Taiheiki

Chapter 194 Survive

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Jiaozhi Commandery, Goulou County (present-day area of ​​Thach Thi District, Ha Son Binh Province, Vietnam).

The stone house stands atop a precipice by the river, its shadow reflected on the calm, pale green surface. A mountain breeze stirs, rippling the water like playful children chasing each other. Bamboo groves grow along the riverbank, lush and abundant, the ground covered with fallen leaves. Behind the bamboo grove lies a village, or rather, the ruins of one.

Two Taoist priests were digging for bamboo shoots in the bamboo grove, carrying hoes—it was peak season for bamboo shoots. They had a bountiful harvest, and as they carried their spoils out of the grove, a deer was startled, leaping over the bushes in an attempt to escape. The younger of the two priests shouted excitedly, dropping his bamboo shoots and wielding his hoe in pursuit. The older priest shook his head helplessly, calling out, "Junior brother, junior brother, don't waste your energy! You can't catch it!"

The young Taoist pretended not to hear and continued his pursuit. The older Taoist shook his head helplessly. He gathered up the bamboo shoots his junior brother had dropped, found a clean rock to sit on, and waited for his junior brother to return empty-handed. Several minutes passed, but there was still no response. The older Taoist frowned and muttered, "Why hasn't Yu He returned yet? Could something have happened to him?" He was about to get up and chase after him when he heard his junior brother's hurried voice.

"Senior brother, there are people here! There are dead people!"

Two Taoist priests stood by the river. On the cobblestone riverbank lay a man lying on his back, his chest rising and falling slightly. His muscular, dark brown body had five or six wounds, which had turned white from being soaked in water, and many bruises. Judging from the gold bracelet on his wrist and the gold earrings on his ears, he should be a man of considerable status.

"Senior brother!" the younger Taoist whispered, "It looks like it came from upstream. This guy is really tough; he's survived so many injuries!"

"He's practically dead, if not dead!" The older Taoist sighed. "Looks like he's lost a lot of blood and is barely clinging to life!"

"What should we do then?" the younger Taoist asked anxiously. "Dig a hole and bury him? The bracelet on his wrist looks quite heavy. Let's consider it payment for us fellow disciples for digging his grave!"

"Junior brother, have you forgotten how your teacher taught you in the past?" the older Taoist asked with a cold snort.

"Helping those in distress is the duty of us Taoists!" the younger Taoist replied helplessly. "It's not that I don't want to help him, but judging from his condition, he probably can't be saved. It's better to let him rest in peace as soon as possible, so we can save our energy!"

"We still need to save him first!" the older Taoist priest scolded. "Junior brother, come and lend a hand. Help him up first, take off his wet clothes, and dry him off, otherwise he'll catch a cold!"

The two Taoist priests helped the man from the riverbank ashore, wiped him clean, and then the older priest took off his outer robe and wrapped it around the man. The two priests then brought a handcart they had brought to transport bamboo shoots, loaded the man onto the cart, and headed towards their dwelling.

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It hurts, it hurts so much!

When Qu An woke up, he felt pain all over his body, from limbs to bones, and his head was dizzy, as if he had a fever. His mouth was also incredibly thirsty, and he subconsciously groaned, "Water, water!"

He tried to get up, but found his entire body stiff, like a piece of wood. What was wrong with him? Where was he? His groggy mind couldn't answer. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton and wouldn't move. After a while, he finally mustered a little strength and moved his right leg. He felt something hit him, and then heard a heavy thud. Immediately afterward, he heard hurried footsteps outside. A crisp voice complained, "Why are you moving around like that? Aren't you troublesome enough? I kicked the stool over there!"

In his drowsy state, Qu An could no longer hear the complaints beside him and could only instinctively plead, "Water, water!"

"He's awake?" The older Taoist priest entered. He could understand what Qu An was saying: "He wants water. Yu He, go and get him some water!"

"My senior brother is just too kind. He's so nice to a barbarian!" The young Taoist complained as he went out. A moment later, he returned with a pot of water. The older Taoist helped Qu An up and fed him a few mouthfuls with a bowl. At first, Qu An could only open his mouth, but after drinking two bowls of water, he felt much better and even reached out to take the bowl to drink.

"This fellow recovered quickly; he can even hold a bowl by himself!" The young Taoist priest stood aside with a grin. The older Taoist priest was also quite surprised by Qu An's astonishing vitality: "Yes, no wonder he's lived this long; this person's background must be extraordinary. Junior brother, the porridge on the stove should be almost ready; go and get a bowl!"

