Chapter 38 My name is Long Buxi, you can also call me...
"Yes." The young man put down what he was holding, walked over to Cheng Ying, and stood about half a meter away from her, looking her up and down.
Cheng Ying had shoulder-length short hair, delicate eyebrows and beautiful features, especially her eyes, which were exceptionally bright and spirited. Her gaze was calm and even, yet her face carried an air of authority and sharpness. Her skin wasn't the fair, jade-like white of many girls; it was a healthy, lustrous honey-colored complexion. The purple Miao dress embroidered with intricate floral and bird patterns and blue butterflies made her look even fairer and more beautiful, both delicate and spirited.
Feeling the young man's gaze upon her, Cheng Ying felt neither embarrassed nor displeased, because she knew that the person opposite her was simply looking at her without any malice.
As the two drew closer, and it approached noon, sunlight streamed through the windowpane into the living room, brightening the dim space and allowing Cheng Ying to see the man before her more clearly.
The man was very tall, with jet-black hair, and wore a deep blue Miao costume embroidered with exquisite and intricate patterns. The embroidery patterns were all made with silver thread, including birds with long tails, blue butterflies of different sizes, a dragon, and two snakes.
The dragon coiled around his lean waist, twisting and writhing behind him with its claws outstretched, while two snakes snaked along his straight trouser legs, both looking incredibly lifelike.
He was wearing a pair of black cloth shoes without any patterns.
On his left wrist was a string of small, openwork silver bracelets. At intervals along the bracelets were four oval bells, each about the size of a chopstick tip. But for some reason, when he moved and his hand moved, none of the bells rang.
Cheng Ying's gaze fell on the man's androgynous, stunningly beautiful face, and she was momentarily lost in thought.
She felt like she had seen this man's face somewhere before.
But no matter how hard she racked her brains, she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.
The man stared at her for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled and asked, "Cheng Ying, am I pretty?"
Cheng Ying snapped out of her daze and frowned: "Who are you? How do you know my name is Cheng Ying?"
“You haven’t answered me yet.” The man stubbornly shook his head. “I asked you first. Only after you answer can I answer your question. Don’t you Han people value reciprocity?”
Cheng Ying then realized the problem: the man opposite her could speak Mandarin, although he spoke it rather awkwardly, and every word he used was unexpected, such as "yes," "I'll ask first," and "your."
He stammered, like someone who stutters.
Cheng Ying found it somewhat amusing, but said very seriously, "You're handsome. You're the most handsome man I've ever seen in my life."
The man stared straight into her eyes, making sure she was telling the truth and wasn't lying. A captivating smile appeared on his beautiful face, and he said gently, his voice as clear as a mountain spring, "My name is Long Buxi. People in the village call me Arno. You can also call me Arno."
“Long Buxi, Anuo…” Cheng Ying murmured to herself, “Long is one of the seven ancient surnames of the Miao people, encompassing 12 clans. It is second only to the Wu surname, which is the most prominent of the five clans. Buxi is a traditional Miao name, representing an ancient tribe. Anuo comes from the Miao word for ‘mountain eagle,’ symbolizing courage and freedom… Although your name sounds a bit like a girl’s name, both your formal name and nickname have special meaning in the Miao people. Long Buxi, no, Anuo, you are not an ordinary person, are you? Before I lost consciousness, I heard someone call you Young Chieftain. Are you the grandson of the old chieftain of Pucang Village?”
“You seem to know quite a bit about our Miao people.” Long Buxi didn’t deny it, and turned to walk to his medicine table to continue working on his herbs.
“Your father, Cheng Jiantong, has been delivering mail to our village for over twenty years. Everyone in the village knows him, and he's mentioned his two daughters quite often, especially you. A month ago, your father fell off a cliff in the Ayishan Mountains and was rescued by the people in our village. Given the severity of his injuries, he probably can't continue working as a postman. But you look somewhat like him, and you're wearing the green uniform of the post office. Gasu and I can conclude that you are Cheng Jiantong's daughter, and you've taken over his job to deliver mail to our Pucang Village.”
Cheng Ying suddenly realized, "So, before I fainted, when you said you were going to carry me back to be your wife... you deliberately said that to me?"
Long Buxi paused in his pounding of medicine. "Don't take this as a joke."
For some reason, Cheng Ying breathed a sigh of relief and asked again, "Before I fell down the mountain, I saw many colorful poisonous snakes, insects, and spiders approaching me, but they didn't bite me. Were those things the Gu creatures raised by your Pucang Village?"
"You've misunderstood," Long Buxi said without turning her head.
"I'm absolutely certain, I didn't see wrong. I was fully conscious before you came to rescue me," Cheng Ying said with great certainty.
