Dawn was just breaking at Dripping Water Rock.
A string of droplets seeped from a crack in the stone and fell into a bucket with clear plinks. The hunter bent to lift it, spilling water over his straw sandals, then deftly set another empty bucket beneath the rock and let the droplets go on chiming.
Carrying the bucket around a bend in the path, he caught the drifting fragrance of porridge.
Over breakfast, Chi Ke noticed that the young man seemed distracted. At first he thought the youth had slept poorly, but a closer look revealed something unusual.
Though Chi Ke had never truly crossed the threshold of physiognomy, he knew a little of its rudiments.
This was more than a poor complexion. It was plainly the face of someone in deep mourning!
Some things could not be spoken aloud even when one knew them. If grief overwhelmed the young man and he fell ill on a mountain road with neither village ahead nor inn behind, where would they find a physician or medicine?
He was, after all, a son of some standing from another household. If something happened to him out here in Chi Ke's wilderness, it would invite trouble for no reason.
Chi Ke found ways to make him eat more and packed extra dry flatbread for him.
Before they left, he pulled the hunter behind the door and repeatedly reminded him.
"Be sure to escort him safely out of the mountains. Better yet, take him into town and show your faces before the officials."
The hunter nodded solemnly.
"Rest assured, sir. I understand. But what about your safety?"
Chi Ke waved a dismissive hand.
"It's no matter. Brother Snake and the fox are here. If bandits really do come, I can move into the shelter at Giant Rock for a few days."
After a moment's consideration, the hunter decided this would work. He shouldered his hunting bow and pack, gripped his iron fork, and strode out through the courtyard gate first.
The yellow dog raised its head to study its master's expression, then obediently stayed behind, sitting on the steps to guard the house.
They cupped their fists in farewell. Standing before the courtyard gate, Chi Ke watched the young man's retreating figure grow distant along the winding mountain path. Autumn had stripped away much of the leafy cover, so although the two figures vanished briefly around a bend, they reappeared moments later on a farther stretch of trail. This happened several times before they finally disappeared into the mountains.
An autumn breeze brushed his robes. Suddenly, the scene stirred old feelings, and the mute, dull ache he had felt at his mother's death seemed to cross the years and well up in his heart again.
In this vast human world, who could escape the partings of life and death?
"Ah..."
His sigh was as desolate as the autumn wind.
Taking his books and cushion, he went to find his two friends of the wilds to explore the mysteries and cultivate qi.
Atop Giant Rock.
Black Snake held his head high toward the morning glow, breathing in the mountain mist. The fox yawned and gazed toward the path, raising its tail when Chi Ke appeared.
Sitting beside a tree on higher ground, the fox watched Chi Ke approach, then stood and lifted its forepaws in imitation of a cupped-fist salute.
Chi Ke smiled and returned the salute, then climbed onto Giant Rock and sat upright to practice his breathing.
Black Snake, meanwhile, remained sunk in thought over how to deal with the potential threat. Other things did not matter, but threats demanded attention. If something could suddenly appear regardless of distance, how could he ever sleep peacefully again? If only he could observe it a few more times. Perhaps he could discover further details.
He glanced at Chi Ke, sitting solemnly upright beside him, and marveled that every beast of this kind was far from simple. Besides being skilled at making calls, they could summon shadowy figures.
Once the morning mist had dispersed, sunlight brought warmth to the mountains.
Chi Ke opened his book and began the lesson.
The fox listened most attentively, both ears erect, a lively gleam of delight occasionally flashing in its eyes as understanding dawned. By comparison, Black Snake listened too, but remained silent as a boulder.
Chi Ke thought the fox clever. It imitated human gestures and quietly listened to the classics. He inwardly praised its extraordinary spiritual nature; surely it had already attained some measure of cultivation.
He had come to live in seclusion in these remote wilds, only to encounter two spirit beasts. What extraordinary sights must await in famous mountains and great rivers?
He sat at leisure on the rock, shelling pine nuts and taking a sip of mountain spring water from his gourd whenever he grew thirsty.
