Chapter 36: Theatre Troupe (I)
Anqing Prefecture and Wolong County were only a river apart: on a clear and bright day, someone standing on the banks of the river in Wolong County could see the layered mountain rage across the water. On a quiet, calm day, it was only a few hours away by boat.
But as the snowstorm worsened, the river quickly became a blanket of white, and it felt as though the only thing left in that lonely and melancholy world was their one small boat. It became impossible to navigate, and the boat slowed.
The old boatman was a veteran professional. When Xue Xian and the others had needed to go to Gravestone Island, it had been his boat that they'd rented. He had a kindly disposition, and seemed to feel bad about taking all that money from Xuanmin the other day. This time, seeing that they again wanted to cross the water, he had only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to bring the boat out into the blizzard.
"I have two flasks of hot wine in my bundle. If you want, you may drink some and warm yourselves up!" the boatman said as he rowed.
"Many thanks."
Although everyone rushed to thank the boatman, only Xue Xian actually made a move.
Xuanmin did not drink, nor did he fear the cold. Jiang Shining was a ghost, and could not ingest anything. Twenty-Seven had zoned out as soon as they'd gotten onto the boat, and did not seem to be in the mood. Stone Zhang was trembling all over from the cold, and seemed desperate to drink the wine, but his mung-bean-like eyes only darted back and forth, and he did not dare to reach out.
He had not expected the group to take him along, had assumed that, after interrogating him and making him carve the wooden tiles, they would simply kick him onto the curb. To his surprise, they actually wanted him to cross the river with them –– they probably wanted him to lead them to where he had been taken by the mysterious patron.
This was not necessarily a bad thing for Stone Zhang, as, if he'd stayed in Wolong, he would have just gone back to cowering in fear inside his compound. Who knew how long he'd been standing there, clutching his bone sword, before Xue Xian and Xuanmin had barged in. He took a surreptitious glance at Xue Xian and thought that though the beast was fearsome and had sent thunder rumbling down on him, Xue Xian did not seem intent on killing him. So although Stone Zhang remained in a constant state of terrified stupor, there was no other real downside to coming along with the group.
Xue Xian cradled the wine flask in his lap, but did not make a move to drink it. In reality, he was feeling hot again, and did not need to warm himself up from the winter chill at all. He was not holding the flask for warmth: instead, he was using it to dispel some of the heat from inside him. Although the flask had been well-wrapped inside the boatman's cloth bundle, they had already rowed halfway to Anqing and the wine was mostly cold.
But after some time in Xue Xian's hands, the wine began to emit a slight gurgling noise.
Apart from the ever-silent Twenty-Seven, everyone on the boat turned to stare at the flask in Xue Xian's lap.
This wasn't warm wine anymore –– it was boiled wine!
Stone Zhang gazed longingly at the flask as his hands trembled and his neck quivered, looking as though he wanted to crawl inside the flask and let himself be boiled in the wine.
As the wine heated up, its fragrant smell also rose into the air, and Stone Zhang's eyes seemed about to pop out of his head. He rubbed his palms together like a fly rubbing its legs and said, "Ai... That wine does smell lovely. When I'm carving stone, I like to take a sip every once in a while. With a warmth in my stomach and the rush of tipsiness, my inspiration surges forward too."
What he really wanted to do was hug Xue Xian's legs and whine, Give me some!
Jiang Shining couldn't bear to watch anymore. He nudged Xue Xian and said, "Stop teasing him, sir. He's about to shake himself off the boat."
Xue Xian shrugged and handed Stone Zhang the now furiously boiling flask of wine. Then, he immediately took up the second flask and cradled it again.
Stone Zhang greedily wrapped his sleeves around the flask and pressed it to his stomach. He seemed to finally come back to life. He sputtered, "I'm finally feeling warmer. These winter chills are no joke, especially on the river."
Xue Xian peeled the second flask away from his overheated body and handed it to Stone Zhang.
"Both for me?" Stone Zhang was shocked by the kindness.
