A Late Return

My fam Lu Tianyi back at it again with the 剑网三 stories. So, I guess this is technically in the same universe as the other one I translated, You Are Mine? 

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Title: 夜归 A Late Return

Author: 吕天逸 Lu Tianyi

jjwxc

Note: BE 

Summary: 

Midnight. 

A slow elegiac song enveloped the cold night. 

Ye Wenshui stood beneath a flowering tree with his hands clasped behind his back. The light of the moon and stars shone on his clear face, further illuminating his porcelain-like purity. 

The sound of heavy military boots came from not too far away as the flowers upon the ground were crushed underfoot. 

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A Late Return

Midnight. 

A slow elegiac song enveloped the cold night. 

Ye Wenshui stood beneath a flowering tree with his hands clasped behind his back. The light of the moon and stars shone on his clear face, further illuminating his porcelain-like purity. 

The sound of heavy military boots came from not too far away as the flowers upon the ground were crushed underfoot. 

“You’ve come back.” Ye Wenshui did not once look back, but he knew that it was Li Aoxue. 

“En.” Li Aoxue wore red robes and silver armor, the Fiery Dragon Blade^[1]火龙沥泉, Fiery Dragon Dripping Spring, pretty sure this is his weapon? I shortened it for readability in his hand glinting with a blood-red hue in the moonlight, “I was gone for a while this time. How are you?”

Ye Wenshui turned his head, his handsome brow curving into twin crescents, “I am well. Just…worried about you.” 

Li Aoxue stuck the Fiery Dragon Blade into the ground and sat down on the stone bench in the center of the courtyard. He poured himself a cup of wine, staring at Ye Wenshui with eyes bound by a layer of snow, “No need to worry over me.” Thus spoken, his gaze shifted to the flowering tree behind Ye Wenshui. He said contentedly: “It’s blossom season again.”

Ye Wenshui smiled as he said, “Of course. I love performing sword dances beneath this tree.”

Li Aoxue’s eyes deepend. He gazed at Ye Wenshui and said with the deepest affection, “When I saw you for the first time as a child, you were performing a sword dance here.”

…

Back then, Li Aoxue was just a starving beggar. Who knows where he got the confidence from, but he had sneakily climbed into the back courtyard of Cangjian Manor to look for food. 

He had not thought he would be met with Ye Wenshui’s sword dance. 

The youth’s bearing was handsome, his body clad in a shimmering metallic set of armor^[2]灿金破军: lit. ‘shining metal breaking armies’, referring to a set of ‘army breaking’ armor. Flight like a startled swan, strength like a swimming dragon^[3]翩若惊鸿，矫若游龙: from the phrase 翩若惊鸿，婉若游龙, with the character for ‘grace/gentleness’ switched out for ‘strong/brave’. Originally used to describe an elegant … Continue reading, a thousand leaves danced endlessly in silver splendor. The falling flowers fluttered gracefully, the few blossoms that whisked by the youth flitting through the air due to the surging sword wind. The youth danced for an unknown amount of time, and as he danced, the fluttering petals hung suspended the air, unable to fall and unable to escape his swordwork. 

When the youth sheathed his sword with a resonant shing, the petals could at last drift to the ground. 

“Child, you have watched me for half the day. Do you want to learn the sword arts?”

Li Aoxue stood there in place, dumbfounded. He only felt that his entire sight, his entire heart, his entire world…was full of that youth’s bright smile. 

A moment of shock, a lifetime of lost words. 

…

“You were so short back then.” Ye Wenshui was also pulled into those past memories by Li Aoxue. He gestured by his waist, “Probably only up to my waist.”

Li Aoxue laughed, “I was as tall as your shoulders. I remember it clearly.”

Ye Wenshui laughed with him, his tone affectionate and doting, “If you say it is so, then it is so.”

Li Aoxue drank a cup of wine, then walked up to Ye Wenshui. With a low, magnetic voice carrying a slight drunkenness and an intimate spoiledness, he said: “I missed you so much. When I was out there fighting wars, there was never a moment I did not think of you…”

Ye Wenshui offered a closed-lipped smile, his fine, white fingers lightly caressing Li Aoxue’s cheek. He sighed: “I, as well. How could I not? Day and night I waited for you to return to the manor…waited with a heart left empty.”

But Li Aoxue was carried away by the strength of the wine and leaned his head onto Ye Wenshui’s chest, whispering as if he had heard nothing, “I missed you so much, enough to go mad…”

“I’m here, I’m here.” Ye Wenshui’s eyes grew red. He softly stroked Li Aoxue’s hair, who was half a head taller than him. In appearance, he may have looked younger than Li Aoxue, but he had the air of an elder brother. He consoled Li Aoxue gently, “You were like this as a child, too, always burrowing under my blanket every night and laying your head on my chest. Now you’ve grown into a man and you are still like this.”

Li Aoxue’s emotions calmed somewhat. He forced a smile, “You still remember.”

Ye Wenshui said mischievously: “Of course I remember. You said you were afraid of ghosts…but I knew you weren’t. You just wanted to burrow under my blanket.”

Li Aoxue laughed quietly but did not answer. Changing the topic, he said: “Have a few drinks with me.”

“Alright, I will join you.” Ye Wenshui’s lips pulled up into a smile, full of heroic spirit. 

…

The two sat on the stone bench in the courtyard, drinking wine and talking with each other under the light of the lustrous moon until the dawn’s light appeared along the horizon. 

Until the dew and frost of the cool morning breeze accumulated on Li Aoxue’s brow. 

A wisp of morning light poured down from the thick cloud layer. 

“I should be going.” Ye Wenshui lowered his eyes, gazing at the wine cup in front of him. 

A flower petal fell into the cup, disturbing the mirror-like sheen of the wine. After the disturbance, Ye Wenshui’s handsome face was no longer reflected in the wine. 

“Wait for me.” Li Aoxue grit his teeth, “When the war subsides, I will go join you.”

“No.” Ye Wenshui grinned, “Child, you need to live well. I will wait until you are one hundred years old.”

Li Aoxue’s eyes were red. He hugged Ye Wenshui’s thin frame. 

One was tall and fierce, the bitter wind and frigid cold of the wartime frontier engraved upon his face, his heroic features dyed with the vicissitudes of life. 

One was lean and beautiful, ten years of past time winding across his fresh face, but his features would never change again. 

The sky brightened, and Ye Wenshui’s silhouette melted into the morning light. 

…

Li Aoxue fought in the war, never returning for many years. 

Ye Wenshui’s bitter wait bore no fruit. Dragging his body, racked with a lingering illness, to beneath the courtyard’s flowering tree, he passed away thinking of Li Aoxue’s name. 

Ten boundless years now separate the living and the dead.^[4]“Dreaming of My Deceased Wife on the Night of the 20th Day of the First Month”, Su Shi of the Song Dynasty. Used the translation available here 

…

Decade upon decade, year upon year, time flowing endlessly.