A Fellow Daoist

Li Bai walked over, set down the wine jug, and asked, "What did you want with me, Brother Jiang?"

Jiang She said, "That day, I opened your Heavenly Eye so you could see those things. Yesterday, I forgot to take the art back. Seeing ghosts and spirits all day long isn't a good thing."

"Fortunately, you're brave and weren't frightened out of your wits. Otherwise, it would have been my fault."

Li Bai instinctively rubbed his eyes.

He could see some strange things now. Sometimes he'd catch sight of one without warning and get a fright, but with a little time to adjust, seeing ghosts and spirits brought him many more amusements than other people had.

He'd been staying on Lumen Mountain for some time.

He'd gathered herbs with Yuan Danqiu, visited friends with Meng Haoran, and lived freely and happily among the mountains. He often visited the local great households, too, and attended poetry and literary gatherings.

He'd prided himself on knowing Xiangyang inside and out.

Yet only now did he find out.

There was a Hanged Ghost in front of a tree at the Lu Family residence. The mountains of Lumen Mountain were full of Mountain Spirits, and there was even an old Mountain God who had lived for more than eight hundred years.

He learned that the time Emperor Guangwu of Han entered a dream was no falsehood.

Another world had always been here.

Mountain Ghosts showed themselves, and Spirit Demons left traces. For decades, the gods and ghosts had lived here, day after day.

It was only ordinary people who were unaware.

Li Bai asked, "If you take this ability away, will I still be able to see the Mountain God?"

Jiang She smiled. "The Mountain God is the lord of the mountains and rivers in his domain, not some yin spirit or ghostly apparition. If he wants you to see him, then naturally, you will."

What he meant was that if the Mountain God wanted to conceal his tracks and not show himself to people,

then Li Bai wouldn't be able to see him.

Li Bai asked again,

"Could I still see the Spirit Demons in the mountains?"

"You won't be able to."

Li Bai fell quiet and pondered. After a while, he clasped his hands and said,

"Young Master Jiang, could I keep this Heavenly Eye?"

"In all my life, I've never witnessed such matters of immortals and gods. I came from Shu Prefecture to Xiang Prefecture, traveling more than a thousand li along the way. The most I ever saw were reclusive Daoists. The Daoist arts of those famed fangshi probably couldn't compare to what those three men used to swindle Lu the Eldest."

"Of course, one shouldn't compare virtuous recluses with swindlers who cheat people out of their money."

"It's not that Daoists are no good. It's just that they aren't what I seek. The Dao Path I seek is the path of learning to become an immortal."

"The true Dao."

"Not the trade of worshipping gods for incense and striking the bell every day."

"Long ago, Confucius encouraged his disciples, saying in the books, 'If I hear the Dao in the morning, I can die content in the evening.'"

"I feel the same way."

The courtyard was very quiet. Yuan Danqiu had gone out to visit a friend. Only two servants were in the room to the south. They seemed to hear their master discussing something, but kept their doors closed and did not come out. Only Li Bai and Jiang She were in the courtyard.

Leaves rustled softly.

One stood, the other sat, both beneath the shade of the tree, enjoying its coolness.

What Li Bai had seen a few days ago had been too bizarre. Spending seven days in a dream was even harder to imagine, and that Dream-Wandering Kingdom had turned out to be a paradise for the bugs and ants beneath the tree... All of it had piled up in Li Bai's heart.

The path of the immortals and gods he'd read about as a young man had now opened a corner before his eyes.

It was too magnificent, too mysterious.

Li Bai paused only briefly before continuing.

"Before, I'd seen stories like this only in books. It was meeting you, Young Master Jiang, that let me see that Lumen Mountain truly had a Mountain God who ruled over it. I saw the kingdom of ants beneath the tree and traveled through a dream. I can't help but sigh at it all."

"Before, we muddled along, ignorant and unaware. Weren't we just like those ants beneath the tree?"

"Now, having heard the Dao in a single morning, I'm like a fish in a dried-up lake finding the waters of a river."

"I treasure this more than my life and don't want to lose it. That's why I cherish it all the more."

Jiang She listened closely as Li Bai spoke of his longing for and reverence toward the Dao.

He nodded.

"I understand."

