Fellow Disciples

All the children who passed the tests were sent to a small courtyard belonging to the Herb Gathering Hall. The courtyard had more than a dozen large stone houses, reserved for the Herb Gathering Apprentices.

Ye Qin was led away to bathe. He threw away his tattered hemp clothes, changed into a fresh set of coarse clothes for a Herb Gathering Apprentice, and was assigned a room in the southern courtyard. He collapsed onto the bed and slept through the entire afternoon. It was dusk when the smell of dinner finally woke him.

Only then did Ye Qin notice the four other apprentices in the stone house: two boys and two girls. They were all eating rice and chatting cheerfully. They wore coarse clothes and had all been washed up, just like Ye Qin, so there was no telling what sort of backgrounds they came from.

On the table inside the stone house sat a rice bucket and several large plates of greens, along with five sets of bowls and chopsticks. One set was still untouched. Ye Qin knew it was his, so he jumped up and rushed over to grab a bowl and serve himself. If he was late, all the food might be gone. After all, they had been here for twenty or thirty days, and nearly every child had learned to fight for their food.

Ye Qin was no different. The mere smell of rice was enough to jolt him awake from a dream.

A tall, sturdy boy with a tigerish face saw how hurried Ye Qin looked and pointed at him, laughing. "Ha ha! Look at that kid scramble. No need to fight for it; there's plenty here. We don't have to eat hard steamed buns and watery porridge anymore. Now we get brown rice and greens, and there's enough to fill us up. We're official disciples of the Herb Gathering Hall, after all. We're bound for success—why fight over a little food?"

"Exactly. Careful you don't choke."

A thin boy beside him, whose eyes held a glimmer of cleverness, chimed in. The other two girls watched Ye Qin over their bowls, smiling. Their stares nearly made him want to crawl into a hole from embarrassment.

Though Ye Qin was mortified, his hands didn't slow down at all. He shoveled rice into his mouth. He hadn't eaten all day and was starving; even if no one was competing with him, he still wanted to fill his belly as quickly as possible.

The two boys were both chatterboxes, taking turns talking without pause.

Before long, Ye Qin learned their names from their conversation.

The tall, sturdy boy was Yang Yicheng. He was twelve and came from a local blacksmith's family. He had worked at the forge with his father since he was little, building up a solid frame.

The clever boy was Feng Xiao, eleven, from a tenant-farming family near the county town. The two girls were Qian Ruoxiu, eleven, and Sun Ying, ten. They were also from the county town; their families worked as tailors and weavers.

To Ye Qin's surprise, all four came from commoner families in Zhuqi County town or within ten li of it. Not one of them was from the countryside.

He alone came from a poor, remote mountain hollow hundreds of li away. An unconscious sense of inferiority crept into his heart. Compared with Ye Qin, born in a poor, isolated place, the four of them lived in the county town and came from families that were quite well off.

In fact, the Herb Gathering Hall's recruitment of Herb Gathering Apprentices in Zhuqi County only covered the area within several dozen li of the county town. They had never gone to recruit in the far-off countryside. If Ye Qin hadn't happened to hear the news from a government runner at a roadside post station, he might never have come to the county town.

"Hey, you dazed kid, what's your name? How old are you, and where are you from?"

Yang Yicheng asked loudly and casually.

"Ye Qin. Eleven. Nearby, nearby... somewhere."

Since they had all introduced themselves, Ye Qin didn't think he could hide his name. He just didn't want them to know he came from such a remote mountain gully, in case they looked down on him, so he answered vaguely. Ten li away counted as nearby, and so did hundreds of li; both were within Zhuqi County, so he wasn't exactly lying.

Yang Yicheng didn't press him on where he came from. He laughed. "Ye Qin? Ha ha, what a strange name. What does 'Qin' mean? My name sounds better—Yicheng, one success! Ha ha! My old man was so clever to give me such a good name. Sure enough, I got into the Herb Gathering Hall on my first try."

Feng Xiao awkwardly touched his nose. His name's "Xiao" had no special meaning at all. He was simply the third child in his family: the eldest was Feng Da, the second Feng Zhong, and he, the third, had ended up with the character "Xiao."

Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying, on the other hand, had been given their names by the school at the county yamen.

Ye Qin explained hesitantly, "I don't know what Qin means, either. But one of my ancestors, ten generations back, was a scholar who passed the county exam. He left behind a book with writing in it, and it's still on the ancestral altar at home. My father picked a character for me from that book. It was Qin."

Yang Yicheng, Feng Xiao, Qian Ruoxiu, and Sun Ying all stared at him, wide-eyed.

There had actually been a scholar in Ye Qin's family? Even though it was ten generations ago, that was still remarkable—a mark of status and standing, entirely unlike their own families, whose ancestors had been commoners for hundreds of generations. They immediately saw Ye Qin in a new light and didn't dare look down on him again. Even the way they spoke grew more respectful. They stopped casually calling him "kid" this and "kid" that.

Ye Qin couldn't help secretly laughing. There had indeed been a scholar in his family, but it was so long ago that nobody knew when. Now his family was just a poor household of mountain hunters in an old gully.

Yang Yicheng and the others started talking about the tests they had undergone, discussing how frightening the medicine trials had been. Then they soon realized that all five people living in the stone house had passed the tests administered by Herbalist Wang. They were all Herbalist Wang's disciples and would train under him, which was why they had been assigned to the same house.

Yang Yicheng was delighted.

"Ha! So we're fellow disciples, all from the same batch and taught by the same master! I'm the oldest, so I'll be your senior brother. A-Qin is second, A-Xiao third, A-Xiu fourth, and A-Ying fifth. That's settled. From now on, we'll address each other as senior and junior brothers and sisters!"

Feng Xiao wasn't happy with the ranking.

"I'm a few months older than A-Qin. How come I'm third?"

"If your family had a scholar in its ancestry, you could have been second!"

Yang Yicheng glared at him, and Feng Xiao had nothing more to say.

Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying didn't object. They were younger, after all.

In less than half a day, the five of them gradually grew familiar with one another, and the initial awkwardness faded. Even after night fell, Yang Yicheng and the others kept talking excitedly. They told stories about the Herb Gathering Hall's prestige and brought up all sorts of odds and ends about Zhuqi County town. As locals, they knew a great deal. They were still young and spoke without the slightest restraint. Now that they had become Herb Gathering Apprentices, they believed their futures were boundless. Their hearts swelled with ambition, and they could hardly wait to make their mark and rise above the common lot.

Ye Qin rarely joined in. In Zhuqi County town, he was still a stranger, so he could only listen quietly. He didn't have any particular ideas just yet; he only wanted to earn a living at the Herb Gathering Hall.

More than anything, though, he kept thinking about Da Niu. He had no idea where Da Niu was now. Once he had some free time, he would have to go look for him.

With that thought in mind, he gradually drifted off to sleep.