Yi Wansan fell asleep in the car. His sleep was light the entire journey, filled with many dreams. He dreamed of returning to Five Pearl Village, where villagers either no longer recognized him and ignored him, or glared at him with rage as they grabbed knives and sticks, making him flee with his head tucked down.

See, regarding this village, he could never conjure pleasant dreams. What others might call “the homeland that haunts my soul and lingers in my dreams” was, to him, just four words:

That cursed place.

But as the old saying goes, Dreams foretell the opposite.

When the car bumped along the uneven dirt road, arriving at the village entrance as dawn broke on the third day, Yi Wansan suddenly froze.

No familiar cooking smoke, no bustling voices. Chickens weren’t crowing, dogs weren’t barking. It was quiet like the end of the world. Going closer to look, those dilapidated houses—some locked, some with doors wide open—contained only heavy furniture. A rat darted from behind a door and under a bed.

This looked like…

Yi Wansan’s face turned deathly pale as he shouted at Luo Ren: “Where are my villagers? Where are my villagers?”

By the end of his shouting, he crouched down, head in hands, sobbing.

It was worse than his dreams. “That cursed place” had truly, literally become a place of ghosts.

Luo Ren had Yi Wansan get back in the car, and they returned to the nearest village they had passed through to inquire.

—”Five Pearl Village? Gone, disappeared a few years ago. Nothing bad happened; they just moved away.”

—”They made their living by harvesting pearls. When the sea stopped producing pearls, naturally, they had to seek livelihoods elsewhere. They didn’t all leave at once, but gradually over time.”

This village rarely received outsiders. The idle villagers enthusiastically and vividly told them about the seaside Five Pearl Village.

“They say one year things got strange. They were fighting with another coastal village over territory, and a man drowned in the sea. His wife went mad with grief and rowed out to sea at night holding her husband’s urn. Who would have thought the boat would capsize as soon as it reached the center of the sea? Even stranger things followed. That year during Mid-Autumn Festival, when old oysters bask in moonlight, the neighboring village likely sought revenge and burned everything.”

“That year, not a single pearl was harvested in the entire village. The villagers felt unlucky but placed their hopes on the next year. They held a grander-than-usual ceremony to worship the Sea God in March. But who would have thought…”

The villager sighed repeatedly: “That patch of sea became like a hen that wouldn’t lay eggs. Five Pearl Village had harvested pearls for generations and couldn’t do other work. After several years without a livelihood, they couldn’t hold on. At first, only one or two families left, then more and more, until a few years ago it became an empty village.”

He added: “Though they might have found better lives elsewhere. People naturally move to better places. With that sea not producing pearls, it became poor mountains and vicious waters—no point staying.”

Yi Wansan kept listening: “What about the old clan leader? Did he leave, too?”

The villager seemed to suddenly remember: “Oh, oh, right, I forgot to mention. That old man was stubborn. He refused to leave, saying the ancestral hall was there, and the spirits of the ancestors were there. He said he wouldn’t leave no matter what.”

The old clan leader wouldn’t leave. Whenever anyone tried to persuade him, he would close his eyes, and two streams of tears would flow down his wrinkled old face into his gray-white beard.

“Our Five Pearl Village has existed since the Qin Emperor unified Lingnan and established Xiang Prefecture. For generations, for over a thousand years, one patch of sea nourished the whole village. You can’t all leave just because it hasn’t produced pearls for a few years. ‘Pearls depart, pearls return,’ ‘pearls depart, pearls return.’ I’ve told you this before.”

Yes, he had told them. The old clan leader was educated and would tell historical stories in his spare time, citing classics with solid evidence.

The story of “pearls depart, pearls return” came from the “Book of Later Han: Biographies of Conscientious Officials,” telling a legend about Hepu. It said a former governor was greedy and sent people to harvest pearls without restraint, causing all the old oysters to migrate away. Later, Meng Chang became the governor of Hepu. He was honest and benefited the people. Within a year of his arrival, the pearl-bearing oysters returned.

In reality, from a modern perspective, this was just the natural cycle of pearl growth. Meng Chang gave the old oysters time for sustainable development and recovery, not some miracle of a virtuous official moving heaven. But in the old clan leader’s mind, it wasn’t like that. He firmly believed the old oysters would return.

Yi Wansan asked softly: “Then what happened?”

“Then, the villagers became fewer and fewer. One day, the old man went crazy. He took all the ancestral tablets from the ancestral hall, placed them in a pearl-harvesting boat, and rowed out to sea. He said, for the sake of the ancestors, the sea shouldn’t cut off the village’s livelihood.”

