The Answer in the Fireworks

Early on the morning of the hall's day off, Chen Mo shouldered his bag and headed home.

Qinghe Town wasn't large, and it didn't take long to walk home from the martial arts hall.

He ran into quite a few familiar faces along the way. Whenever someone saw him carrying the martial arts hall's bag, they would grin and ask, "Little Mo, has the hall been busy lately?"

Chen Mo didn't put on any airs, either.

"It's all right. Training my punches is just tiring."

"Then you have to train hard."

"I know."

When he passed the village entrance, Chen Mo spotted the wall of his own courtyard in the distance.

The courtyard gate was half ajar.

Several freshly washed clothes hung beneath the eaves.

In the courtyard, his mother was laying things out to dry.

Chen Mo hitched the bag higher on his shoulder and hurried over.

"Ma, I'm home."

Liu-shi turned around.

When she saw her son, she froze for a moment before breaking into a smile.

"What brings you home at this hour?"

"The martial arts hall is closed today."

"Was the fieldwork tiring?"

"It was all right."

As he spoke, Chen Mo set down his bag.

"I just did a lot of walking every day."

Liu-shi looked him up and down.

"Have you lost weight?"

"No."

Chen Mo puffed out his chest.

"I've gotten stronger, too."

Liu-shi reached out and pinched his arm.

"How come I can't tell?"

Chen Mo immediately dodged away.

"Ma, that's really rubbing it in."

Liu-shi laughed and scolded him.

"Hurry inside and wash your face."

Chen Mo answered, but after only two steps, a little girl's voice rang out from inside the house.

"Big brother!"

Chen Huan ran out of the house.

She was still clutching a small wooden pen, and her hair was a tangled mess.

The moment she saw Chen Mo, her eyes lit up.

"Did you bring me anything?"

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks.

"How come that's always the first thing you say whenever you see me?"

"Because every time you leave, you say you'll bring me something."

"Shouldn't you at least ask whether I'm tired first?"

Chen Huan thought about it.

"Big brother, are you tired?"

"Tired."

"Then did you bring me anything?"

Chen Mo: "..."

He stared at his sister's utterly self-righteous expression and remained silent for a long while.

In the end, he couldn't help laughing.

"I did."

"Really?"

"It's in the bag."

Chen Huan immediately ran over.

"Where?"

"Find it yourself."

Chen Huan rummaged through it twice and pulled out a small object wrapped in cloth.

When she opened it, she found a crooked little wooden bird.

It wasn't carved particularly well, and its wings were somewhat uneven, but its eyes and beak had both been carved out.

Chen Huan held it in her hands, smiling until her eyes curved into crescents.

"Is this a bird?"

"Of course it is."

"Why is its beak so big?"

"Because it eats a lot."

"Then why is one wing higher than the other?"

"Because it just learned to fly."

Chen Huan stared at the wooden bird for a while.

"Big brother, did you carve this carelessly?"

Chen Mo immediately took offense.

"I carved it for a long time on the road."

"Oh."

Chen Huan nodded.

"Then I like it."

As soon as she said that, all the words Chen Mo had been about to use in his defense vanished.

"I'm glad you like it."

He reached out and ruffled his sister's hair.

Chen Huan hugged the wooden bird and ran back inside.

"I'm going to put it on the table!"

"Don't drop it."

"Got it!"

The courtyard fell quiet again.

Chen Mo washed his face, then helped his mother move the firewood in the courtyard beneath the eaves.

Only after he finished all that did he sit on the threshold to catch his breath.

His mother looked at his hands.

"What happened to your hand?"

"Nothing."

Chen Mo lowered his head and glanced at it.

"I scraped it moving things."

Liu-shi frowned.

"Does your martial arts hall make you do this kind of work, too?"

"It's fieldwork."

Chen Mo said, "Repairing roads, delivering medicinal herbs, and driving off wild boars."

"Wild boars?"

"Yeah."

"Were you hurt?"

"No."

Chen Mo waved his hand with a smile.