"Are you dreaming?" Xue Xian snapped.
Before Stone Zhang could speak again, Xuanmin, who sat by the awning, took the flask and handed it to the boatman.
Xue Xian glanced at him, and said nothing.
To him, that glance signified agreement. But...
Silently, Jiang Shining looked over at Xue Xian, then at Xuanmin. Maybe it was just him, but in the past couple of days, he felt that he detected something strange between the two.* Or, more specifically, Xue Xian was acting strange toward Xuanmin, as though angry at him for something –– he seemed to be giving the monk the cold shoulder.
Of course, the dragon was always looking for ways to annoy Xuanmin, and sometimes did conspicuously ignore him. And yet...
Jiang Shining stared at the two for a while, then averted his gaze again and retreated into himself. Both of the men were technically his superiors, and he could not afford to anger either of them, so he decided to mind his own business.
With that, he silently shuffled away from them, closer to the edge of the boat.
Dong––
As the boat suddenly shook, Stone Zhang, who had been mid-sip, lost his balance and rammed his elbow into the awning.
"Look at how thin these bamboo strips are, and how heavy you are. You're shaking the whole boat," Xue Xian said, glaring at Jiang Shining.
"That wasn't the young master," the boatman said. He had taken a small break to drink some of the hot wine, and now seemed much more energetic. "This patch of river is just like that –– bumpy. Each winter and summer, there are quite a few boats that capsize here. It's not the current, but the wind that can blow the boats apart. These past couple of years, it's gotten better. I haven't encountered the freak wind on my trips, and the boat is much easier to row. But today is weird –– it's that damn wind again."
Hearing the boatman's words, Stone Zhang jolted. The jittery stonemason leant closer to the boatman and said, "But... but this boat won't flip, will it?"
Annoyed, the boatman glared at him. "The boat is running fine. How could you say such an inauspicious thing? Of course it won't flip. I was just saying that this is a dangerous part of the river, not that a wave was going to come up right this minute."
But then he sighed and added, "Gentlemen, I don't mean to complain, but I have to be honest. The next part of the river is particularly tricky, and you might want to keep the boatman's advice in mind. No one likes to go out on the river in this weather –– you don't live around here, so you don't know how temperamental the river can be. Whereas we spend all day out here, and practically live on our boats. We can tell how dangerous the water is just by the ripples. And it's like I said, every couple of days, the river fusses. Besides––"
The boatman slowed his speech and, squinting at them, he jostled the flask in his hand. "Why would you choose to go to Anqing Prefecture now? It's not very peaceful over there."
"Not peaceful? What do you mean?" Jiang Shining's married sister lived in Anqing. Hearing this, he frowned anxiously.
"I heard another boatman talk about it the other day." The boatman lowered his voice. "He said that, a few days ago, there was an earthquake in Anqing, and the entire prefecture shook. Worst part is, the earthquake triggered a landslide in the mountain, and someone said that, as their home shook, they heard a dragon coo underground."
A dragon coo...
What an unscary description. He made it sound like the squeaks of a rat in someone's walls.
"It's called a dragon's roar!" Xue Xian corrected angrily. He sat up stiffly. "But hold up. A dragon? That person told you they heard a dragon's roar in Anqing?"
"Yeah!" The boatman nodded vigorously, as though it had been he who had heard the roar. "Apparently it was terrifying. They knelt down right then and there and started kowtowing to the dragon lord. But strangely enough, after a few kowtows, the house stopped shaking and the landslide ended. A few people still died. But here's the weirdest part... the weirdest part is that after the tremors, cracks appeared across town, and something crawled out. I don't know if it was insects or something. I didn't really get that part. Basically, it's crazy over there."
Hearing this, the blood drained from Jiang Shining's face. Although, to be fair, he was a ghost and had never looked that lively in the first place.
After that, everyone on the boat fell into silent thought.
Another half hour later, the boatman finally nocked his boat into the river port of a tiny, unknown part of Anqing named Wanglong County.
