Dou Yanshan saw the large fish with its mouth opening and closing, and with one slash chopped off the fish’s head. Unable to contain his eagerness, he tore off a strip of fish meat still covered with scales and was about to put it in his mouth when the butler’s groaning interrupted his feeding motion. After a brief hesitation, he instead placed that strip of fish meat into the butler’s mouth.
Seeing that the butler could now slowly eat, his elegant demeanor seemed to return. He drew a small knife from his waist and began slowly cutting the fish, carefully separating the meat, bones, and skin. He used the small knife to feed the butler a bite, then ate a bite himself. The old butler ate the fish in large bites while tears streamed down his face, feeling that his life had been worthwhile. At this moment, even a biological son might not show such devotion.
“Young Master, you should eat more and build up your strength so you can walk out of this savage mountain. This old servant fears he won’t make it and cannot continue to burden the Young Master.”
“Uncle Shan, you watched me grow up. Now, you’re the only family I have left. Those maggots in Chang’an City don’t deserve the Dou surname. This time I was blinded by gold mines. Once I had money, I thought about recruiting soldiers and gathering forces, ignoring the dangers within. Emperor Li thinks day and night about killing me—how could he allow me to gather heroes from all corners without taking action? It was my mistake that ruined a perfectly good opportunity for restoration.”
“You must get better. Even if I have to carry you, I’ll carry you out of this savage mountain. I just checked—your injuries aren’t severe. Rest a bit more and I’ll remove the arrows for you. We were far away, so these two arrows didn’t have much force. They only pierced the skin and flesh.”
“I, Dou Yanshan, now have almost nothing. Only we master and servant depend on each other for survival. Therefore, I will not allow you to die. You must live well—in the future you’ll still need to help me raise sons and grandsons. Heaven always works against me, but we cannot be weak, nor can we retreat. After clearing thorns and brambles, we’ll eventually have our good days.”
The butler nodded with tears and a smile. The Young Master simply had bad luck, not a lack of wisdom. Heaven just hadn’t given him opportunities. The butler had absolute confidence in his master.
Dou Yanshan fed all the plumpest parts of the fish to the butler while he himself struggled to chew the fish bones. A two-pound fish truly wasn’t enough for two starving grown men.
After the two rested for a while, Dou Yanshan stuffed a section of bamboo stick into the butler’s mouth and tore two large pieces of relatively clean cloth from his own undergarments. He smiled and said to the butler, “Uncle Shan, bear with it. I’m about to pull out the arrows. Our fire starters are all wet and won’t light, otherwise cauterizing the wounds with fire would be much better.”
The butler endured the pain and nodded at Dou Yanshan, indicating he was ready.
Dou Yanshan gripped the arrow shaft and with his right hand pulled forcefully outward. The arrow came out, bringing with it a spray of fresh blood. Dou Yanshan quickly pressed the cloth strip tightly against the wound, shouting loudly for the butler to hold on. After a long while, the thin bamboo stick fell from the butler’s mouth. His face deathly pale, he trembled and said to Dou Yanshan, “Young Master, do it again. Pull out the remaining arrow all at once. If we wait too long, this old servant will suffer more.”
Dou Yanshan nodded. Seeing the blood flow wasn’t so urgent anymore, he released his hand and grabbed the other arrow, pulling it out before the butler could react, then bound it tightly with the cloth strip. Only then did he breathe a long sigh of relief. The exhausted master and servant leaned against each other and fell into a deep sleep in the muddy water.
Yun Ye had been waiting for this opportunity. Seeing the two men motionless, he prepared to risk swimming across to kill them. In this environment, if you didn’t strike first, you would certainly be the one to die. Dou Yanshan was skilled in both literature and martial arts—definitely not someone a half-baked person like himself could compare to.
With knife and spear prepared, silk thread tied around his waist—if anything unexpected happened, he could pull himself back by the thread—he had just entered the water and swam a couple of strokes when he hurriedly swam back, scrambling onto the beach as if shot in the rear. He even slapped Wang Cai’s wandering head, forcing it down. It wasn’t that Yun Ye didn’t want to kill Dou Yanshan, but something like a piece of driftwood was floating down from upstream.
Yun Ye was all too familiar with it—the crocodile had looked just like that when it left. Now, for some reason, the current had slowed, and Yun Ye had almost failed to notice that killer.
Hiding behind the camphor tree, he secretly watched where the crocodile was going. If it came to his side, Yun Ye decided he would take Wang Cai and jump down the waterfall. Being crushed to death was slightly better than feeding a crocodile—at least it would be paying with his life for the crocodile’s children.
The crocodile seemed very worried about its eggs and climbed onto the opposite beach without hesitation, twisting its tail and digging in the sand. The eggs were gone again. The crocodile opened its mouth in a silent roar, searching everywhere for the culprit. Suddenly it turned its head toward the platform—there was a heavy scent of blood there, its favorite. It quickly crawled to the bottom of the platform, supporting itself with its tail to peer over the platform’s edge to see what was there. It found the culprit—the crocodile saw the eggshells Yun Ye had placed in the platform’s crevice.
Hissing, it was about to leap onto the platform when Dou Yanshan, hearing the commotion, opened his eyes to see a large mouth full of sharp teeth biting toward him.
He truly was someone who had grown up through harsh trials. With no suitable objects at hand, he grabbed the semi-conscious butler and shoved him into that gaping maw.
The crocodile didn’t care—as long as there was something in its mouth, it would bite down hard. Its body also fell from the platform’s edge, and Yun Ye could hear an extremely miserable scream from the opposite bank.
