"So hot!"
When Lian Youming regained consciousness, he felt as though he had been stuffed into a furnace, so hot he could barely breathe.
"You're finally awake!"
Yang Dapao's voice came from beside him.
Lian Youming forced his eyes open, only to discover that he had been stripped naked and covered with who knew how many quilts, piled as thick and heavy as a mountain. A familiar figure stood nearby: Qin Yuhu.
Qin Yuhu opened his lone eye a little wider and asked gravely, "How do you feel?"
Lian Youming pressed his lips together and answered instinctively, "Hot. Thirsty."
The two men immediately breathed a sigh of relief when they heard him speak.
Only after Lian Youming had been helped upright and gulped down two large bowls of brown sugar water did his head clear somewhat.
Looking toward the daylight outside the door, he discovered two figures standing guard in green military uniforms, carrying Type 56 submachine guns. Judging by the sounds outside, there seemed to be quite a few more people-at least thirty or forty, enough for a reinforced platoon.
"Uncle Qin, how long was I asleep?"
Qin Yuhu's expression was grave, but his tone was calm. "A day and two nights. Nothing too serious. Just two broken ribs and some superficial injuries."
Without waiting for Lian Youming to reply, Qin Yuhu lit himself a cigarette. "Tell me. What happened before you passed out?"
His stare made Lian Youming uneasy. As his gaze wandered, he finally noticed that everyone else in the dormitory was gone. Not just the people-the bedding and luggage had all been cleared out too.
Smoking his cigarette, Qin Yuhu said, "Stop looking. They've all moved down the mountain. You'll be heading down in a bit too. You can come back after winter."
But Lian Youming knew what those words meant: the Logging Camp had been taken over.
After a moment's thought, he gave an account that was half true and half false. "I don't know either. I felt something was wrong after eating the flatbread, so I hurried to wash my face with cold water. When I turned around, I found everyone else had fallen unconscious."
Qin Yuhu's brow furrowed slightly, a sharp gleam in his lone eye. "Then what?"
Lian Youming lowered his head and said quietly, "Then I got scared, so I lay on the kang and pretended to be asleep. After that, Third Brother Xie slipped in. I also heard him say he belonged to some White Lotus Sect. When he saw I wasn't asleep, he tried to kill me to keep me quiet. I think he also said he was after that old man behind the dining hall."
"The White Lotus Sect?"
Qin Yuhu exchanged a glance with Platoon Leader Yang.
Platoon Leader Yang sighed. "I failed in my duties. I'll submit a self-criticism."
Qin Yuhu waved a hand. "It's not your fault. These people use strange methods that are impossible to guard against. They're not people an ordinary person can handle."
Then Qin Yuhu looked back at Lian Youming and said pointedly, "You really are one lucky kid. Looks like that old man Yang had some impressive skills himself."
Lian Youming asked curiously, "Uncle Qin, have you met that old man?"
Qin Yuhu's expression grew solemn. "No. He's disappeared, along with that girl named Yang Shuang. But we found five bodies at the Logging Camp, and... why are you asking about this? There's nothing more for you to do here. Get some proper rest once you're down the mountain. I'll have your Aunt Shen make more bone broth to build you back up."
"Disappeared?"
Though he had plenty of questions, the sight of the people stationed outside made Lian Youming swallow the words on the tip of his tongue.
The Mountain-Guarding Old Man and Yang Shuang had mysterious backgrounds and unknown identities. Now they had left without a sound. Clearly, they had little desire to deal with these military men.
Qin Yuhu glanced at him. "Third Brother Xie fled north after coming down the mountain, and our people spotted him. I happened to be planning to bring you some things, so I came up with them."
Lian Youming perked up at that. "Did you catch him?"
Qin Yuhu shook his head. "It seems someone on the Russians' side was helping him. He got away."
Seeing how distracted Lian Youming was, Qin Yuhu gave him an unreadable look and warned, "This matter ends here. Once you're down the mountain, if anyone asks, just say you don't know. Luckily, nothing went wrong. None of those who died were good people anyway, so whatever you say goes."
Lian Youming's eyelid twitched. Seeing that Qin Yuhu was not going to question him further about it, he could only smile bitterly. "Uncle, don't accuse me unfairly."
Qin Yuhu wasted no more words and turned to leave. "Get dressed and head down yourself. Some things can only happen once. If you dare do it again, I'll give you a thrashing on your father's behalf."
Before leaving, he tossed over a bloodstained three-edged military spike with a faint, knowing smile.
At the sight of it, Lian Youming's expression froze. Like a thief caught in the act, he immediately behaved himself, looking utterly obedient.
"Sure thing!"
Only after watching Lian Youming struggle into his clothes and board the horse cart headed down the mountain with help from several militiamen did Qin Yuhu stride over to the earthen houses.
