The Swan and the Toad (Revised)

Drinking Wine (Part V)

I build my hut in the realm of men, yet hear no clamor of carriage or horse. You ask how this can be? When the heart is far, the place becomes remote of itself. I pluck chrysanthemums beneath the eastern fence, and gaze leisurely at the Southern Mountain. The mountain air is lovely at dusk, and the birds return together. In this there is a true meaning; I wish to explain it, but have already forgotten the words.

The life Tao Yuanming depicted is somewhat similar to Liu Chang'an's. He has likely experienced an identical life and state of mind, only perhaps more relaxed; after all, Liu Chang'an has never cared about the issues of success or failure.

Just like the place he lives in now—an environment that would make many sigh with melancholy and lament—Liu Chang'an wakes up naturally after a full night's sleep, his body and mind still perfectly at ease.

After getting up, Liu Chang'an swept the sycamore leaves as usual, then drank a bag of soy milk.

Soy products are an excellent source of the protein the body requires. For someone as impoverished as Liu Chang'an, this is a superb commodity.

Liu Chang'an can confirm that soybeans originated in China; before the modern era, he had never seen records of large-scale cultivation anywhere in the world outside of East Asia.

"The earliest soybeans weren't called soybeans; they were called shu, written with the grass radical over the character for 'uncle.' A dou was originally a bronze vessel. Look at this character: the horizontal line at the top is a lid, the 'mouth' in the middle is the pot, and the bottom looks like burning fire, doesn't it? It's just that later, people often used the dou to hold cooked shu, so dou replaced shu and became the name for this plant." As he drank his soy milk, Liu Chang'an said to the little girl who had delivered it, "More than a hundred years before the Master was born, the Shanrong tribe attacked the State of Yan in the south. I lobbied the hegemon Duke Huan of Qi to send troops to help, and we fought all the way into the depths of the Yanshan Mountains, the lair of the Shanrong. I brought the finest bean seeds found in the mountains back to the Central Plains, and only then did the soybean rise to the status of a staple food. But people back then couldn't drink soy milk; that had to wait until the stone mill was popularized..."

"Brother Chang'an, you don't study all day, you just read all sorts of messy books!" The little girl was clearly uninterested.

"Who says so!"

"My mom!"

Having said that, the little girl scampered away.

Liu Chang'an went out for a run, avoiding the Baolong Center area as usual. After his run, he went to the vegetable market and bought some beans. They were a bit old, but not spoiled—not bad at all. The small market didn't have any genetically modified soybeans; those were only used for pressing oil or as other industrial raw materials.

The vendor was a bit annoyed. She only had that one bag of beans, and this young man kept turning them over and picking through them for ages. Could he find gold in there?

"Scatter beans to create soldiers!"

Liu Chang'an casually tossed a handful of beans by the wall. He certainly didn't have the ability to actually conjure soldiers, but he hoped that the randomly scattered beans might take root and sprout, growing a patch of bean seedlings. The seedlings were edible, and once they bore green beans, picking and boiling them would make for a great snack to go with his wine: edamame.

This hope was almost always in vain, and perhaps he would forget about it himself after a while, but Liu Chang'an often did such things.

Arriving at school, Liu Chang'an habitually sat in his original seat. Gao Dewei and An Nuan looked at him together.

"Let us forget each other in the rivers and lakes; farewell." Liu Chang'an stood up, preparing to return to his own seat.

"I have something to discuss with you at noon," An Nuan said with a serious expression.

Liu Chang'an nodded without asking what it was about. Just then, Miao Yingying and Lin Xinhuai arrived together. Liu Chang'an returned the seat to Miao Yingying. Gao Dewei shifted his chubby frame uncomfortably, sitting as far to the edge as possible. He glanced at Lin Xinhuai before lowering his head to continue his exercises. Why waste limited study time on things like dating? An Nuan had told Gao Dewei about Miao Yingying and Lin Xinhuai's relationship that morning.

Miao Yingying sat down with a sheepish smile. She felt a bit embarrassed, feeling as though she had been used by Huang Shan as a pair of scissors to cut the red thread. Now that she was dating, she understood even more how painful it was to be forced apart and unable to sit together. Miao Yingying wanted to swap seats with An Nuan, because An Nuan's seat across the aisle was right next to Lin Xinhuai.

