In the night, Duan Ling is lying there perfectly still when suddenly he feels Wu Du moving. Wu Du picks up the hand that Duan Ling had thrown over his ribs, and places it gently on the bed, then he carefully picks up Duan Ling’s leg so that it slips quietly down from its perch on his waist.
Duan Ling thinks, do you have to be this careful when you’re just going to get up to pee?
After he disentangles Duan Ling from himself, Wu Du turns over and gets off the bed in one smooth movement silently on bare feet. He picks up the rogue’s blacks he’d hidden earlier and puts it back on.
“Where’re you going?”
That gives Wu Du quite a start.
“Bring me with you. Bring me bring me.”
“It’s the middle of the night. Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Wu Du says.
“But you haven’t gone to sleep either.” Duan Ling has a vague idea of what Wu Du is about to do. “Are you heading to Bian Lingbai’s room?”
Wu Du hums an affirmative.
Smart, Duan Ling thinks. As the enemy has just run away, even though security is going to be tight outside the estate right now, this is when Bian Lingbai will be most careless. After all, once the assassin fails at his mission he’ll retreat for the time being, lie low, and await the next chance to strike.
Wu Du seems to hesitate for a moment before he pushes the door open. “Don’t put on your shoes. They’ll make noise. Let’s go.”
Duan Ling steps out of the room in the underclothes he sleeps in, so one of them is clad in head-to-toe snowy white, while the other is dressed all in black. Duan Ling doesn’t even know what to say to him — I’m such an obvious target in the dark, so is there even any meaning in your changing into all black, Wu Du? If they catch us they’re catching both of us anyway.
Just as he’s about to walk into the courtyard though, Wu Du picks him up sideways and leaps into the air.
He’s not all that small anymore, but Wu Du seems to carry him effortlessly, quickly passing through the courtyard until they get to the wooden gallery. Pushing the door quietly open, the two of them duck inside. Wu Du takes Duan Ling’s wrist and pulls him into a corner where they blend into the shadows and stand very still. At the same time, two night patrolmen brush by, missing them by seconds.
Wu Du examines his surroundings, his ear doing a little twitch, then he wraps an arm around Duan Ling’s waist and jumps onto the roof beam. With a swing and a flip he’s gone from the eaves onto the roof. Duan Ling can’t help but recall that night in Shangjing when Li Jianhong carried him in his arms and walked up the walls, and how they flew across the roofs to save Batu.
A bright moon rises behind Mount Qilian
amidst a vast, boundless sea of clouds.2
Beneath a bright moon, Duan Ling’s heart suddenly gives rise to a strange sentiment towards Wu Du — as though his father has once again returned to his side.
He turns his head and leans into Wu Du’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around Wu Du’s waist.
Wu Du’s mind goes quite blank; he’s about to dash through the last section of the gallery when he slips, dropping out of the air with Duan Ling, taking a loud shower of roof tiles with them. Duan Ling nearly cries out as the two of them fall into the courtyard.
“Who’s there?!”
“Assassin —!”
The noise has immediately alerted the guards, and judging by the look on Wu Du’s face he’s just about to lose his mind, while Duan Ling remains rather oblivious as to what just happened. They conceal themselves behind the ornamental rockery with Wu Du’s head in his hand, his expression clearly expressing “my legendary reputation has just gone down the drain”.
Weapons drawn, the guards cautiously walk beneath the corridor checking every nook and cranny, but they don’t find anything. Wu Du picks up a rock and tosses it towards the outside of the courtyard; the rock draws an arc in the air and finally lands on the roof a dozen steps away, making a sound.
“He went that way!” A guard says, “After him!”
And just like that, the courtyard is empty of guards. Wu Du snarls at Duan Ling, “What were you doing?”
“I didn’t do anything. Did I do something?”
But there are new people coming into the area so Wu Du has little choice but to cut this short and take Duan Ling quickly through the corridor, until they arrive before Bian Lingbai’s room. He puts a finger in front of his lips to gesture a silent shh at Duan Ling; Duan Ling’s heart beats madly in his chest. There are two men standing guard outside the courtyard, so Wu Du goes around to the other side of the house to the window.
Tall and slender in black, Wu Du stands there next to the window with his feet bare and his ear turned towards the room. The world seems entirely still; when Duan Ling closes his eyes, it’s as though he can hear the flowers blooming in the silence of the night.
