ENG
A brief song stirs the valiant heart,
Long crows pierce the night apart.
Leaping high, then falling low,
Drifting like duckweed in the flow.
He lay on the ground, still unsure of how he had been defeated. The previously unremarkable Daoist-robed insect guai, whom he had previously dismissed as insignificant, now stood before him with a smirk on this face.
Seeing the guai holding a radiant golden hairpin, he suddenly understood. He wanted to ask a question but found he couldn't speak. The pain was unbearable; it seemed that his throat was slit by the vile insect with the hairpin.
He should be dying. He closed his eyes, not wanting his last sight to be that hideous face.
Unexpectedly, someone turned him over and carefully applied decoction to his wound. He could breathe again, but this brought him no relief.
The guai clicked its tongue in amazement. "The medicine Master gave is truly remarkable. It has mended the severed part completely. What a pity to use it on this one."
He opened his eyes and tried to ask a question, but the guai stopped him. "Don't rush. External medicine can't heal internal injuries. Besides, I don't intend to cure you."
With that, the guai waved its hand, and two fake Daoists in green robes carried over a jade box covered with brocade.
The guai took out a golden cocoon and said, "We mountain guais are unworthy of this item. It's best to test it on you."
Panic-stricken, he coughed up blood, which splattered onto the golden cocoon.
The cocoon broke upon contact with the blood, and a worm with a human head and a golden body emerged, quickly squirmed into the grass and disappeared.
The guai remained unperturbed and pulled out another golden cocoon from the jade box. "Master was truly wise to have prepared two golden cocoons."
He tried to struggle, but his body was tightly bound by cobweb. The guai commanded, "Pour it down his throat."
The fake Daoists brought several buckets of water and forced his head back, pouring some foul-smelling concoction into his mouth. He felt something go down his throat.
After swallowing it, he felt as if he were floating on clouds, his mind becoming hazy.
Apart from a lingering concern for his mother, he could hardly remember anything. He silently recited one last prayer, hoping that a glimmer of survival would be bestowed upon his mother.
The scene opens after a fight. The narrator had been defeated by someone he thought was insignificant: an insect-like guai wearing Daoist robes. That guai now stands over him with a smirk, holding a bright golden hairpin. The narrator realises, too late, that the hairpin had slit his throat and caused terrible internal damage; he cannot speak and expects to die.
Someone unexpectedly turns him over and rubs a decoction on the wound. The external medicine works in one sense: it mends the severed outer part completely so he can breathe again. But the guai points out that this medicine only treats external wounds and cannot heal internal injuries, and says outright that he does not intend to cure the narrator. The guai’s tone makes it clear the man has been kept alive for a purpose other than mercy.
Two accomplices who look like Daoists in green robes carry a brocade-covered jade box up to them. From the box the guai takes out a golden cocoon and says that his mountain guais are unworthy of the item and so it’s best to test it on the narrator. When the wounded man coughs blood onto the first cocoon, it breaks and a worm with a human head and golden body squirms out and disappears into the grass. The guai is calm and unimpressed by this escape.
The guai then produces a second golden cocoon. The narrator is bound tightly with cobweb so he cannot struggle. The guai orders the fake Daoists to pour something into his mouth. They force his head back, bring buckets of water, and pour a foul-smelling concoction down his throat, followed by the second cocoon. The guai notes that their “Master” prepared two cocoons, so they are experimenting and have planned for this.
After swallowing the mixture and whatever was in the cocoon, the wounded man’s head clears briefly to think of his mother, then his mind goes hazy and he feels as if he is floating. He can barely remember anything and silently prays that somehow survival or protection will come to his mother. The narrative ends with him drifting into this drugged state, implying he has been turned into a test subject: one cocoon escaped into the wild, the other was forced inside him, and his fate is left uncertain and ominous.