dress instead of the work clothes she had worn from her mixing earlier in the day.

 

When she came back, the look on her Master’s face was a little startled as her arms were almost bare except for filmy split sleeves. The white neckline scooped down to reveal her delicate collarbones. In the back, the dress also dropped down, the gathered fabric hanging low revealing a red swirling tattoo on her lower back. A curiously multi-stranded silver ornament hung strung itself across her shoulders, it’s intricate chains and pieces linked together and hanging down her back. The pleated skirt of the dress stopped just above the ankle to allow her legs more freedom of movement. Her feet were bare, and she had chosen to wear her silver anklet bells and her silver chain bracelets on her hands. She tinkled prettily as she ran back in, dipping in a pretty dance curtsy in front of him. He also noticed that the mask was gone and instead a filmy piece of cloth veiled the lower part of her face. A flutist and a pipa player from the pleasure house came in from the opposite direction and settled in the pavilion as if magically called.

 

“Master have you ever seen the Crescent Moon Dance?” she asked with a teasing tone, bending backwards coquettishly, arms gracefully curved in the air above her head. She twirled for him, jingling softly.

 

“Oh?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “It’s you?”

 

A complicated look passed over his face.

 

“Yes, Master!” she laughed.

 

She smiled wickedly. She had danced modern forms like contemporary dance, hip hop, and belly-dancing and had used this as the base for the Crescent Moon, but she had not done traditional Chinese dance. She needed this now.

 

“Master teach me the forms so that I can be better,” she said, twirling again. She ran lightly to the centre of the open-air pavilion, posed, and waved at the musicians who instantly struck up her favourite Eastern style tune.

 

Her Master watched her, his chin propped up lazily on one hand, his expression unreadable. She frowned slightly and threw herself more vigorously into her dancing, stretching her legs further, finishing her movements more tightly. He looked completely unmoved and she was beginning to be concerned, but she clamped down determining to put in her best effort.

 

Xiao Yu covered her mouth as Cui Xi added a few high leaps, her legs stretched out in a split looking as if she had leapt nearly the height of a man, her toes pointed straight out. To her it looked like A’Xi was flying as she danced, skilfully turning, dipping and twirling. Xiao Yu had never seen her look so resolved or so beautiful.

 

Xiao Hei’s face became slightly pink. He had seen the Mistress dance the Crescent Moon Dance before and the first time he had been completely overwhelmed by the erotic movements, but there was something different about the way she danced…it was edgier today and he felt slightly disturbed by the atmosphere. Shooting a glance over, he saw that Master Zheng’s face continued to be inscrutable.

 

The ribbon gathering the simple bun at Cui Xi’s nape slipped down and out, suddenly releasing a raven dark waterfall. The dance became even more erotic as her hair whipped out around her, tumbling over her shoulders.

 

And suddenly her Master was holding her waist, bending her backwards with him, the fingers of one hand splayed against her stomach, the other holding her outstretched left arm.

 

“Just like this,” he whispered, his lips against her ear, still moving her body. She adjusted immediately, following his motions, allowing herself to lean into him, to bend like a willow. It was exhilarating.

 

They laughed at the same time and she smiled as they separated. She mirrored him, watching and following as he spun gracefully showing her the forms and posture.

 

“Watch carefully. I will only do this dance once,” he said to her. He was across the room, but his voice seemed to be in her ear.

 

Xiao Hei stood straighter, and his eyes narrowed. The man had just emitted his voice with a pulse of internal force.

 

Although Xiao Hei had already discovered at their first meeting that this person’s spiritual force had been severely damaged, he was still surprised that the tall silver haired man was able to circulate it minimally and in fact some of the moves he was showing the Mistress were sword dance moves. The skill with which the man moved, the easy grace, proved that this broken person at some point in the past had been a martial arts Master.

 

Floating clouds and flowing water…[2]

 

Watching him like this, Xiao Hei felt a surge of pity. Jianghu[3] was unforgiving. A broken person could only ever be useless trash. However, if such a person was upright, they would still adhere to the code of Jianghu, meaning that this man was honour bound to protect the Mistress as they now had a bond of Master and disciple between them.

 

Having grown up in a martial household himself, Xiao Hei watched intently and although he was not seeing the forms used at full power, he could still learn from it.  Obviously, the moves were incompatible with his weapon, a sabre, but that didn’t mean he would gain nothing from watching.

 

Two gazes collided, measuring each other. Master Zheng smiled thinly, his lips mocking.

 

Cui Xi had noticed the glances that her Master and Xiao Hei exchanged, and she found this fascinating. She smiled to herself, still dancing, and mirroring her Master’s movements.

 

“Higher here…” her Master called out sharply, suddenly appearing at her side, tapping her arm up with his flute. He pressed a hand against her waist again, bending her against him. He then turned her in his arms, leaning her back and the two of them stared at each other.

 

She suddenly became conscious that his hair was spilling over his shoulder and onto her body. Her expression became quite awkward. The burning look he was giving her began to frighten her.

 

“Master…let go…” she whispered, feeling her face heat up.

 

As if coming back to himself, he slowly drew her upward and then gently released her. A polite smile formed on his face as if a curtain had dropped between them. He stepped back, eyes tranquil with one wrist behind his back.

 

She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but then he appeared to make up his mind and reaching into his robes, he withdrew a square pendant on a silver chain. He came around and dropped it onto her neck over the jade ring.

 

Peaking down, she saw a crescent moon and three stars nestling just above her breasts. Was this a coincidence?

 

“Very good Xi’er,” he said quietly. “Let’s stop here for today. Master will go back. I will have the gifts brought in and you can look at them yourself.”

 

“Thank you Master,” she said, catching her breath. She was going to say more, but he was already calmly striding away.

 

Unsettled, she watched him leave.

 

“Mistress, that man…you should be more careful, ” Xiao Hei said as came to stand next to her, a strange expression on his face, staring at the pendant. Something tugged at his memory, but it was gone before he could fully grasp it.

 

 She nodded and then turned distractedly to head back to her own living quarters.

 

 

 

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[1] Disciple.

[2] 行云流水 – this should actually be translated as ‘moving clouds and flowing water’ but I took a liberty here to describe how amazing the movements are.

[3] The name for the martial world. The literal translation is ‘rivers and lakes’.