A man and a woman turned into Clay Bottle Alley. The young man wore a towering crown, a jade pendant of the deepest green hanging at his waist — more like a scion of wealth and nobility than even the grandsons of the Lu family, the richest house in town. The woman's age was impossible to read. At first glance she looked like a young maiden — skin dewy and tender, chin sharp as an icicle hanging from the eaves in winter. A second glance, and she was a woman of thirty, ripe with allure — phoenix eyes and a bewitching figure. From head to toe she carried a cascade of charm, a sway and grace in her step that no woman in this town could ever hope to possess.
The woman looked left and right, brimming with curiosity. She even reached out to touch the yellow mud walls. Finding no hint of anything unusual, she asked, "Fu Nanhua — is this truly one of those hidden blessed lands you spoke of? Why did my house's founding ancestor not mark this lane with any special emphasis on the geomantic survey maps?"
The young man answered a different question altogether. "If you and I were truly to find some unexpected stroke of fortune here — how would you repay me?"
The woman turned sideways and clasped both hands behind her back, which only served to make the landscape of her bosom all the more lush and ample. Half in jest, half meaning it, she said in a silken voice, "Let you pluck at will — what do you say?"
The young man had not expected such bluntness, and it threw him entirely off balance. Besides, coming to this town to "visit kin and call on friends" carried the weight of his entire clan — its hundred-year rise or fall, perhaps even a thousand years of prosperity. No matter how wild his heart might wander, he would never dare, under the watchful eyes of so many unseen powers, to share a moment of fleeting passion with the woman before him.
So he swiftly changed the subject. Pointing deeper into the lane, he smiled. "Immortal Lady Cai — friendship is friendship, but business is business. I must repeat our earlier terms. In this Clay Bottle Alley there are two households — a master and his servant, and a mother with her son. I grant you first choice. The stake you wager shall be your Cloudmist Mountain's specialty, the Cloud Root Stones. Ten stones per year, sent to our old Dragon City."
The woman nodded, her smile alluring. "Of course."
The young man strolled slowly forward and continued. "Furthermore — should you obtain any fated opportunity here beyond your family's expectations, the object must be submitted to the founding ancestors of both our sides for appraisal. A fair price shall be fixed. Thereafter, Cloudmist Mountain shall deliver half that value in Cloud Root Stones. Cai Jinjian — do you have any objection? Or more to the point — can you be certain that once the profit is in hand and the purse is safely tucked away, you will be able to persuade the founding ancestors of Cloudmist Mountain to honor this wager?"
The woman's expression had already transformed. Solemn and dignified, she was now a wholly different person from before — as if a celebrated courtesan fallen into the dust had, at a single turn, become an empress mother commanding the realm. This woman, Cai Jinjian of Cloudmist Mountain, answered with the finality of an ax striking wood. "I can!"
The young man narrowed his eyes, his face dark and unreadable. He halted and looked straight at the woman who stood no shorter than himself. "The ugly words must be spoken first. That you and I could form an alliance today — trading mutual benefit — is not because you and I fell in love at first sight or found kindred spirits. It rests entirely upon the goodwill that Old Dragon City and Cloudmist Mountain have painstakingly built up over centuries, through the toil of generations of founding ancestors and elder masters. Should we manage to ruin this — should we call down the thunderous fury of those old men — do not say Fu Nanhua, or you, Cai Jinjian. Even our fathers and mothers, even our own masters — none of them could bear such blame!"
Cai Jinjian smiled. "And so — during our time in this small town — we must bare our hearts and join our efforts in honest cooperation. Correct?"
Fu Nanhua, even in this dark, narrow lane, carried himself with all the elegance of a peerless gentleman. He smiled as well. "Beyond that..."
He glanced back, then lowered his voice. "The two of us must also be wary of that other pair. After all, they are not from Righteous Sun Mountain, which can at least claim to be a reputable, orthodox sect with a good name. I have heard those two have always run on the wild side — not overly fond of rules."
The tall woman narrowed her eloquent phoenix eyes, as if they were cooing, "That is precisely why I chose you, Young Master Fu."
Fu Nanhua said quietly, "Let us go. Though this place has sages holding the balance and restraining all sides, it is still best to be cautious. Capsizing in a gutter would be the height of folly. In a word — whether you and I can leap through the dragon-gate rests upon this single venture."
This child of heaven, renowned across a region, felt his Dao-heart grow all the firmer. In the silence of his mind, he intoned: The Great Dao lies ahead, ripe for the taking. Who blocks my path — be they immortal or Buddha — shall be killed!
He gazed deep into the lane and saw a thin, slight youth approaching from the far end.
