About seven or eight li from where Dantai Yajing’s group had taken shelter from the wind, there was in fact a village — not a large one. But the howling snowstorm had obscured everything; seven or eight li away might as well have been invisible in that wall of white. Even things seven or eight feet ahead were barely visible.
The young man and woman ran quickly back to the village — light and agile as a pair of pale foxes. The young woman looked about seventeen or eighteen, not especially tall, somewhat slender even, but with a pair of remarkably long legs. She burst into the house with a shout: “Papa, there’s a big pile of fat mutton outside!”
Several people were sitting in the house chatting. The young woman’s father appeared to be about thirty-seven or thirty-eight, a man named Nie Hongfu, with one son and one daughter — the daughter being older, named Nie Datian, the son a year younger, named Nie Xiaodi.
The names had been chosen casually. When it came time to name the children, Nie Hongfu had been idly turning two dominoes over in his hands. He looked down — “Heaven Collapses, Earth Sinks.” The two tiles were the highest and lowest possible values, so he simply named them Nie Datian and Nie Xiaodi.
Because of those wretched names, once his daughter came of age, she had given him no small amount of grief over it. But the whole village had already been using the names for years — even if they were changed, no one would switch. Anyone who saw her would still call out “Datian.”
“Always such a handful,” Nie Hongfu said. “What fat mutton? Where did mutton come from?”
Nie Datian said: “Papa, didn’t you say that when we spot lone bandits we should come tell you? I heard you talking — lone bandits are ‘fat mutton,’ ones you can’t let get away because they’re wicked people who harm others.”
Nie Hongfu gave his guest an embarrassed look. “My daughter is a little… unrefined…”
Nie Datian said: “Papa, go call for the uncles! We can go round up the mutton!”
Nie Hongfu said: “Didn’t you say there was a big pile of them? How can a pile of mutton be lone? Is it a pile or is it lone?”
At that moment, a voice from outside the door answered: “About two hundred or so lone pieces of fat mutton, more or less.”
Nie Hongfu said: “What nonsense — who’s out there?”
Dantai Yajing lifted the door curtain and stepped inside. Every person in the room immediately rose, their bodies tensing — the stranger was unfamiliar, and no one knew who he was.
Nie Datian pointed at Dantai Yajing: “Fat mutton…”
Dantai Yajing let out a quiet sigh. “Yes. I’m the lead ram of the fat mutton.”
He waved a hand toward the door, and outside, the Tingwei Army soldiers quietly sheathed their blades.
If Dantai Yajing hadn’t just overheard Nie Datian’s words, he would have taken these people for bandits — for thieves who waylaid travelers and plundered their goods. And so in that previous moment, the people inside this house had been a hair’s breadth away from a volley of bolts.
Nie Hongfu quickly pulled his daughter behind him and cupped his fists in greeting. “This young warrior, if my daughter gave any offense, I apologize on her behalf. We are honest farming people — we mean no one harm.”
Dantai Yajing said: “You look honest enough. Your daughter, on the other hand…”
Nie Datian poked her head out from behind her father. “What’s wrong with me?! You’re the ones who look suspicious — a bunch of strangers barged in here armed to the teeth.”
Her father took a glance outside. A whole formation of heavily armed fighters — every one of them formidable-looking, bristling with short blades, long weapons, crossbows, arrows, and armor that ordinary people could never get their hands on.
And his daughter had called that fat mutton.
These were enormous tigers — a whole pack of them.
About half an hour later, the two sides had come to a reasonable understanding of each other, and the atmosphere had eased considerably.
Nie Hongfu was the head man of the village. There was no formal village chief here — he was the person the villagers had collectively chosen to manage their affairs. The people of the village had not been living here for long; they had all fled from different places, and here along the river, with no shortage of water and a fairly sheltered and hidden location, they had settled down together. They had only been here for not quite three years.
When they heard that the man before them was a Ning Army general from Jizhou, the villagers were struck with genuine awe and respect.
“The White Mountain Army — yes, we know of them.”
Nie Hongfu sighed and said: “When I brought these two and fled, it was because of the White Mountain Army. They broke through our county town and killed a lot of people. My wife died of illness halfway through the flight. I ran with these two until I met the people here, and that’s when I stopped running.”
He looked at Dantai Yajing. “Though later we heard the White Mountain Army wasn’t what it used to be — because the leader changed.”
Dantai Yajing asked: “Do you know how to get to the place I need to go? I can pay for your help.”
He looked at Nie Hongfu. “Just get us there, and name your price.”
Nie Datian raised a hand and pointed outside. “If I guide you there, give me your fat horse!”
Dantai Yajing blinked. His warhorse was among the finest horses of the Naran grasslands — tall and powerful, magnificently built. A horse worth more than almost anything, and in this girl’s mouth it was a “fat horse.”
In her mouth everything seemed to be fat — fat horses, fat mutton…
Her brother, Nie Xiaodi, standing nearby, laughed and said: “Sis, you’ve found your big fat cow.”
And then Dantai Yajing watched as Nie Datian reached out with one hand, grabbed her brother by the waistband, and single-handedly hoisted him off the ground.
The girl didn’t look particularly tall, and she looked anything but stocky — if anything her most notable feature was a pair of very long, very straight legs. And yet she had just lifted a grown person with one hand, with no apparent effort.
Nie Xiaodi was only sixteen or seventeen, but he was solidly built — he had to weigh well over a hundred jin. The girl had lifted that with one hand as if it were nothing.
Nie Xiaodi begged frantically: “Sis — sis — dear sis — you’re a beautiful cow, not a fat cow! You’re beautiful!”
Nie Hongfu coughed. “Enough of that. No horsing around in front of guests.”
Nie Datian dropped her brother onto the floor. “Say that again and I’ll stick you upside down in a snowdrift.”
