Si Teng (Rattan) – CH 066

Chapter 66

Miss Si Teng was too imaginative and acted out of her own accord. She even said, “Take Qin Fang down to rest,” as if this was the imperial palace and they could touch the dragon bed just by turning the corner.

The door closed behind him, the light from inside barely illuminating half of the courtyard. In front of him was an overturned truck and Zhou Wandong, who occasionally convulsed. Next to him was a sheep pen. The sheep had disappeared long ago, but the stench of sheep lingered.

Yan Furui glanced around for a moment before telling Qin Fang, “Wait a moment.”

He scurried over to the back of the van, brought over a stack of books, and piled them up as a stool for Qin Fang to sit on. He then rummaged around in the van for a while, fetching pliers, a towel, and a water cup.

He first helped Qin Fang cut the wire binding his hands. Looking down, he saw a bloody mess on his wrists and cursed angrily, “Is this even something a human being would do?”

After grumbling for a moment, he suddenly remembered the instigator lying nearby. He charged forward, intending to kick him to vent his anger for Qin Fang. As he lifted his foot, Zhou Wandong gritted his teeth, and Yan Furui, startled, ran back.

Qin Fang found it funny that he was so aggressive and suddenly became timid. Yan Furui said sheepishly, “He’s a human, not a monster like Red Umbrella… I can’t hit him.”

After untying the bindings, seeing that Qin Fang’s hands were injured and unable to move, he used a wet towel to wipe Qin Fang’s face. As he wiped, he became indignant again, “How could he hit someone? Are there any human rights left? I wasn’t there at the time. If I had been, I would have beaten him to death!”

Even though he knew he was a wealthy man, Qin Fang felt a warm warmth in his heart. Yan Furui and Si Teng were only casual acquaintances. When they first met, they didn’t really connect, and they didn’t even have a favorable impression. But now, they felt a special warmth and closeness.

There was a phrase that described it well: one of our own.

After finishing up and having nowhere to go, Si Teng and Jia Guizhi’s “chat” seemed endless. Holding their breath, they listened, but whether it was the soundproofing or the sheer stillness of the room, it made them feel very uneasy.

After a while, Yan Furui, bored, looked up at the sky. “Qin Fang, look at those stars. Do you think that’s the Big Dipper over there? The one that looks like a spoon?”

Qin Fang angrily said, “Two grown men, what are you looking at stars for?”

It was so boring. He had just been kind enough to talk to him out of pity after he’d been beaten, but he kept complaining. Yan Furui didn’t bother to pay attention to him anymore, but it was late at night and no one was talking, so he was easily sleepy. Yan Furui couldn’t hold it in for long before he started yawning. After a while, his head tilted and nodded, resting on Qin Fang’s shoulder.

Qin Fang nudged his head away with his shoulder, full of disgust. The scene suddenly seemed to enter a vicious cycle: drowsiness, leaning on someone’s shoulder, being pushed away, waking up and yawning, more drowsiness, leaning on someone’s shoulder, being pushed away… Qin Fang considered sneaking away but then thought better of it. It would be terrible if Yan Furui fell headfirst onto the ground. After all, he was… one of them.

After an unknown amount of time, he himself was beginning to feel sleepy, his eyelids wearily drooping together until… the door creaked open.

Qin Fang shuddered, instantly awakening and looking up: daybreak had already arrived without him noticing. The chill of the morning air seeped into his bones. He tried to move his feet, only to find they were numb from the cold.

Jia Guizhi stood at the doorway, more hesitant and timid than before. “Qin Fang, Miss Bai Ying asked you to come in.”

Bai Ying? Why did Jia Guizhi keep calling Si Teng Bai Ying?

***

The kerosene lamp high in the room had gone out, and the flame of the vine was much smaller. White embers fell in streaks across the floor. Daylight trickled in, but the room felt even more dead silent.

Si Teng stood with her back to him, looking up at a painting on the wall.

This painting hadn’t been there before. The four corners were covered in vines snaking into the wall. Si Teng must have hung it there herself.

Wasn’t the woman in the painting Si Teng?

She wore a cheongsam and high heels adorned with pearls; her eyes were filled with anger, a smile that was not quite there, and her thin lips were slightly raised; she looked emotional yet not emotional. No, no, no, she did look like her, but he had never seen such an expression on Si Teng’s face. Even more, the woman in the painting had her hair in a bun, as if she were married.

In a flash, Qin Fang blurted out, “Bai Ying?”

Si Teng looked back at him. “You know Bai Ying too?”

Yes, I do. Those things my great-grandfather left behind, the photos, the diaries, all mentioned this woman.

—In the winter of 1946, I took my wife and son on a lake cruise, accompanied by my friend Bai Ying. We came with joy and left with great pleasure.

Qin Fang suddenly had a bad feeling. “This Bai Ying my great-grandfather knew looks exactly like you? The one who married Shao Yankuan as his second wife? Who is she to you? A twin sister?”

Si Teng laughed heartily. “Twin sisters? I’ve never had any twin sisters.”

“Remember, I once told you I was half-demon?”

***

Yes.

In Qin Fang’s memory, Si Teng mentioned being a half-demon twice.