A second meeting.
The pair continued their leisurely stroll, like an immortal couple descended into the mortal world.
The tall woman had also caught sight of the youth. Teasingly, she said, "From the gate over there, to this little lane — we have run into him twice now. Do you suppose this boy might be...?"
She let the sentence trail off. Fu Nanhua, of course, understood what she was implying and could not help laughing. "My dear Immortal Lady Cai — this town has six hundred households, plus the servants and menials of the ten great clans. Nearly five thousand souls in all. As many hidden dragons and crouching tigers as this town might hold — all the same — over the years, those children with true bone-root, true fortune-affinity, true deep origins — they have long since been secretly divided up and swallowed clean. The reason we have this chance to 'pick up the scraps' is simply that those great figures of unfathomable divine power are deliberately letting some small morsels slip through."
The woman gave a self-deprecating smile, a little embarrassed by her own naive fancy.
Still, she hesitated, then said, "I do not know what celestial secrets your founding ancestor imparted to you, but my father did speak some words to me. After entering this place — if you encounter someone who sends a chill through your heart, you must of your own accord withdraw and retreat. Keep your distance. You absolutely must not casually offend or provoke them. After all, in this place, dragons hide and tigers crouch — the depths are unfathomable. Anyone who stirs a sense of dislike within you is most likely a rival, here to search out the hidden treasures of this town. As for those who inspire a sense of closeness — they are likely people of deep fortune and prosperity in this region, and there is hope of turning them into your own fated chance. When the moment comes, so long as you do not lightly kill and do not violate those ironclad, unchanging rules — beyond that, whether you buy, or swindle, or seize by force — that all depends on..."
The corners of Cai Jinjian's lips curled upward. "...our mood."
She suddenly frowned. "Young Master Fu — why would you not let me bring along one of the Zhao family's descendants, people with local roots? I did learn some of the local dialect before setting out, but still..."
Fu Nanhua cut her off, shaking his head. "Those great clan households have always maintained secret channels to the outside world, threads that have never been severed. Right under the nose of the sage himself, they can pass along certain painless, harmless messages without being judged to have crossed the forbidden line. Generation after generation, layer upon layer — their foundations are deep. The true backers behind those surnames — Old Dragon City and Cloudmist Mountain still fall a step short. What is more — borrowing the hand of an outsider is never quite clean. It easily gives rise to tangled complications and delays the great matter. If later on you do not wish to speak, leave it to me to speak on your behalf."
She smiled. "It is nothing. Speaking a few clumsy, tongue-twisting words — I am not so delicate as all that."
Fu Nanhua let it go with a smile. Cai Jinjian said nothing further.
At the bottom of it all — a halfway ally could never compare to one's own family.
And in the eyes of certain ambitious souls who set their will on nothing less than proving the Great Dao — what were father and son, husband and wife, even brothers of the same blood?
Fu Nanhua's smile was tranquil, his bearing noble and refined — every inch the scion of a paramount house among the mortal realm.
The reason he had revealed this secret of heaven — this "heart method" his father had secretly imparted to him alone — and freely shared it with Cai Jinjian — was, in fact, exceedingly simple.
Of the four companions on this journey, beside himself — the dull, wooden middle-aged man, the cold, dark-robed young girl — Fu Nanhua, from the very first step he set past the town's wooden gate, had felt the stirring of murderous intent toward his "ally," the woman beside him — Cai Jinjian of Cloudmist Mountain.
His hand unconsciously reached for the green jade pendant at his waist.
The Old Dragon bestows rain — cunning artifice rivaling heaven's own work.
The gentleman, without cause, never removes his jade.
Cai Jinjian closed her eyes in thought. A moment later, she opened them and declared, "Song Jixin... Gu Can... I choose Gu Can."
Fu Nanhua raised an eyebrow. "Very well. A single word seals it!"
In their shared field of vision, the youth — who had been zigzagging and hopping his way down the lane — arrived at a particular house and was just about to unlock the door.
Fu Nanhua, with Cai Jinjian at his side, strode forward quickly and said with a smile, "A coincidence — we meet again."
The shabbily dressed youth was Chen Ping'an, just returning from Gu Can's house. Hearing the voice, he turned around and asked, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Fu Nanhua spoke in the town's local dialect, fluently and effortlessly. "This place is called Clay Bottle Alley, is that right? I wanted to ask — does a man named Song Jixin live here? And also a little child called Gu Can? I am from the capital. My family and Song Jixin's father are old friends. This elder sister beside me, surnamed Cai — she is kin to Gu Can's mother, on the mother's side. So the two of us have come together — and by chance, everything we need lies in this one lane. Is that not an uncanny coincidence? It seems as though all the threads have gathered in a single place. Truly, there is no coincidence like a story."
