Li Chi, Dantai Yajing, Yu Jiuling, and Zhang Yuxu — the four of them simply rode away from the main column in broad daylight.

“Sneaking away” was the original idea, but they had absolutely none of the discipline that sneaking away requires.

Dantai Yajing’s position was: you are already Prince Ning — how can you travel without even your personal guard battalion? Given your current status, you should at least consider other people’s feelings. Not bringing your personal guard battalion is wrong. If you’re wrong, I’m going to say so. If I say so and you don’t listen, then at least take me along.

One actual reason Dantai Yajing had stopped pressing the issue was that he knew the Court Guard Army would be following in the shadows. Li Chi said he wasn’t bringing the Court Guard Army — but Li Chi the Prince had no real idea exactly where the Court Guard Army would be at any given moment.

The Court Guard Army had a special status — special enough that not even Li Chi could unduly interfere with their operations. Every soldier who entered the Court Guard Army was told on their very first day: they were bound to obey the orders of the Chief Court Commander above all else. If Prince Ning’s orders and the Chief Court Commander’s orders ever conflicted, they were to follow the Chief Court Commander’s orders. This was because the identity of this first generation Chief Court Commander was special in a way that set her apart from everyone else.

The four of them, each riding a pair of horses, packed their rations and water, exited the main camp, and set off at a hard gallop northwest.

Seeing that pace, Dantai Yajing thought — this didn’t look much like sightseeing.

“The timing is perfect,” Li Chi said as he spurred his horse forward. “Out in Dongguo County in the northwest, there’s a lake called the Little Immortal Lake. The golden-thread fish that live there and nowhere else are at their fattest and finest right now.”

Dantai Yajing stared at him. “You abandoned the entire main column in a rush… just to go eat that fish?”

Li Chi said: “I’ve been hearing about it for a long time. The golden-thread fish of the Little Immortal Lake — one of the finest delicacies in the world.”

Dantai Yajing sighed: “I must say frankly — you are showing increasingly clear signs of reckless indulgence…”

Li Chi laughed out loud: “You’ll know what I mean once we get there.”

Their present location was roughly one hundred ten to one hundred twenty *li* from Dongguo County — at the pace of the four of them, no very great length of time.

Dongguo County itself had a somewhat unusual history.

In former times, Jizhou had been the territory of the Youshan Kingdom. The successive emperors of Youshan had all been devoted enthusiasts of all manner of performance arts — acrobatics, conjuring, every kind of curiosity, strange and peculiar or otherwise — and conventional stage arts as well. And it wasn’t just one generation of Youshan emperors: it held true for every single one of them. Each generation of Youshan emperors participated personally and with full commitment in the matter of their kingdom’s destruction.

So in the era of Youshan’s rule, the number of performers arriving from all corners of the land was beyond counting.

The mysterious Kingdom of Carefree that Li Chi had once chanced upon in the northern wastes was deeply connected with the Youshan Kingdom.

Dongguo County had much the same character as Carefree: when Youshan’s capital was destroyed, the many minority peoples who had settled there permanently dared not remain in the capital and relocated to various parts of Jizhou. In Dongguo County, a great many of these peoples came originally from as far away as Shuzhou in the southwest and even Yuezhou.

They had settled in Dongguo County because it offered mountains and lakes, scenic beauty, and everything they needed.

Dantai Yajing, as soon as the subject of Little Immortal Lake near Dongguo County came up, suddenly recalled something else. Back in Liangzhou, he had heard of a custom practiced by the people of Dongguo County.

Once a year, on a designated day in the middle of the third month, the young men and women of the county’s various peoples would gather to stroll along the Little Immortal Lake together. If any among them took a liking to another, they could become husband and wife that very day. In fact — on the spot, then and there.

So he looked at Li Chi: “You… are you really going to fish in that lake?”

Li Chi said: “What else?”

Dantai Yajing said: “I suspect your motives.”

Li Chi said: “Don’t go suspecting things like that. With things like that, suspicion is always confirmed.”

