Of Mountains and Rivers 30
Chapter 30 – “We’ll Return Next Year,” He Said.
According to Nanshan’s puzzling translation and explanations, Chu Huan’s understanding of the ‘Shaking Period’ was that it’s a phase of instability.
During these days, the Liyi Clan’s grounds would become a seesaw – one minute it’s raised in this world, the next it’s raised in that world – and in between the swaying chaos, when the seesaw’s balanced, was what they called the ‘Shaking Phase’, distinguished by how those little monsters would suddenly appear before collectively leaving again.
During these days, the Liyi Clan would sometimes become like a flower in the fog1, sometimes it’d become an open field of a thousand miles, sometimes it’d become Jurassic Park, and sometimes it’d become Walden2; either way, it’d vacillate and incite earth-shattering alarm.
As this occurred, the Patriarch’s truncheon and human bones silently burnt around their settlement, no matter day or night, and never extinguishing – it’s said they were the Gatekeepers’ thigh bones.
Chu Huan now felt those people who guarded gold mines or jade mines or whatever were truly weak compared to the Liyi Clan, who guarded human mines.
By now, Chu Huan was pretty much immune to the term ‘Gatekeepers’ – you could expect anything from their body to have odd properties.
Even if someone told him the Gatekeepers didn’t have parents and were born through mitosis, he felt he could accept it.
Of course, the oblivious Chu Huan didn’t know he guessed right.
However, that ordinary-looking Patriarch truncheon continued to perplex Chu Huan despite much thought.
It’d continued burning for several consecutive days, yet the ‘wood’ hadn’t shortened a single inch – could this thing still be considered wood?
Then was the fire actually fire?
To verify this, Chu Huan secretly poked the flame atop the Patriarch’s truncheon whilst everyone else was busy. As a result, he was burnt with multiple bitter blood blisters; only then did he believe the flame’s identity.
Whenever the shaking persistently recurs, the usually-unreachable Elder would be forced to come out for a walk. His attitude towards Chu Huan was like a calligraphic flourish with many twists. At first, he was defensive, thinking Chu Huan was definitely up to no good, followed by him finding Chu Huan unpleasing to the eye, suspecting he spoke some elegant but insincere words to bewitch the Patriarch, even having him stand against the masses’ opinion to let him stay. In the end, having heard he dared to refuse the blood-changing ritual, the Elder was finally infuriated by his undiscriminating behaviour.
Chu Huan nudged Nanshan and whispered, “Can you talk to the old man? Each time he looks at me with those eyes, I feel they’re shining with the words ‘you stupid dumbass’.”
Nanshan diligently learnt, “Dumb… Dumb…”
Chu Huan hastily interrupted. “You don’t have to learn this word. Throw it out of your mind and quickly forget it.”
Hence, Nanshan intuitively understood – as his studies furthered, he was able to understand more and more things intuitively.
Nanshan: “By the way, I’ve always wanted to ask, how would your people usually call their best brothers?”
Chu Huan carefully recollected his memory and combined it with his personal life experiences. He finally gave him a very grounding answer, “Bitch.”
After silently repeating it a few times, Nanshan memorised it and cheerfully called Chu Huan, “Bitch!”
Chu Huan: “…”
He thought he was just a ‘good’ brother, never expecting himself to have unknowingly progressed to becoming his ‘best’ brother. The damage was already done, and he truly didn’t know how to correct his mistake – he could only secretly rejoice that he didn’t answer ‘grandson3’.
What secretly made him vomit in terror followed after – as a qualified Patriarch, Nanshan definitely wouldn’t keep this a secret. Not long after, he shared what he learnt with all the other clans-people.
Since then, the untouchable ‘My King’ who could only be watched from afar was intimately called ‘bitch’.
Every evening from afar, Sister Spring would gently call out, “Bi-tch! It’s dinnertime!”
The young children conducted a private discussion and felt they shouldn’t casually call him ‘brother’; in addition, it wasn’t convenient to call someone the same way as their elders. To express their special respect, they pioneered a new innovation and invented a new term – ‘My Bitch King’.
