The Tale Never Ends

IMPOSSIBLE! I almost gasped aloud. A shudder crept down my spine as the name of the deceased registered in my mind. What purpose could she have for coming here?! Then I realized why. No… Surely not…

I looked around frantically, searching for the whereabouts of the ghost! The people here were all dressed in mourning garb; ghosts and spirits would find them ripe for the pickings!

And my fears were proven true: the ghost found a woman in grieve, bawling loudly like a lamb being slaughtered and stepped into her, possessing her with hardly any difficulty. The woman’s body jerked and fidgeted when the ghost took her and her wailing stopped and she collapsed to the ground. Two young men got up from their places beside the coffin hurriedly and they rushed to her. Others came to her aid as well and they helped the woman to her feet. The two young men must be his sons, I mused, Bian Dashou’s sons. The two young men called at the unconscious woman loudly, “Aunt! How are you?! Wake up!”

Ah… I realized at once, This possessed woman is Bian Dashou’s sister!? But why? Why did the ghost choose to possess her? But the answer to my doubt came just as swiftly. Her eyes blinked open at once and she got up. But she was no longer Bian Dashou’s sister. From the look on her eyes, I was sure that she was the sister of Godmother! But she was able to maintain her guise by breaking into tears again and went back to howling and weeping like before! Only this time, she thrust a finger at Bian Dashou’s trueborns, glowering at them with tears still streaming down, “You unfilial pups! How dare you allow your father to be buried naked! Oh, Brother! What sons have you fathered that treat you so!” Her voice hardly faltered; she went on, hurling a dozen or more curses and insults at the young men.

Oh Heavens, I dreaded what could happen, So this is what she’s up to! She’s trying to force the sons of Bian Dashou in disobeying his last wishes! And if she succeeds, Bian Dashou’s body would be dressed in clothing and this will be like how old Chen Yixuan had told me in his tale: Bian Dashou’s corpse would fail to turn into a dragon and thus the Dragon-slaying Blade would be lost.

So this is what Master Six wished for me to see! Whoever they were, these people have been busy with their sinister schemes while remaining behind the shadows ever since Bian Dashou began his preparations to destroy the dragon leys. First, they sought to locate the dragon leys of the Ming Empire and hope to sabotage and kill Bian Dashou. But since they have been thwarted, they have begun plotting about this instead! The loss of its keeper would render the Blade masterless so that these foul folk could swoop in on it. It would not be a far cry to guess that the theft of the Blade later then must also be them too!

So who are these people? The Japanese? Or someone from Puyi’s faction?

The possessed sister of Bian Dashou continued wreaking chaos and havoc the whole day until night came and there left no one else in the quiet courtyard save for his sons who remained vigil by their father’s remains.

I sat atop the lid of Bian Dashou’s coffin, listening to the brothers talking. The younger brother said, “Look at the mess today, Brother. We can never bury Father like this! Aunt will go on blaming us for the rest of our lives!” The elder brother grimaced. “I knew,” he answered, “I knew this would happen when Father gave us the order before his last breath. There’s no right answer to this conundrum; no matter what we do, we’d be branded as ungrateful sons nonetheless.” “You speak true, Brother,” said Bian the younger, “No one will accept having Father interred a naked man. But Father was specific: we should leave his body naked during his burial. What a Gordian Knot this is… We are unfilial sons no matter what we do!”

“That said, we cannot dress him,” said the elder brother, “Father’s last wish takes precedence. That was the last and final thing he begged of us! I’d gladly bear the blame but we cannot ignore Father’s wishes!”

“But Brother!” The younger brother insisted, “What of the future? Aunt will forever haunt us about this, nevermind anyone else! You saw how she was just now. She’d never relent so long as Father continues to be naked!”

The brothers frown as they held each other in a long stare. Finally, the younger of the two pressed on, “I still feel that we ought to dress Father, Brother. He’s no longer with us. Allowing him to leave naked will be no good for him too in the Underworld!”

“No,” said the eldest of them firmly, “Father must have his own reasons. There’s no way I’d disobey Father’s last will!”