“I can’t believe he’s awake at this hour.” Wu Du opens the door and steps inside. Duan Ling follows him in, closing the window behind him. There’s not a soul in the room, and he has no idea where Bian Lingbai’s gone — presumably he’s so terrified out of his wits that he’s talking with his advisers.
The treasure map on the table is gone. Bian Lingbai must have taken it with him.
“This tile right here.” Duan Ling gropes along the floor tiles.
Wu Du goes to him, stands on top of the tile, then he looks up — nothing happens and there’s no change in the room. He tells Duan Ling to get up and they both turn to the wall. There’s a groove on it, and there are signs that a metal object has been scraping against one side of the groove. The moment Wu Du takes out a dagger and sticks it in the groove, the wall comes loose and slides quietly open.
“Found it!” Duan Ling sees a dark room behind the wall just big enough for one person. Inside are many thread-bound volumes. He takes one and flips it open to find it crammed full of names, along with pages and pages of letters.
“Quickly,” Wu Du rushes him.
Duan Ling pulls out one of the books and checks its content under the faint moonlight — it’s a ledger filled with lists of names that Duan Ling doesn’t really recognise. There are numbers behind the names.
“This has got to be a list of bribes.” Duan Ling doesn’t know any of the functionaries working for the imperial court so he can’t match the list to anything; he wants to look through the letters.
“Don’t bother with the letters. We’ll leave as soon as you find something. We can take our time and look through the rest once he’s dead.”
Since they’ve already managed to find the hiding spot for the information, they can go ahead and get rid of Bian Lingbai; however, there are still too many variables ahead. If the Tongguan army mutinies, or if any other of his advisers know about this room, then they’ll hit another snag.
He’s still searching through the books when suddenly they hear footsteps right outside. Wu Du’s face darkens, and he holds down Duan Ling and slips into the room with him, quickly putting his hand on the edge of the wall to begin sliding it back silently.
Duan Ling holds his breath. With his eyes closed, Wu Du counts the newcomers’ footsteps. In the very instant those footsteps stop and Bian Lingbai opens the door, the gears inside the lock make a clang. Wu Du catches just the right moment to slide the wall shut.
One door opens, another closes; the noise from one flawlessly overlaps the other.
“You tell me. What do we do now?” Bian Lingbai’s voice rises on the other side of the hidden room.
What space there is inside the hidden room is extremely tight, and now with the two of them cramming into a space that was only meant for one, Duan Ling and Wu Du have little choice but to hold tightly onto each other. Duan Ling doesn’t know where to put his hands, and after several attempts to find a place for them Wu Du can but lower his head so Duan Ling can wrap his arms around his neck.
Their breaths intermingle, and Wu Du’s heart beats like a full battalion of cavalry stomping the earth flat on their way towards Duan Ling.
“I will leave tonight.” Helan Jie’s dark and hoarse voice begins, “He couldn’t have possibly gone very far yet. I will have my vengeance for this hand he took from me.”
Bian Lingbai says in a stern voice, “Then what about the plan we agreed on?! Did you think you can leave whenever you want?!”
“Bian Lingbai!” They hear Helian Jie’s gravelly shout mixed into the sound of ink stone and a brush washing cup crashing to pieces on the floor, followed immediately by the loud bang of a chair falling over.
“Do not forget who made me come here.” Helan Jie sounds menacing.
Bian Lingbai’s oppressive attitude weakens right away. Keeping his eyes closed, Duan Ling guesses that Helan Jie quite likely has his iron hook pressed up against Bian Lingbai’s throat.
Bian Lingbai says, “If you leave right now, who’s going to cut Helian Bo’s life short? Don’t you forget that your master, Lord Helian Da, doesn’t want him to die in Great Chen, and he’s even less inclined to let him die in Xiliang.”
Duan Ling’s heart leaps into his throat. He then hears Helan Jie going humph angrily. “Of course I’ll be able to carry out my orders.”
“How can you be sure …”
“That’s not for you to worry about,” Helan Jie adds.
“When are you coming back?” Bian Lingbai says quietly, “Give me a date. We can’t drag this on any longer. What I agreed on with Helian Da hasn’t been completed yet — we must settle things as soon as possible.”
