Chapter 15 Postman
Postman Li Bing said that he set out from Longgan County, Deshun Army in December of the Dinghai year. The person who asked him to deliver the bundle to Chongguang Temple in Xinfan County was a village headman in Zhuanglang named Qiao. On the night of the 28th day of the 12th lunar month before the festival, Qiao Lizheng stepped on the ashes in front of the stove shop and emerged from a puff of smoke to ask Xu Da, a night watchman who had just come out to the street, where the post office was. Xu Da looked at the bundle in Qiao Lizheng's hand and said, "Where can a postman who has died and has no money to bury his father travel to the post office at the end of the year?" Qiao Lizheng asked, "Where can a postman who has died and has no money to bury his father be found?" Xu Da thought of the postman Li Bing.
At this time, Li Bing's father, Li Yi, had not yet died. Twenty-foot-tall mourning banners had already been hung at the street corners, ward entrances, and wellheads of Longgan County. The county magistrate's clerks wrote down an order on paper and posted it on roadside monuments, ward entrances, and ancestral hall monuments. The order stated, "Anyone entering this county must dismount and wear mourning attire. Those on the road are forbidden from talking or laughing. All commerce must cease. Anyone found engaging in street peddling will be punished with twenty lashes. The head of household and all members of the same ward and township will also be punished with twenty lashes." The people unanimously obeyed. Curious about what had happened, they gathered and questioned the ward chief and gentry. The ward chief and gentry sent representatives to question the county magistrate's clerks. Someone with inside information said, "It's Mr. Wu. He's been dead for a few days."
In Li Bing's courtyard stood a coffin, two feet wide and six feet long, made of old wood, washed clean of mold, its edges still stained with wormholes and black spots. His father, Li Yi, was bedridden. Li Bing, in response to the county government's order, donned a mourning hat and joined the mourning procession. The hat, originally intended for his father's funeral, was also accompanied by mourning clothes and black shoes, all carefully selected from the materials to the style. Seeing Li Bing wearing the mourning hat whenever he went in and out, Li Yi asked why he was wearing mourning so early. Li Bing explained the county government's order to his father and the story of those who knew about it. Li Yi sighed and said, "It was Mr. Wu. I didn't realize it had been these past few days." He sighed again and continued, "I went to Nanyang with Mr. Wu. I hunted two golden dogs at the foot of Queshan. That night, the moon was dark and the wind was strong. I wielded my short spear and killed two golden dogs. On my return, I was promoted to sergeant." After discussing Queshan, he went on to talk about renovating the dam in Baocheng and saving someone trapped by rocks. Li Bing listened, but did not respond. Li Bing couldn't help but feel annoyed when he thought about his father repeating these words every few days, sometimes three or four times a day. However, no matter how annoyed he was, Li Bing had to admit that his father had once been a tough guy. Precisely because he acknowledged his father's contributions, Li Bing disliked hearing these words even more. To Li Bing, these words were not about the past, but about the present. They were not about honor, but about embarrassment. Now that his father was about to die, he had sent funeral invitations to all his cousins within the fifth degree of mourning, as well as their aunts and sisters-in-law, last month. Only two cousins replied in person, and one said he had to go to Jianzhou and couldn't come. The rest sent their children to reply, either saying that they were dead or about to die. Li Bing knew his father's distress very well. It was not only that he was worried about the funeral being handled poorly, but the key to his father's distress was that his son could not join the army. His son practiced martial arts for three years, but only worked as an errand boy in the post office. Li Bing also felt that he was unworthy of his father's upbringing and that he had lied to his father a few years ago. At that time, a military commander from the Xingzhou General Headquarters came to the Deshun Army to recruit soldiers. Li Bing was forced by his father to go and participate in the selection. He came back saying that he was not selected. In fact, he was selected. Li Bing lied that he had blinded one eye in a fight with someone and did not go to the re-selection.
