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Looking at the bright moon in the sky above, Kou Zhong sighed and said, “We have not bathed in a creek like this for a long time! If Niang were still here watching us, how wonderful that is?”

Xu Ziling pushed the water with both hands; his eyes revealed a sad look. He did not respond.

Stark naked, Kou Zhong climbed onto a flat and smooth big rock by the lake; he said, “Could it be that Xiao Xian is secretly betraying us? Only by Xiang Yushan’s intelligence network will he be able to spread the information this fast.”

“That is a very high possibility,” Xu Ziling agreed, “If it were other people, they might be afraid of spreading the news, because someone else might beat them to it [again, the original was ‘the quick-footed climb up first’].”

Kou Zhong stood up on the big rock; assuming a perfect diving posture, he leaned his head aside in deep thought, “But what benefit could Xiao Xian reap? Supposing the ‘Duke Yang Treasure’ fell into someone else’s hands, he would only suffer harm without any advantage whatsoever.”

Xu Ziling smiled wryly and said, “For an old fox like Xiao Xian, it is very difficult to guess what kind of crafty scheme he is running. Perhaps he wanted us to sound out the difficulties and retreat to avoid defeat, and obediently come back to rely on his help. Naturally we would offer the secret of ‘Duke Yang Treasure’ in return!”

Kou Zhong’s heart was moved, “This guess is quite reasonable,” he said. Rising up high, he dove into the water.

Seeing how much fun Kou Zhong was having by diving into the water, Xu Ziling imitated him by climbing onto the rock, and then deliberately made a cannonball dive into the lake, splashing water high into the air.

Swimming toward him, Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Ling Shao seems to be in a very good mood.”

Xu Ziing cheerfully replied, “Why should I be unhappy? The female demon’s identity is discovered, our strength is increasing considerably, we have confidence to deal with any powerful enemy; tell me, why should we be worry?”

Kou Zhong had a brainwave, “Do you want to test the extend of our formidability now?” he asked.

Xu Ziling looked as if he was returning to the playful mood of his childhood; he said, “Zhong Shao, do you have any good suggestion?”

Kou Zhong smiled and said, “Those seventeen idiots just now seemed to be people of real skill. If we go over the hill to pursue them, we might still be able to intercept them; while we are at it, seizing two horses from them seems to be a good idea. Ling Shao, do you have a better suggestion?”

Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, “How could I dare to offer any suggestion? Now, let us have a race on putting on our clothes first, and then we’ll compete on our legs’ strength; what do you say?”

Kou Zhong squealed. Laughing and giggling, the two boys raced each other to climb up the soft green lake bank, without showing any sign that they were two martial art masters.

The first light of dawn.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling sat side-by-side by the roadside, with their backs against a huge old polar tree, which trunk was so big that it would require several people to wrap their arms around it. Glowing with health and vigor they nibbled on fresh fruits they picked on the mountain along the way. In short, they looked very relaxed and comfortable.

A faint sound of hoof beats was coming from the other end of the road.

Spitting the pit of the fruit, Kou Zhong proudly said, “The fools delivering horses are here. We must interrogate them where they heard the news about us from.”

Xu Ziling mused, “They must have rested along the way; otherwise, there is no reason for them to fall behind us this long.”

Kou Zhong sneered and said, “Why do we care his mother’s business? This kind of reckless fellows is only good for me to test my saber.”

Frowning, Xu Ziling said, “Since when did you become so blood-thirsty? Unless we absolutely have to, it would be best if we don’t kill anybody. This is called ‘amassing secret virtue’. Understand?”

Kou Zhong laughed and said, “Xu Ye’s admonishment is right, how could this kid dare to disobey? Hey! Since our debut, may I ask when did I ever willfully slaughter the innocent?”

Xu Ziling replied crossly, “Who are the innocents? Wasn’t it you, Kou Daye who decided based on your own idea?”

Kou Zhong was speechless for half a day. Finally he had a sudden understanding and said, “Your comment is very interesting. When all is said and done, all the strife in the world can be regarded as some kind of ideological struggle.” And then after a short pause he said, “Everybody has his own set of ideas, wishing other people would accept it, and thus the struggle starts. Take that Li kid for example: he has Li kid’s way of thinking. I, Kou Zhong, also have a set of my own. Whoever prevails, it does not matter if the other side submits willingly or not, they still have to accept the victor’s way of thinking, or else they will have to be eliminated. Of course, I am referring to the kind of situation that can only occur where everybody has the same goal but different standpoints. Otherwise, just like you and me, river water will never offend the well water.”

