Ding Qingyan did not continue along the bustling street. She tugged at Ding Songyan's sleeve and turned into a small alley beside it.
A group of men and women in black martial garb came toward them, with silver starlight on the left cuffs and orange-yellow candle flames painted on the right.
They swept past, leaving behind a scene that rippled gently, like water.
Seeing Ding Songyan gaze after their disappearing backs, Ding Qingyan pursed her lips and said,
'People from the Xiaoming Sect. They're probably going to wherever someone just used force to defy the ban.'
'Sects handle that kind of thing too?' Ding Songyan asked thoughtfully.
Ding Qingyan laughed softly. 'Mm. It's been like that since the Youqiong dynasty. This dynasty's founding emperor even made the Jade Document Covenant with the greatest sects. Famous righteous schools and great clans are allowed to 'reduce their grain levies, oversee prisons and punishments, and assist with patrols.' Dingjiang Prefecture city and the three counties to the north belong to the Xiaoming Sect. Second Brother, this is all stuff you told me when you came back from studying storytelling...'
As she spoke, Ding Qingyan remembered her brother's current state. Her voice gradually fell, then went silent.
'Storytelling? You learn this sort of thing when you study storytelling?' Ding Songyan hadn't expected that his current occupation was a storyteller.
Hiss. He didn't remember a single professional skill. Surely he couldn't give everyone a PPT lecture?
Ding Qingyan nodded slightly and walked on. 'There are four schools of storytelling: the historical school—well, that's telling stories of ancient times; martial-world lore and anecdotes; romance and legend; and court-case dramas. Before you came to Dingjiang, you studied the historical school.'
'I see...' Ding Songyan tried to digest his new identity.
Ding Qingyan glanced sideways at him. 'Second Brother, those martial artists we saw earlier are not people we can afford to provoke. Still, they aren't the truly formidable kind. The truly strong ones can be spotted at a glance.'
'Spotted at a glance? Do they have 'I'm an expert' written on their faces?' Ding Songyan asked in a deliberately joking tone, trying to draw her out.
Ding Qingyan curled her lip. 'That's not it. Go listen to the storytellers outside Duokang Temple yourself, and then you'll know. Hmm, many martial arts originate from the heavenly gods and strange beasts from before Emperor Zhuanxu severed Earth from Heaven. When practiced to a high level, they cause physical changes of one kind or another. Some have ears like a tiger's, some grow golden feathers, some have skin that turns completely blue-green, some sprout two pairs of ox horns from their heads, and some trail fox tails behind them. Second Brother, if you see people like that, they're either nonhuman folk or masters!'
Emperor Zhuanxu... They have him too? Ding Songyan chose to set that question aside for now. 'What happens when Xiaoming Sect martial arts are practiced to a high level?'
If the opportunity came, it was best to get on the good side of the local powers. Whatever happened, he must not fail to recognize a great man standing right in front of him.
Ding Qingyan thought seriously for a moment. 'I don't think they have any particularly unusual signs... They say their arts descend from the goddesses Xiaoming and Zhuguang, daughters of Emperor Shun, and that they look no different from ordinary people. Uh, double pupils! I heard Father mention that he once saw a Xiaoming Sect master with double pupils. I don't know anything else.'
Emperor Shun? Ding Songyan fell silent again.
Before long, the brother and sister turned into a lane where cooking smoke rose in curling wisps.
'Ding Erlang, you're back?'
'Where have you been? Your parents have been looking everywhere for you.'
'Did you run off with some pretty girl?'
...
The neighbors gathered near the well at the mouth of the lane questioned Ding Songyan and Ding Qingyan with concern or teasing.
Ding Qingyan gave vague answers and dragged Ding Songyan swiftly through the crowd to a house at the end of the lane.
She took a brass key from her waist, unlocked the padlock on the door, and pushed the two wooden doors inward.
Once her brother had entered, she quickly pulled the main gate almost shut, patted her chest, and let out a breath.
Ding Songyan took the opportunity to look around.