The son worked as a courier in the post office, so naturally, both father and son were looked down upon. What made the Li family even more looked down upon was that they had no property at all. Dad had a monthly salary when he was in the army. After returning to the county, he wanted to buy a few acres of land, but was cheated and had to work as a barracks farmer. Later, Dad worked as a yard worker for a gentry household, earning one or two strings of cash a month. When it came to the son, he still earned one or two strings of cash a month. After seven or eight years, being looked down upon was not a big deal. Now that Dad was about to die, he couldn't even afford a decent coffin, and it was not a big deal that relatives didn't come to the funeral. If Dad's old boss, Mr. Wu, hadn't set up this grand ceremony of heavy snow and flying silk banners on the street, the son could still say, "Everyone has his own way of living." However, today, he has to worry. Li Bing thought to himself, "My father and Mr. Wu both served the country, sharing life and death. If my father's life is tough, I can blame him for his bad luck. But if his funeral isn't well-managed, I can blame him for being unfilial." Li Bing had lived for twenty-seven years, never once considering what kind of person he wanted to be. Now, he resolved to be a filial son, starting from the moment his father died, at the end of December of that year.
Thus, through the introduction of the night watchman Xu Da, Li Bing received twenty strings of cash and a package from Qiao Lizheng of Zhuanglang. He then walked south, passing Xingzhou, Jianzhou, Mianzhou, and Hanzhou. One evening in mid-February, he saw a mountain and knew that he would be in Xinfan after crossing it. He calmed down and went to find an inn to stay. It should have been the hour of Xu at that time. Li Bing said that he met Lao Tao, a native of Xingzhou, at the inn. Lao Tao held the wine with his left hand and also used his left hand to pick up the noodles in the soup. Lao Tao spoke to the innkeeper in Sichuan dialect, with a hint of Shaanxi. Li Bing saw that the people at the next table were eating stewed pig's head, and he wanted to eat it too. Feeling that he could not finish the whole pot, he walked over to Lao Tao's table and asked the fellow villager if he wanted to eat pig's head meat. Lao Tao smiled, and the corner of his mouth and the bags under his eyes squeezed out a groove on one cheekbone. Li Bing discovered that Lao Tao's cheekbone was sunken.
The two of them ate a pot of pork head, noodles, and two steamed buns each. Lao Tao said, "I am from Xingyuan Prefecture. When I was young, my family was poor, so I followed my father to Langzhong to sell alum. Not only alum, but also cinnabar and tin. Alum is abundant in Lizhou Langzhong, and the banknotes are cheap. It is expensive in Shuzhou. People in Shuzhou use cinnabar and alum to dye silk. If they need a large quantity, they ask someone to buy it from Lizhou Road. Dad made two trips a year when he was alive, and I make one trip a year. Isn't that another mule?" After listening to Lao Tao's story, Li Bing talked about the time when his father went to Nanyang with a short spear and killed two golden dogs in a row. He also said that his father built a dam in Baocheng and saved a person who was crushed by the dam stones. The topic returned to himself, saying that people went to the post office to deliver all kinds of things, including knockout drugs, aphrodisiacs, and elixirs of immortality, and some even delivered torn socks and bellybands. Lao Tao listened to Li Bing's story while squeezing the groove on his cheekbones. When the jar of wine was empty, Lao Tao asked for another one and talked about the thief Xiong San.
Lao Tao said, "There's a man named Xiong San on the mountain ahead, skilled with a broadsword. You see this scar on my face? It was inflicted by Xiong San with his sword two years ago. Xiong San and I have always been friends. Two years ago, he stole my coupons and change, but he hasn't robbed me since. He's a respectable man." You might not know, but this inn used to be home to a village, fields, tombs, and a post station. When the villagers moved to Xinfan, everything was gone, all stolen by Xiong San. The story begins when Xiong San stole a pig from a villager. To save the pig, the villagers organized a patrol team. A villager named Lu raised money to buy swords and clubs from the temple and equipped the team. When Xiong San came back, he was beaten and became an enemy of the villagers. The next year, Xiong San kidnapped Lu's children and demanded meat and grain in exchange. A villager brought meat and grain up the mountain, but only managed to get back the hands and feet of Lu's son. Xiong San said, "You came too late. I've eaten all the people, and that's all that's left." Then they took the meat and food and drove the men down the mountain. Seeing that Lu's children had died, the villagers were terrified. But the seven or eight patrolmen went up the mountain to seek revenge. They were gone for several days, and none of them returned. A villager who was selling medicine went to the mountain to harvest herbs and found the seven or eight patrolmen hanging upside down from a tree, their skin peeled, their hands and feet exposed, and their hearts, livers, spleens, and lungs carried away by wild beasts several miles away.