Despite his own reasons, the younger of the two brothers could find no words to counter his elder brother. But they remained grimacing at the conundrum and the debate continued even until the early hours of the morning. In the end, the younger brother came up with a plan that would bring to fruition future events. He came with a suggestion, “Brother, I have an idea. Father said that we should leave him naked. But we should at least dress him in a pair of trousers. That could slightly placate everyone else and we would not be fully disobeying Father after all.”

The elder brother’s face creased even harder. But he could find no other pretense to disagree with his sibling. It took him some time, but in the end, he relented.

Seeing his brother’s persistence finally crumbling, the younger son hastened him at once, seeing as the iron was still hot, “Come on, Brother. The morning is nearly upon us. We must not let anyone see us; it’s indecent. Let’s get a pair of trousers unto Father quick. Morning is upon us any time now.” The elder son nodded quietly and they got up, moving slowly towards the coffin.

Obviously, they could not see me and I, as feather-light as a ghost, was lifted up as well when they removed the lid from the coffin. A stark naked Bian Dashou was lying inside, a man very much dead and bare. His hair and beard were a flowing tangle of white; no more recognizable than a stranger. He was still an able-bodied middle-aged man when I last saw him. A man with radiating with vim and verve worthy of his standing and vitality. But now, he was but a dead man lying in an oaken box, waiting to be buried six feet under the ground. But strangely, the colors and look on his face looked not like a dead man to me. Rather, it looked as if he was only sleeping.

Bian Dashou’s sons took a pair of pants and tried to pull the trousers up to his legs, but I reached for it and wrenched it hard, drawing it back down to his ankles. This made the brothers jumped with shock. One of them, the younger brother, fell to his knees with fright and began wailing, “Father! Please, Father! Pray do not blame us for this! No filial son could allow his father to be interred a wretched and naked man! We are only doing this for you!” And the two brothers bowed deeply, prostrating themselves before their dead father.

Their heads rose not even an inch for minutes until they began to see that their father was still dead. The brothers traded fearful looks before they got up and made sure that their father hardly moved aside from the pants that I tugged off and carefully, they took the pair of trousers and tried to put it on again.

The siblings, still shivering hesitantly, slowly lifted Bian Dashou’s body and put it on. But this time, they gripped on the pants so firmly that I could do nothing to prevent them. I tugged and yanked to no avail as the younger brother held on tightly while the eldest son slammed the lid shut at once and I was almost trapped inside! I let go just in time for the lid to be closed, and I failed to prevent the sons from putting on the trousers.

But I knew. This is history. Nothing I do would change history in the end no matter how dissatisfied I felt knowing what would come after this. But there really was nothing I could do but to shake my head with helpless dejection.

Little did I realize at the time, that Bian Dashou wearing a pair of trousers when he was interred was never meant to be history!

Father came to the burial grounds of the Bian Family the next day when Bian Dashou’s family was committing his body into the ground, riding atop his sword. I flew up to him when I saw him and I heard him snarling through gritted teeth, “Dammit! I’m still too late!” Huh?! I was surprised to hear him cursing. Was Bian Dashou supposed to have succeeded in turning into a dragon? Then Father said again, “I was tricked! Just when I thought I had him! And it all turns out to be a diversion! Damned!”

Father must have been pursuing somebody after dealing with the cohorts of Godmother’s sister, only to have fallen for a ruse instead!

Mother said suddenly from her perch atop Father’s shoulder, “What will happen to the Blade now? Since Bian Dashou will have no chance of turning into a dragon now?” Father could find no words to express his dismay. He merely shook his head, although he seemed as if there was something he wished to say, but he decided again it. But it was clear: Father intended for Bian Dashou to become a dragon but his plans were ruined and that culminated in the future events thereafter.

I sank into a ponderous wonder myself but the sky around me darkened suddenly. Night had come out of nowhere. But noises below my feet roused my attention and I looked down. A band of riders all armed with flaming torches was galloping quickly towards the burial grounds of Bian Dashou.