The Body of a Dead Man

The dazed boys jolted awake from their dreams, then hurriedly pulled on their clothes and ran outside.

They didn't wash their faces or brush their teeth. Some hadn't even put on their pants; they tumbled out of bed, dragged on their shoes, and dashed out.

Hu Ma had only arrived here yesterday, and he was completely bewildered. Still, he could only stumble along with the others.

Second Master stood in the middle of the courtyard, a copper tobacco pipe in hand. Anyone who came out too slowly got a kick from him, sending them tumbling out of the courtyard.

Hu Ma climbed to his feet and left the side room. He was slow to think and slower to move, and Second Master nearly kicked him too.

Recognizing Hu Ma, Second Master pulled his foot back and merely grunted, "Hurry up. Keep up."

Hu Ma felt his limbs, cold as ice. He wanted to ask something, but had no idea where to begin, so he ran out of the courtyard with the others.

They had been running up the mountain for a good while before the boys started to come alive, and gradually, laughter and chatter rose among them.

Some hadn't even managed to put on their shoes, yet they ran at full speed. After circling halfway around the slope, they came upon a spring bubbling out from beneath a rock. It flowed into a small pool at the foot of the slope. The boys ran over and crouched down, scooping up the spring water and splashing it over their faces.

They washed their faces and rinsed their mouths. One especially wild boy even stripped off his pants and jumped straight into the pool.

But after splashing about only a few times, some of them were already laughing as they ran back, shouting as they went:

"Whoever runs slowest has to lick a widow's ass..."

"..."

The whole group erupted into a commotion. They scrambled up from the pool and ran off without delay, with Hu Ma bringing up the rear.

His limbs felt weak, cold, and heavy. The doubts in his heart only grew.

By rights, after exercising for so long, even if his body was cold, he should have started to loosen up.

Yet the more he ran, the colder he became. His face was pale, and he hadn't sweated a drop.

Watching the boys in front of him bounce along as if they had endless energy, he had no desire to lick a widow's ass. But his body kept growing heavier.

Still, if he truly tried to keep up, it seemed he could manage it.

His body was icy cold, which made one place feel especially scorching: his lower abdomen, where the furnace sat.

After practicing his art last night, that spot had grown hot and full. It was the same now.

Whenever he tried to pick up the pace, he vaguely felt the furnace's heat spread from his lower abdomen through his whole body.

That furnace heat was what kept him from actually fainting, even though he felt cold and weak. It even let him trail the other boys from a distance.

But at the same time, the furnace was clearly weakening.

Hadn't Second Master said that as long as he kept his chastity, the furnace would continue to grow stronger?

Turning it over in his mind, Hu Ma grew more and more alarmed.

By the time he struggled back to the courtyard, everyone else was already lining up.

A large pot, a basket, and a winnowing tray had been set out in the courtyard, with a pile of coarse porcelain bowls beside them. The boys returning from the run each grabbed a bowl and lined up to get their food, their mouths practically watering.

Unexpectedly, there was meat.

Hu Ma only noticed the thumb-thick strips of salted meat in the rice porridge when he went up to get a bowl. They had been cooked together with the porridge, and each serving came with one strip.

It was clear that the boys cared most about that piece of meat. They stared wide-eyed as the server ladled out the porridge, yelling at him:

"That piece, that one! Give it to me... You son of a bitch!"

"..."

"You little bastard, you act like you've never had meat before..."

A slightly plump boy in front of Hu Ma stretched his neck, then turned around, grumbling, "They've already snatched it all."

Hu Ma was preoccupied, and asked without thinking, "What is it?"

"Mountain Meat..."

The boy said, "White Ganoderma. We only get this little bit a day. It's all we have to keep us going..."

"Why is White Ganoderma black?"

Hu Ma was still muddled, but then he realized: of course, it had been pickled, so naturally it was black...

The boys were all at that in-between age, growing fast, and they exercised so much. They relied entirely on dried meat made from White Ganoderma to keep them going all day.

No wonder they got so worked up whenever mealtime came.

But Second Master had said that even the adults in the stockade couldn't usually get their hands on White Ganoderma. So was this a special perk for the apprentices?

His limbs were cold, and it felt as if his mind was turning slowly too.

He wasn't craving the Tai Sui Meat. He was just eager to eat something hot and warm himself up.

At last, it was his turn. He picked up a bowl, just like the others.

But the tall, skinny boy serving the food looked at him and grinned. "The Hu Family Young Master is fighting us for meat too?"

