Chapter 1. Picked Up

Chen He was a fool — the kind that was especially idiotic. If the tutor taught him a line from the Students' Rules[1] in the morning, that line would be forgotten completely in the afternoon.

The tutor did not beat him; he would only sigh.

—-for who could bear to beat a child like this? Brush grasped tightly in hand, he wrote diligently, even if the words came out slanted; on hot days he sweated buckets, on cold days he s.h.i.+vered, like any other child; he was neither overly playful nor disobedient. He was simply an idiot who could not remember what he had been taught. What use was there in beating him?

Furthermore, the tutor had known even before reaching the mansion. At the age of three, Chen He fell into the garden pond while he had been playing in the garden, and hit his head, which had made him foolish.

The Chen household searched for all the famous doctors there were; all diagnosed Chen He with a blood clot in the brain and could only suggest that raising him well might somehow resolve this problem. The household also consulted with both Taoist and Buddhist priests, who all said this child had an ill fate, with a horoscope that clashed with every other. His only saving grace was the great virtue of the Chen ancestors, which countered this great misfortune. They claimed that was the reason why this child had become lacking.

At first, the old Madam refused to believe any of it, and ordered the servants to chase them out of the house.

But the priests spoke of the same thing with little variation, and the doctors and physicians could do nothing. The Madam gradually lost hope for a cure. Anyhow, even a fool would be able to continue the family line, so long as they could get some impoverished young girl to be his bride and produce a child. And he was not the only grandchild of the Chen household anyway.

Had there been no accident, Chen He would have simply b.u.mbled along in life as such, and eventually become the laughingstock of Yunzhou City.

Now Chen He's idiocy was quite special.

He did not kick up a fuss, and neither did he sit in the dirt, caught up in a fit of silly giggles. No, one could not tell simply by looking that there was something wrong with the mind of this chubby white lump of a child. One could only tell the problem when he spoke; despite being six years old, his speech and actions were that of a three-year-old. Often, he had not the faintest idea where he was, and often glanced about hazily.

He was at it again.

Swathed in brocade, the child stuck out one arm, white as a lotus root, to s.h.i.+eld his face as he beheld the plank road on the side of the cliff.

The mountain wind, bitingly cold, made sharp whistling noises. Dark caves in the side of the mountain reeked of the stench of wild beasts. Atop three metal cables, the planks swayed this way and that, like the seat of a swing. On top all of this sat Chen He. If he were to lose his balance while walking on this road, there was a high chance that he would plunge all the way to the bottom of the abyss.

—-how did he get here?

Chen He blinked. According to his limited understanding, he should have remained within the Chen residence, no matter how lost he got. So long as he sat where he was and waited, the servants and maids[2] would come looking for him.

But had there been such a scary place at home? Head tilted, the child thought hard.

The harsh, cold gale made him s.h.i.+ver uncontrollably, and he lay crouched on the swaying planks.

Soon, night fell, and the howls of wild beasts could be heard from the woods. In the distance, torch-lights swept past every now and then, and one could hear the faint, indistinct calls of the Chen household's servants. They had indeed been searching for the young master who had "disappeared" while they were offering prayers in the temple.

Chen He heard none of this. By now, he was so cold that he could no longer think.

Soon a figure appeared at the end of the plank road. Seeing Chen He curled up on the planks, he snorted indignantly.

"So he still hasn't fallen down yet…"

Tying a rope around his waist, he stepped carefully onto the plank road. Judging from the height at which he clutched the metal cable rails, he was only a youth, barely fifteen[3] years of age.

"Cousin…?" Chen He called tremulously, sensing a familiar presence in his confusion.

The youth shuddered violently as he stared. There was no moon, and in the dark, he could barely make it out - that lump of a child curled up on the planks, a few paces away from his feet.

"…may the heavens have mercy…give me a chance to start again…a chance to choose…there would be no need for me to do this!" Having said that, the youth glared ferociously at Chen He, and stomped on the loose plank right in front of him.

The planks tilted and swung violently from the shock. The metal cable rails were hardly enough to block Chen He, and so the poor child fell, down into the abyss.

