Sword Arrives

If Chen Ping'an had never visited Fortune Street or Peach Leaf Alley, he might never have realized how dark and narrow Mud Bottle Alley was in his entire life. Yet, instead of feeling disappointed, the young man in straw slippers finally felt at ease. With a smile, he stretched out his hands, just enough to touch the yellow mud walls on both sides with his palms. Chen Ping'an remembered that about three or four years ago, he could only reach the mud walls with his fingertips.

Upon arriving at his own courtyard gate, wide open, the youngster, thinking it had been burglarized, rushed inside. But to his surprise, he found a tall youth sitting on the threshold, leaning against the locked door of the house, yawning out of boredom. Upon seeing Chen Ping'an, the tall youth jumped up as if his pants were on fire, ran to him, grabbed his arm tightly, and pulled him toward the house, whispering, "Hurry up and open the door, I have something important to tell you!"

Unable to break free from this guy's grip, Chen Ping'an had no choice but to follow him to open the door. The sturdy youth, two years older than Chen Ping'an, quickly released him and crept onto Chen Ping'an's wooden bed, pressing his ear tightly against the wall to eavesdrop on the neighbors.

Curious, Chen Ping'an asked, "Liu Xianyang, what are you doing?"

Liu Xianyang ignored Chen Ping'an's question. After about a minute, he returned to normal, sitting at the edge of the wooden bed with a mixed expression—both relieved and regretful.

At this moment, Liu Xianyang noticed that Chen Ping'an was engaged in a strange activity: squatting inside the door, his body leaning outward, using a candle stub no bigger than his thumb to burn a piece of talisman, with the ashes falling outside the threshold. It seemed that Chen Ping'an was also murmuring incantations, though Liu Xianyang couldn't hear clearly from a distance.

Liu Xianyang was the youngest disciple of old Yao, a master of a time-honored royal kiln. As for Chen Ping'an, who lacked aptitude, the old man had never truly acknowledged him as a disciple. In the local area, unless a disciple presented a cup of tea to their master, or unless the master drank that cup of tea, they were not considered master and disciple in name. Chen Ping'an and Liu Xianyang were not neighbors; their houses were quite far apart. The reason Liu Xianyang had introduced Chen Ping'an to old Yao was due to a past grievance they had when they were teenagers. Liu Xianyang was once a notoriously mischievous youth in the town. Before his grandfather passed away, there had at least been an elder in the family to keep an eye on him. However, after his grandfather's death, the twelve- or thirteen-year-old boy, already as tall and strong as a young adult, became a troublemaker, giving everyone in the neighborhood headaches. Later on, for some reason, Liu Xianyang provoked a group of young men from the Lu family. As a result, they cornered him in Mud Bottle Alley and beat him severely. Being young and headstrong, they didn't hold back in their attacks, and Liu Xianyang was soon vomiting blood. The dozen or so households in Mud Bottle Alley were mostly lowly craftsmen who worked at the royal kiln to make a living, and they dared not get involved in such a messy situation.

At that time, Song Jixin wasn't afraid at all; instead, he happily squatted on the wall, watching the commotion, as if hoping for even more trouble.

In the end, only a skinny child quietly slipped out of the yard and ran to the entrance of the alley, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Someone's dead! Someone's dead!"

Upon hearing the word "dead," the young men from the Lu family were suddenly startled awake. When they saw Liu Xianyang lying on the ground, covered in blood and barely conscious, the wealthy young lads finally felt a wave of fear. After exchanging uneasy glances, they fled from the other end of Mud Bottle Alley.

However, instead of being grateful to the child who had saved his life, Liu Xianyang came to the alley often to tease and play tricks on him. The orphan was stubborn; no matter how much Liu Xianyang bullied him, he refused to cry, which only made the youth more frustrated. But then, one winter, Liu Xianyang noticed that the little orphan surnamed Chen seemed unable to survive the cold. Finally, his conscience kicked in. As a young apprentice at the royal kiln, he took the orphan to the kiln by Ports River. They left the town and walked westward through dozens of miles of mountainous paths in the heavy snow. To this day, Liu Xianyang still can't figure out how that stick-thin little guy, whose legs were as slender as bamboo poles, managed to walk all the way to the kiln. Although old Yao eventually took Chen Ping'an in, he treated the two boys very differently. To his favorite disciple, Liu Xianyang, he would scold and even hit him, but even a blind person could sense the good intentions behind it. For example, once, when old Yao had hit Liu Xianyang too hard, causing blood to seep from the youth's forehead, Liu didn't feel much due to his thick skin, but old Yao, usually a stern and silent figure in front of his disciples, regretted it deeply. Embarrassed to say anything because of his pride, he wandered around his house for most of the night, still worried about Liu Xianyang. Finally, he had to ask Chen Ping'an to send a jar of ointment to Liu Xianyang.

Over the years, Chen Ping'an has always envied Liu Xianyang.

It's not because Liu Xianyang had high talent, great strength, or a good personality. It's just that Chen envied Liu Xianyang's fearlessness, his carefree attitude wherever he went, and his never feeling that living alone was a bad thing. No matter where Liu Xianyang went or who he was with, he quickly became buddy-buddy with them, calling each other brothers, drinking, and playing drinking games. Due to his grandfather's poor health, Liu Xianyang learned to fend for himself early on and became like the leader of the kids. He was proficient in catching snakes, fishing, and reaching into bird nests. With wooden bows, fishing rods, slingshots, and birdcages, Liu Xianyang seemed to be able to do anything. Especially when it came to catching loaches in rural rice paddies and fishing for eels, the youth was undoubtedly the best in the town. Actually, when Liu Xianyang dropped out of the village school, Mr. Qi had specially visited Liu Xianyang's grandfather, who was confined to his sickbed. He offered to teach Liu Xianyang for free, but Liu Xianyang insisted that he only wanted to earn money and didn't want to study. Mr. Qi then proposed to hire Liu Xianyang as his personal attendant, but Liu Xianyang still refused. In fact, Liu Xianyang was doing quite well. Even after old Yao passed away and the royal kiln was shut down, he was soon picked up by a blacksmith in Dragon Ride Alley. He started building huts and furnaces in the south of the town and was very busy.