Beware of chicken, p.8
Beware of Chicken, page 8
Ah, this is the life.
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“Brother Jin certainly lives far enough away,” Gou Ren complained. They were walking to where Jin had said his home was to deliver the few tools he had requested. Gou Ren’s thick eyebrows were drawn down in annoyance, his scowl nearly reaching his bushy sideburns. “And does he even need help with his harvest? He’s only been there seven months; he can’t have too much to bring in.”
Gou Ren had been grumbling about the walk since the start—but the boy who looked vaguely like a monkey always grumbled, it was just something everybody in Hong Yaowu put up with. He always ended up doing what he was tasked with, though, so it was tolerated by most people.
“Ah, but, Brother, if he’s already done, then all we’ve done is take a nice walk and enjoyed another’s hospitality,” Yun Ren chirped, ever the pragmatist. His eyes were locked in a perpetual vulpine squint, his ponytail bouncing with each step. “Besides, we need to escort our young and delicate flower here, to keep her purity safe as our illustrious Chief has commanded.” He tapped the sword he carried, and Meiling rolled her eyes. It was a joke. After all, he had never actually had to use it.
“Meiling? Delicate? A flower?” Gou Ren scoffed with a teasing grin, retreading an old game between them. “The only plant she resembles is a bunch of thistles. If you embraced her, you’d only get pricked.”
Meiling scowled. “I’ll remember that remark the next time you beg me to cure your ills, Little Gou. I seem to remember somebody moaning in their bedroll over a stomachache and begging me to save them from certain death—when it turned out to be built-up gas.”
Gou Ren’s face flushed while his brother started laughing. “Hey! You said you wouldn’t tell anybody about that!”
“Oh, did I?” Meiling pretended to ponder. “I remember no such promise; after all, I’m just a bunch of thistles.”
Yun Ren pretended to sigh and shook his head. “You should know better than to go to a battle of wits when you’re unarmed, Brother.”
Gou Ren spluttered at his brother’s betrayal, while Meiling and Yun Ren shared a smile. Sensing no path to victory, Gou Ren huffed and started walking faster.
Meiling was certain they were close because she had started to smell the faint scent of earth and the harvest that came with Jin’s presence. It was an invigorating smell, full of life, and had none of the faint acrid tang most Qi did.
“Ah, I think I see a fence!” Gou Ren declared, and indeed they were swiftly approaching a barrier at the end of the road. “I think we’re here.”
It was a sturdy fence at the bottom of a hill, composed of large logs, stripped of their branches and driven into the earth and then crosshatched with planks. It was taller than they were.
Meiling looked bemused at the sign hung prominently beside the open gate at eye level. It proudly proclaimed something absurd in bold characters.
“‘Beware of … Chicken?’” Yun Ren asked. “Am I reading that right?” He asked Meiling, and she nodded, a bit surprised that he got it. Beware was one of the harder characters.
Both brothers laughed. “Brother Jin has an odd sense of humour,” Gou Ren declared. “Why would anyone fear a chicken?”
Something thumped to the ground in front of them. They paused, looking down at the vaguely round object.
It was the head of a hawk, its eyes plucked out.
As one, they looked from the hawk’s head back up to the top of the fence. A magnificent rooster—wearing a fox fur vest—cocked his head to the side and stared at them. His breast feathers were vibrant orange and red, his tail green and teal, and his wings were a bright blue. The spurs on his legs were long and wickedly sharp. His gaze was piercing and far, far too intelligent for a rooster. He stared down, judging them, eyes narrowed with consideration.
The brothers yelped, staring up at the imperious thing regarding them closely.
Meiling gaped. It was half hidden by the scent of earth, but the rooster smelled like … the moon?! How is the moon even a smell?
The chicken seemed to decide something and hopped down from the fence to land in the middle of the gate. He considered them a moment, then he swept into a graceful bow, his wings splaying out to the sides. He stayed that way, watching them.
Meiling realized what it was looking for.