“Young Master, save me!” The butler was clamped in the crocodile’s mouth, his limbs flailing helplessly. The sound of cracking bones was clearly audible. Now, only his mouth could still move.
Seeing the giant beast rolling on the ground, preparing to bite the butler in half for easier swallowing, Dou Yanshan’s legs trembled and he was about to turn and flee, but unfortunately, there was only a sheer cliff behind him.
No way out. Dou Yanshan roared and jumped off the platform. At this moment, let alone a beast, even if it were a dragon, Dou Yanshan would pounce without hesitation.
The butler’s body had been bitten in half, and the beast was swallowing one of his legs. Seeing Dou Yanshan leap down, the butler was still anxiously shouting for the Young Master to run quickly. He didn’t know it was the Young Master who had fed him to the giant beast’s mouth.
Dou Yanshan stepped over the butler’s incomplete half-body. Taking advantage of the giant beast tilting its neck back to swallow, he stabbed his blade into the soft flesh beneath the beast’s throat. The sharp horizontal blade continued to cut downward along the direction of force. The giant beast, severely wounded, had a human leg stuck in its mouth that it couldn’t spit out for the moment. Its body crashed heavily onto the beach. Having lost his blade, Dou Yanshan turned to run, but felt as if his lower back had been struck by a siege hammer. His body flew up and crashed heavily onto the platform. In an instant, Dou Yanshan could no longer feel his legs, and bloody foam was already surging up in his mouth.
When the butler breathed his last breath, his eyes still held deep concern. Even unto death, he had never regretted his loyalty for a moment—only intense, unresolvable regret remained.
Dou Yanshan lay half-reclined on the platform, staring blankly at the giant beast thrashing ceaselessly on the beach. This beast wouldn’t survive—its heart pierced by the horizontal blade, it didn’t have much time left. He struggled to hold on, unwilling to close his eyes before this beast died.
His greatest hope in life had been to slay a dragon. Who would have thought that a mere giant beast that had yet to encounter wind and clouds would cause all his ambitions to come to nothing?
The giant beast stopped moving. A trace of a smile appeared at the corner of Dou Yanshan’s mouth as he prepared to close his eyes and properly enjoy his final moments of life. Living had been too exhausting—now was the time to rest well.
In the instant he closed his eyes, he saw Yun Ye climbing naked from the water. Seeing an old acquaintance, Dou Yanshan felt inexplicably delighted. At least someone would tell everyone the story of how he slew the beast.
“Marquis Yun, though we haven’t met in days, your bearing remains as always. This is truly cause for celebration.” Dou Yanshan knew his appearance was terrible, so he tried to make his voice sound as composed as possible.
At first glance, Yun Ye knew Dou Yanshan was beyond saving. His spine was broken, the pale white bone fragments exposed. That he could still speak calmly while alive was already a miracle.
Yun Ye bowed respectfully: “Brother Dou has come a thousand miles. This younger brother has nothing of value and receives guests poorly. I beg Brother Dou’s forgiveness.”
“Having a dragon beast is already an unexpected delight. How dare I presume to ask for more?”
“This younger brother has a dragon beast egg here. I wonder if Brother Dou has the desire to taste it?”
“That is exactly right. I battled the dragon beast and both were gravely wounded. The dragon beast died first, and I, having greatly devoured the dragon egg, died from cultivation deviation. When Marquis Yun teaches disciples in the future, this must be told.”
“To gloss over the truth for the brave—this can be done. In the future, stories of Brother Dou’s great battle with the dragon beast will certainly run rampant in the markets of Chang’an, poisoning wandering heroes, making the Emperor stare in astonishment, and amazing all the officials.”
Dou Yanshan laughed silently and loudly, brought his mouth to the dragon beast egg Yun Ye had cracked open, and sucked with all his strength. The eggshell lightened. Dou Yanshan licked his lips and murmured, “A supreme delicacy.”
“Brother Dou, even now, do you still not repent?”
“Why should I repent? Yun Ye, if a great man cannot feast from five cauldrons in life, then let him be cooked in five cauldrons! I indulged my heart’s desires, freely pursued my vendettas, and within three steps would fight to the death. Now defeated, it’s merely death. Before dying, I even have an enemy to see me off—what regret could there be?” He spoke these words plainly and matter-of-factly, as if it should be so. Dou Yanshan truly didn’t even care about his own life. He had harmed countless people, and those who died by his hand were certainly not few. Yet he felt completely at peace with himself. Yun Ye wanted to be a good person according to his own wishes, yet found it difficult at every step and couldn’t sleep at night. What kind of reasoning was this?
“Marquis Yun, I am about to embark on a long journey. I wonder if you have poetry or prose to send me off?”
“Look at that pine tree on the cliff. I’ll use it as my subject and compose a song for you.”
“Excellent! Just be quick about it. I’m afraid I won’t be able to hear it all—that would be too regrettable.”
“Biting firm to green mountains, never letting go, roots planted deep in broken rocks. After a thousand grindings and ten thousand strikes still resilient, letting you buffet from east, south, west, and north winds. Just these four lines. You’ve persisted your entire life, and presumably even in the underworld you won’t rest. I can only wish you to continue persisting and hope you’ll have that moment when you command a hundred thousand banners to strike down the King of Hell.”
Dou Yanshan looked up to heaven and laughed heartily, laughing with extreme satisfaction. He laughed until fresh blood surged out from beneath him, and laughed until blood threads seeped from his features. Hoarsely, he spoke one phrase—”Exhilarating!”—and then became silent and still.