Of Mountains and Rivers Chapter 13
The People From the Liyi Clan Must’ve Had Some Kind of Unusual Inborn Gift – the Robust Men Were Like Iron Towers, the Children Surpassing Wild Boars
One day, Chu Huan held a wild fruit in his mouth and a book under his arm to idle with no disturbances in the forest. Nanshan had told him there were beasts in the forest and it would be best if he could stay as far away from it as possible; however, Chu Huan didn’t mind it too much. He thought wild animals were pretty cute anyway.
He found the tallest tree and nimbly climbed up; on the way, he encountered a venomous snake who’d entrenched one of the tree branches. Since the venomous snake’s territory was suddenly invaded, it immediately made an instinctive attack. Chu Huan stretched out his hand and, with a squeeze, precisely seized the snake’s vital point; with a light toss, he threw it onto the opposite tree branch, executing a compulsory demolition of a home and the relocation of its inhabitant.
He angered the outraged snake so much that it immediately began circling the branch.
Then, Chu Huan occupied the snake’s nest; he found a dense and sheltered high place to sit with his back against the tree trunk.
The book was bought at the county in a small bookstore that was about to close. They called themselves a ‘bookstore’, but its main business was, in fact, serving codfish salad and french fries – they just simultaneously managed some old books and magazines. At the time, he was walking in a hurry, so Chu Huan hadn’t read the contents before wrapping up and buying a whole dozen. He flipped through them when he arrived at the Liyi Clan. All the outdated magazines with drawings were taken away by Nanshan, leaving him with a heap of serious literature.
For people with no literary brain cells like Chu Huan, they were basically hypnotic reading materials.
The book’s contents were already hard to understand, yet he’d occasionally have to face the rat-gnawed holes and, for a good while, contemplate how the context connects. Chu Huan was purely passing the time. He read very slowly, hardly taking care; sometimes he’d become interested in a few isolated phrases and sometimes he’d simply blankly stare at the skewed pages.
On this day, just as he finished nibbling the wild fruit, he hadn’t even thrown away its husk before he heard movement from beneath the tree.
Chu Huan listened intently. Feeling like it didn’t sound too right, he couldn’t help but look down. With a sweep of his eyes, he was startled to find a wild boar who’d run over from who-knows-where.
Chu Huan wasn’t afraid of wild boars – even if it was a tiger that’d run over, it wouldn’t be able to do anything to him – the crucial point was there were also two children under the tree.
One of them was Xiao Fang’s eleven, twelve-year-old daughter, Flower Bud. Her hairstyle truly was a style of its own – others had their hair in one or two braids, whereas she had hers in three braids, one on both sides and another one behind her head. At first glance, she looked like a dark elephant wearing a human’s face, so Chu Huan could instantly recognise her from above.
There was also a young boy – probably Flower Bud’s forever attendant. Chu Huan remembered him to be dignified and strong, younger than Flower Bud.
Chu Huan didn’t dare hesitate; he immediately threw the book aside and quietly slid down the tree trunk. He was a professional assassin; he passed like a slight breeze, not even alarming the leaves.
He hadn’t brought a gun out with him, only the close-fitting military bayonet and the short knife Nanshan gave him – they were all cold weapons1. In addition, if he entered within a dozen-metre range from the wild boar, it’d be able to smell his scent. He needed to be fast enough – needed to kill in one strike without giving the wild boar the opportunity to struggle or flee – otherwise, the two brats would be in danger.
Chu Huan reached out for his triangular bayonet; in the blink of an eye, he’d already adjusted his angle. Who would’ve known that just as he’d prepared to act, Flower Bud would suddenly, without warning, pounce towards the wild boar? The little girl’s figure was exactly between Chu Huan and the wild boar.
Holy shit, this troublesome little rascal!
Chu Huan broke out in cold sweat on the spot.
