Suffering, Uncle and Nephew Reunited (4.2k words)

Outside Guling Town, at the Lead Mountain mines.

This was the largest mining site within several hundred li. Lead and mercury, silver and iron could be smelted here and refined into medicine; from time to time, spirit stones, precious herbs, and other such things were also unearthed.

The furnaces within burned day and night without cease. Vegetation had been stripped bare across the surrounding wilds, poisonous water ran everywhere, and over the past sixty years, the mine had been dug ever larger and deeper, yet veins of every size still showed no sign of running out.

Yu Le was barefoot and bare-chested, trudging deep and shallow through acidic water with a mining pick slung over his shoulder.

Mixed among a crowd of strong-bodied but numb-faced men, he hunched like a rat and squeezed into a mine tunnel only wide enough for one person. After walking for nearly half an hour, he reached the end and began digging for his life inside.

Every three hours, the iron pipes carrying air and water into the mine would be struck with a clang-clang. People would emerge in batches, replaced by fresh batches entering the mine, the cycle repeating without end, day and night.

But for any one person, they had to dig for a full six hours before they could barely leave the tunnel. Digging for nine hours meant earning a little more ore, living a little better at the mine, and sending a few more talisman coins home.

And today, Yu Le had dug for nine straight hours before crawling out of the mine tunnel, utterly exhausted, with a basket of ore on his back.

Though his body was exhausted beyond measure, blackened from head to toe, and his face glistened with grime, Yu Le wore a smile.

He hauled the ore over to the foreman, collected his ration of dry provisions, then squatted beside an acid-water ditch and gnawed at them with his teeth.

A resting miner by the ditch saw him and teased him, "Yo! You look pretty pleased today. Must've dug up quite a bit of money. Why not treat yourself to something extra instead of gnawing dry rations every day?"

Yu Le merely grinned and lowered his head to keep eating.

The other miners kept chatting. "The man has a nephew studying the Dao in town. He has to support him. How could he be like us bachelors, with nothing to worry about but food and clothes?"

"Pah! A guy without a tongue—ask him something, and can he answer you? If you ask me, he probably owed gambling debts, had his tongue cut out, and got sold in here. He made up that lie because he was scared we'd laugh at him."

"Heh heh, brothers, I'm saving money too. Once I've got enough, I'll head to the market and have myself a good time."

But someone who heard this suddenly spoke up. "Have a good time at the market? We all signed long-term contracts. Until the foremen and mine owners squeeze every last drop of oil from the cracks in your bones, how could they bear to let you leave?"

The chatter by the ditch immediately died down, and the mood grew far more oppressive.

Someone cursed, "Exactly. By the time you get out, your little bird probably won't be able to stand up anymore. What the hell are you going to enjoy then?"

Yet the bald-patched miner who had just said he wanted to have fun still smiled cheerfully. "No matter, no matter. I've already thought it through. When my term's almost up, I'll break my left leg first. If they still won't let me go, I'll break my right leg too. Just leave the third leg... That way, the foremen and mine owners can't keep me in the mines to eat for nothing, can they?"

At those words, everyone immediately turned to look at the bald-patched miner. Even Yu Le stopped eating, staring at him in surprise.

Someone muttered, "That's a ruthless man."

Others sneered, seeming to find the bald-patched miner far too naive.

Suddenly, a cloud of poisonous smelting smoke drifted over from a nearby hill and enveloped the miners, making them curse as they hurriedly covered their mouths.

Violent coughing erupted from their throats. Without exception, all of them hacked up thick phlegm with wet, rattling sounds.

Ptooey! Ptooey!

The phlegm they spat out formed large puddles, black and gleaming with a metallic sheen, tinged with blood.

Yu Le was no exception. He stared intently at the lead-blood phlegm in his hand, froze for a moment, then calmly wiped it on the ground and continued gnawing his dry provisions.

After wolfing down the meal, the miners lined up like dogs and ran over to a wooden barrel.

They did not even have ladles. They simply plunged their heads into the barrel and gulped down water.

There were too many of them. Even though each person wiped their hands and washed their face before drinking, the water in the barrel was still scarcely any whiter than ink.

After drinking, they found a sheltered spot nearby, curled up, and prepared to sleep as they waited to enter the veins again, day after day, to dig ore.

But on this day.

Yu Le and the others had barely slept for an hour when gongs rang out nearby. The clamor went on and on, disturbing their peace.

Even though they slept like the dead, they could not block out the waves of gong strikes drifting through the mine.

A pangolin foreman and a toad monster were strolling about, waking the miners in batches before questioning them with their noses in the air.

Before long, it was Yu Le's group's turn.

