“…When our seclusion ended and we got back to Liangshan, that stretch of time, I needed to set the kids on the right path in life, encourage them to love life and keep fit, so I told them some stories from the martial world… but I’m low-key about that sort of thing, couldn’t very well say the hero was me, so generally I made up a few fearsome names…”

Warm lamplight spread along the wall as several figures walked atop the city ramparts, listening in the mild night breeze to the ins and outs of some matter.

“Right, if you’re out there making a name for yourself, the name’s got to sound imposing. Something like Dongfang Undefeated — that sounds impressive… Dongfang Undefeated’s younger brother, Xifang Defeated, is a side character, doesn’t matter… and then there’s Lone Wolf Only-I, meaning ‘I alone am supreme,’ that name’s not bad either, I like it… and then among the three greatest masters under heaven, there’s one called… Dragon Proud-Sky…”

Ning Yi, in a handsome coat, walked while pointing at the newsprint in his wife’s hands. Su Tan’er could tell from his long-winded speech, full of idioms, that something wasn’t right, and her expression had already shifted through several changes; she unfolded the newsprint with the bounty notice on it and looked again.

“So… in these impressive martial-world tales you’re telling, my lord… this Dragon Proud-Sky… the third greatest master under heaven, Dragon Proud-Sky, goes by the nickname… Five-Foot Heart-Demon? How could you tell the children that…”

“He’s the greatest master under heaven.” Ning Yi rubbed his forehead. “The tragedy is the greatest master under heaven can’t possibly be called Five-Foot Heart-Demon. How could I possibly tell a bunch of kids that the greatest master under heaven is called Heart-Demon. First, the greatest master under heaven can’t be called Heart-Demon, second, there’s no way I’d say ‘Heart-Demon’ to children — Tan’er, what’s going on in your head…”

He turned to look at his wife, only to find her looking back at him, both amused and exasperated, and then his arm took a punch.

“Sigh…” Ning Yi sighed.

Tan’er beside him rubbed her own forehead, laughing ruefully. “So this is a reputation he earned for himself. Our second boy, this… well, this has to be suppressed. Xiao Chan can’t find out. If she finds out, I won’t let you off… Good thing he used an alias…”

“The alias didn’t help. Xi’er, Xiao He, Wenwen, Xiao Ke, Shuang, Ning — every single one of them knows the name Dragon Proud-Sky, and that gang of kids with Hei Niu have heard of it too… I got careless. I figure the moment this kid gets home he’s going to want to die of embarrassment… Sigh, here I am, the great Heart-Demon himself, and I raise a son named Heart-Demon… And behind that bounty notice there’s a whole crowd — Five-Foot Heart-Demon’s even got some disreputable friend called Four-Foot Heart-Demon, what is wrong with people, some little monk, have they no shame at all…”

Tan’er held back her laughter, her expression shifting as she couldn’t help swatting Ning Yi a couple more times. Over the years running the household she’d become steady and composed, and even in front of Ning Yi she rarely let herself carry on like this — but then she frowned again.

“So what do we do… Xiao Ji, how did he end up like this… it must be a misunderstanding, right…”

“Who knows. Old Qian and the others aren’t back yet, so we don’t have the full story. But people’s hearts are treacherous and the martial world is a dangerous place — maybe it’s not a misunderstanding at all. Maybe after that wretched woman Yu Xiao’er toyed with him, he had a change of heart and decided to take revenge on every woman under heaven, and once he left home, through tireless effort, built himself quite the reputation… Look, he’s even picked up a junior disciple — must really admire him…”

“As if. If that were really it, Eighth Uncle and the others wouldn’t have had to send back these headless, tailless scraps of paper. This is no small matter. Whatever will Xiao Chan do…”

“What’s there to do about it. Young people, three thousand li from home — better to make a fool of yourself out there than get yourself killed.”

Under a night sky bright with moon and few stars, on the lamplit wall with the night breeze stirring, as the two of them walked Tan’er read over the newsprint several more times. Then she looked at her husband beside her: “You seem awfully pleased about this, though.”

Ning Yi smiled faintly. “Heaven and earth are vast and full of wonders. He’s young, he walked three thousand li to see his parents’ old home, and made himself a name like this along the way — he must have gone through all sorts of chaos and mishaps. Have you ever wondered what Jiangning looked like to him when he got there? Is the old Su family compound still standing, are our old things still there… Also, I heard that this time in Jiangning, Chen Fan went to collect a debt from Lin Echan, and the two sides had it out. A clash of titans — I wish I could’ve been there in person to cut that bastard down myself.”