The place where they'd docked was called Guanyin Port, and scattered by the riverbank were some old-looking inns, teahouses, and wine halls. With the fierce snowstorm, they couldn't continue –– and the group also had Xue Xian, who could not walk.
Jiang Shining got off the boat and hurried to the nearest teahouse. "Is there somewhere here where we can hire a carriage?"
"Not right now," replied a man who sat holding a cup of tea and sheltering from the snow. "With that landslide a few days ago, the homes mostly held together, but the barns collapsed, and killed a number of horses and mules. Without them, there are of course no carriages. Besides, no one in these parts is even hiring out his mules. Don't bother."
The man had three long, frightening scars on his face, perhaps from being attacked by some animal. His eyelids fluttered as he took a sip of hot tea, then he looked back at Jiang Shining and said, "Where are you headed?"
"Qingping County, to the north," Jiang Shining said.
The scarred man studied him, then asked, "Scholar? Are you here to visit relatives?"
Jiang Shining nodded.
The man put his tea down on the table and jutted his chin out. "And those others are with you?"
Jiang Shining turned and saw that Xuanmin was walking over, carrying the handicapped dragon in his arms. Back at Wolong County, Xue Xian had struggled and fidgeted the whole time, trying to find a position where he didn't look so weak, but had been unable to find one. Now, he seemed to have totally given up...
And beside them walked Stone Zhang, cringing into his coat, and Twenty-Seven, still in a daze.
The group had an old guy, a little guy, and a demon, and they all looked exhausted, like refugees stealing away in the night. Poor Master Xuanmin, Jiang Shining thought. Then he turned and bowed to the scarred man. Jiang Shining needed to talk to Xuanmin: he wanted to suggest that they stay at an inn for the time being, and wait out the snowstorm.
"Don't hold out hope for the snow to stop," the scarred man said, as though reading his mind. He wiped his mouth and picked up a long cloth bundle that he'd been resting against the table, and said, "Come with us. We're passing through Qingping County too."
We?
Jiang Shining was stunned. Then he watched several other customers in the teahouse stood up with the man –– there were eight of nine of them, men and women, old and young.
Xuanmin had been about to cross the teahouse threshold when he overheard the scarred man's words and asked Jiang Shining, "What is it?"
"This kind brother says he can give us a ride," Jiang Shining explained.
The scarred man noticed the black bundle in Xuanmin's arms. He stopped and pointed. "What's underneath this cloth?"
Xuanmin said, "A person."
"Dead?" The scarred man studied that draped head and frowned. "That's an issue. We have elderly people and young'uns. If they see this––"
But before he could finish, Xue Xian, suddenly regretting his death act, lifted the black cloth and purred, "I'm not dead. I'm alive and well."
The scarred man gaped.
Jiang Shining shrank away. He's going to think we're insane, and then he won't let us onboard either.
But that scarred man seemed actually to have a high tolerance for nonsense. He met Xue Xian's eyes, then scanned the dragon's pale skin and looked at Xuanmin's expressionless face. Probably realising such a duo would not make any trouble, he said, "Alright, let's stop hanging around. The snow is going to get worse soon, and then we really won't be able to go."
The scarred man's group had three horse-drawn carriages and one mule-drawn carriage.
The horse-drawn carriages were tiny, and could only fit four people at once. The mule-drawn carriage was for their belongings.
Jiang Shining observed the carriages. He wanted to ask the scarred man what the group was doing, but before he could speak, he felt a slightly warm hand land on his shoulder.
Startled, he turned to see Xuanmin standing beside him, and Xue Xian was the one gripping him.
He watched as the dragon lifted the black cloth from his head to reveal a single eye staring back at him. Xue Xian lifted a finger to his lips and hushed Jiang Shining. In a low voice, he said, "Don't ask, and don't alert them. Get onto the carriage, but don't get too close to them."
Perhaps it was how hoarse, close to a whisper, Xue Xian's tone was, but Jiang Shining felt himself begin to sweat.