“Yun Ren, Gou Ren, bow,” she muttered to them and dipped into a bow of greeting.
“What, to the chicken?!” Gou Ren asked.
“It’s a Spirit Beast. Bow.” Meiling bit out.
They bowed.
The rooster rose from his position, satisfied, and nodded his head. Then he walked to the side of the fence and held his wing out to beckon them in through the gate.
Gou Ren looked at it warily.
“Who’s afraid of a chicken,” Yun Ren mockingly whispered to him as they walked onto the land.
“Shut up!” Gou Ren hissed.
The Spirit Beast bowed once more, when they were inside the fence, a quick dip of his head, and then walked in front of them as they travelled up the small hill.
And that was where the real surprise lay.
“Gods above, this was all forest and stone last year! Some of the rocks were bigger than a house!” Yun Ren gasped.
They gazed upon gentle, rolling hills and fields, flush with verdant grass. A river wound its way down a hill filled with terraced rice paddies, some with still drying rice in them. It would not look out of place in a land that had been cultivated for decades, not mere months.
A small house and a larger storage shed sat on top of the hill, along with another smaller fence. Chickens clucked, pigs oinked, and they could hear the steady pounding of a person husking rice.
Meiling breathed in the air. It was heavenly. It smelled clean and pure, mixed with something lightly spiced and fiery, and the ever-present smell of life.
“Look at that rice,” Gou Ren muttered. “I’ve never seen that much rice in one field before, and it’s only half done. What kind of man is Brother Jin, to do all of this himself?”
Their musings were interrupted by the chicken letting out a mighty cry.
The pounding stopped, and Jin’s voice came from within the house, speaking in another language, the one he had told Meiling about.
“You tell ’em, Bi De!” she heard Jin say in that strange language he knew.
The rooster crowed again, and Jin stepped out.
Meiling stared.
His shirt was off, exposing tanned, rippling muscles slick with sweat. Jin’s look of contentment changed to happiness, and a bright grin overtook his face.
“Meimei! Brother Yun Ren, Brother Gou Ren! Welcome to the Fa Ram!” he shouted with genuine joy, happy at their visit.
“Brother Jin! We’ve come to see if you need help with the harvest!” Yun Ren called, ambling over.
Jin looked surprised and then touched, his eyes going misty for a moment before his grin returned with full force.
Meiling stared.
Gou Ren poked her in the back, and she jolted. “Stop drooling, Meimei,” he scolded in amusement. Patches of red crawled up her face.
Jin laughed. “I wouldn’t say no to some help, but what about your own harvest?”
Gou Ren shrugged. “They’ll be fine, I reckon, or else Elder Hong wouldn’t have sent us.”
“Well, if you’re sure, I should be done in a day or two at this rate.”
A day or two?! Meiling thought incredulously.
“I was planning on heading up to the village anyways after I was finished, so I didn’t miss Meihua’s wedding,” Jin continued, smiling brightly at them.
“Well, then, we’re at your disposal, Brother Jin,” Yun Ren declared.
Jin shook his head. “You’ve just arrived! It’s not much, but I’ll give you the grand tour of the place!” Jin walked over to where a shirt was lying folded up and put it on, after wiping some of the sweat off. Meiling studied the ground with great intent.
And so, they trekked over the land, looking closer at his rice paddies, the stones carefully arranged by size, a gravel pit, and the beginnings of a bridge over the river. While they walked, they regaled each other with stories from their time apart: a mere month, but there were still things to talk about.
Even if some of it was needling each other.
“A thistle, huh?” Jin asked with a smile. “I can see it. Medicinal. Tough enough to grow anywhere. And really, they are beautiful flowers, the same colour as her eyes.”
The brothers looked at each other in shock, while Meiling covered her face with her hands, such was her embarrassment.
Yun Ren gasped in exaggeration and respectfully clasped his hands together. “Brother Jin, your skill with compliments humbles this Yun Ren.”
“Brother Jin, your tongue is silver and quick! Teach this unworthy Gou Ren your ways!” the other brother jokingly demanded. Meiling made a sound like a dying fox at the words.