He was in high spirits, and Tan’er smiled too. “I think you’d better stay out of it, Master Ning. If you and Chen Fan teamed up, we’d lose.”

“What do you mean, team up with Chen Fan — what’s his standing, what’s mine. I’d obviously bring my own entourage along, left and right…”

“That entourage — one surnamed Lu, one surnamed Liu?”

“Mm, let them do the dirty work, hack that fat bastard to death.”

He went on like this, then looked out toward the city walls. “Ah, that’s the kind of glory only young people get to have. Not like us now, meeting after meeting after meeting, day in day out, or else a crowd of this sort and that sort coming to plead with you, pouring their hearts out, begging you to rescind an order, and none of them even manage to be very compelling about it — nowhere near as good as Zuo Duanyou. I tell you, this generation of great scholars is worse than the last…”

In front of his closest family members, this kind of sigh about being “long caged, never free” was hardly the first time. Su Tan’er, stirred by his words, looked out toward the city walls and spent a moment recalling the scenery of Jiangning herself, then tilted her head and said, “Things are unsettled over in Zhang Village too. Military people, people from various departments, wives and ladies coming by one after another to cultivate connections, then asking about this land reform business. I can already picture it — if the land gets taken back for the state, how much benefit is there for them going forward, and doing a peaceful buyout, how much money will we have to spend to buy up all that land, and in the middle of all that there’s plenty of room to maneuver, plenty to be gained, including in the bargaining process itself, which won’t go smoothly either.”

She paused, then smiled. “Of course, some of the sisters are more hardline — they ask why we don’t do another purge of the landlords like in Jiangnan, and then set things right afterward. I remember you mentioned that approach before.”

“On the whole, the assembly leans toward advancing this matter peacefully.” Ning Yi tilted his head and said quietly. “Fundamentally, it’s because equality hasn’t become the spiritual core of the Huaxia Army. In the past the order of priority was first the two characters ‘Huaxia’ tied to revenge and resisting the Jin, then development tied to the study of natural principles, and only after that the people’s livelihood, rights, and wisdom, and the equality that goes with them. But honestly, whether we can really achieve equality — a lot of people have their doubts, myself included. My confidence isn’t strong either.”

Tan’er turned to look at him, then hooked his finger with hers. “This… I think it’s fine to take it slowly…”

“Mm.” Ning Yi nodded, his meaning not entirely clear. “We’ve only been beaten down for a bit over ten years. Plenty of people believe the old ways worked well enough — look at Chengdu today, everyone sees how it’s flourished, and doesn’t want more upheaval. Mobilizing the Huaxia Army to push a runaway land-equalization campaign from the grassroots up — that’s not an option available to us right now. If I forced it through, the Huaxia Army might tear itself apart internally.”

Su Tan’er nodded. “When you talked about it before, I felt like you leaned more toward that approach. I don’t fully understand it, but whatever you decide to do, I’ll support you.”

“I have some odd fixations of my own,” Ning Yi said, smiling. “But things always change as they move. As far as the Huaxia Army goes, the easiest time to have pushed this through would’ve been right when we broke out of Liangshan — stir up the whole Chengdu plain to overthrow the landlords and divide up the fields, and with the ten or twenty thousand core troops we had on our side, we could’ve cleaned up the aftermath step by step across the whole region. In short, replicate what’s happening in Jiangnan today — the only difference being, we’d have preserved our internal integrity, able to absorb others one step at a time, whereas over on He Wen’s side, internal integrity is a real concern…”

He took his wife’s hand and turned to walk on.

“…But going this route, unifying the Chengdu plain would take much longer, and resistance from the great landlord clans here would intensify. And after that, our focus would basically have to go entirely into consolidating and guiding the peasant movement, and the development of natural science would fall behind… And at the time there were two important considerations…”

“First, at the social level right now, people can eventually come to understand the prosperity that follows from the development of science — but the yearning and reflection toward equality isn’t nearly as widespread, and there hasn’t been that rational accumulation of thought behind it… And the second consideration is, if the development of natural science hasn’t reached any real scale, hasn’t found a genuine, sustainable path forward, then enlightening the common people is likely to be empty talk. Confucianism, in Confucius’s own time, was actually radical and ambitious — he wanted to use the effort of several generations to bring about a world of great harmony. Later generations found it couldn’t be done, so they turned ‘the people can be made to follow it’ into ‘cannot be made to understand it, only to follow it.’ Actually, absent the possibility of major material development, that’s a rather scientific way to handle things.”

