"Between those huge rocks, countless thin wires were connected, forming a deadly yet silent net underneath the water. If someone entered the water, it was likely that they would be instantly turned into minced meat by that huge net."
Zhou Fei and Li Sheng walked towards Xi Mo River, one in front and the other in the back. The two grew up in the 48 Strongholds, each making mischief, and they both had their own methods of avoiding the patrols. Sometimes Zhou Fei couldn't figure out if she was just unsociable or that she had inherited the familial trait of not being likable from Li Jinrong. She and Li Sheng were around the same age, grew up together and became apprentices of Li Jinrong to learn martial arts. Even though they weren't rivalry-free, innocent playmates, they were at least childhood playmates [1]. However, Li Sheng was smooth and slick to outsiders, winning over the disciples in all of the sects in the 48 Strongholds; only with her, it was as if they had ill-matched ba-zi [2], both looking at each other with dislike. Other than veiled polite remarks and verbal tit for tat, the two of them seemed to have nothing else to talk about, not even when they both hit bottlenecks in martial arts—any cooperation was in front of Li Jinrong and privately, they each went their separate ways with no exchange whatsoever.
As Zhou Fei's imagination ran wild, they had already arrived by the Xi Mo River. A gust of wind cut a small sliver into the dark, cloudy night sky; the moonlight that leaked out probably couldn't even fill up half a bowl. Pouring onto the Xi Mo River, the moonlight was like crushed gold and immediately flowed into the river and off into the distance. When one looked down from the shore, they would feel slightly dizzy.
Zhou Fei heard some rustling sounds from beside her and turned her head. From his waist, Li Sheng untied a travelling bag, first pulling out a coil of rope before taking out an iron claw that would help with climbing up and down; it was evident that he had come prepared. Zhou Fei aimlessly glanced into his bag but suddenly paused, asking: "How come you brought a change of clothes?"
Li Sheng halted momentarily before continuing to repack his bag, placing it on his back—his not-large bag didn't only have daily changes of clothes but also travelling money, medicine and a book of travel notes. Zhou Fei wasn't dull-witted and immediately realized that the reason Li Sheng decided to challenge the Xi Mo River at night wasn't because he had nothing to do—he actually wanted to leave the 48 Strongholds and had been planning to for a long time.
She couldn't help but stand a bit straighter, asking in astonishment: "You want to leave?"
Zhou Fei had always felt that Li Da Gongzi was the real "beloved child" of the 48 Strongholds. The former Stronghold leader had died due to the dark schemes of the fake imperial court and Da Dang Jia (Li Jinrong) had to take up the leadership of the 48 Strongholds at age seventeen. At that time, lion and wolfs spied on the outside and the 48 elderly Stronghold leaders each schemed on the inside [3]. In those early days, she acted as the pot lid, covering this pot all by herself. But then the pot would boil and as time went on, she developed her emotionless killing without hesitation attitude. She already had a bad temper and so became even less easy to get along with. Even many elders in the Stronghold would quiver in her presence. If you turned Li Jinrong upside down and wrung her out, you could probably extract two drops of gentle patience—one drop for Zhou Yitang and the other for the Li siblings.
Li Sheng had an extremely high standing in the 48 Strongholds and knew how to conduct himself. Wherever he went, there was a large crowd. Zhou Fei suspected that even if he turned into a big centipede with eighty to a hundred feet, it still wasn't enough for those henchmen to rush to lift him up with praise. What had made this shaoye (young master) unsatisfied, making him determined to sneak out at night and run away from home?
Li Sheng remained silent for a while before replying with a "Mn".
"That's weird, even a tret picked up from a grave like me hasn't thought of running away from home, but you're already all prepared." Zhou Fei said with a bit of sarcasm, "Did you get in line?"
"I'm not the same as you." Li Sheng didn't want to say more to her and found a concealed area, minding his own business. He tied a rope knot and lowered it down the cliff wall. The end of the rope hid in the darkness of the Xi Mo River and quickly vanished.
In Li Sheng's perspective, Zhou Fei was Li Jinrong's biological child and the beating and scolding she received was a part of being her biological child. Li Jinrong treated Zhou Fei like a small tree that required strict trimming; if she grew even slightly crooked, there would be no hesitation in chopping it off—this was hoping to chop her into a useful person. But him?
