Great Liang · Jiangnan Circuit · Duchang City.
At dusk, an autumn breeze swept up a fallen leaf, carrying it swiftly past the crumbling city wall before dropping it onto the roof of a building beside the wall, overlooking the buildings nearby.
They were all grayish-yellow buildings, with cooking smoke faintly visible rising from some houses. Along the disorderly streets, most passersby wore patched clothes, their brows furrowed as they hurried along.
In a huge square in the western part of the city, a normally empty space was now packed with people, all standing in long lines.
On the platform, two young men jointly held an enormous book. A thin old man in white stood at the front and solemnly began to read aloud.
"Unborn Eternal Mother, Vacuum Homeland. All people suffer. Let go of your attachments, let go of your pain..."
"Until distracting thoughts are purged, tribulations will not cease. Harbor no doubts. Those who believe in Wusheng shall gain eternal life..."
"Finally, it's almost over," someone in the crowd muttered.
Several young men and women dressed in white emerged from behind the square, bringing sacks of rice with them. They took handfuls of rice from the sacks, and the people at the front who had listened to the sermon immediately held out containers or small cloth bags to catch their share.
Everyone in every line began craning their necks in anticipation. Those at the front who received their rice left the square at once, delight on their faces.
A boy poked his head out of the line and could not help marveling to himself.
That old trick of handing out eggs for attending lectures from my previous life-even after transmigrating, it still exists.
At last, he reached the front. Standing only 1.65 meters tall, he hurriedly gathered up the hem of his grayish-black robe to catch a handful of grain. The rice bounced against the coarse cloth like little leaping pearls.
"Thanks be to Wusheng!"
Chen Tie offered his thanks, then cradled the rice-filled hem against his chest and turned to leave the square.
They had given him some rice, after all. It was only right to thank them.
Weaving deftly through the crowd, Chen Tie reached the end of the street and spotted a numb-looking old man carrying a straw-covered pole with several skewers of candied hawthorn stuck into it.
"One skewer, please!" Chen Tie deftly fished out five copper coins and handed them over.
While the old man was still momentarily dazed, Chen Tie took a skewer of candied hawthorn.
The bamboo skewer bent slightly in his grip. He opened his mouth and bit into a hawthorn coated in an amber sugar shell. With a crack, the hard candy shell split, and the sweet-and-sour juice of the fruit instantly flooded his mouth.
Mmm, delicious!
Chen Tie could not help humming.
He had been in this world for three months now. His parents had had their son late in life, making him their precious darling, their little lump of iron, so they had named him Chen Tie.
He made turn after turn through gloomy alleys.
At last, he returned to his home in the city.
It was a small, grayish-black single-story house deep in an alley. Chen Tie tapped three times in succession on the battered gate. Soft footsteps sounded in the courtyard, and as the bolt slid open, a little girl of only six appeared.
"Big Brother, you're home."
"Wow, you even brought candied hawthorn today!"
Chen Xi danced with delight.
Chen Tie handed her the candied hawthorn and gave her little cheek a pinch, then closed the gate and said with a smile.
"Little Xi, we've got rice for a meal today."
Chen Xi's eyes lit up. "I almost forgot! Today's the Wusheng sermon. Listen for just two hours, and you get a handful of rice."
"Too bad they don't give sermons every day."
"Be glad they give them at all. And you want them every day?" Chen Tie said with a laugh.
After their parents died of illness, Chen Tie and Chen Xi had only each other to depend on. At fifteen, he knew how to read faces and gauge moods, running errands and delivering messages for several small gangs nearby to barely keep them fed.
"Your big brother's worn out," Chen Tie said weakly, half reclining in a chair.
Chen Xi had just bitten off a candied hawthorn. She immediately rolled her eyes. "Thanks for all your hard work, Big Brother. Just leave the cooking to me."
"How could I possibly let you? Give your big brother a moment to rest, and I'll get to it." Despite his words, Chen Tie showed no intention of getting up.
"We're brother and sister. There's no need to stand on ceremony."
Chen Xi put down the candied hawthorn, deftly washed the iron pot, and carefully poured in all the rice. There was not much in that handful, so she could only add more water and cook it into a pot of thin porridge.
With the pickled radishes they had stored earlier, this was already a very good supper.
"Eat more so you can grow!"
Chen Tie finally stood up and slowly moved a wooden ladle through the pot, scooping up a thicker helping of porridge and pushing it toward Chen Xi.
"Eat more and grow. Otherwise, if someone takes you off to sell, you won't fetch much."
"All right, all right. Thank you so very much, Big Brother."
They exchanged a look and could not help laughing.
After transmigrating into this world, Chen Tie had gone from initial excitement to growing numbness.
He had thought he would get a good start, but things had gone against his wishes.
He had come to this world as an ordinary boy with nothing but four bare walls to his name. Not only did he have no parents to support him, he also had a little sister to feed.
But he was not without a chance to change his fate. He simply had no idea how to use that chance right now.
In his mind lay a hazy mist, containing only one word: Proficiency.
Judging purely by its literal meaning, it ought to display his proficiency in some ability, but he had tried many times.