"A few ordinary wild boars. We shouted a few times and they ran off."

Only then did Liu-shi relax.

Inside the house, his father was sharpening an old woodcutter's knife.

Hearing this, he raised his head.

"You went into the mountains?"

"No."

Chen Mo shook his head.

"Just the area beside the village."

Chen Shan nodded.

"Good."

He lowered his head and continued sharpening the knife.

"The mountains haven't been peaceful lately. Don't go running in there for no reason."

Chen Mo hummed in acknowledgment.

His father had said those words several times recently.

In the past, he had thought his father was being overly cautious.

But ever since those people from Tongchuan Town had come to the martial arts hall, and he had personally seen traces of some strange mountain beasts, he no longer argued.

"Dad."

Chen Mo suddenly asked,

"Have you still been going into the mountains lately?"

Chen Shan's movements paused.

"I still go to the foothills."

"What about the deep mountains?"

"I don't go."

The answer was crisp and decisive.

Chen Mo nodded.

"That's good."

Chen Shan looked up at him.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Chen Mo smiled.

"I was just asking."

Chen Shan looked at him twice but didn't press further.

At noon, the family sat around the table together.

The meal wasn't particularly lavish.

There was a plate of greens, a bowl of cured meat, and a pot of freshly cooked mixed-grain rice.

Chen Mo picked up a piece of meat and was just about to eat when Chen Huan's chopsticks reached over.

"Mine."

"How do you know it's yours?"

"The first piece you pick up is always for me."

"Who says?"

"That's how it's always been."

Chen Mo looked at her.

"You have quite a memory."

Chen Huan smiled smugly.

Chen Mo had no choice but to put the meat in her bowl.

Chen Shan watched his two children bicker, a smile on his face as well.

Halfway through the meal, he suddenly asked, "The Quarterly Assessment is coming up, right?"

Chen Mo's hand stopped as he reached for a dish.

"Yeah."

"Are you confident?"

"A little."

"How high are you aiming?"

Chen Mo thought about it.

"The top ten."

Chen Shan did not speak right away.

He lowered his head and took a couple bites of rice.

"Is the top ten hard to reach?"

"Hard."

Chen Mo answered honestly.

"There are quite a few people at Blue Martial Arts Hall. Everyone's been training pretty hard lately."

"Then why are you still talking about the top ten?"

"I want to try."

Chen Mo smiled.

"I have to set myself a goal."

Chen Shan nodded.

"Then go for it."

He said it simply.

"If you can get it, get it. If you can't, don't train your body into the ground."

Chen Mo gave a soft grunt.

His mother asked from the side, "What's in the top ten?"

"Rewards."

Chen Mo said, "And medicinal powder."

"Is medicinal powder expensive?"

"The hall's is definitely better than what they sell outside."

Chen Mo thought about it, then added another sentence.

"If I can get some, it'll help with my boxing practice."

What he truly cared about most was still the reward.

If he could really get some better medicinal powder, he would recover faster from training.

And with the Quarterly Assessment rewards added in, the family could spend a little less money too.

His younger sister still had to continue school next year.

His father's old leg injury also needed medicine.

There was no need for Chen Mo to say all of that.

He merely lowered his head and ate.

Yet Chen Shan seemed to understand something.

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

"I know."

"You're still young."

"I know."

Chen Mo smiled. "Dad, you're getting used to saying that."

Chen Shan glared at him.

"Think I'm too naggy?"

"Wouldn't dare."

"Then eat."

"Oh."

Chen Mo lowered his head and shoveled down his food.

Chen Huan snickered beside him.

After dinner, Chen Mo helped clear away the bowls and chopsticks.

There was nothing much to do that afternoon, so he sat in the courtyard with his younger sister.

Chen Huan held the wooden bird, setting it on the table one moment and atop the wall the next.

Chen Mo could only keep shaking his head.

"Be careful not to drop and break it."

"I won't."

"You already dropped it on the ground once just now."

"It fell by itself."

"Wood can fall by itself?"

"It can."

