"Where did you get this?" Ye Beizhi asked in his usual concise way as he gestured toward the guqin.
Nalan Su resembled a wounded beast, his gaze savage and threatening. He didn’t respond to Ye Beizhi's question directly. Instead, he grit his teeth and growled, "If you’re going to kill me, make it quick. Why waste so many words?"
Ye Beizhi nodded slightly. Tightening his grip, he was about to strike when a shout echoed from afar.
"Please... Please spare him!"
Ye Beizhi ignored the plea and moved the blade without hesitation. However, from behind came Chi Nanwei's shout, "Dummy, stop!"
The blade grazed the skin of Nalan Su’s neck, drawing a few beads of blood, but ultimately stopped.
Ye Beizhi gave Nalan Su a long, deep look before sheathing his blade.
A woman came stumbling forward, collapsing to the ground and shielding Nalan Su with her body. Chi Nanwei arrived ahead of Fang Dingwu and stood beside Ye Beizhi.
The woman was none other than Nalan Su’s mother. Tearfully, she knelt before Ye Beizhi, pleading with a trembling voice, "Please, young masters and mistresses, spare him. It is my failing as a mother. If there must be punishment, let it fall on me instead."
Nalan Su’s clothes were almost entirely soaked in blood. He was unable to move after his tendons had been severed by the bladelight. Nearly paralyzed, he still growled at the woman in a low voice, "This is my matter. Why are you here?!"
Nalan Su’s mother cried even harder.
"It’s my fault! It’s all my fault! I should never have let you learn the guqin, and I certainly shouldn’t have allowed you to claim it as your own. If I had known this would happen, I would have never let it come to this!"
"Shut up!" Nalan Su glared angrily at the woman.
Ye Beizhi spoke at this moment, "Where did this guqin come from?"
"Don’t you dare tell them!" Nalan Su immediately shouted to stop her.
The Tang blade left its sheath and was pressed against Nalan Su’s throat.
Frightened, the woman quickly stretched out her arms to shield Nalan Su.
"I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!"
Ye Beizhi looked at the woman but did not withdraw the blade, clearly waiting for an answer.
The woman took a deep breath and slowly began, "His father died young, leaving only the two of us, mother and son. This child had a hard life, so I doted on him greatly. From a young age, he showed a liking for music, so I let him learn what he could.
"The guqin teacher said he lacked talent and would achieve little even if he persisted. The teacher advised me several times to have Su’er pursue a different trade. Even his classmates refused to play with him, calling him too foolish to learn the guqin...
"I thought about stopping his lessons, but Su’er was stubborn by nature and deeply fond of the guqin. No amount of persuasion could change his mind..."
"Until one day..." At this point, bitterness appeared on her face. "It was four years ago. Su’er was sixteen, and though he had been learning the guqin for many years, his skills were mediocre at best. That day, he came home carrying that guqin.
"It was very different from his own, so I noticed it right away. At first, I thought he had taken a classmate's or his teacher's guqin, so I questioned him. Su’er’s evasive words made me suspicious.
"I pressed him to admit if he had stolen it, but he angrily accused me of wronging him. In a moment of desperation, he finally confessed where the guqin came from. It was something he had found.
"But who would discard such a fine guqin? Su’er said he found it floating downstream from the mountains and happened to see it, so he brought it home. I went to the spot he described several times and waited at home for a long time.
"But no one ever came looking for this guqin, nor did anyone inquire about it. Su’er liked the guqin very much, and, to my shame, I was driven by greed. I decided that its owners had abandoned so I kept it..."
Ye Beizhi's brow furrowed slightly. Seeing this, the woman panicked and hastily added, "I haven't lied at all. We really don’t know where the guqin came from!"
"Abandoned..." Ye Beizhi murmured. Picking up the guqin, he sat cross-legged, placing the instrument across his lap. He gently rested his hand on the strings.
Ye Beizhi’s fingers lightly plucked the strings, and a familiar, melodious tune floated far into the distance.
Ye Beizhi had no intention of playing a piece, nor did he have the ability to do so. Opening the guqin case, he found a guqin score and a wooden token inside.
Ye Beizhi took the wooden token in his hand. The engraved title, Yearning Rhapsody, was already faded and worn.
Behind him, Fang Dingwu saw the token and instinctively froze. His pupils contracted as he gasped, "Ghostbane Association?!"
Chi Nanwei, however, appeared thoughtful and said, "Is that sandalwood? It's just like yours, Dummy..."
Ye Beizhi nodded., "Ghostbane Association... All Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Mortal rankers hold Ghostbane Tokens."
Halfway through, Ye Beizhi fell silent as if organizing his thoughts. After a moment, he continued, "The material of Ghost Tokens varies, from lowest to highest. Peachwood, purple copper, nanmu wood, and black iron. Corresponding to Mortal, Profound, Earth, and Heaven ranks and above these four are the origin-sequencer jade tokens."
Chi Nanwei froze for a moment before realizing, "But yours and this one... why are they different?"
Fang Dingwu also caught on and nodded in agreement, "That's right! I've seen the tokens of Young Master Tang and Young Master Baili. They're all clearly made of sandalwood."
Ye Beizhi stared blankly at the wooden token in his hand and murmured, "We’re not the same... Everyone else's Ghostbane Tokens have been newly forged, but ours are relics of the past."
"What do you mean? Brother Ye, please explain clearly!"
Fang Dingwu wanted to ask more, but Ye Beizhi suddenly stood up.
He sheathed the Tang blade and said to Nalan Su, "The guqin isn’t yours... I’m taking it."
Nalan Su knew he couldn’t stop him, no matter what, so he could only retort defiantly, "Now you're taking it from me. This is clearly a robbery."
Ye Beizhi had already turned to leave. Hearing Nalan Su’s words, he paused for a moment before replying, "Let’s call it returning it to its rightful owner."
Back in the guest room, Chi Nanwei and Fang Dingwu were filled with questions and couldn’t sleep. Buzzing with curiousity, they followed Ye Beizhi into his room.
"Now that no one else is around," Fang Dingwu stared at Ye Beizhi. Brother Ye, tell us what’s going on. Don’t keep us in suspense."
Ye Beizhi didn’t reply but instead handed the guqin to Chi Nanwei, saying, "Nanwei... you’ll take care of this guqin from now on."
Chi Nanwei instinctively took the guqin, then paused. "Why?"
Ye Beizhi was silent for a moment before replying, "You understand music, you guqin... and its music."
Chi Nanwei lowered her head to look at the guqin and bit her lip. "This... wasn’t this your old friend's?"
Ye Beizhi wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but it seemed like Chi Nanwei emphasized the words old friend.
Ye Beizhi rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, "Not exactly an old friend... We only met three times..."
"Only three times?" Chi Nanwei pouted. "Why do I feel like you two must have met three hundred or even three thousand times?"
"Because..." Ye Beizhi lowered his gaze, his hand brushing over the wooden token. "Because she’s Yearning Rhapsody..."
"Yearning Rhapsody..." Chi Nanwei repeated the name somewhat bitterly, then suddenly brightened and murmured...
"I understand now... Yearning Rhapsody, also known as Stormqueller..."
PS: Yearning Rhapsody is a guqin melody that is also known as Stormqueller Token. The lyrical form has two names for the two variations.