As the sky was darkening, Li Diudiu sat at the edge of the woods in a daze. Gao Xining hadn’t come today to practice martial arts, and he felt a faint hollowness—though calling it “faint” was simply him trying to console himself. He was quite thoroughly unsettled, and there was nothing faint about it.
He had an urge to go find her at her home, but Li Diudiu knew that wouldn’t be right. Dean Gao had always maintained a certain coolness toward him and was reluctant to let him have too much contact with Gao Xining. Li Diudiu figured that if he went, it would be Gao Xining who caught the scolding.
Xiahou Zuo came sauntering back from a distance and, upon seeing Li Diudiu sitting there in a daze, couldn’t help laughing.
“Twelve now, are you,” Xiahou Zuo said. “A bit early to be pining at this age.”
Li Diudiu rolled his eyes at him. “I’m pining for you.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “That’s perverted. Having feelings for girls is a bit young at your age—and you’ve already moved on to pining for men.”
Li Diudiu: “…”
Xiahou Zuo sat down beside him and gave him a nudge with his shoulder. “Good news or bad news—which do you want first?”
Li Diudiu said, “Does it involve me?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “No.”
Li Diudiu said, “Then either one.”
Xiahou Zuo chuckled. “I just picked up some information from the Military Governor’s side. General Liu Ge told me that the Military Governor is worried the rebels might cause trouble before His Majesty’s birthday celebration, so he’s sending Liu Ge out of the city with troops to patrol the area.”
Li Diudiu froze, then turned to look at Xiahou Zuo. “So the troops aren’t going out because bandits overran Tang County and slaughtered countless people—they’re going out because the Military Governor is worried the rebels will disrupt the birthday celebrations?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “There you go—that’s a child’s way of thinking. When you’re older you’ll understand: no matter what the reason is, no matter what the process was, if the final outcome is what you’d hoped to see anyway—what more is there to ask for?”
Li Diudiu shook his head. He didn’t think Xiahou Zuo was right, yet no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t quite find where the flaw in the reasoning was.
“Only a child cares whether the reasons are just or unjust.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “You’re grieving for the people who suffered, and that’s your concern. Mine is simply whether the troops went out or not. Now that they have—isn’t that good enough?”
Li Diudiu let out a long breath. “But somehow I can’t get past the feeling that things shouldn’t be this way.”
He asked, “And the bad news?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Forget it—I’m not saying.”
Li Diudiu thought for a moment, then said, “The bad news is that it’s all just for show—Liu Ge rides out, makes a circuit, and comes back. And there’s a fair chance they’ll kill some of the refugees outside and claim them as bandits they hunted down, presenting those bloodied heads as evidence of their military merit.”
Xiahou Zuo shrugged his shoulders and didn’t answer.
After a long silence, Xiahou Zuo said, “This is precisely why I’ve always wanted to head to the frontier. The only soldiers who are still pure are out there on the frontier… Diudiu, even though you’ve only just entered the academy, and Jizhou being the major city it is should stay out of danger for a while—you still need to start thinking ahead.”
He raised his head and looked up at the sky. The wind had swept the clouds away.
“In storytellers’ tales, whenever there’s an era of upheaval they always use four characters: the wind and clouds converge. But the truth is that the clouds are never a match for the wind. When the wind comes, the clouds scatter. ‘Wind and clouds converging’ is nothing but the clouds being chased along by the wind.”
He pointed at the sky. “Look at those great masses of white clouds. People see only them—they find them beautiful, they feel as though the clouds have claimed the sky. But the wind, unseen, is the true power. The clouds are just riders.”
“Right now, there are rebel groups scattered outside Jizhou—piecemeal, in small bands. They look frightening because they’re willing to kill. They’re like those clouds—right there, visible. But when a real wind sweeps through, those clouds will be blown to nothing.”
He clapped Li Diudiu on the shoulder. “If the day comes when you’re grown and you leave Jizhou, don’t be captivated by how beautiful the clouds are. Chase the wind instead.”
