"There's no one here."
Fortunately, the water on his body had dried. Urged on by his meager sense of shame, Zhang Yu hurriedly pulled on his robe and boots.
"Aren't I a person?"
"You're a child, so you only count as half a person."
"I'll be twelve next year. I'm not a child!"
She wore her hair in two little buns. Her eyebrows were handsome, her large eyes bright and round, and her lips red and her teeth white.
She wore a blue-green jacket and a silver-threaded peacock-feather cloud shoulder cape. That outfit alone was worth several hundred taels of silver, showing how dearly her elders doted on her.
She hopped onto a rock.
"Did Bubble escape the Pockmarked Snake's pursuit?"
"Can Carp Grandma really come back to life?"
"You still haven't told me. I couldn't sleep well last night."
Zhang Yu smiled. "Is the ending of a story really that important?"
The little girl licked her candied hawthorn and nodded. "Of course it is. A happy ending can put people in a good mood."
Zhang Yu looked at her. "A story can be given a beautiful ending, but life doesn't necessarily have one."
The little girl bit off a candied hawthorn and narrowed her eyes at the sweetness. "Life is supposed to be colorful. When I came down from Blackwood Cliff, I drank herbal medicine and then ate candied hawthorn. It tasted especially sweet. If all you ever had was sweetness, that would be boring too."
Zhang Yu thought for a moment. "You're right. Then I'll tell you two possible endings to the story."
The little girl jumped for joy. "Two endings? That sounds so interesting!"
"The first ending: the little carp escaped the pursuit, found five dragon scales, leaped through Dragon Gate, became king while still young, killed the Pockmarked Snake, revived her grandmother, and lived happily ever after with her friends at Carp Lake. Or perhaps..."
The little girl widened her clear black-and-white eyes. "Or perhaps what? Hurry up and tell me."
"She failed to revive her grandmother. She didn't even escape Carp Lake before the Pockmarked Snake killed her with its venomous fangs. Everything afterward—the Cool One, the Pretty One, the two-faced turtle—was just a fantasy in that final moment before death, like a... bubble."
The little girl suddenly felt that the candied hawthorn in her hand was no longer sweet. She muttered, "The second ending is too sad. I don't like it."
"If you don't like it, then go and change it!"
The little girl pondered this. "A story's ending can be changed, but can life be changed too?"
Zhang Yu stood up and looked toward the hundred-zhang-high Blackwood Cliff. "Of course life can be changed!"
The mist in the little girl's eyes dispersed, and a smile appeared on her face. "Your story is more interesting after all. Even the ending can be changed. The storytellers at the teahouses in Pingding City keep going over the same things again and again—Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Stories of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, endless fighting and killing. They're all the same, and not suitable for children at all."
Zhang Yu smiled. "You sneaked out and went around listening to stories. Right Emissary Qu will spank you."
"I didn't sneak down here! Grandpa sent Sister Xiaochai and Uncle Wang to accompany me."
Zhang Yu glanced at the reeds. He faintly sensed someone watching him. If he made any move to harm Qu Feiyan, someone would immediately leap out and kill him.
"Your grandfather treats you really well. He even sent people to escort you down the mountain to hear stories."
Qu Feiyan smiled. "I'm gathering inspiration. Grandpa says that whether it's martial arts or music, only by learning from many schools can one master them all. I have to collect stories from every school before I can write my own."
"You want to become a novelist."
"That's right."
"That won't be easy."
"I'll keep at it."
"The little carp's story is too long. When I have time, I'll write it down and give it to you to read at your leisure."
"Can't you do it now?"
"I'm returning to Pingding City today."
Qu Feiyan invited him, "It's on the way. Why don't you ride in my little carriage?"
On the official road.
The afterglow of the setting sun fell over the wheat fields, which had already been harvested on both sides.
A dark-faced burly man rode a yellow-maned horse, guarding the carriage closely. A broad sword hung on his back, its blade nearly half as wide as a door panel.
"Giddy-up! Giddy-up!"
The little carriage trudged forward with difficulty.
A woman in fitted martial attire sat on the carriage shaft. A long spear rested behind her, and she flicked the whip with an unhappy expression.
Ever since Miss Feiyan had met that strange man, their daily destinations had included not only the Sihai Grand Teahouse in Pingding City but also Gorilla Beach, needlessly adding quite a bit to their workload.
She flicked the whip again. The pretty chestnut mare felt the sting and broke into a trot. She thought darkly, You're so good at telling stories. Why don't you go tell them at the Sihai Grand Teahouse?
Zhang Yu sat inside the carriage, completely unaware of the resentment of a working woman. He had to keep his head slightly lowered, or he would hit the roof.
The little carriage entered Pingding City. Zhang Yu got off at the crossroads, found Qi Zhaogu at Taiping Inn, borrowed fifty taels of silver, and then left through the southern gate of Pingding City alone.
Night fell. It was the fifteenth day of the month, and the full moon hung overhead, spreading moonlight across the road.
Zhang Yu used Flowing Clouds and Water. In one hour, he covered thirty li. His footwork gradually became more practiced. Even without the Green Jade Thumb Ring, he could execute the Flowing Clouds and Water footwork with ease. That meant he had officially mastered the basics.
Meixi Village lay thirty li south of Pingding City.
A mountain ridge stood before the village. Every twelfth month, when snow blanketed the land and plum blossoms opened across the mountain, many scholars and poets came to admire the plum blossoms in the snow.
For the villagers, however, the season when the plum blossoms bloomed most brilliantly was also the hardest time of year.
Winter was deadly. Bitter cold, hunger, and frostbite could take a person's life with ease.
Among the fifty or sixty households in Meixi Village, the Wang family lived fairly well.
The Wang family's great-grandfather had moved here from Hejian Prefecture, built three houses, and purchased sixty mu of fertile paddy fields.
By the time the property passed down to Wang Liyu, the land and houses had shrunk by two-thirds.
Later, Wang Liyu sold even the little ancestral property that remained, trading it for two inferior horses and two treasured swords. He then set out to travel with a carefree young man surnamed Zhang from the same village.
During those two years, Wang Liyu's name was synonymous with wastrel.
Later still, Wang Liyu became a standard-bearer of the Sun Moon Divine Cult. He returned home in glory, redeemed part of the ancestral property, and married.
In the villagers' eyes, Wang Liyu became a byword for success.
Whenever villagers passed the Wang family's residence, they would sigh over the Wang family's good feng shui and the promise of its descendants.
Zhang Yu entered the village at night.
He knew the roads well and avoided the wealthy households that could afford to keep dogs.
He had been gone for three years, yet everything seemed unchanged.
The original owner had also been a native of Meixi Village. When he was eight, heavy snow collapsed the roof. His parents were both pinned beneath the tiles and beams. Their injuries were not serious—only cuts from rusty nails—but neither survived that long winter.
When the original owner was nearly starving to death, Wang Liyu gave him a bowl of bean rice and told him, "Whenever you have no food in the future, you can come to the Wang family and get a bowl of bean rice."
"Is this the Wang residence?"
He pressed down on the hilt of his sword.
The three impressive houses with green-tiled roofs had vanished. Not even the remnants of broken walls remained. It was as if they had been castles on a beach, washed away by a wave until no trace was left.
"What happened to the Wang family? An earthquake? But the houses around here are all unharmed."
Zhang Yu picked up a broken roof tile from the ground, tucked it into his robes, and turned toward the western end of the village.
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