Chapter 2 The Man in Green The river froze over as winter approached, and the ferry crossing was also closed...
The old porter lifted a corner of the cloth covering his carrying pole, took out a piece of steamed bun, took a big bite, chewed it vigorously, puffed out his cheeks, avoided the chipped rim of the bowl, and slurped up a mouthful of scalding hot rice soup.
Only a handful of rice is put into a pot, and each person scoops out a bowl, but there are only a few grains of rice at the bottom of the bowl.
"Hey, you there, little girl, and you, big brother, would you like a bowl?" The porter warmly greeted the little girl huddled by the temple pillar. "It's so cold, don't just chew on your bread, come and have a bowl of hot rice porridge to warm up."
The little girl's hands and feet were already freezing, and she was also terrified by the ghost story, so she looked hesitantly at the porters.
The porters traveled east and west, making their home wherever they went. They met all sorts of people on the road, and often helped each other out, especially since two bowls of rice soup were not worth much.
The porter noticed her hesitant expression and immediately said, "Give them two more bowls, so they can have a hot drink too."
The bowl was filled with rice porridge, and the porter said with a simple smile, "Come here."
The young girl looked at the middle-aged man beside her as if seeking his approval. After he nodded slightly, she straightened up, leaning on a temple pillar, and slowly walked towards the bowl of rice soup, holding it in both hands. Just as she was about to thank him, the porter gestured with his chin toward the north corner of the dilapidated temple: "Please give one to that person for me too."
The young girl nodded, turned around with the bowl in her hands, and walked very lightly, as if afraid of disturbing the man in blue. When she got closer, she felt a sudden nervousness, and after a moment of hesitation, she spoke softly, "This... young master..."
The man in blue robes leaning against the wall opened his eyes and turned around.
The moment he turned his head, the little girl froze on the spot, her mouth agape, staring blankly at his handsome face.
She couldn't describe it, but since she was in her mother's womb, she had never seen anyone so beautiful, so breathtakingly beautiful. Especially when the other person was facing her, the girl's chest pounded like a drum. Suddenly, her face turned red, and she became a little stutterer, unable to speak properly: "Young...Young Master...please...have some hot soup..."
The man in blue steadily caught the rice soup she offered, saying, "Thank you."
The little girl noticed the hand he used to take the earthenware bowl; even his knuckles were clean and flawless. In contrast, her own hands were rough and yellowish, covered in black grime from helping with farm work.
She instantly became flustered and quickly pulled her hands into her sleeves, but the sleeves were also covered in stains and even worn out. She suddenly felt embarrassed, her fingers twisting tightly around the cuffs, and she stammered, "It's...it's...the uncle who's carrying things...he let me...let me bring it to you..."
The man in blue turned his head and thanked the porters again.
The porter, holding an iron ladle, waved his hand dismissively at him with a touch of江湖气 (jianghu qi, a kind of chivalrous spirit): "Don't be polite. There are many inconveniences when you're traveling. A bowl of rice soup is nothing. It's just that it's too cold outside, and it's even colder when the wind blows at night. This dilapidated temple is drafty from all sides. Have a hot drink to warm yourself up, otherwise you won't be able to stand it." Then he called out, "Girl, here, take this bowl for you."
"Oh my," the old porter who had just been telling stories glanced at the man in blue, his eyes lighting up. He swallowed the bread in his mouth and exclaimed sincerely, "Young master, you are so handsome!"
The man in blue smiled, and the porter asked casually, "Traveling alone? Where are you from?"
The man in blue nodded slightly and replied, "Chang'an."
"No wonder, you have an extraordinary air about you, young master. You must be a distinguished person from Chang'an. You must have come quite a distance. Where are you headed?"
The man in blue paused for a moment, recalling the porters' conversation, and then said, "Visiting a friend."
A row of icicles hanging upside down under the eaves was slowly melting, dripping rhythmically in the cold night, leaving several shadowy puddles on the yellow earth.