The wild boar wasn’t very big; from a visual assessment, it seemed to be around a hundred or so kilograms and had somehow separated from its group. But even if the wild boar couldn’t be considered gigantic among its species, it still had the advantage of its species’ ferocity; it clearly looked down on the silly human girl. The wild boar pointed its sharp tusks at the little girl. Since Chu Huan’s path for one strike had been ruined to nothing, he had no choice but to land on the ground and swiftly change locations.
At this moment, Chu Huan caught a glimpse of Flower Bud’s little attendant taking out a crossbow.
The corner of his eyes twitched as he immediately understood. This was no chance encounter; this was a premeditated arrangement to catch a wild boar.
Wild boars had coarse skin and thick flesh and could run fast; for an untrained person, even if they carried a rifle they might not be able to bring one down. Xiao Fang’s daughter was indeed a tomboy who dared to bite her dad before the patriarch; she simply didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth2.
But when the wild boar began chasing his companion, the expression on the young attendant boy – who seemed to be frequently bullied – didn’t change a single bit and his feet were as if firmly planted in the ground. The young girl instantly leapt onto a tree, causing the wild boar to nearly crash into its roots; it had no choice but to stop by a wide margin. By the time it slowed down, the young boy had already captured this fleeting opportunity and an arrow accurately shot into the wild boar’s head.
Chu Huan, who was hiding in the bushes, almost couldn’t stop himself from cheering for him.
Chu Huan had already made a detour to the wild boar’s backside. From this angle, he could’ve turned this beast into a roast suckling pig with just a stretch of his hand, but because he was certain of the outcome, he didn’t move, wanting to see what these two brats wanted to do.
The crossbow in the young boy’s hands was crude, its strength and accuracy both very limited; to successfully use this equipment for a ruthless and accurate shot of the wild boar’s head, one had to have adept skills and a very stable psychological quality. From this perspective, it was clear that this boy was stronger than most adults.
Chu Huan had a feeling that maybe these two kids weren't that ignorant of heaven and earth’s immensity.
At the same time, the girl on the tree abruptly performed a somersault; from behind the tree, she pulled out a hidden spear before arrogantly jumping down. With the support of her own weight, she pierced the spear straight through the wild boar’s neck.
The wild boar made a final struggle; due to its tremendous shake, the spear took off from the girl’s hands. She didn’t fluster; instead, she calmly let go. She staggered back several steps before she stood firm and shouted towards the boy, “Shoot its mouth, shoot its mouth!”
She spoke in the Liyi Clan language. During this period, whenever Chu Huan taught the students oral Chinese, Nanshan always sat aside to translate; although Chu Huan always acted indifferently, he secretly remembered every word.
In an unfamiliar environment, even if he felt relaxed, he’d instinctively collect as much information as possible in a short time frame. Although he hadn’t learnt much, the phrases used between children were relatively simple, so he could understand most of them.
…Of course, to outsiders, Chu Huan still pretended to be completely incapable of understanding them. Otherwise, with the Liyi people’s enthusiasm, they might voluntarily form a team to teach him how to speak.
The young boy immediately obeyed the command and instantly released another arrow, hitting the wild boar’s head on the same side as the first arrow. The wild boar, who’d just tried to get up, collapsed again, moving into a very coquettish position; just as it opened its mouth to growl in pain, an arrow shot into its throat.
Under Chu Huan’s attentive gaze, the big guy died.
Only then did Chu Huan lightly breathe out a sigh of relief, feeling slight difficulty believing this.
In the end, Chu Huan didn’t reveal himself. He watched Flower Bud, that silly girl, pant a little before commanding her little attendant boy, “One person drag one leg; you there, me here.”
The little attendant didn’t dare object; with a docile expression, he lifted up one of the wild boar’s legs and the two cooperated in dragging it away. After two steps, Flower Bud seemed to feel something, she turned her head to where Chu Huan was hiding and looked around. Only after finding nothing there did she scratch her head and leave with slight hesitation.
Chu Huan once again confirmed that the people from the Liyi Clan must’ve had some kind of unusual inborn gift – the robust men were like iron towers, the children surpassing wild boars.
