Nugget gold was an eternal legend among gold prospectors. Seeing this thing meant that nearby there would be a richly-stored gold-bearing belt. Experienced gold prospectors could even infer the reserves of a vein based on the quality of the nugget gold—quite miraculous. Since the formation of natural gold nuggets required many conditions, large natural gold pieces were imbued with all sorts of beautiful wishes. “Nugget gold makes you divine, dog-head gold makes you prosperous”—this was the myth passed down generation to generation among gold prospectors in the northwest.
In the wilderness, the fewer useless things you carried, the better—this was a survival rule. Yun Ye had no intention of abandoning the gold. Heaven had given it—there was no reason to give it up. What was his, he wouldn’t let go of even a toothpick.
He’d heard the story of someone drowning while carrying copper coins. Everyone thought choosing money over life was the stupidest choice, but this statement itself was problematic. In this world, which coin wasn’t earned through blood and tears? As long as there was a glimmer of hope, who would give it up? Sometimes life wasn’t so important in the face of wealth.
Old Qian had sold himself into servitude for ten strings of cash—meaning that when Yun Ye paid the money, he bought Old Qian’s very life along with it. If Yun Ye hadn’t made him a steward but killed him for fun instead, then Old Qian’s life would be worth ten strings of cash. To get his wife medical treatment, between money and his own life, Old Qian would definitely choose the money.
Only those wealthy masters would stand on the riverbank watching someone who chose to carry money get dragged to the river bottom by heavy copper coins and wax philosophical, saying it wasn’t worth dying for money, thereby displaying their wisdom.
Wang Cai was already carrying a heavy load, with several strings of bamboo shoots hanging around his neck. Yun Ye could only untie a blanket, wrap up the gold, and bind it to himself. The road was still long—he couldn’t go without money. As for the authorities, Yun Ye didn’t want to alert them. He’d long wanted to escape this cruel reality, and now was the opportunity. Whether or not he’d encounter danger, he decided not to care. He wanted to give his heart a long vacation. Whether family or country, they were all too far away from him right now.
Living purely for himself, toiling purely for survival—sleeping in the forest if he wanted, willing to eat coarse food and swallow vegetables—this was his life, and he was in charge.
Dou Yanshan’s death had dealt Yun Ye a great blow. Tango’s death left Yun Ye unable to feel happy anymore. Rather than saying this was a kidnapping by Dou Yanshan, it was better to say this was a harsh self-imposed exile. The closer one got to the essence of things, the more painful it was. He envied Dou Yanshan for having ideals, envied Tango for being able to choose death autonomously, envied Qu Zhuo for being able to display his talents fully. He envied, envied everyone else in the world. His grafted life allowed him to know the ending from the very beginning—for Yun Ye, this was already a kind of suffering. Standing in God’s position to correct others’ mistakes was not pleasant.
The gold was very heavy, its sharp corners pressing against his shoulders and back, painfully piercing his heart. He didn’t adjust the gold’s position—this kind of intense pain could keep Yun Ye awake and prevent him from sinking into various fantasies.
Pain came from life, came from the brain, came from thinking too much. From now on, be a pure person—facing the sea with spring blossoms warming. Dou Yanshan had persisted for so long, yet still perished together with a crocodile. Never mind—living happily was most important. Since heaven had given him life, he should enjoy it fully.
Traveling through the light rain, the horizontal blade continuously cutting down vines blocking the way, ignoring the snakes coiled on branches, also ignoring that giant flower devouring a rabbit. This was a suicidal journey Yun Ye had chosen for himself—fearless and unafraid…
His vision suddenly opened up. At his feet was a large banana grove. Many animals were eating bananas, especially a group of elephants flapping their huge ears, sporting long tusks, their long trunks constantly pulling up banana trees and tossing them behind. Immediately some young elephants would trumpet and use their trunks to pick large bunches of bananas from the trees, stuffing all the green and yellow ones into their mouths.
Monkeys were eating, goats were eating, pandas were eating, wild boars were eating, so Yun Ye decided to eat too. This was a harmonious society where all the animals followed behind the elephants to eat.
Wang Cai bit into a green banana, and Yun Ye snatched it away immediately. Eating this stuff would make your mouth so astringent you couldn’t eat anything else. He stuffed a peeled ripe banana into its mouth. Man and horse were eating happily when things went dark before his eyes—a huge bull elephant missing half a tusk stood before Yun Ye, eyes flashing with cold light, its long trunk constantly swaying above Yun Ye’s head. Looking left and right, Yun Ye realized he was too close to the young elephants.
He quickly offered up the large bunch of bright yellow bananas in his hand, only hoping it would let him off. Perhaps the bull elephant thought Yun Ye was as harmless as the goats over there. Its trunk deftly rolled away the bananas from Yun Ye’s hand, acknowledging his existence.
Wang Cai even ran over and rubbed against the bull elephant’s leg twice to curry favor. At this moment, perhaps animals had more common language. A large pile of elephant dung fell to the ground, still warm. Wang Cai stepped in it without hesitation.
Only then did the bull elephant leave, wagging its short tail. Could this be some kind of acknowledgment ritual? How did Wang Cai know this? Horses from the northwest wilderness couldn’t possibly have seen elephants before.
This really was a kind of ceremony. Wang Cai wasn’t the only one stepping in elephant dung—those monkeys even smeared some on themselves, and the wild boar huffed and puffed as it ran over to roll in it before being satisfied.