They laughed as they continued walking, wandering down the small river, while Meiling lagged behind, trying to compose herself.
“What about that? Brother Jin, are you raising another house?” Yun Ren asked, pointing to slabs of stone and planks of wood over the first, smaller river.
At that, Jin flushed.
“Ah … th-this place isn’t big enough for more than one person,” he muttered, his eyes flicked to Meiling before darting away again.
Meiling swallowed thickly, her heart pounding in her chest. He’s building a house for a family.
“Yeah, building a house! Anyway! Here are the Lowly Spiritual Herbs—” he said, clearly desperate to change the subject by starting up his tour again.
Meiling forced herself into motion, following along behind Jin, even as pleasant images danced in her head. She hoped when she lived here that the Spiritual Herbs would be a bit farther away from the house, though. They smelled rather overwhelmingly of fire and cinders.
Then she realized what she was thinking and pinched her leg. When
I live here?
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Jin was tireless. He did not work that much faster than they did, it’s just that he kept working. His hands moved at the same speed. His breathing was steady and even, and the work that needed doing just disappeared.
Meiling weaved more bags to pack away the rice in, while Gou Ren transported the dried rice to him, and Yun Ren helped harvest vegetables.
And then Jin made dinner for them. There were strips of chicken filled with the strange herbs that smelled spicy to Meiling. Spiritual Herbs, squash, mushrooms, and some spices, which were then crusted in leftover rice, and fried until crispy. It was served with baked carrots, radish, and freshly harvested rice.
It was the most delicious meal any of them had ever eaten.
→
Bi De knew he was vindicated when those that shared the form of his Great Master had come. He had treated them as guests, as his knowledge demanded. A strange set of actions he knew to be right, so ingrained in his mind they were. He gazed upon them and noted his Great Master’s immediate superiority. None of them had the power and majesty of his Lord. They were inferiors, and obviously here to give tribute.
Still, there was no reason to be rude. He knew guests were to be respected and cared for, unless they did something to forfeit that right. They had arrived at the opening to the Pillars, as was proper, and exchanged proper courtesies, so they were allowed upon his Great Master’s Blessed Land.
They had been similarly appropriate in their awe, for the Great Master was peerless upon this earth. He gave them face by bowing to them, for his master bowed to them too. If he had not, he would have been greatly shamed. To not have the Disciple bow to honoured guests of his Great Master was utterly unforgivable.
With his Great Master, they too toiled in the land. They were utterly inferior to him, of course, but they worked with skill and heeded his Lord’s words well.
They were worthy of respect in that regard.
And then, as the time for the evening meal came, the Great Master took the plumpest of the females—one from the beginning—and slew her, just as he slew the other creatures that he ate. Like she was not something of his.
Bi De was shocked, his beak open with horror.
His master had slain one of his own!
He was shaken greatly by the act—so greatly shaken, in fact, that he fled to the Great Pillars of the Fa Ram to contemplate this development. His energy, his Qi roiled, unbalanced by his Great Master’s action. It threatened to go out of control, and he barely managed to clamp down on it.
Would he be next? The thought was traitorous. It was ludicrous. He sat on the pillars and closed his eyes.
He contemplated deeply the reasons for his Great Master to consume one of the females and found that such a thing was not as shocking as he first believed.
They were all his Great Master’s. They lived upon his Blessed Land, and they dined upon his benevolence. But the female had made no use of his Master’s overwhelming generosity. She had grown fat and had a tiny amount of Qi, but she had not ascended. She was as the interlopers that invaded mindlessly, that ate of his Lord’s essence.
This was merely the Great Master’s essence returning to him, to once more nourish the new generation. Those who possessed skill, and the luck of the heavens, would ascend as Bi De had. Those that did not would return to the Great Master.
Bi De nodded to himself, satisfied with his understanding. He would not be callously killed by his Lord. The sky had darkened completely, and the moon was gleaming in the sky.