He was trapped in this tiny area that was surrounded by mountains. Everyone who saw him would address him as "Li gongzi" and the zhangbei (elders) would even add to it with the words "has the air of his deceased father". His entire being was marked with the stamp of the short-lived Li Er Ye and he depended on someone else for a living as an "inheritance"…probably as an averagely talented chicken rib inheritance. [4]
"[His] talent wouldn't be considered as amazing, but that's nothing major as we can go slowly". Those words sounded so tolerant they were akin to tenderness, but if you thought carefully, who had Li Da Dang Jia ever been tolerant to? To say those kinds of words clearly meant that she just had no more hopes for him. When Li Sheng thought about that, he ground his teeth, hooked the iron claw to his wrist and without turning back, climbed down the cliff wall.
Zhou Fei: "Ai…" [5] (ai = *sigh*)
Before the sound of her voice faded away, Li Sheng had already left.
Once he went down, Li Sheng realized that both of them had underestimated the cliff walls on the two sides of Xi Mo River. In particular, the very beginning of the path was too smooth, almost like it was covered with a layer of ice; there were barely any spots to push off. Li Sheng's feet stepped on empty air and he bumped into the cliff wall, causing the dagger on his waist to fall down and land with a crisp, ringing sound. This sudden noise scared both of them and Zhou Fei, who was on the cliff, and Li Sheng, who was hanging mid-air, firmly grabbed and held onto the dangling rope at the same time.
The torches of the mountain patrols immediately lit up. Seeing that the rope was tied pretty securely, Zhou Fei let it go and bent down to hide behind a huge rock. Her bone structure was small and would form a tiny ball when curled up; she could even fit through a doghole.
The two of them were lucky and also chose a good spot. The patrol checked the nearby area and didn't find anything strange. After a long while, Zhou Fei left her hiding place. She looked down and saw that Li Sheng had already climbed down several tens of zhang [6], swinging back and forth in the river wind like a falling leaf.
Zhou Fei stood at the edge of the cliff by herself and patiently waited for a while, the idea of seeing the world outside floating into her mind for the first time.
At the 48 Strongholds, people commonly came to seek refuge, talking about the events outside. Some were soul-stirring, some were cruel and wretched, some were exceedingly sentimental and some were tragically heartbreaking—what did the outside look like?
This weed-like idea could be let go if it never emerged, but once it did, it immediately broke through the soil, took root and sprouted. Zhou Fei stood up and lightly lifted the rope Li Sheng had placed down the cliff. She felt that the rope was now empty and casually pulled out a strip of cloth, pulling her long hair back. With one hand, she grabbed the rope and jumped down without hesitation.
Learning from Li Sheng's lesson, Zhou Fei didn't even touch the slippery cliff wall. She was much lighter than Li Sheng and slid down the rope with a light, fast movement like a willow catkin spinning in the wind. By the time she was over halfway down, the sound of the water was already so loud enough it filled up their ears. Li Sheng stopped at a rock on the cliff that could only fit one person, judging the surging waters in front of him with a furrowed brow.
Zhou Fei lowered the rope to its end, wrapping it around her wrist. She didn't rest her feet anywhere, hanging above the river with one arm, thinking: would they seriously have to swim across?
As those two troublesome children planned to run away from home, Li Jinrong walked swiftly into the ancestral hall. [7]
In the hall, a white-haired elderly person stood under the ancestral tablet of "The Passed Li Gonghui Peilin", holding sticks of incense with two hands. Seeing this, Li Jinrong wordlessly stepped to the side. Once the elderly person finished paying his respects, Li Jinrong walked up and greeted: "shishu." [8]
The elderly person gestured for her to rise and looked around, showing an expression of "a leaf got stuck in his molar and couldn't be picked out no matter what he did". Puffing and blowing, he organized the disorderly mats in the ancestral hall and rolled up his sleeves, planning to clean up the layer of incense dust on the table.
The corners of Li Jinrong's eyes twitched and she rushed up, saying: "Let me do it."
