A Song to Drown Rivers

Xishi stops to see Lady Yu on her way back to the banquet, telling her it is time for the favor they owe and to call on her father. Fuchai asks Xishi not to leave his side again, and she is moved by his trust and devotion. She tells him he can have anything he wants, and he takes her to their chamber. To her surprise he only wants to hold her. He asks for a story from her childhood, and she shares a true part of her, a memory of a game with her family. She asks about him, and he shares that he suffered after being declared the crown prince, as all his friends were too frightened to play with him. She gets tired, and he holds her as she falls asleep. She wakes to his sharp voice saying he will protect her. She hears a guard say that Lady Yu’s father had a skirmish at the southern gates, though half the soldiers had abandoned their posts, and that the Yue have used the canal to get to the palace. Servants and soldiers come to escort them to the carriage. Xishi is horrified, feeling responsible as soldiers and servants die around her trying to get them to safety. She sees General Ma die and thinks of Zhengdan. They make it to the carriage, and she instinctively apologizes to Fuchai. When he asks why, she says it is because she’s Yue and her people are attacking. He says that she is a Wu in his eyes, and his home is with her.

At dawn, they reach the safe house on a mountain peak with a dozen guards, ministers, and a few maids, including Xiaomin, who is devastated that she couldn’t save her sister. Xishi is conflicted. She thought at the end she would feel justice for Susu, but instead she feels guilty for the suffering she has helped to bring about. Fuchai begins to drink, and she sits with him. He tells her that the kingdom doesn’t matter; he will give up everything to be with her. She is worried that he is talking about love. He wants to know whether she feels the same, and she says they can talk about it another day. After he has drunk most of the wine, they hear horses coming, and an emissary arrives. He delivers the message that Goujian will let Fuchai live if he leaves immediately for a comfortable exile. Xishi hopes Fuchai will take this offer, but then the emissary addresses her, saying that the king congratulates her for her outstanding service to the Yue and that her mission is complete. She can go home now. Fuchai realizes she has betrayed him and is devastated. He asks if she has anything to say, and she tells him she hates him. He unexpectedly smiles and says at least she feels something for him and that Goujian won’t need to worry. He hands her his sword and tells her to kill him. She remembers all the tenderness he has shown her. She stabs him and holds him while he looks at her. She cries as she feels his heart stop beating. She doesn’t remember people prying her away, but then she suddenly sees the sky and feels confusion as she realizes that the world goes on as normal. She is covered in blood and asks for Fanli, but he is helping King Goujian. The soldiers give her a message from Fanli, saying to meet him by the river and to watch out, but the message is cut off before he can say what to watch out for. Around her, the Yue solders are saying that King Goujian has killed Bo Pi for being a traitor to the Wu. This makes her uneasy, but she dismisses her worries, saying Bo Pi was originally a Wu.

She goes to sleep with Fuchai’s dying expression in her mind and wakes up shaking. She is greeted by Luyi and feels glad that Fanli has sent him to bring her back to Yue. At her village, everyone is celebrating her, saying she has stopped a war and saved the kingdom. She is a hero. She is happy to see that her parents have been taken care of and enjoys her reunion with them. Zhengdan’s grieving mother, however, dampens the mood, refusing to believe her daughter is a hero and instead lamenting that the lives of everyday people are expendable regardless of who is the king. She says that her husband was killed not by the Wu but by “the will of kings” (300). This shakes Xishi’s worldview, and she goes to the river to think. Too late, she senses that someone is behind her, and before she can act, she is tied and thrown in the river. Before she dies, she sees herself and Fanli sitting by the pond during her training and remembers how he’d given her a look that made her breathless.

Fanli looks for her at the river minutes too late. At dawn, they find her body, and Fanli is devastated, cradling her and crying for the first time. He accuses King Goujian. Days go by, and Luyi worries about Fanli, pleading with him to take care of himself, but Fanli laments that he should never have trained her: She saved the kingdom, but no one was there to save her. Xishi visits him in his dreams, and they finally kiss. She tells him not to kill the king as he desires, because if he does so, both kingdoms will be thrown into chaos. She tells him to use his intelligence for the common people and to help the poor who are struggling. When he wakes up, he goes to King Goujian and threatens to kill him but then says it’s not what Xishi wanted. He resigns and leaves. Xishi haunts King Goujian’s dreams, making him dream that he is drowning every night for the rest of his life. Whenever he passes a river, he hears a girl crying. Fanli buries Xishi by the river, still blaming himself. He tells a passing boy to tell people that Xishi is alive and that she has left with Fanli to sail around Lake Tai, happy and free. He vows to her that he will find her. Xishi waits beside the Yellow Springs—the Chinese underworld—and one day, she sees him on the opposite shore. She swims across and runs to him, and as he smiles at her, the darkness lifts.