Nanjing City had indeed been thrown into an uproar.
Before dawn the next day, Xie Yilu left the city to take a look. Before he had even passed Taiping Gate, he encountered Qu Feng’s sedan. In Qu Feng’s own words, “It’s just cutting down some trees. How did it cause such a huge commotion?”
All along the road, common people came in an endless stream—those coming to sign and affix their seals, those coming to watch the spectacle, and those taking the opportunity to do business. There were countless of them. From the city gate all the way to the pear tree grove, people had put up stalls to make pancakes and were hawking water. The bustle was no different from that inside the city.
The sedan was difficult to carry through the crowds, so Qu Feng simply got down and walked alongside Xie Yilu. On both sides of the road were the barriers put up by the Imperial Textile Bureau, with an armed eunuch standing every few paces. Xie Yilu did not tell Qu Feng about what had happened the previous night. Looking at the situation now, there was no need for the Ministry of War to send troops. The common people themselves could overturn the entire Imperial Textile Bureau’s setup.
The one still holding down the scene was the same imposing Jurchen, Yishiha, from last time. The eunuchs responsible for handling the signatures on both sides were dark-skinned eunuchs from Annam. Xie Yilu spotted Ruan Dian at once. He held his sheathed sword in his arms, looking fully prepared for battle. This man was rather interesting; his likes and dislikes were written plainly across his face. The moment he saw Xie Yilu, he immediately glared at him viciously. He was a straightforward sort.
Those who went first to sign were all ordinary commoners—people with no money, no connections, and no power. Xie Yilu and Qu Feng watched from within the crowd as they pressed their fingerprints onto the documents through tears. Then, hesitating and somewhat timidly, they took the money extorted by the eunuchs from their waist pouches and carefully placed it on the documents.
“Next!”
The eunuch handling the signatures shouted at the top of his lungs. These people, whose property had been unjustly taken from them, were shoved and driven down from the high platform like livestock.
“This is going too far.”
Xie Yilu was about to go argue with them when Qu Feng caught him by the wrist and stopped him.
Just then, someone behind them began forcefully pushing through the crowd. Xie Yilu happened to glance over and was astonished to see Zhang Cai, whom he had encountered at Lingfu Temple.
“Get back here!”
Ruan Dian suddenly roared from the high platform.
Xie Yilu and Qu Feng turned around. It turned out that Yishiha had jumped down from the platform and was pushing against the flow of people toward them.
Almost at the same moment, someone shot past Xie Yilu with a “whoosh” and blocked Zhang Cai’s path.
Because he was so close, Xie Yilu recognized him. He was that Annamese youth who had threatened him with a knife last time. Xie Yilu remembered his blade—it was absurdly long.
Zhang Cai stopped moving forward. He warily and silently faced the youth.
Both of them were children, yet both wore the faces of adults.
Xie Yilu turned his head toward Qu Feng.
“Aren’t these two both Liao Jixiang’s men?”
“Yes.” Qu Feng was puzzled too. “The Imperial Textile Bureau isn’t like Zheng Xian. Usually they don’t show their hand or reveal their strength. They’re difficult to see through.”
“Aliu, get out of the way!”
Yishiha hurried over.
The common people were like a helpless wave, knocked this way and that by the huge man. He was a gust of fierce wind, a raging tide, and in the blink of an eye he had swept to them. He seized Zhang Cai’s hand tightly.
“Why did you come here?!”
Zhang Cai was only as tall as his shoulder. Drawing close, he looked as though he wanted to throw himself into Yishiha’s arms.
“I came to see you.”
“Go back quickly.” Yishiha did not release his hand. “This place is chaotic. Besides, if your brother finds out…”
“I’m not afraid of him finding out.”
Zhang Cai rose onto his toes and looked over Yishiha’s shoulder at Aliu.
“I’m afraid you’ll suffer because you’re following these Annamese barbarians.”
Very quickly, Aliu swung the knife behind his back.
He was about to draw it.
Yishiha immediately turned around. His large hand slammed down over the hand gripping the sword. Aliu tried to pull the blade free, but he could not. He looked back toward Ruan Dian on the platform.
By then, Ruan Dian had already crouched down, watching the scene like a show. Slowly, he shook his head.
Aliu released his grip. Yishiha released his as well.
The long blade slid down Aliu’s young yet powerful back, swung once at his waist, then became still.
Yishiha took Zhang Cai by the hand and led him back. Xie Yilu and Qu Feng, along with all the nearby commoners, instinctively stepped aside.
Zhang Cai kept turning his head to stare at the high platform.
Suddenly he asked, “Why are those people who are signing being made to pay money?”
Yishiha said nothing.
“Yishiha.”
For some reason, Zhang Cai suddenly became angry.
“Why are they being made to pay money?!”
“A-Cai…”
Yishiha looked troubled.
Zhang Cai abruptly shook off his hand.
“If the Governor finds out…”
He stopped himself.
