Qingshan

Chapter 73 : Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Fire and Powder

Night. Late evening.

Everyone in the clinic had fallen into deep sleep. Only the main hall still held a sliver of light.

The flame of the oil lamp flickered on the counter, casting a small pool of glow.

Chen Ji stood behind the rosewood counter with his sleeves rolled up, his hair gathered atop his head with a wooden hairpin. With total concentration, he ground sticks of charcoal into fine powder, then mixed it with the jar of high-proof searing liquor he had purchased before, spreading the mixture across the counter.

He pushed the oil lamp further away and waited in silence for the alcohol and volatile compounds to evaporate completely.

While waiting, he fanned the mixture gently and looked up at the rafters.

A small spider was slowly spinning its web up there. A moth had blundered into the silk and was struggling frantically. The spider crept toward the moth, oblivious to the gecko waiting at the edge of its web.

A voice came from behind him. "Why does it reek of alcohol in here? Have you been drinking?"

Chen Ji turned around and saw Old Man Yao, who had appeared without warning. He smiled. "You're still awake, Master?"

Old Man Yao's face was blank. "My apprentice is about to leave for distant lands. You think I can sleep?"

"You saw it in a divination?"

Old Man Yao scoffed. "You cook a big meal for everyone, you walk around looking like a man saying his last goodbyes -- I don't need a divination to figure that out. I can read hexagrams, but I can also use my head."

"Oh..."

Old Man Yao stood across from him, his eyes drifting casually over the charcoal powder on the counter. "So tell me. Where are you planning to go?"

Chen Ji shook his head. "I'm not leaving. You've guessed wrong this time."

Old Man Yao froze. He pulled six copper coins from his sleeve and cast them onto the counter, reading the hexagram as he spoke. "Hm, you really aren't leaving... Why not?"

Chen Ji smiled. "Heaven creates from primordial chaos; movement arises amid danger; one walks toward death to find life. Wasn't that the reading you cast for me? I'm not the type to run."

"So you're the type to throw your life away? The Ning Dynasty's Twelve Zodiacs are watching you from the south. The Jing Dynasty's Division Officer wants you dead from the north. Why stay?"

Chen Ji didn't answer. He just looked up again at the spider and the gecko on the rafters, wondering whether the gecko had eaten the spider yet.

Old Man Yao followed his gaze. "So this time -- are you the spider? The gecko? Or are you the moth that's already caught in the web?"

Chen Ji didn't answer. He gathered the now-dried charcoal powder together and picked up a copper scale to weigh it.

He produced the sulfur and saltpeter he had already purified, along with white sugar, mixed them evenly together, and poured the mixture into a bamboo tube, then added a small amount of iron shavings.

Just then, Dark Cloud squeezed in through a gap in the window. In the heavy atmosphere, it looked first at Old Man Yao, then at Chen Ji, and meowed. "Just as you guessed. Jinzhu has picked up the trail from the Crafts Supervisory."

Chen Ji didn't look up. He carefully sealed the bamboo tube, leaving only a thin paper fuse twisted with gunpowder.

Only then did he set the bamboo tube down on the counter, look up, and answer with a smile. "Master, I'm not the moth. I'm not the spider. And I'm not the gecko."

He looked toward the oil lamp at the edge of the counter. "I'm the fire."

A fire that did not belong to this era.

Chen Ji took a piece of cloth, wrapped the three bamboo tubes inside, and tied the bundle to his back.

He beckoned to Dark Cloud and turned to leave.

Old Man Yao watched him for a long moment. "How much ice flow do you still have in your body? How many ginseng roots can you absorb?"

Chen Ji thought about it. "Six."

Old Man Yao walked to the medicine cabinet and pulled open a drawer. "Convert all the ice flow before you go."

Chen Ji's eyes lit up. So his master had ordered ten ginseng roots this morning with the intention of saving them for him. "Thank you, Master."

"Each root costs thirty taels of silver, or three golden melon seeds."

Chen Ji's expression stiffened. "I thought you were giving them to me."

