[The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Ping Xie] A Song of Koi

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The ninth year of the Ren Guang era under Emperor Ning Wu.

Wu Xie, a painter from the Central Plains, lived in Yuhang and loved painting carp. There was a lotus pond in front of his courtyard, where koi swam about. Xie often played with them.

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At the time, the Yuan army invaded the Southern Song, reaching Yuhang.

With soldiers bearing down on them, all the neighbors fled. Only Xie stayed behind, unable to leave his beloved koi.

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That night, the courtyard suddenly caught fire. Someone rushed into the flames to save him and told him that he was a demon who had once been a carp, and had come to take Xie's life. But he had fallen in love with him and could not bring himself to do it. By dawn the next day, the flames had gradually died down, and the man had vanished.

Xie felt as though it had all been a dream. He ran to the pond, only to find it dried up, every lotus leaf withered, and the koi gone without a trace.

Though he had not clearly made out the man's features, he remembered eyes dark as ink, skin smooth as jade, and a robe embroidered with layers of lotus blossoms, its color alluring, like blood mixed with tears.

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Later, when the Daoist Qingyan heard of it, he sighed and said, "When demons fall in love, they are doomed to vanish into ashes, like moths flying into a flame. It is not folly, but fate."

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