It wasn’t yet time for class to start. Chu Huan put away his triangular bayonet and slowly walked out from the bushes. Suddenly, he heard a rustling noise. Chu Huan looked up, only to see the venomous snake that was forcibly relocated by him dilly-dallying closer, carefully sizing him up with a pair of small, sinister eyes.
The triangular-headed venomous snake actually looked quite delicate and pretty.
Chu Huan expressionlessly stared at it before calmly admitting his mistake. “Oh, I was the unreasonable one – you can continue living up there now.”
After he finished speaking, he followed a small path back to the Liyi Clan.
From a distance, Chu Huan caught sight of Flower Bud and her little attendant dragging the wild boar into the river. Several women, who were drawing water and cooking, saw them and immediately jumped down – together, they carried the wild boar. Flower Bud wiped away her snot before arrogantly jumping into the waters.
Chu Huan thought, let’s see if your mum breaks your dog legs3.
It’s a pity he couldn’t have his wish fulfilled; when Xiao Fang’s wife saw the wild boar, rather than berating her, she even kindly touched her daughter’s three nose-like braids before amiably letting her go play. He was too far away – in addition, he was still unfamiliar with their language – so Chu Huan only heard a rough syllable; she seemed to have promised Flower Bud she’d roast the pig’s heart for her tonight.
Chu Huan silently retracted his gaze, suddenly understanding what ‘a project of vital and lasting importance in education’ was and what ‘where there’s a wild mother, there’d be wild children’ looked like.
He bowed his head and walked through the crowd. The people didn’t come over to bother him much; the adults stood a distance away from him and would reservedly use their unfamiliar newly learned Chinese to greet him whilst the children would make a ‘hu-la’ noise before dispersing.
Chu Huan walked to the middle of the open space where lessons were held every day. He sat down with his back against the big white boulder, flipping through his book while waiting for everyone to come.
Not long after, several cubs used him as the centre to surround him in a large circle, all of them staying five or six metres away from him. Thinking he couldn’t understand anything, they began whispering to one another without fear, treating Chu Huan as an on-site onlooker.
Chu Huan heard the pig-killer heroine Flower Bud whisper to her attendant, “Yesterday, my mum told me the thing on My King’s nose is made of ice – ice, you know? When it’s thick, it’s white and opaque, so it must be really thin; it’d break with one touch.”
When Chu Huan heard this, he felt the bridge of his nose turn colder.
That snotty little attendant admiringly asked his ‘knowledgeable’ big sister, “What’s it for?”
Flower Bud: “That I don’t know – maybe it’s for looking good.”
Then, a three or four-year-old bald boy suddenly screamed. With his baby voice, he howled, “The Patriarch is the best-looking!”
Flower Bud: “Shut up!”
Little Bald-Head ignored her and continued seriously, “The Patriarch is the best-looking!”
Flower Bud jumped up and grabbed Little Bald-Head’s fart curtain; with both feet off the ground, she dragged him off and threw him away.
The entire circle of brats were compelled by this girl’s tyrannical abuse to shut him up. They sat in perfect rows, waiting for their boss to express her opinion.
Chu Huan couldn’t help but raise his head and glance at her, thinking that this girl had great potential to become a bandit in the future.
Flower Bud: “Aiya, he’s looking at me.”
His glance suddenly turned Flower Bud into a young wife; she bowed her head with a bashful expression, her neck shrunk and the blush on her face reached her ears.
Chu Huan: “…”
He returned his gaze back to the pages, resolutely stopping himself from looking like a molester.
He continued listening to the small cubs buzzing as they observed him. “That hoop around his hand – the Patriarch said it can tell the time. Is that true or not?”
Flower Bud knew a lot of gossip; after hearing this, she immediately recovered from her shock and promptly revealed her vast knowledge. “It’s true! My mum said we can’t touch that either. The needle in it is as thin as a strand of hair; it’ll break with one touch.”
