"Yan Lingyun?"
Lian Youming's eyes lit up. He had been thinking of going to find this girl once the weather warmed up, but he hadn't expected her to come knocking herself.
Perfect timing.
He was just about to greet her when she crossed the yard and walked straight over, seemingly unbothered by the filth.
"What brings you here?" Lian Youming was a little curious, and a little wary.
After all, there had been that business with the White Lotus Sect, and she had recognized Old Medicine at a glance. If it was all an act, he really had no way of knowing.
Yan Lingyun seemed particularly sensitive to the cold. She wore a brand-new blue padded coat and thick padded mittens as big as two palm-leaf fans. A padded scarf covered her face, leaving only her large eyes exposed, with a layer of white frost clinging to her curved lashes. "Educated Youth Lian, I just got back from the hospital. Sister Qin asked me to bring you something. She's too busy to get away."
Her clear, bright voice delighted Lian Youming. These past few days, aside from Village Doctor Liu's snoring and teeth-grinding, all he had heard was the old sow squealing in the pen. Whether she was being poorly fed or was in heat, she kept rooting at him every single day.
"Sister Qin? Which Sister Qin?"
"Sister Qin Hongxiu."
Well, then.
They had only met once, and she was already calling her sister.
Seeing that Lian Youming didn't understand, the girl hurriedly explained everything in earnest.
As it turned out, Yan Lingyun was quite skilled in medicine, and the manager of her Logging Camp was a close friend of Qin Yuhu's, so he had taken her to the hospital to examine him. She happened to have met Qin Hongxiu before, and the two naturally grew familiar.
At the mention of Qin Yuhu, Lian Youming's expression turned serious. "My uncle's all right, isn't he?"
Standing outside the pen, Yan Lingyun gave a soft murmur of assent. "It's nothing serious. I gave him some acupuncture and cleared up some of Manager Qin's old injuries while I was at it. He should be able to get out of bed around the Spring Festival."
"That's good. I'm really sorry for the trouble."
Delight filled Lian Youming's heart, and his gaze softened considerably as he looked at the girl.
"It's no trouble." Seeing that Lian Youming was busy, Yan Lingyun said little else and took the basic revision materials Qin Hongxiu had asked her to deliver out of her bag. "I'll be going, then."
She set the things down, then really did turn around and leave.
Watching her retreating figure, Lian Youming's eyes flickered. He hurriedly said, "Wait, don't go. There's something I wanted to talk to you about."
Yan Lingyun stopped where she was and blinked her large eyes, seemingly waiting for him to continue.
Lian Youming glanced around, then beckoned to the girl. "Come a little closer."
Yan Lingyun turned back to look at him. "What is it?"
After a moment's thought, Lian Youming took the piece of Silk Brocade bearing the words "Golden Bell Cover" out of his coat, then folded it in half to hide the writing, leaving only the figures visible.
"Classmate Yan, could you help me look at these little drawings? There are some parts I don't understand."
Yan Lingyun leaned closer. At a single glance, a trace of puzzlement first appeared in her lovely eyes. After considering it for a moment, she finally spoke softly under Lian Youming's hopeful gaze. "This looks like a training method for an internal martial art."
She had recognized it already?
Lian Youming's heart gave a jolt. Then he heard the girl continue, "But this martial art of yours is a little strange. It requires opening all Twelve Principal Meridians. These are the main pathways that circulate Qi and blood, connect the internal organs, and link the upper and lower body, and all of them extend into the hands and feet. Do you see these twelve figures? Each posture is different: sitting, lying down, springing into the air, bending the body and twisting the waist. They look rather like Stake Work in internal martial arts."
Yan Lingyun also found it novel and looked thoughtful, but after studying it a while, her expression grew serious again. "I think there must be a special breathing method to go with it. This martial art of yours is far fiercer and more forceful than ordinary internal fist and palm arts. If you practice from the diagrams alone, your Qi and blood will rush through your body, and your essence and Qi will drain away like water bursting through a dike, pouring a thousand miles downstream. You might achieve something, but you wouldn't live past thirty."
Hearing this, Lian Youming immediately remembered the "Three Yin Earth-Baleful Force" on the other piece of Silk Brocade. That Qi-swallowing method strengthened the five kinds of Qi to accelerate digestion and absorption, replenishing the body with essence and Qi.
Now it seemed that one depleted and the other replenished; only together did they form a complete whole.
He voiced another question that had been troubling him. "Why does this Muscle Trajectory run inward instead of outward?"
This was something Lian Youming had never been able to understand.
Having witnessed several deadly fights and learned the "Coiling Silk Force" from the Mountain-Guarding Old Man, he understood that the force unleashed through fist and palm arts invariably spread from within to without, then traveled into the hands, feet, and limbs to serve its purpose in combat. Yet the Muscle Trajectory formed by these figures ran from outside inward, drawing force inside. It was very strange.
Yan Lingyun didn't understand at first either. She stared at the figures in silence, her brows faintly knitted.
Lian Youming was equally puzzled. Initially, he had assumed it was some sort of external body-hardening art and had spent every day thinking about tempering his muscles and bones and strengthening his physique. Who would have thought this "Twelve-Gate Golden Bell Shield" was actually an internal martial art? He had been on the wrong track from the very beginning.