The sound of dripping water had no effect on the porters who had carried heavy loads for dozens of miles during the day. Exhausted, they huddled together against the windward side of the dilapidated temple wall, curled up, wrapped in coarse linen clothes, and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the ground. Soon, the temple was filled with the sound of snoring, which continued for most of the night.
The man in blue had excellent hearing, and being in such a noisy environment meant he was destined to have trouble sleeping. He sat against the wall, opened his eyes in the darkness, and heard the soft rustling of fabric coming from diagonally opposite him—the ashen-faced, gaunt middle-aged man was waking the young girl beside him and whispering, "Qin San..."
The little girl named Qin San, still sleepy-eyed, said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Big brother..."
The middle-aged man didn't waste any words. He slowly propped himself up and said, "Get up, let's go."
Qin San rubbed her eyes, glanced at the already brightening sky outside, and then got up. Perhaps her legs were a little numb from being curled up for so long, she rested her knees for a while before grabbing the bundle beside her, tying a knot on her shoulder, and quietly following her elder brother outside.
As she reached the entrance, Qin San subconsciously glanced at the man in blue standing in the corner. A flickering fire still burned in the dilapidated temple, enough to illuminate every corner, though it was rather dim. Qin San's turn to look resulted in her eyes meeting the man in blue's. It was as if she'd been caught red-handed peeping at someone. Feeling guilty, she quickly looked away and hurried after the middle-aged man as they left.
The man in blue seemed to stand up in her last glimpse of him. Qin San wasn't sure until she had walked quite a distance and climbed over a bare yellow hill before she had the courage to turn around. There she saw the man in blue walking a hundred paces away from her. The first rays of dawn pierced the sky behind him, bathing him in a light golden glow.
Qin San stared intently again, even somewhat mesmerized, completely unaware of his footing, and tripped over a clump of dry brambles on the ground.
"Ouch." The loess soil, frozen solid after the dead of winter, was almost as hard as stone, so her fall was quite painful, and she felt a sharp, piercing pain in her knee.
The middle-aged man was ahead of her and naturally didn't have time to help her up. He turned around and saw the girl lying on the ground: "Why can't you watch where you're going? You're such a big girl and you still fall down."
"I didn't notice," she muttered softly, slowly getting up. Only when she rubbed her knee did she realize that her palm was scraped.
"Be careful when you walk," the middle-aged man reminded him, then added with concern, "Are you alright?"
"It's alright."
"Are you really alright?"
Qin San blew on his palms to remove the dust: "It just hurts a little."
“Be careful, don’t be so careless all the time. You broke half a front tooth when you were little, and you spoke with a lisp for a long time. How about your knees? Do they hurt? Do you want your big brother to carry you?” The man said as he brushed the dust off her clothes.
The excruciating pain in his knee had subsided. Qin San shook his head: "It should just be a scrape. I can walk by myself."
"Roll up your trouser legs so I can see," the middle-aged man said, bowing slightly.
Qin San quickly stepped back: "Big brother, it's really okay, it doesn't hurt much anymore, there are still people behind us."
The middle-aged man turned around and saw the man in blue robes who had stayed in the dilapidated temple with him the night before slowly approaching, leaning on his bamboo cane.
Qin San tugged at the man: "Brother, let's go."
The man nodded and tried to help her up, but Qin San pulled away, saying, "No need."
Seeing that she was walking without any limp, only that her speed had slowed down, I didn't insist any further.
Qin San lowered his voice and whispered to the man, "Brother, the guy behind us is really good-looking."
The man smiled and said, "Yes, with such fair skin and delicate features, you can tell at a glance that she must be from a wealthy and noble family. She's definitely not someone that a poor family could raise. Our family can't possibly be worthy of her."
Qin San was taken aback, then looked embarrassed and annoyed that his thoughts had been exposed: "Big brother, what nonsense are you talking about?!"
His own youngest sister was already sixteen, and as someone who had been through it all, how could he not see the girl's budding feelings of first love? "I'm not talking nonsense, and you shouldn't overthink it either."
Putting everything else aside, just looking at the fabric of their clothes, it's clear that they couldn't afford to wear anything from an ordinary family. They wouldn't even have the spare money to buy their little sister a handkerchief made of that kind of material.
