One Life, One Incarnation, Beautiful Bones

39

"I've read a bit, but I can't really remember..."

The clasp of her bra was undone so that it now slipped down and hung from her arms.

He leaned forward until he was stretched out on top of her. "'Jade is the beauty amongst all stones,'" he quoted in a quiet voice. "Very appropriate, therefore, to give to you."

Her bosom was pressed against his shirt, directly contacting its material and giving an unacccustomed chafing feeling. The space was rather tight on that couch for their two bodies. When she could bear it no longer and uttered a sound, they happened to hear Lianhui and Lianrong talking in the courtyard outside of their window. The two girls' voices abruptly cut off, and in that same instant, he also sealed her lips with his own.

The two girls down below immediately could guess what was occurring upstairs.

All voices dispersed.

There were only the song of the cicadas, an urging rhythm, and the intimacy of two bodies brushing against one another.

"There is a beautiful girl who brings harmony to the house and with her husband [shi you mei ren, yi jia yi shi].[2]" Beside her ear, he interpreted her name.

Shi Yi.

There is a beautiful girl who brings harmony to the house and with her husband.

Her name - this was what it represented to him.

The following morning, when Shi Yi awoke, Zhousheng Chen was already gone.

She sat alone in that small dining hall, leisurely eating her breakfast. Lianhui and Lianrong accompanied her, conducting themselves gingerly and carefully. During breakfast the previous few days, she had chatted casually with both of them, but because of last night... She was a little embarrassed and did not speak much to either. When she set down her spoon, Lianhui cleared the table and finally broke the awkwardness. "Today is the Ghost Festival. There will be water lanterns being released[3]."

"You release lanterns here?" She had never released water lanterns during the Ghost Festival before. She had only, once or twice, seen lanterns that were lit on land during the Lantern Festival[4].

"Yes," Lianrong laughed. "Every year."

Humans were yang, ghosts were yin. The land was yang while water was yin[5].

Lanterns on both water and land were a picturesque scenery. Unfortunately, in the over-bustling metropolis that Shanghai was, these customs no longer existed. She remembered, during every year's Ghost Festival, at most, the recordings for the day would finish earlier and everyone would utter routine lines such as, "It's Ghost Festival. Hurry home earlier. Don't run around outside for no reason." That would be it.

"Second Young Master and Second Young Madam arrived earlier on." Lianhui remembered something. "Second Young Madam is with child and will not go to release lanterns."

Lanterns that were released to light the way back to the underworld.

It was taboo for a pregnant woman to participate, to avoid negatively affecting the unborn child.

Shi Yi suddenly thought of the woman who had so unexpectedly lost her life the last time she was here and felt rather uncomfortable. But, it seemed as if everyone was rather indifferent about these sorts of things, including even Lianghui and Liangrong, who, when they spoke about Tong Jiaren's pregnancy, only used a completely narrative tone that utterly lacked any joy. She had, at first, wanted to ask a couple more questions, but in the end simply gave an "mm" in acknowledgement.

She remembered Zhousheng Chen's words:

In this manor, there were a total of 68 courtyard wings and 1118 rooms. There were many people, and the types of people were varied as well.