Chapter 36: Theatre Troupe (I)
Anqing Prefecture and Wolong County were only a river apart: on a clear and bright day, someone standing on the banks of the river in Wolong County could see the layered mountain rage across the water. On a quiet, calm day, it was only a few hours away by boat.
But as the snowstorm worsened, the river quickly became a blanket of white, and it felt as though the only thing left in that lonely and melancholy world was their one small boat. It became impossible to navigate, and the boat slowed.
The old boatman was a veteran professional. When Xue Xian and the others had needed to go to Gravestone Island, it had been his boat that they'd rented. He had a kindly disposition, and seemed to feel bad about taking all that money from Xuanmin the other day. This time, seeing that they again wanted to cross the water, he had only hesitated for a moment before agreeing to bring the boat out into the blizzard.
"I have two flasks of hot wine in my bundle. If you want, you may drink some and warm yourselves up!" the boatman said as he rowed.
"Many thanks."
Although everyone rushed to thank the boatman, only Xue Xian actually made a move.
Xuanmin did not drink, nor did he fear the cold. Jiang Shining was a ghost, and could not ingest anything. Twenty-Seven had zoned out as soon as they'd gotten onto the boat, and did not seem to be in the mood. Stone Zhang was trembling all over from the cold, and seemed desperate to drink the wine, but his mung-bean-like eyes only darted back and forth, and he did not dare to reach out.
He had not expected the group to take him along, had assumed that, after interrogating him and making him carve the wooden tiles, they would simply kick him onto the curb. To his surprise, they actually wanted him to cross the river with them –– they probably wanted him to lead them to where he had been taken by the mysterious patron.
This was not necessarily a bad thing for Stone Zhang, as, if he'd stayed in Wolong, he would have just gone back to cowering in fear inside his compound. Who knew how long he'd been standing there, clutching his bone sword, before Xue Xian and Xuanmin had barged in. He took a surreptitious glance at Xue Xian and thought that though the beast was fearsome and had sent thunder rumbling down on him, Xue Xian did not seem intent on killing him. So although Stone Zhang remained in a constant state of terrified stupor, there was no other real downside to coming along with the group.
Xue Xian cradled the wine flask in his lap, but did not make a move to drink it. In reality, he was feeling hot again, and did not need to warm himself up from the winter chill at all. He was not holding the flask for warmth: instead, he was using it to dispel some of the heat from inside him. Although the flask had been well-wrapped inside the boatman's cloth bundle, they had already rowed halfway to Anqing and the wine was mostly cold.
But after some time in Xue Xian's hands, the wine began to emit a slight gurgling noise.
Apart from the ever-silent Twenty-Seven, everyone on the boat turned to stare at the flask in Xue Xian's lap.
This wasn't warm wine anymore –– it was boiled wine!
Stone Zhang gazed longingly at the flask as his hands trembled and his neck quivered, looking as though he wanted to crawl inside the flask and let himself be boiled in the wine.
As the wine heated up, its fragrant smell also rose into the air, and Stone Zhang's eyes seemed about to pop out of his head. He rubbed his palms together like a fly rubbing its legs and said, "Ai... That wine does smell lovely. When I'm carving stone, I like to take a sip every once in a while. With a warmth in my stomach and the rush of tipsiness, my inspiration surges forward too."
What he really wanted to do was hug Xue Xian's legs and whine, Give me some!
Jiang Shining couldn't bear to watch anymore. He nudged Xue Xian and said, "Stop teasing him, sir. He's about to shake himself off the boat."
Xue Xian shrugged and handed Stone Zhang the now furiously boiling flask of wine. Then, he immediately took up the second flask and cradled it again.
Stone Zhang greedily wrapped his sleeves around the flask and pressed it to his stomach. He seemed to finally come back to life. He sputtered, "I'm finally feeling warmer. These winter chills are no joke, especially on the river."
Xue Xian peeled the second flask away from his overheated body and handed it to Stone Zhang.
"Both for me?" Stone Zhang was shocked by the kindness.
