The Koi's Song

According to the carved edition of Strange Tales, published at Jinwen Studio in the ninth year of the Renguang reign of Emperor Ren of the Ningwu dynasty: The Fusang painter Qianxi lived in Tai'an and loved to paint carp. A lotus pond lay in front of his courtyard, where colorful koi swam about. Qianxi often played with them. At that time, the chaos of the Wude era was at its height. Regional warlords carved up the land, battles raged without end, and monsters and demons rampaged along the roads. War reached Tai'an. All the neighbors fled, but Qianxi could not bear to leave his koi behind, so he stayed. That night, the rooms in the courtyard suddenly caught fire. Someone rushed into the flames to save Qianxi. He said he was a demon who had once been a carp, and had intended to take Qianxi's life, but had fallen in love with him and could no longer bring himself to do it. By dawn the next day, the fire had gradually died down, and the man had vanished. Qianxi thought it had all been a dream. He ran to the pond, only to find it dried up, its lotus leaves withered, and the koi gone without a trace. To this day, he never saw the man's face clearly. All he remembered was the layered lotus blossoms on his lapel, their bewitching color like blood stained with tears. Later, when the hermit Qingyan heard the story, he sighed and said,