He probably realized that some things could not be said here.
Xie Yilu keenly seized on those words.
Could it be that Liao Jixiang did not know about the eunuchs extorting money?
Wasn’t he the one who had ordered the trees to be cut down?
Zhang Cai refused to leave. He turned around and pushed his way forward again. Yishiha chased after him, guarding him like a precious treasure.
A man as enormous as he was had been completely mastered by this delicate child.
Indeed, every eunuch handling the signatures was collecting money. The common people were clearly furious yet suppressed.
Among them was an old man of sixty or seventy. His face and hands were covered in dense wrinkles. Poverty and hard labor had reduced his body to skin and bone, his skin black and shiny. Beneath his ragged clothes, only one foot had a shoe.
He was just about to put his money on the table.
Zhang Cai was two lines of people away from him. He suddenly shoved the people aside and charged through. Those who were knocked into cursed him.
The old man’s money had already left his hand.
In midair, Zhang Cai caught the handful of copper coins with one hand. With a clatter, he slapped every last coin back into the old man’s hand.
“Go.”
He gently pushed the old man.
The eunuch handling the signatures sprang to his feet.
“Brother Cai!”
Zhang Cai shot him a sharp sideways glare.
“Do you have the right to speak here?”
Yishiha grabbed him around his slender waist from behind.
Ruan Dian, holding his sword, slowly walked over.
“Zhang Cai, the Governor ordered me to handle the tree cutting. Why are you Koreans sticking your noses into this?”
Zhang Cai glared at him furiously.
He was obviously enraged, yet because of that childish face of his, he looked almost as though he were about to cry.
He pulled two silver leaves from his sash and slammed them onto the table with a thunk.
“Is this enough?!”
Ruan Dian frowned at him, looking somewhat embarrassed.
Then he suddenly laughed and turned to Yishiha.
“Guardian Vajra, aren’t you going to take your family’s living Bodhisattva away?”
Yishiha reached out.
Zhang Cai resisted fiercely, shaking his shoulder away.
“I can walk by myself!”
He took two steps, then stopped and looked back at Ruan Dian on the high platform.
“If you keep doing this, something will happen!”
Ruan Dian acted as though he had not heard him. He walked with measured steps toward the other side of the platform.
Yishiha followed Zhang Cai, trying to persuade him. Zhang Cai pushed him away again and again.
Xie Yilu watched as the child stormed forward, his left hand gripping the sword at his waist.
Suddenly, a stone flew from somewhere.
With a sharp crack, it struck his temple.
He did not even cry out. His body collapsed to the ground as though every tendon and bone had been severed.
Yishiha rushed forward like a madman.
Trembling, he turned Zhang Cai over and saw that his left temple had been split open, blood flowing all over the ground.
Ruan Dian saw it from above. He drew his sword and viciously threw the scabbard to the ground.
“Damn it! Who did this?! Find the bastard!”
His men immediately sprang into action. Those carrying swords drew them.
Judging from the direction the stone had come from, it had been thrown by someone among the two rows of people Zhang Cai had shoved aside earlier.
Aliu charged straight toward that group of unruly civilians.
Seeing that the eunuchs were about to use force, the common people also grabbed whatever weapons they could find.
The scene descended into chaos in an instant.
Xie Yilu pushed forward after Aliu. Seeing him charge in, Qu Feng followed him into the vortex.
Jintang lifted his sleeves. A large brush saturated with thick ink swept and rolled across the white xuan paper.
Beside him, a little eunuch grinding the ink clapped his hands in admiration.
“Grandfather, what beautiful calligraphy! Such lively, upright characters!”
Jintang set down the brush, quite pleased with himself.
“Imitating the Governor’s calligraphy and copying a couple of strokes from The Great Treasure Admonition really is satisfying!”
He turned his hand, intending to press his leisure seal.
A fireman hurried in from outside. He swallowed and said,
“Grandfather, go take a look! Brother Cai’s head has been smashed open!”
Jintang’s face instantly went white.
For a moment, he seemed completely flustered. The hand holding up his sleeve loosened, and his broad silk sleeve fell straight into the inkstone, staining the entire sleeve black.
Supported by two little eunuchs on either side, he staggered to Zhang Cai’s door.
He pushed it open.
Yishiha rose from beside the bed.
The moment Jintang saw him, his face stiffened.
Standing in the doorway, he held out his hand, palm upward.
The little fireman stepped into the room, took a feather duster from a porcelain vase, and respectfully placed it in his hand.
Jintang gripped the duster backward, rushed over, and struck Yishiha dozens of times in succession. Only when he had run out of strength did he throw the duster to the floor.
“Get out!”
Yishiha kept his head lowered the entire time.
“The north of the city is in chaos,” he muttered.
Jintang’s cheek twitched.
“I know.”
Yishiha turned and left.
Jintang kicked the feather duster away and shouted furiously,
“From now on, that Jurchen is not allowed into this room!”