Long Buxi didn't speak; the only sound in the large living room was the thumping of his mortar and pestle.
Seeing that he was unwilling to talk, Cheng Ying tactfully asked other questions: "How long have I been unconscious? Have my parents come looking for me? I fell from such a height, so logically my legs and body should show signs of broken bones, but apart from some pain, I don't seem to have any particularly serious injuries. When you rescued me, did you see my dog? Did you make and apply the medicine to my body? Did you change my clothes?"
Long Buxi stopped grinding the medicine, poured the ground medicine into a small medicine jar filled with various powders, and stirred it for a while.
After mixing everything up, he held the container in his hands, walked up to her, and patiently answered all her questions, not minding how many she asked: "You were unconscious for a week. The day after I rescued you, I sent Gasu out of the mountains to the post office to explain that you had fallen down the mountain and to inform your parents that you were recuperating in our village. My sister Yalin has been taking care of you during this time. I made the medicine, she applied it to your body, and she changed your clothes. Your dog has almost recovered this morning and went to the inner village with Yalin."
After he finished speaking, he handed a small medicine jar, about the size of his palm, to Cheng Ying. “Take this medicine back with you. You are awake now and can apply it yourself. After lunch, apply all the medicine in the jar to your joints. In a few days, you will be fully recovered and able to leave the mountain.”
Hearing that Dahuang was safe and sound, Cheng Ying felt relieved. She took the jar and then asked, "How much longer do I have to stay here?"
Long Buxi smiled enigmatically, "Cheng Ying, don't you think you're asking too many questions?"
Cheng Ying: ......
Long Buxi said, "If you have nothing else to do, you can go upstairs to rest. It's lunchtime, and I need to go find some vegetables to cook."
Cheng Ying said, "I think I've rested long enough. Do you want to go out? Can I go out with you?"
Long Buxi did not refuse. He turned around, picked up a small bamboo basket, and walked downstairs.
Cheng Ying put the small medicine bottle on the ground and followed him downstairs.
They walked up the stairs to a rocky outcrop about ten meters high, where the stilts supporting the house stood.
They descended from the rocky steps, one after another, to the main stone path paved with small pebbles.
Purple and blue irises bloom along the roadside. The flowers, like purple and blue butterflies, sway gently in the breeze on the iris leaves, which resemble long, narrow, green swords, as if they are dancing gracefully. The beauty is like an oil painting.
The air was filled with the faint fragrance of irises.
The fragrance was quite strange. It wasn't a strong, overpowering scent, nor was it completely odorless. Only when you got close could you detect a faint, sweet fragrance, fresh yet carrying a hint of herbs, and also the earthy smell of damp soil.
The fragrance is extremely faint and dissipates with the slightest breeze; only by staying close to the flower can one continuously smell its delicate aroma.
Cheng Ying watched as the irises bloomed all the way to the edge of the horizon. The flowers were so beautiful, yet it seemed no one was picking them. Her hands itched, and she wanted to pick a couple of flowers.
She also thought that this was Pucang Village, and the Miao people in the village were all unborn Miao, with many taboos. If she rashly picked it, she didn't know what trouble she might cause.
After thinking for a moment, she asked Long Buxi, who was walking ahead, "May I pick two of these irises?"
Despite her bold and independent personality, she is still a girl, and she has all the love of beauty and flowers that girls have. When she sees beautiful wildflowers in the wild, she will pick some to take home and put in a vase to enjoy, which makes her feel happy.
Long Buxi turned around, "Why do you want to pick irises?"
"Because they're beautiful. So many irises blooming right by the roadside. Wouldn't it be a shame not to pick a couple and put them in a vase in my room to enjoy them properly?" Cheng Ying replied matter-of-factly.
Long Buxi raised an eyebrow slightly, her pale lips parting slightly: "Do you know that the iris is the flower of the dead?"
"Is that even a saying?" Cheng Ying asked, puzzled.
Why would he call such a beautiful flower a "dead man's flower"?
Long Buxi's gaze fell on a nearly withered blue iris, and she said in a faint voice, "In our village, there has always been a legend that irises usually grow on the graves of the dead, especially on the graves of lovers who are separated by death. They bloom the best there. There used to be many lovers buried along this road."
Cheng Ying was horrified by what he said, and immediately withdrew her hand that was about to pick the flower.
She straightened up, looked around, and said, "You people from Pucang Village are really strange. Shouldn't people be buried in graves with tombstones when they die? Why do you just bury people on the flat roadside and plant so many irises on top of them? What if someone walks through the irises and steps on these spirits of the dead? What if they get angry?"
Long Buxi looked at her strangely, "Aren't you a soldier? You still believe in so-called ghosts?"
Cheng Ying: ......