To the people who lived around the mountains, this place was known as Sky-High Cliff[4], where the chances of death of high. The plank road had long since fallen into disrepair. Many people would rather spend at least half a day traversing the mountain roads than take the risk of using this plank road on the side of the cliff.

Gripping the steel cable rails tightly, the youth muttered to the abyss somewhat shakily, "Die and get reincarnated as soon as possible, and don't bring our household any more bad luck!"

~~~

s.h.i.+ Feng had been living below Sky-High Cliff for ten years now.

Every morning, he waded through the brook barefoot, with prayer beads in hand and his hair hanging loose. The red bead pendants on his robes floated along in the chilly mountain brook, knocking against the ice that had yet to melt, creating pleasant notes as they did so.

At the end of the brook was a deep lake. On the steep walls of the mountain there grew large patches of purple magnolias, and their petals scattered about in the water, mixing with the foam from the churning torrents and creating long, winding ripples.

But it seemed a little noisy in the valley today—-

"Whose kid is this? Why'd he fall off the cliff?"

"Such bad luck in the morning; thought they dropped in a rabbit to give this old man some meat to eat!"

"This little guy fell in a bad place, we should get him down fast!"

Below Sky-High Cliff there was a barrier.

It was like a pitch-black, arch-shaped canopy which s.h.i.+elded the valley below. The entire barrier was thicker than ten rice cakes[5] stacked up together, and at the moment, in this barrier, there sat a soft lump swathed in brocade, as if this lump were part of the barrier.

At the bottom of the valley, a crowd of people had a.s.sembled, and they were craning their necks, gazing upwards curiously.

"That boy is too lucky. How did he fall into the centre of the barrier, which also happens to be the thickest part?"

"This child shall most certainly be outstanding in the future," said an old man, as he stroked his beard.

Over the years, so many wild beasts and humans had fallen down here, but never before had they seen someone who managed to turn themselves into amber[6] just like that.

"Well, we've got to save that child and send him out! Don't just stand there, everyone must put in effort to break the centre of the barrier! Hurry, or that child will be choked to death!"

s.h.i.+ Feng watched silently as everyone rolled up their sleeves and yelled encouragement, manipulating the barrier with all their might.

As if hit by a strong current in a river, Chen He rolled over, still trapped within the barrier.

The first part to escape the barrier was his right hand. On the wrist he wore a silver bangle, and its bell rang, drawing the attention of the cultivators who lived below Sky-High Cliff. Their incredible eyesight allowed them to notice the fine words carved on the bell.

"Yunzhou Chen household? Well, this land's part of Yunzhou, and it's close by. And since you're the youngest, s.h.i.+ Feng, we're leaving this to you. We're all old, with one foot in the grave, and none of us want to go outside!"

The crowd gave their swift a.s.sent.

Instinctively, s.h.i.+ Feng held the child who was shoved unceremoniously into his arms. When he lifted his head again, the crowds were already nowhere to be seen, leaving him with just the wind and the mountain streams.

Left with no other choice, s.h.i.+ Feng repositioned his arms, allowing the child to lie more comfortably.

Previously, Chen He had been left to freeze for far too long on that plank road. Now his cheeks burned red with fever, and he s.h.i.+vered every now and then, his eyes closed.

After he fell into the barrier, large amounts of spiritual energy flooded in from all directions, flowing into his body. Air did not circulate within the barrier; he had not the strength to move, nor even speak. And just like that, all the blood vessels and joints in his body had been relaxed.

A stroke of luck within misfortune. s.h.i.+ Feng could not help but smile.

An icy cold hand caressed Chen He between the brows, and soon, the feverish red in his cheeks faded.

Palm resting on the back of Chen He's head, s.h.i.+ Feng sensed some clotted blood there. At first, he thought it was caused by the child's fall off Sky-High Cliff, but the clotting of the blood did not seem like a recent occurrence.

Just what had happened here, to make this child fall and hurt his head like this, and even fall off a cliff?

s.h.i.+ Feng's features were cold and solemn.

It seemed he would have to figure out the truth behind certain things if he were to send this child home. Otherwise, even if he were handed back to his relatives, his soul might be in the land of the wronged dead within half a year, waiting to enter the Six Realms[7] once more.

—-cultivators thought little of life and death, but that did not mean he would simply sit by and let this innocent child lose his life.