Dantai Yajing: “…”

Li Chi laughed: “You actually believed me — that custom of theirs, that special day, strictly forbids any outsiders from approaching. Anyone who gets close is subject to severe punishment.”

Yu Jiuling asked, very carefully, in a slightly furtive manner: “What sort of punishment?”

Dantai Yajing said: “Castration. Nine generations of castration.”

Yu Jiuling started with shock.

Though it was just a thought — the mere thought of it was cold. And a coldness on behalf of nine entire generations, all concentrated into one body… deeply, profoundly cold.

They rode at full speed and reached Dongguo County — long past that particular date.

The designated day in mid-third month, when the young men and women of the various peoples chose their partners, had already come and gone. After that day, life went on as usual.

Before entering the county town, you would first come to the Little Immortal Lake.

On one side of the lake rose Great Lad Mountain — whether that had been its original name was unknown, but the current name was connected to the legends of those various peoples who had settled here. Over the generations, so many peoples had intermixed that clear boundaries between them had long since dissolved, and they had become something like one great extended people — still preserving a few customs and stories from each group, but the distinctions were no longer so sharp.

According to tradition, when these peoples had first arrived, the Little Immortal Lake harbored a great serpentine beast that preyed on lives. Great Lad Mountain was home to tigers and leopards, equally deadly. A husband and wife had each taken it upon themselves to rid the people of these dangers. The wife, an expert swimmer, fought the serpent in the lake and slew it at the cost of her own life. The husband, skilled at climbing, battled his way through the mountain and was killed there too, but wiped out every tiger, leopard, and wolf in the range. So the lake came to be called the Little Immortal Lake, and the mountain came to be called Great Lad Mountain.

Li Chi’s party had no interest in the county town itself — they had come to eat fish at the lake. To reach the lakeside, you had to go around the mountain.

On the road leading to their destination, roughly ten *li* ahead, inside a mountain forest, a band of mountain bandits was crouching in the trees, waiting patiently for business.

About twenty or thirty of them, all looking rather listless — not as though they had great expectations for what might come along the road.

Some were squatting nearby, watching a pair of ants fight. Others were sprawled in the branches, peering through a somewhat battered spyglass toward the Little Immortal Lake.

Their leader was a heavyset man. Not enormously fat — roughly able to contain two Li Chis’ worth of girth. When a man gets that heavy, it generally makes the face look unrefined, but this particular fat man was fat in a manner that was rather appealing — had he been able to thin down, he would certainly have been a handsome fellow.

“Chief Cheng.”

One of the bandits looked toward their leader, who was busy picking at his toes.

“We come here every day waiting for business — is it really necessary?”

The one addressed as Chief Cheng glared at him: “What do you know? We are mountain bandits. Mountain bandits rob travelers. What kind of mountain bandits don’t rob travelers?”

Another subordinate said wearily: “We rob travelers, sure, but it’s been so hard. Chief, you said we wouldn’t rob ordinary common people, wouldn’t rob traveling merchants, wouldn’t rob widows with children, wouldn’t rob families traveling together… You said at first we’d just pick two types of people to leave alone, but somehow it turned into nobody gets robbed.”

He sighed: “We’ve been mountain bandits for a year and seven months now. We come here every day like we’re clocking in to a job — on time, right to the minute. But in a year and seven months, we haven’t robbed anyone at all.”

Chief Cheng said with great seriousness: “Fighting and killing are bad.”

The subordinate said: “But Chief, we *are* mountain bandits. Didn’t you say yourself — mountain bandits have to rob travelers?”

Chief Cheng answered with equal seriousness: “That’s right, we’re mountain bandits, of course we rob travelers — but *who* we rob… that’s a matter of fate.”

The man said: “Chief, just admit it — we’re wasting our days out here.”

Chief Cheng grew agitated: “That’s not it! I am a man who has vowed to become the greatest mountain bandit in all of Jizhou!”

His subordinate said: “Then what do we rob? No fighting, no killing — even just scaring people would be something.”

Chief Cheng thought it over.

He muttered to himself: “Just scaring people… that’s not entirely out of the question… just don’t actually frighten anyone too badly.”