Liu Chang'an returned to his seat and lifted his leg, dodging a foot that Lu Yuan had seemingly nonchalantly extended into the aisle.

A toad had been drawn on his desk with a permanent marker.

Bai Hui glanced at Liu Chang'an. She knew, of course, that this was the work of Lu Yuan and Qian Ning. She wouldn't interfere in such matters, but she was curious to see Liu Chang'an's reaction.

Bai Hui picked up her Chinese textbook, shielding half her face, and rested her hand against her forehead, peeking at him from an angle Liu Chang'an wouldn't notice.

"This toad is truly ugly."

Liu Chang'an muttered to himself. Bai Hui sneered; at least he had some self-awareness.

Liu Chang'an put down his schoolbag, took out a pen, and drew some plates and pots next to the toad. Bai Hui was puzzled, yet she had to admit that Liu Chang'an's drawing skills were quite good. She could draw herself, and she knew better that these simple little things, sketched with casual lines, still gave a sense of quality, which required genuine skill.

But what was he doing? If an ordinary person were insulted like this, shouldn't they be furious? Bai Hui was certain that if it were Qian Ning or Lu Yuan, they would have already slammed the table and jumped up shouting about who did it!

After drawing the plates and pots, Liu Chang'an drew a knife and fork, then drew a pile of roaring fire in front of the toad, with a grill above the fire, and on the grill was a swan that hadn't even been plucked!

It was only because it hadn't been plucked that one could tell it was a swan; if it had been plucked, who would know if the toad was roasting a chicken, a duck, or some other silly bird?

Bai Hui pursed her lips, feeling more annoyed the more she looked at Liu Chang'an. He was determined to eat swan meat, even if he considered himself a toad!

Liu Chang'an suddenly glanced at Bai Hui. She quickly sat up straight, thinking he shouldn't have noticed her peeking, as her side bangs were blocking her eyes.

But Bai Hui couldn't help but steal another look. Liu Chang'an had actually written the character "Bai" on the roasting swan.

Bai? Bai Hui or a white swan? Bai Hui wasn't sure, and she couldn't help but focus intently on the tip of Liu Chang'an's pen.

For a long time, Liu Chang'an didn't write anything. Bai Hui was about to urge him on when she looked up and found him looking at her with a half-smile, his gaze feeling quite irritating.

Bai Hui's face flushed. She glared at Liu Chang'an with a blank expression, then tilted her head slightly, speaking as if naturally to Lu Yuan, who was also watching from not far away: "Was the candy I gave you good?"

"It was good," Lu Yuan said, taken aback. Bai Hui had a cousin working in Taiwan who had recently returned to Junsha and brought Bai Hui a pile of snacks. Bai Hui had complained that her cousin treated her like a child, though she had actually wanted cosmetics.

Bai Hui didn't say anything more and turned back naturally. She took the opportunity to glance out of the corner of her eye; this damn Liu Chang'an was such a tease. He had only written the character "Bai," and then he actually picked up a copy of Notes on the Sea Miscellany and started reading. The page he opened to was a drawing of a "sea snake," which immediately made Bai Hui shudder with disgust. Since she was a child, she had been particularly afraid of such soft, smooth, wriggling, ugly things.

Liu Chang'an is a bastard. Bai Hui clenched her fists and slammed them onto the desk. She hoped more than ever that the college entrance exam would come quickly, ending the days of sitting at the same desk as Liu Chang'an.

"Viper mating can last from six to twenty-four hours. People say snakes are lecherous, yet they also believe eating snakes can prolong stamina... There used to be many sea snakes, but now they are scarce. In the early years, along the coasts of Nanyue and Minshan, tens or even hundreds of thousands of sea snakes would often surface to mate, wriggling in endless, winding masses—a spectacular sight. It's just that now they've been mostly eaten by people hoping to prolong their stamina..." Liu Chang'an muttered to himself with great regret. He always liked to draw analogies and expand on things when he read.

Bai Hui couldn't help but visualize the countless sea snakes mating as Liu Chang'an had described. Combined with the greasy breakfast she had eaten, she felt a wave of nausea and rushed out of the classroom.