"Yes, sir!" the younger Taoist priest responded, and a moment later brought over a bowl of steaming hot porridge. The older priest blew on it to cool it down a bit before feeding Qu An a bowl. After finishing the porridge, Qu An was almost fully awake. He recognized the Taoist priests as Han Chinese and bowed slightly to them: "I will never forget your great kindness in saving my life. May I ask your names so that I can repay your kindness in the future?"

"I wouldn't dare!" the older Taoist priest laughed. "My name is Ge Ping, and his name is Yu He. He is my junior brother. We are Taoists who cultivate here. We just happened to see you drifting down from upstream. Saving you was just a small favor. You don't need to remember it!"

The young Taoist priest standing nearby, hearing his senior brother say "Don't worry about it," became anxious and hurriedly said, "If you really want to repay us, give us the bracelet on your wrist! It's worth a lot of money, enough for us brothers to use for quite some time!"

"Shut up!" Ge Ping was alarmed and quickly scolded, "Junior brother, have you forgotten our teacher's teachings? How can we monks repay the kindness of our teachers?"

Yu He was reprimanded by his senior brother and dared not argue. He could only mutter, "I'm not doing this for any reward. It's just that cultivation costs money. At least I can buy some salt. The rock salt in these mountains is bitter, and I really can't eat it!"

Hearing his fellow disciples arguing, Qu An couldn't help but laugh. He took off the bracelet from his wrist and handed it to the older Taoist priest: "These bracelets are my token of gratitude. Please accept them, Master Ge."

Ge Ping was somewhat embarrassed and wanted to refuse, but Qu An said with a wry smile, "You two are kind people. If we had encountered a villain, these bracelets would have been theirs long ago, and I would be dead. If you don't want them, Daoist, are you looking down on me?"

Ge Ping had no choice but to accept the gold bracelet: "Very well, your injuries are quite severe, you need to eat more meat to recover. With this gold, you can also buy some medicine and food to help you recover!"

"Once it's given to the Taoist priest, it belongs to him!" Qu An smiled. "Just one question: where is this place?"

"This place is Goulu County, Jiaozhi Commandery, about sixty or seventy li from the county seat!" Ge Ping said, "Who are you? How come you have so many wounds?" "Jiaozhi Commandery, Goulu County? I can't believe I actually made it out of these mountains?" Qu An's lips curled into a self-deprecating smile. He sighed, having made his decision: "You two are my saviors, so I will not deceive you. I am the nineteenth prince of the King of Linyi, my Han name is Qu An, and my Chinese name is—" He paused, uttering a string of strange syllables, then switched to Han characters: "In Han characters, it means 'fierce tiger warrior'!"

"The prince of Lin-yi Kingdom, a fierce tiger warrior?"

“Yes, because I killed a tiger during my coming-of-age ceremony, the priest gave me this name! As for why I have so many wounds—” Qu An gave a bitter smile: “My father was fighting against the Han Dynasty, and the two sides were deadlocked. My father sent me with valuables to bribe the bandit Zhu Da to join forces and attack Jiaozhi County via the mountain roads. But when I met Zhu Da, my father had already been defeated by the Han general. After learning about this, the bandit Zhu Da wanted to steal the valuables, so a conflict broke out. You all know what happened after that!”

These two Taoist priests, living in seclusion in the remote mountains, naturally knew nothing of the Kingdom of Lin-yi, much less that the Han Dynasty was at war with it. However, they had heard of the bandit Zhu Da, not to mention Qu An's own admission of colluding with bandits to plunder Jiaozhi County. They were both shocked and furious. Yu He, being younger and less shrewd, pointed his finger and shouted, "We, your fellow disciples, thought you were a good person, which is why we helped you. We never imagined you would collude with that bandit Zhu Da to harm the people of Jiaozhi! Get out! Get out of here!"

Ge Ping was relatively better. He said coldly, "Those who follow different paths cannot work together. You are injured now, and kicking you out is tantamount to killing you, which is unbecoming of us Taoists. Here's what we'll do: I'll give you three days. Leave here after three days. As for these gold bracelets!" Ge Ping threw the gold bracelets back at Qu An: "Keep them safe. We can't accept your gift!"

“That’s right, we can’t accept your gift!” Yu He echoed.