~~~

After a night of fruitless searching in the mountains, the Chen household's servants returned the very next day.

The Chen family's members lingered in the house at the foot of the mountain. Some wept and cried, some did nothing but cast impatient gazes. For Chen He had been a mentally handicapped child. Had he not been the only son of the head of the Chen household, he would have been left aside to fend for himself. For why would anyone hire a tutor for such a fool of a child?

The women of the family grumbled and grouched, blaming Chen He himself for running off on his own. Even if he could avoid being eaten by the larger wild animals, he would have been hungry and cold the entire night; the chances of him surviving were slim.

Amidst the scramble, the old madam's second daughter-in-law discovered that her own son had gone missing too, which made her inconsolable. Fortunately, however, her son was brought home quite soon by the servants, who said he had snuck out with his own servants the night before to search in the mountains for his lost cousin.

This caused an even greater disturbance.

There were only two males in the third generation of the Chen household, and Chen He was mentally handicapped. If something were to happen to the other boy because of the mentally handicapped one, there would be no room for even regrets.

Thus the Chen family dared not linger any further, and decided they would forgo rest. They immediately began the journey back to Yunzhou City.

Dust flew as the horse-drawn carriages rumbled along on the roads.

The youth gazed towards the mountains in the distance. Gripping his trembling fingers, he took a deep breath and pulled the curtain back into place.

"Scared?" Next to him, his mother chuckled. "And here I thought my son was bold. Bold enough to get his trusted men to bring that idiot out of the temple and abandon him. It seems you even went back in the middle of the night to dispose of him personally."

"Mother!"

"My child, regardless of whether that idiot is dead or missing, your uncle no longer has an heir. The Chen family shall be yours in future."

"Mother, if we let that idiot live, the Chen household shall be completely wiped out thirteen years from now." The youth gnashed his teeth with rage at the very thought, while his mother seemed to think nothing of it. As they heard the servants gossiping outside the carriage, however, light smiles of relief graced their features.

"Isn't the temple right next to Sky-High Cliff? I hear there's often demons and ghosts lurking about there!"

"Don't spout nonsense, how could there be demons and ghosts in a place for Buddhism?"

"I'm telling the truth now; three years ago, one of the Liu household's daughters-in-law went up to the temple to pray, and she took shelter from sudden rain halfway down the mountain. There she saw a fox spirit…and some good-looking mountain ghost, was it? Dear me, how scary!"

Hovering in mid-air, now with the soundly asleep child in his arms, s.h.i.+ Feng watched the procession of carriages pa.s.s by below.

Even with his abilities, s.h.i.+ Feng discovered only ten-odd servants from the Chen household searching for the lost child. Some of them clearly spared no thought for the matter, instead taking the opportunity to go hunting and sightseeing.

After catching up with the procession, his expression became colder.

In the largest, most comfortable carriage:

"Madam—-”

"Say no more, for that child had an ill fate. When we return, read some Buddhist scriptures and donate some money to the temple; that should be enough virtue to aid him in his next life!"

In the small carriages with their black[8] cloth canopies, the serving-maids gossiped quietly among themselves:

"The young master may be silly, but he's a good, honest child; how did he get lost?"

"That's right, I saw him playing under the bodhi tree yesterday. He couldn't have been blown away by the wind, could he?"

"Shhh! Don't quote me, but I hear there's evil things lurking about Sky-High Cliff. Didn't Diviner Li say so? Young Master's got a horrible fate; his ancestors' virtue was the only thing saving him. He lost his mum at birth, and there was that epidemic in the city two years ago. That epidemic killed so many members of the Chen household, and even one of those old grandpas in the main family died of it too! Creepy, if you ask me…"

The ladies adorned with gold and silver, the servants who spoke in hushed tones, they all spoke in the same vein.

