Xiao Lin woke from a long, drifting dream. He stretched lazily and scratched his head, glancing around in confusion.
How had he ended up sleeping on the floor inside the prison?
Fragments of the previous night flickered vaguely through his mind. He grimaced, straining to remember.
Right! He had seen the Empress!
The Empress had come to visit the Daoist!
Then… where was the Daoist?
Xiao Lin scrambled to the familiar cell. The lavish furnishings inside had vanished completely, along with the prisoner himself…
He… he escaped?
Panic seized him. This is bad, this is bad-did I drink a little too much last night and accidentally let him go?!
Just as anxiety was about to swallow him whole, the head jailer arrived with a new prisoner. Catching sight of the young guard standing there like a wooden post, he barked impatiently.
“What are you standing around gawking for?!”
“Yes! Uh, I…”
“This one’s new. Starting today, he’s your responsibility.”
The head jailer’s mouth kept moving, rattling off instructions.
Xiao Lin glanced at the new prisoner in the cell-a man in his fifties or sixties who seemed not quite right in the head, muttering over and over, “I am innocent.”
“Th-then the one from before…”
Before Xiao Lin could finish, the head jailer smacked him on the back of the head.
“I told you to talk less and ask less. You don’t listen, do you?”
“This lowly one talks too much, talks too much…”
Xiao Lin hunched over guiltily, suddenly aware of something strange pressing against his belly.
Once the head jailer left, he turned his back to the others and quietly slipped a hand inside his robes. There was a bulging paper packet.
Inside lay a stack of silver notes and a palm-sized slip of paper.
“Our paths crossed once; many thanks for your care. The weather is cold and the snow falls hard-take good care of yourself.”
The Daoist had truly left.
…
Tao Mian brought the two young attendants with him and settled them properly on Peach Blossom Mountain. By then, the spring snow had just begun to melt.
Chu Liuxue wore a pink padded jacket and carried an armful of quilts as she stepped into the courtyard.
It had snowed for days on end, and the bedding had soaked up all the dampness. At last the weather had cleared, so she rose early and hauled out every quilt and blanket from all three rooms to dry in the sun.
This spelled misery for the cold-fearing immortal.
“San Tu! At least leave me one blanket! I’m going to freeze to death!”
A plaintive voice drifted from inside the room.
Chu Liuxue paid him no mind.
“I called you to get up for breakfast half a shichen ago and you wouldn’t. I told you I was going to air out the bedding.”
Tao Mian grumbled under his breath-who knew what he was complaining about this time. Then a lake-blue blur shot across the middle of the courtyard.
Chu Liuxue thought her eyes were playing tricks.
“What was that flying past…”
Moments later, another howl erupted from Tao Mian’s room.
“Ow! What just slammed into my waist… Si Dui! I told you to practice Sword Riding, and you drove the sword into your master’s headboard?! Why don’t you just lop my head off while you’re at it! Such filial devotion-you’re going to be the death of me!”
“Since Master has such a request-“
“Stop right there! You’re actually going to do it?!”
A crash of tables and chairs followed, and Chu Suiyan was hauled out by the back of his collar and tossed through the door by Tao Mian.
“Go, go, go! Not one of you, young or old, gives me a moment’s peace. Stop bothering your master!”
Even after being scolded, Chu Suiyan was still grinning from ear to ear. The land and water of Peach Blossom Mountain truly did nourish people-even the timid, fearful boy who once hid behind his sister had grown much livelier.
Chu Liuxue thought to herself that ending their wandering and settling here for good was indeed a blessing.
That day, they had been resting in the palace as usual. Tao Mian was locked away by the Empress, and the two children, losing their anchor, became anxious and uneasy.
Chu Suiyan was so afraid something might happen to Tao Mian that he cried even in his sleep. Chu Liuxue could only hold his left hand, staying awake the entire night, her heart fixed on the man in the prison.