The children immediately sighed endlessly, feeling as if this person from the other side of the river was truly precious everywhere.
“Sis, what else can break with one touch?”
Flower Bud sneakily raised her head and glanced at Chu Huan; successfully coaxed by his ‘can’t hear nor understand’ appearance, she unhesitatingly said, “My King can’t be touched either. People from the other side of the river are all like this – they’re all weaker than paper. When my dad followed the Patriarch to pick him up, he saw a wound this big on his body…”
Flower Bud stretched out her hand and gestured, dramatically saying, “…From the back to the front. The Patriarch said it might’ve been because a branch stabbed through him.”
All the children were greatly alarmed when they heard this; they all cast glances at Chu Huan as if in fear and trepidation.
Chu Huan: “…”
Nanshan, it’s fine for you to be so handsome, but is it appropriate to spread rumours like this?
“A branch… can stab from here through here? My god, then I don’t dare touch him!”
Flower Bud glared. “And don’t you ever dare! The Patriarch had to walk to the ‘Boundary’ to bring him back here. If you touch and break him, he’d beat you to death!”
“Then… is the reason why he only comes out at night because he’s afraid of the sun?”
“He’d probably melt if he gets too much sun exposure.”
“His hair is also very short. Could it be that if his hair grows too long, his head would become weighed down?”
“Can he still live if his head gets weighed down?”
Chu Huan sat under the stone, upholding his ‘unmovable like a mountain’ dream-guy appearance, while also having to bitterly listen to things like ‘scorched to death by the sun’, ‘head weighed down by hair’, ‘becoming badly bruised by a gust of wind’, as well as ‘sitting on a rock would split him in two’… All kinds of happy endings where he ends up dying with not even a full corpse.
He couldn’t help but feel a little mixed by this.
At this moment, Little Bald-Head, who was thrown away by big sister Flower Bud, finally crawled back with perseverance. With a deep breath, he shouted, “The Patriarch is the best-looking!”
Then, the young and brave brain-dead boy was beaten to tears by his valiant big sister Flower Bud.
For a three or four-year-old bare-assed child to howl and cry in front of him, as an adult… Even if he’d just been hacked to death, Chu Huan couldn’t just watch without doing anything.
He could only rub his ears, stand up, and walk towards Little Bald-Head, who was on the floor crying. When the children saw him coming, they immediately dispersed as if he was an enemy. Although they dispersed, they didn’t dare run too far away; after ten or so steps, they stared with big, ignorant eyes, cherishing the sight of this precious ‘poked through completely by a branch’ object.
Chu Huan didn’t know how to coax children, so he could only bend down and pick up the loudly-crying Little Bald-Head.
All the children raised their heads at his action; even Little Bald-Head forgot to cry. Their expressions were the same: look, pigs are flying.
Chu Huan didn’t expect Little Bald-Head to be so easy to deal with; he hadn’t even coaxed him before he stopped crying on his own. So he searched through his pockets to find the milk toffees he bought at the county seat and stuffed one in the dazed Little Bald-Head's hands before putting him down. “Alright, go play now.”
Little Bald-Head licked the toffee and reluctantly parted a few steps before looking back at Chu Huan again. Just like this, he walked further away, looking back several times with each step.
Then, as if he’d made up his mind, Chu Huan heard him loudly announce his newest perception of the world. “My King is the best-looking!”
Hey, he betrayed the other just with this? Truly a good Pu Zhigao4 child.
Before Chu Huan had the time to smile, he suddenly felt a tremor beneath his feet.
Earthquake?
Translator's Notes
- Refers to weapons that don’t involve fire or explosions
- An idiom that refers to someone overestimating their own abilities
- A Chinese slang; English equivalent could be ‘beat you up’.
- Pu Zhigao is a character from a movie called ‘红岩’ (or ‘Red Rock’). He’s infamous for betraying the Revolution and another character called Sister Jiang. When you call someone (or describe them) as Pu Zhigao, you’re calling them a traitor