The snow had stopped, and the wind had died down.
Quite a few figures in green military uniforms patrolled the area with Type 56s slung over their backs.
Smoking his cigarette, Qin Yuhu crouched and lowered his gaze. Five bodies lay in a row on the black earth, where patches of snow still lingered.
Platoon Leader Yang followed him over, growing more alarmed the longer he looked. "Director Qin, there's something strange about these injuries."
How could there not be? The fist-sized hole torn through the dwarf's back alone was horrifying enough. The goateed shepherd was worse: with every bone in his body seemingly broken apart and dislocated, he was no different from a snake whose skeleton had come undone. The state of his corpse was downright uncanny.
Lian Youming naturally knew nothing of what was happening on the mountain.
He lay on the donkey cart, wrapped in a quilt, his thoughts already wandering far away.
With injuries as terrible as the Mountain-Guarding Old Man's, he was almost certainly not going to survive.
Now that they had parted, they might truly never meet again.
As for the secret on the mountain, it must have been taken away as well.
From now on, the one guarding that secret would probably be the girl named Yang Shuang.
Just what was that secret?
Suddenly, as though something had occurred to him, Lian Youming hurriedly felt his pockets, particularly the inner compartment.
Only when he found that the two pieces of Silk Brocade were still there did he inwardly sigh with relief.
Nothing was said along the way.
The donkey cart simply swayed its way back to Kaoshan Village.
Under the Village Party Secretary's arrangements, Lian Youming was lodged in an old village doctor's home to recover for the time being.
Who would have thought that he would end up bedridden for over a month?
People said injuries to the muscles and bones took a hundred days to heal, and there was not a word of exaggeration in it.
Ever since waking up, whether because of the injuries Third Brother Xie had inflicted or because he had forcibly used Toad-Catching Force, his body had been terribly weak. He could not even leave the courtyard. The slightest cold wind drained all color from his face and set his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.
In less than half a month, his once sturdy, burly frame had grown noticeably thinner.
Fortunately, now that he had moved down the mountain, Shen Qinghong had Qin Yuhu bring over cooked meals every few days.
But what Lian Youming found hardest to bear was the old village doctor he was staying with.
The man had a decent temper, but the herbal medicine he brewed was so damned bitter. Nine doses a day, three each in the morning, at noon, and at night-the bitterness left everything Lian Youming ate tasting the same. Even drinking water brought a bitter taste to his throat. It was enough to make life feel not worth living.
His miserable convalescence continued into the first lunar month.
At noon that day, Lian Youming sat in the courtyard, brewing his medicine while identifying the various medicinal ingredients the old village doctor had laid out to dry.
The old village doctor's surname was Liu. He had a large, bald head and often stuttered when he spoke. A medicine gourd hung at his waist, and he wore glasses. Besides treating people's ailments, he also handled any problems with the village's pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, and other livestock.
To put it plainly, he was a country quack who knew a little of everything and mastered nothing.
"L-Little Ming, do... do you know what d-decoction I m-made you today?" The village doctor sat in the sun, airing out his moldy medical books.
Lian Youming rolled his eyes. "Isn't it just Major Bupleurum Decoction?"
The village doctor chuckled. "Y-You're a clever boy. W-Why don't you just h-help me here once you're b-better? I'll t-talk to the secretary and h-have them give you work points too."
That little speech nearly made Lian Youming so impatient that his old injuries flared up and he spat blood.
Still, the proposal did interest him.
Since the incident at the Logging Camp, the educated youths had been dispersed and assigned to various villages again. Besides Lian Youming, four others had returned to Kaoshan Village, but Wu Kui and Liu Dabiao had both been sent elsewhere.
Of those four, Lian Youming only had some impression of one young woman; he barely knew the other three. Their work was dull too: either tending the village's mules and horses or keeping watch over the cattle, sheep, and other livestock with a battered gong in hand to prevent wild beasts from coming down the mountain.
Besides, there were still two or three months before spring began and they returned to the Logging Camp. Lian Youming did not want to spend all that time in such tedium.
He had already been lying around for over a month. Any longer, and he felt he would become useless.
He also happened to have many questions about regulating the qi within the body and about the body's meridians.
This was a fine chance to learn, just when he had been worrying about having no one to answer his questions.
"All right. Whatever you say."
As Lian Youming answered, he poured the medicinal brew, which was almost ready, into a bowl.
He let it cool only briefly before tilting his head back and drinking it all.
Just then, the roar of an engine came from beyond the courtyard wall.
As the roar drew closer, Qin Yuhu pulled up outside the gate on his sidecar motorcycle. Besides a large mail parcel, the vehicle also carried a young woman with a ponytail.
Lian Youming brightened at the sight of Qin Yuhu and was about to greet him, but the moment his gaze swept over the woman, his eyes changed.
