Chapter Forty-One: The First Dance Steals the Room

A graceful woman placed the ancient zither in order and assumed a solemn expression. Her slender jade-like fingers rested lightly on the strings and plucked them with a tender touch.

A thunderous surge of sound burst forth.

The instant the music began, Pei Min’s spirits leapt. Those green-spring fingers seemed to have been granted divine force by the thunder god himself, releasing a resounding crash that shook the air. It was like ten thousand horses charging, like a hundred thousand troops clashing in battle, brimming with fierce martial spirit and making one feel as though standing upon an actual battlefield. In the mind’s eye arose the spectacle of peerless generals charging through enemy lines, and elegant scholar-commanders waving a hand to turn a hundred thousand soldiers to ash.

Pei Min had heard this woman’s zither before at Qujiang Pavilion, but had not thought much of it then. Only now did he understand that the singing girls had been straining to outshine her, deliberately throwing themselves into music, dance, and song in an attempt to steal the scene and suppress her zither. Now that she played alone, merely a few opening notes were enough to stir his emotions. Such mastery was truly remarkable.

What shocked Pei Min even more was that her music seemed to resonate with him. The hidden string deep in his heart was plucked by those jade hands.

“With such fine music, how can there be no dance?” Pei Min laughed heartily. With a slight twist of his wrist, the Autumn Waters sword flew from its scabbard, rising more than a hundred feet into the air. He began his sword dance with a streak of lightning-fast sword light cleaving the sky. Then he reached out, caught the sword in his hand, and as he moved, the long blade circled his body in an instant, green light billowing all around. When he danced, only the shadow of the sword could be seen, not its form, lending him an indescribable majesty.

Sword dancing was a common art, one that had existed since ancient times. In its earliest form it had been a paired dance for men, but through long transmission it gradually evolved into a slow, elegant dance performed by women. Since the Han era, graceful female sword dance had become the mainstream, while male sword dancers had become a rare sight. Even when a few men were skilled in it, they usually only captured the spirit of the thing, and very rarely its true refinement.

Yet the moment Pei Min moved, he displayed a dance skill far beyond the ordinary. In particular, his sword flashed with dazzling force. Coupled with the resonant and stirring tones of the zither, it made him appear all the more imposing and commanding.

Watching Pei Min before her, Jiaocheng felt as though he were not dancing alone but engaged in battle on a field of war.

The plucking of her five fingers gradually slowed, and the music softened, like a soldier who had fought for a day and a night, weary in body and spirit, finally resting where he stood and thinking of the beloved wife and children waiting far away at home.

Pei Min’s sword technique likewise slowed. He danced in a measured rhythm, his sword intent calm, yet with each advancing and retreating step, killing intent still flickered beneath the surface, lending the scene a heavy, oppressive feeling, as if a storm were about to break.

Then the music suddenly changed.

At the very moment Jiaocheng’s zither melody shifted, the sharp beats of a foreign war drum rang out as well, brisk, bright, and stirring.

The zither and drums echoed one another, blending together to conjure the triumphant vision of two armies facing off and singing the songs of victory.

Pei Min’s sword also accelerated abruptly. He leapt into the air, and as he struck downward with his blade, he stabbed the tip into the deck to borrow a point of force, then used that slight leverage to flip sideways in midair through a full seven hundred and twenty degrees. The sword light turned with his body, and the entire deck was enveloped in its glow.

The zither grew ever more piercing, the drums ever more stirring, and Pei Min’s sword ever more fierce. Not only the sword, but even his hand seemed to vanish, wholly swallowed by the surrounding blade light.

The music stopped in an instant, the drums fell silent in an instant, and Pei Min’s sword was back in its scabbard just as swiftly.

He exhaled, then shook his head with regret. The zither was nearly perfect, and the drums had accompanied it with excellent coordination, but his final sheathing was not dazzling enough. Thinking of the Pei Min of history, he knew that the final move of that legendary full-hall display had been to fling the sword dozens of feet into the air and catch it in the scabbard; that miraculous act of sheathing was the true essence of General Pei’s sword dance. He himself was still far from that realm.

Compared with the sword sage of history, who had attained consummate mastery of the blade, he was still lacking by a wide margin.

Jiaocheng’s cheeks were faintly flushed, and her expression held a trace of excitement. She came forward and bowed. “To witness your sword dance today, sir, is something I shall never forget for the rest of my life. May I ask what this dance is called?”

Pei Min was about to say “General Pei’s Full Hall Momentum,” but after thinking about it, realized that he was not yet a general. He paused, then said, “This sword dance was something I improvised in my spare time. It has not yet truly taken shape. As for the name, I settled on one long ago: Full Hall Momentum.”

“Full Hall Momentum,” Jiaocheng repeated softly. “When Young Master Pei dances with the sword, the sword aura is as cold as frost, and the bearing is vast and grand. The name suits it perfectly. To be able to play music for Young Master Pei, I am blessed beyond measure.” She bowed again.

Pei Min laughed. “The same to you. If not for Miss Jiaocheng’s enchanting zither, I would never have thought to dance with the sword. You should know that this Full Hall Momentum has never before been performed in front of anyone. Miss Jiaocheng, you are the very first.”

As he spoke, he looked toward a painted pleasure boat on his right. That vessel was a full five stories high, utterly incomparable to their own three-story flower boat, which was carrying all the newly admitted degree holders of this year’s examination. The war drum they had heard earlier had come from that painted boat.

Jiaocheng followed his gaze and looked as well, surprise rising in her eyes. She possessed a talent for zither beyond the ordinary. When she played with others, no matter the score, even if there were only a dozen or so notes, she could seize the overall flow in an instant and make all other music fade into insignificance. Because of this, in order to make ensemble performances more pleasing, she often restrained her own skill; otherwise her zither would stand out like a crane among chickens, impossible to blend. Yet that drumbeat from earlier had actually been able to keep pace with her melody, which truly required a great deal of ability.

Pei Min asked, “What piece were you playing earlier?”

Jiaocheng replied, “It was an adaptation of the King of Qin Breaks the Battle Array. That piece was originally meant to include the foreign war drum. With the drum blended in, there is no sense of intrusion; instead, it brings out the intensity of the battlefield and the exhilaration of triumphant victory.”

Pei Min called out loudly, “May I ask who was performing the King of Qin Breaks the Battle Array with you? I am Pei Min, and I would be honored to meet them!”

The painted boat gave no reply. The two vessels passed one another and gradually drifted farther apart.

Seeing that no answer came, Pei Min did not grow angry. He only smiled with easy good humor and said to Jiaocheng, “Since they do not wish to meet, there is no need to force it. Miss Jiaocheng, your zither art is unmatched under heaven, but I wonder whether you are also skilled in dance. To tell the truth, I feel this Full Hall Momentum still has many places worth improving, yet I do not know where to begin.”

Jiaocheng smiled. “I know a little…”

Aboard the other painted boat, Li Longji paced back and forth in excitement, visibly exhilarated, murmuring again and again, “Good dance, fine music, and my own drum too was marvelous. This journey was not in vain, not in vain at all. Liushi, tell me... how wonderful it would be if I were still crown prince now. I could go anywhere freely and play with others without restraint. Pei Min’s sword dance is something I have never seen in all my life. To have joined them in an unexpected performance today—who knows when such an opportunity will come again?”

Gao Lishi lowered his head and said, “There is no need for Your Majesty to sigh over this. Pei Min is the top scholar of this year’s examination; he is, in truth, one of Your Majesty’s subjects. So long as Your Majesty holds the reins of power, what difficulty is there in performing with him again?”