I Found You

"Yuan? You're back?"

His grandfather Chen Dehou's voice suddenly came from the courtyard.

Chen Yuan took a deep breath and tugged at the hem of his T-shirt, trying to cover himself as much as he could, before entering the main room.

Chen Dehou sat in a bamboo chair, waving a palm-leaf fan. A mug of strong tea stood in front of him.

He was over seventy, but his back was still straight. Only his hair had gone completely white.

"Grandpa." Chen Yuan sat down across from him. "I just ran into Sister E."

"Oh?" Chen Dehou took a sip of tea. "Xiue's back?"

"Yeah, to get a replacement ID." Chen Yuan paused. "She said she'd take me to Deep City to work. She invited us both over for dinner in a bit, too."

Chen Dehou's hand paused.

The fan stopped moving.

He looked up at Chen Yuan and studied him for a long while.

"Do you want to go work in Deep City?"

Chen Yuan nodded. "I do."

He paused, then added, "But if I go, you'll be home alone..."

"What have you got to worry about with me?"

Chen Dehou cut him off.

"I'm still fit as a fiddle. I can walk, get around, and cook for myself. It'd be good for you to get out and make your way in the world. Better than being stuck in these hills."

Chen Yuan lowered his head without a word.

Chen Dehou looked at his grandson and sighed. "Is there something you want to ask me?"

Chen Yuan raised his head.

There was so much he wanted to ask! Everyone else had parents, so why didn't he? Had Grandpa really adopted him? Why had Grandpa come to this village carrying him seventeen years ago?

But Chen Yuan opened his mouth and couldn't get a single question out.

Chen Dehou took another sip of tea, set down his mug, and finally said:

"It's about your parents, isn't it?"

Chen Yuan nodded.

Chen Dehou fell silent for a long while, then stood and walked to the doorway, looking out at the sky.

"You aren't my flesh and blood." His voice was a little hoarse. "I found you."

Chen Yuan lowered his head and said nothing.

He had guessed long ago.

He had overheard the villagers gossiping behind their backs.

They said Old Chen had suddenly arrived in Potou with a child all those years ago and settled here, but nobody knew where he really came from. They said Chen Yuan might have been abducted. They said...

"Seventeen years ago," Chen Dehou turned to look at Chen Yuan, "my travels took me to Deep City. I found you beside a river on the outskirts."

Chen Yuan raised his head.

"I was fifty-three that year and had never settled down anywhere. I'd spent my whole life traveling all over, working security, teaching apprentices, doing every kind of job. That day, I was walking along the river when I heard crying. I went over to look, and there you were, you little rascal, lying on the riverbank wrapped in a little blanket, crying till your face turned purple."

Chen Dehou came back, sat down again, and picked up his fan.

"I picked you up and saw you were a boy. Your umbilical cord had only recently fallen off. Two months old at most. There wasn't even a note beside you, just a blanket, and a cheap one at that. I called out for ages, but nobody answered. I held you and waited for hours. The sun went down, and still nobody came."

Chen Yuan clenched his fists.

"I wanted to leave, but you little rascal grabbed my finger and wouldn't let go." Chen Dehou glanced at him, the corner of his mouth twitching. "And my heart softened."

"Then why... didn't you take me to an orphanage?" Chen Yuan asked.

Chen Dehou's fan paused.

"There were reasons. I couldn't go to the authorities back then."

Chen Yuan froze for a moment. "What reasons?"

Chen Dehou waved a hand. "Ancient history. No point bringing it up. Anyway, I took you with me and headed north. We'd been traveling for over a month when we reached Potou Village, and you came down with a fever."

He pointed outside the courtyard. "We'd just reached that old locust tree at the village entrance. You were burning like a hot coal and couldn't even make a sound when you cried. I had no idea what to do. Then I met Xiue's mother."

"Sister E's mother?"

"That's right. She was still alive then."

Chen Dehou took a sip of tea.

"She was coming back from the fields with a hoe over her shoulder. When she saw me standing there holding you, she asked, 'What's wrong, sir?' I told her my grandson had a fever and I didn't know what to do. Without another word, she took me to the village clinic and got you some medicine."

"What happened after that?"

"Then Xiue's mother took us home with her, had her husband boil some water, and gave you the medicine."

Chen Dehou waved his fan.

"You little rascal had luck on your side. The fever lasted all night and only broke the next day. Xiue's mother felt sorry for us and asked where I was from. I told her we were grandfather and grandson, that your parents were dead and we had no home. She sighed and said times were hard, but everyone needed somewhere to settle down."

