Chapter 14

This was a rare opportunity for them to meet again after training. He and Jiang Er stood by the city wall, occasionally gazing out into the pitch-black night, listening carefully for any sharp horn sounds carried by the whistling wind. Li He's right hand still subconsciously grasped the sword at his waist. His mind had been temporarily subdued by the repetitive and tiring training of the past few days, and he only clearly remembered the night watch assigned to him.

His only distraction was the dream of a snowstorm that he had never seen, a snowstorm that had buried him and the entire Longxi region. He looked up at the sky tonight. It was still cloudless, with the moon hanging high above, visible from everywhere, curved like a barbarian sword, and scattered stars twinkling occasionally.

They were indeed bathed in the silver moonlight, the gray smoke rising into the night. Li He's shoulder wound had almost healed, the itching a sign of near-complete healing. Jiang Er spoke first after a pause, "How have you been these past two days, little brother? Do you feel like you're being treated much better than before?"

Li He nodded slightly. "I haven't seen you for a few days. I'm fine. But has Brother Jiang seen a doctor again for his injury?" While the city wasn't brightly lit as day, it was bright enough to illuminate this area. The night watchman's gong began to sound, and Li He glanced into the city. At dusk, the entire Yumen was no different from any other place in Longxi; it became dead silent.

Jiang Er's laughter returned. "The doctor didn't have time to examine me properly. I have to thank you for your help, little brother. It was only then that I was able to escape death. Now those two wounds have scabbed over, and besides the itching that keeps me nauseous at night, nothing else matters." He added oil to the burning cigarette, making it burn brighter. In the increased light, Li He could vaguely see the smoke swaying in the distance.

"I've made it this far thanks to Brother Jiang," Jiang Er interrupted Li He. "Don't be polite, little brother. Big Brother couldn't have made it this far without you. Have you been wanting to learn how to write? Now that I'm on night duty and have some free time, I can dip my finger in cigarette ash and teach you." He scratched his head and continued, "It's been so many years, and I don't recognize many words. Just treat it as a ready-made joke."

Li He heard his words, the wind still ringing in his ears, the high city walls barely blocking the biting cold of the night. He had forgotten about it for a while, and it took him a while to remember that it was something he had mentioned when he first spoke to Jiang Er, and it was because of this that he was willing to talk to Jiang Er for a while longer.

It hadn't been long since he'd forgotten the thought, though it wasn't entirely clear he'd forgotten it. The flowing river kept recurring in his mind, but his own steps were slowing down, so much so that he wondered if he'd ever return to that river again.

Jiang Er had just reminded him, and the river became a little clearer in his eyes. He remembered the black fish he had held in his hand from beginning to end in that beautiful dream. He began to move, and his hand loosened the hilt of the knife. He seemed to see the river flowing in front of him, a thin layer of ice floating on it, and fish swimming slowly under the ice.

Standing on the city wall at this moment, Li He suddenly felt a trace of true peace emerging before him, so he stretched out his hand, trying to retain the feeling that could comfort himself, trying to keep it a little longer.

He nodded seriously, "Then please teach me how to write my own name, Brother Jiang." Seeing that he was no longer immersed in his silence, Jiang Er put his arm around his shoulder in a more generous manner, just as he had done when they first met. He dipped his fingers in the still-warm cigarette ash and approached the firelight, and began to trace on his rough palm. [1]

"Let me think about it. The top of the character 'Li' is the crown of a plum tree, with branches above that, and roots below." The black ash curved into a shape. Li He leaned in to look at it and began to think about how he should draw the character 'He'. The surname at the beginning was just a random choice; it wouldn't matter if he couldn't learn it. "Then, below, there's a person holding the tree with outstretched hands. A head and two arms, and the body curves down smoothly in one stroke."

Jiang Er coughed a few times and looked at the words traced on his palm. The curved strokes were intermittent, vaguely forming a character shape. He felt a little embarrassed and said, "Little brother, just look at the strokes. It will definitely be better than mine if you trace them." Li He reached out and dipped his hand in cigarette ash, and in his palm, he outlined the shape of a person hugging a tree according to the order demonstrated by Jiang Er.

Jiang Er leaned over to take a look, clapping his hands and laughing as a gesture of friendly encouragement. The firelight shone on the words on his palm, and he remembered the time when he was a child learning calligraphy from a teacher. He smiled again with relief and continued to think about how to write the word "river".