"You can't run into Xiong San," Lao Tao said. "What ifs are so rare?"
After listening to Lao Tao, Li Bing asked if Xiong San was still coming up the mountain. Lao Tao said, "Don't be afraid. If you meet him, just give him your things. He won't kill those who obey him. He will rob from the west half of the southern slope, and you can go from the east half. You will definitely not meet him. This is his rule - two people rob one person, A and B wait. You don't have to meet him. If you do, it's bad luck. Besides, you will definitely not meet him."
Lao Tao pointed to the thatched roof of the hall and whispered, "This inn is here, and Xiong San doesn't come to rob it because the inn's owner, Zeng Er, has an agreement with Xiong San. Zeng Er pays him monthly, and Xiong San doesn't steal the inn's customers. If you happen to run into Xiong San, just say you've stayed at Zeng Er's inn, and he'll definitely not rob you. Besides, you can't run into Xiong San either. There's no such thing as a chance of that happening."
At midnight that night, Li Bing, worried about running into Xiong San and being robbed and unable to explain what he had lost, rose from his bed, carried his bundle, and walked to the dark area behind the toilet. He unrolled the bundle. Inside were three bowls, a pot, a mule figurine, an inkstone, and a roll of cloth more than a foot wide, resembling both silk and satin. Li Bing tied the bundle and returned to his bed, where he lay for a long time, unable to sleep. The herders nearby snored loudly, shaking the beams of the house. Before dawn, Li Bing ate a bowl of noodles in the living room and headed south. It was an overcast day. Later, Li Bing said that in the morning, he thought about his conversation with Lao Tao the previous night and found it absurd. The mountains in Xinfan were like dirt bumpkins, with barely a few wild cats or mice. How could they possibly support the thief Xiong San? Lao Tao was a good storyteller, but he wasn't a real person. This thought made Li Bing regret having treated Lao Tao to stewed pork heads. Then he thought, since it was just a chance encounter, and he wouldn't see him again, he could let it go. It was this thought that ruined Li Bing. If it hadn't been for this thought, Li Bing might have walked around the mountain. Because of this thought, Li Bing wanted to bring himself back to reality after believing Lao Tao's absurd story, so he deliberately took the mountain road.
The mountain road was more than two feet wide, and was paved with bricks diagonally for about a hundred steps. The dirt road behind it was rammed, so it was not difficult to walk on. But the mountain was extremely quiet, and it became quieter and quieter as he walked, as if there was not even a wild cat or mouse nearby. A tree of the Chinese magnolia twisted its body and stretched a branch over his head, holding a handful of ice and snow. Snow foam fell into his eyes, and Li Bing blinked, suddenly feeling that the sky had darkened a little. Li Bing became suspicious, and persuaded himself that what Lao Tao said could not be true. How could there be so many what-ifs? Going further, he was tripped by old crows and sedges, and hit on the forehead by a branch holding ice and snow. At this time, Li Bing heard a hoarse voice saying, "Don't go."
Li Bing stopped and saw that it wasn't a branch that had struck his forehead, but a knife. Behind the blade was a rusty hilt. Behind the hilt was a dark hand, like a bear's paw. Li Bing wanted to look again, but he heard a hoarse voice say, "Don't bother with your eyeballs."
Li Bing asked, "Xiong San?"
The hoarse voice said, "Bundle."
Li Bing glanced at the bundle. His voice was hoarse as he said, "No, I'll hang you from a tree and let the dogs bite you."
Hearing this, Li Bing couldn't help but think of the seven or eight patrolmen who had died tragically, as Lao Tao had mentioned. His heart skipped a beat, and blood rushed out of him. What he saw and heard merged together, and two worlds, one bright and one dark, flickered before his eyes. Li Bing took the bundle off his body and threw it with all his strength. The bundle flew several feet away and found a branch to hang on. The dumb man pounced on the branch like a bear hunting its prey. At this moment, Li Bing saw a chance to survive - where the dumb man had just appeared, there was a snow blanket woven by crows' beaks half a man's height. Li Bing immediately jumped into it. The situation at that time was just as Lao Tao had said: the dumb man or the bear took the bundle, but they didn't have to kill anyone.
