Li Guanqi kept his head lowered, his body trembling in spite of himself. Medicinal herbs in hand, he stood where he was and did not dare move.
But the man saw at a glance those eyes of Li Guanqi's that had not been covered.
The man's face darkened. One slap sent Li Guanqi sprawling to the ground!
Smack!
"Damn it! How many times have I told you to keep your eyes covered!"
"You ill-omened little wretch!"
"The moment I see those eyes, I lose money! Sooner or later I'll gouge them out of you!"
Seeing the herbs scattered all over the floor, Li Dashan's fury burned hotter still. He drove several vicious kicks into Li Guanqi.
He roared, "Did you spend money on medicine?!"
"Did you? Did you!"
The boy had perhaps lived through scenes like this countless times. Hands clasped over his head, he curled his body in on itself as tightly as he could.
Li Guanqi's eyes were numb. He only hoped this beating would end soon.
Three years ago, when they had fled the famine to seek refuge with this distant uncle, days like a living hell had begun.
Lying on the ground, the boy shielded the scattered herbs tightly beneath himself.
The woman on the heated brick bed heard the noise and came stumbling over. She pushed Li Dashan aside, crying, "Don't hit him... don't hit the child..."
At that, Li Dashan snatched up a wooden plank beside him and smashed it down on the woman's head!
Bang!
"Nothing but a sickly waste! What the hell is there to spend money treating! Just die and be done with it!"
"If I'd known, I should have sent you to the Zhao Manor as a servant too. Dead, you'd have brought in even more compensation!"
Blood slid slowly down from the woman's forehead, yet she still shielded the boy with all her strength, pleading over and over, "Don't hit the child."
Li Guanqi suddenly felt a touch of warmth, sticky, on his face.
Blood...
Realizing what it was, the boy's face slowly twisted into something savage!
He struggled free of the woman's arms with all his might and, relying on familiar memory, seized the kitchen knife from the chopping board in an instant!
For the first time, he roared at this uncle in fury.
"Shut up!! If not for your craving for drink and your ruinous gambling, how would our family have come to this!!"
"How else would Mother's illness have been put off again and again!! How else would Elder Sister have been sold by you to the Zhao Manor, and worked to death in the end!!"
"The one who truly deserves to die... is you!! You, Li Dashan!!!"
His face savage, Li Guanqi roared at the man, pouring out the fury that had long been pressed down in his heart.
Rage held in for so many years seemed, in this moment, to have found a place to break loose.
Reeking of wine, Li Dashan saw this, and his expression gradually turned vicious. He cursed,
"Back then, if I hadn't given the two of you so much as a mouthful to eat, you'd have starved to death outside the city long ago. And now you dare raise a knife against me?"
Li Dashan glanced about for something close to hand. But the boy's ears twitched. His feet drove against the ground, and in an instant he lunged at the man!
Moonlight from beyond the door flashed cold along the kitchen knife. In his panic, Li Dashan snatched up an earthen jar and smashed it down at Li Guanqi!
The boy was thin and frail, yet agile. In the very instant the sound rose of the man lifting that heavy thing, he had already, by hearing keen beyond the ordinary, turned aside and dodged.
Wham!!
Crash!
The earthen jar shattered at Li Guanqi's feet. With the sound of copper coins striking the ground, the boy stood rooted where he was!!
Because he understood what that sound had meant...
Elder Sister's ashes...
Those strings of copper coins looked so glaring beneath the moonlight.
Li Dashan's voice burst out, sharp with delighted surprise. "Hahahaha!! Ten strings!!"
"This time I'm sure I can win it all back!!"
"This time I'll win back the principal and the profit both, hahaha!!!"
Li Guanqi stood where he was, his whole body shaking beyond his control. His hands and feet went numb.
For a moment, images flashed through his mind as if playing back.
For as long as he could remember, he had never eaten his fill. He did not know who his father was, because he had never seen him.
He had heard the man died long ago in the famine.
Only after they had gone to this distant uncle for refuge three years ago had the true nightmare begun.
Li Dashan often came to the house to take their money. Once he had it, he either bought wine and drank himself into a stupor, or stayed at the gambling den for days on end.
The rice jar at home had never once been full. From the time he could remember, the sufferings of the world had never spared them.
When Mother fell gravely ill and could not leave her bed, Li Dashan did not choose to have her treated. He took all the money and gambled it away instead!
Even now, he still remembered Mother clutching the man and begging bitterly, and the crazed look all over his face as he said,
"My luck is running hot today. I'm sure to win! Then we can all live a good life!"
From then on Mother remained gravely ill, unable to rise, and Elder Sister was sold by him to the Zhao Manor as a maid.
As for him, he begged in the streets every day just to live. To pick up two white-flour steamed buns, as he had today, was already the greatest good fortune.
Enough for mother and son to eat their fill for one meal.
But today... he had come again!!!
Who knew from where he had learned that Elder Sister was dead. He had actually set his sights on those ten strings of copper coins!
Sometimes Li Guanqi would yearn in his heart: how good it would be if he too were an immortal who could soar through the heavens and pass through the earth.
Perhaps then the sufferings of the mortal world might spare him a little.
As Li Guanqi turned, Li Dashan's curses still filled his ears.
