Seeing that the sheep would be grazing there for a while, Old Man Li found a rock to sit on and rested his feet.
He watched the clouds and mist among the mountains, thinking that he ought to spread more dry straw in the sheep pen when he got home.
Otherwise, if the ewe gave birth during the night, her lamb would be lying on the ground and could easily catch a chill.
He gazed out beyond the mountains, lost in thought.
Then, for some reason, his vision suddenly blurred, as though something had flashed past his eyes.
Old Man Li looked around and rubbed his eyes. He couldn't see anything.
He simply stood up, turned in a circle, and surveyed his surroundings.
There really was nothing there.
Ah, these old eyes. Getting old really does you no favors.
He was about to sit back down when he suddenly straightened again...
Wait, am I missing a sheep?
Old Man Li turned around and counted carefully. Four.
Hey! Where's the pregnant ewe?!
There were plenty of rocks on this mountain, and the grass grew thick. The ewe might have wandered off while grazing, so Old Man Li wasn't particularly alarmed.
He went over to the ram first and slipped a rope around it.
The ram led the flock, and the other sheep would follow it. That way, he wouldn't lose the remaining sheep while searching for the ewe.
Old Man Li found a taller rock and climbed onto it. Looking down the mountainside along the path he'd taken, he saw no sign of a sheep.
He turned his head and looked at the trail leading to the back of the mountain...
Did that ewe go around back?
Old Man Li had been herding sheep for years. He'd lost them before, but he'd nearly always found them again.
He crouched and examined the ground carefully, but couldn't make out any hoofprints.
I'll follow the trail to the back of the mountain. The trees are tall and the woods thick over there. If she really went that way, I'll never find her unless I hurry.
Leading the ram, with the remaining three sheep following behind, Old Man Li headed into the woods on the back of the mountain.
He never came back out.
It was afternoon, and the sun had begun sinking toward the west.
With the Celadon Porcelain Gourd hanging at his waist, Cui Jiuyang shouldered his banner proclaiming "Unerring predictions, relief from worry and protection from calamity" and sauntered along the mountain path.
After leaving Jining City, he'd cast a divination. The reading had told him only to head east, without saying where he should go.
For ten days straight, he'd cast ten divinations, all pointing east, so he'd walked straight into these mountains.
At a mountain pass, Cui Jiuyang cast another divination and muttered to himself, "Heaven above, let's not play games. If my fated opportunity is in Weihai, I'll hire a carriage right now. That's another eighteen hundred li away. How long would it take me to walk there? I'd walk myself to death."
"You keep sending me east, but where exactly am I supposed to go?"
Oh!
Before he'd even finished speaking, something changed!
Today's reading was different!
The reading showed that it was somewhere on this very mountain, hidden deep amid the clouds!
Then... where exactly is this mountain?
Celestial Mechanism Navigation only gave directions, not place names. He didn't even know where he was now.
Shouldering his banner, Cui Jiuyang found a higher rock, climbed onto it, and shaded his eyes with a hand as he looked around.
Below the mountain pass, he spotted a group of men and women sitting in a circle on the ground. They seemed to be arguing about something.
He hopped off the rock, straightened his blue cloth robe, and brushed off the dust. Unfurling his banner, he held it in one hand and took out a bell with the other, ringing it as he walked down from the pass.
The mountain path had many bends. By the time he rounded an earthen slope, the people sitting in the circle had already stood up-they'd heard the bell some time ago and were curious who was coming from beyond the mountains.
Cui Jiuyang came into view, his features regular and handsome, his face like Xiuyan jade. The stains on his blue cloth robe gave him a travel-worn air. One look told them he wasn't a local.
Then they read the words on his banner-"Unerring predictions, relief from worry and protection from calamity"-and delight spread across their faces. Just what they needed, right when they needed it.
"Sir, where are you headed?" A sallow-faced man stepped out of the crowd and approached with his hands clasped in greeting.
Cui Jiuyang returned the greeting. "Ha ha, I'm a wanderer of the martial world, bound for Weihaiwei. Is there something you need?"
The sallow-faced man exchanged a glance with the others behind him, then said, "We're from Heyang Village at the foot of the mountain. My name is Li Jinbo. How should we address you, sir?"
"You look a few years older than me, so I'll call you Brother Li," Cui Jiuyang said. "My name is Cui Jiuyang, and I've come from Jining City. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Li Jinbo said, "An old man went up the mountain to graze his sheep and disappeared. We've got to find him, no matter what. Please cast a divination for us, Mr. Cui. At least tell us whether he's alive or dead."
Disappeared?
Mountains surrounded the whole route he'd taken here. The roads out were difficult, and there weren't many ways in either. Where could a man disappear to?
A man from a local village couldn't have lost his way.
