The Cursed Seeker

Wanderers of the jianghu tell of a young man who sought the Empress of Seven Rivers and Two Lakes. For three years he searched, carrying with him the crown of the Empress, a thin iron chain said to be softer than a silk ribbon yet strong enough to pull Baxiantai to the bed of Ayding. For three years he was sought, from the Shu to the Yan, by barbarian queens and guzhu and even the most daring of the noble ladies.

At each invitation, he would attend in the same manner, casting dice before the door and drinking a single cup of wine before presenting himself before his hostess.

At each presentation, he threaded the chain through his fingers, gazing at the lady before him with eyes of jade and topaz as she awaited his judgement.

At each pronouncement, the lady would throw him from her hall, guards and dogs at his heels as he silently returned to the road.

They say that each lady that cast him out cast her fortune out with him, as each woman found herself destitute of that which she held dearest; rich woman begged, conqueresses were driven from their lands, courtesans found themselves wrinkled and ashamed. For this, he became known as the Cursed Seeker, reviled by those he left and feared by those he had yet to meet.

On the last day of the third year, he found himself at a backwater inn, seeking shelter from the plum rain. Though some of the village knew and feared him, the proprietress of the inn welcomed him, for she had naught to lose but an old grey tomcat that lapped at her wine and had not caught a mouse in seven years.

The wanderer did not perform his ritual that night, instead leaving after his meal with a muttered apology. Yet misfortune fell upon the proprietress regardless, as the next morning her old tom was nowhere to be found, his spot taken by a brown cat that slept and watched by turn, jade eyes sparkling only when fixed upon her. Though it too would not mouse, she treasured it regardless, draping it over her shoulders as one would a scarf as she worked.

The wanderer would never be seen again, and the misfortunes of the women who sought him would cease soon after, and the Empress of Seven Rivers and Two Lakes would be subject to chuckles before fading into the waters of the jianghu like so many others, known only to the one who had pulled her crown from a jar of wine and fastened it around the neck of a sleeping cat.