Remnants of Filth(Yuwu) Volumes 1-5

THE NEXT DAY, the army returned. The whole city bustled with activity as residents of all ages poured out onto the streets as far as the eye could see.

"Northern Frontier Army, welcome back!"

As the procession entered the city, a strange atmosphere spilled forth from both sides of the road. It was as if water had been poured into a pot of sizzling oil, then swiftly capped with a wooden lid to seal all that crackling excitement beneath it.

People lowered their heads respectfully, but they still snuck glances out of the corners of their eyes to peek at the elite army riding past.

Mo Xi wore an imperial army uniform, his steel-toed military boots in their stirrups. Other than his belt and vambraces, which glinted cold silver, he was all in black.

"Ahhh, Xihe-jun is so handsome I can't stand it!"

"I'm dying, I'm dying."

"I think he just looked at me!"

"Ha, stop kidding yourself! How would he have eyes for anyone but Princess Mengze?"

"But he hasn't married the princess yet... He turns thirty this year, and he doesn't have a wife, or a betrothed, or even any concubines!

Can't I at least fantasize? Seriously!"

As for the officers and soldiers, their expressions were much more cheerful than Mo Xi's as they waved happily lining the streets. Yue Chenqing even at the civilians delightedly accepted flowers from maidens to put in his hair. Only after Mo Xi glanced at him in warning did he sulkily resign himself to holding and sniffing the flowers, all in all looking quite pitiful.

It was a long road from the city gates, and they wouldn't reach the imperial palace for a while yet. Yue Chenqing didn't behave for very long all before he started twirling his flowers again. He at grinned flirtatiously at the onlookers and called out to them as the procession advanced.

"Hey, ladies!"

"Aren't you lovely..."

"This humble one is seeking concubines, food and lodging included."

"Yue Chenqing!" Mo Xi snapped.

Yue Chenqing covered his mouth.

In the sunlight, the Northern Frontier Army's glinting weapons and flashing armor were a magnificent sight as they rode through the capital. They were still Gu Mang's old soldiers, but they could no longer behave as they once had. In the old days, when Gu Mang returned victorious, he had waved and teased from his horse at their head, while the happy, relaxed soldiers behind him had laughed as they accepted wines and desserts from the civilians. But Xihe-jun was their commander now. This man didn't even smile, so no one else dared to let loose.

The slow march from the city gates ended up taking an hour. Upon their arrival, the army was more than greeted with the long and tedious merit ceremony, in which they had to kneel and kowtow and give thanks. It was all terribly irritating. Even when Mo Xi finally made it to the evening feast, he had neither peace nor quiet.

As Yue Chenqing would have said, he found himself obligated to deal with those young mistresses in a manner "chaste yet aloof, reserved yet courteous."

On that note, the first time Yue Chenqing joked about Mo Xi's "chastity," Xihe-jun had made him transcribe Maidenly Virtues a hundred times as punishment. Without speaking a word aloud, Xihe-jun had said clearly: Yue Chenqing, is the problem that you don't know the word "chastity"? Come here, I'll let you learn to your heart's content.

But no matter how many times Yue Chenqing sniffled through the words "maidenly virtues are boundless; womanly grievances are endless," the joke that Xihe-jun was "chaste yet aloof, reserved yet courteous" still secretly spread throughout the entire army.

Everyone else thought so too. Xihe-jun was already thirty years of age but he still refused to marry, all to wait for Princess Mengze. That much was obvious from the situation at the feast; a crowd of little ladies from noble houses was chattering around Mo Xi, but he wouldn't even look at them.

"Xihe-jun, it's been a long time."

"Xihe-jun, you seem to have lost weight."

"Xihe-jun, what do you think of this pendant I'm wearing today?"

In this group of highborn young ladies, the most provocative was Princess Yanping, the younger sister of Princess Mengze. She had a gorgeous figure despite having only recently come of age, and she gazed around with eyes that overflowed with amorous intent.

She walked toward Mo Xi with a smile, her lips as tender as a juicy berry.

When Yue Chenqing spied this from afar, he didn't bother to swallow his dessert before grabbing a friend he hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey. Hey!"

"What do you want?"

"Come, look over there!" Yue Chenqing said excitedly.

"Isn't that Princess Yanping and Xihe-jun...? What's interesting about that? Princess Yanping doesn't stand a chance."

"No, no, no. I want you to see the legendary 'chaste yet aloof reserved yet courteous' Xihe-jun with your own eyes!"

ese Aren't you tired of copying Maidenly Virtues?" his friend asked Yue Chenqing was the sort of person who never learned his lesson. Grinning, he dragged his friend closer to eavesdrop on the general and the princess.

"Brother-in-Law." Still smiling, Princess Yanping came to a stopin front of Mo Xi. Her tone was flirtatious from the instant she opened her mouth.

Mo Xi lowered his lashes, pausing at this form of address, and then chastely turned to leave.

Yanping hastily stopped him. "Brother-in-Law, you've been standing here expressionless this whole time, ignoring all the girls.

Are you cross that my sister isn't here?"

He paused before replying-aloof. "Princess, you're mistaken. I am not yet wed."

"I'm just saying it for fun."

Controlling his temper, Mo Xi was reserved in his response. "This is no laughing matter."

"All right, all right, don't get mad. My sister's health hasn't been especially good these past few years. She caught a cold last night. Otherwise, she definitely would have come to see you."

Mo Xi knew Princess Mengze's poor health was inextricably linked to himself, so he courteously asked, "How is she?"

"Ha!" Yue Chenqing cackled. "See? I told you so!"

Yue Chenqing's friend felt that he was laughing too loudly.