Her dad is really something. Didn't he say he wasn't familiar with the people of Pucang Village? Why is he telling everyone here everything?
She said expressionlessly, "I used to be a soldier. Faith is one thing, but respect is another. When I come to your Pucang Village Miao territory, I must respect your customs and the deceased. I can't just trample on their graves."
Long Buxi shook his head with amusement and said in a low voice, "You Han people are really naive. You believe everything we say."
"What did you say?" Cheng Ying didn't hear clearly.
"It's nothing." Long Buxi looked at her and asked, "Why do you like irises?"
Cheng Ying said, "I don't like irises. I just think they look nice and I want to pick a couple. My favorite flowers are white jasmine and slightly yellow magnolia."
“I like jasmine and magnolia…” Long Buxi murmured.
"Why don't you like irises?" he asked again.
Cheng Ying couldn't answer, only saying, "Everyone has different tastes. Irises are beautiful, but they're not common flowers, and their color is different from other common flowers. Looking at them, it gives off an eerie sense of disharmony. They look..."
Like poison, just like the man in front of her. He was clearly very handsome and spoke very gently, but she just felt that beneath his extremely beautiful and alluring face, he was actually a very dangerous person.
This was her instinctive intuition, born from her long time in the military, having seen too many people and experienced too many dangerous things in both her past and present lives.
Although Long Buxi did not answer the question she had asked earlier, it was an indisputable fact that Long Buxi was the young clan leader of Pucang Village. She was certain that when she fell down the mountain, she saw many colorful poisonous creatures. According to Cheng Jiantong and Zhuo Zuilan, the people of Pucang Village knew how to make and use Gu poison.
When Miao people practice Gu (poisonous insects), they typically select venomous creatures such as snakes, insects, spiders, and scorpions, place them in a specific environment, and use special methods to refine them into Gu worms. They then use their secret Gu-driving techniques to control these Gu worms and make them work for them.
The Gu worms that are refined are usually placed in a specific container in groups of dozens or hundreds, and they keep biting and killing each other until the last one survives. Only after eating Miao medicine, which is special to the Miao people, and enduring the various strong effects of the Miao medicine can it become a Gu worm.
To control these violent Gu worms, the master of the Gu worms must be even more ruthless and cruel than the worms themselves, and be able to overwhelm and subdue them from multiple angles. Only then will the worms be willing to be driven by their master.
Many years ago, Cheng Ying had read some documents about Miao tribes in the library. She knew that the succession of the chieftain of Miao tribes was not necessarily a matter of son inheriting father’s position. Whoever was the strongest in making Gu and whoever could control more Gu worms could become the next chieftain.
She didn't know which kind of inheritance Long Buxi possessed, but the faint, cold aura emanating from him made her instinctively feel uncomfortable.
She didn't really want to have too much contact with Long Buxi, but he was her savior. She was still living in his stilted house and using his medicine. She also wanted to find the Miao people who had saved her father to thank them in person. This would inevitably require her to contact Long Buxi to understand the situation, so she came out with him and answered all her questions.
"What are you looking at?" Long Buxi waited for her to continue.
Cheng Ying couldn't very well speak ill of him to his face, so she could only say, "He looks very beautiful."
Long Buxi laughed. His skin was very white, the kind of pale color that is often hidden from the light. Under the sunlight, his smile made his features particularly striking, like a ghostly fairy living in the mountains and fields, always able to attract people's attention and captivate their souls.
He bent down, extended his pale, bony left hand, and plucked a blooming iris. The bell on his silver bracelet swayed gently with his movement, but no sound came out.
He handed the iris with its long stem to Cheng Ying, saying, "Here, I'll pick another one for you."
Cheng Ying did not accept the flowers. "I see you are no more than twenty years old, even younger than me. You must be unmarried, right? I read in a book that your Miao people have many taboos. People of your Miao people, especially unmarried people, regardless of gender, will give something to the other party with special meaning. I dare not accept the flowers you picked for me. If anyone is going to pick them, it will be me."
Long Buxi was stunned for a moment, probably not expecting her to say that, nor did she expect her to be so wary.
He smiled helplessly and said, "Comrade Cheng Ying, it's been almost thirty years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. We people of Pucang Village are not as feudal and ignorant as you Han people imagine. Haven't you noticed that I can speak Mandarin?"
"I've figured it out." Cheng Ying nodded. "So why can you speak Mandarin?"
“Every few years, the government sends officials to our village to teach literacy classes. We have several women who have married out of the village, two Han Chinese women who have married out of the village, and four soldiers who have joined the army. The letters and packages that you and your father sent to our Pucang Village were sent by them to contact their families,” Long Buxi said as she walked forward, holding the iris.