"As for this 'He' character, it's all thanks to that time when I was a kid, I forgot to do my homework and was punished by being beaten, so I copied an entire scroll of bamboo slips." Jiang Er paused, then smoothly traced the shape of the character on the palm of his other hand. "I copied it down with the sentence in mind, so it's hard for me to remember it now. 'He', water. It originates from Kunlun Mountain beyond the Great Wall, flows out of the source and into the sea. It's derived from the sound of water."

He sighed and said, "I can only talk nonsense about what you mean. The river is the water flowing out from the north, going from northwest to southeast until it flows into the sea." Jiang Er pointed the words to Li He and waited for him to slowly draw them.

Li He listened to Jiang Er's explanation, but he didn't really understand what he was saying. He only heard about mountains and seas. He knew what mountains were, and he knew what rivers were. But he was a little confused about what the sea was. He didn't intend to ask. Since all rivers flow into the sea, he could just follow the direction of the stream, heading east and south until he saw the river emptied into the sea.

He carefully traced the word "river." On the left were five flowing lines, the middle one the longest, with the other four separated by twos on either side. He thought, this does bear some resemblance to the rivers he'd seen. He didn't recognize what was on the right, but his immediate memory was that there was also a longest line zigzagging down before bending back at the end like a river.

"Thank you, Brother Jiang." He finally smiled, unable to conceal the joy on his face. He repeatedly traced the word "river" with ash in his hand. Jiang Er rarely saw him like this, so he just let him do it while he dutifully added oil to make the smoke thicker and the fire brighter.

Li He lowered his head, learning to trace the character "河" (River) on every corner of his palm, every bend, every turn, every flowing line. When there wasn't enough space at the front, he turned it over and wrote it again on the back of his hand. He felt an immediate joy at finally knowing how to write the word "河," an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time. He lowered his eyes, unwilling to waste any space available for writing.

Li He wrote the word "He" over and over again until his hands were full, and he traced it in his mind again and again. He felt that the writing of the word "He" also flowed, with a small river on the left that branched out, and a large river on the right that flowed all the way to the south.

He was immersed in this joy. Every time he wrote the word "river" in his mind, he could hear the sound of the river flowing. He could also see the river in the distance through the misty white fog. It was the river flowing east and south, and it could flow all the way to the sea. He was curious about what the sea that the river could enter was like. Would it flow more violently or hold more water than the river?

He had no heart to look at the moon hanging in the sky at night, nor did he have the heart to listen to the rustling sounds in the wilderness brought by the wind passing through the city walls. He forced himself to remember how to write the word "river", repeating the sound of flowing river over and over again, to keep it in his mind once and for all, forever and ever.

For the first time, Li He felt that dawn had arrived too quickly. The cockcrow coincided with the rising sun, signaling their shift change. Reluctantly, he returned to his tent and lay down, closing his eyes to trace the characters he had just learned. The joy seemed to consume him, and he drifted off to sleep until someone opened the tent, and the clamor outside woke him again.

"It's snowing - the first snow of the year in Longxi." "What a heavy snow, auspicious snow means a good harvest -" Li He was disturbed by such excited voices. He stood up with the crowd and walked out of the tent.

White fluff drifted across the dark yellow sand, and he felt the moisture on his face. Li He suddenly understood. This snow was just like the snow in his dreams. The fire in the tent hadn't quite gone out, and the biting wind had died down a bit, leaving this first snowfall blanketing the Longxi wilderness.

Li He raised his head. The clouds above really looked like they were about to press down on the ground. Snowflakes like goose feathers fell quickly on his armor and on his face. The snowflakes that fell very quickly melted into water and dripped into his eyes. He wiped his eyes and was more excited than usual when he heard Jiang Er talking about the good harvest. "This is the first time I've seen such heavy snow in recent years. I don't know how my sister is doing at home. She must have made cotton clothes for me early. I must go back next year and wear new clothes." Such voices were quickly drowned out by the increasingly excited noise of the crowd.

Li He didn't return to the tent. He still had plenty of time left to sleep. He stood there, silently counting the falling snowflakes. He didn't see the countless smoke signals from his dreams, nor the unclear steps from his dreams. Instead, he saw the snow slowly falling across the loess city, piling up the yellow earth. Every step left a white mark, clearly visible. He wiped away the tears that drifted into his eyes and the large flakes of snow that had accumulated on his body.

In this kind of snow, I think of the small river at the end of the road. On the way back home, there will probably be the first heavy snow in Longxi this year...

[1] The seal script is used. Some of the explanations below are from Shuowen Jiezi. However, there are subtle differences between seal scripts, which will not be explained in detail here.