As the sun approached its zenith, the fox abruptly turned and darted into the woods.
A moment later, it raced back and gently laid a pine cone before Chi Ke's knees, then returned to its usual place beside the pine on higher ground.
"Hahaha! Good!"
Chi Ke picked up the pine cone and laughed heartily.
Black Snake remained silently coiled, the odd behavior of the man and fox reflected in his slit pupils. His tongue flickered lightly, but he still could not fathom what any of it meant.
That day, the lesson covered two more pages than usual.
Before returning to his little courtyard, Chi Ke cupped his fists toward Black Snake and the fox.
"My hunter has business down the mountain these next few days. I hope you two will look out for me. If any bandits or fierce beasts come lurking, please let me know."
Black Snake remained indifferent.
The fox seemed to understand three or four tenths of it, and gave two soft cries by way of agreement.
With the two beasts watching over him, Chi Ke felt greatly reassured. On the way back, he even began humming a childhood song, something he rarely did.
The fox called to Black Snake, rose, and went off hunting.
Giant Rock returned to silence.
Black Snake remained helplessly where he was. Only now did he realize that his memory of the grave threat was rapidly fading. As time passed, his worries gradually slipped away, yet this unstoppable forgetting distressed him even more than the threat itself...
Never before had he felt such a fierce longing for memory.
The clearer his memories, the more alert he became, but the troubles and confusion entangled with them also increased.
After briefly weighing the matter, Black Snake made his decision.
He would rather endure the confusion memory brought than lose himself in the haze of forgetting.
A wave of anguish washed through his heart amid his muddled thoughts. Black Snake could guess that in another day or two, he might forget what suffering felt like. He did not know what to do, because forgetting suffering was itself an even greater suffering...
Yet Black Snake did not even know where his memories were stored.
Apart from the survival instincts he had been born with, the entire forest-and even his own self-was a soundless blank to him.
Black Snake had worked hard for a long time with little to show for it, but he had never considered giving up.
He sought every possible means of improvement, refused to give up, and simply kept at it, firmly believing that his memories would grow ever more numerous. If he could not understand the call of "Brother Snake," he would keep listening. If several months brought him an understanding of only a few scattered syllables, that was all right. He would go on listening.
Over the following days, he basked in the sun without going hunting for food. He had fattened enough for autumn and patiently awaited the falling temperatures.
It was just as he had guessed.
The cruel truth had been confirmed. His recent sense of suffering dissipated like a thin mist, until he could no longer remember it clearly.
He flicked his tongue.
Coiled in his accustomed place on the smooth surface of Giant Rock, his mind gradually emptied.
The sun sank and the moon rose. His nearsighted eyes could not see the river of stars.
His understanding of breathing toward the moon was hazy. He took seriously what had long since become habitual behavior, afraid that one day he would forget it all. Yet he also felt he ought not to forget, because breathing toward the moon could fill his belly, and survival and food came before everything else.
Black Snake reduced his activity as much as possible to conserve energy, indifferently watching day alternate with night and welcoming the occasional autumn rain.
The weather gradually grew colder. When the mist dispersed after another cold rain, snow appeared halfway up the mountains.
The appearance of the snow line meant winter was coming.
At the little courtyard on the rock, apart from the yellow dog,
the three people were bundled up like bulging sacks and busy every day. A strong medicinal smell drifted out from time to time, but at least no mushroom of black smoke erupted.
The stone was cold, so Black Snake moved to a thick pile of dead leaves nearby and coiled there.
One day, he awoke from deep sleep to find himself buried beneath white snow. Looking around, he could detect almost no heat sources with his thermal sense.
After a brief moment of bewilderment, he remembered where the cave was.
Black Snake slowly wriggled across the steep, snowy slope, the winding trail he left behind buried beneath snowflakes filling the sky.
He slipped into the cave, gathered himself into a coil, and fell peacefully asleep, quietly awaiting the night of the full moon.