Futile Devices Scans

The two yamen runners went down into the dungeon. Sure enough, the constable ordered them to move Li Si to a cell aboveground and settle him there, saying he would interrogate him again the next day.

The two quickly carried the weakly breathing Li Si upstairs and laid him on a makeshift bed of wooden planks and straw. They put his clothes back on him and found an old quilt to cover him with.

One of them brought some medicine, loosened Li Si’s robe, and was tending his wounds when Li Si suddenly seized his wrist.

Before he could make a sound, Li Si struck him in the throat with a swift punch. He nearly choked to death, let out a gurgle, and toppled to the ground!

The other man was standing guard outside the cell door. Frightened, he rushed into the room, his hand going to his waist. Before he could draw his saber, Li Si punched him in the stomach. He too let out a gurgle, clutched his belly, and collapsed.

Staggering, Li Si rushed out of the cell and proceeded to knock down two more night-duty yamen runners. The courtyard was pitch-black, yet he felt as though he had been here before. In a daze, he made his way toward what he instinctively felt was the direction of the county yamen’s main gate.

He threw himself against the heavy gate, but his legs gave way and he slid down to the ground in a miserable heap.

By then, the yamen runners had all gotten back to their feet and were chasing after him while shouting for help.

Using the gate bar for support, Li Si struggled upright, laboriously lifted the heavy bar and tossed it aside, then pulled open the gate and stumbled out.

⸻

He tumbled down the steps and rolled into the street outside.

His entire body hurt so much it had gone numb. The only thing he could hear was the pounding of his own heartbeat, and his vision was filled with red.

Yet somehow, it all felt strangely familiar.

The moonlight was dim, the winter wind howled, and behind him people shouted, “Stop, thief!” His heart pounded just as frantically, yet amid the tension there seemed to be a trace of reassurance. Someone was running beside him and asking, “How are your injuries?”

Lying on the ground with blood and frost covering his face, Li Si murmured dazedly, “I’m fine…”

“Catch the assassin!” the yamen runners shouted from the gate.

Li Si jerked awake, scrambled to his feet, and plunged headlong into the darkness.

The roads of the small county were winding and uneven, with narrow alleys branching in countless directions. Once Li Si slipped into the maze of alleys, he was like a small snake disappearing into the mountains. Before long, he had vanished without a trace.

The yamen runners failed to catch him and hurried to report the matter to the constable. The constable was shocked out of his wits and immediately summoned every yamen runner in the county, both on duty and off duty. Dozens of men launched a loud, citywide search for him.

⸻

A hunchbacked night watchman shuffled through a narrow alley carrying a dim lantern.

Several yamen runners holding torches came charging down the alley behind him, nearly knocking over the lantern. They hurriedly apologized.

One of them asked the watchman, “Old sir, have you seen a boy around ten or so? Quite tall, dressed all in black, with blood on him.”

The watchman was hard of hearing. After hearing the question repeated three times, he finally shook his head. The yamen runners hurried off again.

The watchman continued forward at his slow pace. After a long while, his figure disappeared around the bend of the alley.

Li Si emerged from the shadow beneath an eave and exhaled a trembling plume of white breath. Everything around him seemed strangely familiar: this alley, this eave, even the small courtyard across from him.

Supporting himself against the wall, he took a few more steps forward. Before his hand could even touch the courtyard gate, his strength gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.

The night wind lifted a loose strand of hair from his forehead as the dark night seemed to swallow him whole. Frost quickly formed across his brows and lashes, and his complexion gradually turned ashen.

⸻

With a creak, the courtyard gate opened.

A small figure bundled in a thick padded coat came out with his neck tucked into his collar, yawning as he carried a chamber pot toward the drainage ditch outside. When he saw a large figure lying beside the ditch, he jumped in fright. The chamber pot flew into the air before he frantically caught it again.

Covering his mouth to stop himself from crying out, the boy crouched down and looked carefully at Li Si. He immediately froze in surprise.