Li Diudiu was quiet for a long time, then smiled. “That speech used up almost all the talent you possess, didn’t it?”
Xiahou Zuo laughed. “Get lost…”
Li Diudiu asked, “What is the wind?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “By rights, the Dachu garrison troops should be the wind. Imperial authority is the wind. National strength is the wind. These rebel bands are just floating clouds—if the wind were steady and upright, the clouds would amount to nothing… But the wind isn’t steady or upright anymore.”
He feigned a lightness of heart, but there was nothing light in the furrow of his brow.
“Dachu can’t hold on much longer. Ten years at most?”
Xiahou Zuo sighed. “Maybe seven or eight years—maybe five. Maybe even less. I’ve heard that the rebel forces outside the city aren’t as scattered as they used to be—they’re gradually becoming more organized. Five or six hundred li to the northwest of Jizhou City there’s a place called Xinzhou. The Xinzhou prefect Yu Xiaodong tried to provide disaster relief for the people and was falsely denounced and had his family’s property seized by the Arrest Bureau. His eldest son Yu Chaozong rallied people in resistance, killed over a hundred government men, and then swept away into the wilderness.”
He looked at Li Diudiu. “This Yu Chaozong now has three or four thousand people under his command. They haven’t gone around harassing ordinary folk—instead they’ve driven deep into the Yan Mountains. Word is Yu Chaozong calls his force the Yan Mountain Brigade, and they drill every day. The Xinzhou authorities sent troops to suppress them, only to be beaten by Yu Chaozong again in the mountains—and ended up gifting him armor and weapons for over ten thousand men.”
Li Diudiu said, “The Xinzhou prefect was not a minor official, yet before the Arrest Bureau’s people he still had not the slightest power to protect himself. For money and profit, they dared to arbitrarily ruin a rank-four official…”
He sighed. “This realm has gotten to a point where even a child of ten-something like me is worrying about it.”
“Which is precisely why you can’t afford to have no thoughts about it at all.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “If you stay in Jizhou, you’ll be fine. But once you leave, you’ll see clearly what state this realm is truly in. The trouble is, Liu Chongxin has such a stranglehold on everything—the Emperor still believes Dachu to be a flourishing golden age. Every report from the localities about rebel armies gets thrown away by Liu Chongxin like rubbish. The Emperor has no idea—and probably doesn’t want to know.”
He looked at Li Diudiu. “If you ever leave Jizhou in the future, make sure you see things clearly. Best to head north to the frontier and find me there.”
Li Diudiu made a sound of acknowledgment, then said, “Actually you don’t need to worry about me that much. Just before we left for Tang County, I’d only just learned that my teacher had nearly been killed by someone. And as it turned out, it was your father who happened to save him. I thought at the time I’d have to do something about that score—but then I went and reckoned things up, and most of the people behind the attack on my teacher have already been arrested and thrown into prison.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Their time in prison isn’t exactly difficult.”
Li Diudiu nodded. “They’re only making a show of it for your father to see.”
Xiahou Zuo made a sound of agreement. “When you get down to it, if my father didn’t have such a close relationship with the Military Governor, Lian Gongming would be even more two-faced about it—appearing to comply while privately not treating a royal prince’s words as worth anything.”
He fell silent for a moment, then said, “You go back to classes the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow come out with me—I want to introduce you to a few people.”
Li Diudiu asked, “Girls?”
Xiahou Zuo: “Do you think that’s the kind of person I am?”
Li Diudiu said, “You’re still proud of that?”
Xiahou Zuo: “Why do I feel like your personality has changed… Do you really have so many thoughts about girls now?”
Li Diudiu said, “I’m perfectly fine—it’s you I’m worried about. You don’t have the slightest interest in girls at your age? That’s dangerous. Look at Master Yan, look at my teacher. With so many cautionary examples right in front of you and you still haven’t reflected?”