"Are you dreaming?" Xue Xian snapped.
Before Stone Zhang could speak again, Xuanmin, who sat by the awning, took the flask and handed it to the boatman.
Xue Xian glanced at him, and said nothing.
To him, that glance signified agreement. But...
Silently, Jiang Shining looked over at Xue Xian, then at Xuanmin. Maybe it was just him, but in the past couple of days, he felt that he detected something strange between the two.* Or, more specifically, Xue Xian was acting strange toward Xuanmin, as though angry at him for something –– he seemed to be giving the monk the cold shoulder.
Of course, the dragon was always looking for ways to annoy Xuanmin, and sometimes did conspicuously ignore him. And yet...
Jiang Shining stared at the two for a while, then averted his gaze again and retreated into himself. Both of the men were technically his superiors, and he could not afford to anger either of them, so he decided to mind his own business.
With that, he silently shuffled away from them, closer to the edge of the boat.
Dong––
As the boat suddenly shook, Stone Zhang, who had been mid-sip, lost his balance and rammed his elbow into the awning.
"Look at how thin these bamboo strips are, and how heavy you are. You're shaking the whole boat," Xue Xian said, glaring at Jiang Shining.
"That wasn't the young master," the boatman said. He had taken a small break to drink some of the hot wine, and now seemed much more energetic. "This patch of river is just like that –– bumpy. Each winter and summer, there are quite a few boats that capsize here. It's not the current, but the wind that can blow the boats apart. These past couple of years, it's gotten better. I haven't encountered the freak wind on my trips, and the boat is much easier to row. But today is weird –– it's that damn wind again."
Hearing the boatman's words, Stone Zhang jolted. The jittery stonemason leant closer to the boatman and said, "But... but this boat won't flip, will it?"
Annoyed, the boatman glared at him. "The boat is running fine. How could you say such an inauspicious thing? Of course it won't flip. I was just saying that this is a dangerous part of the river, not that a wave was going to come up right this minute."
But then he sighed and added, "Gentlemen, I don't mean to complain, but I have to be honest. The next part of the river is particularly tricky, and you might want to keep the boatman's advice in mind. No one likes to go out on the river in this weather –– you don't live around here, so you don't know how temperamental the river can be. Whereas we spend all day out here, and practically live on our boats. We can tell how dangerous the water is just by the ripples. And it's like I said, every couple of days, the river fusses. Besides––"
The boatman slowed his speech and, squinting at them, he jostled the flask in his hand. "Why would you choose to go to Anqing Prefecture now? It's not very peaceful over there."
"Not peaceful? What do you mean?" Jiang Shining's married sister lived in Anqing. Hearing this, he frowned anxiously.
"I heard another boatman talk about it the other day." The boatman lowered his voice. "He said that, a few days ago, there was an earthquake in Anqing, and the entire prefecture shook. Worst part is, the earthquake triggered a landslide in the mountain, and someone said that, as their home shook, they heard a dragon coo underground."
A dragon coo...
What an unscary description. He made it sound like the squeaks of a rat in someone's walls.
"It's called a dragon's roar!" Xue Xian corrected angrily. He sat up stiffly. "But hold up. A dragon? That person told you they heard a dragon's roar in Anqing?"
"Yeah!" The boatman nodded vigorously, as though it had been he who had heard the roar. "Apparently it was terrifying. They knelt down right then and there and started kowtowing to the dragon lord. But strangely enough, after a few kowtows, the house stopped shaking and the landslide ended. A few people still died. But here's the weirdest part... the weirdest part is that after the tremors, cracks appeared across town, and something crawled out. I don't know if it was insects or something. I didn't really get that part. Basically, it's crazy over there."
Hearing this, the blood drained from Jiang Shining's face. Although, to be fair, he was a ghost and had never looked that lively in the first place.
After that, everyone on the boat fell into silent thought.
Another half hour later, the boatman finally nocked his boat into the river port of a tiny, unknown part of Anqing named Wanglong County.