For families as impoverished as theirs, having enough to eat and wear is no easy feat, let alone anything else.
If this girl were to be betrothed to a family in the future, at most she could only marry a farmer like Sun Jia's Ah Shui, who would have land, an ox for plowing, a mule for pulling a millstone, and even a cave dwelling to live in.
The man pondered to himself that it was time to start thinking about it. A few days ago, Sun Erniang had come to his house to propose marriage. He considered that, after looking around, his third sister could at most marry the youngest son of the Wang family, who owned a mill, but the youngest son of the Wang family was rather cunning and not as honest and loyal as Sun's Ah Shui.
Before he could even answer Sun Erniang, the girl had already set her sights on a passerby.
Qin San denied it: "I didn't!"
She knew perfectly well that the man behind her was a noble young man draped in silk and satin, while she was a country girl in coarse linen clothes. Even without her elder brother's reminder, she knew she was not worthy of his status and would never dare to harbor any improper thoughts.
The middle-aged man didn't reply, but stared intently at the endless earthen slopes and crisscrossing gullies ahead. Qin San glanced at her older brother's gloomy profile, then fell silent and continued on her way.
The man in blue who had followed suddenly spoke up: "Excuse me, gentlemen, do you know how to get to the Yellow River?"
The two stopped at the sound, and Qin San hurriedly said, "I know, go around that ridge and see that short, bare tree..."
The man in blue robes said in a gentle voice, "I'm sorry, I can't see."
Upon hearing this, Qin San was stunned for a moment before reacting. He first looked directly into the other person's eyes. These were clearly a pair of affectionate phoenix eyes, but the pupil color was somewhat pale, and because the eyes were not looking at anything, they revealed a sense of emptiness.
During the brief moment of eye contact, Qin Sancai noticed that his gaze was unfocused; although he seemed to be looking at her, his eyes lacked any focus.
He couldn't see it.
Qin San was caught off guard; such a handsome person was actually blind.
But he didn't seem blind at all. Last night, he clearly caught the bowl of rice soup she handed him steadily, without his hands groping aimlessly in the air, as if he could see. And when he walked—Qin San then noticed that the other person was holding a bamboo cane, which was actually a white cane.
Qin San suddenly felt a pang of regret, a touch of pity for the strangers he was meeting for the first time, and blurted out, "Actually, we also..."
She stopped mid-sentence because the older man next to her pinched her.
The middle-aged man continued, "If you keep going east, you'll reach the Yellow River in about ten more miles."
The man in blue: "Thank you, brother."
No need for thanks.
As the man in blue headed east along the mountain path, Qin Sancai tugged at her elder brother's sleeve and whispered, "There are so many cliffs and ravines along the mountain path, and there's a canyon ahead. He can't see anything, and it would be dangerous if he slipped. Since we're going to cross the river anyway, why don't we lead the way for him?"
“He’s blind, how did he manage to walk all the way from Chang’an to here? Who guided him? You can see, but you still fell down. I think even a blind man is better than you.”
Qin San feigned anger: "You're criticizing me again!"
The middle-aged man said with a hint of helplessness, "We're not on the same path as him, so why should we walk the same road?"
Qin San fell silent, gazing absently at the tall figure of the man in blue, his robes fluttering in the cold wind, exuding an exceptionally elegant and otherworldly air.
The traveler in blue robes traveled alone for half a day and passed through a small village with only a few households. An elderly man sat on a stone stool at the entrance of the cave dwelling, taking softened thorns from a basin of water and weaving them into vegetable baskets so that his children could take them to the market to exchange for grain.
The man in blue stepped forward to ask for water. The old man rose shakily from the stone stool, his back hunched, and pushed open the courtyard gate woven from thorns to enter the house. After a short while, he came out with a small half-bowl of murky, yellowish water and handed it to the man in blue: "Drink this!"
He took it and drank it, but it had a strong, muddy taste. The man in blue frowned slightly: "Old man, this water..."