Yi Wansan could almost see it: in the misty dawn, the ancestral tablets that usually received incense were lying haphazardly in the boat cabin. The old clan leader rowed out to sea, muttering: “Ancestors above, ancestors above…”

Yi Wansan felt desolate for him, a nameless bitterness rising in his chest: “Then what?”

“After that…” The villager suddenly became mysteriously secretive, looking around as if afraid someone might hear.

He extended his hand, palm up, tracing a straight line in the air, then quickly flipped his hand over, palm down.

“Capsized. The boat reached the center of the water and capsized. Remember, earlier I mentioned a woman who rowed a boat and also died at sea? People say water ghosts were claiming lives. Some even say it was a woman who dragged the old man down by his feet. Creepy…”

He shuddered, frightening himself into a cold sweat.

After chatting with Mu Dai, Zhang Shu worried she might overthink things, but seeing her cheerful and well-behaved these past days, he felt relieved.

But what job would suit Mu Dai? Zhang Shu mentally tried to fit her into every job he knew or had heard of, feeling like all might work, yet always sensing something missing.

When Mu Dai graduated from university, she said, “I’m not interested in sitting in an office working for others. University is about developing quality, basic quality.”

He thought she was joking, but not. When Huo Zihong was around, Zhang Shu had anxiously discussed this topic with her. Huo Zihong was more open-minded than he, saying, “Heaven creates talent for a purpose. Everyone’s path is different. If Mu Dai hasn’t found her way yet, let her play. In life, the carefree days when you can just enjoy yourself without distractions are few.”

Since the boss’s wife had spoken, Zhang Shu said nothing more, just grunted and walked away.

He hadn’t heard Huo Zihong’s next words:

“Maybe someday, even if you want to return to such days, you won’t be able to.”

That afternoon, Zhang Shu was interviewing someone.

It was a real interview. That little rascal Yi Wansan had left abruptly. Zhang Shu couldn’t understand all those red and white liquors. Cao Yanhua shouted enthusiastically, but was like a bumbling bear once behind the bar.

Only now did he realize Yi Wansan was truly a skilled professional.

The bartender sitting before him had been recommended by a familiar bar. With huge dark circles under his eyes, an unsatisfied expression, and a slumping posture, he annoyed Zhang Shu on sight.

He coughed twice: “Which bars have you worked at? How many years have you been a bartender? Introduce yourself, introduce yourself.”

Before he finished speaking, he heard Mu Dai’s cheerful voice: “Senior Brother!”

Zhang Shu was startled, thinking he was interviewing Mu Dai’s senior brother, until she bounced happily to the door, and he realized his mistake.

Zhang Shu curiously looked outside.

Mu Dai’s fellow disciple? He had never met one before.

Another person whose blood surged at hearing “Senior Brother” was Cao Yanhua.

Senior Brother! The legendary Senior Brother who always made junior sisters fall hopelessly in love with his elegance!

His neck stretched like a giraffe, but as he saw who it was, the smile on his face slowly froze. It felt like his smile had turned to ice, ready to shatter if struck with a hammer.

This was… Mu Dai’s Senior Brother?

The man who entered was around forty, middle-aged and plump, already balding, with stooped shoulders, wearing loose, shabby clothes. This image truly disgraced five thousand years of martial arts practitioners in the great land of China.

Mu Dai happily linked arms with the man as they entered, making introductions: “This is Uncle Zhang, this is our bar worker, Cao Yanhua. Senior Brother, you can call him Fat Cao. This is my Senior Brother, surname Zheng, Zheng Mingshan.”

Cao Yanhua hadn’t recovered from his disillusionment about the Senior Brother and was somewhat at a loss. Suddenly glancing at Zheng Mingshan’s leg, he blurted out without thinking: “Senior Brother… your leg… has recovered well, haha…”

Oh no, how could he say that? Mu Dai had mentioned that her Senior Brother had his leg broken by their master for thieving. For a martial artist, this must be a taboo topic…

What a blundering mouth, thought Cao Yanhua, his face alternating between red and white.

Zheng Mingshan listened in confusion, looking down at his leg: Was there a problem?

Fearful of being exposed, Mu Dai pushed Zheng Mingshan to sit down: “Senior Brother, please sit.”

Then she instructed Cao Yanhua: “My Senior Brother likes baijiu. The bar doesn’t have any, so go buy two ounces. Erguotou is fine. If there are snacks to go with it, like peanuts or pig ears, bring some too.”

Baijiu, peanuts, pig ears? In such an elegant, charming, petite bourgeois bar?

This was a bar, not a roadside stall!

