Neighbors

Hong Ying was sitting before the dressing mirror doing her hair and makeup when she heard a sound outside the door. She hurried over to welcome him. "Husband, you're back?" "Yingying, give me your hand." Li Banfeng grabbed Hong Ying by the hand. Hong Ying bashfully lowered her spearhead. In her heart, she eagerly anticipated the gramophone's reaction. *Vile shrew, are you about to cry?* Li Banfeng slit a small cut across Hong Ying's palm, squeezed out a few drops of fresh blood, and walked away. The gramophone burst out laughing. Clutching her wound, Hong Ying returned to the mirror and continued doing her hair. Before long, Li Banfeng came running back, trailed by seven or eight muskmelon Hong Yings. Each was carrying seven or eight anomalies over their shoulders, hauling them inside the Portable Abode. The gramophone chuckled. "Our Yingying is quite handy, isn't she?" Li Banfeng nodded. "Very handy. They may be made of muskmelons, but their strength is no less than mine." Hong Ying threw down her comb and hid in Room Three to wipe away her tears. Trip after trip, Li Banfeng hauled anomalies into the house, filling every room in the blink of an eye. The gramophone offered a gentle reminder. "Husband, there's no need to bring dishes like this home. Your humble servant can't stomach them." Saying she couldn't stomach them was merely polite phrasing. What she meant was that she had no desire to eat such fare, though she feared angering her husband by saying so bluntly. Li Banfeng took no offense. "Darling wife, these aren't for eating. I'm delivering them to my territory." "Delivering them using our house?" the wife asked in alarm. "You must proceed with caution!" Li Banfeng had brought plenty of living people into the Portable Abode, but aside from his wife and a body full of magical treasures, he had never brought living beings back out. Though these anomalies possessed no intellect, who was to say they wouldn't develop sentience one day and recall what had happened? The music box poked its head out of Li Banfeng's pocket. The little copper figurine on top gazed at the gramophone with utter confidence, wanting to tell the mistress that the matter was safely in her hands. The gramophone frowned. "You can't even speak. Do you expect me to trust you?" The wife truly did not trust the music box. Steam spread through every room of the Portable Abode as the gramophone carefully inspected every anomaly. Once she confirmed they were all fast asleep, she said to Li Banfeng, "Depart, Husband. Your humble servant will keep watch along the way." Li Banfeng went to Room Three. Assuming he had come to apologize, Hong Ying wiped her tears and turned her face to the wall without a word. Paying her no mind, Li Banfeng said to the Portable Abode, "Go to the station in my territory." Hong Ying was left speechless. The Portable Abode said nothing either; the old master seemed to be deep in thought. Li Banfeng waited for over half an hour. Stepping outside to look, he saw they had indeed arrived at the station. Leading the muskmelon Hong Yings, he unloaded the crowd of anomalies. Merely unloading them here was not enough; the station had been built inside Lord Mountain-Uprooter's residence, where Li Banfeng's covenant deed was hidden. People could not be permitted to wander in and out at will. Li Banfeng returned to the Portable Abode and gave an honest, earnest smile. "Yingying, lend me your technique." Hong Ying asked in a flat voice, "Seventh Brother, do you take me for an errand girl?" Clasping her hand, Li Banfeng said with deep affection, "Yingying, you understand me." Hong Ying spat right in his face, then lent him her technique. Wiping his face, Li Banfeng guided the anomalies through the stone walls, scattering them across his territory. He had to move quickly; the stop lasted only half an hour. After three round trips, the anomalies from Qiu Luoye's territory were mostly transferred. Li Banfeng took a circuit around his lands. In the past, walking a dozen li might not have yielded a single anomaly. Now, a casual glance in any direction revealed them wandering about. Qiu Luoye had relied on that vast quantity of anomalies to ascend to the second tier above the clouds. The capital he had amassed over all those years had now been entirely claimed by Li Banfeng. Back in the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng said, "One more trip to sweep up the rest, just in case any slipped through the cracks." The Portable Abode replied testily, "Oil's running low. Save it for proper business. Get back to Qiu Luoye's territory at once—there are things I haven't figured out yet." The old master was studying the Boundary. Li Banfeng had assumed a new Boundary would form over Qiu Luoye's territory. He had never expected the territory to shift directly from deep land to the edge of proper land, merging seamlessly with the existing Boundary of proper land. Why had the territory moved? In the process of old and new proper land combining, would the nature of the Boundary be exposed? Where exactly was Qiu Luoye's territory located now? All of this required investigation. Yet one thing was already certain. The merger of Qiu Luoye's territory with existing proper land had taken place without any involvement from the Garrison Commissioners—at least none Li Banfeng had witnessed. That pointed to two possibilities. First, the Garrison Commissioners were orchestrating things from the shadows, relocating Qiu Luoye's territory and using the pre-existing Boundary to seal it off. Second, the formation and merging of Boundaries had nothing to do with the Garrison Commissioners; they had merely mastered the methods to utilize them. What, then, was the Boundary? Returning to Qiu Luoye's territory, Li Banfeng walked around. He Yuxiu and Ma the Fifth were frantic over their current predicament. They could not leave this territory, nor did they know where they were. A few villagers on the opposite side of the border had been shouting across at them for a long time, but received little response. The three-headed people, by contrast, showed no anxiety. They were busy tidying up collapsed wooden huts and salvaging damaged farmland. This was their home; whether they could leave mattered little to them. Li Banfeng walked to the edge of the Boundary, moved a stone over, and sat down. The Portable Abode had its rules: when Li the Seventh was inside, the house followed Li the Seventh; when he was outside, it followed the key. By sitting closer to the border, the Portable Abode could see more clearly, and Li Banfeng himself wanted to observe closely to see if he could uncover any clues. After watching for a long time with nothing to show for it, Li Banfeng took out the music box and smiled. "You performed a great service this time. There will be a reward." Understanding his words, the little figurine on the turntable offered a slight curtsey and began to spin. *What is this?