act14mini

That boy has been particularly rowdy, ever since he was little.

Elder, I have some questions about Fang Xiaoshi.

The villagers... they seem hostile toward the boy?

After a long period of silence, the man turns around and goes into a back room. He soon returns with a pile of beasthides and bones.

Take these.

Dad? What for?

This is all we have. Spring has barely come, so prey has been scarce. But they're still worth something. Give them to her as payment.

Is it not enough?

We don't have anything else, so I guess I'll beg her for mercy... although she doesn't seem like the talkative type.

She's not a debt collector!

You must've stolen or broken something, why else would she walk you all the way back here?

Do you really think I can't do anything right?

You've done more than a little wrong...

Tian ah! This door... this pillar... it's been split in two...

The temple stood here for centuries, protecting us, but it's been ruined... such disrespect!

Well, it's lucky the ancestral tablet seems mostly fine. Enough kowtowing already, let's find whoever did this.

Say... Where's Fang Xiaoshi? Gone without a trace...

I think the kid got caught up in the explosion, I saw him bleeding and limping out of the village. He had so many bombs on him... serves him right.

What?!

All for a piece of land we could have negotiated over. We definitely could have resolved this peacefully.

Alright, alright. Go tell the Elder, I'll head to the hunter's place.

Didn't you say he ran away from the village?

The kid was hurt pretty bad. I'd better get the hunter to look for him!

He blew up the village temple with his own explosives?

Three years ago... he was probably just eleven or twelve years old?

His father sometimes hunted with explosives to cave in beast nests and such. That child is as smart as he is audacious, and must've figured out how to make them too.

From my personal experience... this certainly seems like something he would do.

It's the temple at the village entrance, isn't it? It looked pretty unique, even at a glance. Who's it dedicated to?

Our very ancestors.

Back in the day... eight hundred years ago, or a thousand? How long ago exactly, I'm not so sure myself. The story has been passed down from generation to generation, after all.

Anyway, in those times, there was nothing here but mountains, so dense that not even fowlbeasts could fly over.

Our ancestor, alone and armed with only a hoe, dug out a mountain and turned it into arable land, eventually forming this village.

You should have seen it on the way here, Miss? Barren land in all directions, as far as the eye can see, but here we manage to farm and feed our hundred or so people. We're sheltered from most Catastrophes.

He took a hoe and plowed out a living from Heaven itself.

We call it the Yishan Temple, in thanks to our benevolent ancestor, and to commemorate that he lives on in us forever.

This here temple has blessed our Moushan village with a thousand years of peace and quiet.

We all know that a few measly buildings made of wood and dirt won't affect the harvest at all.

But us Moushan villagers have lived like this for generations. We have our nostalgia, and it puts our minds at ease.

Dad, iff you want to yell at me, just do it.

The way you're staring at me, it's awkward.

You've grown tall, but not much otherwise.

You must not have been eating well while out there, all these years.

Of all the things to say...

As long as you're alive... that's all that matters... I was just worried...

How did you make your way here?

We walked along the Chidao, and occasionally hitched a ride with merchant caravans we came across, hopping on their burdenbeasts.

How long was the journey?

Probably about a month.

You went so far...

Dad...

All these years, you...

Barely making a living

The harvest has been getting worse these past few years. First, an infestation destroyed our crops. Then came the drought, Heaven refused to give us a single drop of water, not from the sky, not from the wells, no matter how many we dug.

And now this year, Chunfen has come. It's the right time for sowing, but then we face a brutal storm.

Who knows if the land has always been this temperamental, or if Heaven has turned against us.

Or maybe the village ancestors refuse to bless us...

And it's because I blew up that temple. That's what you want to say, right?

That's not what I meant...

That's what a lazy person would say.

'Farming is all about working the soil with the tool in your hand.' That's what you told me.

The idol in the temple can't move, how could it help us with the harvest?

We can't say things like that... we've got to talk it through with them. Besides, we're the ones who wronged them first...

Dad, the villagers bully you because they think you're a coward!

What about the mountains slowly eating up the fields? Sooner or later, even the temple is going to get washed away by a mudslide. It's just a monument, why not put it in Zhou Liu's backyard? He has so much room and he's not even growing anything.

They bully us because we're outsiders!

*sigh* Let's just drop it already, alright...?

I see, so that's why the villagers had such a visceral reaction to Fang Xiaoshi.

Well, not exactly.

We all thought the boy was already...

He was injured when he fled into the wilderness after blowing up the temple.

Did you not look for him?

We did.

I gathered a party overnight and we spent several days searching dozens of li, to no avail.

I hear the villages of Jiangnan stand out like bright lights in the darkness.

But for us here, in the mountains, all you see is gray and yellow, or boundless white in winter. Settlements look more like perfect hiding spots.

Beasts roam freely, so the roads are not safe. Sometimes, you even run into fleeing bandits.

So a boy that small, hurt so badly...

Is still alive and well. Seems like the kid has been through a lot.

As long as he is safe.

Elder, I have something to say...

Please, speak freely.

I happened across Fang Xiaoshi, and brought him here. I have no reason to meddle in your village's affairs.

However, since I took on the initiative to bring him back, I am also responsible for his safety.

...As you should be.

I can't say I'm good at reading people, but after having traveled with him for a while, I at least understand him a little.

He may be stubborn and willful, but he is by no means a bad person.

So I hope you won't make things difficult for him.

Oh, I thought you were going to say something else.

Please, rest assured, Miss. We Moushan villagers may be poor, but we are reasonable people.

To hold a grudge... who or what exactly should we hold a grudge against? The mountains, Heaven, or...

A little boy around ten years old?

As you said, life is hard here. Moving the temple was just to put the villagers' minds at ease. Though now when I think about it, we were indeed quite inconsiderate at the time.

That is to say, I'm the one at fault here.

You are a man of sense.

You don't have to explain it all to me. After all, Fang Xiaoshi did do wrong. If still hasn't matured, even after so much hardship these last three years, he will have to be disciplined.

Make mistakes, suffer the consequences, remember your actions and gain insight. That makes life less painful.

You're very perceptive.

Not really.

I have my explanation, and I'm relieved.

Yes, yes...