Xiahou Zuo: “Get lost…”
He asked Li Diudiu, “What book have you been reading lately? Every time I come back from going out, I see you reading something. What is it?”
Li Diudiu glanced left and right, saw no one nearby, and lowered his voice. “An extremely exciting book. Sometimes two people, sometimes multiple—entangled without end, burning with passion, thrust and parry, back and forth…”
Xiahou Zuo’s eyes went wide. “You’re actually reading that kind of book!”
Li Diudiu sighed. “Boxing manuals. Blade manuals…”
Xiahou Zuo: “Ugh…”
Then he raised his hand and knocked Li Diudiu on the skull. Li Diudiu hunched his neck and said, “Your mind is full of filth.”
“Do you want to read military texts?”
Xiahou Zuo asked in a very low voice. “If you do, I’ll see if there’s any way to get my hands on some.”
Li Diudiu’s eyes went wide. “Where… would you get them?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “My father must have some. But those kinds of books aren’t easy to take out of the residence. Let me try—if I truly can’t get them out, I’ll find a way to hand-copy a couple of volumes for you.”
Li Diudiu said, “Is there a condition?”
Xiahou Zuo shook his head. “Do you think I’d ask you for money? You really look down on people. Even if I were completely broke I still couldn’t be poorer than you—the main thing is that school starts soon, and all my little financiers will be back in position.”
Li Diudiu laughed out loud, then said, “Don’t bother copying them by hand—if your father found out something like that, it wouldn’t be good either. Better to just steal them outright.”
Xiahou Zuo: “Of all the friends I could have made in this life, I had to make you. Three lifetimes of bad luck.”
Li Diudiu guessed that today would probably pass again without Gao Xining coming, so he stood up. “Let’s go—time to eat. Just thinking about how the small kitchen over here has been offering fewer and fewer dishes lately makes me feel the world is unkind.”
Xiahou Zuo suddenly had a thought: in this realm, anyone at all might rebel, and the vast majority of those who rebelled did so because they had nothing to eat. If someone like Li Diudiu were to rebel, it would most likely be because even the academy cafeteria’s menu had started to shrink.
How to put it more clearly? It was that where others rebelled because they couldn’t eat at all, Li Diudiu’s issue was simply… the eating.
The two of them walked toward Yan Qingzhi’s small courtyard. Yan Qingzhi happened to be sauntering out just then, on his way to the cafeteria. When he saw Li Diudiu and Xiahou Zuo, he stopped in his tracks. Xiahou Zuo said, “How unself-aware—you haven’t gone to pick up the food yet?”
Yan Qingzhi sighed and said, “Draw your sword, then.”
Xiahou Zuo promptly lifted Li Diudiu off the ground. “My trump card is already in hand.”
Yan Qingzhi stepped back two paces, considered, then said, “Your trump card is too good—I cannot overcome it. What you hold is a peerless trump card of this age, and fighting you like this means you’re using a trump card to bully people.”
Li Diudiu, suspended in Xiahou Zuo’s grasp, said helplessly, “Leaving a person a shred of dignity creates merit equal to building a seven-story pagoda.”
Just then they saw Dean Gao coming from a distance with a not-very-pleasant expression on his face, as though he’d recently left his own courtyard. The three of them immediately bowed in greeting. Dean Gao made a sound of acknowledgment, looked at Li Diudiu as though wanting to say something yet holding back, and in the end simply sighed and turned and walked away.
From Dean Gao’s manner, Xiahou Zuo immediately knew it had to do with Gao Xining. He patted Li Diudiu on the shoulder and said, “Your days ahead are not going to be easy.”
Yan Qingzhi nodded. “Seconded.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Does the Dean think you’ve set your sights on his granddaughter? Is he getting senile? What a thing to imagine.”
Li Diudiu said, “Exactly—what a thing to imagine. Me, set my sights on his granddaughter?”
Yan Qingzhi: “Young and naive… truly a blessing…”
—