Turning around, he dashed back into the courtyard, set down the chamber pot, lit a lamp, shielded the flame with one hand, and hurried back outside. Crouching down again, he examined Li Si carefully in the lamplight. He even cautiously reached out to feel for Li Si’s breath and patted him on the shoulder.

“Hey? Hey? Big brother?”

Unable to move Li Si by himself, he ran back into the courtyard and began pounding on a door. “Big Sister! Brother-in-law!”

The two people inside were awakened at once.

“What is it?”

“What’s happened?”

“There’s someone outside the courtyard. He’s passed out.”

Before long, the door opened. Madam Zhang came bustling out first. Her husband hopped around inside the room trying to put on his shoes, chasing after her as he called, “Wife! One wasn’t enough? You’re picking up another one?”

Madam Zhang completely ignored her husband and followed the young boy outside. She had spent years helping a butcher and was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, the tallest of the three. The moment she saw Li Si lying on the ground, she said nothing. She simply hoisted him onto her shoulder as though he were a slab of pork and carried him back into the courtyard in just a few strides.

As she walked, she instructed the young boy, “There may be blood on the road. Take a lantern and clean up any traces outside, then come back quickly.”

The boy acknowledged her and immediately set off.

By then, her husband had finally managed to put on his shoes and came out to help. Together, they carried Li Si into the young boy’s room and laid him on the bed.

Madam Zhang’s husband was thin and wiry, a full size smaller than his wife. His hands kept working, but his mouth never stopped either. “Wife, picking up a little one wasn’t so bad. But this one is so big. Our house doesn’t have enough room to sleep everyone…”

Madam Zhang shoved a basin and a towel into his hands. “Be quiet and boil some water!”

Her husband immediately shrank his neck and hurried off carrying the basin.

⸻

Not long afterward, the young boy returned from outside carrying the lantern, and Madam Zhang’s husband came back with a basin of hot water.

The three of them gathered around the bed. Carefully wiping the blood from Li Si’s face, Madam Zhang’s husband discovered the wound on his forehead.

As he continued wiping downward along his neck, he discovered countless lash marks covering Li Si’s upper body.

His hands began to tremble. “This… this looks like he escaped from somewhere. Who would be cruel enough to do something like this to someone so young?”

The young boy said, “Maybe he was kidnapped too, just like me.”

The family had no medicine for wounds. After thinking for a moment, Madam Zhang said, “Husband, go to the apothecary first thing tomorrow morning. Tell them I cut my hand while chopping meat and buy some wound medicine.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll go first thing in the morning.”

The young boy, who had been quietly lingering by the bedside without saying a word, hesitated before speaking. “Big Sister, Brother-in-law, there’s something that happened a few days ago that I haven’t dared tell you…”

Madam Zhang asked, “What is it?”

The boy stammered, “I… that day when I went out and came back with that money pouch… I didn’t actually find it…”

Mr. Zhang immediately exclaimed, “I knew it! Your sister and I haven’t dared spend that money at all, afraid it might bring trouble!”

Madam Zhang smacked her husband across the back so hard that the skinny man shuddered all over. “Be quiet! Let the child finish first!”

The boy continued, “That night, two older brothers came. They gave me the money pouch. One of them was him…”

⸻

Outside, the winter wind cut to the bone. Inside, the lamplight flickered. Wrapped snugly beneath warm blankets, Li Si’s complexion gradually regained some color, but then he developed a fever.

Mr. Zhang replaced the hot compress on his forehead with a cold one.

As they cared for him, the husband and wife listened while the boy recounted everything that had happened that night.

Madam Zhang asked in detail about the appearance and accent of the other man who had come that evening, then fell silent.

Mr. Zhang said, “Wife, could it be that your Third Brother isn’t dead after all? Could he have come back to see you?”

