River-Crossing Dragon

After finishing the newspaper, Li Xiuwen's heart surged with excitement. "In my past life, no matter how high your kung fu, you still feared the kitchen knife. Seven paces out, the gun is faster; within seven paces, the gun is both fast and accurate..." "But in this life, when martial cultivation reaches a certain level, you truly can become impervious to blades and bullets, and fly through the sky and burrow into the earth!" So Li Xiuwen wanted nothing else. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the martial arts. "Ah Wen, time to eat." "Coming." ... At the dining table, cluttered with odds and ends, Li Xiuwen ate while turning over his grand plan for making money. "Blink and it's already been three years since you came to Xianghai," Aunt said. She was drying her wet hair, wearing flip-flops and a faded floral dress. "Thanks for taking me in, Aunt. Otherwise I'd still be in the snake-catchers' pit." Li Xiuwen's face was full of gratitude. A few years ago, the colonial government had issued a decree. Roughly, it said that stowaways from Sheng who managed to enter the urban districts of Xianghai and meet with local relatives would be granted a Xianghai green card. If they were caught in the restricted border zone, they would be sent back to Sheng. After that, droves of Sheng people left their hometowns to chase their dreams in Xianghai, longing for the fabled life of wealth and dazzling nightlife. The original owner of the body had smuggled himself into Xianghai three years ago. But the moment the boat reached shore, he was seized by a local snake-catcher gang that specialized in kidnapping smugglers. Only after his uncle paid a ransom of twenty thousand did he bring him back to the stockade. Aunt laughed. "You say you're timid, but back then you dared to cross the ocean with a few fellow villagers in a rickety boat... Isn't Sheng a fine place? Coming here just to suffer." "Didn't I hear people say the streets of Xianghai were paved with gold?" "And now the dream's shattered, hasn't it? How's life in the Walled City?" "It's pretty good. I can look up and see airplanes. I've never seen them up this close in my whole life." Even though he had awakened his past-life wisdom, Li Xiuwen still made an effort to play out the original owner's mannerisms, acting like someone who had never seen the wider world. "Airplanes are nice, but what do they have to do with us..." Aunt watched the iron wings pass overhead and lit a cigarette. "Aunt, I've made up my mind. Once I save up enough tuition, I'll go learn boxing. After I've mastered it, I'll find a way to make money and pay you back the ransom first." "Why talk like that among family? Your uncle's money is my money. If it weren't for your father back then, I would've starved to death in that famine year." "That's a separate matter. If it weren't for me, maybe you'd have moved out of the stockade by now. I know your uncle hasn't had it easy all these years." "The stockade's not so bad. At least the Changle Society watches over it. Small troubles, no great disasters... We'll just make do." "That's true." "You think it's any better outside the stockade? Xianghai's all like this. For people at the bottom like us, it's the same wherever we live." "Aunt, don't you want to live in a big villa up on the mountain? Drinking red wine and looking down over Xianghai, like those big bosses in the movies?" Li Xiuwen said with a smile. "Of course I do. I dream about it..." Aunt rolled her eyes. "The problem is, you'd have to give me a million. I've been working since the last dynasty and still can't afford one." "Working honestly won't get you anywhere... but learning boxing, that just might." Li Xiuwen fetched the Ming Pao he had just bought. He pointed at an article and said with a grin, "Look, Aunt. If by this time next year I can take part in the Crossing the River tournament and pass the entrance exam for the Academy, there's hope I can get an apartment in the New Stockade District on the edge of the stockade—those places all have big windows, bright, sunlit rooms! When that time comes, we'll move into the new place, and the old house on Longjin Road will just be a workshop, with no one living in it." "Your beanpole of a frame..." Aunt patted Li Xiuwen's frail shoulder, then