Old Man Yao sneered. "Give them to you? You think I don't have a livelihood to maintain?"

"Fine then, I'll only take five." Chen Ji counted out twelve golden melon seeds from his sleeve and placed them on the counter, then went to the apprentice quarters and retrieved thirty taels of silver...

With that, the savings he had painstakingly scraped together were down to sixty-three taels of silver.

"Master, I'm going." Chen Ji took the five ginseng roots and converted them into translucent crystal beads, feeding them to Dark Cloud one by one.

He slung the bundle over his back, walked into the courtyard, climbed onto the roof, and melted into the night.

Beside the apricot tree, Old Man Yao gazed in the direction he had gone and casually tossed six copper coins. "Deeply inauspicious."

The crow cawed.

Old Man Yao said irritably, "He chose this path; he walks it himself... If you want to go, then go watch over him. I won't stop you."

...

...

That night on Zhenghe Street, a charcoal cart drawn by two oxen was making its slow way toward the East Market.

Winter was almost upon them, and firewood and charcoal had become necessities. The capital alone distributed over seven hundred and twenty thousand sticks of charcoal to court officials each year.

The imperial palace burned red basket charcoal. Officials and nobles favored Xishan silver-thread charcoal. Wealthy households used paulownia charcoal. Common families made do with black charcoal. Without it, winter was unbearable.

This was the charcoal merchants' busiest season. Charcoal was fired in the mountain forests, shipped by canal to Luocheng's East Market, then sold and delivered to households throughout the city. Carts rumbled back and forth day and night in an endless stream.

Charcoal carts were different from ordinary ox-carts -- enclosed on all four sides but open at the top.

The charcoal peddler drove his cart along, humming a tune, completely unaware that someone stood in the shadows at the roadside with a cat perched on his shoulder, waiting for the cart to pass.

As the cart rolled through the shadows, Chen Ji took two quick steps and vaulted lightly into the cargo bed without a sound.

The peddler felt a slight sway in the cart and glanced back at the flagstone road, assuming he'd rolled over a pebble.

Seeing nothing wrong with the wheels, he went back to humming: "Standing on the steps past the first watch, fate brings lovers together. Call out 'a guest has come,' light the lamp and come upstairs -- late at night the host must make do..."

Chen Ji recognized it as one of the bawdy tunes that drifted out of Red Cloth Lane. These peddlers earned their money by day and spent it in the pleasure houses by night -- gambling or whoring, never saving a copper.

He smiled, tucked Dark Cloud against his chest, and curled up in the grimy charcoal cart with his eyes closed, letting it carry him toward Red Cloth Lane in the East Market.

The closer they drew, the calmer Chen Ji became. He felt the short blade hidden in his sleeve one more time and slowly closed his eyes.

He returned to the battlefield in his dreams.

"Brother Fenghuai, what's the move called where your saber follows your body's turn?"

"Wheeling Axle."

"Brother Fenghuai, what about the one just now where your blade rode up against mine, forcing me to drop my saber?"

"Starfire."

"Brother Fenghuai, what was that move where you struck the spine of my blade? It made my wrist ache something fierce, but it didn't seem to do anything."

Fenghuai smiled shyly. "That one's called Gold Inlay. It's supposed to snap your blade in a single strike. But your saber is too well-made -- I couldn't break it."

Every arc of Simple Saber Soldier Fenghuai's blade, every step forward and back, was as refined as art -- flawless and beyond reproach.

He was like a heavy hammer crashing down on Chen Ji's crude steel, forging it into shape. Chen Ji traded death after death for technique after technique.

Chen Ji had never drawn a blade against a real opponent before, so he had no way of knowing whether his skill measured up. All he could do was practice relentlessly, inching closer and closer to Fenghuai's level -- and then surpassing it.

At first, he died twenty or thirty times every two hours. Now, he only died three or four times.

At first, he was riddled with openings. Now, the two of them traded blows move for move, and a hundred exchanges could pass without either finding a gap in the other's guard.