“Decide on the ambush location now. I will rush there in seven days to rendezvous with you. As for how we’ll lure Helian Bo there, that is your responsibility.”
“I don’t know of any suitable location …” Bian Lingbai sounds agitated, his pacing filling up the room.
Duan Ling looks up to see Wu Du’s eyes full of confusion; he raises a hand, wishing to write on Wu Du with his finger, but Wu Du grabs his hand and shakes his head at him, letting him know not to make any move at all lest there be unnecessary ramifications.
But Helan Jie is impatient from waiting. “Just choose this place right here. Enough talk.”
“That won’t do!” Bian Lingbai hurriedly gathers up the map from the table. “This is not a military deployment map.”
Helan Jie doesn’t speak again; he leaves the room like a gust of wind and vanishes.
“Wait!” Bian Lingbai puts away the treasure map and quickly chases him out of the room.
As the footsteps grow more distant, the door to the secret room slides open once more. Duan Ling and Wu Du come out of it soaked through with sweat.
“Quickly,” Wu Du says, “Bian Lingbai will be back right away.”
Duan Ling is still thinking about what they were saying earlier, and he’s momentarily distracted. He replies, “Alright … alright! Found it!”
Wu Du stuffs the book under Duan Ling’s lapel and picks him up again, leaping through the window. Soon, another sound comes from the front door — Bian Lingbai is back.
That was close. When he thinks back on their mission this evening, Duan Ling just thinks Wu Du’s ability to get the timing right is truly formidable.
It’s already near dawn. The two of them return to their rooms and Wu Du draws a bucket of water to wash their feet with. He asks Duan Ling, “Is this it?”
Wu Du flips through the pages by the light of the glowing dawn. “This is it.”
It’s an untitled volume, the line items are of the amount of silvers spent on buying horses and ironware, and along with those are a list of money owed. To Duan Ling’s astonishment, Bian Lingbai actually owes the Tangut a hundred and twelve thousand taels of silver — no wonder he’s in such a hurry to dig up the treasure in order to put him back in the black.
“Let’s do it today. You go get some sleep, I’ll wake you up after I poison him, and we’ll leave then.”
“That won’t do.” Duan Ling replies at once, “We can’t kill him right now. If Bian Lingbai dies and Helian Bo doesn’t have his money yet, he’s been eyeing the right to trade in Tongguan all this time anyway so he’ll definitely fight his way in here — just look at how many men he has waiting in ambush. Xichuan is relocating the capital; if they lose the northwest barrier things can only get more chaotic within our borders.”
When Wu Du hears this, his brows draw together to make a tight furrow between them. “Kill him, we’ll head back right away and ask Chancellor Mu to send someone else over.”
“Send who? If we get rid of Bian Lingbai today, even on the finest horse riding whip and spur nonstop it’ll take six days and six nights there and back. Too many things can happen in six days.”
Wu Du hums a reply in agreement, but he doesn’t say anymore.
Duan Ling stares at Wu Du.
“Think of something. What are you staring at me for? Didn’t I take you with me so that you can be the one to take care of stuff like this?”
Duan Ling ponders for a moment, and suddenly a brazen plan springs into his head — even though that assassin is still a mystery, he’s already escaped, and Helan Jie’s gone chasing after him to take vengeance for the hand he took … did the assassin from before chop off Helan Jie’s hand? If that’s the case, the seven day limit Helan Jie has set is enough for Wu Du to go to Xichuan and come back to Tongguan.
As long as Helan Jie isn’t around, he’ll be safe here. If he asks Wu Du to take the ledger and a handwritten letter back to Xichuan to ask Mu Kuangda for an imperial order from above, and to send over an imperial envoy, then he can form an alliance with Helian Bo and take over the Tongguan army after Bian Lingbai’s death …
I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎
The first line of a poem by Li Bai, Mount Guan Moon. It’s about soldiers guarding the border who rarely got to come back home. Qin version. That’s one translation, but that last line should be interpreted as the family member sighing as they look up at the same moon over the mountain pass where the soldiers stand guard, since the “high cupola” here refers to a woman/wife’s room, which would fit the thought in Duan Ling’s head right now, as he too had family who went to war and never came home. The title “Mount Guan Moon” itself is a song that’s often set to lyrics about separation and sadness. ↩︎
In the night, Duan Ling is lying there perfectly still when suddenly he feels Wu Du moving. Wu Du picks up the hand that Duan Ling had thrown over his ribs, and places it gently on the bed, then he carefully picks up Duan Ling’s leg so that it slips quietly down from its perch on his waist.