Each time the crisp, infantile voices echoed ‘My Bitch King’ in unison between the mountains, Chu Huan’s tiger body would tremble.
But it’d be awkward to prevent them from doing so. If someone called him using an honorific, he could modestly and politely refuse it, but right now everyone was just expressing their intimacy, so how could he possibly pretend to be cool and elegant and refuse their friendliness?
This was probably the so-called ‘well-deserved punishment’.
As well as the common saying ‘the Heavens never forgives bitches’.
In the beginning, the white mist of unknown composition and monsters that’d pop up everywhere during the Shaking Period would only appear once every three to four days. Then once every one to two days. In the end, the Liyi Clan seemed to be soaked in the depths of dense fog at every moment.
Spring and the others took out entire poison sacs from the mad dog Mutayis’ throats. They reinforced them by wrapping leather around them and had Chu Huan hang one on his waist; additionally, he was given a small bottle of detoxifying blood.
If they feel something was wrong with him, they could use a knife dipped in poison to cut him before pouring a little bit of the antidote into him.
The men sharpened their weapons and increased patrol times, whilst the women were even busier setting up both small and large crossbows on roofs and trees and having to dispose of various corpses under the Elder’s guidance to manufacture all sorts of strange drugs.
Then butcher livestock, knead dough, and make pastries…
It felt very much like ‘before the troops move, fodder and provisions go first4’.
The once carefree ambience within the clan suddenly changed. The large white stone was no longer used for classes. As long as there was no fog, the clans-people would earnestly spar there using real weapons. Sometimes there’d be blood, but even if someone overdid it no grudges would be held. Sometimes two people would fight until their eyes were red, but after, they’d both drink a bowl of liquor and leave with their arms around each other’s shoulders.
Only then did Chu Huan truly discover the Liyi Clan’s resilience. Let’s take the feeble Horsewhip as an example. Rumours said his speciality lay in arithmetics, not fighting. Although Chu Huan couldn’t find anything special about his arithmetics skills, he did notice how he’d collapse after the first blow. Each time he came up, he’d hop a few times before his partner instantly sliced him out. He’d often bawl and frantically crawl away from the grounds.
But although the other would cry, any wounds with exposed bones would stop bleeding within ten minutes, scab after half a day, then pretty much heal within one or two days.
During this period of time, Chu Huan didn’t really have anything to do.
Since he could’ve left but was trapped within the clan, unable to leave because he brought back the clan’s missing child, Little Bald-Head’s dad personally ran up to him and offered him a fresh, fur-covered wild boar trotter. He patted his chest and promised as long as he was still breathing, he’d never let ‘good Bitch’ lose a single strand of hair.
‘Good Bitch’ was speechless. He reluctantly squeezed out an ugly smile and appreciatively turned down his kindness.
On the second day the Liyi Clan was soaked in dense fog, Chu Huan saw Xiao Fang supporting Dashan into the Patriarch’s yard. Dashan’s thigh had been clawed open by something, revealing two deep, bone-exposing wounds – when medicine was applied, the pain caused his entire body to tremble.
Although the ‘mad dogs’’ special brain paste was a very effective medicine when smeared onto the wound, the process wasn’t very friendly. Several people had to press him down to prevent the young lad from rolling around the ground.
“A Mutayi’s scratch,” Nanshan pressed down his knees, “Where did you go?”
“The mountain pass. One was hiding underwater, so neither of us saw it,” Xiao Fang replied. “Oh, that’s right – Patriarch, we have a message from the Gatekeepers.”
The Gatekeepers’ messages were very retro as they’d always be carved on stone; in addition, their writings were like vague scrawls. He didn’t know through what means they sent their messages, but after entering the Shaking Period, the clan had to assign people every now and then to the mountain pass to search for stones with words carved on them.
Chu Huan saw a circle drawn on the middle of the rock with deep dents around it, appearing to be some sort of code. It should be hand-carved. Either way, the only message Chu Huan could read from it was ‘the Tangyuan filling5 are black sesames’.
