What a Piece of Work

Liu Taohua sat in the doorway stitching a shoe sole with coarse hemp thread, looking out past the main gate, where her husband and son stood talking as two dim silhouettes. Their voices were too low to catch; all she could see was the glow of her husband's pipe bowl, flaring and fading in the dark night. The far mountains lay deep and dark. Beneath the spread of stars, hazy mist rose and fell, and when the mountain wind blew past, the whole slope was sweet with peach blossom. A feeling of contentment — of calm, quiet years — welled up in her of its own accord. Liu Taohua smiled without a sound, lowered her head, and bit through the sole's thread with her teeth. Xu Yao lay awake deep into the night, that remark still echoing in his head, eyes wide open. "What counts as a top-grade settled place in life?" "A top-grade settled place in life is... one glance out, and it's heaven on earth — one vast open plain!" Somehow Xu Yao felt that the words "heaven on earth, one vast open plain" had real punch to them! Just saying them aloud felt good, which made him repeat them under his breath several times without meaning to — rising and falling in cadence, every syllable rounded and precise, feeling absolutely full of grandeur. "Our family is poor. So the first thing we must do is reach the lowest level of a settled place in life, then fight our way up from there — one step at a time, one generation at a time." Even with his eyes closed, Physician Xu's face, pipe stem in hand, stayed sharp and clear before Xu Yao. He remembered his old dad's every word. "My generation — your dad's generation — has barely managed the lowest level of a settled place in life. So I want your generation to become a clerk, secure some standing, ideally hold some minor office: go from a temporary clerk to a formal clerk of the yamen. That way, when you have a son, on the foundation you've built he climbs one more step, or half a step, each generation lifting up the next. Maybe a few generations from now, our family will have someone who is truly an official — and then, after another few generations, we become a great family." "Be an official. Get rich." "Then your old dad can smile even down in his grave." "Dad, being an official and getting rich are two different things." "Hah. What do you know... you don't know squat!" Xu Yao lay in bed thinking it over. This was his old dad's — and Grandfather's and the rest of the family's — grand blueprint, dreamed of and passed down through generations of struggle to survive! Since he'd been given a chance, Xu Yao figured he might as well strive a little and see. What if — just what if — he actually became an official? "An official!" Xu Yao set himself a magnificent goal: "A small post will do!" A clerk of the Mountain Guard Compound belonged to the Mountain Guard Compound alone — not even to the Black Mountain County Demon Suppression Inspection Office. He was a long-term temporary worker. One more step up, and a clerk of the county yamen was basically someone with a bit of face in the local area. He would belong only to the county yamen, and never mind whether he himself could climb any further — once he became a clerk, his son succeeding him as a clerk would be practically effortless. For ordinary common folk, that could truly be called the step that carried your family across the class divide! But for the Xu Yao of the past, that step had been no different from an unbridgeable chasm. But now, with the strange change in his eyes... earning merit and rising through the ranks was not beyond hope. Xu Yao felt his goal was now perfectly clear. Early morning. Diligent as ever, Xu Yao got up early and headed straight for the compound. He didn't eat breakfast at home; he ate at the compound — that saved the family a meal. He ran the five or six li to the compound in one go, and hadn't even broken a sweat. Xu Yao paid close attention to how his body changed day by day. After doing the same amount of exertion every day, he would run his hands over himself, checking. Heh heh heh... no sweat today. Xu Yao could feel his constitution strengthening a great deal, day by day. By the time he arrived, the compound was already steaming. Thirty-five big men built like wild bears were assembling under brigade captain Chen Chong, ready for the running drill. Seven men to a squad, five squads in all; add brigade captain Chen Chong, and it came to exactly thirty-six. Xu Yao came pounding in and, of his own accord, took the very last place in the formation. Brigade captain Chen Chong's eyebrows arched — all three of his brows shot up together with a swish — and his mouth split in a grin that nearly turned