"If you want to keep it, you can. Just don't let fear take root in your heart."

After Li Bai said that,

now that he'd started speaking, he couldn't hold back the questions piling up inside him. They burst from the earth like fresh bamboo shoots after the rain. He stared intently at Jiang She and asked stubbornly,

"I have one more question."

"Why won't you take me as your disciple, Young Master Jiang?"

He asked solemnly, and Jiang She did not answer carelessly.

He thought it over and chose his words carefully.

Then he said,

"I'm a wanderer myself, and I have no plans to take on a disciple for now."

"Besides, one must be careful in choosing a disciple. You shouldn't teach someone who isn't the right person, nor pass on the Dao to someone who isn't the right person. It takes time to judge whether someone is worthy of being taught the Dao."

"I've known Taibai for less than a decade—not even ten days. How could I make such a decision?"

He, Li Bai, Meng Haoran, and Yuan Danqiu had first met through a heavy rain. Then, when Li Bai burned incense, he too had felt moved to thank the Mountain Lord of this place for sheltering them from the rain.

He'd never expected the Mountain God of Lumen Mountain to be an old deer.

He'd gained ten years of life, and their bond had begun with the rain. It was hard to avoid the tangles of worldly ties.

And Li Bai, standing beside him now and speaking with him—

Was he an ancient man?

Or a man of the present?

Jiang She couldn't help drifting off. A strange, faint regret stirred in him, but by the time he came to himself, Li Bai was still waiting for him to speak.

He smiled.

He picked up the wine jug Li Bai had brought and searched in the kitchen for two cups that had been tucked away there. He poured the wine into them. A layer of froth floated on the surface. It had already been filtered twice, leaving it a cloudy, milky white.

Li Bai watched the cups.

He was more alert now to things that seemed supernatural. He remembered the cups being put away in the kitchen. How had they appeared on the table?

He watched Jiang She pour the wine without saying a word.

Jiang She pushed one cup toward him and set it in front of him.

The wine jug rested on the paper Jiang She had written on earlier. A few drops had spilled, yet the ink had not run or blurred.

Jiang She held the cup.

The tree's shadow was a green mass. Sunlight slipped through gaps between the leaves, scattering flecks of light over the table, the chairs, and the two men. All around them was quiet; even the air seemed green.

It was as though the ghosts, spirits, and Earth Deities around them could not hear their conversation.

Jiang She pondered, holding his cup as he thought.

"If you want to study the arts of the immortals, the time isn't right yet."

Li Bai asked, "When will the time be right?"

Jiang She smiled. "That's for you to understand for yourself."

"Why not travel together as we are now? We can chat about worldly anecdotes and go see strange tales of ghosts and spirits when we come across them. Wouldn't that be pleasant?"

"Those who travel together are free to come and go."

"Unbound by fences."

"That's enough to call us fellow Daoists."

As he spoke, Jiang She raised his cup and smiled. "I invite you to drink with me, Taibai."

"Will you?"

He spoke with easy candor. It didn't matter whether he had the Dao or not, or how deeply he'd cultivated it. They could discuss the Dao together, travel the same path, see the world, and become fellow Daoists.

But what counted as being fated?

Could Li Bai cultivate the path of immortality?

Jiang She hadn't mentioned either.

Li Bai simply stopped pressing the matter. He picked up his cup, tipped back his head, and drained it in one gulp, laughing.

"Of course."

He was no longer as awkward as he'd been when he wanted to become Jiang She's disciple. Neither of them used deferential forms of address now. They were just like friends, laughing and drinking together.

It was a little like that day when the heavy rain had driven them together to take shelter in the mountain temple, where they'd met by a twist of fate.

The leaves swayed in the air, rustling in the wind.

Li Bai sat right down on the ground, drank some wine, and said,

"Mr. Jiang, what art did you use to fetch those two cups just now?"

"It was like taking something through the air."

"Taking something through the air?"

"Yes." Jiang She beckoned to a bird perched in the tree. "Come here."

The bird appeared in his hand. It stood dazed for a few breaths, then flapped its wings and flew off. Feather dust landed on the wooden table. Jiang She brushed it away with one hand, and the traces disappeared too.

"Marvelous!"