Sounds of the Crashing Waves

The soft splashes of the seawater against their ship sang a song to Sun Yin. She was left alone by the railings, eyes glued on her reflection cast on the water. She stared in silence before a presence stood next to her. She did not need to read their energy to know whether it was a girl or a boy; her strong perfume told her so.

"Lady Sun, it's so nice to see you around." She waited for Sun Yin to acknowledge her presence. She gave her a smile. "My name is Xiang Yu. I played Wu Ming in the play last night." She made a weak imitation of the hand clasp cultivators gave each other as a form of greeting. She was scared of offending the lady by greeting her like a cultivator. Xiang Yu was just being polite, though.

"Ah, I can tell. Your beauty isn't just cosmetics, I see." Sun Yin giggled as she returned the greeting. "Congratulations, you have given justice to Wu Ming."

"Thank you for the compliment, but that's too kind." She hooked some fringe behind her ears. "I know it might sound weird, but I had seen you back in Gangkou. We were going to have a show involving cultivators so I want to see real ones while we waited for the ship." She chuckled, much mellower than Sun Yin and filled with embarrassment. "I first saw you when you walked in that brothel house.

"Ah, I wasn't there to rent!" Xiang Yu waved her hands. She nodded apologetically at her. "I came with one of our producers. We heard the cultivators were not liked by the city so they ended up staying at the brothel house. Our producer wanted to have fun so I came with him.

"I got bored watching the males. I can't make a queen out of their blank faces." She tilted her head to the side and averted her gaze, scared of offending the woman. "You see, I will be playing a queen—the greatest queen in our home island's history. I want to make sure my acting would be the best I could do."

Sun Yin stared at her with her curious eyes. She managed to hide the frown she had on her face. "I see."

"When you walked in and went straight to the master of the Reqi Ren sect, I was attracted to your aura." Xiang Yu bowed down as if giving respect and hiding her reddened face at the same time. "You were like the woman I was hoping to see. It might be a brothel house, but the imperial setting fitted you perfectly." She straightened her back and waved her hands again. "I wasn't saying you look like you work there. I was saying...

"For the first time, I thought I really did see a queen."

Sun Yin froze.

"You know, it's hard to observe a queen when you're just a commoner like us. They normally just sit next to their husbands." Xiang Yu forced a chuckle out of her lips. "Wu Ming was not that kind of queen. She was vengeful and cunning. It might not show in her words, but it should show by the way she presented herself.

"It might sound rather weird that I modeled my Wu Ming after you, Lady Sun." She bowed again. "I don't know what it might sound to you as a cultivator. The Bride of Corpses isn't exactly a good figure to be compared to, more when a version of her was modeled after you."

She straightened her back once more. "I just came today to thank you for letting me find a good muse. The success last night made me want to personally express my gratitude."

Sun Yin was silent, but she managed to murmur a bitter chuckle. "I see. So that's why it felt so real." How coincidental for Xiang Yu to find the actual last queen of Zuansha to base her character on for the play. How bittersweet it was for Sun Yin.

Her days before the creation of the Cinder Army were among the darkest days of her life. That was why she chose to be called by anything but 'queen'. She had no idea that she still stood in front of people as if she was that very queen to the ten kings that died because of her. She did not need to kill those kings, though; but she was disgusted by the fact that she was married for flesh to those kings.

Perhaps, all along, she was a matriarch at heart.

"Ah, did I... do something bad, Lady Sun?" Xiang Yu twitched at the dark face Sun Yin was making.

"She's just getting seasick."

The maiden turned to the voice behind her and found Lu Bang walking towards her. He was followed by a few people, and one of them darted to her side. He looked familiar yet one she would not probably care about unless proven necessary.

"Lady Sun! Lady Sun! I saw you watching our play last night. I heard that you were a high-ranking official of the Huayuan Lin sect; what can you say about it?"

"Director Man..." Xiang Yu made a smile of resignation.

"What I think? Why does it matter what I think about it?" Sun Yin stepped back, away from the man.

