Jin SeCh22 - Deceased

The night was deathly silent. The half-moon was hidden in the black sky; the stars shined all the more brightly in its absence. A young man squatted in a courtyard.

The man had only just bathed. His half-dry hair hung about him loosely, concealing half his face. He was about twenty or so, rather pretty and delicate; skinny too, but not the kind of skinny that indicated weakness. Rather, he was tall and slender in the way youths were when they had a growth spurt and their bones grew faster than they could put meat on them. dYgbS9

His sleeves were rolled up over his forearms. There was a brazier and a pile of spirit money in front of him. He might’ve looked like he was mourning someone, if he hadn’t been holding up a large bowl, slurping noodles, while he threw spirit money into the fire. Somehow, he managed to do both simultaneously. His cheeks bulged as he ate. The brazier burned merrily.

He squatted there for a long time. He was nearing the bottom of the bowl when, unexpectedly, his chopsticks poked into a poached egg.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The door of a small room in the courtyard creaked open as a beefy square-faced man draped in a coat came out, probably to take a leak. He was half-asleep and in the middle of a groggy yawn when he noticed the person squatting in the yard and was scared fully awake.

“Little…. Little Monkey, what’re you doing over there?” Jk0BVr

The man in the yard was indeed the teen who’d escaped from Jiulu Mountain all those years ago. He slowly turned his head; the glow of the fire reflected eerily off his fair face. He was still chewing on half a poached egg when he vaguely responded half a beat later, “Burning paper.”

The large man walked over, massaged his forehead, and confirmed, “I don’t have a fever….”

Shi Wuduan expressionlessly chewed his egg. The beefy man’s stomach growled at the aroma of noodles. He sniffed around and noticed the coarse bowl in Shi Wuduan’s hand. He yelled, “You little bastard! Why’re you swiping food in the middle of the night? Goodness gracious, you’ve even got a poached egg.”

“I didn’t swipe this.” Shi Wuduan swallowed the egg in one gulp as if he was worried it’d be stolen, then brought the bowl up to his mouth and shoveled all the rest in. He wiped his mouth and chewed as he leisurely explained, “Si-niang made this specially for me.”

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The burly man retorted, “Bullshit, why’d she make it specially for you? I’m hungry too!”

Shi Wuduan grabbed a fistful of spirit money and chucked it in the brazier and boasted shamelessly, “Cause I’m handsome, I suppose.”

The large man grabbed him and gave him a noogie, then appraised his facial features, “Little pretty boy.”

Shi Wuduan calmly straightened out his messed up hair, then looked over and sized him up, judging, “Big scaredy-cat.” cJV2oh

“Fuck off!” He glared at him, then asked on second thought, “Is there any more?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Xb ufa rbwf ogbw atf rabnf.”

Ktf ijguf wjc geyyfv tlr yfiis jcv kfca tlr kjs. Lf’v pera aegcfv jgbecv ktfc tf ibbxfv yjmx jujlc, “Cgf atfgf jcs fuur ifoa?”

“Rbqf, P jaf atfw jii.” Vtl Qevejc, ralii rdejaalcu, uijcmfv ja tlw jcv raemx tlr ybki ja tlw, bgvfglcu, “Mlii jcbatfg ybki obg wf, jcv wjxf regf atfgf’r rbeq.” MugQD8

The burly man slapped him upside the head and begrudgingly took the bowl with him.

A short while later, there were two people squatting in the courtyard next to the brazier, slurping noodles. The burly man said, “Tomorrow, when Si-niang gets up, you tell her you ate everything yourself, got it?”

Shi Wuduan nodded.

The big guy couldn’t help feeling sorry for himself. He side-eyed Shi Wuduan somewhat indignantly and grumbled, “Why’s Si-niang always looking after you, eh?” jWb4 c

“When I eat, I get taller,” Shi Wuduan explained, “But when you eat, you get fatter. And besides, it’s not like we do business selling pork.”

“Damn you’re shameless, you’re too old to get taller already.”

Read more BL at chrysanthemumgarden (dot) com

“‘Twenty-three can still grow a wee’ you know.” Shi Wuduan waved him off, “Not like you’d get it even if I explained. Eat your noodles, and wash your bowl when you’re done.”