No way, wouldn’t do it even if killed. Yun Ye strongly refused this practice. I’m human, the most intelligent of all creatures—wouldn’t do such a disgraceful thing even if beaten to death. Fortunately Wang Cai’s scent was quite strong, so having it as cover was good enough.
Yun Ye wanted to find traces of human activity here. Unfortunately, this place was overgrown with weeds—a wild banana grove. He never dreamed bananas actually had seeds inside—black and very hard. If swallowed, they definitely couldn’t be digested.
Elephants were natural road-openers. Their massive bodies made them immune to all dangers. One-inch-thick skin didn’t care about any venomous snake bites. When encountering paths, they opened paths; when encountering trees, they uprooted trees. Incredibly powerful.
Seeing a rhinoceros in Asia made Yun Ye’s brain insufficient. After confirming multiple times, it was indeed a rhinoceros. This thing had survived for ages—its evolutionary direction was thick skin, not brains. Single-minded and fearless, it stood blocking the middle of the road, pawing at the ground, then charged at the lead bull elephant.
The elephant was very agile. Its trunk wrapped around the rhinoceros’s neck, and its long single tusk stabbed into the rhinoceros’s belly, lifting the rhinoceros on its tusk and bouncing it twice. The rhinoceros was left with only panting.
There was no spectacular thirty-round battle—life and death determined in an instant. The poor rhinoceros had its heart pierced through. Kicking its four legs, it screamed in miserable regret. A creature that reacted a beat too slow—nothing more could be said.
While the rhinoceros’s corpse was still soft, Yun Ye expended great effort to dig out the rhinoceros horn—one large, one small, not letting either go. Rhinoceros horn powder in Chang’an market was sold by the pinch—sky-high prices!
After eating their fill, they needed water. Such was the life of elephants. If they couldn’t reach the riverside by nightfall, tonight they’d have to spend the night in the jungle. Hopefully the bundle of banana leaves on Wang Cai’s back could ward off mosquito attacks.
Following the elephant path down the mountain—flat and safe. Where elephants went, tigers and leopards stayed away, snakes and insects vanished. In this great mountain, elephants were the true masters.
Regrettably, there were no other rhinoceroses with missing brain circuits—no more windfall income. Yun Ye had much less anticipation for the river that must surely exist ahead.
The current journey for Yun Ye felt more like a sightseeing tourist than someone fleeing for his life.
The river was like a jade belt, winding and meandering. The elephants entered the river water to bathe joyfully. A mother elephant sucked up water with her trunk and sprayed it on a young elephant. The young elephant’s soft, floppy trunk sucked up water and sprayed it everywhere, accidentally spraying the single-tusked bull elephant. The bull elephant trumpeted once, and the young elephant immediately dove under its mother’s belly and wouldn’t come out again.
Bidding farewell to the elephant herd, Yun Ye led Wang Cai along the water downstream. The river’s flow was mostly eastward, though of course there were also abnormal rivers that flowed north.
The water was very shallow, barely reaching his knees. This reminded Yun Ye of the Dongyang River. Could such a beautiful place have no people? Where had the Ba Kingdom gone? Where had the Yelang Kingdom gone? According to historical records, they should be here.
Turning past a bamboo grove, crossing a small stream, in the most splendid depths of rapeseed flowers, he saw a small village. The village was quiet, with only a few chickens pecking at grass seeds in the grass. The yellow dogs most common to mountain people were nowhere to be seen either.
The wicker gate stood casually open. Clothes drying in the courtyard hadn’t been collected. The clothes were all blue with some radiating light-colored stripes, like blooming chrysanthemums. Was this tie-dye?
Outside the village there was the thump-thump sound of skin drums. Just as the sun set, a plume of flame rose into the air, burning in place of the sun. Who would light a fire at such a height?
Leading Wang Cai, he approached cautiously, only to discover all the people were at the threshing ground. Blue clothes trimmed with beautiful lace, heads wrapped in thick layers of hemp cloth. The elder sitting in the very center had his head wrapped especially thickly—looking at the diameter, a full half meter. Who knew how his head could bear it?
“Honored guest, you have come from far away. Please give the blessings you have brought from afar to everyone here.” The elder saw Yun Ye appear and walked out from the crowd, spreading his hands and smiling as he greeted Yun Ye. He spoke fluent Chinese with even a bit of awkward Chang’an accent.
“Customs differ every three li, dialects differ every ten li”—to encounter someone who understood Chinese in the savage mountains was Yun Ye’s good fortune. Clasping his hands, Yun Ye followed the elder’s manner of speech and said, “I am a lost lamb who inadvertently saw the bonfire you lit. It was warmth and light that brought me here. Respected elder, how I hope to rest my feet here. I hope you will allow me to stay for one night for heaven’s sake.”
“The great mountain belongs to all people. We are merely those who came earlier. To pour you a bowl of hot water and prepare some food is also our honor.”
The old man got more and more enthusiastic as he spoke, probably never having had the opportunity to show off his learning before his tribespeople. Now seeing a Han person, he immediately prepared to chat freely with Yun Ye using elegant poetic speech.
One only needed to look at his utterly confused tribespeople to know they hadn’t understood—they had no idea what Yun Ye and the old man were saying.
Like other barbarian tribes, it was always the smartest person who could become the leader, and the bravest person who became the tribe’s guardian deity. As for those who were both smart and brave, they would generally consider whether they could unify the land beneath their feet.