At the first glimmer of dawn, an unexpected figure appeared before the siblings. Chu Liuxue almost thought she was dreaming.
“You…”
“Shh.”
Tao Mian raised a finger, signaling Chu Liuxue not to ask questions. They gathered their belongings quickly-there had never been much to begin with. As for jewelry and valuables, Tao Mian did not take a single piece, returning everything to its rightful owner.
At last, he scooped up the sleeping younger brother with one arm, took the elder sister’s hand with the other, and the three of them slipped quietly out of the imperial palace. Clean and neat, without leaving a trace, as though they had never been there at all.
In the pale light of dawn, they sat in a carriage rattling along a dirt road.
Chu Liuxue asked how the Empress had been willing to let him go.
Tao Mian draped his outer robe over the sleeping Chu Suiyan and tucked it in, then broke off more than half the dry rations in his hand and gave them to Chu Liuxue.
“She didn’t let me go. I escaped from prison.” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“…?”
A mouthful of sweet cake nearly lodged in Chu Liuxue’s throat.
“Then we… cough, cough… doesn’t that make us fugitives?”
She thought, Well, this is just wonderful. They had started out as beggars, but after following Tao Mian, they had somehow become fugitives instead. Truly going backward in life.
How very criminal indeed.
Tao Mian handed her a flask of water and watched with a smile as she glared at him while gulping it down.
“It won’t come to that. She won’t send anyone after us.”
“I don’t understand. If you had the ability all along, why did you only escape today?”
“As a man of refinement, naturally I had to choose an auspicious day and hour for a prison break.”
“…Listen to yourself. Does that sound like something a normal person would say?”
Tao Mian leaned back slightly against the wall of the carriage, his fingers resting loosely on his knee.
“An auspicious day and hour is naturally the moment when she is willing, in her heart, to let me leave.”
Tao Mian had not been released by Lu Yuandi-but he understood perfectly well. After that day, even if Lu Yuandi learned he had escaped, she would not come after him again.
This was the tacit understanding between master and disciple. Both knew it without needing to say it aloud.
Chu Liuxue did not grasp all the twists and turns, but since Tao Mian was so confident, he probably had his reasons.
If the man himself was not worried, why should she trouble herself for nothing?
Chu Suiyan rubbed his eyes and woke up a shichen later. By then they were nearing Tao Mian’s territory, and through the mist they could vaguely see towering mountain ranges stretching endlessly into the distance.
He was young, and although he was puzzled by their leaving the palace, his attention was quickly drawn elsewhere. Kneeling on the soft cushion inside the carriage, he lifted the curtain and gazed out at the mountains, marveling at everything he saw.
Snow was falling outside. Chu Suiyan’s nose was red with cold, and he stretched out his palm to catch a clean white snowflake.
Tao Mian too looked through that gap in the curtain at the scenery he knew so well. Dressed in a moon-white robe, he seemed as though the mountain snow itself had taken human form. His breathing seemed to overlap with every breath of the land. Only then did Chu Liuxue understand why he had insisted on returning to Peach Blossom Mountain-he and this place were one and the same.
After returning to Peach Blossom Mountain, Tao Mian had three things to do:
Feed the chickens, take disciples, and sweep the graves.
Not long after arriving, under Tao Mian’s threats and enticements, Chu Liuxue and Chu Suiyan both became his disciples.
Chu Suiyan was willing a hundred times over; Chu Liuxue had a hundred and one complaints.
She said, “Silver Notes, your disciples don’t seem to have very good fates.”
…
As a result, Tao Mian sulked at her over that one remark for three whole days!
Chu Liuxue found it unbelievable and utterly exasperating. A person over a thousand years old, and he still threw tantrums like a three-year-old child.
He refused to leave his room during the day, would not come even when called to eat, and if he saw her, he would walk the other way.
Chu Suiyan, siding with the outsider, patted the listless Tao Mian sprawled over the table and pleaded with his sister.