Duan Ling thinks, do you have to be this careful when you’re just going to get up to pee?
After he disentangles Duan Ling from himself, Wu Du turns over and gets off the bed in one smooth movement silently on bare feet. He picks up the rogue’s blacks he’d hidden earlier and puts it back on.
“Where’re you going?”
That gives Wu Du quite a start.
“Bring me with you. Bring me bring me.”
“It’s the middle of the night. Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Wu Du says.
“But you haven’t gone to sleep either.” Duan Ling has a vague idea of what Wu Du is about to do. “Are you heading to Bian Lingbai’s room?”
Wu Du hums an affirmative.
Smart, Duan Ling thinks. As the enemy has just run away, even though security is going to be tight outside the estate right now, this is when Bian Lingbai will be most careless. After all, once the assassin fails at his mission he’ll retreat for the time being, lie low, and await the next chance to strike.
Wu Du seems to hesitate for a moment before he pushes the door open. “Don’t put on your shoes. They’ll make noise. Let’s go.”
Duan Ling steps out of the room in the underclothes he sleeps in, so one of them is clad in head-to-toe snowy white, while the other is dressed all in black. Duan Ling doesn’t even know what to say to him — I’m such an obvious target in the dark, so is there even any meaning in your changing into all black, Wu Du? If they catch us they’re catching both of us anyway.
Just as he’s about to walk into the courtyard though, Wu Du picks him up sideways and leaps into the air.
He’s not all that small anymore, but Wu Du seems to carry him effortlessly, quickly passing through the courtyard until they get to the wooden gallery. Pushing the door quietly open, the two of them duck inside. Wu Du takes Duan Ling’s wrist and pulls him into a corner where they blend into the shadows and stand very still. At the same time, two night patrolmen brush by, missing them by seconds.
Wu Du examines his surroundings, his ear doing a little twitch, then he wraps an arm around Duan Ling’s waist and jumps onto the roof beam. With a swing and a flip he’s gone from the eaves onto the roof. Duan Ling can’t help but recall that night in Shangjing when Li Jianhong carried him in his arms and walked up the walls, and how they flew across the roofs to save Batu.
A bright moon rises behind Mount Qilian
amidst a vast, boundless sea of clouds.2
Beneath a bright moon, Duan Ling’s heart suddenly gives rise to a strange sentiment towards Wu Du — as though his father has once again returned to his side.
He turns his head and leans into Wu Du’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around Wu Du’s waist.
Wu Du’s mind goes quite blank; he’s about to dash through the last section of the gallery when he slips, dropping out of the air with Duan Ling, taking a loud shower of roof tiles with them. Duan Ling nearly cries out as the two of them fall into the courtyard.
“Who’s there?!”
“Assassin —!”
The noise has immediately alerted the guards, and judging by the look on Wu Du’s face he’s just about to lose his mind, while Duan Ling remains rather oblivious as to what just happened. They conceal themselves behind the ornamental rockery with Wu Du’s head in his hand, his expression clearly expressing “my legendary reputation has just gone down the drain”.
Weapons drawn, the guards cautiously walk beneath the corridor checking every nook and cranny, but they don’t find anything. Wu Du picks up a rock and tosses it towards the outside of the courtyard; the rock draws an arc in the air and finally lands on the roof a dozen steps away, making a sound.
“He went that way!” A guard says, “After him!”
And just like that, the courtyard is empty of guards. Wu Du snarls at Duan Ling, “What were you doing?”
“I didn’t do anything. Did I do something?”
But there are new people coming into the area so Wu Du has little choice but to cut this short and take Duan Ling quickly through the corridor, until they arrive before Bian Lingbai’s room. He puts a finger in front of his lips to gesture a silent shh at Duan Ling; Duan Ling’s heart beats madly in his chest. There are two men standing guard outside the courtyard, so Wu Du goes around to the other side of the house to the window.
Tall and slender in black, Wu Du stands there next to the window with his feet bare and his ear turned towards the room. The world seems entirely still; when Duan Ling closes his eyes, it’s as though he can hear the flowers blooming in the silence of the night.
