[July 23] [Yitian Dulong Ji] Idle Hands

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

Title: Idle Hands
Day/Theme: July 23/she is the breath in your lungs
Series: Yitian Dulong Ji
Characters: Yang Xiao, on Yin Liting and Ji Xiaofu
Rating:

Yitian Dulong Ji © Jin Yong, et al.


Walking away from Yin Liting, Yang Xiao realized two things at once: that he had made yet another enemy, one who might come for his head sometime in the future, and that he and Xiaofu were now out of each other's life for good.

***

Every surface inside his house was overlaid with dust, with memories gone sour. He had it cleaned and aired, and in the evening played his zither in the front yard. The notes rang out like false confessions; it was all he could do not to hurl away the instrument, which began to feel like an unwanted growth at the end of his arm.

***

One day he heard that some of the Wudang Seven, Yin Liting among them, had killed off a pack of brigands that had been plaguing a small coastal village. The news left Ying Xiao feeling both glad and concerned.

***

Then a miracle, unsettling in its recentness, its sheer presence: a young girl curled up under a blanket, on the very bed where her mother used to spend her nights. Yang Xiao thought of the man who might have loved - might have needed - Xiaofu more than he had, and also how Yin Liting had been denied more than he would ever know.

He stayed awake until near midnight, missing Bright Peak, a place where he would be useful and occupied.