The burly man scowled at him, preparing to argue back, but Shi Wuduan calmly made him choke on his words, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” 68eiGx

The burly man sagged in defeat and angrily gulped a big mouthful of soup.

The two sat in silence for a while. Shi Wuduan put his empty bowl to the side, staring into the brazier. The fire was reflected in his eyes, brightening and dimming in turns, making them seem especially unreadable.

The large man observed him and elbowed him in the shoulder, asking, “Are you honoring your ancestors?”

“Recently deceased.” Shi Wuduan said, “I’m sending off a senior.” v2LWde

The burly man asked in shock, “What happened? What happened? Which old senior had a mishap? How come I didn’t know?”

”Ah.” Shi Wuduan said, “You didn’t know, because it was an acquaintance I knew from Shuzhong.”

“Then how did you know about it?”

Shi Wuduan didn’t speak. He simply reached out a finger and pointed to the sky. 6jKMSE

“Stars again.” The burly man’s lip curled. He went back to eating his noodles, “I say, Little Monkey, you’re too weird and cryptic for your age. If you’re not careful, you’ll have a hard time finding a wife.”

“Just yesterday, Lu-er from third brother Lu’s family said she wanted to marry me, you know.”

“Fuck off, you. Lu-er’s three and a half years old — how can the stars know whether someone’s dead. Hey, can you predict when I’m gonna die?”

Shi Wuduan ignored him. After a moment of silence, he said, “His life-star vanished from the sky today, and in truth it was partially because of me. I don’t have much to my name. All I can do is stay up all night burning these worthless burial goods for him as a gesture of kindness. That way, when he’s on the road to the Yellow Springs, he’ll have something to bribe the ghosts with.” NzUaK

Though his tone was flat, the large man somehow felt that there was a bit of sadness hidden within. He couldn’t help mumbling, “What’re you going on about? That’s a lot of influence you’ve got, if the death of someone all the way in Shuzhong has something to do with you.”

The corners of Shi Wuduan’s mouth twitched, his dimples making a fleeting appearance. He didn’t offer any more explanation as he continued tearing the spirit money into various shapes — brush, inkstone, paper, horse, carriage, cow, sheep, heron, rabbit, qin, chessboard, scroll, everything he could think of. He was skilled with his hands, creating detailed facsimiles with casual effort. He said, “Ah, senior. I was afraid you’d be lonely down below, now that you’ve even given me your last possessions, so I’ve whipped up a few things to give you, no need to refuse.”

His words made the burly man strangely distressed. He sighed as well before awkwardly changing the subject, “Say, Little Monkey, what’s the point in coming all this way with our band of brothers to join that Cui guy’s cause while he slights us like this, giving us a few tiny run-down courtyards to stay in? If you ask me, we oughta overthrow his ass, beat him black and blue, and take over this piece of nice land. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Shi Wuduan turned his head to look at him and asked, “Why don’t you go bring this up with eldest brother?” th4C6

The “eldest brother” was named Gu Huaiyang, who once hailed from Huainan. He was courageous and strong by nature, and had even studied for a few years. Though, he was only interested in odd trivia, and hadn’t the patience for the imperial exams. His family had been moderately well off until several years ago, when famine and drought had swept through Huainan. There was no harvest to speak of, and heavens knew where the funds for disaster relief had gone to. There was nothing left after everyone had dipped their sticky hands into it. And only heavens knew how many people had starved to death. Every family that could afford it all tried to flee, but because local officials were afraid the refugees would bring trouble, many of them shut their gates and refused entry to them. Some even went as far as to shoot arrows at them.

Those in Gu Huaiyang’s family had all died or fallen sick until, before he knew it, he and his old mother were the only ones left. But his mother was old, and despite having been carried away from the arrows by her son, the fright had killed her all the same.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Ever since, Gu Huaiyang had been alone. He had a good head on his shoulders, had the gift of the gab, and had an honorable character as well; thus he’d gathered quite a few people to his side in his desperate flight. He even had connections with a few wandering jianghu warriors. In his anger, he gathered these people and roused them into rebellion.