Cao Yanhua couldn’t help saying: “How uncultured, Little Master. People here drink coffee and cocktails. His sitting there sipping his little baijiu and munching on peanuts doesn’t fit. Also…”

He secretly pointed at Zheng Mingshan: “Is he a part-time construction foreman? Came straight from the work site?”

Mu Dai glared at him.

“Fat Cao, don’t judge a book by its cover. Let me tell you, my Senior Brother is very formidable. He’s a retired special forces soldier, and later worked as a bodyguard for wealthy people, once single-handedly fought off six bandits.”

Cao Yanhua’s mouth opened and couldn’t quite close again.

“Also, my Senior Brother runs a martial arts school with students everywhere. If each of his disciples spat once, you’d drown, so hurry up and go!”

Cao Yanhua darted off in a flash.

Disciples must serve their elders’ needs, especially the Senior Brother of one’s master.

Mu Dai poured tea for Zheng Mingshan first: “Senior Brother, aren’t you busy at the martial arts school? How do you have time to come?”

Zheng Mingshan had entered the school before Mu Dai but only studied for a few years. He wasn’t very interested in lightness kung fu and, with the master’s permission, switched to other styles, learning southern fists and northern kicks indiscriminately. His training was mixed, and he had his affairs to attend to. In terms of systematic orthodox skills from their school, he was less accomplished than Mu Dai.

So when he opened a martial arts school to teach, it wasn’t considered formal discipleship within their sect. He taught a mishmash of fighting styles and long fists.

He didn’t exaggerate: “What martial arts school? It’s just a training center. I run a few sessions a year and spend the rest of the time on my affairs… I just happened to receive your call, and it’s not too far, so I came by.”

After finishing a cup of tea, he got straight to the point: “Why did you suddenly decide to find work?”

Mu Dai hesitated: “Well… people living in this world need to find ways to support themselves. Senior Brother, do you have any connections?”

Strictly speaking, by the time Mu Dai entered the school, Zheng Mingshan had long been traveling and gaining experience. The two had never truly studied in the sect “simultaneously.” Many of Zheng Mingshan’s stories were told to her by their master. In her heart, this senior brother was brave and knowledgeable, with many friends and connections. So after Zhang Shu’s prompting, he was the first person she thought of.

Even if he had no connections, some advice would be good. She was the junior sister after all.

Zheng Mingshan leaned back: “I do, depending on what kind of connections you want. If you want something stable, that’s not hard. I can ask friends to arrange an office position for you in a company, but…”

He examined Mu Dai for a moment, then laughed: “Given your abilities, it would be a waste. I could also let you be an assistant instructor at the martial arts school, but I’m afraid you’d be chased away by ill-intentioned young men within days.”

Mu Dai felt embarrassed by his teasing.

Cao Yanhua returned with a small wine cup and a few pairs of chopsticks for the fried peanuts. Zheng Mingshan was pleased and patted Cao Yanhua’s shoulder: “Thanks.”

Goodness, such heavy force! Cao Yanhua nearly dropped to his knees from the pat.

Mu Dai pushed the plate of snacks toward Zheng Mingshan: “Senior Brother, I want to be like you, gain more experience, have more life experiences. I always feel that even after learning kung fu, I’m still not a master. A master is someone…”

She rested her chin on her hand, racking her brains to describe the master in her heart: “Someone with presence, who looks cool, very calm, who kills without a trace while maintaining composure…”

Zheng Mingshan understood her meaning.

Their master had told him about this junior sister: “This child Mu Dai always asks me, ‘Master, do I look formidable? Do I frighten people?’ As if learning kung fu is about making people fear you. She likes to wear all black clothes with a skull pendant, but her smile gives her away. She’s just a young girl…”

Mu Dai continued talking: “Senior Brother, I just want to become like that. I don’t want to be a little girl. I don’t want people to pull me behind them for protection whenever something happens. It should be that when difficult situations arise, people think, ‘Mu Dai can handle this…'”

This presumptuous little girl, Zheng Mingshan, smiled.

…

Senior Brother seemed to be lost in thought. Mu Dai waved her hand in front of his eyes: “Senior Brother? Senior Brother?”

Zheng Mingshan came back to himself, about to say something, but first sighed softly.

He remembered something their master had once said:

—Those who have never entered the jianghu always dream of roaming and gaining experience, not knowing that jianghu disciples grow old in the jianghu. In the end, those who can stand steadily against the wind have all had their bones washed and skin peeled by the jianghu.

Indeed, even an ordinary smile carried the traces of countless twists and turns.

Zheng Mingshan said, “If you’re interested, I do have something suitable for you.”