As he spoke, he scooped up a ladleful. Just as he was about to pour it into Hu Ma's bowl, he gave the ladle a little shake.

The piece of meat fell right back in.

Hu Ma looked up and saw the boy grinning at him as if to say, what are you still waiting for?

This fellow seemed to have it in for him...

But Hu Ma had too much on his mind to care. He just took his porridge and two steamed buns, went to one side, and ate slowly.

There weren't even any long tables here. Everyone ate crouched wherever they could, slurping noisily.

Some of them even jostled one another as they ate, fighting over the piece of dried meat in their bowls.

But as Hu Ma ate, everything felt strange.

The porridge was still hot. Many of the boys held their bowls and sipped at the edges, afraid of burning themselves.

Hu Ma drank his a little at a time, but his body still felt completely cold. He could feel the porridge's heat, and it still burned his mouth.

Yet once it went down his throat, he couldn't feel a trace of warmth. It simply vanished.

How could this be happening?

He hadn't felt this way even when he was still back in the stockade...

He was beginning to fear this icy feeling.

"Little Hu Ma, come in!"

Just then, Second Master came out of the main room, beckoned to Hu Ma, and called him inside.

"You just lit your furnace. Eat this bowl of meat."

"..."

"Hmm?"

Hu Ma looked over in surprise. On the square table inside sat a bowl filled with great chunks of meat, glistening with oil.

He turned and saw that a piece had been cut off the meat Second Master had hung from the rafters the day before.

"Wasn't that the apprenticeship gift Mother-in-law gave you?"

Hu Ma collected himself and recognized the meat he had brought yesterday. It was a sizable piece, but unlike the Blood Ganoderma he usually ate, its color was somewhat dark.

He said to Second Master, "That was meant for you, Second Master. I can eat with the others."

"If I tell you to eat, then eat."

Second Master glared at him and said, "Mother-in-law gave me such a big piece of Green Ganoderma. That shows your Hu Family knows its manners."

"But what use do I have for tonics at my age?"

"Just eat it. Learn this skill as soon as you can, then go earn enough to show your gratitude to me yourself."

"..."

Hu Ma was touched, but Second Master didn't seem to be making polite conversation, so he sat down and slowly ate, wondering how to bring up what was on his mind.

But before he could ask, after a few chunks of meat had gone down, he suddenly felt warm currents surging within his chest.

The heat slowly drove the cold from every limb and bone, and he felt that familiar warmth again.

He even felt the cold rune on his chest once more, and realized it was pushing the heat in his body back.

As the heat followed the rune's traces and flowed back down to his lower abdomen, the furnace there seemed to flare up.

The feeling of his icebound body gradually coming back to life made Hu Ma stop eating for a moment.

"Second Master..."

He tried to keep his voice steady and asked quietly, "After eating this meat, I can feel the furnace inside me growing stronger..."

"What's so surprising about that?"

Hearing him, Second Master couldn't help laughing. "This Mountain Meat is also called Tai Sui. It's the most nourishing thing there is."

"Once you eat it, your fire grows stronger. Then Willow Mother's Yin Qi draws that fire into your belly. Of course the furnace gets stronger and stronger."

"It's like adding good firewood to the stove—the more it burns, the hotter it gets. Otherwise, why do you think those boys are so crazy for a little dried meat?"

"Then..."

Hu Ma thought he understood, but felt even less certain. "What if I don't eat Tai Sui Meat?"

"If you don't eat it, as long as you keep your mind free of stray thoughts and preserve your chastity, the furnace will still burn hotter. People are fire at their core."

Second Master said, "Your generation is lucky. In our day, we didn't have White Ganoderma to eat. We had to tough it out on our own, but we could still light the furnace."

"Buzz..."

Second Master's rambling words made Hu Ma's scalp prickle. He carefully asked his final question:

"Then what if I don't eat Tai Sui Meat, and there's no warmth in my body at all? What if the furnace I've lit keeps getting weaker?"

"..."

"What nonsense are you talking, you silly boy?"

Second Master looked at him strangely. "If a person's body has no warmth at all, wouldn't that make him dead?"

"!"

At those words, Hu Ma shuddered. He finally realized what his real problem was.

"I lit the furnace, and I don't feel unwell, so I'm not an Evil Spirit."

"I can even use the furnace's heat to keep Evil Spirits from getting close. But that was never the real problem..."

"The real problem is that I'm dead!?"