It was a small courtyard. To the left stood an elm tree. Ropes had been strung between it and a wooden post beside the water vat, and several pieces of clothing hung there drying. To the right was a crude wooden shed. Mottled stone steps separated the inner and outer areas, and inside were piled coal and firewood.
A few steps ahead of the gate was the main building, with a wing room on either side. The main hall was cluttered with many odds and ends, and on the square table were four dishes of food and a wooden bucket of rice, covered by a coarse green gauze food cover.
Ding Songyan came to the entrance of the main hall and fixed his gaze on a bronze mirror resting on one of the junk boxes, polished smooth and bright.
At last he saw his present self:
He wore a moon-white lanhan robe, with no cap and no headcloth, his hair bound simply with a strip of blue cloth. His features were all decent. Though he was not handsome, nor elegant as a jade tree in the wind, he was still a proper, clear-featured, fair-faced scholar.
I knew it. With a sister like Ding Qingyan, no matter how ugly this body was, it couldn't be too bad... Ding Songyan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Since he had already transmigrated, who wouldn't want a handsome face?
Ding Qingyan, having taken off her white gauze veiled hat, strolled over and sat on a round stool beside the square table. Propping her cheek on one hand, she fixed Ding Songyan with her dark, round eyes.
Ding Songyan, who had a guilty conscience, was a little unnerved by her stare. He looked around, trying to think of something to say.
'Father's name is Ding Shengyi,' Ding Qingyan suddenly said. 'Mother's name is Liu Yuzao, and Eldest Brother's name is Ding Daniu. Don't forget them. They'll be sad.'
Ding Daniu? That name doesn't match the style of the other four... Ding Songyan asked doubtfully, 'Little Sister, what do you mean?'
Ding Qingyan let out a breath. 'I mean, even if you've forgotten everything, if you still remember their names, it will give them some comfort.'
Hearing this, Ding Songyan fell silent.
Would the people from my old world be sad because of my death or something like that?
In the silence, the unlatched courtyard gate was pushed open, and a woman and a man entered one after the other.
The woman was dressed as a married woman. Her looks were lovely, and her air was calm and composed with a touch of coolness. She seemed to be only thirty-four or thirty-five, wearing a dark-patterned green round-collar front-opening robe and a gray-blue horse-face skirt. In her hand was a black gauze veiled hat.
The man was in his forties. He wore a four-square peace cap and a plain gray zhiduo robe. His features were upright and neat, and his air was slightly soft and delicate.
'Mother, Father, Second Brother doesn't remember anything!' Ding Qingyan sprang up and ran into the courtyard.
Little Sister, what did you just say? I think I'd like to hear that part about 'comfort' again... Ding Songyan could not help grumbling inwardly.
'He only remembers your names!' Ding Qingyan changed tack.
Liu Yuzao's expression froze. She came a few steps to Ding Songyan's side and checked the black mole birthmark behind his right ear.
Only after confirming it did she reach out and touch his head. 'Does it hurt?'
'No,' Ding Songyan answered honestly.
Judging from this body's approximate age and the fact that he had an elder brother, Liu Yuzao should be in her early forties. But perhaps she was naturally beautiful, because she looked four or five years younger than her actual age.
Liu Yuzao frowned slightly. 'Then how could you forget everything?'
'Could it be the soul-departing illness?' Ding Shengyi also began to examine Ding Songyan's condition.
Ding Songyan thought for a moment. 'Father, Mother, what happened to me before?'
Ding Shengyi walked around Ding Songyan once, observing him as he spoke.
'More than half a year ago, we came to Dingjiang Prefecture to seek refuge with your cousin Nuansheng, from your aunt's family. She used her connections at the Zhen Manor to get me a post as a yamen clerk at the county yamen. She also arranged with the guild head of the local storytellers' guild for you to be allowed to tell stories on the open ground outside Duokang Temple.