“In any case, on our end, we’ve made our choice…”

In the night, Ning Yi’s words were calm, more like private self-reflection and summation spoken when no one else was around. Su Tan’er listened quietly — this was a scene that occasionally played out back at Zhang Village too. Ning Yi was in the habit of sorting through his own thoughts in front of his closest few people. Tan’er could follow some of it, but most of the time, unlike Xigua, she wasn’t one to eagerly join the discussion.

This time was no different. She squeezed Ning Yi’s hand. “So — you’re saying you’re confident about this?”

“Yes. It can be done now.”

Ning Yi looked out toward Chengdu.

The seeds of an industrial revolution had already begun to take root.

With that result as a foundation, what was there left that couldn’t be attempted?

In the cool night breeze, husband and wife walked on hand in hand, chatting about small household matters — Tan’er brought up the children’s schoolwork, and then they talked over the matter of Ning Ji.

They came down off the city wall and got into their carriage, which rolled gradually into a tree-shaded street, moving forward, and the two who had just been watching the scenery gradually became scenery themselves in the eyes of others.

This was a Chengdu night with the countdown to the new land policy already running.

Rising from their seats, the banquet at the “Yingzhou” restaurant was also drawing to a close, and the group went noisily down the stairs, Lin Qiu with his arm around the shoulder of the man surnamed Chen.

“Brother Chen, seriously, don’t do anything rash. This matter — the boss is watching this one closely, and anyone who crosses the boss doesn’t come to a good end. Back at Wolf Ridge, Wanyan Zonghan and Gao Qingyi got dressed down in front of him like a couple of grandsons — their own sons got killed and they still had to say thank you. I was there. Little brother’s saved your life, saved your life…”

He walked along, patting the other man’s chest. “But land — once it’s taken back, it’s got to be put back out again. How it gets divided up, your little brother’s got an eye on that for you, aren’t you worried about missing out on the benefits? I’m more worried you won’t have the money for it… So, Brother Chen, the development around here all depends on you all. The policy from above right now is boosting domestic demand — what’s domestic demand? You bring in more outsiders, get them settled, once they’re in they need housing, they need wives, they need schooling, they need to eat and live — that’s domestic demand right there. Recruit more people, recruit more people, more people means more strength, more people means more spending — that’s all stuff the boss says. When has the boss ever been wrong? Tell me, when has the boss ever been wrong…”

The merchant surnamed Chen laughed along in agreement. When Lin Qiu asked twice and got no answer, he waved a hand off to the side. “Old Tan, Old Tan, you tell him — when has the boss ever been wrong?”

“…Huh?” The fat man named Old Tan blinked.

“Tell him — when has the boss ever been wrong? Say it…”

“The boss has never been wrong!” the merchant surnamed Chen jumped in to smooth things over. “How could the boss ever be wrong, right. But Director Lin, it’s getting harder and harder these days to bring outsiders in — your policies are so generous, the benefits are so good, you’ve got to arrange schooling for their kids, medical checkups, housing, all that — our costs are high too…”

“What do you mean your costs are high, crying poverty in front of me — is that your money you’re spending? Black and white on paper, that money’s lent to them, they’ve got to work it off. The wool comes off the sheep’s own back — the more they borrow, the more work they’ve got to do, right? Do more work for you, you make more money — see, they borrow more, they spend more, and everybody does more work, everybody comes out ahead, isn’t that a triple win? This is human rights!” He turned to look at the group. “This is human rights, you understand or not?”

The group answered back in a jumble.

Lin Qiu waved a hand. “Human rights are a good thing — if it weren’t for human rights, why would the state be taking back the land? If the state didn’t take back the land, what benefit would there be for you people down the line? Huh? If there were no human rights, why would they let you lend them so much money? If you didn’t lend them so much, why would people bother working hard to pay it off? You lot — ungrateful wretches, you don’t understand the boss’s hard work and good intentions… Take the long view, take the long view — good things come to those who look far ahead! Understand or not?”

Reeking of liquor.

“…So — recruit more people, find more people to do more work and make more money, then once you’ve made money, recruit more people. Don’t give me that nonsense about not being able to find workers. What’s happening out there right now? It’s all war. Liu Guangshi fighting Zou Xu, the Fair Party tearing itself apart, Wu Qimei and Tie Yan are about to die, the little court in the southeast is done for. Old Chen, Old Tan, is that any place for a person to live? No. In an age of chaos, people live like livestock — who wouldn’t want to come here. Old Tan, tell him — who wouldn’t want to come here?”