Madam Zhang was holding a hot cloth and promptly slapped it against him as she tearfully scolded, “My Third Brother was short and chubby since childhood! How could he have turned into such a big fellow? Besides, it’s been so many years! He never even sent home a single letter! I thought he died long ago! If he’s alive, then why won’t he come see me? Why sneak around outside like a thief? No wonder I found a hole in the window that morning! The cold wind pouring through it nearly froze me to death! I even had to patch the window afterward! That little wastrel has done nothing but ruin things around the house since he was a child! Waaaah…”

“He was still young when he left. Maybe he grew taller… Aiya, wife, don’t be upset. Aiya, just look at yourself. Seeing you cry breaks my heart…”

⸻

In his unconsciousness, Li Si was awakened by a mixture of scolding, crying, and endless chatter. Dazedly opening his eyes, he saw three figures gathered around him.

One of them was a tall, sturdy woman whose eyes were swollen like walnuts from crying. Seeing that he was awake, she hurriedly asked, “Young sir, are you alright? Do you still remember the person who was with you that night? What was his name? Where did he go?”

Li Si thought groggily: Yes… what was his name? Where did he go?

He hazily looked around. The coffin boards still surrounded him on all sides. The woman’s voice gradually became indistinct. Everything fell silent except for the pounding of his heartbeat, growing louder, heavier, and more suffocating.

Powerlessly, he closed his eyes again. Darkness gathered around him and swallowed him whole.

Where did you go?

⸻

Li Si had a very long dream.

In the dream there was the scorching heat of flames rushing toward him, the coolness of a morning breeze, the exhilaration of galloping across the grasslands, the danger of slaughter on the battlefield, the peace of leaning on one another, the joy of reunion after a brief separation…

That person was always by his side.

The sharp contours of that person’s profile seemed carved by a blade. His expression was calm and stern, his gaze blazing and intense. Yet whenever he turned to look at Li Si, he would smile, his eyes curving into two gentle crescents.

At the end of the dream, dust rained down in soft patters. A voice shouted anxiously:

“Go back! Run toward that side! I’ll come find you! I’ll definitely come find you!”

“Sisi! Go!”

Li Si suddenly opened his eyes. Dawn was just breaking outside the window. Faint birdsong drifted in through the gaps between the coffin boards.

—So it wasn’t that he had gone somewhere. It was me who had gone somewhere.

⸻

Li Si rolled off the bed and crashed to the floor, tangled in his blanket. He was still running a fever and had to struggle with all his strength before finally freeing himself from the blanket.

The young boy sleeping beside him had spent the entire night taking care of him and was exhausted. He only woke up when Li Si burst through the door.

“Big brother, where are you going?” the boy hurriedly asked.

Li Si turned and looked at him. Morning light brushed across Li Si’s face and fell upon the boy’s, illuminating a pair of scars on his forehead that looked like little dragon horns.

In a feverish daze, Li Si said, “He’s still looking for me.”

“What?”

“I’m going to wait for him.”

“You mean wha—”

Before the boy could finish speaking, Li Si had already pushed open the door and gone outside. The boy hurriedly scrambled out of bed after him.

Dressed only in thin clothes and burning with fever, Li Si felt no cold. Dazedly, he simply kept walking toward the courtyard gate.

The boy caught up but could not stop him. Panicking, he turned and shouted, “Big Sister! Brother-in-law! He’s leaving!”

Moments later, Madam Zhang and Mr. Zhang rushed out. But the courtyard was empty. Only the boy stood dumbfounded by the gate.

Madam Zhang hurried out into the street. “How did you not stop him?!”

“I couldn’t! He ran so fast! He vanished in the blink of an eye!”

The three of them chased after him to the mouth of the alley, but by then Li Si had disappeared completely.

⸻

The county magistrate’s residence was the largest estate in the small city. It was a three-courtyard compound. Though not as spacious as the luxurious Jiangnan mansion he had owned when he served as a prefect, it lacked for nothing. The innermost courtyard contained the rear garden. To one side stood the magistrate’s study; to the other stood his meditation chamber, where he contemplated Daoist teachings.