Xu Ziling laughed and said, “Aren’t you just babbling nonsense? Such a simple idea and you make it so complicated. Direct and plainspoken is still the best. There is only one Emperor’s throne, and only one person can sit on it. Isn’t this clearly understood?”

Kou Zhong responded with serious expression, “Actually, I was thinking about another issue, that is, if we want to vie for the world, we must have a perfect set of ideas first, so that others will be comfortable in following it. This set of ideas includes a complete plan, an ideal, even future’s distribution of power, and the style to rule the country. This is called having a clear-cut stand. Otherwise, it would be just like the Four Bandits; from top to bottom, nobody knows what he is doing.”

And then, bumping Xu Ziling with his elbow, he smiled mysteriously and said, “Like Li Mi previously published Ten Charges of Yang Guang. He was announcing to the whole world that if he, Li Mi, became the Emperor, he would never repeat these chronic illnesses of Yang Guang. Therefore, his reputation soared immediately, his influence expanded greatly, all without even need to spend a great deal of effort or waste a soldier or half a troop. What a deal.”

Xu Ziling was emotionally moved; he said, “You, this kid, indeed have some ideas.”

The hoof beats were getting closer.

Kou Zhong sprang up and stood in the middle of the road, in full anticipation of the enemy soon to appear from the road bend ahead.

Xu Ziling was still sitting peacefully, eating the last wild peach.

Kou Zhong pricked up his ear and listened carefully, he detected at least thirty horses; perhaps the enemy rendezvous with their reinforcement somewhere that their number increased by one fold. The only thing puzzling him was that the hoof beats varied; some were heavy and some were light.

Even though the enemy’s strength increased tremendously, Kou Zhong found it to be more interesting.

Like meteors catching up with the moon, the true qi within him spiraled back and forth between his tianling, yongquan and various acupoints, so that his entire body, from head to toe, was brimming with explosive, as well as incomparably cold, power. His mind became even more still and cold, without a single thread of disturbing emotions.

So much so that he did not even feel his ‘self’ existence, just like the clear water in a deep well, which could only reflect the world objectively.

This kind of perception preserved several breaths of circumstances; he was ‘awakened’ and returned to the previous state of mind. It was just like from the Heaven returning to the Earth, back to his true character.

While Kou Zhong was about to discuss this feeling with Xu Ziling, the enemies’ two front-most riders have already appeared from the bend.

Furthermore, as soon as Kou Zhong entered this fantastic realm, Xu Ziling’s mind also produced immediate reaction.

Within these several breaths of time period, Kou Zhong was plainly standing in the middle of the road, but Xu Ziing had a mysterious, strange perception that Kou Zhong has turned into a formless entity. He even could no longer feel the cold air emitted from Kou Zhong’s body, a clear sign of his existence.

And then a moment later everything was back to normal. Kou Zhong was looking at him, agape and tongue-tied, with astonishment on his face.

The riders continuously entered the road.

The galloping riders were men in grey warrior-style uniform; the top of their lapels was embroidered with flying horse with a pair of wings on their back. There were a total of twelve men, plus more than a dozen wild horses without saddles, strung together with a rope.

Seeing Kou Zhong still standing in the middle of the road with blank bird-brained expression, Xu Ziling cried out, “Wrong persons! Come back here!”

By now the troop of galloping riders that drove the wild horses was only about two zhang away from Kou Zhong. The leading rider was a middle-aged robust man with only one eye. His countenance looked old and dull, but his single eye was still flickering lively. Seeing someone barring their way, he shouted his order telling the men behind him to rein their horses and slow down.

As if he had just been awakened from a dream, Kou Zhong bowed respectfully with clasped hands toward that man to express his apology, before awkwardly returning to Xu Ziling’s side, while still waving his hand telling the other side to go on with their journey.

The robust middle-aged man already reined his horse abruptly, so that it reared on its hind legs and stopped.

Seeing this, the other men also reined their horses and stopped about a zhang away on the road in front of the two boys.

Chapter 4, Part 2

Twelve men, twenty-three eyes, like twenty-three arrows landed on the two boys. Even the horses puffing white steam from their nostrils were casting their eyes warily on the two boys.