Another man said: “Forget it — last time we said we were just going to scare someone, and we ended up frightening a child into tears. Then we gave the family three packets of sweets as compensation, escorted them all the way to the county town, and treated everyone to a meal at the tavern…”

He reflected gloomily: “The people of Dongguo County all know what they call us. Are you really going to pretend you don’t know?”

Chief Cheng’s face reddened.

The people of Dongguo County were well aware that this band of bandits was out here “robbing” travelers — but what of it? They treated it like something between a joke and a game.

And the people of the county had taken to calling this bandit band the Hospitality Army. They called Chief Cheng the Most Hospitable Chief.

If any family in Dongguo County had some task and was short of hands, they’d run down to the foot of Great Lad Mountain and holler a few words up toward the peak — and get an immediate response.

“Chief, we’re marrying off a daughter-in-law — short of helpers!”

“Chief, time to catch the pig — come give us a hand!”

“Chief, guests arrived and they can drink — come keep them company!”

Chief Cheng leapt to his feet, looking utterly resolute.

“The Hospitality Army! That name is our disgrace… If today we encounter a fat fish, we *will* show our true might, and let the people of Dongguo County see whether we truly deserve to be called hospitable!”

All his subordinates applauded.

Then went right back to doing what they’d been doing.

Chief Cheng said: “Don’t forget — my ancestors were one of the great generals of the Youshan Kingdom!”

His subordinates said: “We know, we know — it was thanks to the Chief’s ancestor that our own ancestors managed to get out of the Youshan Kingdom.”

When the Youshan capital had been besieged, the Youshan emperor had ordered Chief Cheng’s ancestor to lead the armies in a death stand. But that ancestor had understood perfectly well: the emperor was simply going to flee and use him and the various peoples’ fighters as a human shield and arrow fodder. He had accepted the order outwardly, then used the pretext of deploying defenses to sneak all the peoples out under cover of darkness.

Chief Cheng turned to look at a young man who was watching the ants: “Little Six — you’re the scout. Get down the mountain and take a look!”

Little Six raised his head: “These ants haven’t finished yet!”

Chief Cheng came over, undid his trousers, and flooded the ants away with a stream.

He said to Little Six: “Flood formation — seven armies submerged. It’s over.”

Little Six sighed and started down the mountain: “Every time it’s me who goes scouting, every time, same as always…”

Chief Cheng said: “And every time someone passes through and asks you for directions, they give you a little something, don’t they? Or at least a thank-you — isn’t that a fine thing? Why so reluctant?”

Little Six said: “Because of that, they’ve given me a title in the Hospitality Army — they call me the Head Star!”

Chief Cheng said: “Nonsense, don’t listen to them — I’m the Head Star.”

He then looked up at the fellow draped across a tree branch: “Little Nine! Stop staring through that damn thing — the day’s already passed, there’s nothing to see!”

Little Nine called back: “What if, though…”

Every year on that designated day in mid-third month, the young men and women of the various peoples would gather to stroll the Little Immortal Lake together. Swimming in a lake — naturally you couldn’t be wearing much. Many young men and women who caught each other’s eye would become husband and wife on that same day.

Little Nine’s spyglass had been kept busy on that day. The spyglass had been found by the band and was the most prized possession in all the Hospitality Army — treated with the utmost care.

“Get up to the summit and look!”

Chief Cheng wrapped his arms around a tree trunk and shook it with full force.

That great tree, which would have taken two men to encircle with their arms, shuddered and shook from root to crown.

Little Nine was shaken loose from his branch, landed hard on his backside — but held the spyglass high above his head as he fell. His backside could take it. The prized possession could not.

“Chief Cheng!”

Just at that moment, Little Six came running back up from below — face alight with excitement.

“Fat fish! There’s fat fish down the mountain!”

Little Six ran and shouted: “They look like bad news just by looking at them!”

Chief Cheng was immediately fired up: “Look like bad news?! Now that’s a rare thing — everyone snap to it! We’re going to rob!”

—