The clapper sounding the hour of Yin had just echoed from the village entrance when Chen Mutian could no longer lie still. He pulled on his clothes and sat up, staring blankly at the drafty beams above his head in the faint morning light filtering through the window paper.
The hole in the roof was left by the wind and rain a few days ago. The family was poor with no spare money to fix it, and for these past few nights, cold wind had been pouring straight down his neck. Listening to the heavy breathing of the woman beside him, Chen Mutian could not suppress the anxiety in his heart.
"Womenfolk have hearts that are too wide open," he muttered under his breath, his brows locked tight. "These last few days Great Li Mountain hasn't known peace. Those cultivators have gone mad, acting as if they mean to scrape an entire layer off the mountain. The villagers are so frightened they don't even dare step outside. The moment they see a streak of light in the sky they kneel and start kowtowing..."
Generation after generation, Lijing Village had lived at the foot of Great Li Mountain, always surviving by heaven's favor and making do with what they could raise themselves. But in these times, the laws of the court did not reach the deep mountain forests. If the fighting of those cultivators spread downward, the whole village—young and old alike—might not even leave behind complete corpses.
"Out here in the wilds, we don't ask for wealth and glory. We only ask for peace. But when immortals start fighting, what can ordinary mortals do except suffer?"
Chen Mutian rolled out of bed, pushed open the door, and gazed into the thick darkness outside. The cold air struck his face and cleared his mind.
"The brat at home is growing stronger by the day, and his appetite grows with him. Tomorrow morning I'll send him to the Meichi River to catch some fish and shrimp so the family can taste a bit of meat."
"If one day we truly are hit by stray spells, then that too will be fate. The Chen family has worked this barren ground for two hundred years. Our roots are sunk too deep. Even if we wanted to run, we couldn't."
Shaking his head, Chen Mutian clasped his hands behind his back and went outside.
The yellow village dog lay curled in its kennel, sleeping soundly. Chen Mutian walked slowly along the village path through the thin dawn mist. Little by little the world around him came awake. Roosters were crowing one after another, and smoke was already rising from several chimneys.
"Xiangping—!"
He shouted toward the side room belonging to his eldest son.
At once there came a clatter from inside, and then the door creaked open. A half-grown boy stumbled out, still heavy-eyed with sleep.
"Father!" Though newly awake, Chen Xiangping's eyes were full of quick wit as he looked up at Chen Mutian.
"What's the work for today?"
"Go to the Meichi River and bring back some fish and crabs."
Chen Mutian waved a hand, an uncommon note of lenience in his voice.
"The field work isn't urgent today. Bring something fresh back for your mother."
"Great!"
Chen Xiangping came fully alive at once, grabbed the rope basket and long fork from beside the wall, and ran off in a flash.
Watching his son's cheerful retreating figure, Chen Mutian gave a helpless smile and turned toward the fields.
———
The waters of the Meichi River flowed gently, and the riverbank was broad and thick with reeds. The dozens of geese and ducks raised by the village households needed no feeding at all. In the morning they were driven down to the water, and by evening all it took was a shout from the bank and the well-trained birds would obediently paddle back.
Chen Xiangping had come early. The geese and ducks had not yet been driven down, and the river surface lay empty, save for two shabby little rafts bobbing with the current. He rolled up his trouser legs and sleeves and stepped barefoot into the muddy river shallows, the cold water swallowing him to the knees.
He bent over, groping through the water with both hands, eyes fixed on the surface. Suddenly a flash of green darted before him.
"Well now, that's a big fish."
Holding his breath, Chen Xiangping dove down sharply. His right hand clamped precisely over the fish's gills, and with a twist of his waist he burst back out of the water, already pinning a lively green-tailed fish in his grasp.
"Heh, not bad luck today."
He wiped the water off his face and tossed the fish into the basket. The fish of the Meichi River were clever things. This one was likely a wild fish swept down from upstream, and he had happened to hit it at just the right moment.
He was preparing to feel around for a few more when he suddenly noticed something strange in the mud beneath his feet. There seemed to be something buried there, its touch too smooth, faintly carrying the chill of metal.
