Глава 3, ч.1. Вдали от Янчжоу

Book 1 Chapter 3 – Far and away from Yangzhou Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling stripped stark naked. First, they washed their clothes clean by the creek, then they spread out the clothes on the thickets next to the bank to let it dry in the afternoon sun. They put ‘The Secret to Long Life’ on a rock. Finally they shouted gleefully as they dive into the stream to wash away the grimes and the stink from crawling inside the dark culvert. They were still kids, after all. After running for their lives to this forest on a hill, about seven or eight li [1 li is approx. 1/2km or 1/3 of a mile] from Yangzhou city wall, they were so exhausted that they did not feel like moving anymore. Also, thinking that they were already far away from danger, their moods turned a lot better. While they were playing and singing happily in the water, suddenly they hear tender snort coming from the creek’s bank. At first they were startled and scared, and quickly looked at the direction of the noise. But then they saw a woman wearing snow-white clothes, with a bamboo rain hat on her head, was standing gracefully on the shore. With her pair of cold eyes that was hidden behind a white gauze veil, she looked at them, sizing them up, without any care whatsoever that they were stark naked. The two boys squealed in terror and quickly ducked inside the water, instinctively their hands went down to cover their lower parts. With a squeaky voice Xu Ziling cried out, “It’s improper to look, Dajie [big sister] please avert your noble eyes; spare us!” Kou Zhong also cried out, “Looking once you have to pay one wen [1/10 of a tael, approx. 0.5gram (of silver)]. Miss already looked at least a hundred times; even with fifty or perhaps sixty percent rate, you need to pay us about a hundred copper coins and then you may go.” An ice-cold smile appeared on the corner of the woman-in-white’s mouth. “Little demon is asking for it,” she said lightly. Stretching out her lily-white hand, which was as slender as a spring scallion, she casually flicked her two fingers. ‘Pop, pop!’ The two boys screamed in pain and fell down to the water. It was quite a while before they finally emerged from the water, still in a lot of pain. The woman-in-white spoke matter-of-factly, “When Miss asks you a question, you answer with an honest answer; otherwise, you, these two little demons, will suffer more pain.” By this time Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling have already withdrawn to the other side of the creek. But since they were still naked, they did not dare to crawl out of the water. Unable to neither advance nor retreat, they were completely at a loss. Kou Zhong has always been able ‘to see the wind and set his sails’; therefore, he forced a laugh and said, “Lowly ones know that we cannot not speak, and speak cannot not be honest. [I know it sounds awkward in English, but Chinese loves to use double negative.] Miss, please go ahead and ask.” var adx_id_6327 = document.getElementById('bg-ssp-6327'); adx_id_6327.id = 'bg-ssp-6327-' + Math.floor(Math.random() * Date.now()); window.pubadxtag = window.pubadxtag || []; window.pubadxtag.push({zoneid: 6327, id: adx_id_6327.id, wu: window.location.href}) Seeing he was trying to talk bookish talk, yet his appearance was nondescript, the woman-in-white let out a cold snort and said, “I ask you, what kind of guts you, the little demon, have?

” Xu Ziling was shocked. “All along we, two brothers, have never known how to tell stories. Miss, you may ask us anything.” The woman-in-white still maintained her wooden expression. With a voice as calm as the water she asked, “Do you live near here?

” Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling looked at each other. And then one nodded, the other shook his head. Another flick of her fingers, their knees went weak and they tumbled into the water again. As before, it was quite a while before they were able to struggle up, battered and exhausted. As if nothing had happened, the woman-in-white calmly said, “If I hear one more lie, don’t even think that you will be able to crawl up again.” The two boys were very scared of the woman-in-white’s ruthlessness, but they have already developed resilience from receiving Laoda, Yan Kuan’s bullying. With a forced laugh Kou Zhong said, “Dashi [lit. great scholar/bachelor/member of senior ministerial class; I don’t know how to translate this properly], you misunderstood. I nodded because I certainly live in my in-laws village nearby. And he shook his head, because he lives in the city. Today this brother of mine especially went out of the city to have fun with me. So now Dashi can see that we are indeed innocent.” Hearing the smooth talk and the laughter, Xu Ziling hastily covered his mouth, afraid that he might provoke this evil Luocha [demon in Buddhism, as in Yu Luocha, White Haired Demoness]. But the woman-in-white remained unmoved. “If I hear more flippant answer, I’ll gouge your tongue out of your mouth. Why do you call me Dashi?

” Xu Ziling was afraid Kou Zhong might ramble, he busily said, “Just because you are wearing long white robe like Guanyin Dashi [Goddess of Mercy], he is honoring Big Sister as Dashi. It is just a show of respect, there is no other meaning.” At this point, this scene was really weird. An enigmatic woman as cold as ice and frost, coldly dealing with two stark naked boys, embarrassed and were in a difficult situation, hiding in the water. If an outsider was to witness this scene, even if he rack his brain until burst, he would not be able to guess the relationship between them. The woman-in-white’s eyes fell onto ‘The Secret to Long Life’ lying on the rock by the shore. “What is that?

” she asked. Not missing a single beat, Kou Zhong reverently and respectfully replied, “That is the book of the sages that Bai Lao Fuzi’s [see Chapter 1] wanted us to study. Would Dashi like to read it?

” Evidently the woman-in-white did not know that it was a very important book, because the fact was that from the outside, this book was not much different from any other book. Therefore, she only took a couple of glances, and then her eyes were back to the two boys. “Do you know this man Shi Long?

” she asked in a heavy voice. Seeing she no longer care about their ‘secret manual’, the two boys inwardly wiped the sweats from their foreheads, while scrambling to answer at the same time, “Of course we do!” “Tell me then,” the woman-in-white said, “Why are his house and institution teeming with soldiers and officers?

And Yangzhou city gates are all closed?

” Kou Zhong pretended to be surprised, “Is there such thing?

” he said, “We have been here since early in the morning catching fish. Ah! Xiao Ling, how are you going to go back to the city?

” Although Xu Ziling knew he was lying, looking at his serious manner[1], he almost believed it was true. Assuming a pained expression on his face, he exclaimed in shock, “Mother is going to kill me.” Suddenly he felt Kou Zhong nudged him; realizing his intention, he said, “That won’t do! I must return to the city immediately. Hey! Dashi, would you turn your back momentarily, so that we can go up and put our clothes on?