Once, at the bottom of the valley in Nangqian, where he fell off a cliff, she tried to fly to the clifftop but ended up crashing to the ground. At that time, she muttered to herself with a melancholic tone, “If it were in the past, I wouldn’t have fallen down… Now, I am indeed just a half-demon.”

Another time, at the Golden Horse Hotel, when she successfully persuaded him to be her helper and explained why her appearance had changed, she reached out and knocked over a glass of water, and with her index finger dipped in the water, she wrote the word “half-demon” on the wooden table.

She said she was both blood and qi deficient. Qin Fang had always assumed that being half-demon meant her demonic powers were so damaged that they barely qualified as a demon. Later, he even searched online and found that “half-demon” referred to a hybrid of a demon and a human, Inuyasha being an example. Of course, that was just a cartoon.

Why was she bringing up the half-demon issue now?

A thought flashed through Qin Fang’s mind, like a crackling spark, its brightness lingering, even slowly taking shape…

Si Teng asked him again, “Do you remember that movie I saw at the airport?”

He remembered, before she mentioned it, that he had just thought of it. Back then, she’d been quizzing him about the film’s supposed “ten personalities.” Qin Fang remembered being impatient and asking, “You demons also have split personalities?”

What had she said? “Very rare, very rare… It happens. But at most, it’s two personalities… no, two demonic personalities.”

Qin Fang’s expression gradually changed.

Si Teng laughed. “Back then, some of what I said was untrue. There’s one important point I didn’t tell you. You humans, whether you have two personalities or twenty, can only have one body. An animal that breaks a leg will simply become lame, but I’m different. I was born from a vine, and even a broken branch can create shade. At that time, I split.”

Qin Fang’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and his hands, hanging by his legs, trembled uncontrollably. He wanted to say something, but his mind was blank. Si Teng’s next words drifted in and out, so clear, yet so distant.

“Neither Bai Ying nor I are the real Si Teng. We’re both just… half of that demon named Si Teng.”

***

Perhaps everyone had a conflicted little person in their heart, wanting to go east and west, grasping and letting go, hugging on the left and wanting to embrace on the right.

Because it was impossible, because there was no such thing as a “double-edged sword” that could achieve both the Buddha and the beloved, one had to restrain oneself, contain one’s desires, endure the inner and outer suffering, and then take the difficult step.

In this respect, perhaps demons were truly inferior. When tit-for-tat had reached a dead end, there was no sudden realization or choice, just a simple, crude… brazen splitting.

After the great changes of 1910, she followed Qiu Shan’s lead for more than twenty years. Then she met Shao Yankuan, who taught her to read and write, beginning to understand the world. She fled eastward and read ancient books. Then they later met again at the Paramount Dance Hall. It was like a dream, and she was still confused when she woke up. The struggle between her inner self and her desires never stopped.

This struggle reached its peak the night Shao Yankuan proposed to her at the theater.

At the time, she was staying in a suite at the Grand Hotel de France on rue de Joffre. She vaguely remembered removing her makeup in the mirror when the incident occurred.

The Western-style dressing table has intricate carvings and smooth and elegant lines, resembling a pastoral girl in the European countryside. The mirror’s edge was inscribed with delicate foreign characters, yet its reflection reflected a Chinese beauty. At her side lay a plain white silk handkerchief wrapped around a fragrant rose branch. Was he afraid of the sharp thorns pricking the beauty’s hand, or perhaps of revealing his hidden evil intentions?

She pulled out the handkerchief, placed it on her lips, and kissed it gently, then threw it aside.

Glancing again, the rouge lip print seemed to suddenly transform into a moving mouth, its ears, eyes, lips, and nose strangely protruding from the silken surface. A faint whisper, like insects, crawled in from the ceiling, doorways, and under the windows, nagging her: “Marry Shao Yankuan, stop being a monster. What good is a monster? Being hunted by the Taoists, despised by everyone. Living for thousands of years is not as good as enjoying life in the mortal world. As the old saying goes, one only envies the mandarin ducks, not the immortals…”

Suddenly looking up, she saw another, furious self in the mirror: “Monsters were monsters. What about Bai Suzhen? She practiced Taoism for a thousand years, but for a moment of pleasure, she was imprisoned in Leifeng Pagoda forever. Humans and monsters are destined to have different paths. Monsters are monsters. Why should they learn to talk about love? Besides, what kind of person is Shao Yankuan? Didn’t you see him clearly enough when he appeared in Qingcheng? A few sweet words have made you lose your mind?”

Her head was buzzing, as if it would explode at any moment. In a frenzy, she grabbed the handkerchief and tore at it. When it failed to budge, she casually grabbed the water cup and smashed it against the mirror…

It was at that moment that her vision suddenly went black.

Bright and dark, in just a moment, her arms trembled slightly, and she gripped the edge of the dressing table, gasping for breath. Suddenly, she realized… Something was wrong.

Right next to her, there was another gasp.

This sudden realization made her heart pound. After a long pause, she slowly turned her head.

At the same time, the woman beside her slowly turned her face to the side.

The same clothes, makeup, and hair, even the rouge on her lips that had partially fallen off from wiping with the handkerchief, were exactly the same.

The same eyes, reflecting the same face.

It turned out that the woman had later changed her name to Bai Ying.