“The roads of Shu are difficult, more difficult than ascending to the blue sky”—this was the lament Li Bai issued. Standing on the narrow plank road, Yun Ye looked up at the sheer cliff face. Jagged rocks like dog’s teeth seemed about to slide down from overhead. Below his feet was a bottomless river valley—he didn’t know what the river was called, only that the Dou family servants all called it the Dead Man’s River, meaning this river had swallowed many people. It was said that the local natives also threw their dead into the river water, hoping this river connected to Heaven could carry their ancestors to a beautiful paradise.
Yun Ye had attempted to escape twice, but unfortunately was caught both times by servants skilled in tracking arts. The bruising at the corner of his mouth still hadn’t faded.
There had also been one attempt at bribery. A reward of one hundred taels of gold had tempted two servants who came from wandering swordsman backgrounds. Regrettably, Dou Yanshan had been prepared long ago—the heads of the two greedy servants still hung on the wheelbarrow at the very back.
Yun Ye’s gold had given Dou Yanshan tremendous help. Dozens of wheelbarrows were loaded with grain, traveling on the swaying plank road, making hearts pound with fear.
Wang Cai held grudges and hadn’t forgotten the Dou family servant who had robbed him. Yun Ye watched helplessly as Wang Cai’s massive rear end squeezed against that servant’s body. The servant, who had been carefully controlling his wheelbarrow, immediately lost his balance. Grain was important—the servant who had experienced hunger knew how terrible it was. Wanting to control his grain cart that was about to tip over, he habitually stepped one pace to the left. He had forgotten that outside was a cliff…
The servant’s wretched scream dragged out a long echo in the mountain valley. Everyone watched the figure that became smaller and smaller until it fell into the water, only then coming back to their senses.
Dou Yanshan looked suspiciously at Yun Ye, whose hands were bound. Yun Ye raised his hands to show he had no way to push that fellow down. The servant leading Yun Ye also swore he hadn’t seen Yun Ye make any other movements, saying only that the unlucky fool had stepped into empty space and fallen on his own. As for Wang Cai, blinking his large eyes with an innocent look, no one paid him any attention.
Dou Yanshan prayed for a moment for his family’s loyal servant, then urged them to set out again. The grain wasn’t lost—what was lost was a person. This was already the best fortune within misfortune.
After reorganizing the队伍, Dou Yanshan personally held Yun Ye’s binding rope and walked at the very front. As family head, Dou Yanshan was qualified from every perspective.
Early spring in Shu was cold, damp, and gloomy. Heavy fog often filled the mountain valleys, and clothing was perpetually damp. Wang Cai was very unaccustomed to this cold, gloomy environment, frequently nudging Yun Ye with his head, wanting to go back. He clearly preferred Chang’an’s dry weather.
A thumb ring worth one hundred strings of cash could only be exchanged for a stinking, tattered blanket. Dou Yanshan greatly enjoyed watching Yun Ye fall into difficult circumstances and didn’t obstruct this, but he also didn’t allow servants to randomly take Yun Ye’s things. In fact, there wasn’t much left anyway—apart from a ball of silk thread, nothing remained.
Yun Ye’s small knife hung at Dou Yanshan’s waist. He praised the Western Region craftsman’s workmanship profusely. To take without asking—how could this be a gentleman’s conduct? A two-inch-long iron piece was exchanged with Yun Ye for the jewel-encrusted small knife.
When traveling outside, without a small knife one would starve to death, so Dou Yanshan left Yun Ye his final dignity, so he wouldn’t have to tear at his food with hands and mouth.
Emerging from the plank road, they arrived at the Land of Heaven. Yun Ye thoroughly understood why the Chengdu Plain was called the Land of Heaven—not because of its prosperity, but because coming out from the treacherous, rugged mountain roads and seeing the vast expanse of plains, anyone would be moved to tears, thinking they had reached Heaven itself.
Trying to escape with a small knife before dozens of well-trained burly men—perhaps someone could pull it off, but among this group there definitely wouldn’t be Yun Ye. Even having reached Shu, there wasn’t the slightest opportunity. Perhaps Wang Cai’s method was the good method.
Being good at learning was one of Yun Ye’s strengths. Since coming to the Great Tang, he had learned from Cheng Chumo, from Old Cheng, from Niu Jinda, and later from Li Gang, Zhangsun, and Li Er—learning from all these people. He couldn’t discard the dross and keep the essence, so he became this strange mutation he was now. Li Chengqian always said Yun Ye’s methods seemed very familiar to him, yet he couldn’t explain why. Unless he personally experienced everything Yun Ye had experienced, there was no possibility of understanding.
Now preparing to learn from Wang Cai, in his view there was nothing wrong with this either.
The group lived like rats, lying low during the day and emerging at night. When Yun Ye found some dried mushrooms in the forest and soaked them in water preparing to make a pot of delicious mushroom soup, as for the few brightly colored, delicious-tasting mushrooms hidden among them, Yun Ye simply pretended not to see them.
No one gave Yun Ye a pot, so he had to make do with local materials. Shu was covered in bamboo everywhere. Some bamboo could be used to make bamboo tube rice, while others couldn’t. Borrowing a machete, he chopped down a bamboo stalk, cut off a section, used his knife to drill a small hole, then poured rice inside, added water, sealed that opening, and buried the bamboo tube in the charcoal fire. Before long, fragrant bamboo tube rice was ready.