It was another sign of Great Qian’s hastening decline that the guards within those city gates only knew how to oppress the people. When Gu Huaiyang started the riot, hundreds rose up in kind. In the chaos, even the city governor had been beaten to death. And as if that weren’t enough, he brought a band of people with him and stormed the government offices, taking over the local area. GlCsc0

The central government was far and its influence weak, the court couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation and simply assumed that Huainan had been taken over by insurrectionists. The coffers were empty, and they hadn’t had the money to wage war in ages already. So someone came up with the bright idea to pacify Gu Huaiyang by giving him a noble title, “Marquis of Fealty,” and ordering him to defend the land.

But Gu Huaiyang was no fool, he knew the emperor was only trying to paint a target on his back, so he refused the edict and allied with the nearby bandit gangs. It seemed like he was setting himself up to be a warlord.

The whole continent was falling into disorder already. There were uprisings everywhere, and though they didn’t make many waves, they were like ticks worming into the emperor’s robes, cropping up one after another.

The emperor decided to make an example out of them. Gu Huaiyang’s refusal to receive the edict put him in the line of fire. The emperor issued a decree, declaring that his armies would soon go forth to eradicate the bandits. Seeing that things were about to turn south, and that he didn’t have weapons or money, only a bunch of peasants with kitchen knives and hoes, Gu Huaiyang organized his forces and fled to An Qing to seek protection from the self-named “King of An Qing,” Cui Hu. f9UhFi

It truly was fate that that year when Shi Wuduan, struggling on a single breath of air, swam out of Jiulu Mountain, freezing inside and out, forced himself to trek several miles, his lips blue from hypothermia, and collapsed by the road just in time to be picked up by Gu Huaiyang, who’d been out on an excursion to build alliances with the local bandits.

The Cuibing bird that had been circling around Jiulu Mountain instantly followed its master. The sudden appearance of this magnificent bird had nearly given all the bandits and ruffians a heart attack. Gu Huaiyang thought that Shi Wuduan must be a person destined for great things, and decided to keep him around. After he woke, the two talked and talked and found that they got along quite well. And so, Shi Wuduan was confusedly dragged onto the bright, glorious path of a rebel traitor.

A year after that, there was a day when a divine heron suddenly delivered him a package. When Shi Wuduan opened it, he found a fifty-string harp and a few worn books. He opened them and knew their depth. If he mastered the contents within, he would have the knowledge to perceive heaven’s workings. There was a slip of paper wedged between the pages with the words “Best of luck” signed by Jiang Hua.

Why would Jiang Hua help him? oHZCId

Shi Wuduan wondered for a long time and concluded that perhaps, after letting him go in fear of being tainted by karma, he became plagued by self-recrimination once he remembered his friend’s dying request and risked his old life to help him so that he could clear his conscience.

Thinking back on it, his shifu had likely discussed the situation before handing him off to Jiang Hua, though no one would ever know what they had said. As an immortal cultivator, who knew how much worldly karma he’d been stained by after sending him those books. All his hard-earned cultivation would likely crumble within the century.

Immortals must not enter the mortal realm, for once they do, their lifespan runs out — sure enough, it had only been four years since then.

Shi Wuduan grabbed another handful of spirit money and slowly scattered them into the fire. 0iWk5T

The burly man — one of Gu Huaiyang’s sworn brothers, named Meng Zhongyong — scratched his head and said, “I did talk to him, you know, but then he yelled at me a whole bunch and told me to go ask you.”

Translator's Note

fake money that’s burned as an offering to the deceased so that they’ll have money to spend in the underworld

Translator's Note

He calls her 四娘 which literally means “fourth miss/woman”

Translator's Note

A saying that means one can still grow a bit taller at 23 yrs old. Tried to make it rhyme in English like it does in Chinese

Translator's Note

吃人嘴软 is a shortened form of the saying 吃人家的嘴软,拿人家的手短 which means: one is partial to those from whom presents have been accepted. Shi Wuduan is saying he should be grateful he that he shared the noodles with him.

Translator's Note

An old name that refers to the Sichuan area

Translator's Note

The underworld

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8 comments

  1. Sometimes immortals recognize that the fate of the world is more important than their immortality 🕯🕯