compared him with the fighters in the great ring. She shook her head and smiled bitterly. "Ah Wen, maybe forget it. Starting tomorrow, find yourself a steady job and just stay at your aunt's place. Your uncle and I will support you now, and you can look after us in our old age. We're family—we don't need riches or glory, just to live well." "Then we'll be stuck living here our whole lives," Li Xiuwen said unwillingly. "This place is too damp. You've already caught rheumatism at such a young age." "I know that getting into the Academy is like a carp leaping over the dragon gate, a pheasant turning into a phoenix, but it's just not realistic," Aunt said helplessly. "The Academy was founded by Mr. Ming. Over a million people in the stockade, and countless rich folk outside it, all want to get in. It's a thousand armies crossing a single-log bridge. You'd be better off taking that money to bet on the horses or buy the character lottery—you might even strike it rich." "It's not that bad," Li Xiuwen said. Betting on the horses was a given; the character lottery was this era's "lottery ticket." These trades all had their shady dealings. He didn't believe in luck—only in his own strength. "So many people, and only thirty 'crossing spots' handed out each year. How hard is it to get one?" Aunt said. "That's because you've never come across something called the gaokao..." Li Xiuwen grumbled inwardly. Seeing how persistent Ah Wen was, Aunt thought of something and asked, "Is it because of what happened a month ago that you suddenly want to learn boxing?" A month ago, on his way back from work, Ah Wen had been punched by Brother Ji, a punk from the Tong Gang, and knocked unconscious. After he came to, Ah Wen—timid by nature to begin with—grew even more fearful. He went outside like a rat in the street, glancing around nervously, and didn't even dare walk at night. He was a grown man of twenty-one, yet at the sight of a few good-for-nothing brats from the Tong Gang, he'd be scared enough to turn tail and run. Li Xiuwen said, "Yes. If I learn boxing, Brother Ji shouldn't dare touch us anymore." Aunt looked at Li Xiuwen with pitying eyes and asked, "Have you saved enough for the apprenticeship fee?" "Almost. In half a year at most, I can start learning boxing. Aunt, go ahead and scout out the good districts of Xianghai—someday we'll move in there!" Li Xiuwen patted his chest, half-joking. "How much are you still short?" "Two thousand short." "That's not so much," Aunt murmured. "When your uncle gets back from his delivery, I'll have a talk with him." Li Xiuwen quickly shook his head. "Aunt, don't... I don't want your money. Don't trouble my uncle." "What's this? Wings getting strong? Want to be independent, is that it?" Aunt said with a laugh. "No... I just don't want to be the cause of you and my uncle quarreling. Boarding here with you has already caused you plenty of trouble as it is." "Your uncle... sigh, he just has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. Otherwise he wouldn't have paid twenty thousand to ransom you back then," Aunt said with a sigh. "It's precisely because my uncle is a good man that I don't want to trouble him. If he were a bastard like those punks outside, then I wouldn't feel bad about it." After finishing his meal, Li Xiuwen left. He had to go work at the fish ball factory in the afternoon. Watching Ah Wen leave, Aunt felt a complicated mix of emotions. "This kid is as stubborn as my second brother! When Yige gets home tonight, I'll simmer some good soup and have a heart-to-heart with him." ... Night. "I'm home." A lean middle-aged man with dark rings around his eyes opened the door listlessly. He wore a shirt. Chen Ziyi, Li Xiuwen's uncle. Aunt, tying on her apron, smiled. "Yige, you've worked hard." "Hm? Why that tone, Yingmei? Is something the matter?" Chen Ziyi asked suspiciously. "I made soup. Come in quickly and drink it while it's hot." Aunt took Chen Ziyi's arm, smiling. Setting down his bag, Chen Ziyi took a sip of soup and asked, "Go on, what is it?" "Didn't Ah Wen have that incident last month? It shook him up. He wants to learn boxing. He's saved two thousand, but it's not enough... Let's cover the difference for him," Aunt said. "Learn boxing?" Chen Ziyi's expression stiffened, and he fell silent.