Lu Bang took Sun Yin in one of his hands and placed himself between her and the director. He held an arm out as if blocking the man from getting nearer. "Hey, she's feeling sick. Keep your distance."

The director looked up at the man who was taller than him. He could only step back before offending one of the guests of honor. Even though the director regarded him with too little importance. Because of his silence and submission to Sun Yin's 'orders', they mistook him as her servant.

"Ah, I'm really sorry if I made you feel ill, Lady Sun!" Xiang Yu misunderstood the situation and apologized profusely. However, Sun Yin reached out to stop her head from bowing.

"I rarely travel by sea. I just want to take my time right now so we took the ship. I'm not repulsed by your confession!" Sun Yin tried to laugh out, clearing her bad mood by then. "In fact, I'm honored to be the muse of the last queen! She's a terrible figure, but a rather powerful one! She stood as the symbol of diligence of a broken heart!"

She continued to wave her hand, with one clutched at Lu Bang's back. "Don't take my sickness to heart! I just feel nauseous all a sudden! We're on a ship after all!"

The kid, who played Qin Feng, hummed and then snickered. "Lady Sun is not pregnant, is she?"

Lu Bang's eyes widened and glared at the kid. "Hey, kid. What are you saying?"

"What? My mother is always sick when she's pregnant with my little sister!" The kid had the urge to hop up and down since Lu Bang was too tall. At an early age, he was already brimming with machismo, even around people twice his age.

"She's not. She's seasick. There's a difference." Lu Bang sighed as he shook his head.

"Ah, maybe it's your fault!" The kid ran past Lu Bang and stood next to the maiden's other side. "Lady Sun is so pretty! She must be really popular with men! That's why you're hiding it!"

"You've read too many scripts! Can someone take him away?" Lu Bang growled, but he pressed on Huaban's handle since the sword opted to get the kid away from her master's older brother.

Xiang Yu pulled the boy before her. "I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" She patted the kid's head. "Little Chun, apologize to them now."

The kid looked up at her. "But I could be right, right, Mama?"

Xiang Yu flicked his nose. "It doesn't matter. You're not seven now. You can't get away with that kind of things anymore."

"Ah, he's your son?" Sun Yin managed to get a smile across her face. "That's why you look alike a lot!" Actually, they did not. It was their energy and blood that felt similar to Sun Yin since she could sense both. She then turned to the director with a bow. "I see no necessity for me to comment on the play. If you're looking for praise from a senior member of the Huayuan Lin sect, you should talk to Young Master Lu here."

"Y-Young Master?" The director almost stuttered.

"Crap, they're married!" Xiang Chun started again.

Lu Bang only closed his eyes and shook his head. "I have no idea why you would show the people the story of the Bride before she took down the Society with her. It's a pretty play with superb actors and effects, but the cultivation sects might question your choice." He opened his eyes and ignored the shock in their faces. "The Cinder Army had appeared and attacked Huayuan recently. If they hear of you making plays about her, they might think you're supporting her.

"We have no confirmation that it was the doing of the Bride of Corpses, but the people might panic."

"H-How should we fix this then, Y-Young Master Lu?" the director chuckled. He felt like it was a mistake to come up with the story.

"Take out the scenes depicting the last queen of Zuansha as the Bride of Corpses." Lu Bang answered, surprising everyone even Sun Yin. "Everyone knew of the Bride, but they have never heard of the queen before. She led a rather painful life just to attain her goals. Connecting such a strong-willed woman to the people's bad views on the Bride feels wrong.

"You can also redirect the themes to the atrocities of the old ways. Waging wars just to win a woman like she's a spoil of war and sleeping with young boys against their will just for stupid practices are strong immoral acts. Even cultivation sects will be glad to see someone trying to point it out as misdeeds."

He twitched as he felt like he said too many. "Regardless, keep the queen away from the bride."

Even though Sun Yin liked being the bride more, she would prefer the play to go under such reconstructions.