"Dead is dead. What was the point of burning her to ashes!"
Slowly, Li Guanqi raised the kitchen knife in his hand!!
A flicker of pain she could not bear passed through Song Wanrong's eyes, yet in the end she did not speak up to stop him.
She had long since lost all faith in Li Dashan, and she knew her own life would not last much longer.
She did not want to die and then have Li Dashan sell her child for money as well.
Perhaps... this was for the better.
Puchi!
The sharp kitchen knife sank into the neck. The boy felt only a wash of warmth splash across his face.
Thump!
Disbelief filling his eyes, Li Dashan collapsed into a pool of blood.
The boy who had lived through all of this went weak as well, and slumped to the ground.
Song Wanrong felt only her head spinning, her eyes dazzled and blurred.
Her body growing steadily colder, Song Wanrong knew her allotted span was at its end. On her pallid face she forced out the trace of a smile.
She called softly, "Guanqi... come here."
Hearing his mother's voice, Li Guanqi hurried to her side and, trembling all over, held her.
Song Wanrong drew Li Guanqi into her arms. She did not spare so much as a glance for Li Dashan, fallen beside them.
By instinct she covered Li Guanqi's eyes with her hand, soothing his back. "Guanqi, don't be afraid..."
"Dead is dead. Better that he's dead."
"Come. Lift your head, and let Mother have a proper look at you once more."
How keen Li Guanqi's heart was. At once he sensed something.
By the time he lifted his head toward his mother, his tears were already falling like rain, and sobbing had stolen his voice.
"Mother... are you going to leave me too?"
"What am I to do..."
Song Wanrong's eyes grew ever more blurred. She raised her head toward the wind and snow beyond the window and murmured,
"Mother was useless. I've let you suffer..."
"From now on, you must become a man who can hold up the sky and stand firm upon the earth."
"Take a wife. Have children."
"Mother... will always be watching you from the heavens."
"You must... live on... and live well."
"Go and see the rivers across a thousand li, and all the splendor of the human world."
Pat...
Li Guanqi felt the hand on his back lose all strength and droop.
Grief and fury tore from his mouth. "Mother!!!"
He called several times, and still there was no reply at all.
Eyes vacant, Li Guanqi sat slumped in his mother's arms and murmured, "I... don't have a mother anymore."
"I don't have... a family anymore, either."
Li Guanqi's eyes were red-rimmed. Tears poured out beyond his control.
He did not speak. He only traced his mother's face with careful fingers, as if he meant to fix the look of her firmly in his mind.
Afterward, the boy once more knocked at the shop hung with white mourning silk.
The stout shopkeeper impatiently took down the door planks. One look, and it was the boy who had come that evening.
Anger surged at once. "Why are you back again? Didn't you just come when night fell?"
"I'm telling you, those of us in this trade work by our conscience. Ten copper coins—I truly didn't overcharge you!"
Standing barefoot in the wind and snow, the boy kept his head lowered. His voice was only hoarse. "My mother is dead too. Could you help me carry her..."
"I... I can't lift her..."
At those words the shopkeeper felt a catch in his throat. The anger in his heart was already gone, and heartache filled his face instead.
He pulled the door planks aside, drew the boy into the room, and put on him a worn padded jacket the household no longer wanted.
His voice somewhat choked, he said, "Warm yourself first... I'll get dressed and go out at once."
"Child... your lot is too bitter. If you don't disdain it, come be a helper of mine from now on."
"I won't speak of paying you much. At the least, you won't starve."
The boy, who had already stopped crying, was undone by the shopkeeper's sudden kindness. He crouched on the ground and wailed.
Feeling the scorching blaze before him, Li Guanqi slowly knelt.
Facing the furnace, he knocked his forehead hard against the ground.
"Mother, I will never forget, all my life, the grace of your raising me. Guanqi will live on, and live well!"
In the sky, Su Xuan, dressed in grey, silently watched the scene.
As his fingers worked a calculation of fate, he could not help a soft sigh. He said quietly, "Such is fate. Even with me here, there is no defying Heaven to change it."
By the time the boy made his way home through the wind and snow, Su Xuan was already standing outside his door.
Sensing someone there, Li Guanqi spoke, his voice hoarse. "Who are you looking for?"
Light flashed in the old man's hand. He brought out a thick cotton-padded coat and draped it over the boy.
He crouched and closed his large, warm hands around the boy's hands, long since frozen stiff.
Over what the boy had endured this night, even an old man who had seen the countless sufferings of the mortal world could not help but sigh.
Su Xuan said softly, "Child, are you willing to come with me?"
"From this day on, I will be your grandfather. We will leave this place."
The boy's eyes had long gone numb, yet in his hands he felt a warmth he had never known.
Tears slid from his eyes unbidden. His voice trembled. "Will I be able to eat my fill..."
Su Xuan's heart ached. He drew the boy into his arms and said, low, "Yes!"
"Not only that. I can see that you eat your fill at every meal, and wear enough to stay warm!"
The boy gave a slight nod. Afterward, out in this barren wilderness, only two graves were left behind, and inscribed stones were raised.
The ten strings of copper coins were buried in the graves together with his mother's ashes.
Li Guanqi kept back only a single copper coin. He tucked it into his clothes, as something to remember them by.
Chapter 2