After all, he had seen a thing or two by now.
Lian Youming's eyes flickered. The woman's breathing was slow and even, so faint that she almost seemed not to breathe at all-a stark contrast to Qin Yuhu, whose breath came out in frosty clouds.
"Uncle Qin, what brings you here?"
Qin Yuhu carried the parcel inside. "Your parents sent you this. A few pieces of clothing and some food. Also, Xiuxiu's coming home for the holidays tomorrow. Your Aunt Shen wants you over for a meal."
As he spoke, Qin Yuhu turned to the woman beside him. "This is Miss Gong, from the capital."
After a pause, Qin Yuhu added, "She's an inheritor of the Eight Trigrams Sect."
"The Eight Trigrams Sect?"
Lian Youming's spirits stirred, though he showed nothing on his face.
He remembered that before the shepherd died, the Mountain-Guarding Old Man had apparently said he was from the Eight Trigrams Sect.
The young woman wore her ponytail high, with a brown high-necked sweater beneath a grayish-white padded coat. That outfit might have been warm enough in Four-Nine City, but it was rather thin for Tahe. She wore nothing to keep her head warm either, yet her expression was perfectly normal, as though she did not feel the cold.
Lian Youming still remembered nearly freezing his ass off on that motorcycle.
This woman's internal martial arts had probably reached an extremely advanced level.
Her brows and eyes were delicate as wisps of mist, and her graceful hands hung naturally at her sides. She said softly, "My name is Gong Wuer. If it's convenient, may I ask you a few questions?"
Gong Wuer?
What a strange name.
Lian Youming looked at Qin Yuhu, then at the woman before him, and nodded. "What would you like to ask?"
Gong Wuer's expression remained unchanged as she asked softly, "Do you know the Mountain-Guarding Old Man's name?"
Lian Youming's thoughts stirred at the question. Was she looking for the Mountain-Guarding Old Man to settle a grudge? Or had she come to investigate what happened at the Logging Camp?
Yet just as the thought occurred to him, the woman suddenly produced a small blue-and-white porcelain bottle. "You were injured by Inner Strength. You need not only medicinal treatment, but an external remedy as well. This contains three pills of sixty-year-old medicine. Dissolve them in strong liquor, dip your palm into it each night, and massage the injured area for half an hour. In three to five days, it will dispel the bruising left by the Inner Strength."
Lian Youming's eyes flickered. After a brief pause, instead of answering, he asked, "Who was Yang Banhou?"
Gong Wuer's fine brows lifted. Her face seemed to take on the chill of a blade, and her eyes blazed, but her voice remained calm. "Are you certain that man was called Yang Banhou?"
Lian Youming shook his head. "I just happened to see a memorial tablet to Yang Banhou in that old man's room."
Gong Wuer nodded gently, then placed the medicine bottle in Lian Youming's hand.
"Thank you!"
With that, she turned to leave, as though she had traveled all this way merely to ask that one question.
Lian Youming hefted the medicine bottle, then called after her, "You still haven't told me who Yang Banhou was!"
But the moment he spoke, Qin Yuhu swatted him on the head and snapped, "Who told you to run your mouth, you little brat? I had to ask an old superior specially to get her here, all to treat your injuries."
Lately, Lian Youming had eaten plenty of meat and fish and taken all sorts of tonics, yet he still looked sickly, with no improvement in his complexion. It had worried Qin Yuhu and his wife to death.
Gong Wuer looked thoughtfully at the youth in the courtyard and said gently, "It's no secret. Yang Banhou was the second son of the Taiji grandmaster Yang Luchan. In his day, he fought throughout the capital without finding an equal."
Then she looked at Qin Yuhu. "Mr. Qin, I'd like to take a look up on the mountain."
Qin Yuhu shot Lian Youming another fierce glare. "You stay put and study. Stop filling your head with nonsense."
A little later, after watching Qin Yuhu drive away with Gong Wuer, Lian Youming finally looked down at the bottle of medicine in his hand.
Liu Danaodai suddenly sidled over and said eagerly, "Quick, let me have a look. Sixty-year-old medicine is precious stuff. It was all made using secret formulas handed down by martial arts practitioners in the old days. Once sealed in wax, the longer it sits, the more remarkable its effects become. Sixty years-a full sexagenary cycle! Even those great pharmacies in Four-Nine City with two or three hundred years of history might not have any."
Lian Youming asked dubiously, "Is it really that miraculous?"
The village doctor grabbed his hand and hurried inside. "Whether it is or isn't, we'll know once we try it."
As he walked, Lian Youming turned to look in the direction Qin Yuhu and Gong Wuer had gone and could not help sighing.
"Ah!"
His dream of the martial world had barely begun, and he had already damned well woken up.
(End of chapter)
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