“I can’t believe he’s awake at this hour.” Wu Du opens the door and steps inside. Duan Ling follows him in, closing the window behind him. There’s not a soul in the room, and he has no idea where Bian Lingbai’s gone — presumably he’s so terrified out of his wits that he’s talking with his advisers.
The treasure map on the table is gone. Bian Lingbai must have taken it with him.
“This tile right here.” Duan Ling gropes along the floor tiles.
Wu Du goes to him, stands on top of the tile, then he looks up — nothing happens and there’s no change in the room. He tells Duan Ling to get up and they both turn to the wall. There’s a groove on it, and there are signs that a metal object has been scraping against one side of the groove. The moment Wu Du takes out a dagger and sticks it in the groove, the wall comes loose and slides quietly open.
“Found it!” Duan Ling sees a dark room behind the wall just big enough for one person. Inside are many thread-bound volumes. He takes one and flips it open to find it crammed full of names, along with pages and pages of letters.
“Quickly,” Wu Du rushes him.
Duan Ling pulls out one of the books and checks its content under the faint moonlight — it’s a ledger filled with lists of names that Duan Ling doesn’t really recognise. There are numbers behind the names.
“This has got to be a list of bribes.” Duan Ling doesn’t know any of the functionaries working for the imperial court so he can’t match the list to anything; he wants to look through the letters.
“Don’t bother with the letters. We’ll leave as soon as you find something. We can take our time and look through the rest once he’s dead.”
Since they’ve already managed to find the hiding spot for the information, they can go ahead and get rid of Bian Lingbai; however, there are still too many variables ahead. If the Tongguan army mutinies, or if any other of his advisers know about this room, then they’ll hit another snag.
He’s still searching through the books when suddenly they hear footsteps right outside. Wu Du’s face darkens, and he holds down Duan Ling and slips into the room with him, quickly putting his hand on the edge of the wall to begin sliding it back silently.
Duan Ling holds his breath. With his eyes closed, Wu Du counts the newcomers’ footsteps. In the very instant those footsteps stop and Bian Lingbai opens the door, the gears inside the lock make a clang. Wu Du catches just the right moment to slide the wall shut.
One door opens, another closes; the noise from one flawlessly overlaps the other.
“You tell me. What do we do now?” Bian Lingbai’s voice rises on the other side of the hidden room.
What space there is inside the hidden room is extremely tight, and now with the two of them cramming into a space that was only meant for one, Duan Ling and Wu Du have little choice but to hold tightly onto each other. Duan Ling doesn’t know where to put his hands, and after several attempts to find a place for them Wu Du can but lower his head so Duan Ling can wrap his arms around his neck.
Their breaths intermingle, and Wu Du’s heart beats like a full battalion of cavalry stomping the earth flat on their way towards Duan Ling.
“I will leave tonight.” Helan Jie’s dark and hoarse voice begins, “He couldn’t have possibly gone very far yet. I will have my vengeance for this hand he took from me.”
Bian Lingbai says in a stern voice, “Then what about the plan we agreed on?! Did you think you can leave whenever you want?!”
“Bian Lingbai!” They hear Helian Jie’s gravelly shout mixed into the sound of ink stone and a brush washing cup crashing to pieces on the floor, followed immediately by the loud bang of a chair falling over.
“Do not forget who made me come here.” Helan Jie sounds menacing.
Bian Lingbai’s oppressive attitude weakens right away. Keeping his eyes closed, Duan Ling guesses that Helan Jie quite likely has his iron hook pressed up against Bian Lingbai’s throat.
Bian Lingbai says, “If you leave right now, who’s going to cut Helian Bo’s life short? Don’t you forget that your master, Lord Helian Da, doesn’t want him to die in Great Chen, and he’s even less inclined to let him die in Xiliang.”
Duan Ling’s heart leaps into his throat. He then hears Helan Jie going humph angrily. “Of course I’ll be able to carry out my orders.”
“How can you be sure …”
“That’s not for you to worry about,” Helan Jie adds.
“When are you coming back?” Bian Lingbai says quietly, “Give me a date. We can’t drag this on any longer. What I agreed on with Helian Da hasn’t been completed yet — we must settle things as soon as possible.”