The men cursed the two monsters inwardly.

They muttered things like, "If this were outside, I'd have killed you two long ago," and, "Pah! Since when do monsters get to strut in front of us?"...

But when the monster foremen truly arrived before them.

The miners all laughed obsequiously. A few who fancied themselves well-connected secretly pulled out snacks they had kept close to their bodies—dried rats, dried lizards, and the like—and stepped forward first to bribe the two monster foremen.

"Did you call everyone up today because you found a new vein?"

"Monster sirs, if there's a new vein, you've got to consider me first!"

The two monsters grunted and nodded without speaking. Only after finishing the snacks offered by the miners did they call out, "What are you thinking? We came under the mine owner's orders to find someone."

"Is there anyone among you called Fish Head or Fish Tail?"

Hearing that they were looking for someone, the miners looked at one another, especially the few who had offered snacks, whose faces twitched with pain.

Still, someone tried to ingratiate himself. "Hey! There's nothing here but rocks, and the ditches are full of acid water left over from smelting. Even fish monsters couldn't live in a place like this."

The pangolin foreman banged his gong with a clang-clang and said unhappily, "Wake up, all of you!"

The toad monster croaked noisily, "Who said we're looking for a monster? We're looking for a person! Someone surnamed Yu!

"Oh, right. We heard he has no tongue—or was it no tail? Have any of you seen him?"

Gradually.

More than half the miners turned their eyes toward Yu Le, their faces filled with uncertainty.

One of them cautiously asked, "Honored monster sirs, are you looking for a fellow named Yu Le?"

Clang-clang! The gong rang even louder.

"Yes! Yes, someone called Yu Joy or Yu Sorrow."

Now there was no mistaking it.

Every miner fixed their eyes on Yu Le, then immediately opened up a gap, leaving him exposed by himself.

When Yu Le saw the two monster foremen looking for him, he had already been secretly shrinking into himself.

But now that he had been called out by name, there was nowhere to hide. He could only force a smile, hunch over, bow and scrape as he greeted the two monster foremen.

The pangolin and toad monster looked at each other and asked in turn, "Ribbit! You're Yu Le, nicknamed Yu the Second?"

"Do you have a nephew studying the Dao at a Daoist hall? What was it called again—Solitary Gu Hall?"

Those two questions made Yu Le's face change with uncertainty. Panic immediately rose within him, along with a sliver of hope that seemed impossible.

His fellow workers began discussing it heatedly. "They know so much. Did they come to bring good news or bad news?"

"This guy really does have a nephew studying the Dao at a Daoist hall."

Some even gloated and muttered spitefully, "There's an eighty or ninety percent chance they came to collect a debt."

But even more people.

Seeing the two monster foremen make such a grand show of it, a thought they did not dare believe rose in their hearts. Could it be? Could it be...

Yu Le steadied himself. Still wearing that forced smile, he hesitantly nodded.

The moment he nodded, the two monster foremen shuddered and their expressions changed abruptly.

Like chameleons that had taken human form, they threw themselves down and kowtowed to Yu Le. "Oh, goodness! Greetings, Master Yu. Please forgive this little monster for failing to recognize greatness."

"Master Yu, may you have good fortune! We came to take you out of the mine and invite you back to enjoy a life of comfort!"

For the first time ever, they fussed over Yu Le with solicitous concern.

Seeing Yu Le stand there stunned for a long while without speaking, the two little monsters looked bewildered.

"Eh! Master Yu, why aren't you talking? This monster's memory may be bad, but we haven't offended you, have we?"

Fortunately, a miner softly reminded them, "Master Yu... he has no tongue."

The two little monsters were horrified and immediately cried out, "Who? Who dared cut out Master Yu's tongue?"

"What a sin! They could cut off my own vital root, but they mustn't cut off Master Yu's tongue!"

Fortunately, Yu Le came back to himself then. He straightened up, an indescribable light shining in his eyes, and smiled as he stopped the two monsters.

After his fellow workers explained further, the two little monsters also recalled what the mine owner had told them: Yu Le had not had a tongue to begin with.

Only then did they suppress their lingering fright.

Yet the two monsters remained extremely careful. The pangolin simply lay down and desperately invited Yu Le to climb onto his back, intending to carry him away.

And so, the two monster foremen who had just been flaunting their might vanished humbly and pleasantly into the mountain hollow—one striking the gong, the other carrying a man.

After the two monsters and one man had disappeared completely, and even the gong could no longer be heard, the remaining miners still stared blankly, unable to recover for a long time.

People kept murmuring to themselves, "So he really has a nephew. He really was saving money for his nephew."