“—Everybody would.” Old Tan answered quickly.

“Exactly. Everybody wants to come here, so what’s this about not being able to recruit people? Don’t any of you complain to me about how hard or tiring it is — the people of the Huaxia Army never complain about hardship or exhaustion, the Huaxia Army works hard, puts in the overtime… Oh right, Old Tan, Old Chen, that order I got you last time, why were you dragging your feet on it? The fellow surnamed Long told me just yesterday, get it done faster, don’t make me lose face… I swear, it’s you two in particular who can’t handle hard work…”

The farewells were a noisy scramble, and by the time Lin Qiu had dawdled his way down into the courtyard, someone came over carrying a carved rosewood food box. Old Chen said, “You spent the whole meal talking with Director Lin and barely ate a bite. So here, I had the cook make up some dishes, all tofu, the way you like it. Old Tan, come on, let’s have this sent back to Director Lin’s place.”

By then the carriage had already pulled in. Lin Qiu waved a hand. “No need to send it, my place isn’t far, just give me the food and I’ll walk back, get some exercise.”

“But Director Lin’s had some drink…”

“Drink, what drink, barely had a few sips. Fine, give me the box, quit fussing… it’s just a few steps.”

As he spoke, he raised a hand and slapped himself a few times on the head, then reached to take the box. It was heavier than expected in his hand, but he shifted it up and down without changing expression. “Perfect, sits nicely in the hand. Fine, no need to send me!”

Putting on that official bluster, the group couldn’t talk him out of it, and after a moment he carried the box out the side door of “Yingzhou” and made his way slowly down the tree-lined street, the effects of the liquor leaving him a little dizzy, though the exaggerated air of authority had faded from his eyes, leaving him calm.

Months of banquets had taken a toll on his body, and aware of this, he switched the food box from hand to hand as he walked, as a kind of exercise. Pedestrians passed along the road beside him, carriages jingled by with orange lanterns swaying, the night scene of a peaceful age. He thought back to his time in the secretariat office, when He Deng had been very young, when Ning Yi had been strict with himself, rising every morning to practice boxing, with everyone else following along in exercise. Now, his body hadn’t yet gone entirely to seed, but the flesh had clearly grown a bit softer.

The new land policy was about to begin, and countless ants were stirring at the scent of it, but he didn’t want the people around him dying in this coming wave. Plenty of the dirty work could still be left to others to do — if there was money to be made buying and selling land, who would still bother squeezing those migrant laborers who’d sold themselves into service?

Lately, these banquets had turned into a good way of saving people, of all things.

He walked to a little stream not far from home, and the night breeze cleared his head gradually. He stood there a while, letting the wind blow, when on the far side of his view, Xu Shaoyuan, a former colleague, came walking over with another young soldier.

“Director Lin, contemplating life out here? Reeking of liquor.”

“Lord Xu, out for a walk, are you?”

“Just got out of a meeting.”

Xu Shaoyuan being called “Lord Xu” wasn’t any formal title — it was because he was tall and handsome, and people liked to tease him with the line “who’s more handsome, me or Lord Xu of the north side of town,” and the nickname had stuck. He now gestured at the young man beside him. “This is Fang Cheng from the Work Group — Fang as in square, Cheng as in sincerity. Fang Cheng, this is Lin Qiu — the one I told you about, who had the honor of being at Wolf Ridge with Master Ning putting the fear of god into Wanyan Zonghan. He works in the Commerce Ministry now, and since he’s still unmarried, people generally call him Director Bachelor.”

“Well, not sure who’s the bachelor around here. I was at Yong Jinrou’s wedding.”

Lin Qiu shot back without missing a beat, shook hands with Fang Cheng with a smile, then pointed at Xu Shaoyuan. “Him — with all of Master Ning’s scheming and advice, he still can’t catch up with the woman he likes. Master Ning even coined a whole idiom based on him — ‘moved to tears, then rejected anyway.’ Deeply moved, and then turned him down — that’s him.”

“Ah, our group leader…” Fang Cheng, the young man, perked right up with interest.

Xu Shaoyuan smacked him back with one hand. “Don’t go chatting with this troublemaker about nonsense. You want to be a bachelor too?”

Lin Qiu gave a triumphant smile, then said, “All right, I’ll ease up on you. Hungry? I’ve got tofu here.”

“Director Lin, so humble. Sure, why not.”