The saber arts felt as though they had been carved into his bones ten thousand years ago -- etched as intricate, exquisite totems, now slowly being awakened.

Chen Ji straightened his stance. "Again."

Atop the great boulder, Xuanyuan sat cross-legged in his black royal robes, though the gold-threaded star patterns upon them had changed -- now only the Purple Wei Enclosure remained.

Xuanyuan spoke. "You seem to be in a hurry."

"I am."

"Someone out there trying to kill you?"

Chen Ji replied calmly. "No. I have someone I want to kill."

Xuanyuan threw back his head and laughed. "No wonder you're progressing faster today than yesterday. This is when you're truly fit to practice the saber! The saber is the boldest of all weapons -- without the will to kill, you'll never master it. But I'd suggest you stop and rest a moment before continuing. Fatigue only makes you restless and sloppy. It won't help."

Chen Ji considered this, then sat down cross-legged without hesitation. "Brother Fenghuai, sit down and rest too."

Fenghuai sheathed his saber and sat, his posture as straight as a student's.

The three of them sat upon the green mountain, clouds churning and flowing around them as though they were in a celestial realm, receiving the immortal's touch of eternal life.

"Brother Fenghuai," Chen Ji said admiringly, "your saber skills are incredible."

Fenghuai wore light armor, looked to be around twenty, handsome in a somewhat green, unfinished way. Looking at him, one would never guess he was a master of the saber.

Hearing the praise, his smile grew even shyer. "It's all because you taught us so well back then. When we trained under you, we suffered plenty too."

Chen Ji was taken aback. "...I taught you? Then why do I get the feeling you're having the time of your life cutting me down?"

Fenghuai hesitated. "Who wouldn't be?"

Chen Ji said flatly, "...Fair point. Be nicer to me when we're not sparring."

Fenghuai answered at once. "Understood!"

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Xuanyuan, if I die tonight, would you be able to return to the world through my body?"

Xuanyuan fixed his gaze on Chen Ji. "I could."

"Then if you really did return, would you kill someone for me?"

Xuanyuan sneered. "Kill him yourself."

"Worth a try." Chen Ji turned to look up at Xuanyuan on the boulder. "About that... I was hoping to negotiate. Could I borrow 'Whale' for tonight?"

"No." Xuanyuan shook his head.

"But I need to kill someone tonight. Without 'Whale,' other blades don't feel right."

Xuanyuan's sneer deepened. "Does the enemy negotiate with you? Can everything you encounter be talked through? I've told you -- cleverness is fine, but there are mountains in this world you can't talk your way around. If you want 'Whale,' beat Fenghuai first."

"Understood."

Just then, Chen Ji heard Dark Cloud give a soft meow by his ear. He leaned on his saber, rose to his feet, and looked at Xuanyuan. "There's still a lot to do tonight. If everything goes well -- see you tomorrow."

Xuanyuan was silent for a moment. "See you tomorrow."

Chen Ji opened his eyes in the cargo bed. The charcoal cart had rolled to a stop outside Red Cloth Lane, and the driver was already heading in, cheerfully humming his bawdy tune.

He and Dark Cloud peeked cautiously over the edge of the cart -- only to see a familiar carriage pull up beside them.

The next moment, the Heir's voice drifted out: "It would've been so much easier to go through the clinic. Chen Ji even set up a ladder for us... But no. We had to climb out through the back garden, and now my robe is torn to shreds!"

Princess Baili's voice followed right after: "Is it so wrong that I don't want to go through the clinic?!"

"Fine, fine, fine..."

Chen Ji watched the two of them hop down from the carriage and walk into Red Cloth Lane. He wanted to stop them and warn them it was dangerous here tonight -- but how could he explain why he was here?

As the Heir and Princess Baili vanished into Red Cloth Lane, Chen Ji hesitated for a moment, then reached into the cart, scooped up a handful of charcoal dust, and smeared it across his face.

"Let's go, Dark Cloud. Up to the rooftop."