No matter how noisy the banquet was, there was still a chance he would attract Xihe-jun's attention, and even if Yue Chenqing didn't mind copying those trite passages on womanly conduct, his friend wouldn't be able to take the hit to his pride. He clapped a hand over Yue Chenqing's mouth and dragged him away.

Notwithstanding their departure, Princess Yanping and Mo Xi's conversation continued.

Yanping kept smiling. "After spending two years alone at the frontier, you still think only of my sister? Don't worry, she only had a headache and a fever. It's the same issue, as you know well. She'll be fine with some rest."

Mo Xi said nothing.

"Let's be honest. Given my sister's health, how could she handle Xihe-jun if she didn't recover first?" As Yanping spoke, her admiring gaze swept covetously over Mo Xi's long legs, then lingered on the high bridge of his nose. She sighed. "If my sister doesn't get better, she'll never be able to marry. Are you really going to spend your whole life saving yourself for her?"

Mo Xi remained silent.

"Wouldn't that be an awful shame..."

The princess pressed close to Mo Xi, redolent with powdery sweetness, her dark hair decked in jewels and a rouge-colored peony drawn between her brows. With a smile, she deliberately leaned forward, her pale bosom heaving.

"Why don't you give me a try? I'm all grown up now; I'm no less than her." Yanping tried to wrap her soft arms around his waist. "It's just spending the night together-don't take it too seriously." As she giggled, the pale pink tip of her tongue flicked over her lips ever so briefly. "You'll like it."

That was the end of it.

Don't take it too seriously. This sentence topped the list of sayings Mo Xi hated more than anything. Princess Yanping had not only failed to attract him: she'd jabbed him exactly where he hurt most.

Mo Xi glanced at her, pausing, then said coldly, "Move aside."

"Hey! Y-you-!"

But Mo Xi had already walked away from her with a frown.

Amid the fluttering tassels of Feiyao Terrace, Mo Xi grabbed another liuli glass cup from a servant. Its contents glimmered with an amber hue. His leather-clad legs didn't relax until he strode to the terrace's edge, where he leaned against the red lacquer railing to watch the city lights.

Free of that maddening hall, he caught his breath and took a sip of the berry wine in the cup, the jut of his throat bobbing.

Mo Xi had been subjected to many years of the ladies' "favor," but he still didn't like it, nor was he used to it.

In the past, few people had admired Mo Xi. When he walked the streets, hardly anyone had snuck glances at him. Back then, he had been terribly bad-tempered. How bad, exactly? In comparison, the current Xihe-jun was an absolute sweetheart.

Later, there had been a massive upheaval within his family, and everyone had thought this young master of the Mo Clan was doomed. The other noble cultivators ignored him, and the cultiva- tors of common birth didn't dare approach him.

Only Gu Mang, that lunatic who didn't fear death, was willing to be his comrade. He was the only one who chose to keep that Houndering young master company and offer him comfort: Don't worry, even if you're no longer a noble young master, you'll always be you. There's an ember in your heart, and sooner or later, it will glow. I can see it, and others will too.

In the end, Mo Xi survived the crisis and escaped from the Mo Clan's shadow. He fought at every frontier, achieving more military merits than even his ancestors. No longer did anyone think of him as the only son of the Mo Clan-they only treated him as the venerated Xihe-jun.

More maidens began to think highly of him.

After Gu Mang defected, the maidens changed their type. They all flocked to admire Mo Xi instead, and some even sighed, "Ah, it's good for men to be a little stuffy-they're more honest that way. At least they won't let us down like Gu Mang."

"Even though Xihe-jun has a bad temper, he tells it like it is. If there's anything he wants to rant about, he'll say it outright. He won't ever put on an act."

A brothel girl once went so far as to smack a table and heroically proclaim with a hand on her hip, "Xihe-jun is the most innocent man I've ever seen! I swear on my honor-if Xihe-jun came to bed me, I'd pay him before I'd take his money!"

As it turned out, Xihe-jun really did come the next day. Not to bed her, but to shut down the brothel with a murderous look on his face.

"Seducing shenjun(8) -how shameless. Your punishment is to go become women of good families." After Mo Xi finished shutting down the brothel and berating them ferociously, he left in a rage...

And also left behind a crowd of brothel girls wailing that they'd never again sell their bodies because Xihe-jun had persuaded them to leave the trade, tearfully attesting to the incomparable goodness of Xihe-jun's character.

It made no sense!

People loved to take a person who seemed decent and good and enshrine them in their hearts, pinning all their beautiful fantasies on that person's shoulders just to bring a little light to themselves, But Mo Xi had no wish to be consecrated as their boring holy idol- he wasn't as perfect as those girls believed.

There were miserably wretched things in his past, things he couldn't speak of to anyone.

But no one understood.

So what Gu Mang had said was right, but it was also wrong.

Mo Xi did indeed throw off the Mo Clan's shadow to shine on his own merit in front of everyone's eyes, but he knew very well that this glory belonged solely to the flawless Xihe-jun of their imagina tions. It had nothing to do with that trapped and lonely youth from long ago.

From beginning to end, only Gu Mang had ever walked toward that downtrodden young master, toward that youth with an uncer- tain future. Only he had ever been sincerely happy to be reunited with his little shidi from the academy, reaching out to him in delight with a little canine peeking from that brilliant smile.

Before the warmth of a bonfire, he'd smiled and said, It's been a long time, Mo-shidi. Can I sit with you?

"It's been a long time. Can I sit with you?"

Suddenly, someone behind Mo Xi asked a very similar question.

Mo Xi's fingertips shook, the wine in his liuli cup almost spilling.

He turned his head, as if in a dream, and saw, beneath the moonlit blossoms of the foxglove trees, a familiar silhouette calmly watching him on Feiyao Terrace.