Chapter 22: And Kick Over This World

Stay away from the Chen Imperial Family.

After Murong Qiushui finished saying this, she refused to utter a single word more.

These six characters carried far too much weight. Even as Li Guanyi lay on that broken stone bed, they seemed to echo still at his ears. The Chen Imperial Family — the name itself carried a certain gravity. Added to what his aunt had said, that she could only tell him about the past once they had left the bounds of Chen, the weight grew heavier still.

This stirred up all manner of speculation in Li Guanyi's heart.

Could it be that the one who poisoned me was the Chen Imperial Family?

Or perhaps my father and mother, whom I never met, and my uncle — were they all harmed by the Chen Imperial Family?

Or maybe…

One thought after another surfaced in Li Guanyi's mind.

But no matter which thought it was, none of them were good.

Staying within Chen's borders was a tremendous hidden danger to both his own and his aunt's safety. This wretched place wasn't safe — he'd better get out of here fast. But no matter what, Chen was a great nation under heaven, its systems complete; to an individual it was like a colossal beast, immovable.

Li Guanyi rolled over.

Lying flat, lying on his side — still couldn't sleep.

One matter after another bubbled up in his mind, like bubbles rising in boiling water.

Ten years.

They had been on the run for a full ten years. In those ten years, his aunt had single-handedly raised Li Guanyi from a three-year-old child into a thirteen-year-old youth. And after all that wandering, the distance between them and Chen's border was actually no longer far.

But in truth, there was still a great deal they needed.

They needed a registered household in a major city.

To leave the pass, they also needed a travel permit.

In these years of war, to obtain a permit of the kind needed to leave the country required the vermilion seal of the Pass Office before one could pass through. Outside the pass, iron cavalry with stiff bows patrolled, and any stowaway without a travel pass could be cut down on the spot.

They also needed martial skill and enough gold to establish themselves after leaving Chen.

One thing after another, each one a worry.

Li Guanyi tossed and turned, unable to sleep, as if his body were singing in opposition to his brain. He finally sat up, and with his fingers began to trace lines on the bed covered with a thin layer of cloth. He set out some porcelain bottles and ornaments. An ordinary person would have no clear picture of the state of the world.

Li Guanyi had spent ten years on the run and seen all manner of people; piecing together the scattered fragments of information, he had at least a hazy sense of this world.

The Jiangnan Circuit and part of the Central Plains belonged to Chen.

It held the rivers, possessed natural barriers, and its culture flourished the most. He placed down a piece of silver.

Going north, there was the nation of Ying, which occupied the Central Plains and the north and had seized part of the Jiangnan Circuit.

Grand and majestic, holding the Central Plains and gazing out over all the world — he placed down a large bowl.

Further north, past the mountain passes, lay the vast grasslands, said to be even broader than Chen, and the tribal confederation of the Turkic Tian Kehan, who claimed the title of King of Heavy Cavalry.

Beyond Ying's western pass, the Tuyuhun were also massing their warhorses in the Western Regions — also a great power.

It seemed that between the Tuyuhun and the mighty Turkic tribes there was also a vast stretch of land, a region where countless peoples were mixed together. And where Ying and the Turkic tribes met at the northeast corner, there was also a large region belonging to the Khitan, the Rouran, the Wuluohou, and a host of other foreign peoples.

Spring night had fallen; the starlight was bright.

The youth sat cross-legged on the stone-stacked bed. In the evening breeze came the faint chirping of insects. His dark eyes reflected the ornaments laid out before him. This was the first time the young him had opened his eyes to look upon the full shape of this world.

A chipped clay bowl, a Bai Yu pill bottle, a piece of silver.

The odds and ends were arranged in different patterns.

Haphazard and disordered.

But looking out across them, there lay the world.

All of it gathered into my embrace.

And Li Guanyi looked at the bowls and chopsticks covering his bed, his brow twitching.

The world had been in great turmoil for three hundred years.

The whole world had long since become a pot of congee gone wrong.

The nominal Son of Heaven, the great Emperor, was holed up in Zhongzhou and had long since become nothing but a figurehead.

The foreign tribes fought amongst themselves; Ying in the north, while brawling with the surrounding Turks, Tuyuhun, and Rouran, would also seize the chance to kick Chen viciously. Twelve years ago it had seized the eighteenth prefecture of the Jiangnan Circuit. Yet Chen, facing only Ying to its north and possessing rich and prosperous lands, was on the whole at peace.

Apart from these great powers, in the buffer zones between the major powers there must surely be no shortage of small tribes and minor warlords — not to mention there would certainly be routed soldiers turning to banditry, and on top of that the noble families of the jianghu. No wonder the spirit of wandering knights ran so fierce in this age — it was truly chaotic.

Li Guanyi sat cross-legged here, looking at the 'Map of the World's Situation' laid out before him with bowls and chopsticks.

His brows twisted into a knot, and he cursed: "What a rotten world."

But then he thought — with terrifying strength like General Yue Qianfeng's, who could shatter a mountain peak with a single punch even when gravely wounded, it wasn't hard to understand why this world hadn't been unified in three hundred years.

Li Guanyi settled on his course of action.

In short: first raise his strength, then get money.

Only then could he leave Chen.

Once across the border, he'd need to have a hundred taels on him — no, three hundred taels of silver! Only then would it be safe.

Li Guanyi set himself what, at this moment, seemed a very, very grand goal in his heart. Once his thoughts were sorted out, drowsiness crept over him.

Plop.

The youth fell back, limbs spread wide, his eyes gazing at the weeds poking through the roof.

Sleep came over him.

He stretched out his body. Let out a lazy stretch.

His fists would overthrow Chen; his feet would kick open the Turks.