Chen Mo was so exasperated that he laughed.

"Fine. Whatever you say is right."

After a while, Chen Huan suddenly asked:

"Brother."

"What?"

"Will you really become someone amazing someday?"

Chen Mo froze for a moment.

"Why ask that?"

"Because you're practicing boxing now."

Chen Huan said seriously, "Aren't all the people at Blue Martial Arts Hall amazing?"

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"I suppose."

"Then can you beat them?"

"Not yet."

"What about later?"

Chen Mo lowered his head and looked at his palm.

The calluses on it were growing thicker and thicker.

Back when people said he was not suited for martial arts, he had actually doubted himself too.

Sometimes he trained until he was exhausted, his fists aching, while movements others could perform with ease were things he simply could not do no matter how hard he tried. He would wonder whether he was just fundamentally incapable.

But when he thought of it now, it did not seem like much.

If he could not do it, he would keep practicing.

If his strength was insufficient, he would make up for it bit by bit.

If his boxing forms were unsteady, he would go back and practice the basics.

If others were stronger than him, then he would first remember where the gap lay.

Chen Mo raised his head and smiled at his sister.

"We'll talk about it later."

Chen Huan was dissatisfied.

"Why do you keep saying later?"

"Because I really can't beat them right now."

"Then when will you be able to?"

"I'll know once I've mastered it."

"Liar."

"Why would I lie to you?"

"You said last time that you could finish carving that wooden bird in three days."

"Didn't I finish two days early?"

"You were clearly one day late!"

"You still remember that?"

The siblings quickly began bickering again.

The wind outside the courtyard blew in.

Not far away, someone was driving cattle home, while village children ran after them along the roadside.

Sitting in the courtyard, Chen Mo suddenly felt that this kind of life was quite good.

Nothing major happened.

Eating, working, practicing boxing.

His younger sister chattered noisily beside him.

His parents were inside the house.

But he knew that if he wanted such days to continue forever, what he had now was still not enough.

His father was no longer young.

His mother bustled about every day.

Though the family could still get by, it could not withstand any major upheaval.

He wanted to enter Blue Martial Arts Hall not merely because others said martial arts were impressive.

Nor was it so that people in town would look up to him in the future.

At least for now, what he wanted was actually very simple.

To make life a little better for his family.

To let his father enter the mountains a few fewer times.

To let his sister study peacefully and steadily.

Then, if he still had spare strength, he would go see those places he had never seen before.

Those were the things he could think of right now.

They were not much.

But they were enough to make him practice boxing every day.

At dusk, Chen Mo helped secure the courtyard gate.

After dinner, each member of the family returned to their own room.

But Chen Mo did not go to sleep right away.

He sat alone beneath the old locust tree in the courtyard and flexed his wrists.

The movements he had seen at Blue Martial Arts Hall during the day slowly surfaced in his mind again.

How that older student moved his feet when throwing a punch.

How his waist followed.

How his shoulders drove forward.

And where Chen Mo himself fell short.

After thinking for a while, he rose to his feet.

The courtyard was not large.

There were several drying boards beside it.

Afraid of disturbing his family, Chen Mo did not truly throw any punches. He merely slowly went through the Seventy-Three Forms once.

The soles of his feet touched down.

His body followed.

His arms rose.

Then drew back in.

The first run was somewhat unfamiliar.

The second gradually became smoother.

By the third, his movements had already steadied.

Chen Mo stopped in the courtyard and looked west.

It was already dark.

The distant mountains were no more than a blurred outline.

He stood there for a while, then suddenly heard Chen Huan's voice from inside.

"Brother, aren't you sleeping yet?"

"Soon."

"Are you going back to Blue Martial Arts Hall tomorrow?"

"Mm."

"Then sleep early."

"I know."

Chen Mo smiled.

"You hurry up and sleep too."

The house fell silent.

Chen Mo lowered his head and looked at his fists.

"Top ten..."

He muttered quietly.

Then he turned and went back inside.

"I'll practice again tomorrow."