Whether he read, wrote, worked, or even practiced some half-baked fighting moves with the gang members, the word in his mind never changed.
At first, Chen Tie had thought he simply had not found the key to triggering it, so he tried every method he could. Whenever there was something unfamiliar to him in the gang, he scrambled to do it.
In private, he learned all sorts of miscellaneous things, but to the gang members, the boy seemed quite loyal and helpful. As a result, he got along better than any of the other errand boys.
In times like these, it was already no small feat for a boy of only fifteen to keep his little sister fed.
Yet as time passed, the word within the mist in Chen Tie's mind remained unchanged.
The entire house measured less than fifty square meters. Two beds stood on one side, while various odds and ends and the stove occupied the other. A small room in the corner served as the bathing area.
His sister was already snoring, but Chen Tie tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, so he quietly went outside.
In the cramped courtyard, he carefully practiced the half-baked fighting moves he had learned from the gang. Their names sounded rather intimidating-Monkey Steals the Peach, Spirit Snake Probes the Cave, Yin Stream Entwining Hands-but most were really just dirty tricks.
But what profound martial arts could people in a gang like this possibly know? They only managed to get by through ruthlessness and a fighting style that threw their lives to the wind.
Small gangs like these were like chives: cut down one patch, and another would sprout a few days later.
Chen Tie could make no sense of it. Who said transmigrating meant you had to be the protagonist?
Just take each day as it comes. A wretched life is better than a good death.
So after finishing his daily errands, Chen Tie always wandered through the various wards of the outer city. Usually, no one gave him trouble.
Chen Tie got up early the next morning and made a simple meal of unpolished rice porridge with pickled vegetables.
His sister got up then too. She always followed behind Chen Tie, quietly watching him bustle about.
The vast majority of ordinary people at the bottom ate only twice a day. Their next meal would have to wait until evening; after all, anyone eating three meals had at least some money to their name.
After eating, Chen Tie cleared away the bowls and chopsticks and briskly prepared to head out.
"Remember to bolt the gate. Don't come outside unless you need to."
"All right, Big Brother." Holding the bamboo skewer, Chen Xi bit off the last candied hawthorn.
Chen Tie closed the gate and only walked away after hearing the bolt slide into place inside.
Before he had even left the alley, he ran into Old Zhang the carpenter hurrying out, a tool bag in his hand.
Although they all lived in the alley, Old Zhang the carpenter was a little better off than the others. He lived alone and had long grown accustomed to the place.
"Uncle Zhang, did something happen?"
"Oh, Little Tie."
Old Zhang glanced to either side, then moved a little closer. "If you don't have anything to do these days, come home early. These times are getting more and more unsettled."
A puzzled look crossed Chen Tie's face.
Old Zhang lowered his voice.
"I hear the Unborn Sect has been going door to door preaching in the middle of the night these past few days, specifically picking families with a bit of money. Last night, they went to Butcher Liu's place in the next alley to preach and forced him to join. Not only did he spend a tael of silver, they beat him up too."
"Thank you, Uncle Zhang. I'll remember."
Chen Tie was puzzled. The Unborn Sect had originally only preached during the day. Later, he had heard about them preaching door to door at midnight, but this was the first time he had heard of anyone being beaten for refusing to join.
Even so, why beat people? Bring me rice every day, and you wouldn't need to come knocking. I'd beg to join.
Before long, Chen Tie reached a spot deep beyond a turn in Yellow Earth Street. This was the Little Knife Gang's base, a small place with only a courtyard and a two-story building.
"Oh, Little Tie, you're here early. Just as well-go deliver a message to the Tiger Head Gang on Goldwood Street. Tell them our gang leader invites them here tonight at the hour of the Dog to discuss dividing up the streets."
A scar-faced man named Zhang San immediately gave him his orders.
"All right, Brother San. I'll go right away. Anything else today?" Chen Tie asked with a broad smile, his back against the gate.
"No. This is the important thing today." Zhang San took ten copper coins from inside his robe.
"Thanks, Xie San. I'll head out right now."
Chen Tie accepted the copper coins with both hands, tucked them into the lining of his clothes, and turned to leave.
What the gangs called dividing up territory was really a matter of different gangs having friction over collecting more protection money from the streets and alleys, then sitting down to talk it over.
If their strength was roughly equal, they mostly split the territory evenly-for instance, one collected this month, and the other collected the next.
Chen Tie swiftly crossed Yellow Earth Street and stopped at the entrance to Goldwood Street.
He turned to look at a sizable courtyard across the street. The sign above it bore the name White Crane Martial Arts Hall.
Passersby never lingered nearby for long, simply because this was one of the better-known martial arts halls in Greenwood Ward.
In these troubled times, when fists were truth, no one dared casually provoke a powerful martial arts hall. Moreover, martial prowess in this era seemed to far exceed what he had known in his previous life.
Chen Tie privately suspected that the Proficiency in his mind had never responded because he had yet to encounter genuine martial arts.
But scholarship is for the poor, martial arts for the rich. How can you practice martial arts without money?
Chen Tie let out a deep breath and turned into Goldwood Street, his short figure soon disappearing into the crowd.