The place where they'd docked was called Guanyin Port, and scattered by the riverbank were some old-looking inns, teahouses, and wine halls. With the fierce snowstorm, they couldn't continue –– and the group also had Xue Xian, who could not walk.
Jiang Shining got off the boat and hurried to the nearest teahouse. "Is there somewhere here where we can hire a carriage?"
"Not right now," replied a man who sat holding a cup of tea and sheltering from the snow. "With that landslide a few days ago, the homes mostly held together, but the barns collapsed, and killed a number of horses and mules. Without them, there are of course no carriages. Besides, no one in these parts is even hiring out his mules. Don't bother."
The man had three long, frightening scars on his face, perhaps from being attacked by some animal. His eyelids fluttered as he took a sip of hot tea, then he looked back at Jiang Shining and said, "Where are you headed?"
"Qingping County, to the north," Jiang Shining said.
The scarred man studied him, then asked, "Scholar? Are you here to visit relatives?"
Jiang Shining nodded.
The man put his tea down on the table and jutted his chin out. "And those others are with you?"
Jiang Shining turned and saw that Xuanmin was walking over, carrying the handicapped dragon in his arms. Back at Wolong County, Xue Xian had struggled and fidgeted the whole time, trying to find a position where he didn't look so weak, but had been unable to find one. Now, he seemed to have totally given up...
And beside them walked Stone Zhang, cringing into his coat, and Twenty-Seven, still in a daze.
The group had an old guy, a little guy, and a demon, and they all looked exhausted, like refugees stealing away in the night. Poor Master Xuanmin, Jiang Shining thought. Then he turned and bowed to the scarred man. Jiang Shining needed to talk to Xuanmin: he wanted to suggest that they stay at an inn for the time being, and wait out the snowstorm.
"Don't hold out hope for the snow to stop," the scarred man said, as though reading his mind. He wiped his mouth and picked up a long cloth bundle that he'd been resting against the table, and said, "Come with us. We're passing through Qingping County too."
We?
Jiang Shining was stunned. Then he watched several other customers in the teahouse stood up with the man –– there were eight of nine of them, men and women, old and young.
Xuanmin had been about to cross the teahouse threshold when he overheard the scarred man's words and asked Jiang Shining, "What is it?"
"This kind brother says he can give us a ride," Jiang Shining explained.
The scarred man noticed the black bundle in Xuanmin's arms. He stopped and pointed. "What's underneath this cloth?"
Xuanmin said, "A person."
"Dead?" The scarred man studied that draped head and frowned. "That's an issue. We have elderly people and young'uns. If they see this––"
But before he could finish, Xue Xian, suddenly regretting his death act, lifted the black cloth and purred, "I'm not dead. I'm alive and well."
The scarred man gaped.
Jiang Shining shrank away. He's going to think we're insane, and then he won't let us onboard either.
But that scarred man seemed actually to have a high tolerance for nonsense. He met Xue Xian's eyes, then scanned the dragon's pale skin and looked at Xuanmin's expressionless face. Probably realising such a duo would not make any trouble, he said, "Alright, let's stop hanging around. The snow is going to get worse soon, and then we really won't be able to go."
The scarred man's group had three horse-drawn carriages and one mule-drawn carriage.
The horse-drawn carriages were tiny, and could only fit four people at once. The mule-drawn carriage was for their belongings.
Jiang Shining observed the carriages. He wanted to ask the scarred man what the group was doing, but before he could speak, he felt a slightly warm hand land on his shoulder.
Startled, he turned to see Xuanmin standing beside him, and Xue Xian was the one gripping him.
He watched as the dragon lifted the black cloth from his head to reveal a single eye staring back at him. Xue Xian lifted a finger to his lips and hushed Jiang Shining. In a low voice, he said, "Don't ask, and don't alert them. Get onto the carriage, but don't get too close to them."
Perhaps it was how hoarse, close to a whisper, Xue Xian's tone was, but Jiang Shining felt himself begin to sweat.
