As Weak As An Ant
As one followed a trail down the Hui Yin Mountain, they would reach the Evil Dragon River, which in turn flowed, day and night, along the Xu Village.
It was in August, the weather was already a little bit cold but the flora was still flourishing. Under an aged Chinese parasol, a group of villagers were attentively listening to a speech delivered by a seemingly young man.
However, this young man was actually just a teenager. Despite the good-looking eyes and nose, he was wearing a wax-colored face, as if he was ill. As the wind was blowing wildly, the linen-made coat pressed tightly against his body, which emphasised his stalwart appearance.
To make the speech more pleasant to the ears, this ‘teenager’ was using two pieces of wood, made of huang li mu [1], as an instrument, and he was beating these two pieces against each other to create a beautiful rhythm. Then, he coughed to clear his throat, before opening his mouth.
“The beautiful soul of the Fox Goddess has gone with the wind in bits and pieces. It was only regrettable to find that the most promising student, Zhang Shen, would be forever seperated from his deceased Fox Goddess. The deeper his love for the Fox Goddess became, the greater the grievance in his heart was. Owning up to the unspeakable sorrow, Zhang Shen gave up on the promising future as an official and deeply buried all of his ambitions. Eventually, he decided to withdraw from society all together and chose for a life of solitude, to meditate on life and death… As the proverb goes: 曾经沧海难为水,除却巫山不是云。取次花丛懒回顾,半缘修道半缘君 (Any water is no water, after seeing the magnificent ocean; every cloud is no cloud, after seeing the splendid cloud above Wu Mountain. Walking on the path of love, I have no interest to appreciate the scenery, partly because I am a Daoism follower and partly because I already have my Mr. Right.)“
The end of the story was met with silent gazes of grieve from the audience. The story that his young man had just told, was a love story between a human and a devil. No matter how different they were, they were deeply infatuated with each other. However, for these two, there was no happy ending, as only sadness enshrouded the end of their story.
The young man wrapped his story up with some self-composed lyrics. As the lyrics reached the ears of the audience, they could no longer hold their tears. Even the children, who had not yet acquired the taste of love, were overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
The young man rose up and rythmatically started playing the wooden instrument once more, before he was suddenly holding a crude wooden bowl to receive tips from the warm-hearted audience for his performance. Soon after, the bowl was filled with bronze coins; you could even see some silver sycee or Yuan bao [2] hidden between the bronze coins.
The village, governed under the Guanan prefecture, was blessed with plenty of resources and affluence. You might say that the citizens here were poorly educated, but that didn’t change the fact that they had an abundance of riches.
In this small village, there was seldom any entertainment to enjoy. The story, that was just told by the young man, was especially cherished by the people here. Touched by this story’s tragic romance, the audience even started dreaming of becoming one of the leading roles. The young man had successfully formed a large group of fans and he was generously rewarded each time he finished another one of his stories. After packing all of his belongings, the young man bowed towards the audience and informed them at what time he would return to share another story. Then he turned around and walked away.
You may wonder who this teenager was. He was Xu Yi, an 18 year old boy who was raised in the neighboring Xu Village. In the early years of his life, he was just an oblivious young man, no different from those slackers found on the streets. However, as he grew up, his talent for storytelling began to show and this had quickly made him a famous person in the neighborhoods in and surrounding Xu Village.
A bright golden sunshine was pouring down on the verdant Hui Yin Mountain, which stretched far into the distance. This mountain range had oddly a striking resemblance to the spine of an exceedingly giant dragon. In the lowest part of this mountain range, there were some seventy or eighty wooden houses located. They dotted this mountain range like chess pieces randomly placed on a board.
At the foot of the Hui Yin Mountain, there was a shabby wooden house, which even looked a little bit skewed due to years of erosion by the wind and rain. Yes, as one might have guessed, this was the place where Xu Yi lived.
To Xu Yi, the tumbled-down house represented home. This was the place where he felt most calm and secure at.
“Whoof, woof!”
An old dog with yellow fur barked and started running merrily towards Xu Yi, as if he couldn’t wait any longer to greet his master. In order to welcome Xu Yi, the dog even made a rather intimate gesture by jumping up high and putting his front paws around the shoulders of his master.
During the 18 years of comradery, Xu Yi had stopped treating this dog as a pet and had started to consider him as a member of his family. This was because Xu Yi’s parents had died in the ferocious attack that was orchistrated by their enemies. He was an only child, so after losing his parents in this attack, all that he had left is this dog. This was also why the dog meant so much to him.
Every day, the old dog would sit at the doorsteps, with his bright eyes staring into the distance, calmly awaiting the return of his master. For Xu Yi, it was a great joy and a feeling of immense luck, to have found such a loyal companion.
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