Old Affairs Were Like Smoke

After only a few knocks, the black-painted gate swung open.

They had guests coming that day, so the gate had been left ajar, ready to open. A broad-shouldered, six-foot-plus middle-aged man pulled it wide, wiping away the fine sweat from his hurried jog. He cupped his hands and said, "My apologies, my apologies. I was just helping move a crock of pickled cabbage and didn't hear you at the gate. I've kept the young master waiting."

The gate stood open now, and a table and chairs had been set beside it. Brush, ink, paper, and inkstone lay on the table.

Some names had already been written on the paper, along with the gifts they had brought. They were all valuable things: fine silk from the prefectural city, and even rare Golden Phoenix paper, a premium stationery beloved by refined scholars and literati. It was expensive.

The middle-aged man took a seat and asked Qi WuHuo his name. Looking at the mountain goods the youth carried, he smiled.

"Very good. Thank you for the trouble, young master. Heh... mountain goods are hard to come by at this time of year."

"The master and madam will be in for a treat."

"I just wonder whether us laborers might get a little share."

He smiled as he wrote it down, then took out a red-paper-sealed envelope from beside him. There were at least fifty large coins inside—enough to buy seven jin of pork, five good writing brushes, or a block of premium ink. It was no small sum. The middle-aged man smiled and said, "We're only inviting guests for a simple meal, not raising money. It's only right that gifts go both ways."

"These mountain goods of yours must have been hard to come by, young master."

Footsteps sounded.

"Senior Brother Qi? Has Senior Brother Qi arrived?!"

Li Puyü hurried over in a new set of clothes. Ever since he had last met Qi WuHuo and been startled by the Primordial Spirit the latter had unintentionally let slip, he had felt an inexplicable awe toward him. He had been waiting inside since early that morning, and the moment he heard voices outside, he rushed over.

When he saw Qi WuHuo again, he found his aura warm and clear, no longer shrouded in the invisible pressure it had carried before.

Li Puyü didn't know why, but he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Qi WuHuo said, "Brother Li."

"Don't call me Brother Li. Just call me Puyü. Come, don't stand around out here."

"Uncle Li, I'll leave these things to you. Come, Senior Brother Qi. My father was very happy to hear you were coming. He's been waiting for you."

Li Puyü was only fifteen, after all. He grabbed Qi WuHuo by the arm and hurried him inside. The first thing they passed was a stone screen bearing the character for good fortune. Beyond it was a somewhat narrow passage, which opened up farther in. Li Puyü's father, Li YueLin, was a kindly-looking middle-aged man. Rather than a wealthy country gentleman, he looked more like a farmer who had spent his life making ends meet.

He seemed to have worn himself out worrying, and his hair was already streaked with white.

After Qi WuHuo greeted him, Li YueLin welcomed him warmly and spoke with him about everyday matters.

He also said his son was a good-for-nothing and asked Qi WuHuo to look after him.

Qi WuHuo said, "Mr. Li..."

He paused, then said, "I mean, Puyü is clever and gifted. Surely Heaven will favor him."

Li YueLin smiled and shook his head. "I know exactly how much he's worth."

Li Puyü's expression froze.

His father was putting him down in front of a guest.

Father, you really are my father!

Li YueLin ignored his son, whose composure was crumbling. He took a silver-stuffed envelope from his wide sleeve, clasped Qi WuHuo's hand, and chuckled. "Heh... the New Year is only a month away. You could say you're already here to pay your New Year's respects. Our family will be heading to the prefectural city over the holiday, so this is the perfect chance to give you your New Year's money."

"It's not much. Go buy yourself some meat. Just look at you—you're so thin."

"Come to think of it, you're fourteen now, and you'll be fifteen after the New Year. Is there a girl you like? Have you managed to—"

Li Puyü's scalp went numb.

"Father, let's go see Second Uncle first!"

"Father, have some tea!"

"Father, we'll take our leave!"

He tugged Qi WuHuo by the arm and hurried away. Only after they had passed through two courtyards did he let go. He breathed a sigh of relief and apologized.

"Sorry about that, Senior Brother Qi. My father's always like this."

"He's firm on important matters, but in daily life he never stops talking."

"He loves lecturing people."

Li Puyü's second uncle was a younger-looking man, though he seemed to have spent a long time traveling abroad, with a weathered face to show for it. He had been a traveling merchant, going far and wide and seeing much of the world. After making a fortune that year, he had returned to his hometown to settle down. When Li Puyü brought Qi WuHuo to see him, this newly wealthy man was sitting alone in the sun on a peach-wood chair, leaning back with a long-necked wine flask on the table beside him. He poured himself a drink, looking quite languid and dispirited.

Only when he saw Li Puyü did he raise his eyes slightly and smile.

"Puyü, you're here?"

"Second Uncle, you really should stop drinking. Why are you drinking like this in broad daylight?"

Li Puyü snatched the wine cup from his second uncle, Li Yixian, then said, "This is my Senior Brother... Qi WuHuo."

"He's very interested in the sights and customs of the Capital City. Weren't you a traveling merchant there? Tell us what it's like."

Then he added, "I'm interested too."

Li Yixian laughed heartily. "I see. You seem to hold your Senior Brother in high regard."

"Come, sit here with me."