'Today at shenzheng, you were supposed to come home. We waited a long time and didn't see you, so we went to Duokang Temple and learned that you had already left on your own and no one knew where you had gone.'
After Ding Shengyi finished, Liu Yuzao asked Ding Qingyan, 'Where did you find Erlang?'
'In the ruined shrine on the way to the mass burial ground...' Ding Qingyan recounted the details of what had happened.
Left on my own... That doesn't seem like suicide. If I really wanted to kill myself, it would have been faster and more convenient to drown myself in the river closer by... After I woke up, I didn't see any rope on the beam or any medicine bottle beside me... Why would I go out of the city to that ruined shrine for no reason? Wait—did I go there directly from the storytelling place? Then why was there no silver on me, no copper coins, no other money? Surely I didn't earn not a single coin all day? Did I stop somewhere on the way, or was the money taken after I died? The more Ding Songyan thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
He weighed his words carefully. 'Father, Mother, could someone have been trying to harm me?'
He suspected that Ding Songyan had gotten involved in something, that going to the ruined shrine outside the city had been part of it, and that afterward he had been killed and the money on him taken.
'We've only just come to Dingjiang Prefecture. Who would we have offended?' The middle-aged scholar, Ding Shengyi, frowned in thought.
Liu Yuzao, calm and cool, suddenly changed expression. 'Erlang, we're going to the Zhen Manor to find your cousin Nuansheng.
'If someone really tried to harm you, and they see you escaped death, they probably won't let the matter drop!'
Yes. There may be a great danger hidden in this... His life was at stake, so Ding Songyan did not dare take it lightly and agreed at once.
'Wait a moment.' Ding Shengyi hurried into the main hall and turned toward the east wing room.
Before long, he came out carrying an old drawstring coin pouch. As he handed it to Liu Yuzao, he pointed at his own head and said solemnly,
'Besides retained experts, the Zhen Manor also keeps a divine physician. If Erlang's soul-departing illness can be cured, don't be stingy with money.'
'Father, I've saved up some too!' Ding Qingyan turned to run back to her room.
'Don't rush. Let's see what the divine physician says first.' Liu Yuzao stopped her daughter.
With a clang, the courtyard gate was pushed open, and a booming voice rolled out like thunder:
'Mother, is Erlang all right?'
The man who burst into the courtyard was a giant over nine feet tall. He wore a coarse gray cloth tunic and trousers, his hair wrapped in a dark blue cloth like Ding Songyan's. His eyes were round as bronze bells, his face was covered in a thick beard, and his mouth jutted out, making him look both ugly and fierce.
Mother? This fierce warrior is my elder brother? Ding Songyan's gaze moved back and forth several times between Ding Daniu, Liu Yuzao, Ding Shengyi, and Ding Qingyan.
He felt that he was a blend of the best and worst of Father and Mother, while Little Sister Ding Qingyan had inherited only the best, and Heaven had favored her with a good transformation. But in any case, there was some traceable connection between the two of them and their parents. Ding Daniu, though—no matter how he looked, he had nothing to do with this family. He was like a black ox that had wandered into a flock of sheep, an obvious outsider at a glance.
And with a name that didn't match the rest of the family, could he really have been picked up by the river?
Liu Yuzao glanced at Ding Daniu and said coldly, 'You came back so late. Even if something had happened to Erlang, you couldn't have helped.'
Ding Daniu immediately straightened, dropped his hands, and said timidly, 'I take big steps, so I searched far out...'
Liu Yuzao withdrew her gaze, her face still cold. 'Take something to defend yourself and escort Erlang and me to the Zhen Manor.'
'Yes, Mother!' Ding Daniu was instantly delighted. He quickly fished an iron rod as thick as an arm out of the woodpile.
The iron rod was quite rough on the surface, pitted and lumpy, as if cast from failed smelting. It looked extremely heavy, but in Ding Daniu's hand it seemed like a child's plaything.
Inborn godlike strength? Ding Songyan felt much reassured and followed Liu Yuzao out of the courtyard gate.
Chapter 3