“Decide on the ambush location now. I will rush there in seven days to rendezvous with you. As for how we’ll lure Helian Bo there, that is your responsibility.”
“I don’t know of any suitable location …” Bian Lingbai sounds agitated, his pacing filling up the room.
Duan Ling looks up to see Wu Du’s eyes full of confusion; he raises a hand, wishing to write on Wu Du with his finger, but Wu Du grabs his hand and shakes his head at him, letting him know not to make any move at all lest there be unnecessary ramifications.
But Helan Jie is impatient from waiting. “Just choose this place right here. Enough talk.”
“That won’t do!” Bian Lingbai hurriedly gathers up the map from the table. “This is not a military deployment map.”
Helan Jie doesn’t speak again; he leaves the room like a gust of wind and vanishes.
“Wait!” Bian Lingbai puts away the treasure map and quickly chases him out of the room.
As the footsteps grow more distant, the door to the secret room slides open once more. Duan Ling and Wu Du come out of it soaked through with sweat.
“Quickly,” Wu Du says, “Bian Lingbai will be back right away.”
Duan Ling is still thinking about what they were saying earlier, and he’s momentarily distracted. He replies, “Alright … alright! Found it!”
Wu Du stuffs the book under Duan Ling’s lapel and picks him up again, leaping through the window. Soon, another sound comes from the front door — Bian Lingbai is back.
That was close. When he thinks back on their mission this evening, Duan Ling just thinks Wu Du’s ability to get the timing right is truly formidable.
It’s already near dawn. The two of them return to their rooms and Wu Du draws a bucket of water to wash their feet with. He asks Duan Ling, “Is this it?”
Wu Du flips through the pages by the light of the glowing dawn. “This is it.”
It’s an untitled volume, the line items are of the amount of silvers spent on buying horses and ironware, and along with those are a list of money owed. To Duan Ling’s astonishment, Bian Lingbai actually owes the Tangut a hundred and twelve thousand taels of silver — no wonder he’s in such a hurry to dig up the treasure in order to put him back in the black.
“Let’s do it today. You go get some sleep, I’ll wake you up after I poison him, and we’ll leave then.”
“That won’t do.” Duan Ling replies at once, “We can’t kill him right now. If Bian Lingbai dies and Helian Bo doesn’t have his money yet, he’s been eyeing the right to trade in Tongguan all this time anyway so he’ll definitely fight his way in here — just look at how many men he has waiting in ambush. Xichuan is relocating the capital; if they lose the northwest barrier things can only get more chaotic within our borders.”
When Wu Du hears this, his brows draw together to make a tight furrow between them. “Kill him, we’ll head back right away and ask Chancellor Mu to send someone else over.”
“Send who? If we get rid of Bian Lingbai today, even on the finest horse riding whip and spur nonstop it’ll take six days and six nights there and back. Too many things can happen in six days.”
Wu Du hums a reply in agreement, but he doesn’t say anymore.
Duan Ling stares at Wu Du.
“Think of something. What are you staring at me for? Didn’t I take you with me so that you can be the one to take care of stuff like this?”
Duan Ling ponders for a moment, and suddenly a brazen plan springs into his head — even though that assassin is still a mystery, he’s already escaped, and Helan Jie’s gone chasing after him to take vengeance for the hand he took … did the assassin from before chop off Helan Jie’s hand? If that’s the case, the seven day limit Helan Jie has set is enough for Wu Du to go to Xichuan and come back to Tongguan.
As long as Helan Jie isn’t around, he’ll be safe here. If he asks Wu Du to take the ledger and a handwritten letter back to Xichuan to ask Mu Kuangda for an imperial order from above, and to send over an imperial envoy, then he can form an alliance with Helian Bo and take over the Tongguan army after Bian Lingbai’s death …
I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎
The first line of a poem by Li Bai, Mount Guan Moon. It’s about soldiers guarding the border who rarely got to come back home. Qin version. That’s one translation, but that last line should be interpreted as the family member sighing as they look up at the same moon over the mountain pass where the soldiers stand guard, since the “high cupola” here refers to a woman/wife’s room, which would fit the thought in Duan Ling’s head right now, as he too had family who went to war and never came home. The title “Mount Guan Moon” itself is a song that’s often set to lyrics about separation and sadness. ↩︎