On the other hand, Nanshan and the other clans-people’s expressions turned heavy – for the two clans to understand each other so tacitly, one could imagine how deeply bonded they were.
At this time, Chu Huan still hadn’t figured out the symbiotic relationship between the Mountain Keepers and Gatekeepers. However, he considered himself an outsider so, after a glance, he withdrew his gaze and prepared to leave, planning on simultaneously rescuing the small venomous snake that’d accidentally hung itself on a branch.
Unexpectedly, he’d just turned around before Little Bald-Head’s dad caught his shoulder and steadily said, “Good Bitch, you must stay.”
Chu Huan: “…”
Little Bald-Head’s father was called ‘A Stiff Pillar6’. To shorten this, Chu Huan decided to call him ‘Wooden Club7’.
Wooden Club usually didn’t study well. He stuttered for a while but didn’t manage to stutter anything intelligible out, so he could only revert back to his mother language. “You’re not an outsider.”
Chu Huan thought with a bitter smile: But I’m not one of you either.
But since the other asked him to stay, he didn’t refuse – either way, he couldn’t quite understand their lively discussion and the various different terms used in their dialogue.
“Go get the Elder,” Nanshan instructed, holding the stone, “Don’t you see how little time we have left? Have everyone gather here, but leave one person in each household. Watch over the livestock and children.”
The Elder came as soon as he got wind of this, but he didn’t enter the house; instead, he walked around a wooden pole in the Patriarch's yard.
Chu Huan still didn’t know what was happening, but Nanshan’s expression seemed very serious – it’s just, the Elder’s actions couldn’t let him feel serious too.
The Elder muttered to himself as he walked back and forth around the wooden pole like a Saman8. He’d probably finished walking the entire Olympic logo set before he put his hands behind his back and mystifyingly said to Nanshan, “Tonight.”
Tonight?
What’s happening tonight?
At this moment, the Patriarch’s truncheon hung on the wall emitted a low, buzzing hum, its hasty and dangerously steep rhythm like an ambush from all sides, continuously leaking a murderous aura.
More and more clans-people gathered around Nanshan as they discussed simultaneously.
Wooden Club softly explained the secret on the stone to Chu Huan. “The circle represents… The dot represents… The Mountain Keepers mean… Surrounded… The situation is very urgent.”
Chu Huan looked at him with confusion – the text was written in a foreign language, so he couldn’t understand a word.
Wooden Club scratched his head, puzzled, and whispered, “You can understand my son.”
Chu Huan amiably responded in the Liyi Clan’s language, “I can only understand some everyday-”
As soon as he opened his mouth, Wooden Club immediately couldn’t handle it. Because everyone around them was extremely grave, he dared not brazenly laugh out loud, hence he could only shrink himself into a ball.
Chu Huan was powerless; they were truly like father like son. When learning a language, this was the most fearful experience – he’d just opened his mouth before the other laughed as if he’d never heard a joke before. Fortunately, Chu Huan was thick-skinned, otherwise, if it was someone else with thinner skin, they’d be traumatised for life and wouldn’t be able to continue.
Chu Huan pretended to not hear his ridicule, and calmly asked, “Are we surrounded by things similar to Mutayi?”
This time, he understood Wooden Club’s answer. The other replied, “No, Mutayi’s masters.”
Chu Huan was taken aback. This meant that other than the Gatekeepers and Mountain Keepers, there were other people in this world… Or could it be another intelligent clan?
During this Shaking Period, he’d already unconsciously accepted the fact that ‘the other side of the Moutain Door is another world’ – in fact, he accepted it way faster than he thought he would. This meant he still didn’t read enough books and his dialectical materialistic perspective didn’t have a firmly upright reason.
Wooden Club simple-mindedly continued, “The Elder said our Mountain Door will turn to the other side tonight. The Gatekeeper’s message says the Mutayi’s masters have already surrounded the Mountain Door’s foot, and we need to be careful.”
Chu Huan promptly asked, “They’ve surrounded the Mountain Door’s foot? For what?”