Kou Zhong knew he was in the wrong; laughing apologetically he said, “We mistook you for someone else, would gentlemen be magnanimous and forgive us?”

A short and thin old man by the one-eyed man took out a tobacco pipe from the saddlebag hanging on the horse’s belly. Chuckling sinisterly, he said, “Good kid, looking at your dignified manner and handsome faces, you have the appearance of amazing people, yet instead of learning something good, you learned to be low-class thieves who waylay and rob people on their journey. Now that you’ve seen that we are not to be trifled with, you retreat hastily. Don’t you have any shame?”

Other than the one-eyed man, the rest of the men roared in laughter, ridiculing and mocking them to their heart’s content.

Kou Zhong was indeed a strange person; although the opposite side was laughing and hurling insults at them, realizing that it was just a misunderstanding, surprisingly he did not take any offence. Smiling, he said, “This Senior is mistaken. What we, two brothers, disdain the most is the conduct of bandits who rob traveling folks. It was just a misunderstanding.”

Another man taunted, “Whether you want to be a bandit or not, it’s just a question of eligibility. But just by looking at the saber on your back, which will easily tempt you to be one, I know that you are indeed a low-class thief ... Ha ...”

Everybody roared in laughter again. Several of them even drew their weapons, ready to fight.

Someone even went as far as shouting toward Xu Ziling, who was still sitting undauntedly on the ground, “You, that kid, you still have not come over here to kneel, begging for forgiveness?”

Xu Ziling rose up slowly. Patting the dust from his clothes, without even looking at the opposite party he said to Kou Zhong, “Let’s go!”

While puffing smoke from his pipe, the little old man laughed coldly and said, “You think it’s that easy to leave? North of the River, who dares to block our, Flying Horse Ranch’s way?”

The other men shouted and cursed at once, while quickly spreading out to surround the two boys, in a way that could be described as ‘operation storm’.

Kou Zhong turned to Xu Ziling and said with a wry smile, “Nothing we can do about it!”

Someone with peculiar voice interrupted, “You got that right! Perhaps we, two low-class thieves, better kneel down to beg for forgiveness! Maybe big masters of Flying Horse Ranch would show us some clemency?”

He was imitating Xu Ziling’s accent in responding Kou Zhong’s remark, and he was dead on, which, quite naturally, drawing another round of laughter and mockery.

Xu Ziling casually turned his gaze toward the speaker. Turned out he was a young man about 17 or 18 years old, the youngest among the riders, dark-skinned from being under the sun a lot, but his teeth were snow white and neat, so that his cannot-be-considered-good-looking countenance was a lot nicer to look at. This moment he was sticking out his chin and narrowing his eyes in a mocking expression.

Suddenly someone thundered, “Don’t be reckless!”

Everybody, including Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, were stunned.

The speaker was precisely the one-eyed man. This moment he was staring hard and Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, sizing them up. He said toward the little old man, who was swallowing clouds and blowing out fog from his tobacco pipe, with a heavy voice, “Has Xu Gong [term of respect to address an elderly man] seen any low-class thief, who, under heavy siege, still have calm demeanor, and is still able to talk cool-headedly like them?”

The old man surnamed Xu looked startled, and then he turned his gaze toward the two boys, examining them closely. His eyes showed that he was deep in thought.

The other men did not dare to make any noise. Obviously the one-eyed man was their boss.

The one-eyed man seemed to appreciate the two boys very much; he smiled and said, “I am Flying Horse Ranch’s Er Zhishi [second manager; zhishi basically means ‘doing/carrying out matters’] Liu Zongdao. This time due to our Dangjia [chief] entrusted heavy responsibility, we take special care along the way.”

After a short pause, he went on, “Although two gentlemen’s clothing is ragged, it is still cannot hide your dignified bearing; I wonder what are gentlemen’s honored surnames and great given names? Where are you from? What business do you have here?”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling could not help having favorable impression toward this man, it’s just that naturally they could not reveal their real identity to him. They only wished to perfunctorily pass this encounter and go their separate ways.

Accustomed to inventing crazy nonsense, without even thinking Kou Zhong replied, “Someone who understands reason like Er Zhishi is hard to come by. We, two brothers are from the same village, the Fu family village in Yuhang. His name is Fu Jing, and I am Fu Ning.” [Translator’s note: Characters Fu from Fu Junchuo, Jing from Shan Wanjing, and Ning from Li Xiuning.]

