Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 2

After a night of rain, Longshou Mountain had not cleared up, and a thin veil of white mist lingered between the mountains. Along the riverside, up the mountain path, a young man approached from a distance.

The young man had a prominent nose and full cheeks, with a tall and slender figure. He wore simple, coarse clothing, his black hair casually tied back.

He carried a basket on his back and held a sword in his left hand. He was smiling and talking, though it wasn’t clear what he was saying or to whom he was speaking.

Passing by a cluster of morning glories, the young man casually picked one and raised the flower to his shoulder. From behind his shoulder, a chubby little hand slowly reached out and took the morning glory.

—So there was a child in his basket.

The young man and child were chatting and laughing when suddenly they heard the loud crying of a small child nearby. The young man stopped, looked around, and quickly discovered the source of the crying.

On the river’s surface, between two reefs, a child was actually wedged there!

The young man hurriedly put down his things, went into the water, and rescued the child. The water flow was gentle here, so it wasn’t too difficult.

The child’s hands and feet were tied with hemp rope. Who could be so cruel!

He didn’t know that the child had also had grass stuffed in her mouth, which had been washed away by the river water.

This child was Hongniang.

The young man drew his sword and cut the hemp ropes binding Hongniang’s hands and feet. Seeing that the little child was soaking wet, he pressed two fingers together and touched her clothes and hair, muttering some words.

Hongniang felt a wave of warmth pass through her body, and her clothes and hair quickly became dry.

She touched her clothes, looking at the young man’s fingers in amazement.

The young man casually dried his own clothes as well.

He wanted to put Hongniang in his basket, but there was already a child in it, along with various goods, so there wasn’t enough space.

He therefore shouldered the basket, held the sword in his left hand, and carried Hongniang in his right arm. After walking a few steps, the mountain wind brought damp mist to their faces, and the young man suddenly stopped and asked Hongniang.

“Are you cold?” Without waiting for her to answer, he took off his outer garment and wrapped it around Hongniang, continuing onward bare-chested, carrying one child and with the other on his back.

Hongniang rested on the young man’s shoulder, making eye contact with the child in the basket. That child was even younger than she was, with fair and clean features, wearing neat and new clothes. Looking at the child, Hongniang felt somewhat self-conscious about her own appearance.

The small child curiously examined Hongniang, and after looking for a while, suddenly giggled at her. Then, lowering their head, the child pulled out a rattle drum from the basket and shook it while smiling at her, looking rather silly.

After shaking it for quite some time and seeing no reaction from Hongniang, the little one grabbed a bamboo whistle hanging from their chest and played the whistle with one hand while shaking the drum with the other—pip pip pip, dong dong dong—making quite a commotion.

Pfft—Hongniang finally broke into a smile.

****

The young man, still damp, eventually brought Hongniang to an ancient temple on the mountain.

The ancient temple was surrounded by huge trees, quiet and serene. The green walls had collapsed in many places, but the inside was kept very clean, indicating that the owner was a poor but diligent person.

Entering the room, the young man placed both children on the ground and began taking items out of his basket one by one. When he reached an oilpaper package, he opened it and took out three pieces of malt candy, one for each of them.

The malt candy emitted an enticing caramelized fragrance that immediately made Hongniang’s mouth water. She believed that no living person could resist such a fragrance, and if the dead smelled it, they might even come back to life.

As the small child accepted the candy, they said in a clear voice. “Thank you, Master.”

Hongniang followed suit. “Thank you, Master.”

Hearing this, the young man said cheerfully, “Fu Xue, quickly call her Senior Sister.”

“Senior~ Sister~” in a drawn-out tone.

That milk-soft voice calling her Senior Sister made Hongniang’s heart feel heavy. She pursed her lips, nodded solemnly, and responded, “Junior…?” Junior Brother or Junior Sister?

“Junior Sister,” the young man smiled, “A name like Fu Xue clearly sounds like a Junior Sister. By the way, I am known as Master Le Chenzi, remember that.”

Hongniang nodded firmly, “Yes!”

Le Chenzi didn’t ask Hongniang her name, but instead said, “Let me give you a name.”

“Okay.”

“Hmm, I should first calculate your destiny before naming you. Do you know your birth date and time?”

Hongniang shook her head.

“That’s alright too. I am very skilled at this!”

Le Chenzi brought out a yellowish-brown, somewhat tattered large wooden box and began searching through it. Hongniang and Fu Xue watched curiously from the side.

He finally took out a tortoise shell.

He prayed with the tortoise shell, then drilled holes in it before placing it over a fire to heat. Before long, several cracks appeared on the tortoise shell with “pop pop pop” sounds. Just as Le Chenzi was about to speak, the tortoise shell suddenly shattered into several pieces.

“Huh?” Seemingly surprised by the failure, he looked astonished, then stubbornly took out another tortoise shell from the wooden box.

This time, he heated it for a long while, but the tortoise shell showed no change. Fu Xue watched, yawning repeatedly.

Finally, finally, it made a “pop” sound, and then without warning, crumbled into powder.

Le Chenzi stared at the pile of powder, then even more stubbornly took out a third tortoise shell from the wooden box.

“This is the last one, it will definitely work this time.” This time he was extremely careful. He had just drilled the holes and placed it over the fire when “BOOM!” The tortoise shell exploded!