Before noon that day, Li Bing walked into the Xinfan County Yamen. Li Bing said that he had thought about going back to Longgan County and lying to Qiao Lizheng, saying that the things had been delivered. If Qiao Lizheng knew that they had not been delivered in the future, and came to the post station to find him again, he would say, "Why are you looking for me? Why don't you go find the monks from Chongguang Temple?" However, after coming out of the gap in the woods that day, Li Bing thought more and more that something was wrong. In the past, it took one or two months to travel from Xingzhou to Shuzhou, and the hire fee was eight to ten strings of cash, and food and lodging was only two strings of cash. Qiao Lizheng was willing to spend twenty strings of cash to hire a deliveryman, and before the festival, there must be something extraordinary in this bundle, if not a family heirloom, then an urgent letter. Last night, Li Bing opened the bundle outside the toilet and looked at it. There was no urgent letter inside. Thinking of the bowls, he thought that they must be the Qiao family heirlooms. So he decided to report the case. On the way, he asked a few people and found out the location of the Yamen. After entering the yamen, a floor sweeper asked him to wait for a moment. After waiting for half an hour, a yamen runner wearing a hat came out of the gatehouse, waved him over, and told him to go to the case room to wait for trial. He waited for another half an hour. Finally, a man who looked like a clerk came in with a stack of hemp paper and asked seven or eight questions. Li Bing still remembers five of them now -
Question: Who are you?
Answer: He is from Longgan County and his name is Li Bing, the postman.
Question: Who will hire you?
Answer: Qiao Lizheng from Zhuanglang.
Question: Who robbed it?
Answer: Mountain Man Xiong San.
Question: Whose burden is it?
Answer: I don’t know.
Question: What’s in the bundle?
Answer: I don’t know.
The first few questions and answers were all true. When the clerk asked what was in the bundle, Li Bing was cautious and didn't say he had seen it. He was afraid that the government office wouldn't be able to find the bundle, and Qiao Li was making a fuss. If he said something now, he would have to pay for it later. So let's put it aside for now and decide whether to admit it or not later. After the clerk asked these questions, he told him to go back and wait. Li Bing said, "I'm not from Xinfan County." The clerk didn't say anything else. That day, Li Bing left the county office and didn't eat all day. He was worried about whether he would go home and wondered if his father had passed away. Now that he had lost his employer's family heirloom, if they demanded compensation, he would definitely not be able to pay. Even if he didn't pay, he would definitely not be able to work as a postman in the future. If he couldn't be a soldier and lost his job at the post office, his father would be furious. He thought about it again: his father was going to die anyway, at most in a month or two. But no matter what, his father couldn't die because of his son's anger. He also remembered how, before he left, he'd told his father that after this trip, he'd buy a painted cypress coffin and place it in the yard. When his father passed away, he'd set up three tables for a buffet, offering a bowl of mutton noodles to anyone who came to pay their respects. His father had taken his promise seriously and praised him for his progress. With this thought, Li Bing decided to be filial to his father to the end. He wouldn't return to Longgan, but would find a place to stay until the county government solved the case. If they couldn't, he'd return to Longgan in a few months. By then, his father would be dead, so he couldn't blame his son for being unfilial. At least in the month or so since his son had been out, his father thought he'd have a cypress coffin, making his death less painful.
This wait lasted for over a month. After a month, Li Bing told Wang Lu, the keeper of the pawnshop at the yamen, that the yamen runners and clerks hadn't even come to look for the bundle. He had been to the yamen several times during that month, but the yamen officials refused to see him. Wang Lu, the keeper of the pawnshop at the yamen, asked, "You really don't know who owns that?"
Li Bing said, “I don’t know.”
Wang Lu asked, "Has the government never contacted you in the past month?"
Li Bing said, "I did, once."
Wang Lu asked, "What do I want to see you for?"
Li Bing said, "Ask what's in the bundle and who gave it away."
Wang Lu asked, "What is it? Who is it?"
Li Bing said, “I don’t know.”
Wang Lu smiled and said, "I have to make you honest." He counted out ten coins and placed them on the table, holding them down with a silver stick. Wang Lu said, "One hundred coins for one word, will you?"
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