Chapter 5 (2/2)
The sun always rose a bit earlier in the mountains, glowing red, like an eye gradually emerging from underneath the mountain, bringing light to the whole world. The sky had brightened, and the roosters in the village heralded the coming of another day.
The village chief was a middle aged man around forty years old. Presently he was looking at rice bags, last night he had gathered some men and finally managed to ready food and goods that the Black Wind bandits wanted. He helplessly sighed in relief within his heart, this day was coming to an end and they could be at peace for a while.
At that time an old women came in and walked besides the village chief’s ear, whispering something to. The village chief nodded: ”It’s good if she’s still there, watch her carefully. Without her those bandits will certainly not let the matter drop and all h.e.l.l will break loose.”
Hearing the village chief’s words, the old woman was surprised and hurried nodded.
The sky became gradually brighter. The bandits had originally planned to gather the goods in the morning, but now three double hours had already past and they still hadn’t come. Everyone was hesitating, unable to hide their surprise, having no idea what had happened.
As the day brightened many people had become more daring. Zhang Dashan said: ”Village chief, I’ll go see what happened. Those bandits only know to extort wealth and every year they’ll come to the village and ask for our food. They won’t want to forge inextricable hatred with us either and I know how to face them, nothing bad will happen if I go.”
”En, those people will usually be resting in the temple outside the village, no one else goes there usually. Go search there and be polite with them.”
Zhang Dashan promised and set out.
When he reached the temple he saw door open, and no movement inside. He stuck his head inside and was stunned. Two Black Wind bandits had been killed, one of them with a bamboo spear running through his chest and his neck sliced, and the other had his head cut off, the head rolling on the ground.
Zhang Dashan stared blankly like a wooden man. Only after cool breeze blew a piece of wood on his shoulder did he shudder and realize the scene in front of his eyes wasn’t a dream. He suddenly came back to his senses and scrambled out with his hands and feet.
Zhang Dashan didn’t dare breathe until he went outside, his heart banging madly, his eardrums buzzing, his head dizzy and dazzled. Supporting his body he hasted back, and yelled weirdly at the village chief as soon as he saw him: ”Bad, bad.”
The village chief’s legs softened in surprised when he saw Zhang Dashan’s expression, asking: ”What, do you want to scare us to death?”
Zhang Dashan still had some intelligence left and dragged the village chief to the shelter: ”Village chief, those Black Wind bandits won’t be able to come, they’re all dead, they’ve been killed in the temple.
The village chief was stunned, his eyes staring straight. A gust of wind blew his way and his whole body shook, his voice trembling when he said: ”Is that true? Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
”Village chief you’ll know for sure if you go there yourself.” Zhang Dashan looked at the people around nearby and lowered his voice.
The village chief looked at the sky and couldn’t make any sound for a long moment. He ran to the temple and his body began to shake at the sight of the two b.l.o.o.d.y corpses, but he couldn’t see the bandit chief and he complained about incoming calamity in his heart.
”Disaster is coming, our Crouching Bull village is done for…”
After some time the whole village was shaking, people ran here and there and no one could care about Ye Su’er at this moment. Ye Su’er bent her ear and heard the intermittent noise of crying and arguing outside, her face showing worry.
”Su’er, don’t worry, they just saw the bandits’ corpse that’s all.”
”I’m a scholar, no one in the village will think that I’m the one who killed them. It won’t affect me, but you are going to face some troubles. However my respected teacher Mister Zhao is teaching at the village primary school, his character is loyal and just. With the crisis this time I’ll lead you to Mister Zhao’s place. Mister Zhao is righterous and will certainly protect us.”
Pei Ziyun had taken a bath and came out wearing his clothes.
Hearing this Ye Su’er couldn’t refrain her joy, but she was a bit worried at the same time: ”What if Mister Zhao feels that I’m not worth protecting because I’m a mere female, what can I do then?”
”If Mister Zhao refuses then I’ll take you far away to the other end of the world.” Light lively and bright shone through Pei Ziyun’s eyes as he said resolutely: ”I absolute won’t let you fall in the bandits’ hands.”
”En”Ye Su’er softly answered.
Mister Zhao’s residence was in a bamboo forest and was some distance away from the village. Since the situation had already become this way they didn’t need to hide. Pei Ziyun took Ye Su’er’s hand and went to Mister Zhao’s house in big strides.
The bamboo forest was big and looked like a green sea of bamboo stalks when seen from afar. Mister Zhao loved this place and had built his own bamboo house there.
Mister Zhao was having a drink in the courtyard.
There was a plate of stir-fried bacon on the small table, without much oil, but the fragrance still a.s.sailed the nostrils. There was a plate of tofu also, with a few strands of scallion casually sprinkled on it, the tofu fried yellow but still tender inside, appearing extremely attractive. At the moment Mister Zhou had lifted a cup of sake, and with his long sleeve as curtains he drank from it.
After a mouthful of sake he picked a piece of bacon with his chopsticks, but then he saw a boy and a girl coming in. When he calmly looked he saw it was his own student with a young girl in tow.
”So it turns out be Ziyun, why are you standing? Have a seat!”
Ye Su’er stole a few glances at Mister Zhou and felt in her heart something was different about this man. She carefully observed again. She saw this middle-aged scholar wore green garments and had a medium build, his face long and square, two eyebrows pitch black, and the radiant light s.h.i.+ning from his eyes made people unable to face him straight on. Her heart leaped in her chest despite herself.
Pei Ziyun didn’t sit down. His mood felt very complex. He had obtained the original’s memories so he naturally knew this man was an elder from the Pine Cloud Sect. Pei Ziyun had had many opportunities to cultivate dao arts, but the body’s original owner was very pedantic and thought something like ”Confucius doesn’t talk about the supernatural or it would disturb his mind,” [1] so they naturally had no fate together.
Then this Mister Zhao only taught some scholarly knowledge. Afterwards the original used the the plum blossom to plunder dao secrets, and still ended in this man’s sect, becoming his disciple in name only. Once you miss one step you will miss every step. Just thinking about it made him full of regrets. And now he was afraid that the acc.u.mulated estrangement was already too deep and too difficult to overturn. He bowed forward: ”Respected teacher, I came this time to beg for help.”
T/N:
[1]: 子不语怪力乱神 From the a.n.a.lects of Confucius. Actually I have no idea what it means. There are a quite few theories but I don’t think anyone knows for sure except Confucius himself.
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