Recollections at the Lake Pavilion

Liu Yiheng, you caused me to lose my precious sword. How do you plan to make it up to me?" General Chi Qing was so anxious that he grabbed and pushed me around.

During the competition, I used a hidden force which made me feel guilty. So I didn't know how to answer him for a while.

I remained silent but Jietou couldn't stand seeing someone push me like that. He stepped forward and pushed General Chi Qing away before shouting at him: "Hey! You asked us to drink wine and compete with swords. The sword flew away on its own accord, not because of us. Why are you blaming us? If it weren't for your mysterious behavior, would this have happened?"

After being scolded by Jietou, General Chi Qing fell silent for a moment before chuckling self-deprecatingly and saying: "Forget it, forget it. It's fate that brought us here today. Follow me; there is something important I need to tell you both."

General Chi Qing turned towards Moganshan Lake nearby after speaking and we followed him in the rain.

The three of us sat around a stone table inside a pavilion near the lake after walking for some time in the rain.

The wind blew from the lake surface as raindrops fell on our bodies making us shiver uncontrollably even though our clothes were already soaked through.

"Drink some wine; warm up your body so you won't be cold." Seeing Jietou and myself shivering uncontrollably due to the cold weather, General Chi Qing took off his gourd from his waist drank some himself before passing over the jug of wine to us.

"At midnight with such strong winds and heavy rains outside why did we come out here instead of staying indoors?" Taking hold of the jug of wine passed over by General Chi Qing,Jietou grumbled under his breath

I took hold of the jug of wine and drank some before gesturing to Jietou to calm down.

"Do you know where this place is?" General Chi Qing stood up after finishing his drink, facing Moganshan Lake as he began speaking.

"What place is this?" I asked.

"I met her here thirty years ago," General Chi Qing replied, lost in memories. "We were both young then. She was a tourist who came here for sightseeing while I was responsible for rowing boats to take visitors north of the lake to pick lotus seeds. She was quiet and didn't like playing around so she didn't get on the boat at that time but sat quietly in this pavilion waiting for her classmates.

I fell in love with her at first sight. That day, I didn't go out on the boat and instead switched shifts to greet tourists on shore. During this process, I kept stealing glances at her. Later, around noon, I came here to sit down under the pretext of cooling off and started chatting with her. We hit it off well. After talking for a while, I found out that she was a student from a nearby high school and I remembered all of this. At that time, I had already finished school and started working to earn money so my time was relatively free. Later on, I often went to her school to see her and bought her some gifts. Over time, she also knew my intentions but because of our age difference and academic reasons, she couldn't promise me anything."

"She asked me if I would be willing to wait for three years for her. Of course, I agreed. What's three years? For her sake, even if it were ten or a hundred years, I would still be willing to wait. So we made an agreement and waited until after she graduated from high school before officially starting our relationship together; however when she graduated there wasn't any job prospects yet so we got married instead.

At that time,I was really happy every day living in happiness."

"However what surprised me was that the night of my wedding marked the beginning of another chapter in my life."

After saying this much , Cheng Qingshuai stopped speaking momentarily as his expression became somewhat emotional - clearly he cherished those times filled with happiness.

"Just let me tell you guys," Cheng Qingshuai turned around looking towards the distant house before turning back towards us: "Our family has lived here generation after generation; that house is our ancestral property but usually no one lives there since it's empty most of the time . Beforehand ,I always thought it was just a warehouse until my father brought me inside and I found out the truth. It turns out that our family's true identity is as the guardians of Gan Jiang Mo Ye, a pair of swords."

"I heard about the legend of Gan Jiang Mo Ye when I was very young but before then, like you guys, I thought it was just a story and not believable especially since these two swords have been lost for over two thousand years so they couldn't possibly exist in this world anymore. However after entering that house ,I realized how wrong I was - completely mistaken. The legendary story turned out to be true and those two swords were still in possession by our family all along."

Cheng Qingshuai paused here for a moment before turning around to look at us: "Do you know why our family became the guardians of these two treasures? Do you know what happened to them after slaying King Zhou?"

Both Jietou and myself shook our heads.

"Let me tell you," Cheng Qingshuai furrowed his brows slightly while organizing his thoughts before continuing: "In fact, our ancestors' identity wasn't anything else but rather Light Elder who slew King Zhou. Back then, Light Elder carried both Gan Jiang and Mo Ye with him when he went to pay respects to Wu Wang Helu . After receiving the swords ,Wu Wang Helu ordered someone to cook Mo Gans head in an oil pot .Mo Gans head refused to close its eyes even after death; instead it swam around screaming continuously within the boiling oil pot .Light Elder suggested that Wu Wang Helu should stare at Mo Gans head near the edge of pot which would eliminate any evil spirits from it thus allowing them to boil down his skull more easily.Wu Wang listened obediently towards Light Elders suggestion ;however during this time ,Light Elder took advantage of this opportunity by pulling out Gan Jiang sword hanging on Wu Wangs waist and with a swing of his arm, he beheaded Wu Wang and threw his head into the oil pot as well.

Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but look at Chi Qingshuai and say, "According to the book, after Old Man Zhiguang killed King Wu, he also chopped off his own head and threw it into a pot. Then the three heads played happily in the pot, biting each other until they were all cooked. Afterwards, they couldn't tell who was who so King Wu's subordinates had no choice but to bury all three heads according to royal protocol. However, now it seems that if I'm not mistaken, the story from back then might not be like this. The first half of this story is true but the second half is likely fabricated."

"Why do you say that?" Chi Qingshuai asked curiously.

"Because it doesn't make sense. If I were Old Man Zhiguang and had just killed King Wu with a divine sword in hand, I would definitely run away instead of sacrificing myself by chopping off my own head for no reason. Besides, these two swords later fell into the hands of Old Man Zhiguang's descendants and have been guarded by you all along which indicates that he didn't die back then; he must have escaped with both swords. Am I right?" I looked at Chi Qingshuai and asked him.