"Go away, go away," the old gentleman pulled her to the side, "You all have a habit of leaving everything dirty and messy, don't add to my troubles."
Li Jinrong could only stand on the side with her hands in her sleeves, watching the old gentleman busily clean up the incense table and even readjusting the distance between the ancestral tablets. She asked: "Has shishu's injury gotten better?"
"It's fine, I won't die from coming up shore for a bit." The elderly person said, "Today is March fifteenth, I'm here to visit your father."
This person was the rumored extremely mysterious Yu Lao [9] of Xi Mo River.
Yu Lao carelessly said: "I saw that people in the Stronghold were very orderly in their goings and everyone had their own jobs; it's clear that you're a pretty good Da Dang Jia."
"I can just barely manage them," Li Jinrong's face held no happiness, "Have you heard the rumors outside?"
Yu Lao re-organized everything in the hall; once everything was tidy, he was finally able to take a deep breath. He placed both hands in his sleeves, turned his head and smiled at Li Jinrong, saying: "Since they're rumors, why would I listen to them?"
Li Jinrong lowered her voice and said: "They're all saying that Cao Zhongkun is very sick, he may be done for."
"Wouldn't it be perfect if he died?" Yu Lao said, "I remember when you brought others along and angrily charged into the Bei Du when you were young. Even three thousand imperial guards couldn't stop you all and almost allowed you little demons to kill that Cao thief, scaring that old ignorant man so much he almost peed his pants. If it weren't for those seven dogs of his, Cao thief would've already lost his soul under a sword. Why is it that hearing that he's about to die, you've begun to panic?"
Li Jinrong smiled bitterly: "Times change, even with this mere rumor, people in the Stronghold have become anxious. This news may not even be true. I'm afraid [of]…"
Yu Lao lifted his eyes and looked at her: "Afraid of trouble?"
Li Jinrong paused, neither admitting nor denying, only ambiguously saying with a smile: "It may be that I've grown old."
Yu Lao didn't like to hear the word "old" and "hmph"-ed with dissatisfaction—even his beard moved up. Yet before he was able to say anything, a patrolling disciple could be heard outside, shouting: "Da Dang Jia!"
Li Jinrong turned her head to see an "object" rush towards her like a cannon, diving into her arms.
"A-Yan?" Li Jinrong was shocked, "What happened to you?"
Li Yan had thought the "night visitation to Xi Mo River" that Li Sheng had said was just an in-the-moment provocation. Seeing that Zhou Fei didn't accept, she thought everything was alright.
Who knew that on the night of the fifteenth, she discovered for the first time the odd wordless agreement between her enemy-like brother and cousin that she didn't understand—only when Li Yan saw Li Sheng pack a bag did she realize that not only was he going to go, he was going to use this opportunity to leave the 48 Strongholds!
Because Li Yan was an unmovable tattle-tale who didn't budge at any persuasion or coercion, Li Sheng captured her before he left and tied her up in her room just in case. When she couldn't be found in the daytime, naturally there would be people looking for her anyway. But Li Sheng was her biological brother after all; afraid that she would be hurt by the rope, he used two ropes—he used a thin and soft rope to tie her up before tying a rougher, thicker rope on the soft rope, tying her to the bedpost.
Yet he underestimated Li Yan's enthusiasm to tattle-tale and a young girl's flexibility.
After her annoying brother left, Li Yan began to twist and turn in place and was able to twist herself out of the rough rope on the outer ring. She couldn't get rid of the rope tied around her and the material shoved in her mouth and maintained this silkworm-like image as she hopped outside. After a while, she was tired from hopping and decided to just roll on the ground. A patrolling disciple had thought a wild hog was approaching his way and even pulled out his sword. Just as he was about to make a cut, he shockingly saw the "wild hog" stop at his feet, exposing the edge of a persimmon red dress and rushed to untie and rescue her.
Covered with dust, Li Yan finally saw her relative Li Jinrong and immediately sucked in a deep breath and clearly shouted the information she had kept quiet on for the entire night: "Li Sheng that big jerk egged A-Fei to go to Xi Mo River! He planned to run away from home and when I said I would tell Eldest Aunt, he tied me up!"