Seeing the girl lost in thought, he couldn't help saying, "I did practice it twice, and I found that my muscles and tendons kept wrapping inward."
Yan Lingyun's lovely eyes suddenly widened, as though she had understood something. "Have you ever seen martial arts experts throw punches and release force? My grandfather practiced the Five-Animal Exercise. He said martial arts experts could focus their force on a single point with every movement. The powerful ones could drive it through flesh and bone, damage the internal organs, and kill without a shadow or trace."
Hearing this, Lian Youming immediately recalled Xue Hen's wild, domineering punches, which had tremendous penetrating power, like arrows or massive cannons.
The girl's face lit up as she explained, "Look, the Muscle Trajectory on these figures draws all the body's sinews and bones inward into a single whole, taking precisely the opposite approach. Since those martial arts experts mostly gather their force into a single point before striking, perhaps the principle behind your martial art is to spread the force received at that point throughout the entire body, expanding from a point into a surface to dissipate external force."
Lian Youming had roughly grasped it too. He chimed in, "Like breaking a big stone on your chest?"
Yan Lingyun nodded, delight lifting her brows. "Yes, that's a very apt comparison. But this is all conjecture based on the changes in the muscles and tendons in these figures. As for whether it's true, you'll have to test it yourself together with the breathing method."
With his thoughts exposed, Lian Youming's shameless face reddened, but he felt no embarrassment. Instead, he flipped the Silk Brocade over and brazenly revealed the dietary prescriptions as well.
Lian Youming understood now: without the breathing method, these things were not merely useless to others, but gravely harmful. He might as well stop hiding them.
There were five prescriptions in total, corresponding to the medicinal properties of the Five Elements-metal, wood, water, fire, and earth-and intended to strengthen the Qi of the five internal organs.
Yan Lingyun seemed intensely curious about these things too. After a couple of glances, she could no longer look away. The more she read, the more engrossed she became, her eyes shining.
"It's actually a method of dietary nourishment."
But the girl soon sighed again. "What a pity."
Thinking something was wrong with the prescriptions, Lian Youming couldn't help asking, "What's wrong?"
Still staring at the Silk Brocade, Yan Lingyun said softly, "Every prescription combines more than ten ingredients. The others are all right, but the dosage of the principal medicinal ingredient is harmful rather than beneficial to ordinary people, like a savage tiger-and-wolf remedy. In mild cases, it would damage the internal organs; in severe cases, it would cause sudden death."
At this point, however, the girl raised her eyes. "But if your breathing method can connect the Qi of the five internal organs, it could neutralize part of the medicinal potency. The two could be said to complement one another."
Lian Youming's back was soaked as he listened. So this internal martial art was riddled with pitfalls. If he had secretly practiced it without understanding it properly, he might not even have known how he died.
His heart was pounding with alarm, but he failed to notice that Yan Lingyun's face had already turned red, her head almost buried against her chest.
The two had leaned together across a wooden post to study the Silk Brocade, their heads unwittingly touching. Feeling the fierce masculine presence of the youth before her, a pink blush instantly climbed from Yan Lingyun's cheeks to her ears, burning hot.
In this relatively conservative era, plenty of people would blush after a single glance at someone. Such behavior already counted as intimate. Besides, Lian Youming had no idea that his name had already spread among the educated youths.
Leaving everything else aside, rescuing Manager Qin single-handedly made him a model for everyone to learn from. Although he had committed the error of individual heroism, that was precisely why the story grew more extraordinary with each retelling.
Then there was Liu Danaodai, who had no filter when he went around treating the villagers' livestock. Everywhere he went, he declared that Lian Youming was just like a work animal, capable of doing three or four men's work on his own—a perfect model of diligence and endurance.
Naturally, Lian Youming knew nothing of this. His mind had been occupied with how to practice his martial art, and he hadn't noticed anything unusual about the girl.
Now that everything was clear, things were simple.
Everything was ready; only the east wind was missing.
Once spring came, he could head into the mountains to gather those ingredients and lay his foundations before returning to the city.
"All right, Classmate Yan, you can head back now!"
Looking at the Silk Brocade and muttering under his breath, Lian Youming turned and went straight back into the livestock shed.
"Huh?"
He turned away decisively, never seeing the bewildered, stunned eyes behind him.
"Sob..."
He had only just gone inside when he heard sobbing outside. Looking toward the sound, he saw that Yan Lingyun had already run some distance away, wiping her tears and stumbling along. To make matters worse, she fell while crossing the embankment and seemed to cry even harder.
"Ah, she's crying already? Then she probably isn't a bad person."
Before there was time to say more, snowflakes began drifting down from the sky again.
As Lian Youming spent his days working himself like a beast of burden, New Year's Eve drew ever closer, and Kaoshan Village grew festive too. Two fat pigs were slaughtered in succession, and all thirty or forty households received several strings of meat. Even the few educated youths received a share.
On the day before the Spring Festival, Lian Youming finally saw Qin Yuhu.
The man still wore that stern expression. He drove the mule cart with his left hand, his right sleeve hanging empty.
Uncle and nephew met each other's eyes, and Qin Yuhu gave an easy smile. "Come on, let's go home for the New Year!"
Brothers, the groundwork is finally laid. Now we can get into the story...
(End of chapter)
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