Chen Yuan felt his eyes begin to sting.

"She took the lead and helped us buy this place from a family in the village."

Chen Dehou pointed at the ground beneath his feet.

"Five thousand yuan. That was a lot of money back then. I had to take out every penny I had to scrape together enough. And that was how we made our home here."

"Then Sister E's mother..."

"Good people die young!"

Chen Dehou sighed. "A few years later, she rode her bicycle into town for the market and got hit by a truck. She died on the spot."

Chen Yuan lowered his head.

Sister E had only been in her second year of middle school then, hadn't she? She wore her hair in a ponytail and often washed clothes in the courtyard.

"After that, Xiue became one of those children left behind."

Chen Dehou continued.

"Her father went to work in Deep City and left her with her grandmother. Later, her grandmother died too, and she was all alone. After she finished middle school, she joined her father at the factory. She came home once a year."

Chen Dehou stood, walked over, and patted his grandson's shoulder.

"I didn't raise you expecting anything in return. I just felt sorry for you, abandoned by a river when you were so little."

Chen Yuan looked up, his eyes red.

"Grandpa..."

"All right, don't get all emotional on me." Chen Dehou withdrew his hand. "Go on. Go to Deep City with Xiue."

He paused. "That's where I found you. If you go there, you might be able to find your birth parents."

Chen Yuan froze.

He opened his mouth, but it took a long time before he managed to speak. "I'm not looking for them. The moment they dumped me by that river, they stopped having anything to do with me."

His voice had a hard edge. "I'm going to Deep City to make something of myself, not to find them."

Chen Dehou was silent for a moment.

"Maybe they had troubles they couldn't talk about?"

"What kind of troubles make you dump your own son beside a river?"

Chen Yuan stood.

"Two months old, wrapped in a ragged blanket, without even a note. If you hadn't found me, wild dogs would've eaten me!"

Chen Dehou said nothing.

Chen Yuan took a deep breath and sat back down.

"I don't want to find them. I just want to get out there, earn some money, then come back and build a better house so you can enjoy life."

Chen Dehou looked at his grandson for a long while.

Then he smiled.

"All right! Then don't look for them."

He sat back in his bamboo chair, lifted his mug, and took a sip.

"I won't be worried about your safety out there in Deep City."

Chen Yuan blinked.

Chen Dehou set down his mug and looked at him. "You've mastered everything I can teach you in Baji Fist."

Chen Yuan scratched his head. "I'm not that good. I've still got a long way to go."

"Don't be modest. Too much modesty isn't a good thing."

Chen Dehou waved his palm-leaf fan.

"I taught you stance training at three and body strikes at five. By eight, you could send other kids your age flying. You haven't slacked off once in all these years. I know that."

He stood and walked to the doorway of the main room, his back to Chen Yuan.

"Baji Fist is too fierce. As the saying goes, 'In peace, Tai Chi brings harmony to the world; in war, Baji brings order under heaven.' Baji Fist is unmatched in its ferocity and unbeatable at close range. A single move decides life or death."

Chen Dehou turned to look at his grandson.

"We live under the rule of law now. If someone bullies you, try not to use your full strength."

Chen Yuan nodded. "I'll remember."

"But don't put up with too much, either."

Chen Dehou came back and stood before him.

"When it's time to act, act. But remember, before you strike, make sure you've thought out a way to retreat."

He lifted his hand and pressed Chen Yuan's shoulder.

"When I was young, I didn't think about a way out. That's how I ended up where I am today."

Chen Yuan looked up, about to ask something.

Chen Dehou waved a hand. "Don't ask. I'll tell you someday, if the chance comes."

He returned to the bamboo chair, sat down, and picked up his mug.

"Go on. Go eat at Xiue's. Don't keep her waiting."

Chen Yuan stood and walked to the doorway, then glanced back.

Chen Dehou sat in his bamboo chair, waving his fan and gazing at the moon outside.

Moonlight fell across his face, making every wrinkle look as though it had been carved with a knife.

"Grandpa," Chen Yuan called.

Chen Dehou didn't turn. "Hmm?"

"Don't worry. I'll make something of myself. One day, I'll bring you to the city to live in a big house."

Chen Dehou smiled without speaking and waved his palm-leaf fan.

Chen Yuan turned and left.

Moonlight covered the courtyard. The lights were on at Sister E's house next door, and the aroma of pork stir-fried with chilies drifted over.

Chen Yuan headed next door.

Of course, he had no idea that Deep City, where he would soon go with Sister E, had already bound his fate inextricably to its own through an upheaval in a delivery room eighteen years earlier.