TCN: Mei Gongqing

Chapter 103: Who Sent the Gold Coffin?

Chapter 103: Who Sent the Gold Coffin?

The carriage slowly made its way outside.

Chen Rong felt, for some reason, that Wang Hong was driving very slowly. Did he perhaps know what she was thinking, and thus wanted to make this moment last a little longer?

At this thought, she wryly smiled and pulled the curtain down.

Quickly regretting her decision, however, she lifted one corner to maintain her view of his back.

Eventually, the carriage pulled onto the main road.

Yellow dust soared skyward along the road. Some time later, Chen Rong noticed that Wang Hong had only driven on it for about half an hour before turning onto a mountain trail.

Rippling streams and occasional bamboo groves lined their way. It being winter, dried weeds as tall as a man's waist intertwined with vines and wrapped around the trees.

Mountainsides flanked the seemingly untraveled path where human dwellings could not be found.

Chen Rong poked her head out and asked in surprise: "Qilang, where are we?"

Wang Hong, who was lazily sitting on the driver's seat, didn't turn around. Even though the rolling carriage had dyed his robe yellow, he still looked as if he was dressed in finery at a Wang banquet.

With a smile, he carelessly flung the whip, saying: "It's a small trail. There are few travelers who come through this area, and no pastures to speak of. The refugees don't like it here."

Chen Rong understood that he was telling her this road was safe.

"I'm familiar with all the small trails around here," Wang Hong said just as she was about to ask him another question. He seemed to have known what she would ask, and went ahead with telling her.

Chen Rong found it hard to believe. She gave a start and then stared at his back.

Nevertheless, she didn't question him. She knew both Ran Min and Wang Hong, being men of high standing, did not like their words to be questioned; neither did they like to explain themselves. Their words were final, as far as they were concerned.

Morrow wind leisurely came, rustling Wang Hong's hair and stirring the curtain.

After half an hour, Wang Hong's free hand began tapping on the wood panel as he sang: "My heart grows somber when I look to Luo'yang. For I recall the sunset over the western hills and my king who is no longer there. In his place is an abandoned grave amid the cawing of crows."

His voice went paralyzed.

All of a sudden, he looked skyward and howled, his ringing voice traveling to the far distance.

As Chen Rong quizzically watched this unfamiliar Wang Hong, his long howl gradually turned into sobs...

Amid his sobs and Chen Rong's bewilderment, a high singing voice rose from the distant mountainside. Hoarse and old, it sang bleakly: "He had once been a hero, now reduced to a mound; once dressed in finery, now a graveless heap of bones."

He stopped singing at this juncture and also began to howl. This translation belongs to hamster428.wordpress.com

Chen Rong looked back to see a bearded woodcutter in his forties, with hands akimbo and head howling skyward. He stood three hundred paces away by the mountainside full of dead trees.

His bleak and stark howl rang long and far.

As she looked at the man, Chen Rong suddenly realized that he must be a recluse scholar.