Ding Sanshi looked at Lin Beichen’s face for more than a score of seconds.
“I used to trust people easily but was betrayed many times.”
He looked at those boys and girls picking swords before the square stone tables and said, “Didn’t you ask me if I also learned in Baiyun City?”
Lin Beichen nodded. “We’re on the air and please tell us the story of your life.”
Ding Sanshi paused and then slapped Lin Beichen’s head hard and said, “You jerk, can you be serious? You just ruined the melancholy I created.”
Lin Beichen smiled annoyingly and said, “The past is in the past. You should just tell the story. You don’t need to get immersed in it. The great master in liter… in swordsmanship, Lu Xun, once said that a real warrior dares to face the miserable life and the ghastly blood.”
“Lu Xun?”
Ding Sanshi said doubtfully, “How come I never heard of this name? But, if he can say something like that, he must be a real master.”
Lin Beichen rubbed his glabella and said, “Continue. Lao Ding, do you really come from Baiyun City?”
Ding Sanshi rose from his seat and said, “Follow me.”
He trod toward a pond in the back garden.
Lin Beichen trailed his huge silver sword. The blade scraped the slates and sparks flew. With dancing sparks, he went to the pond.
Ding Sanshi looked at him speechlessly.
Lin Beichen smiled and directly stuck the huge silver sword beside him.
“In fact, 16 years ago, there were five great swordsmen in Baiyun City, not three like now,” said Ding Sanshi, “it’s just that one of the five people died for some incident, and one was driven out of Baiyun City. Though he’s still considered as a swordsman, he can only drift outside the city and can never return there for his whole life.”
“And that person is you, Lao Ding?”
Lin Beichen asked.
Ding Sanshi nodded. “How did you guess it so quickly?”
Of course, he could guess it so quickly.
Lin Beichen taunted in his heart.
That was what happened in all the TV dramas.
“My master is one of the seven descendants of the current Baiyun City, ‘Baiyun Fairy Swordsman’ Mo Youqian. He was the first heir in the Baiyun City but he gave it up to save me. I drifted in the empire and finally settled down in Cloudy Dream City. By the agreed rules back then, only when I have cultivated a swordsmanship genius as good as the late elder brother of the five great swordsmen can I qualify for returning to Baiyun City and seeing Master again.”
Ding Sanshi simply explained.
“The elder brother of the five great swordsmen died because of you?”
Lin Beichen said.
Ding Sanshi said, “It’s complicated. But I guess you could say that he’d died because of me.”
In the depths of Lin Beichen’s heart, he felt very nosy about the details.
However, he decided that if he appeared too curious now, he would inevitably look disrespectful to Lao Ding. Therefore, he had to say, “You really admired your elder brother?”
Ding Sanshi nodded and said emotionally, “The five great swordsmen stood out in Baiyun City and became famous in the North Sea Empire because of our elder brother. He was the proudest one that shone the brightest. He kept on teaching and spurring us. Without him, we wouldn’t have existed. For us four people, Elder Brother was not just a brother, but half a master and father.”
“Oh.”
For some reason, Shen Fei’s figure popped into Lin Beichen’s mind.
The two Royal National Junior College stars used to see that youth as half a teacher and brother and trusted him. Even after Shen Fei explicitly entered the devilish state, they overcame their fear and went to hold him up. However, Shen Fei in the devilish state consumed their blood and flesh and eat them up. He even implicated the Tao and Li families. Their families must have fallen apart.
As for the details back then, Lin Beichen didn’t ask more about them.
Though he was curious, apparently he didn’t want to do that. His question would be like a seemingly kind but actually evil hand. It would tear apart the scar Ding Sanshi managed to heal. It would brutally break the scar again, revealing the heart-wrenching wound underneath.
“I heard from Dean Chu Hen that Cao Potian used to be your disciple?”
Lin Beichen asked curiously, “You chose him back then because you wished to cultivate him into a genius as good as your elder brother so you could return to Baiyun City with that?”
Ding Sanshi said, “Yes. Chu Hen is such a blabbermouth. He actually told you everything.”
After a pause, Ding Sanshi added, “Back then, Master tried everything to save me, but the other three junior brothers couldn’t really forgive me, so we’d agreed on the sword test. Every three years, they’ll bring their best disciples to Cloudy Dream City to examine my achievements. Among them, Junior Brother Bai hates me the most because he used to worship Elder Brother the most. He saw Elder Brother as his idol and his real brother. So, in every sword test, Junior Brother Bai acts the fastest…”
It turned out to be like that.
Lin Beichen finally realized.
“Three years ago, Junior Brother Bai came to Cloudy Dream City and saw Cao Potian. He was touched by the latter’s talent so he lured him with benefits. He made Potian choose to follow him and become a member of the Baiyun City.”
Ding Sanshi told what happened three years ago.
Lin Beichen habitually used his middle finger to rub his glabella and said, “Bai Haiqin really has a bad taste in choosing disciples. That Cao Potian looks bad at first glance. If he could betray you because of benefits, then he would also betray Bai Haiqin and even Baiyun City because of those benefits.”
Ding Sanshi did not answer the question.
He looked at the reflection of the moon in the pond. He felt like he were back in the old times.
He fished out a wooden carving the size of a child’s fist. The carving was an amiable and sage-like old man. Dressed in a simple white robe with cloud patterns, he looked thin. He seemed to be smiling and his long eyebrows fell on his shoulders. At one look, he looked majestic like an ethereal master.
“Is this the master who gave up power to save you?”
Lin Beichen casually asked.
Ding Sanshi nodded. “That’s him.”
Lin Beichen asked subconsciously, “Is his name Mo Youqian (sounds like ‘having no money’ in Chinese)? Tsk tsk, he really doesn’t look rich.”
Slap.
Ding Sanshi raised his hand and flicked Lin Beichen’s forehead, saying, “How could you make fun of the master?”
Lin Beichen covered his head and said, feeling wronged. “Didn’t you say we aren’t close?”
“Didn’t you say once a master, always a father?”
“I regret it now. You didn’t even give any gifts to your apprentice.”
“Hehe, you’ve got onto my boat and I’ve sealed the cabin. Can you get off?”
“Haha, hey? Master, I think there’s another carving in your pocket. Who’s that? Is that Elder Uncle?”
“No… Blah, nonsense. Where did you see the carving? There’s none.”
“I really saw…”
Slap!
“Ouch. You hit me when you can’t win me.”
After Lin Beichen’s deliberate tease, the atmosphere gradually livened up, and Ding Sanshi felt much better.
It was at that time when the session where the teenagers ought to choose swords ended. Others had also picked their own swords.