[Water Margin] Hu Sanniang with her delicate hands - Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
The moonlight was cold, spilling into the quiet valley, reflecting the pool of water like a shattered silver mirror. On the high cliff, Dǎlǐbō’s figure moved. She did not descend the steep cliff face but turned and disappeared behind it. A short while later, she emerged from a gentler slope on the other side of the valley, her steps steady and controlled.
She was still wearing the dark-blue riding attire, but without the longbow, her hands empty. Her stride carried the unique sense of freedom and power characteristic of a grassland daughter. The moonlight outlined her heroic profile and neatly braided hair. The silver rings occasionally reflected a cold gleam.
Hu Sanniang stood her ground, watching her approach step by step. Without the distance of the daytime training ground or the evening banquet, an unprecedented, almost naked sense of reality permeated the space between them in this secluded valley.
Dǎlǐbō stopped a few steps in front of Hu Sanniang, her light brown eyes looking directly at her without evasion, a playful smile on her lips: “I thought you would bring a more formidable ‘tail,’ but I didn’t expect such low-grade trash.” Her tone was relaxed, as if the breathtaking arrow shot just moments ago was merely swatting away an annoying fly.
Hu Sanniang pursed her lips. The other woman’s attitude left her somewhat at a loss. She was accustomed to vigilance, calculation, and cold confrontation, but she didn’t know how to respond to such near-familiar teasing. “Thank you, Princess, for intervening,” she finally said, bowing slightly in accordance with etiquette, but her voice was less cold than usual, tinged with an imperceptible dryness.
“Dǎlǐbō,” the other woman corrected, taking a step forward. The distance closed. Hu Sanniang could even smell the faint scent on her—a mixture of grass and a certain cold spice. “Here, there is no Princess, only Dǎlǐbō.”
Her gaze fell on Hu Sanniang’s hands, still clutching the saber hilts, her knuckles slightly white. Dǎlǐbō’s eyebrows raised slightly: “What, still wary of me? If I meant you harm, that arrow just now could have easily missed its mark.”
Hu Sanniang unconsciously loosened her grip on the sabers, but the tension in her body did not fully subside. She looked up, meeting those eyes that appeared especially deep in the moonlight, and asked the doubt in her heart: “Why are you here? And why… did you help me?”
“Why am I here?” Dǎlǐbō chuckled. The sound was distinct in the quiet valley. “I found this place while riding and exploring during the day. It’s peaceful. Giving you the map was natural—I thought you would like it here; it’s better than staying in that smoky stockade.” She paused, her gaze sharpening slightly. “As for helping you…”
She took another step closer. The distance between them was now so near that they could almost feel each other’s breath. Dǎlǐbō was slightly taller than Hu Sanniang, and now she looked down slightly, her gaze solid, fixed on Hu Sanniang’s forcibly composed face.
“I disapprove,” she stated bluntly, her voice low and carrying a certain magnetism. “I disapprove of that kind of filthy garbage looking at you that way. And I especially disapprove of you, with all your skill, being trapped in this puddle, consorting with these insects, and having to endure this harassment.” Her tone carried an inherent arrogance. “The eagles of our grasslands, even with broken wings, should not be insulted by ground mice.”
“Eagle?” Hu Sanniang murmured, her heart feeling struck by something. No one had ever… used such a word to describe her. At the Hu Family Manor, she was a pampered young lady; at Liangshan, she was a piece of loot to be allocated, a “woman general,” a “beauty,” but never… an eagle.
“Is that not so?” Dǎlǐbō countered, her eyes burning. “Your skill in saving people the other day, your resolute spirit on the battlefield, and even now… your spine is still straight, even though you are clearly afraid (Hu Sanniang instinctively wanted to argue, but was held by the other woman’s gaze). If that is not an eagle, what is?”
She reached out her hand, not to touch Hu Sanniang, but pointing toward the direction of Liangshan Marsh’s dim lights outside the valley. Her tone carried undisguised contempt: “That place is not worthy of you. Song Jiang’s ‘loyalty and righteousness,’ Wu Yong’s ‘scheming,’ and the faces of those so-called ‘heroes’… they are merely a group of mountain bandits with too small a scope. Your continued presence here is a waste.”
These words struck Hu Sanniang’s heart like heavy hammers, word by word. Did she not know this? But with her home destroyed and her family imprisoned, where else could she go but here? This hidden sorrow and helplessness, which she had never spoken of, were now being so frankly, even cruelly, laid bare by a foreign woman she had only just met.
A mix of grievance, validation, and the strange flutter of being seen through rushed to her nose, making her eyes sting slightly. She hastily lowered her gaze, concealing her sudden surge of emotion, her voice carrying a slight tremor she didn’t detect: “If not here, then what? The world is vast, but there is no place for me to stand.”
“The world is vast,” Dǎlǐbō’s voice softened, carrying a strange, mesmerizing power. “Much vaster than you imagine. The Song court to the south, the Xia Kingdom to the northwest, the Western Regions, the grasslands and desert… and my Great Liao.” Her gaze returned to Hu Sanniang’s face, with scrutiny, and an undisguised intention to recruit. “With your ability, where can you not soar? Why clip your wings here?”
Hu Sanniang suddenly looked up, meeting those light brown eyes that seemed to burn with wild fire and stars. The other woman’s words were like a key, violently prying open the tightly shut door in her heart labeled “possibility.” Leaving Liangshan? Going to a wider world? This thought, once born, grew wildly like weeds.
But she immediately calmed down. Easier said than done. Her father was old and under surveillance. Would Liangshan release them easily?
“I…” She opened her mouth, but the thoughts were overwhelming, and she didn’t know where to begin.
Dǎlǐbō seemed to read her concerns. She did not press, merely saying calmly: “No rush. Roads must be walked one step at a time. At least tonight, you know that not everyone at Liangshan Marsh thinks you should accept your fate, and not everyone is blind.”
She took a step back, creating some distance, as if the previous, near-whispered conversation had never happened. She took out the same Xiyu jade flask from her bosom, the twin of the one by Hu Sanniang’s pillow. She pulled out the stopper, tilted her head back for a drink, and then offered it to Hu Sanniang: “Try it. Real grassland mare’s milk wine. It’s stronger than your Central Plains wine, and warmer.”
Hu Sanniang looked at the jade flask offered to her, hesitating slightly. Sharing a flask of wine was considered overly intimate and transgressive by Central Plains etiquette.
Dǎlǐbō merely held it, looking at her frankly, with a look that brooked no refusal.
Finally, Hu Sanniang reached out and took the jade flask. The moment their fingertips touched, that unique coolness of the north transmitted once more, yet strangely, it no longer made her feel cold. She imitated Dǎlǐbō, tilting her head back for a sip.
Spicy! A burning sensation, extremely potent, with a rich milky aroma and a unique fermented flavor, rolled down her throat like fire, rushing straight to her lungs! It was completely different from the light plum wine she usually drank or the harsh liquor of Liangshan! She coughed slightly, her cheeks instantly flushing crimson.
Dǎlǐbō looked at her somewhat flustered appearance and let out a hearty, low laugh. The sound echoed in the valley, startling a few night-roosting birds.
Hu Sanniang held her chest, feeling the warmth from within brought by the strong wine, and looked at the woman in front of her, who was laughing without restraint. The layer of ice in her heart seemed to have unknowingly melted another corner.
The north wind blew, bringing the coolness of the valley, but it could not dispel the subtle yet intense atmosphere woven between the two women by the jade flask, the carved bow, and the frank words.