He had just started to duck underwater to investigate properly when someone shouted from the reeds on the bank.
"Brother Xiangping!"
Chen Xiangping instinctively hid the fish basket behind him and looked up. The reeds shook, and a little boy of about ten emerged.
"Ye'er, out to tend the ducks so early..."
"Mm!"
His younger cousin Chen Yesheng nodded obediently, excitement written all over his face.
"I just heard something strange in the village. A great stag died by the entrance, bitten on the leg by a venomous snake. Its antlers were so huge they looked like a whole tabletop!"
Hearing the bit of gossip, Chen Xiangping relaxed and held the basket toward him.
"Forget the stag. Look at this green-tail—I caught it with my bare hands!"
"That's a fine fish!" Chen Yesheng leaned forward to look, envy plain in his eyes.
Chen Yesheng's family was poor. His father had been bedridden for years, and his elder brother was useless, leaving them often short of food. He had come to Chen Mutian's household for meals more than once, and Chen Xiangping had always treated him like a real younger brother.
The two chattered a while more before Chen Yesheng said, "All right, brother, I have to get back to watching the ducks. If even one goes missing, my brother will break my legs."
"Go on, go on."
Chen Xiangping was eager to inspect whatever lay hidden in the riverbed and waved him away.
"All right!"
Once Chen Yesheng had left, Chen Xiangping drew a deep breath and plunged back into the water. He felt around along the bottom until his fingers finally touched the hard object. With a hard tug he pried it loose and lifted it from the water.
"Pah..."
He wiped the water from his face and raised the object before his eyes.
It was a disk about the size of a palm. The center was a grayish-blue surface, ringed by a dark metal rim. The front had already split into seven or eight pieces, held together only by the outer ring. On the back was carved a strange symbol. Chen Xiangping stared for a long time but could not make sense of it.
"Looks a bit like that bronze mirror Auntie has."
He remembered that his maternal aunt's household lived comfortably and owned a bronze mirror. The women of the village usually had to make do with reflections in water, but Auntie alone had a mirror. Even so, this thing was far too dim and clouded to show a person's face.
"What a pity. It's broken."
Shaking his head regretfully, Chen Xiangping tossed the round disk into the fish basket and lowered his hands once more to keep catching fish.
———
Lu Chenyuan had soaked in the water for nearly half a month. Starting from the third day onward, the moonlight energy around him stopped growing no matter how hard he tried. Aside from making himself glow like a lamp, he had gained nothing.
That morning he was dazing at the side of a large blue fish when heaven and earth suddenly turned upside down. A huge hand slapped the fish into the mud. Before he could react, a great force hauled him up by the gills right out of the water.
By the time Lu Chenyuan came to his senses, he had already been thrown into a cramped basket, left to stare wide-eyed at the green-tailed fish that had just been caught.
Looking at the fairly handsome young face before him, Lu Chenyuan felt a rush of tension. Then he realized an even graver problem—he could hear the sounds around him, but he could not understand the language at all.
The dialect sounded something like the accents of Min and Zhe from his previous life, obscure and difficult. That meant that even if he could somehow open his mouth, the other side would not understand a word he said. It was a wall raised high against his ability to adapt to this world.
As fish after fish was tossed into the basket, Lu Chenyuan forced himself to calm down and carefully extended his senses to the world around him.
Through the dim perspective available to him, he could vaguely tell where the boy's attention was focused each time he reached for a fish. Using that as reference, whenever the boy muttered to himself after catching one, Lu Chenyuan silently memorized the sounds.
Before long, he had roughly learned the numbers three through six, as well as the names of several common species of fish.
"One step at a time, then."
Watching the boy stand and lift the basket away, Lu Chenyuan sighed inwardly. This child looked like a farmer's son. Having picked up the bronze object, he would most likely carry it home for the adults to inspect.
For now, he could only follow the current of events, meet more people, and see if he could slowly master the local speech. First he had to keep himself alive; after that, he could search for a way to further strengthen the moonlight power within him.