--"Who are you?"
--"Mei."
--"Mei has been dead for over a hundred years."
--"That's right, Mei is dead, but Mei will never die."
Wu: She made her way into the room, coughing all the while. Her steps were unsteady, her figure swaying like a willow in the wind. At last, she couldn't hold back and coughed up blood. She looked at the bright red stain and suddenly smiled, a bitter, anguished smile. Her voice was almost a sob: "Too much wisdom brings sorrow... Heavens, why must you make things so hard for me...?"
Gui: She raised an eyebrow and covered her mouth with a light laugh, her lovely eyes sweeping over the two people before her, identical in appearance but different in expression. She murmured, "Don't worry. I have a plan."
The owner had carefully trimmed her cinnabar-colored nails. Her fingers slowly stopped tapping the fan handle. "This plan will make them suffer heartbreak."
Ji: "Huh?" She tilted her head innocently, looking a little confused. "What? How would I know?"
She lightly bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, as if she'd just thought of something. A flicker of confusion passed through her eyes. "Huh? Was my playing that bad? Why did two people leave?"
"Are there only old regulars left to clap for me now?"
Mei: She played the qin with her head bowed, plucking the strings softly. No one knew how long she'd been playing. The soothing notes flowed out, but her ten fingers had bled. Drops of blood splashed onto the strings and quivered as she plucked and strummed, like countless tiny red gemstones.
Her qin playing had never been the best, yet she was still the finest qin player in the Yong Dynasty.
Theme: Life is fleeting, but faith endures
