Chapter 14: Stone Jade

Pocketing the three silver ingots, Shen Xiuhan checked the sky.

The sun was still well above the horizon. Without a moment's rest, he headed for the north side of Xiaojing Bay, intent on claiming whatever the golden-tailed rat had squirreled away.

The woods bordered the foothills of the Dali Mountains.

The Dali range stretched for hundreds of li, peak stacked upon peak. Deep in those mountains, beasts roamed in packs — tigers, leopards, jackals, wolves — and every year, hunters lost their lives in there.

Over time, no one dared venture past the outskirts. They stuck to the fringes, scrounging rabbits and wild pheasants to put food on the table.

But according to the stories passed down by the old-timers, beyond those mountains lay a nation called the "State of Yue."

Following the pale gold marker, Shen Xiuhan pushed deeper into the woods and soon reached an enormous dead tree so wide it would take three men linking arms to wrap around it.

The trunk was cracked and fissured, mottled with the scars of age.

He circled the trunk and found, halfway up, a tree hollow masked by a thick layer of yellowed thatch.

He set the fishing rod at the base of the tree, scrambled up using hands and feet, and pulled back the dry grass.

His eyes lit up at once.

"Whoa!"

The hollow was a veritable trove.

Dried mushrooms of every variety, pine nuts, and all manner of wind-dried wild fruit were stacked neatly in the depths of the cavity.

At a glance, Shen Xiuhan could identify wild strawberries, ground loquats, August melons, raspberries, wild apricots, wild grapes...

All told, three or four pounds' worth.

In the inner city, this much wild produce could easily sell for over a hundred wen!

But he had no intention of selling.

The dried mushrooms and pine nuts made excellent seasoning for cooking.

The dried fruits were a rare source of sugar.

Money wasn't tight anymore — better to use them to nourish the body.

So he prepared to sweep the entire haul into his creel without a shred of guilt.

"Hm, what's this?"

While gathering a heap of dried wild apricots, his fingertips caught on something unexpected.

Beneath the dried fruit, he fished out a stone no bigger than a thumbnail.

He called it "stone jade" because of its dull brown hue. It was smooth and warm to the touch — not quite stone, not quite jade.

He held it to his ear and shook it. There it was — a faint, barely perceptible pulse of warmth.

Shen Xiuhan turned it over in his hands for a while but couldn't make heads or tails of it. He tucked it away close to his body.

When he had more knowledge, he'd figure out what it was.

Hauling three or four pounds of dried goods, he dropped down from the old tree and made for Xiaojing Bay.

On the way back, he passed through Xuanhua Ward.

Xuanhua Ward was much the same as Xiaojing Bay — another slum on the outskirts of Changyun County.

Squat, crumbling mud-and-thatch hovels jammed cheek by jowl, eave-corners nearly touching.

A reek of fermenting slop water and excrement hung permanently in the cramped dirt alleyways, strong enough to make your hand fly to your nose.

Dusk was falling.

Cold wind whipped through the lanes.

Every passerby walked with hunched shoulders and hurried steps.

Without warning!

"Kill him!"

"After him!"

"Cross the Black Wolf Gang and you'll die here today!"

A riot of footsteps, curses, and savage screams erupted from nowhere, ripping the stillness of the street apart!

Shen Xiuhan's eyes sharpened.

The next instant, over a dozen men burst from around the corner of a side alley, brandishing knives and daggers, radiating murderous intent!

Blades caught the last of the fading light, flashing cold as frost.

The pedestrians on the street — along with the residents of the hovels on either side — snapped to attention in the same heartbeat.

CLATTER!

SLAM!

Doors and window shutters along both sides of the lane crashed shut almost simultaneously, wooden bars slotting into brackets with the practiced ease of something drilled into the bones.

"Not good!"

Shen Xiuhan's heart clenched.

On pure instinct, he ducked into a cramped dead-end nook piled high with junk, held his breath, and buried himself in the shadows.

The outer city was nothing like the inner.

At night, the inner city at least had patrols from the county constabulary.

Places like Xuanhua Ward, Dongxi Ward, and Xiaojing Bay were the domain of gangs and lowlifes.

Robbery and bloodshed were a daily affair.

Even if someone died, as long as it wasn't reported to the magistrate, chances were nobody would come looking.

Bottom-rung lives. Dead was dead. Nobody cared.

What was more...

Nobody dared report it.

Shen Xiuhan huddled in the shadows, waiting in silence.

Not until the shouts and the clash of blades had faded entirely down the length of the street, swallowed by the depths of the alley, did he cautiously poke half his head out.

Once he was sure it was safe, Shen Xiuhan broke into a run, bolting toward Xiaojing Bay.

Only when the three familiar thatched huts came into view did he let out a breath, bracing himself against the fence gate and panting hard.

"This world..."

"Chaos down to the roots."

He sighed, reminding himself again and again: until the martial path bore fruit, he had to tread carefully and avoid trouble at all costs.

Staying alive — that was what mattered most.

He pushed open the fence gate and paused, mildly surprised.

Firelight glowed in the kitchen.

He set down the rod and creel, walked over, and found that Madam Zheng had come home early. She was sitting before the fire pit with Shen Momo in her arms, staring into the flames.

"Mother, why are you home so early today?"

Normally, Madam Zheng worked at the Bai clan's weaving workshop until nightfall before she was let off.

But it was barely past five — the sky had only just begun to darken — and here she was.

"Gege!"

The little girl wriggled free of her mother's arms and came barreling over on her short legs.

Shen Xiuhan scooped her up and carried her into the kitchen.

Madam Zheng breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of him, then spoke with worry etched across her face:

"Dalang, things aren't safe out there lately."

"Auntie Liu, the woman I do laundry with at the workshop — she said a four-year-old girl went missing from Shunchang Ward a few days ago."

"At midday, she was warning me to keep a close eye on Momo..."

Her eyes reddened:

"Then around early afternoon, her husband came running to the workshop asking if their little grandson had stopped by."

"Auntie Liu fainted on the spot."

"After that, everyone was saying a gang of child snatchers had crept into the county — kidnapping boys and girls!"

Madam Zheng clutched Shen Momo tight, her voice trembling:

"I was so terrified sitting in that workshop. The thought of Momo home alone — I didn't even dare collect today's wages. I just ran straight back..."

She glanced at Shen Xiuhan, her lips working silently for a moment before she lowered her gaze, her tone almost pleading:

"Dalang, I was thinking..."

"With things so dangerous out there these last few days, maybe I shouldn't go to the workshop for a while. I'll stay home, weave some fishing nets to sell at the market, chip in a little... would that be alright?"

Listening to the near-humble way Madam Zheng spoke, Shen Xiuhan felt a lump lodge painfully in his chest.

Working at the workshop was grueling and exhausting, and they docked her wages on top of it — but at least the income was steady, with coins coming in every day.

Weaving nets?

It ate up time and wore down the hands.

And right now, in the dead of winter, they were deep in the fishing off-season.

The shallow-water catch had vanished, and even veteran fishermen who'd spent their whole lives on Yunshui Lake often came home empty-handed.

Who would buy a fishing net now?

The only reason Madam Zheng spoke so carefully was because she was afraid that staying home and losing her income would make her son see her as dead weight — a useless mouth to feed — and resent her for it...

"Mother."

Shen Xiuhan sighed, reached into his jacket, and produced three silver ingots. He took her hands — covered in chilblains — and pressed the silver into them without letting her refuse.

"From this day on, we'll never have to worry about those debts again!"