He returned to his Great Master and was given his measure of Heavenly Herbs, and he had affection lavished upon him.
Then, his Lord vacated his coop and gave his female guest a great amount of face by allowing her to lay in his bed. He went to lay under a storage area, and the other males lay upon bedrolls outside.
Bi De prepared himself to assume the night watch, yet his attention was seized when the female stole out of the house and headed towards his Great Master. At first he thought treachery, for only wicked beasts slunk around at night.
He followed her, and his Heavenly blades formed. The silver energy sheathed his spurs, a powerful and holy light that was the bane of the wicked. She approached his Great Master’s prone form. He watched carefully for any threat, for there were no good reasons to approach his sleeping Master.
Her hand reached towards the Great Master, and Bi De prepared to intervene. “Jin?” she asked, and Bi De’s Master awoke.
“Meime—?” he began to ask, confusion on his face, when the woman leaned in, their faces pressing close together. His Master leaned back and pulled her with them, both laying together under the bedroll’s sheets.
Bi De’s blades guttered out as he comprehended the circumstances.
She was not just a female.
She was the Great Master’s female.
He spared one last glance as the woman lay on his Master’s chest, the two of them talking quietly. He turned and once again took his post.
This had been a night of many revelations. He felt like he had comprehended the barest fraction of his Great Master’s unmatched intellect. He puffed his chest out with pride. Such a feat showed just how much he had grown—
A happy squeal shattered his concentration, and Bi De stumbled, whipping around to glare at the pen. He preened his ruffled feathers back into order. He hoped Chun Ke and Pi Pa would not ascend and instead be eaten.
They were most annoying creatures.
CHAPTER 10
LIFT TOGETHER
The day was done.
They all sat, exhausted against the wall of Jin’s hut. Even the tireless Jin had started to falter towards the end, but now they sat together, hot and sweaty. Yun Ren and Gou Ren were down to their loincloths, slumped to the side and greedily drinking water. Meiling was stripped to the waist, with only her dudou preserving her modesty, and she groaned at the state of her sore fingers and rubbed at her aching back. Big D had been enlisted, carrying Meiling’s completed bags to Jin, and getting more stalks so that she could weave.
But they were done. True to Jin’s words, the last of the rice had been harvested at the end of the second day. It had been long hours and backbreaking work, but they had done it.
Eighty-three 40-kilo bags of rice. An extraordinary number for the small amount of land Jin had put to the plough.
Yun Ren sighed with contentment after he finished his drink, running his hands through his matted sweaty hair before grinning at the vessel. It was a bamboo tube with a groove cut in it, so that a lid could be screwed on. Meiling was having trouble opening hers, her red, overworked fingers shaking and slipping—Jin reached over and opened it for her.
“Brother Jin, this is quite the vessel. It’s certainly easier to work with while out in the fields,” he said, leaning over to hand the empty thing to Jin.
Holding up a hand in refusal, Jin shook his head, “Keep it, Brother Yun Ren. They’re easy enough to make. I actually broke a couple of gourds when I first started and spilled a lot of water. These were more durable and easier to clean.”
Gou Ren moaned, pushing himself up into a seated position. “Brother Jin, you worked us like oxen,” he complained. He looked with pride upon the many baskets. “But to see the work done is always a pleasure.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Jin asked with a soft smile. They sat in companionable silence, the cool breeze a balm upon their sweaty bodies, and the setting sun bathed the world in warm light.
Eventually, Jin got up and stretched. “Come on, let’s get cleaned up, and then I’ll start dinner. We are having crayfish tonight!”
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The river was still warm at this time of year, though fall was rapidly approaching, with the occasional gust of cold wind. With the small bar of soap Jin had, the dirt and grime were easily washed from their bodies. Their exhaustion was telling—the normally quarrelsome brothers did not even try to dunk each other once nor attempt to start any splash war.
Instead, Yun Ren simply handed his brother a comb. Grumbling, Gou Ren dutifully brushed first his elder brother’s hair and then Meiling’s while Jin prepared them a meal.