Cheng Ying followed in his footsteps, somewhat surprised. She hadn't expected that the seemingly mysterious and ancient Pucang Village was actually not as feudal and backward as she had imagined.
She asked, "Where are my postal uniform and my mailbag?"
Long Buxi didn't even turn her head. "Yalin washed your clothes and put them in the bedside table in your room along with your parcel. Nobody touched your things. You don't need to rush to send mail; everyone knows you're injured."
Everyone knows she was injured? Does that mean the entire Pucang Village knows that she, a postwoman, fell down the mountain?
For some reason, Cheng Ying felt a burning sensation on her face. She felt embarrassed and regretted following Long Buxi out.
The two walked about a hundred meters forward, and suddenly several adults and children dressed in Miao costumes appeared on the main road, which was originally deserted, and stood by the roadside looking at her curiously.
Two children, around seven or eight years old, spoke to her, saying, "Sister, you're finally awake! Are you the new mail carrier?"
She was a very pretty Miao girl with round eyes, wearing a pink and purple Miao costume. She looked particularly smart and cute, yet spoke fluent Mandarin.
Cheng Ying was even more curious than her. "Yes, I'm a new postman. Can you speak Chinese?"
The girl said, "We have Han Chinese teachers here who teach Mandarin. My mother is one of the teachers in the village, and she is Han Chinese."
Cheng Ying looked in surprise at a woman behind her wearing a black patchwork Miao dress. She looked to be about thirty-five years old, with delicate features, beautiful face, and slender figure. Even though she was middle-aged, she was still a beautiful woman.
However, the way she looked at Cheng Ying was strange; it contained a mixture of inquiry, curiosity, and a hint of sympathy.
Cheng Ying wanted to say a few more words to the little girl to learn about the situation in Pucang Village, but Long Buxi suddenly glanced at them. The little girl, her mother, and several Miao people nearby scattered like startled birds and beasts.
Cheng Ying turned to look at Long Buxi, "Why did they leave?"
Long Buxi did not answer her question, but pointed to a low hill on the left and said, "I want to pick some vegetables from the fields on this hill. Let's go this way."
Cheng Ying didn't move. "A month ago, my dad fell down the mountain in the western part of Ayishan. He was rescued by the people in your village. My dad was very grateful to them and asked me to come here so that he could thank them in person."
Long Buxi turned her head to look at her, "The people who saved your father live on the mountain across the way. I suggest you eat first and then go find them."
Seeing that she was still standing there, he said again, "You can go now if you want, but don't wander into other people's houses, don't step on other people's thresholds, don't touch other people's things, and don't eat anything that other people give you. Do you understand?"
"I understand," Cheng Ying replied softly, without asking him why or inquiring about the names of the three Miao people who had helped her father.
Long Buxi told her three names, watched her leave, and then turned and walked towards the mountain path on the low hill.
Cheng Ying walked along the main road to the row of magnificent stilted houses along the river. From the second floor of the largest stilted house in the middle, she walked onto the suspension bridge leading to the other side of the river.
The suspension bridge was made entirely of wood, about twenty meters long, and about ten meters above the river. The river was only three meters wide, and the stilted houses on the riverbank were several meters away from the actual riverbank. It seems that the river would rise when there was a lot of rain, making the river wider, which is why the suspension bridge was built so long.
Cheng Ying walked onto the suspension bridge. The wooden planks on the bridge creaked under her feet. The whole bridge swayed and rocked with the moderate wind in the canyon. People had to hold onto the half-person-high wooden railings to prevent it from swaying too much.
Cheng Ying quickly crossed the bridge, and below the bridge was a stone path of varying widths, winding its way up to the stilted houses on the mountain.
Cheng Ying climbed the stone steps, and before long, she heard a clear, crisp voice calling, "Cheng Ying—Cheng Ying—"
Someone is calling her name.
Cheng Ying looked in the direction of the sound and saw a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl in a red Miao dress waving at her from the second-floor corridor of a stilted house built against the hillside.
Standing next to her was a tall, large yellow dog.
When Da Huang saw Cheng Ying, he seemed very excited. He barked at her twice from a distance, then turned around and ran down the stilted house. He quickly ran up the stone steps halfway up the mountain to her.
The big yellow dog pounced on Cheng Ying, making whimpering noises as if to say, "Human, you're finally awake. Are you alright?"
"Dahuang, I'm fine, are you alright too?" Cheng Ying patted Dahuang's head, picked up the enthusiastic Dahuang and put it on the ground, and carefully examined its body.
Seeing that its limbs and back were covered with dark green ointment, and that it had no obvious injuries except for a slight limp in its left front paw when it ran down, I breathed a sigh of relief.
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Author's note: 嘠塑 (gā suō)
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