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, pulling both children behind him.

“Cough,” he was now extremely embarrassed, “It seems your Master is a bit… well… not quite proficient.”

To make matters worse, Fu Xue had no sense of discretion and peeked out from behind him to look at the fire pit, asking, “Master, what is Senior Sister’s destiny like?”

Le Chenzi sighed, “It’s extremely hard!”

Fu Xue happily clapped her hands, “Then let’s call her Yingying!” (TL: Hardhard)

He laughed helplessly. “Get out of here! Even a dog would reject such a name.”

Hongniang secretly sighed in relief.

Le Chenzi crouched down to face Hongniang, gently stroking her head, and said softly, “Leaving behind the past, as light as clouds and gentle as breeze, I shall name you Yun Qing. Would you like that?” (TL: Cloud Light)

Hongniang nodded vigorously. “Yes! Thank you, Master!” This sounded so much better than Yingying.

****

Because the roof had leaked during last night’s rain, many things were soaked. Le Chenzi spread out his belongings to carefully inspect them, using a magic gesture to dry those that were wet and finding ways to repair those that were damaged.

Yun Qing occasionally helped by handing him things. Fu Xue curiously rummaged through the belongings, asking, “Master, what is this?”

Le Chenzi, who was bending down to repair a bamboo chest, glanced at what she was holding and answered, “That’s a Thousand-Mile Sound-Transmitting Conch.”

“Oh,” Fu Xue played with the two conch shells for a while, then dropped them and picked up something else. “What’s this?”

“That’s an Eight-Cloud Destiny-Writing Brush.”

“Oh, then what’s this?”

“That’s a Six-Path Sealing Bell.”

“Oh.” Fu Xue shook the bell, making clear, pleasant ding-dong sounds.

Le Chenzi: “Don’t mess around with that, you might accidentally summon a tiger.”

Fu Xue put down the bell and picked up an old silk scroll. She opened it to look and asked, “And what’s this?”

“That’s the Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book.”

“Is it a book? But there are no words in it?”

“That’s why it’s called the Wordless Book.” Le Chenzi shook his head with a smile, then looked up to see Yun Qing standing nearby, seeming like she wanted to say something but hesitating.

“What is it, Yun Qing?” Le Chenzi asked.

“Well,” Yun Qing pointed at the old scroll, “there are clearly words on it.”

CLANG—the bamboo chest fell from his hands.

“What did you say?!”

Yun Qing was startled, “I-I-I…”

Le Chenzi rubbed his face, “I’m sorry, Master lost his composure just now, did I frighten you?”

Yun Qing shook her head, “I’m fine, Master.”

“You said there are words on the silk book? Is it this one—” Le Chenzi took the Wordless Book from Fu Xue’s hands and unrolled some of it in front of Yun Qing.

Yun Qing could see it even more clearly now. The Wordless Book had two layers—the outer layer was a scroll, with dark fabric embroidered with patterns she couldn’t understand, probably the “clothing” of the book.

Inside the scroll was a rectangular piece of yellowish-white fabric. The scroll wasn’t fully unrolled, so only part of the fabric was visible, but on it appeared dense, pale golden characters that shimmered with a faint glow.

They were so obvious, how could anyone not see them?

“Master, can you really not see them?”

Le Chenzi shook his head, “Of course I can’t see them.”

Yun Qing pointed at the white fabric and stated firmly. “There are many characters here.”

“What do they say?”

“Uh—”

“Nevermind, don’t tell me. Revealing heaven’s secrets carries no small punishment.”

Yun Qing hadn’t planned to say anyway. Mainly because she couldn’t read!

Le Chenzi put away the silk book, growing more confused as he thought about it. “This isn’t right…”

He pulled Yun Qing closer, felt her wrist, then pressed various points on her head, his expression gradually becoming serious. “She’s clearly just flesh and blood, this shouldn’t be possible… Huh?!” Suddenly his expression turned strange.

Seeing his odd expression, Yun Qing became uneasy, tears welling up in her eyes. “Master, wuu.”

“What’s wrong? My good disciple, don’t cry. If something is troubling you, tell me, and Master will make it right.” Le Chenzi became anxious and raised his sleeve to wipe her tears.

“Master, I really am a monster, wuu wuu.”

“Oh,” his shoulders relaxed, “that’s no big deal, I’m a monster too.”

Fu Xue came closer and asked, “What about me? Am I a monster too?”

“No, you’re not.”

Master and Senior Sister are both monsters, and only I’m not! Fu Xue suddenly felt sad and wronged, and began wailing loudly, “Wuu—waaah—”

Yun Qing had just stopped crying, but seeing her Junior Sister cry so freely, the atmosphere became contagious. She wiped her face and started crying again, getting louder and louder.

Amid the resounding cries, Le Chenzi held his forehead and sighed.

“What sins did I commit in my past life? Did I dig up graves? Probably more than one… Please stop crying, we’re all monsters, all of us are monsters!”

……..

On this day, Yun Qing cried without restraint, and some of the heavy burden in her heart dissipated. At night, she slept in the same room as Junior Sister Fu Xue, her dreams filled with the fragrance of malt candy.

Outside the window, a slender figure lingered, softly sighing. “What exactly are you…”