Chapter Three: Misalliance
A swallowed moon results in an army storming Jingzhou City, and seals the fate of a once-prominent family's descent into ruin.
A week flew by after Lu Bu's visit to Jingzhou City, and its governor's household was soon deeply immersed in all the troubles and preparations that come with an impending marriage alliance. Possible wedding dates were pored over, lavish gifts were bought—pearls and jades and precious silks, all to be sent to Chang'An as the bridal dowry—and day and night, guests dropped by to wish happiness to the young bride-to-be and her family.
However, these visitors always arrived sedately and gracefully, and the lone figure who crashed through the gates and ran into the main courtyard on a Sunday twilight was anything but.
"Lord Xi!" she sobbed breathlessly, as the household's annoyed servants tried to hush her up, scandalized that she should behave so recklessly in the master's presence. The girl paid their chastisements no heed, and continued running here and there while calling out, "Lord Xi! Lord Xi!"
When she finally found the governor, she flung herself at his feet and began to weep.
Lord Xi pulled the girl up, and was immediately alarmed when he recognized her as a handmaid named An-Lin but always known as Firelight because of her bright, sassy personality. She had been a favorite of his second daughter, Xi Yue, and had left with her mistress when the latter had moved into her husband's state of Qi.
"Little Firelight, what's the matter?" he now asked, a heavy feeling of dread beginning to settle into the pit of his stomach.
That feeling of foreboding was confirmed when Firelight buried her face into a vibrant crimson handkerchief and wailed inconsolably, "My Lord, she's dead! Lady Xi Yue is dead!"
The thunderstruck father turned the color of cold ashes and almost collapsed upon hearing this unexpected and devastating piece of news, as other servants present immediately rushed to their master's aid. When Lord Xi finally recovered, he pulled the crying handmaid to her feet and asked despairingly, "How...how did it happen? Tell me, how did my poor little girl die? Yue Yue was still alive...at the Festival of the Moon..."
Firelight wiped her eyes on her handkerchief, before replying, "Lord Xi, it's because of Milady's husband, the Marquis of Qi's second son. He became jealous and insecure for having a wife clearly brighter and more talented than he is, so he made Milady's life miserable by constantly putting her down in public and taking one concubine after another. Milady finally could stand the shame and misery no longer, and hanged herself with the same red silk veil she wore at her wedding!"
The devastated father let out a wail of anguish at hearing the wretched way in which his second daughter perished, before suddenly clutching at his heart as he slumped into a heap on the floor, while alarmed servants crowded closer and cried out, "Lord Xi!"
Suddenly, the impending marriage of Xi Tian to the untamed and unpredictable Lu Bu metamorphosed from a valuable match to a merciless sword hanging above the Xi Clan's head. Having just lost two of his beloved four daughters, the bereaved family patriarch was now loath to give up his precious remaining two girls.
As he sat alone one night, stargazing without much enthusiasm, memory abruptly came back of the old fortune-teller's look of pity from ten years earlier. Lord Xi straightened up, wondering whether these deaths were the tragedies that the ancient one had foreseen all that time ago. As he pondered over this new possibility, he broke into a cold sweat as to the fate of his third daughter if she were to become the wife of such a man as Lu Bu.
Now, no day ever seemed suitable for sending Xi Tian to Chang'An to be married. As a result, the wedding date kept getting pushed back, much to Lu Bu's frustration, and then, mounting anger.
A year dragged by, during which innumerable excuses passed back and forth across the roads between Jingzhou City and Chang'An.
When Lu Bu received the latest in a never-ending stream of letters from his supposed father-in-law, detailing as to why Xi Tian couldn't leave for the wedding just yet, he tore the paper to pieces with a cry of unchecked fury. Picking up his gleaming Sky Scorcher, the warrior split the nearest table in half, threatening the terrified courier that his head would be the next object torn apart if he didn't return with more favorable news.
When Lord Xi heard of his future son-in-law's wrath upon the messenger's return, he sank desolately into a chair, wondering how to appease the livid warrior and buy some more time for his daughter.
Finally, he arrived at what seemed like a viable solution, and sent to Chang'An two of his household's most talented handmaids, Yu Hua and Xue Hua—Jade Blossom and Snow Blossom—a pair of sisters as lovely as their namesakes. These two beauties, along with a generous gift of gold, were offered to Lu Bu in hopes that his thoughts might be diverted from Xi Tian for a while longer.
Unfortunately for Lord Xi, his plan was thwarted when Dong Zhuo took a fancy to the two charming maidens, and chose to keep them for himself.