Xu Shaoyuan laughed, and the two of them walked over to a stone bench by the river. When he turned to call Fang Cheng over, the young man said he wasn’t hungry and would wait over there instead. They opened the food box — sure enough, three tiers of dishes, mostly tofu, but only one pair of chopsticks. Lin Qiu snapped them in two, and the two men sat down and tasted the food. Xu Shaoyuan quite liked it; Lin Qiu was sick of the stuff by now.

After a few bites, Lin Qiu said, “You know, I actually prefer the tofu from that Chen’s place outside He Deng’s family compound. Remember their fried tofu with pork? Loads of meat.”

“So do you actually like meat, or do you like tofu?”

“Not sure, honestly…”

“And Chen’s place really doesn’t put in that much meat, every single time it’s just a little bit. Look — the meat in one dish from his place doesn’t come close to what’s stuffed into this braised tofu of yours… mm, delicious, this cook’s got some skill.”

“If it’s good, eat more of it.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice — you look a bit bloated anyway, don’t eat any more, leave the rest to me.”

In the cool night breeze, on the stone bench by the river, Xu Shaoyuan wolfed the food down, and Lin Qiu laughed. “Lord Xu, mind your image. Eating like you’ve never seen food before — people will think the Huaxia Army’s starving its own.”

“I’ve already been ‘moved to tears and rejected,’ what image have I got left to mind? What about you, though — got promoted, moved up in the world. Wasn’t it back in May I heard you proposed to some girl? The one from the Zuo family who stayed on here, Zuo Jing, wasn’t it? Pretty, capable — and then in July you called it off. True to her name, cool-headed — didn’t even hit you. So what happened? Trying to hold onto the title of Director Bachelor? Or did your eye wander, is there someone else?”

At the mention of it, Lin Qiu’s gaze went still, fixed ahead, and he fell silent for a moment before finally lowering his voice and saying, unhurried, “I… suddenly realized something.”

Xu Shaoyuan shoveled more braised tofu into his mouth. “What?”

Lin Qiu’s voice dropped lower, spoken word by word. Xu Shaoyuan leaned in close and heard him say: “…Men are better, after all.”

Xu Shaoyuan blinked, then nodded along happily. “I feel the same way.”

“Shame you’re so ugly, though…”

“You’re a bit short, yourself…”

The people who’d come up under Ning Yi never shied from tasteless jokes, and the two of them traded insults, then both broke into laughter despite themselves. After a while, Xu Shaoyuan finished off all the food and let out a satisfied belch, tapping his chopsticks against the box.

“Since the Huaxia Army moved into Chengdu, things have gotten so spread out, everyone’s got their own corner to run, and sometimes we don’t even see each other, don’t know what you’re busy with. But as your elder, I’ve got something to teach you.”

“Go on, brother.”

“Tofu’s good and all, but you can’t fill a whole box with nothing but tofu. Look at you, you overate and got bloated — if I hadn’t been here today you’d have wasted it. So, whatever you do for fun, you’ve got to have some restraint — no moderation, and it’ll cause problems.”

He said this, tossing the chopsticks back into the box.

Lin Qiu smiled. “Understood. Lord Xu really does look out for me.”

“Lord Xu doesn’t care about you. Lord Xu’s heart is already broken.”

The two of them sat there a while longer, looking up at the moon, and after a bit Xu Shaoyuan rose to his feet, and Lin Qiu got up too. “When does the land policy start? You all are heading out soon, aren’t you?”

“The advance groundwork’s already underway. We just finished the last meeting — everyone moves out tomorrow morning.” Xu Shaoyuan pointed up at the sky. “Countdown to the land policy…”

He paused.

“…Five double-hours left.”

“Take care.”

Lin Qiu saluted.

Xu Shaoyuan returned the salute, then reached out and patted the other man’s shoulder, smiling.

“When the revolution succeeds, we’ll drink deep together, all of us.”

It was a line more than a few in the Huaxia Army had picked up from Ning Yi. Some understood what it meant, some didn’t, but either way, it was the most solemn kind of promise there was.

……

Stars and moonlight streamed on. After a while, Xu Shaoyuan and Fang Cheng left the riverside, the night breeze still stirring gently.

Lin Qiu carried the rosewood food box back to the courtyard where he lived, gathered up the bowls and dishes from inside it, split open the wooden box, and tossed the gold bars hidden in its false bottom into the storeroom crowded with valuables. After using a hot towel to sober himself up, he sat quietly in the courtyard for a good long while.

Just before turning in for the night, he suddenly remembered he was supposed to be exercising, and gave himself a slap.

Not long after, the new land policy began.