"He's the bane of the household."

"He clashes with the Chen family."

"The Chen household worked so hard to raise him, and no one treated him badly. This is the will of the heavens."

"He's better off dead…"

s.h.i.+ Feng's expression grew darker still. The sleeping child seemed to sense it; he struggled, letting out a m.u.f.fled sob.

With a little of his spiritual force, he made Chen He calm down. Then he felt for Chen He's brow bone, and from the back of the neck he felt all the way down to the arm. The more he felt, the deeper his brows furrowed. Then he observed Chen He's face and palm lines carefully. Due to the level of his abilities, he was able to obtain an accurate result even without having a proper horoscope.

Common diviners who were woefully inadequate would often spout nonsense, saying a person with such features brought all manner of misfortune.

Such features indicated a person suited for the highest level of cultivation, but this was also known as the most treacherous of fates. All their life, they would be betrayed by family, abandoned by friends, suffering in romance, plagued by danger.

As he touched his fingertips to Chen He's forehead, a thought occurred to him:

"Fine, so be it. I shall help you cast off the shackles of this world, so that you may be free of this doomed fate, and then you shall not get caught up in karma from then on."

With a flick of his sleeve, s.h.i.+ Feng left without a single backwards glance, the child still soundly asleep in his arms.

Notes:

[1] Originally 弟子規, sometimes called Standards for Being A Good Student and Child, or Standards for Students. Since 規 can also mean 'rules', I opted to translate it as Students' Rules.

[2] The Chinese made a clear distinction between male and female servants, and the original text here used terms that referred to them separately. Hence 'servants and maids'.

[3] (LONG EXPLANATION) Originally 總角之齡; there was no specific age given, so I hazarded a guess here and wrote Chen He's cousin as a fifteen-year-old. Some might know this: in the past, the Chinese rarely used numbers to refer to age, instead using highly specific terms. (I don't understand why either.) Here, 總角 refers to the style of the child's hair between 8-14 years of age; hence 總角之齡. Original text says 剛過總角之齡, meaning our dear MC's cousin just pa.s.sed that age. And since the upper limit of this age seems to be fourteen…I went with fifteen. End of explanation.

[4] Original name employed the term 摩天, which refers to things very close to the sky (such as a skysc.r.a.per, which in Chinese is 摩天樓). Skysc.r.a.per Cliff just sounded way too strange to me (and do they even know what skysc.r.a.pers are??), so I went with Sky-High Cliff. Sounds better and preserves the meaning somewhat.

[5] I ask for your forgiveness, dear readers…I have absolutely no idea what type of rice cakes are used as a reference here, because Chinese cuisine includes countless variations of rice cakes.

[6] Phrasing might sound weird, but I hope this a.n.a.logy - Chen He being trapped in the barrier like a fly trapped in amber - gives you an idea of just how thick that barrier (and those rice cakes!) might be. If that barrier is thick enough to fully encase a curled-up six-year-old, and then some…I’ll leave it to your imagination.

[7] Referring to the Six Realms of Existence (六道輪迴). There’s a lot of English translations for this concept, so I picked one that I liked. OTL

[8] (LONG EXPLANATION) Originally 青. Now, there are/were a few meanings for this colour, which include:

a), some shade of blue. This meaning is also used in j.a.panese, and to this day 青い aoi still means 'blue'.

b), some shade of green - in fact, in modern times, 青色 refers almost exclusively to a light green colour that's often a.s.sociated with leaves or gra.s.s, or nature in general. Example: 踏青, which actually means going for a walk in the great outdoors during springtime (spankin’ new green gra.s.s, hooray), specifically around the Qingming period. Does NOT mean 'stepping on green' or whatever weird meanings people come up with.

c), the one I chose, which means…black…amazingly. It seems that when used to describe the appearance of cloth, 青 actually means black. (Has your mind been blown yet?) This meaning also covers words such as 青牛, which might look like 'green cow' to those who only know meaning (b)…nope, that cow is not green, it's black.