* *Playing a tune for me?* What came from the music box was not music, but the sound of two women quarreling. "Bitch, do you think I won't really cut you down?" "Do it, then. Make it quick." "You feel no remorse whatsoever?" "Nothing to regret. If I had to choose again, I'd still kill you!" It was the sound of the wife and Hong Ying arguing. Li Banfeng held the music box to his ear, listening intently. *** Qiu Luoye stood at the entrance to the newland, preparing to step inside. Shui Yongquan tried to dissuade him. "You are now a proper land local spirit. You should avoid heading into the newland as much as possible, or others will think you're encroaching on their territory." Qiu Luoye shook his head. "A proper land local spirit can't visit the newland? Didn't Lü Huazi go into the newland all the time back then?" Shui Yongquan sighed and explained patiently, "When Lü Huazi went into the newland, he genuinely was encroaching on territory." Qiu Luoye waved his hand. "I'm not like him. I don't bully people. I'm just going to ask for directions." "Wait a few days first. You just arrived. Being so abrupt is hardly appropriate." "Wait longer? Sounds to me like you're not in any hurry. I don't even know where I am right now. I can't wait a single moment!" Shui Yongquan said, "I'm in more of a hurry than you! I don't even know how to get back to my own territory!" "If you're in a hurry, come along with me. As the saying goes, one doesn't strike a smiling face. Neighbors need to visit one another to stay on good terms." Qiu Luoye checked his reflection in a puddle, practiced a friendly smile, and strode into the newland. Left with no choice, Shui Yongquan followed. Much like the newland they were familiar with, it was pitch-black even at midday. Shui Yongquan frowned. "This borders proper land, so it ought to count as shallow land. Why is there no Heavenly Light at all?" Looking ahead, not a single speck of light was visible. This proved there were no successfully reclaimed plots nearby, and they saw no land-clearers, nor even any hunters. Qiu Luoye pondered for a moment. "Perhaps this isn't shallow land. It might have ended up here suddenly, just like me." The two walked for over an hour without spotting a single soul, or even an anomaly with any semblance of sentience. Shui Yongquan's brow furrowed slightly. "Elephant Qiu, is this really newland? Could it be oldland?" Qiu Luoye looked around. "If it were oldland, there ought to be houses. There's nothing here." "Perhaps too many years have passed, leaving not even broken bricks or tiles behind. We need to be careful." Shui Yongquan raised his guard. Even though his cultivation was above the clouds, he had no desire to wander through oldland; there was no telling what one might run into. Qiu Luoye did not care much. Whether newland or oldland, as long as it had an owner, they were neighbors. Cresting a hill, they found an open clearing ahead, where the faint outline of a manor house appeared. Shui Yongquan grabbed Qiu Luoye. "A manor appearing out in the wasteland—that's eight or nine tenths likely to be oldland!" Qiu Luoye chuckled. "I live in a manor too, and my courtyard is even bigger than that one. Does that make mine oldland? "Don't be so jumpy. Where there's a house, there are people. Finding someone is a good thing." Arriving at the front gate, Qiu Luoye took the door knocker and rapped several times against the wooden panels. Before long, the double doors opened, revealing a burly man standing inside. The man was massive—so broad that he could not walk straight out of the double doors, having to squeeze through sideways. He stood before Qiu Luoye, the two of them evenly matched in build, and they even shared a curious resemblance. The burly man had a round face, two long tusks protruding from his mouth, and a large nose—though compared to Qiu Luoye's, his nose could only be considered ordinary. Given their striking resemblance, they ought to have hit it off. The burly man asked, "Who are you?" Qiu Luoye smiled. "Neighbors from the north." "You from No-One-Buries?" Qiu Luoye glanced at Shui Yongquan. He had never heard of a place called No-One-Buries. Shui Yongquan shook his head; he had never heard of it either. The burly man snapped impatiently, "I asked you a question. Are you mute?" Qiu Luoye paused, and Shui Yongquan quickly cut in, "We aren't from No-One-Buries." "Then where did you come from?" That was a difficult question to answer. Qiu Luoye's territory had no name as of yet. The burly man barked, "I only have one neighbor to the north! If you aren't trash from No-One-Buries, where the hell did you come from? Who are you neighbors with? Coming over here trying to get chummy!" *Trash from No-One-Buries...* Qiu Luoye said nothing. Shui Yongquan said nothing either. He knew Qiu Luoye's temper; whatever he said now would be too late. The burly man demanded, "Can you not understand human speech, or can you not speak it? I asked where you came from! Why isn't either of you making a sound?" Qiu Luoye chuckled. "The reason I didn't speak was to give you a chance to run for your life. But you didn't take it."