As for Lu Bu, he never even saw either Jade Blossom or Snow Blossom: the warrior was too busy clasping on his resplendent armor and pheasant-tailed helmet in preparation for leading five hundred cavalry to Jingzhou City. The sole intention of this elite force was to retrieve its leader's promised bride and take her to the capital—with or without her father's consent.
After Lu Bu had leapt expertly atop Red Hare's saddle and was leading his troops down the streets of Chang'An, he inevitably noticed the growing crowd that had started gathering at the massive city gates. Irritated at having to deal with this multitude, Lu Bu snarled menacingly, "Out of the way!" while swinging the Sky Scorcher in a downwards arc, as if to bat these people away.
Zhang Liao rode up to his superior officer, explaining somewhat apologetically, "Please forgive these people, General; they have gathered to have their fortunes told by a Taoist priest who's just arrived at the city."
Lu Bu frowned upon hearing this.
"Those peasants dare obstruct my way for a religious quack?" he scoffed loudly.
A burst of thin, reedy cackling materialized from the air at his proud words, causing the warrior to turn his head in the direction of the sound, irate that any soul in this world dared to laugh at the matchless Fengxian. The merry culprit he identified was none other than the Taoist that the people had gathered to see, and as soon as Lu Bu spotted the frail old man, he spurred Red Hare in the latter's direction. Drawing his Sky Scorcher so that its gleaming, wickedly sharp tip was pointing straight at the fortune-teller's withered old neck, he growled menacingly, "You dare laugh at the mighty Lu Bu?"
The frail, aged man looked up at the awe-inspiring warrior with eyes that were calm and free of fear.
"I laugh, Great General, because you yourself—more than any of these humble people gathered here—need know your future before you set out from Chang'An with your army," he answered in a steady voice.
Red Hare circled suspiciously around the old man, while its master kept his halberd pointed at different angles toward his throat.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Lu Bu hissed in an attempt to sound dismissive.
The old Taoist only laughed again.
"I may not know much about the Great General, but I can interpret the signs for his future," he spoke up boldly. "And what I can see of that future is this: Two times in your life you will don your armor and pick up your trident halberd, over two different disputes for two very different girls."
Lu Bu glared down at him suspiciously.
"What do you mean by that, old man?" he challenged in a threatening snarl.
In response, the fortune-teller walked away a few paces, until he had arrived at a suitable patch of dirt. There, using his Taoist's staff, he wrote a few lines on the soft ground below his feet. When he was finished, he simply stepped back and shook out his sleeves, as Lu Bu rode closer and briefly scanned what appeared to be a short poem that the old man had scratched into the ground.
Beware of the woman who wears her beauty like a mask
Whose jewel eyes flash faithful adoration
Whose warm lips spill honeyed oaths
Hers is a deceitful love
For she is fond of no one, cold and charismatic mistress
Whose radiance and treachery will lure men to their ruin
Beware of the maiden whose smile lights the skies
Who laughs and teases with high spirits
Whose friendly exterior bespeaks an artless temperament
For hers is a capricious love
Warm-hearted and affectionate creature
She loves you? Of course
Yet remember it's in her nature to love everyone else
"What sort of nonsense is this?" Lu Bu blustered when he'd finished reading.
But the old Taoist priest was gone, long disappeared into the safe obscurity of the crowds.
Turning to Zhang Liao, Lu Bu fired off furiously, "Hunt down that old lunatic and execute him! I want his head displayed at the city gates by the time I come back with my bride!"
Having said that, he spurred Red Hare and rode off in a blinding storm of dust, intent on retrieving his aforementioned bride.
Two days later, a frantic servant dashed into the governor's mansion and delivered the news of Lu Bu's march into Jingzhou City. When Lord Xi heard of his future son-in-law's impending arrival, he turned pale and nearly swooned again. Instead, he forced himself to regain his wits and dismiss the messenger.
For several hours, he sat, still and brooding, in a front of a cup of rapidly cooling tea. Finally, he arrived at an abrupt decision. Standing up and calling for his carriage to be hitched, Lord Xi headed for the civic buildings, where he turned in his seal of office and resigned as governor of Jingzhou City.
Then, taking his two remaining daughters, their amah, and a pair of particularly talented handmaids, Lord Xi promptly fled to his remote country estate, never again to set foot in the city he had served so faithfully for all those years.
When Lu Bu stormed into Jingzhou, he inevitably discovered the Xi mansion bare and utterly deserted, its master gone...and with him, the warm-hearted and affectionate girl who was to have been the wife of the mighty warrior.