“Brother…”
Zhang Cai woke up and called softly.
Jintang hurried over and took his little hand. He did not dare look directly at his injury. The scrap of cloth temporarily wrapped around his head and the dried blood on it nearly made him cry.
“I told you not to go. I told you not to go, but you just wouldn’t listen!”
Zhang Cai said nothing. His little hand scratched lightly at Jintang’s palm now and then, and Jintang’s heart softened.
“I only went to take a look.”
Zhang Cai pouted like a spoiled child.
“I was afraid they’d bully him.”
Jintang was helpless.
“He’s that huge. Who could bully him?”
“He’s good to me. They’ll make things difficult for him.”
Jintang was exasperated.
“What do you mean, ‘he’s good to you’? Do you even understand what it means for someone to be good to you?”
Zhang Cai’s lips trembled, and he really began to cry.
“It means… I think about him, and he thinks about me. That’s the kind of good.”
Jintang stroked his hair and wiped his tears.
Zhang Cai half-buried his face in the quilt.
“It really hurts, Brother.”
Jintang sighed.
“Think about Gansu. Then it won’t hurt.”
Zhang Cai closed his eyes and nodded.
Yes. Think of Gansu.
Endless yellow sand, pools of blood, fallen warhorses, corpses burning and bursting apart…
Jintang knew he had remembered those things. He tightened his grip on Zhang Cai’s hand.
“Cai, Yishiha is following the Annamese. He isn’t one of us.”
Zhang Cai complained,
“He didn’t want to follow the Annamese. You were the one who didn’t want him.”
“He’s a Jurchen. How could I take him in?”
“Then why could Ruan Dian take him?”
Zhang Cai spoke softly.
“Everyone says… they say Ruan Dian is more broad-minded than you.”
The thing Jintang hated hearing most was that Ruan Dian was better than him.
His delicate face instantly hardened.
“Yishiha can’t read or write. How could I possibly respect him?”
His voice turned cold, and so did his entire demeanor. Irritated, he turned his back.
“Following those Annamese who do nothing but fight and kill is exactly suited to his temperament!”
Zhang Cai gently tugged at his clothes.
Jintang ignored him.
So Zhang Cai said,
“Brother, those Annamese always want to suppress us. I know things are difficult for you…”
Jintang turned back to him, his expression gentle once more. He soothingly patted his hand.
“Remember this. No matter when it is, never sacrifice yourself for someone else. Even if that person is someone whose life is at stake, you still mustn’t.”
Zhang Cai lowered his eyes.
After a long while, he said,
“Yishiha wouldn’t.”
Jintang gave a cold laugh.
“Silly child!”
He rose to leave, but Zhang Cai grabbed him.
“Brother, Ruan Dian and the others are demanding money from the common people.”
Jintang was not surprised in the slightest. He nodded, indicating that he knew.
His eyes accidentally fell on the cloth wrapped around Zhang Cai’s head. It was the hem of a man’s inner robe, made of poor-quality fabric—not something their eunuchs would use.
“Who wrapped your head?”
“I don’t know.”
Zhang Cai looked drowsy.
“Yishiha said it was an official.”
“An official?”
Jintang did not believe it.
“A minor official,” Zhang Cai said. “Yishiha had seen him before. He’s new to Nanjing. I don’t know his name.”
Jintang tucked the quilt around him, like a gentle mother.
“Be good. Go to sleep.”
Xie Yilu had injured his hand. Most of his left arm could no longer move.
Today, the common people had truly fought back. Hoes and rakes had all been brought out. Yet the Imperial Textile Bureau still arrested people. Once people were locked up, the commoners quieted down.
But Xie Yilu knew this was merely the calm before a sudden storm.
Behind it, an enormous wave was probably waiting.
He arrived at Lingfu Temple toward evening.
At first glance, the stone lantern seemed empty.
Unwilling to give up, he reached inside and felt around.
He pulled out a small bamboo fan.
It had a narrow face and a slender handle. Slowly opening it, he saw a colored painting: half a boneless folded-paper plum blossom.
He turned it over.
On the other side, in 柳-style gilded calligraphy, were four characters:
汝作舟楫
“You shall be the oar and boat.”
“汝作…舟楫?”
Xie Yilu read it aloud in surprise.
This was different from before.
It was not the idle poetic flirtation of someone with nothing better to do. It seemed much more like an expression of genuine feeling.
Those words made Xie Yilu feel that perhaps the person had encountered some difficulty, while he himself was a little boat upon that person’s heart, capable of carrying him across Xiaoya Jin and through Kuaizai Village.
I want to see him!
Xie Yilu had never wanted to see someone so desperately, never been tormented by longing to such a degree.
He desperately wished he could see him right now.
One sentence kept circling through his mind as though his thoughts were burning. For a moment, he could not find brush and ink to write it down.
He wanted to ask:
We have known each other for so long in dreams; can we meet in this mortal world?