“Liuxue, just give in and apologize. What if you make him cry?”
Tao Mian immediately cooperated by burying his head between his arms.
Chu Liuxue: …
“Stop giving him ideas. Fine, I was wrong. Didn’t you want to take me as your disciple? I agree.”
Tao Mian then started putting on airs.
“You think becoming my disciple, Tao Mian’s disciple, is that easy? I’m not taking you anymore.”
“Suit yourself.”
Chu Liuxue could not be bothered to indulge him.
Seeing that Tao Mian was about to unilaterally sever relations with his sister again, Chu Suiyan quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“Both of you, enough! Master Tao, didn’t you say you’d teach us immortal arts?”
Tao Mian’s temper came quickly and went just as fast. Since the Chu siblings had entered his tutelage, naturally he would teach them some real skills.
He passed on the Soul-Devouring Palm and the Six Transformations of Heavenly End to the siblings, and the two disciples did not disappoint-they mastered ten-tenths of it.
Chu Suiyan learned nine and a half tenths. Chu Liuxue managed only half a tenth.
Sure enough, the information from the Gold Finger had not been false. Chu Liuxue’s aptitude was not high; her comprehension of techniques was far inferior to Senior Brother Gu and Senior Sister Lu, and she could not even match the younger brother she had practically picked up off the street.
But Chu Liuxue was not anxious, and Tao Mian, her master, was in no hurry either.
The only anxious one was Chu Suiyan. Several times, he privately sought out Tao Mian to ask whether he had any immortal pills or miraculous medicines that could help his sister cultivate.
At that moment, Tao Mian was in the courtyard walking Attendant Wu and another rooster-something Chu Liuxue had forced him to do. She had said that he spent all day lying around, and if he kept it up his limbs would waste away. When the time came and he could not walk and had to stay bedridden, she was not going to look after him.
For some reason, Tao Mian developed a sense of crisis. Thinking that he too was an old fellow over a thousand years old, he felt he really should pay attention to the state of his legs.
So every evening after dinner, he would carry the two chickens out of the coop and forcibly walk them around in circles.
When Chu Suiyan asked that question, Tao Mian still looked as lazy and at ease as ever.
“San Tu has San Tu’s own fortune. Si Dui, not everyone needs to achieve something on the path of cultivation. My eldest disciple is the Sect Leader of a great sect, my second disciple is the supreme ruler of the realm, and my third disciple is an ordinary person. There is nothing wrong with that.
In your master’s eyes, you are all my disciples. That is all.”
“Master, this disciple still does not understand…”
Tao Mian flicked the boy on the forehead.
“If you don’t understand, then you don’t understand. There’s no need to wring every last principle dry. If someone insisted I must grasp the truths of a seventy-year-old when I was only twenty, I’d slap him on the spot and make him learn how to behave first.” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Oh,” Chu Suiyan said, covering his forehead in grievance, “but Master didn’t have to hit me.”
“Your master was not hitting you. Your master was enlightening you.”
“…”
When Tao Mian returned to Peach Blossom Mountain, there were three things he had to do:
Feed the chickens, take disciples, and sweep the graves.
The day for grave-sweeping was drawing near.
“Since you have already entered my, Tao Mian’s, tutelage, it is time to take you to meet your eldest senior brother.”
Tao Mian said this solemnly to his two newly accepted little disciples. Disciple Number One yawned; Disciple Number Two’s eyes shone brightly.
“San Tu, do not show disrespect to your senior brother.”
Chu Liuxue curled her lip.
“My mistake, Silver Notes. But in the end, everyone’s final resting place is just a handful of yellow earth. Sooner or later, I’ll be buried right next to Senior Brother too.”
Chu Suiyan, watching from the side: ?
“Oh, Suiyan too.”
Chu Suiyan, who had been watching from the side but was inexplicably dragged into it: ??
Tao Mian scratched his chin with a finger.