The Dou family servants couldn’t stand watching Yun Ye share one portion of food with a horse. They chopped down an even thicker bamboo stalk themselves and did the same, also eating fragrant bamboo tube rice. Everyone was happy—except there were minor aftereffects the next day. Their entire bodies broke out in large red patches that itched unbearably. Unable to resist scratching, yellow droplets would seep out.
“Yun Ye, what’s going on? Did you poison them?” Dou Yanshan had his own pot and didn’t like using bamboo tubes to cook, so he had escaped disaster.
“Young Master, the wrong bamboo was used. He didn’t poison anyone.” The old steward was from Shu and had this basic knowledge.
“He also ate bamboo tube rice—why is he fine?”
The old steward smiled bitterly: “He got lucky. There’s cinnabar in this bamboo grove. Look at the bamboo’s grain patterns—they’re faintly tinged with red. Cinnabar poisoning looks just like this. It’s all this old slave’s negligence—I didn’t notice the abnormalities in this bamboo grove. Yun Ye’s medical skills are superb—he couldn’t possibly not know the principle behind this, so he selected that clump of bamboo without the red color. These people were calculated against by him.”
Dou Yanshan came before Yun Ye with a gloomy expression and said: “You saw them cooking with poisonous bamboo—why didn’t you warn them?”
“Brother Dou, your younger brother is a prisoner. If possible, your younger brother would wish nothing more than for them all to be poisoned to death. If you were in your younger brother’s situation, would you warn them?”
“Yun Ye, you are now my cornucopia of treasures. Thinking up some methods to make money is your way to stay alive. Otherwise, your days will be unbearably bitter. Seeing that you have food to feed your horse, starting tomorrow, your grain rations are cut in half.”
Actually it was quite good. Everyone had to shoulder their own grain. After Yun Ye successfully made several people sick, the burden on his body was also reduced by half. Carrying a grain sack and walking mountain roads was a painful torment. Wang Cai’s body bore two large sacks of grain—that was Dou Yanshan’s allocation. Clearly there was a flat main road down the mountain, yet following Dou Yanshan they could only walk small paths.
After walking small paths for most of the night, both man and horse were exhausted. Especially Wang Cai, who had never been used as livestock before. Now, every day carrying heavy loads and walking mountain roads—though he had lain on the ground throwing tantrums, though he had deliberately rubbed grain sacks against trees until they fell off, what greeted him was only Dou Yanshan’s whip.
Seeing Yun Ye’s eyes turn red as he was about to rush forward and fight desperately, Dou Yanshan whipped with even more enthusiasm. Wang Cai’s large eyes were full of tears. Even when Dan Ying forced him to lose weight, he hadn’t laid a finger on him. Now with each lash, his entire body shuddered, like a child who had been wronged.
At daybreak, Yun Ye searched among new grass sprouts for medicine for Wang Cai’s wounds. Unfortunately, there were only dandelions. Helplessly, Yun Ye pulled up dandelions by the roots, mashed them into paste, and applied it to Wang Cai’s body. It had no effect—just psychological comfort.
Wang Cai’s big belly deflated at a visible rate. Every day Yun Ye could hear his stomach rumbling—he was perpetually in a state of hunger. Hunger forced him to retrieve a horse’s instincts, beginning to search for tender green grass himself.
Grain became lighter the more you carried it. A group loaded with grain purchased from Shu went to the main road. This was already the border between Shu and Nanzhao. The Dou family’s years of management still had results—the old steward led them out of the final checkpoint under the pretext of doing business.
Dou Yanshan discovered his队伍 had begun dying mysteriously. One person, while relieving himself, stepped in a hunter’s small trap that broke his leg, and was pierced into a porcupine by sharp stakes that swung toward him. Two more people suddenly went mad after finishing their meal, and over some minor quarrel began brawling. At first everyone watched the spectacle—days of outdoor living had built up a bellyful of dissatisfaction in everyone.
When one of them stabbed a knife into his companion’s belly, the crowd realized something was wrong. Wanting to restrain the crazed companion, they were instead chased everywhere by him waving his knife.
Left with no choice, Dou Yanshan shot down the crazed companion with an arrow. Seeing him spitting bloody foam from his mouth while still emitting beast-like roars, everyone’s hearts were filled with the sorrow of fellow creatures’ demise.
Dou Yanshan searched Yun Ye from head to toe—no poison. Apart from a ball of silk thread, there were no other items on his entire body. It couldn’t possibly be Yun Ye’s mischief.
He accepted the search with peace of mind, scooping mushrooms from his bowl while watching the excitement. Seeing Yun Ye’s comfortable appearance, Dou Yanshan’s teeth nearly ground to pieces.
The weather gradually grew hotter, and the creatures in the forest also became more diverse. Yun Ye even saw several monkeys with painted red lips rapidly climbing among the mountains. Could it be he had already reached Nanzhao?
A massive waterfall completely let Yun Ye know exactly where he was. The enormous roaring sound made hearts palpitate. Only Yun Ye knew that this waterfall, which ranked among the world’s greatest, must now be even more spectacular.
Seeing is believing, hearing is false. Huangguoshu Waterfall was far less magnificent than in later generations. The water flow was torrential, falling from the broken cliff with extremely grand momentum.
Unfortunately it only dropped about ten meters before hitting the ground—in later generations it would drop a full seventy meters.
“How about it, Marquis Yun? You should be the first distinguished noble from the Great Tang to reach here. Never imagined that in this wild, barbarous land there would be such extraordinary scenery, did you?”