The old man thought he wanted more, so he waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "There's only half a bowl, no more."
"No, why does this water smell muddy?"
“Oh, you must be from out of town. You look like a picky person who can’t get used to our water,” the old man said, his dim eyes scrutinizing the man in blue. “It’s so dry here. We have to walk several miles to the well in Geduo Village to fetch water. The bottom of the well is full of mud, so it naturally has a muddy smell.”
No wonder the man in blue didn't hesitate any longer and drank it all in one gulp.
"If you had come a couple of days earlier, you could have drunk the snow water I've stored in my jar. It's so clean, without this muddy taste." The old man took the empty bowl and said with a smile, "The strong men in my family have gone on a long journey. This time they've gone far away and haven't been back for almost two months. Only a little kid is left, who's as weak as this old man. He can only carry half a bucket back each time. Water is hard to come by, and there's barely any left in the bucket. I can only give you half a bowl to quench your thirst."
"Thank you, half a bowl is enough." He then asked the old man for directions.
The old man quickly explained the directions to him: "It's not far from here. We used to drink water from the big river, but that water is even muddier... Oh, by the way, do you want to cross the river or take a boat? The big river freezes over in winter, and there's hardly anyone guarding the ferry crossing. It's been months since we've been able to take a boat."
"Cross the river."
"Crossing the river is possible; the frozen river is still walkable, but the ice is slippery, so you'd better be careful."
After bidding farewell to his father-in-law, the man in blue walked against the biting wind, his bamboo cane tapping the frozen ground repeatedly.
Blindness did not hinder his pace. The man in blue arrived at the frozen riverbank, stood facing the wind, and remained there for most of the day.
Before the world was unified, this place was the dividing line between the states of Qin and Jin – the Qin-Jin Grand Canyon.
The Yellow River seems to burst forth from the heavens, splitting the mountains and gathering streams to divide the Loess Plateau in two, a scene that can be described as "a giant roaring and splitting two mountains, its torrents shooting eastward to the sea."
The mountains on both sides are high and the gorges are deep. Countless rocks of various shapes are embedded in the steep cliffs. Some timid people dare not walk close to the cliff face, for fear that a loose rock will fall and smash a bloody hole in their forehead, and they will most likely die.
The once surging river is now frozen solid several feet deep in the winter, with the solid ice connecting the two banks, allowing people, livestock, and vehicles to pass through.
A few passersby glanced at him frequently. The charcoal deliveryman, leading his mule, crossed the river twice on the frozen ground, looking at the motionless man in blue standing on the riverbank with a strange expression. The longer he stood there, the more he resembled a statue, with only his clothes fluttering in the cold wind.
"Hey, what a weirdo." The charcoal deliveryman muttered, completely baffled. Besides, the man had his eyes closed; surely he couldn't just be sleeping there?
The strange man stood still for a long time, seemingly lost in thought with his eyes closed, but the noise from all directions flooded into his ears like a tide. He could even hear the sound of water flowing under the thick ice, as well as the clanging and crisp sound of metal colliding against the wind.
The man in blue tilted his head slightly, carefully listening to the clanging of metal against the wind, a sound mingled with the clamor of the bustling city. Then, with a creak, the door and window swung open, and a woman's high-pitched voice called out, "Hey you, the mirror grinder..."
Lian Tie was a rattle used by craftsmen who polished mirrors, scissors, and knives to attract female customers when they went from street to street. It was made of several iron sheets stacked together and made a clanging sound when shaken, like a bell or a chime, and was called Jing Gui.
The woman's last sentence was drowned out by the shouts of other peddlers, leaving only the clanging of metal sheets.
The man in blue felt a sudden jolt in his eardrums and immediately raised his hand to cover his ears, withdrawing his consciousness from the surrounding area of several miles away. He seemed to have suddenly come back to life and was no longer a statue standing stiffly on the riverbank.
The man in blue, holding a bamboo cane, tapped a few roadblocks, then stepped onto the cracked ice bed, skirting the large ice floes beneath his feet, and traversed the Qin-Jin Gorge.
A note from the author:
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