“That makes sense. When we go up the mountain later, we’ll dig two extra pits.”
Chu Suiyan: …
Tao Mian was usually lazy to the point of death, but when it came to burying disciples he was brimming with enthusiasm. On the appointed day, he prepared hoes and shovels bright and early, then led the two children behind him to Gu Yuan’s grave.
Today was not the official day of remembrance; Tao Mian had simply felt like taking a stroll up the mountain on a whim.
Gu Yuan’s grave lay against the mountain and beside the water, level and tranquil.
It was not overgrown with weeds as Chu Liuxue had imagined. Someone clearly tended it regularly.
And who else would come here?
A square, upright tombstone stood silently beneath a peach tree, engraved with Gu Yuan’s name. Tao Mian paid no attention to this tombstone and simply walked past it, pacing around nearby.
The shovel in his hand tapped the patch of ground beneath his feet.
“I’ve picked out this spot. In the future, you siblings will be buried here.”
Chu Liuxue was very cooperative. She stepped forward, grabbed a handful of earth that was neither too dry nor too wet, and nodded.
“This place is nice.”
Chu Suiyan no longer knew what expression he ought to make.
With Senior Brother’s grave here, he did not dare wander around. He stood there obediently, turning his head left and right, looking all around.
He noticed that the spot his master was standing on was rather far from Gu Yuan’s tombstone, and he grew curious.
“Master Tao, this place is empty.”
“Oh.” Tao Mian’s tone was light and casual, as though he were discussing how many bowls of rice they would eat at noon. “This spot is reserved for your Senior Sister Lu.”
“…”
Chu Suiyan closed his mouth. He had asked one question too many.
As if he had made some decision, Tao Mian excitedly swung the shovel and started digging a pit-and the one he was digging was precisely the one he had prepared for Lu Yuandi.
The two children could only stare wide-eyed and accompany him in digging for the entire morning. It was only when he started complaining that his waist was sore that they returned to the Daoist temple down the mountain.
On the day of the memorial, a fine curtain of rain drifted down. It was the first rain Peach Blossom Mountain had welcomed this year.
When the raindrops had only just begun to soak into the earth, the two children were still asleep.
Yet Tao Mian, who usually loved sleeping in, had already risen early with a basket of flowers, fruit, and wine. Passing through the woods and climbing the stone steps, he made his way up the mountain.
He had his own familiar set of rituals: clear away the weeds, press the soil flat, clean the tombstone, arrange the offerings. Even the offerings had an order. Add the flowers, set down the fruit, pour a cup of wine.
After that came the long stretch of standing before the tombstone and chattering about the events of the past year.
Once he reached this part, Tao Mian became more casual, saying whatever came to mind. When he mentioned Lu Yuandi, he was suddenly seized by a whim and moved over the blank tombstone he had placed there a few days earlier to polish it.
He had brought an oil-paper umbrella with him up the mountain, but once he got busy he forgot all about it. The drizzle gradually dampened his clothes and hair. Half-crouching, he wiped the droplets clinging to his eyelashes with the back of his hand-when someone raised an umbrella over his head.
Lu Yuandi had been standing all this time beneath a peach tree to the west, watching Tao Mian’s every move without blinking. However long Tao Mian had been there, she had stood there watching for just as long.
It was not until Tao Mian moved over a blank tombstone that something stirred in her heart and she slowly walked closer.
Lowering her gaze, she saw Tao Mian carving the character “Lu” into the face of the stone.
Lu Yuandi: …
“Xiao Tao, I only locked you up for a few days. Is that really enough for you to hate me this much?”
Tao Mian laughed dryly.
Lu Yuandi’s gaze shifted forward, just in time to see the pit that had already begun to take shape.
“Don’t tell me this was left for me too?”
To escape the awkwardness, Tao Mian proposed an idea.
“Since you’re already here-why not lie down and see whether the size is right? While you’re still alive.”