Li Jinrong was a bit lost: "What?"
Li Yan wiped her tears: "Aunt, they all say the Yu Lao in the river is actually a big catfish spirit. If they get caught, will they be rinsed in a pot and eaten?"
Yu Lao rolled up his sleeves, coughing dryly on the side.
Li Yan realized just now that there was someone beside them and lifted her head, looking at this short elderly man. Rather embarrassed, she came out of Li Jinrong's arms, greeting extremely politely: "Hello grandfather [10], who are you?"
All smiles, Grandfather replied: "Big catfish spirit."
Li Yan: "..."
Li JinRong was so angered by those two stupid children that her chest hurt. She then heard Yu Lao say with seriousness: "Jinrong, don't be busy being angry right now, go assign several people and find those two children without delay. Tonight I came up onto the shore and no one is guarding the Xi Mo River; the 'Qian Ji' at the heart of the river is turned on."
Li JinRong's expression suddenly changed. She turned around and left quickly.
—
牵机 Qian Ji – 牵: pull, 机: a trigger mechanism
鱼老 Yu Lao – 鱼: fish but in this case a surname, 老: Elder
—
[1] 两小无猜 liang xiao wu cai ,"rivalry-free, innocent playmates": a boy and girl who play together, pure and innocent, not having any suspicion or jealousy between them.
青梅竹马 qing mei zhu ma, "childhood playmates": a boy and girl who grew up together, starting at a young age, possibly becoming a couple and marrying as they get older. In this case, Zhou Fei and Li Sheng have grown up together essentially since they were born. The latter part doesn't always happen and doesn't apply to them….after all, Zhou Fei has someone else who will be her significant other…I wonder who that will be…(but also they're cousins which was fine in the ancient times but for us readers that's a big fat nope)
[2] 八字 ba zi: the "Four Pillars of Destiny", as known as "Ba-Zi", which means "eight characters" or "eight words" in Chinese, is a Chinese astrological concept that a person's destiny or fate can be divined by the two sexagenary cycle characters assigned to their birth year, month, day, and hour. (Wikipedia) For more information, read the full Wikipedia page.
[3] "lion and wolfs spied on the outside and the 48 elderly Stronghold leaders each schemed on the inside" refers to how there were people spying and scheming on the outside yet at the same time, the elderly Stronghold leaders were plotting for power. In other words, both external and internal strife for the 48 Strongholds.
[4] 鸡肋 ji lei "chicken rib": this is a literary figurative, referring to things of little value hat one still hesitates to discard. In this case, Li Sheng is saying that he is an inheritance (inherited by Li Jinrong from her brother, Li Sheng's father) that is of little value but can't be discarded.
[5] 哎 ai: this is an onomatopoeia that is the equivalent to a sigh in this scenario. Sometimes varies based on usage and pairing but acts as a sigh here.
[6] 丈 zhang: a Chinese unit of length, equal to 3.333 meters
[7] 祠堂 ci tang, "ancestral hall": an ancestral shrine, hall or temple, also called lineage temple, is a Chinese temple dedicated to deified ancestors and progenitors of surname lineages or families in the Chinese traditional religion. (Wikipedia) Filial piety is the "religion" of sorts in Ancient China and so honoring and worshiping ancestors is an extremely important ceremony and part of life.
[8] 师叔 shi shu: the shixiong of your shifu. Since your shifu becomes a father to you and the disciple "community" is like a family, just like how the brother of your parent is your 叔叔, the brother of your shifu is your shishu.
[9] 老 lao: literally meaning 'old', here it is used as an honorific title for the elderly.
[10] The usage of "grandpa" here is an honorific title, just like how every female becomes your younger/older sister (妹妹 mei mei or 姐姐 jie jie), aunt (阿姨 a yi) or grandma (奶奶 nai nai) and every male become your younger/older brother (弟弟 di di or 哥哥 ge ge), uncle (叔叔 shu shu) or grandpa (爷爷 ye ye). These are just the basic ones, there are more variations for different generations/the relationship of the people with your parents. In this particular case, the title is 老公公 lao gong gong (老 means old) which is one of the ways children address elderly males.