into laughter. At once the men lined up in front knew, without turning around, that Xu Yao had arrived. One after another, they bared their teeth, fighting back laughter. Because Xu Yao trailing at the back of the formation was like a little white rabbit bringing up the rear of a troop of black bears. In fact, Xu Yao wasn't short — he now stood a full meter eighty — and at a hundred forty jin he wasn't light either. But trailing behind a band of iron-tower giants who averaged over two meters tall and around two hundred sixty jin in weight, he did look a little... slight. "Move out!" Brigade captain Chen Chong led from the very front, and the whole band of strongmen took off together at a sprint, running laps around the compound's outer wall. The ground shook. Xu Yao brought up the rear, his two legs pumping with everything they had. Because these bear-men didn't run at an even pace but flat-out, each one sprinting as if a wolf were snapping at his heels, Xu Yao had a brutal time hanging on. A lap was nine hundred zhang. He gutted out ten laps in a single stretch, and by the end Xu Yao felt completely done for. His lungs were going to burst! He lay sprawled on the ground, convulsing and gasping like a pig on its last legs. But the strongmen were astonished out of their minds, crowding around in a circle to watch. "Big Fatty actually hung on today!" "Damn impressive! Just a bit winded..." "Look at him panting — oh man, like he just finished doing the deed..." "Do tell." "Hahahaha..." "Got to say it — this kid is seriously tough!" The men chimed in from every side, all of them amazed beyond words. Ever since Xu Yao had begun training with the squad seven days ago, he had changed — a different sight every single day. Day one: he dropped out before finishing two laps. Day two: he ran three laps. Day three: four and a half laps. Day four: six laps. Day five: six and a half. Day six: seven and a half. Today, day seven: he finished ten! Faced with this steadily climbing rate of improvement, the strongmen searched their own hearts and had to admit they couldn't match it. Nearby, brigade captain Chen Chong let out a roar: "What's all the yelling! Line up — boxing!" The strongmen fell into line at once. Xu Yao, still wheezing, picked himself up off the ground, took the last spot in the formation, and threw punches along with the hoos and hahs around him. This fist art, brigade captain Chen Chong had taught him from the ground up. Partway through practice, everything suddenly went black before his eyes, as though black clouds had closed over, and a wall had appeared right in front of him. He craned his neck back to look up — and there was the brigade captain, arms folded, his iron-tower frame looking down at him from on high, brow knitted, the three brows driving inward together like three knives. Xu Yao had always wondered how the brigade captain had grown so tall and so strong — and, for that matter, how this compound had ever gathered such a crowd of strongmen. It truly was strange. On the occasions when he went along with his old dad on his rounds through the villages, he'd hardly ever laid eyes on a single man this fierce — yet here, of all places, there was a whole horde of them. "Your dad told me — didn't you go to a martial arts school once? Learn some fists and kicks?" Chen Chong asked, watching him punch. "I did," Xu Yao answered. "And what did the master at that school say about you?" Chen Chong asked with keen interest. "He said my body was uncoordinated — my hands and feet didn't work together — and that I wasn't suited to training in the martial arts. So he only taught me a few forms for tempering sinew and bone, and told me to use them to keep fit," Xu Yao answered truthfully. "Heh... did he teach you a breathing method?" Chen Chong asked, stroking his chin. "He did. Three short breaths and one long, five short and one long, matched to the forms, tempering sinew and bone." "Heh heh heh..." Chen Chong shook his head, smiling. "That school's master was surnamed Qi, right? Qi Yougen? Your father saved his life once. When you went to learn, he didn't charge you, did he?" "No. I only paid for food and lodging." "Heh heh heh." Chen Chong shook his head, watching his punching posture and the strength in his stance, glancing left and right. "Three years?" "Right, three years. Really less than two; the other year and more I spent helping out with odd jobs." "And that old Qi often used you to get your dad to look at the sick and treat injuries for free, didn't he?" Chen Chong asked, all smiles. "Yes. How did you know?" "Heh..." Chen Chong mulled it over for a moment, then spat out a curse: "What a piece of work!"