Liu Zong Dao was emotionally moved; he said, “You made light of traveling a thousand li, what is your purpose?”

Kou Zhong sighed and said, “What else but to find support for our lives by joining a militia, wishing that in the future we can stand out among our peers, and bring honor to our ancestors, so that our parents [Translator’s note: the words here indicate that they were paternal cousins] can pass their days in peace and happiness.”

This time, even the old man surnamed Xu believed him. Nodding his head, he said, “Younger generation kids should have high aspiration. Listening to your refined style of conversation, I am sure you have had several books to read?”

Kou Zhong blurted out without thinking, “Old Xu is indeed formidable; just by listening to a couple of words from us you are already very clear about our foundation. In our neighboring village, there was this Kou Laoyezi [polite appellation for an elderly male] who has read intensively the Book of Songs and the Book of History. He is a kind old man, as long as on holidays we delivered two catties of dried meat to him, he was willing to teach us to read, to study all those ‘Four Common Characters of Classical Chinese’, ‘Isn’t That a Joy?’ [quote from Confucius], and so on.”

Being flattered like that, the old man Xu was immediately elated, “Now here’s a little boy who is worth teaching! Ha ha!”

The youngest, the smart aleck guy said, “The ones you were waiting for must be that militia you are talking about!”

“It was,” Kou Zhong replied with a forced laugh, “We heard Li Mi’s army might be passing by here; who would have thought that it was all of you, Daye.”

Amused, Liu Zongdao smiled and said, “Li Mi is way too busy right now, how could he have time to mind the South? So what did you do for a living?”

Reaching out and grabbing Xu Ziling’s shoulders, Kou Zhong said, “We, two brothers, are expert in providing meals for the important generals. All those dumpling oil rice, dumpling oil cake [see Book 1 Chapter 9], ours is the most famous. Ha!”

Liu Zongdao appeared to be slightly moved; after exchanging a glance with the old man Xu, he said, “Seeing that the two of you have spirit and a face of righteousness, I wonder if you are interested to become chefs for our troops and earn money. Our Changzhu [ranch master] loves to eat dumpling oil cake. As long as you can satisfy her taste, I guarantee that several years later you can go back to your hometown in silken robes; won’t it surpass earning a living by fighting life and death battle? However, if Changzhu is not satisfied with your craftsmanship, the two gentlemen will have to pack up and go home immediately.”

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were stunned; both thought that their joke seemed to backfire. While they were about to decline, the old man Xu said with a laugh, “It’s very rare that Er Zhishi would make an exception and give you recommendation; your family must have amassed virtue as high as the mountain. Our Flying Horse Ranch’s name shakes the area north of the River, even Li Mi came to us to buy war horses and equipment; if you don’t believe me, feel free to ask around.”

Kou Zhong’s eyes immediately lit up; staring at the old man Xu with his big eyes, he murmured, “War horse?”

One of the riders sneered and said, “Kid, you really have eyes without eyeballs. This time we travel to the frontier, is precisely to get these more than a dozen barbarian horse pedigrees to breed. You get it?”

Sucking a deep breath of air Kou Zhong said, “Liu Zhishi has shown such a high regard to us, two brothers, a benevolence and kindness that is hard to forget even after our teeth fall out; but is it possible for us to discuss this matter in private first?”

Liu Zongdao did not think of anything out of ordinary, “Of course I understand,” he said, “Two Xiao Xiongdi, take your time!”

Kou Zhong hastily pulled Xu Ziling a bit farther up and said, “Since we are not doing anything right now, why not go to their ranch to look around?”

Knitting his brows, Xu Ziling said, “Aren’t you forgetting something? Yucheng and the others are waiting for us in Jingling.”

“Just give me ten days,” Kou Zhong asked earnestly, “Consider it we accidentally lose our way!”

Left without any choice, Xu Ziling helplessly agreed.

Kou Zhong’s spirit rose up immediately; striding toward Liu Zongdao, he cupped his fist and said, “Thank you very much for Liu Zhishi’s guidance!”

The old man Xu gladly replied on his behalf, “No need to mention sentimental words, get on the horse!”

The young man cried out enthusiastically, “Xiao Ning, you can ride with me!”

Xu Ziling was grateful inwardly that these people were not loathsome; otherwise the next ten days would be very difficult to endure.