Witness

Giant Hyssop

The afternoon air was fresh and cool in the forest, quiet, flower petals blown by the wind, carrying with them a faint scent of sweet sedge. She wore an old bamboo hat, and on her back she carried an herb basket. She raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her brow and recalled that at the rear of the mountain the wrinkled giant hyssop were in bloom with their light purple blossoms. She figured she could collect some. She couldn’t help but smile; in the sixth month, under the burning sun, the giant hyssop would give off a strong fragrance. In twenty-two years this was the first time she knew that a summer day could be so dazzling.

A delicate yellow daylily swayed among the green thicket, and she bent down to it. Suddenly, a blackish-blue-tipped dart passed close over her back. She was completely unaware. Her fingers only touched a stem and she changed her mind, only lightly caressing the petals instead. Such a pure and fresh life; no need to hasten its death. Her new straw sandals were rubbing against her feet, so she squatted down to re-fasten them. Five blackish-blue-tipped darts scraped across her bamboo hat and flew by. When she was finished with her shoes, she raised her eyes and through the grass saw a bunch of pinellia with plump green leaves, shiny and brilliant under the hot sun. She happily stood up and went over to the plants and was ready to start digging them up when she suddenly slipped and slid down the slope a good six meters or so. More than a dozen blackish-blue-tipped darts hit the spot where she had been standing.

When she slipped she had her hands around the bunch of pinellia, and it came away uprooted in her hands as she fell. The bunch of round rhizomes at the base of the leaves would be excellent for reducing fever. She got up and brushed the reddish-brown mud from her pant legs and dropped the bunch of pinellia into her herb basket.

“Mingyue, you gathered a lot of herbs today,” the villagers called out enthusiastically, greeting her at the mouth of the road.

“Yes, today I picked a bunch of giant hyssop.”

She returned to her thatched cottage and spread her herbs out on the big hot rock out in front so they could dry in the sun, their rich fragrance filling the air. From the well she raised up a pot of cold orchid tea, and, reclining on her bamboo couch in the evening southern wind from the north side of the mountain, she slowly poured her tea and drank a cup. A dart shot in from outside the window and hit a bamboo tea cup, splashing tea out and spattering her red apron. She raised her head and saw a man dressed in white standing by the south-side window, huge castor-oil plant leaves swaying behind him.

“Mingyue, you’re luck is quite good, unusually good. I shot many darts at you, and they all missed.” The man in white sneered. “By the looks of it I’d say Miss is no ordinary apothecary.”

“Who can say what’s ordinary and what isn’t? I pick my herbs and you all kill people, there’s no connection between the two.”

“We killed that dog of an official, and Miss seems to be a witness! You decide. Either poison yourself, or fight me.”

She lowered her eyes, raised her cup, and drank the rest of her tea, then filled her cup again and passed it through the window.

The man in white took a blackish-blue dart and dipped it in the tea and smiled forlornly. “Since Miss Mingyue has treated me so sensibly, I will make sure to bury her properly.”

“You’re so kind.”

The man in white saw a dark flash before his lower jaw was caught, his mouth forced open, and the cupful of cool tea slid down his throat. He cried out and only saw the woman’s face towering before his eyes. Her pure, clear beautiful countenance in a flash turned into an unspeakably gruesome malevolence.

“You fool. Just like I said, I pick herbs and you all kill people. Well water and river water have no connection to each other. If I had wanted to kill you, I could have killed you then. It was only that I had washed my hands of it all, no longer wanting to involve myself in the old quarrels of the jianghu. But this time you forced me to silence you.”

He felt a deep burning like fire in his chest, his features already beginning to contort. He croaked, “You, who are you really?”

“Mingyue Bi.”

“Ah, it’s you…the Demon…the Demon Cult’s…number one…assassin…”

She couldn’t help smiling wickedly. That thick, bright blood spurting from his mouth suddenly reminded her of her former blood-soaked career. She thrust her hand into his chest and mercilessly pulled out his still-beating heart. She held his beating heart in the palm of her hand and crushed it between her fingers; what a good feeling!

But, this was forbidden, definitely forbidden. She had taken an oath, absolutely forbidden.

She let out a deep sigh and returned the heart, placing it back inside his gaping chest wound. She took some bone-dissolving powder and sprinkled it over the bloody body. When she had wiped all the blood away, she felt someone looking at her from behind a bamboo thicket.

She quickly leaped up, and in the blink of an eye she was in front of her, a small girl holding a once-bitten green peach, looking at her blankly, frozen in fear. She only need extend her hand to silence this little witness. She reached out and placed her fingers around the frightened girl’s neck. The green peach in the girl’s hand gave out a sour, beautiful scent, the fragrance drifting up against her face, and she suddenly recalled that dazzling summer day, the bundle of herbs giving off their safe fragrance, reclining on the bamboo couch amidst the southern wind, leisurely drinking orchid tea, such a pure and tranquil life.

She let go of the girl’s neck. At worst, she would have to move, move to a perfect, peaceful, tranquil village where she wouldn’t have to uphold justice, and wouldn’t have use for her forbidden martial skills. There ought to be some place like that in this world. She smiled, and reaching out with her hand, wiped the bloody handprint off the girl’s neck and lightly stroked her soft hair. Letting this witness off made her feel light and happy, and most likely the he in that world would be pleased with what she had done.

Yes, she had really washed her hands, she had done a good thing.

She gathered her herbs from the big rock in front of her door and slipped on her herb basket. This evening she would roam to a distant place. Along the way, the herb basket would fill and replenish her heart. She had fallen in love with these herbs. She would live together with these bitter fragrant herbs in earnest for the rest of her life, until one day she had used those herbs to help twice as many people as she had killed. On that day, she would be able to go to the other world with a clear conscience, and she would meet him, and they would love each other, deeply, generation after generation, never to be separated.

~*~

Originally published, along with another short story on this site, Whirling Snow, in an issue of the Chinese wuxia magazine 《今古传奇·武侠版》 (Legends Old and New: Wuxia Edition)