Wooden Club eagerly rolled up his sleeves. “To battle, of course!”
Chu Huan: “…”
So the custom here was to be overjoyed by a battle like one would a festival?
But when Chu Huan looked around, he found everyone else’s attitudes to be quite normal. It seemed there was only one Wooden Club in the clan, so he calmed down with peace of mind.
Nanshan sent teams on tasks urgently yet without panic, as if he’d experienced this countless times.
Very soon, the entire Liyi Clan was prepared to meet the challenge.
Chu Huan was astonished to discover this was where ‘entire nations are brought to arms’. Anyone above the ages of fourteen to fifteen carried weapons and wore hard body armour; even children who were ordered to not run around gripped tiny specialised daggers and thin spears.
When everyone had been gathered, Flower Bud brought over a few older children, each holding two jars of liquor and filling the wine bowls in everyone’s hands.
This time, the liquor didn’t have any strange, ghastly-fishy taste, and it wasn’t strong either; instead, it tasted rather plain.
In one hand, Nanshan held a bowl of liquor, in the other, he held his Patriarch truncheon. The flame at its summit was like a huge gemstone, illuminating Nanshan’s features like he was an eternal image of God.
With everyone’s eyes on him, he stood on the platform, seemingly feeling as if all words were unnecessary. Thus, he lifted the bowl of liquor and drained it with one gulp before smiling slightly.
“We’ll return next year,” he said.
The Liyi clans-people cheered loudly. The liquor was like the courage surging through their veins, a vow pledged before a troop, but it was also like a natural and unrestrained farewell.
In the corner, Chu Huan gazed at Nanshan’s slight smile and suddenly looked forward to this incredible world they talked about.
Alas, things always turned out like this. Whenever his crow mouth9 acted up, destiny would never live up to his great trust – it’d definitely send him one calamity after the other.
Whenever he looked forward to something, he’d realise what he expected and reality was as different as could be – Chu Huan would soon discover there was absolutely nothing to look forward to in that world.
When night fell, Chu Huan felt a restlessness from the depths of the earth.
He suddenly raised his head. The mist that’d entrenched itself upon the Liyi Clan’s sky had separated and dispersed, exposing the ink-washed night sky and two round moons that were once vague behind the clouds and fog.
He watched as the once-bright moon dim and the once-dim moon gradually brighten. Moonlight flourished like a waterfall, causing his surroundings to become as wan as a desert. Then, the two moons began moving at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Finally, the two moons merged into one.
And at this moment, the dense fog completely dissipated.
From a distance, Chu Huan heard the bellow of a nameless beast. He withdrew his gaze from the sky and was shocked to discover that the valley the Liyi Clan had inhabited had unknowingly reached the peak of a mountain, and the rivers had gathered together to become a lake surrounded by a cluster of mountains, positioned by this mountain’s side. A giant raptor screeched as it hovered above him before flying off.
At the mountain’s foot was a densely packed cluster of ‘mad dogs’ Mutayi – hundreds of them.
Translator's Notes
- An idiom meaning ‘blurred’ or ‘indiscernible’
- The name of a book written by American author Henry David Thoreau
- 孙子 (‘sun zi’) – this is an insult in Beijing dialect
- The English equivalent is – ‘an army marches on its stomach’. The meaning is an army needs to be well-provisioned to act effectively.
- 汤圆 – glutinous rice balls boiled in water or deep-fried, eaten during the Dongzhi Festival
- 坚硬的柱子 – ‘jian ying de zhu zi’
- 棒槌 – ‘bang chui’
- Possibly derived from the Tungus term ‘Samdambi’, meaning ‘excitement’, ‘unease’, and ‘dance’. A ‘Saman’ is (translated in ‘The Encyclopedia of Chinese Religions’ and ‘Cihai’ dictionary) an ‘excited man who dances madly’ or ‘a mad dancer due to great excitement’
- 乌鸦嘴 (wu ya zui) – refers to someone who says something will happen (usually a bad thing) and it happens
