"That, uh, Brother Shitou — I'm a man of little learning, no good with words; don't take it amiss.
What I mean is rooting out the wicked and guarding our neighbors. We wouldn't bring grief on our own people, would we? Surely we're a sight better than those flaying bailiffs."
"Don't, Ergou, don't fob me off. When Uncle Dahuang calls me a scourge, I can understand that.
He's an elder, after all, and has to see to my food and bed every day — a little resentment's only natural.
But besides Uncle Dahuang, who else have I ever scourged?
On what grounds do they call me a menace to the land — because I couldn't lift my blade, or because their hides are itching?"
Ever since crossing into this other world, to overturn his predecessor's lot — dim, slow, and forever bullied — Zhou Yuan had simply put on the act of a reckless, brainless madman.
The villagers still remembered, a little over twenty days ago, the scene of a madman hacking with a hatchet from the north end of the village to the south.
Though the one being chased had run wickedly fast, taken no wound, and even meant to seize a chance for revenge on Zhou Yuan —
Zhou Yuan was hardly a magnanimous man. Day and night he lingered around that village man's house.
Sometimes he burst out of a haystack, sometimes he stood dully at the street corner craning to stare, sometimes he broke down the door in the dead of night......
After that, Zhou Yuan's name rang through Qiaoxi Village; everyone knew he didn't joke — say he'd finish someone, and he'd surely finish them.
The village man who'd bullied his predecessor was so terrified he fled overnight to relatives in another village, and to this day hasn't dared come back.
Zhou Yuan became a village tyrant too, untouchable wherever he went.
He'd thought himself something of a far-famed warrior — never imagining someone would dare speak the very words in his heart. This fellow understood too well; he had to be educated.
"Ergou, ah, your brother's taken a real loss — I've borne the bad name but never done the bad deeds. How can that stand?
Tell me who's blackening my name behind my back; once I've dealt with him, we'll still be good brothers."
"Brother Shitou, don't put me on the spot.
It's not that I won't say — it's that the people speaking ill of you are rather many. You couldn't possibly deal with them all."
"Understood. Ergou, let's talk more about ducking into the old woods.
As the saying goes, a man's cheap away from home and goods are dear away from home; and another — don't let the good water run off your own field.
We brothers being so outstanding, why not focus on scourging Qiaoxi Village? Let's set them an example, and let them learn what's good and what's bad."
"Brother Shitou, scourging our own people isn't quite right, is it?"
"What's not right about it? It's precisely our own people who give experience. Roads I know, faces I know — guaranteed a sure hit every grab."
Zhao Ergou regretted it. All he'd wanted was to dodge the wife at home, with a flicker of dodging conscription in his heart too.
But Zhou Yuan's words yanked him back to reality. Sure enough, a man of conscience like him couldn't go scourging the neighbors alongside Brother Shitou.
"That, uh, Brother Shitou — it just struck me, with a family to feed I can't dodge conscription, or my pa, my ma, and my wife would all be punished.
I have to keep my conscience, don't I? I truly can't get away — I can't go ducking into the woods with you."
"But Brother Shitou, if you really do set your sights on scourging Qiaoxi Village, remember not to scourge my family.
My household's wretched enough, and we've never bullied you — we can't end up wrecked and dead on top of it."
"Couldn't be. With the bond between us brothers, if I really scourged an outsider, I'd even send your family a little something."
"That's grand — I knew Brother Shitou was the most loyal."
Amid Ergou's flattery, Zhou Yuan patted the hatchet at his waist, signaling there was nothing more to it and he was off to practice the blade.
Zhao Ergou gritted his teeth and spoke the other reason he'd come.
"Brother Shitou, Cuiniang and I have talked it over. I'll labor by day, you labor by night.
Whoever's it is, so long as it leaves my Zhao family an heir, that's enough.
But let's be clear first: if I make it back, the wife and child are mine.
If I don't make it back, you keep Cuiniang and the child. We brothers won't quibble over the fine points — we'll just see whose luck holds."
"Slap!"
Zhou Yuan brought his palm down hard on Ergou's shoulder, bent down, and stared fixedly into Ergou's eyes.
That grave stare was deeply unnerving, like the prelude to fury, or a silent interrogation.
"Brother Shitou, you......"
"You fine specimen, Ergou — you want me to take a blade for you, is that it?
Get up. For this much heart, your brother will walk the service road too. I'll see to it that when you die, there's someone to collect your corpse."
"That'd be grand. If you can carry my body back, my ma and pa will treat you like their own son."
"Quit joking. Just don't go pissing and shitting yourself with fright when the time comes."
Zhou Yuan wasn't a native-born son of this world; he couldn't fathom Ergou's spirit of sharing everything.
But he knew this: he was flesh and blood, and the people here were flesh and blood all the same.
"I'm off, Brother Shitou. Remember to sneak over to my place tonight."
"Get lost. Do your own work — don't always be looking to slack, boy. This kind of thing's best seen to in person."
"Brother Shitou, something's off with you. Do you look down on me and Cuiniang?"
"No."
"If you don't look down on us, why not go? Even without leaving an heir, you can still be a man once — beats dying with nothing."
"Fine, I look down on you, then.
Your brother's heart is set on scourging demon-girls and she-devils. I've no eye for respectable folk."
Zhao Ergou and Zhou Yuan stared eye to eye, and he suddenly felt cheated — he'd poured out his innermost words, only to be looked down on in the end.
Still, he felt Zhou Yuan had a point. "Demon-girls and she-devils" certainly sounded formidable; perhaps Brother Shitou wasn't looking down on him, but harboring lofty ambitions.
"Then I really am off. I won't leave the door open for you tonight — wouldn't want to let an outsider profit."
"Wait."
"What is it, Brother Shitou — having second thoughts?"
"Second thoughts my foot. My heart of the Dao is firm, my original intent unchanged; save for things of great menace, nothing can turn my head.
Ergou, you've taken a wife, so you count as a grown man now. Your brother has nothing to give you — let me give you a name.
That way, if you die on the road, you can at least have a proper marker."
"All right."
"Mm — let's say Zhao Yang. Yang as in the sun. Here's hoping it shores up your family's surplus of yin and want of yang."
"Zhao Yang — that's a sight better than Ergou. If I leave an heir, I'll give the babe the name.
If my luck's poor and I leave none, I'll use it myself."
"As you like. Now hurry home and deliver the goods — I'm busy honing my martial arts."
Ergou was chased home to make a baby, and Zhou Yuan settled in to mull over his skills with an easy mind.
In this moment, Ergou the winner had become the loser instead — at the least he didn't have Zhou Yuan's ease, and could only charge in through his tears, worn to exhaustion.
"If Mighty Mountain-Cleaver can be turned into a skill, running should work too. So what about eating and sleeping — the two things I go through every single day?
Worth a try. From today: small meals, often. Aim for just three bites of bun each time, twenty or thirty meals a day.
Sleep can't fall behind either: train one hour, nap half an hour. Do my utmost to turn living itself into skills."
"Come on — run first. Running fast is the capital that keeps a man alive."