"Could you give me something belonging to the missing man?" Cui Jiuyang asked.
A dark-faced man came forward from the back and handed him a battered bowl. "My father eats from this bowl every day. Sir, please make sure you do it properly. I've only got one father. I can't lose him."
Well, obviously. I've never heard of anyone having two fathers.
Cui Jiuyang shook his head inwardly. This fellow seemed a little dim.
He took the bowl and immediately cast a divination.
The reading looked familiar... it was exactly the same as his previous one.
Somewhere on this very mountain, hidden deep amid the clouds!
Chapter 61: The Search
Well, that settles it. This missing old man is my fated opportunity!
"The missing man is still alive," Cui Jiuyang said. "He's on this mountain. It's just... finding his exact location will be difficult."
Li Jinbo saw how firmly Cui Jiuyang spoke, completely unlike the usual fortune-tellers with their vague, evasive pronouncements.
He couldn't help feeling that, young as Mr. Cui was, he might possess some real skill.
He turned and discussed it with the villagers. In the end, they reached one conclusion-Old Man Li must have gone to the back of the mountain.
They'd already searched all over the mountain. Only the back remained, because no one dared go there...
Curious, Cui Jiuyang asked, "Why? What's back there?"
They hemmed and hawed, unwilling to explain clearly, until Old Man Li's son suddenly lost his temper.
His face was already very dark, but now the rush of blood turned it purplish. "I told you my father might've gone around the back, but you wouldn't let me go. I'll go myself!"
With that, he pushed past them and headed straight up the mountainside.
Li Jinbo shouted after him, "Jincai! Jincai! Get back here!"
The man named Jincai didn't even turn his head.
Li Jinbo turned back to the others. "We can't let Jincai go around the back alone. If both father and son disappear on the mountain, none of us will be able to answer for it."
"Take Mr. Cui to my house and get him settled."
Then he picked two young men and hurried after Jincai with them.
Cui Jiuyang and the remaining villagers looked at one another. Only then did he ask, "Which county does Heyang Village belong to?"
A woman answered, "Yangshan County. The county seat is farther east."
Cui Jiuyang asked again, "Is Li Jinbo your village head?"
"He isn't," the woman said. "We don't have a village head. We used to have a baojia head, but then people came from the county and said they'd reformed things. We weren't allowed to have a baojia head anymore."
"But even without one, somebody has to lead us. The county organized a People's Defense Team, and Jinbo's in charge of it. He leads everyone in growing grain and digging irrigation channels. Whenever anything happens in the village, Jinbo takes care of it."
Isn't that still a village head? Cui Jiuyang thought.
He wanted to follow them up the mountain and have a look, but Li Jinbo was already out of sight, and it was getting late.
He wasn't a local and didn't know the paths at all. If darkness fell once he was up there and he failed to catch up with Li Jinbo's group, he could easily get lost.
Besides, the divination hadn't shown any particularly ominous signs... presumably, things weren't that urgent.
While he was still thinking, someone came over to usher him into the village for the night.
The people of Shandong were very hospitable. Everyone talked over one another as they surrounded him and escorted him into the village.
It wasn't a prosperous village. The houses were all old mud-built structures, with slender beams laid across earthen walls, thatch covering the beams, and clay tiles laid over the thatch. Even those tiles were chipped and missing in places.
Once they entered the village, the crowd gradually dispersed. The woman who'd answered Cui Jiuyang's questions earlier led him into Li Jinbo's home.
The moment Cui Jiuyang stepped inside, poverty and dilapidation met his eyes everywhere.
A table stood in the center of the room. Its top had split and lost a plank, and someone had somehow wedged an ill-fitting wooden stick into the gap. It was barely recognizable as a table.
There wasn't even a decent chair, only three folding stools to make do with.
The woman poured Cui Jiuyang a bowl of plain water, then went out and busied herself for quite a while. She returned with a winnowing basket full of steaming sorghum buns and a dish of pickles, smiling apologetically.
"Jinbo doesn't have a wife, either. I couldn't find anything else, just buns and pickles. Please don't mind the food, Mr. Cui, and make sure you eat your fill."
Cui Jiuyang did enjoy good food, but he certainly didn't consider hot sorghum buns bad fare.
He picked one up while it was hot, split it down the middle, and filled it with strips of pickle. Pressing it firmly together with both hands, he dug in with hearty bites.
Seeing this, the woman relaxed. When a guest felt at home and wasn't fussy, the host naturally felt at ease.
Not long after they finished eating, darkness fell. It was getting hard to see anything inside when the woman suddenly said, "Jinbo should be back soon. Let's wait for him in the courtyard."
Cui Jiuyang thought back. There didn't seem to be an oil lamp in the house... and he understood.
He stood, carried his folding stool outside, and sat in the courtyard.
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