Fu Nanhua's smile was easy and composed. Even speaking with a straw-sandaled boy from the lowest rung of the marketplace, this tall, trim young man slightly bent his waist to accommodate the boy's height — and maintained that posture all the while. He neither appeared affected and artificial, nor gave any impression of ulterior motive; rather, to any observer, he seemed gentle, warm, modest, and courteous — a gentleman in every sense.
The boy, craning his head upward, murmured a soft "Mm" and smiled shyly. "It is quite a coincidence."
Fu Nanhua's smile deepened. In a warm voice, he asked, "So those two families — they live...?"
But the boy shook his head. "I was only recently an apprentice at a dragon kiln. I lived outside town for many years. I have only just moved here. I am not yet familiar with the neighbors. Perhaps you should ask someone else?"
Fu Nanhua smiled but did not answer right away. He seemed to be formulating his next words.
The tall woman laughed. "Little brother — lying is not good. Do we look like bad people to you? Even to say the most extreme thing — in broad daylight, what wickedness could we possibly commit?"
Chen Ping'an blinked. "But I truly do not know."
Cai Jinjian switched to her normal manner of speech and said to Fu Nanhua, "Does this child want a reward, perhaps?"
Fu Nanhua's expression did not change. "It does not seem so."
The tall woman showed the faintest, most carefully concealed trace of irritation between her brows. "We could simply go door to door and ask. We would find them all the same."
Fu Nanhua waved away the suggestion and, with patient good humor, coaxed, "Help us with this small thing, and I shall give you a gift in return. How about that?"
The boy scratched his head. His figure was thin, his eyes clear as spring water.
Fu Nanhua abruptly straightened to his full height.
And found himself looking at a youth steeped in the air of books and learning — crouched atop a nearby wall, studying them both.
Beside that plainly dressed boy stood a young girl, her upper face just visible above the wall — fine and delicate, clean and pure, brows like distant indigo hills.
In that single moment, Fu Nanhua's heart settled like a stone dropping to the seabed.
This youth before him — without question, he was now in Fu Nanhua's grasp.
The youth on the wall rose and asked loudly, "Looking for someone?"
Fu Nanhua and Cai Jinjian had no choice but to lift their heads. The former spoke: "Indeed — I am looking for you. And this elder sister beside me — she is looking for Gu Can. Could you help?"
The youth frowned. "You know me?"
Fu Nanhua smiled. "Of course I do not know you — but I do know Magistrate Song, who now serves in the Ministry of Rites."
Song Jixin cut straight to the point. "If I help you find that snot-nosed brat Gu Can — what benefit do I get?"
Without a second thought, Fu Nanhua unclasped the green jade pendant at his waist and tossed it high to the youth standing on the wall. "It is yours."
Song Jixin caught it. The weight of it startled him inwardly, though his face betrayed nothing. He looked down at his servant girl. "Zhigui — you go."
She nodded and left the courtyard. The moment the girl stood silently in that narrow lane, all of Clay Bottle Alley seemed in an instant to brighten.
Fu Nanhua looked at the boy in straw sandals and smiled. "Little one — let me give you a parting phrase: Though heaven's rain is broad, it does not moisten rootless grass."
Then he was the first to walk toward the girl.
The tall woman did not move. Her eyes held a playful gleam. Lowering her voice, she asked the boy, "Do you know what that means?"
Her eyes sparkled. For no reason she could name, a sudden interest seized her. Without waiting for the boy to answer, she burst out laughing and explained, "It means — you have just missed a great fated chance. That young master — if he merely scraped a sliver from beneath his fingernail — it would be enough for you to live in utter comfort, for all the rest of your life, here below the mountain. But your luck is good in one way — you will probably go your whole life without ever knowing what slipped through your fingers today. Truly — the one stroke of good luck amid all the bad. Otherwise, you would regret it until your very guts turned green."
Fu Nanhua heard every word. He thought she was playing the lute before a cow.
Outside this town — the distance between one person and another, especially the distance between those above and those below — was vaster than the divide between the living and the dead.
Cai Jinjian backed away toward the maidservant, so that she still faced the boy in straw sandals. "Though heaven's rain is broad, it does not moisten rootless grass. Remember that."
All this time, the boy's expression had barely flickered. Then suddenly he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Watch out — there behind you..."
Cai Jinjian's body went rigid as a board.
The boy lowered his voice to a murmur: "...is dog dung."