As for why Yu Le's nephew dared come to the mines to seek kin, and had even stirred the monster foremen into such fawning behavior.

He must not merely have made a fortune. He had either found a powerful patron or possessed considerable magical power himself. Otherwise, the mine would never have released Yu Le so easily.

For a time, the awakened miners could no longer sleep. Their hearts hopped about as though full of toads.

They had long heard that miners would occasionally either dig up a treasure or be hauled out by immortal relatives, thereafter living high on the hog.

But they had never imagined such good fortune would appear right beside them—and for Yu the Meek, the most inconspicuous among them, the man who did not even have a tongue.

This made them far more envious, jealous enough to die, than hearing tales of some lucky man from the neighboring tunnel or another mine!

Quite a few immediately began daydreaming. What if such good fortune happened to them...

But very soon.

The clang-clang of gongs rang out again. This time, however, it was not foremen searching for someone, but vicious-looking foremen carrying whips and driving them back into the mines.

Some still hesitated, even glaring hatefully at the monster foremen while muttering things like, "If I had relatives come for me too," or, "When this grandpa gets lucky."

Then—smack, smack, smack!—just three lashes.

The monster foremen shattered their daydreams and made them cry, "Into the mine, into the mine! I want to dig ore!"

Elsewhere.

Fang Shu wore the Daoist robe of Solitary Gu Hall and stood still atop a hill at the mine, gazing out at the mine slaves swarming through the mountains and pits like ants.

Only when the two monster foremen appeared before him, carrying his Second Uncle Yu Le, did his calm expression visibly stir.

Second Uncle Yu Le sat atop the pangolin's back, staring at Fang Shu from afar and repeatedly rubbing his eyelids, terrified that this was an illusion.

Once he drew near and confirmed that he was not seeing things—that the person on the hill was indeed his own whole and hale nephew, Fang Shu—

The stone in Yu Le's heart finally fell to the ground.

Yet the closer he came to Fang Shu, the more constrained and awkward Yu Le became. He hunched over, rubbed his hands constantly, and looked from head to toe like someone at a loss, too ashamed to face another person.

Seeing him in that state, Fang Shu suppressed the emotions in his heart.

Fang Shu did not hurry to speak with his Second Uncle. He merely stepped forward in silence and presented the Clean-Clothes Talisman and a set of clean Daoist robes he had prepared long ago.

The Clean-Clothes Talisman could not only clean clothes; it could also wash away the filth on a person's body, though it was not as clean or comfortable as having a proper scrub in a bathhouse.

Once most of the grime had been removed and he had put on the Daoist robe, finally looking somewhat human again, Second Uncle Yu Le's face gained a little more life.

Only then did he dare raise his eyes and carefully examine Fang Shu's spirited, vigorous face.

Fang Shu saw this and suddenly broke into a broad grin. He deliberately shook out his Daoist robe as though showing off, displaying the bright Solitary Gu Hall characters embroidered upon it, and spoke the first words between them. "Second Uncle, I'm considered somebody at the hall now. We can live high on the hog from now on."

Second Uncle Yu Le also broke into a grin and beckoned him closer.

Fang Shu obediently stepped forward.

Second Uncle Yu Le reached out. He hesitated at first, then touched Fang Shu's Daoist robe as though it were burning hot, especially the Solitary Gu Hall characters on his chest, as if afraid of soiling or damaging the robe.

Fang Shu began chatting with his Second Uncle as well.

He explained where his Daoist robe had come from and what it represented, hoping to prove that he had not been lying just now.

But Second Uncle Yu Le did not need any explanation at all.

With one glance, Yu Le knew that Daoist robes of such material, embroidered with a hall's name, could only be worn by inner-court disciples who had entered the Dao and formally joined a Daoist hall.

They represented a portion of that Daoist hall's face.

If any idle person dared wear one casually and was recognized, even if the Daoist hall crippled or killed them on the spot, no one would come forward to seek justice.

And in just over half a year, Fang Shu had crossed tribulation, entered the Dao, and become an official disciple of the Solitary Gu Hall Master. In Yu Le's more than ten years of life in the market, he had only occasionally heard of such a thing happening a few times.

This should have been a joyous occasion worth celebrating, a glorious blessing for the ancestors!

But as Yu Le stroked the embroidered words on Fang Shu's lapel and listened to Fang Shu's "showing off."

Two streams of tears spilled from his eyes on the spot, utterly against his will.

For a moment, pride and heartache alternated across Second Uncle Yu Le's withered face, leaving Fang Shu at a loss.

Child, how much suffering must you have endured...

Second Uncle Yu Le's throat rasped soundlessly. Unable to speak, he could only cry out again and again within his heart.