He turned over to sleep.

And with one kick, he toppled this 'world.'

The side couch was empty.

……………………

After Li Guanyi woke up, although he had been thinking wild thoughts the night before, because he carried top-grade inner cultivation, his spirit was still full. He bought some cheaper pastries, and when moving, gave them to the surrounding neighbors as farewell gifts, then went to rent an ox cart and hauled all his things to the new residence.

The courtyard was not large, but it was tidy; the wellhead was built up with clean green bricks into a small platform.

Upon entering the gate was the main house, with two bedrooms; on the left side there was also a guest room, while on the right was the kitchen and a storeroom. Not far from the well was a small cellar. The tables and chairs were sturdy wooden furniture, coated with a layer of lacquer to prevent worms. It faced the street, and was not far from the various shops.

In Yicheng, this was a place very suitable for living—neither overly extravagant nor lacking in dignity, the sort of place where decent families resided. It was worth mentioning that the cart driver Zhao Da Bing had even made a special trip driving over; it was a Xue family carriage, bearing the Xue family's distinctive fittings.

Li Guanyi noticed that the neighbors, who previously had looked at him with appraising eyes because Li Guanyi and his aunt Murong Qiushui had just moved in, now had the expressions on their faces softening at an astonishing speed, filling with goodwill.

Li Guanyi and his aunt ate their first meal in the new home.

A fish was stewed plain, two vegetable dishes were stir-fried, and there was plain white rice.

In the afternoon, Li Guanyi changed into new clothes—a blue robe with a leather belt, a jade pendant hanging at his waist, his brow clear and bright.

He strode off toward the Xue residence.

Although Yicheng occupied a sizable area, there were two kinds of news that spread very quickly: the first was news about people connected to oneself, and the second was news about the Xue family.

So the news that Li Guanyi, who had only recently been let go, had already found new work at the Xue residence and moved to a new home quickly spread through the Huichun Hall. Some of the shop assistants felt regret, cursing themselves for not having built a good relationship with Li Guanyi earlier, while others planned to pay him a visit and cozy up.

Only the old Shopkeeper flipped through his medical texts, his face like a withered old wooden rooster, motionless.

Physician Chen had wolfberries steeping in his tea cup, basking in the sun, and said leisurely: "Let me tell you something strange today."

The old Shopkeeper said: "Go ahead."

Physician Chen said: "I heard that when the young master went back yesterday, the old master hung him up and gave him a beating. The leather belt at his waist was broken in two, and he wailed for his father and mother, crying the whole night long."

"Where's the strange part?"

Physician Chen laughed: "In the end, the young master's mother cried and made a fuss to have him let down, and they called for a physician to take a look."

"Hey, guess what? Just flesh wounds."

Physician Chen slapped his thigh and laughed heartily: "He was whipped the whole night through, beaten until the pain was nearly killing him, but in the end he didn't suffer a single broken bone or torn sinew. The old master's medical skill is still sharp; and the old master's way of being a person—well, that's this."

Physician Chen gave a thumbs-up and said: "Too bad he sired a worthless son."

The old Shopkeeper didn't care about any of this at all.

Physician Chen said: "Li Guanyi has prospects. All the shop assistants in our Huichun Hall are thinking of cozying up to him. You helped him out—aren't you going to go see him?"

The old Shopkeeper said: "Not going."

Physician Chen laughed in spite of himself: "You're a strange one, you are. When others avoid a person, you go up to them, spend your own money and don't mind; but when everyone else is rushing up to them, you act as if you can't see them. Tell me about yourself."

The old Shopkeeper's eyes were dark and small. He had worn his grey robe for a long time, and it was dusted with white ash. He said: "When a child's life is hard, helping him out a little when you can is a rule of the heart. This rule of my heart is for myself; it's not for waiting until he makes his fortune and then rushing up to him. The more others want to rush up to him, the more I want to stay away from him, afraid he'll come to thank me."

Physician Chen laughed in spite of himself, cursed with a laugh: "What a stubborn old bone."

The old Shopkeeper neither agreed nor disagreed. When the afternoon work ended, he still ambled over to that little restaurant and ordered a cup of one-coin wine, but the fat Shopkeeper there brought out a different, better cup. The old Shopkeeper frowned: "Wrong cup."

"What wrong cup? It's not wrong, not wrong."

The fat Shopkeeper laughed: "It's from that child you brought here before. And there's this—here."

He brought over a jar of fine wine and said: "That child came by today and left this jar of wine with me to store, said it was for you."

The old Shopkeeper was stunned. The restaurant owner laughed:

"You two are quite something. You wrote him a letter of recommendation, gave him a month's wages, didn't speak of helping him, didn't look down on him, and didn't make him owe you a favor. He gave you a jar of aged fine wine, didn't speak of thanks, no namby-pamby gratitude or promises, no stink of silver passing back and forth."

"No entanglements, no roundabout business, but damn it, it's straightforward and clean, full of feeling and righteousness."

"The chivalrous spirit of us common folk in the marketplace is just about this much."

The old Shopkeeper listened to the restaurant owner laugh heartily.

He picked up that ten-coin cup of wine, tilted his head back and drank it down, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.

It was good wine.

It had a fierce, bold spirit.

Intoxicating.

………………

Li Guanyi was walking along the road when he suddenly saw a crowd gathered ahead.

He glimpsed splendidly-dressed imperial riders through the crowd, and saw them paste up a scroll, shouting: "There is one fugitive, coming from outside. Anyone who sees traces of him will be rewarded with silver!"

A fugitive?!!

Li Guanyi's footsteps paused.

Could it be that General Yue Qianfeng has returned?

(End of this chapter)