Seeing the attitude of the two Taoists, Qu An couldn't help but sigh: "Gentlemen, although I was on your side back then, I was only acting on my father's orders. I never fought against the Han army, nor did I have the blood of your Han people on my hands. Moreover, now that the Kingdom of Linyi has fallen, I am merely a person of a fallen kingdom. Even if there were great grudges, they have been resolved. Besides, you hate Zhu Da, and I hate him too. Why force me like this!"

Ge Ping glanced at Qu An's appearance; he was indeed young. Seeing his battered and bruised state, his anger subsided considerably. "What you say makes sense," he said, "but you did plot to harm my Jiaozhi Prefecture. If you had succeeded, countless people would have died at your hands. We, your fellow disciples, will not take care of someone like you. Three days here is the most we'll allow!"

"I don't intend to stay here!" Qu An said. "How about this, you two go to the county government office and report my situation!"

"Ah!" Yu He exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't you a prince from an enemy country of the Han Dynasty? Aren't you afraid the authorities will find out and send people to arrest you?"

"Yes!" Ge Ping also showed a hint of pity: "Since you were able to survive such a calamity, why would you want to seek your own death!"

"You two are indeed kind-hearted people!" Qu An laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not looking for my own death. I know the location of that thief Zhu Da's lair. I just want to use the power of the Han government to wipe out Zhu Da and avenge myself and my murdered brothers!"

The two Taoist priests exchanged glances, and Ge Ping nodded: "Very well, then you can rest here for now. I will go to the county town tomorrow to report your matter to the magistrate!"

The next day, just as dawn broke, Ge Ping packed some provisions, mounted his donkey, and headed towards the county town. Qu An lay in bed, peacefully recovering from his injuries. Yu He, being a young man, was forgetful; after only half a day, he began asking Qu An about the Lin Yi Kingdom. Qu An selected some interesting stories to recount, making Yu He laugh heartily. In just two days, the two seemed like old friends.

"You don't seem like a bad person after all!" Yu He looked Qu An up and down. "It's just that you wanted to lead bandits to plunder the people of Jiaozhi, which is truly despicable!"

"At that time, I didn't know whether you Han people were good or bad. Whatever my father told me to do, I could only do!" Qu An spread his hands: "Even if I made a mistake, when the magistrate comes, he will naturally punish me!"

"What kind of punishment will they give? They won't behead me, will they?" Yu He was taken aback and started to worry about Qu An.

Although Qu An was not much older than Yu He, he was born into the Wang family and was naturally much more mature than ordinary teenagers. He laughed and said, "Probably not. After all, I just wanted to do it but failed. Besides, if I can point out the thieves' lair, it will be enough to make amends for my sins!"

"Yes, yes, yes, let's make amends for our mistakes!" Yu He breathed a sigh of relief: "If that's the case, then that's good!"

"Oh, right!" Qu An handed over the pair of gold bracelets: "If I were taken away by the authorities, these bracelets would most likely be taken by someone else. I might as well give them to you as a way of repaying the life-saving grace!"

“My senior brother has already returned it to you. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to take it back?” Yu He hesitated.

“He is him, and you are you, what’s wrong with that? Besides, life in these mountains is tough, with these bracelets, at least we won’t have to suffer from the bitterness of life!” Qu An said with a smile.

Yu He put away the bracelets and said with a smile, "Then I thank you very much! I'll go see what delicious food is in the kitchen and make it for you!"

Two days later, Ge Ping arrived with more than ten archers, lifted Qu An onto an oxcart, and transported him back to the county town.

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Hearing the powerful neighing of warhorses coming from outside the courtyard, Qu An realized that the person who could decide his fate had finally arrived.

Entering the room was a handsome young man with fair skin, a refined face, a neatly trimmed beard, a well-proportioned figure, and the fine patterns on his brocade robe, the halberd at his waist, and the jade thumb ring on his right thumb—all of which proclaimed his noble status to the crowd.

"Young Master Yu!" The county official following closely behind pointed at Qu An and said, "This is the man!"

"Alright, you may leave now. I have questions for him!" Yu Wen nodded authoritatively to the county clerk, who quickly bowed slightly, backed out of the door, and then turned to leave, not forgetting to close the door behind him. The young man looked Qu An up and down, his face showing undisguised disgust: "You're the Lin Yi prince who escaped death?"

(End of this chapter)