Qi WuHuo thanked him and sat down beside him. Li Yixian reeked of wine and seemed deeply dispirited. He chatted idly about the customs of various places, telling only the sort of things an ordinary merchant might encounter—the sort most likely to impress a boy of Qi WuHuo's age. Qi WuHuo saw that he was dressed in fine silk, but his air of dejection was impossible to conceal. He hardly looked like a merchant returning home rich.

He didn't know how much the events in his dream had to do with reality.

Was it merely a dream?

Or did it contain glimpses of the future?

As Qi WuHuo listened to Li Yixian's idle chatter, the Li family's banquet began. Li YueLin sat at the head of the table, while Li family members who had come from the surrounding towns chatted among themselves. Li Yixian stared at the flask of wine, seeming to have no intention of speaking further. Qi WuHuo picked up a wine cup and suddenly said, "Still, Mr. Li, you're impressive."

Li Yixian mumbled drunkenly, "Hm?"

Qi WuHuo said, "Three years ago, the court issued the Edict of Ascension. It declared that when troops, military commissioners, and the like conducted business in villages or Market Ward shops, they were to be taxed on the same terms as the common people, and were not to abuse their positions to claim exemptions."

"That being so, to do business in the Capital City and still make a fortune is no ordinary feat."

This was a law the emperor had issued upon ascending the throne three years ago. It stated that when the military and officials engaged in trade, they were not to receive any special treatment, but were to be treated like ordinary people.

Li Yixian was half-drunk and half-awake. Without thinking, he said, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"A good thing? I thought that, under these circumstances, it meant the military and officials were being allowed to do business. Their connections and positions—and even their advantage in knowing the court's plans in advance—were beyond the reach of ordinary people. If common folk partnered with them, they'd be stripped clean. They wouldn't just fail to make money; they'd lose the capital they'd put into the business."

"In the end, they'd leave the Capital City in disgrace. Unwilling to return to their hometowns, they'd often disappear along the way..."

!!!!

A chill ran down Li Yixian's spine. His drunken haze vanished in an instant!

He jerked his head up.

The youth in the plain blue robe was watching him, his gaze calm.

It was as if this youth, who lived far from the Capital City, had seen right through his entire past with ease.

Qi WuHuo said, "Mr. Su said that."

"Ah... I see..."

"Ha, hahaha. There are certainly people like that, but I'm different."

Li Yixian forced a stiff smile.

Then he lowered his head and drank.

After Li YueLin's opening remarks, the younger generation was asked to display their talents before the many elders.

Li Puyü, seated beside Qi WuHuo, stiffened.

He had been practicing the zither diligently. After visiting Qi WuHuo earlier, he had meant to come find his uncle, but had instead been dragged off to practice so he wouldn't embarrass himself that day. Everyone's attention was focused on the younger generation's performances, but Li Yixian, shaken by Qi WuHuo's words, found himself watching Qi WuHuo more closely than the others.

Without meaning to, he revealed more and more, talking about all sorts of things he had seen in the Capital City.

Some of the names matched things Qi WuHuo had experienced or heard about before.

But the events themselves did not all line up.

Like a dream, yet not a dream; real, yet unreal.

Qi WuHuo was quiet for a long while, then asked, "Then, beyond the mountains near the Capital City, there's a peak called Dingyan Peak. Have you heard of it, Mr. Li?"

"I have. It's shaped like a cauldron, and smoke rises from it in the daytime. There's a Daoist temple on top, too."

"I've been there."

"Is that so? Then is the Mountain God Qiong Yu enshrined in the temple?"

Li Yixian paused in the act of drinking and asked, puzzled, "A Daoist temple naturally enshrines the Daoist patriarchs."

"Why would it be a Mountain God?"

"Qiong Yu? Is that the name of some Mountain God?"

Qi WuHuo fell silent for a moment, then smiled and replied, "I see... Then I must have remembered wrong."

Qi WuHuo lowered his head and watched the ripples rise in his cup. Suddenly, he smiled. A strange feeling came over him. In that Capital City, the people whose names he knew—those who had once been his friends and once his enemies—were living lives familiar to him, yet different. Some people's names did not even match the ones in his dream. Were they real, or false? Neither real nor false.

And I alone remained.

A feeling he couldn't put into words suddenly rose within him. It was as if he had already walked out of it, and yet as if the dream were still going on.

Was it a dream, or reality? Had Qi WuHuo risen through the ranks in a dream, or had he returned to his youth after rising through the ranks?

Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly; the butterfly dreamed it was Zhuang Zhou.

Li Yixian, having heard none of the youth's question, looked up in confusion. He saw the blue-robed youth sitting there, lost in thought. Just then, Li Puyü finally managed to finish his piece, enduring his father's increasingly furrowed brow and the pressure of his tutor, who looked ready to pluck out his own beard. He let out a long breath, shoved the zither aside, and said, "It's your turn, it's your turn!"

Only after sitting down did he remember that Qi WuHuo was beside him.

Not the clan younger brother who was supposed to play next.

Qi WuHuo had always been poor, so Li Puyü assumed he probably couldn't play the zither. He was just about to speak when he saw the blue-robed youth place his fingers on the ancient zither.

His fingers pressed down ever so slightly.

The next moment—

The zither rang out like silk tearing.

The hall, which had been filled with idle chatter, fell silent all at once. The zither's clear, piercing notes filled the entire room, plucking at everyone's hearts.

Inside and outside the room.

Human and nonhuman.

For a moment, everything fell silent.

"Dao through Zither—his Primordial Spirit has taken form?!"

Outside the Li family home, a Daoist's expression changed in an instant.