Nie Xiaodi looked at his father with genuine curiosity. “Papa, is that true?”
Nie Hongfu: “…”
Dantai Yajing’s throat worked up and down. The last time he had seen that kind of terrifying strength in a young woman, it had been Miss Ruoling.
That sledgehammer that had caved in the golden-armored warrior…
Dantai Yajing thought for a moment and nodded. “If you can truly guide us to where we need to go, I’ll not only give you the horse — I’ll give you some silver as payment on top of it.”
Nie Datian pursed her lips. “Around here, silver is useless to us.”
Dantai Yajing thought about it and conceded the point. In a place like this, there was nowhere to spend silver — everything you ate and used, you produced yourself.
So Dantai Yajing thought it over carefully and said: “Then how about this: if you help us with this, when I return to Jizhou — if you’re willing — I can bring all of you back with me.”
Nie Xiaodi: “Sis, the big fat mutton is taken with you. He’s trying to steal you away.”
Nie Datian: “Have you ever heard the sound a bone makes when it snaps?”
Nie Xiaodi turned and ran.
Nie Datian made a sharp snapping motion, grabbed a table leg and wrenched it off, then hurled it forward — it struck her brother on the back of the head, and he went sprawling face-first into the snow.
He lay there, raised a hand, and rubbed the back of his head.
Nie Datian: “Say anything else stupid and I’ll snap you next.”
Dantai Yajing instinctively raised his own hand and scratched the back of his head — as if he had felt it himself.
Somehow, Nie Xiaodi appeared completely unharmed. He sat up, looked at his sister, and called out: “In the future, just snap your own man like that too!”
Nie Datian took several large strides toward the door. “Even your father couldn’t save you now.”
Nie Hongfu: “Cough, cough…”
Nie Datian’s face went red. She abruptly realized what that had sounded like, drew back her arms and legs all at once, and crept back to stand behind her father.
“Papa what I meant was not that you’re the papa in what I just said — no, what I meant was Papa you’re not his papa — not that, what I’m trying to say is his papa isn’t necessarily you — Papa, I was wrong.”
She lowered her head.
Nie Hongfu said with an awkward smile: “Laughing at us, General.”
Dantai Yajing coughed a few times himself, reached instinctively for the cup in front of him, thinking to cover the awkwardness with a sip of something — and then scalded his mouth, which only made it more awkward.
Nie Datian watched him and turned up her nose. “You’re really a general, looking like that? Soft and delicate like a — like a young lady…”
Nie Hongfu: “Will you please be quiet!”
Nie Datian: “Hmm.”
After some discussion, Nie Hongfu decided to help them — not for silver, not for the warhorse, but for something worth more than either: a future.
If they could truly get to Jizhou, life would be good. By now, most people in Yanzhou had heard that the people of Jizhou were living in comfort and security. Word had gotten around that Prince Ning was distributing grain and allocating farmland to the people, and the annual grain levy was not overly heavy — the households of Jizhou had grain to spare and money to spare.
That kind of life was something people of Nie Hongfu’s generation had never seen. It was only said that in the old days, when Dachu was prosperous, things had been something like that.
Helping Dantai Yajing and then being able to go to Jizhou afterward — with Dantai Yajing promising to get them settled there — it was a windfall that felt almost too good to be true.
“You two stay in the village and help out. No wandering off. No trouble.”
Nie Hongfu was packing supplies for the road — as much as could be taken — and lecturing the two of them as he worked.
“Your papa never had the means to send you to school. You don’t know many characters. That’s because things at home weren’t good enough… But I’ve always tried to teach you how to be decent people. A person can live without learning, but a person cannot live without character. Your papa may not be educated, but my character…”
He hadn’t even finished before Nie Xiaodi smiled and said: “We know, Papa. Who in the village doesn’t say we’re good kids?”
Nie Hongfu: “Good kids? When Old Gao was using the outhouse and you two dropped a stone in, did he say you were good kids?”
Nie Datian: “We only… only dropped one.”
Nie Hongfu: “You carried it between you! Two hundred-some jin, a great stone bar dropped in there — what splashed up nearly buried your Uncle Gao…”
Nie Datian stuck her tongue out. “Uncle won’t be upset.”
Nie Hongfu: “Your uncle isn’t upset. What about your aunt — she asked him what happened, your uncle said he accidentally fell in the cesspit, your aunt went to look and the pit was half empty, she asked if he’d eaten it, told him she’d never seen anyone eat that much in one sitting…”
Afterward, their father had made them sweep Old Gao’s yard for half a year, then go into the mountains hunting and make a fine fur coat as recompense. Old Gao had told Nie Hongfu: my wife wouldn’t let me near her for a solid month, said she could smell the stench even close by. Nie Hongfu had said, truly sorry to put you through that. And Old Gao had said, well, you wouldn’t understand, at my age — the happiest month I’ve had in years. My back didn’t ache, my legs didn’t tire, I ate every meal with an appetite, strength like I hadn’t felt in years, made it up the hill in one go — I couldn’t have been happier.
“Papa, bring us with you.”
Nie Datian said: “Do you really trust leaving the two of us home alone? We’re not worried for ourselves — we’re worried for the village folk.”
Nie Hongfu thought about it. His head ached.
He gave a reluctant nod. “Fine, you can come — but no trouble, and you do as I say.”
Nie Datian happily raised her hand and rapped her knuckles on her brother’s head. “Our papa is the best!”
Nie Xiaodi: “The reason I’m not smarter is because you keep hitting me.”
Nie Datian: “Nonsense. You should be thanking me for that. If I hadn’t knocked your skull open a few times, think how much slower you’d still be.”
Nie Xiaodi looked at his father with complete sincerity. “Papa, is that true?”
Nie Hongfu: “Alas…”