As the Immortal Master’s guardian protector, the strongman had been seriously injured on the night the Immortal Master was killed while supposedly “protecting” him. His face had swollen beyond recognition, his abdomen was black and blue, and he could barely eat. The magistrate had therefore invited him to stay in the meditation chamber and recuperate properly.

After only a few days of rest, however, he had nearly been killed again. He had been taken hostage, dragged out of the residence, and shoved into a pit trap by an assassin.

—Although he had told the magistrate that he had accidentally fallen into the pit and that the assassin had actually saved him, the magistrate stubbornly insisted that he had been beaten so senseless that he no longer remembered how he had fallen in.

In short, his internal injuries had not yet healed, and now his backside had suffered another blow. He could no longer even lounge comfortably in the rear garden and admire the scenery.

The strongman lay face-down on a couch inside the meditation chamber, miserable beyond words. Ointment had been applied to his injured rear, but the pain had kept him awake all night.

His two subordinates, meanwhile, slept like dead pigs, sprawled crookedly on small couches to either side.

The warming room was heated with high-quality charcoal that burned smokelessly and gave off a faint fragrance. It made the two subordinates as comfortable as though it were springtime, but it caused the strongman to sweat profusely. His injured backside became damp, and the sweat stung his wounds even more.

After spending the entire night groaning and sighing, he saw that dawn had arrived and woke his two men, telling them to arrange some food and also summon a doctor to change the dressing on his honored rear end.

The three of them were busy with these tasks when a sudden commotion arose outside.

“What’s going on? Go have a look,” the strongman said.

One of the subordinates soon ran back. “Sir, this is bad! They’re saying that plague god has come back! One of the servants saw him climb over the wall and enter the residence with his own eyes. No one knows where he’s hiding now! The guards are searching for him everywhere!”

Clutching his backside, the strongman anxiously said, “Help me up. I’m going out to see.”

“Aiya, sir, why would you go out there? What if he’s come to kill you again?”

“He wasn’t trying to kill me,” the strongman said. “The night the Daoist died, weren’t the two of you unharmed as well? Help me outside!”

–

Supporting the limping strongman between them, the two men helped him out of the room. By pure coincidence, they saw a black figure appear atop a snow-covered artificial mountain. Like a roaming dragon, the figure glided across the slopes before disappearing among the layered peaks.

One subordinate pointed in alarm. “Pl-pl-pl—”

The strongman clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Don’t say a word. The three of us didn’t see anything. Understand?”

–

Li Si slipped into the narrow shaft and climbed downward, following his memories.

But he was feverish and injured, his limbs weak. After descending only a few steps, his foot slipped and he fell straight down.

Bang!

He smashed through the rotten wooden cover and continued falling, crashing heavily onto the pile of dirt below.

The loose soil and wood fragments softened the impact somewhat, but stars still exploded before his eyes. It took him quite some time before he could struggle back to his feet.

The strange crash alerted the guards patrolling above. They gathered around the artificial mountain and cautiously began climbing upward, searching deeper inside.

Hearing their distant shouts overhead, Li Si quickened his pace and stumbled deeper into the tunnel.

Ahead lay only darkness.

He had no torch, and his fire striker had been confiscated, but he paid it no mind. Feeling his way forward, he continued into the depths of the darkness.

Several times he walked into walls or fell to the ground. Each time, he struggled back up and continued onward regardless.

He’s looking for me, he thought. He must be looking for me.

–

His pace grew faster and faster, though increasingly unsteady. Darkness closed in around him. The coffin boards on all sides surged and twisted like waves, enclosing him in the center, squeezing tighter and tighter until the pain became unbearable.

Memories began flashing before his eyes. He heard his mother humming. He heard his grandmother crying. He heard his second uncle sighing…

Joy, despair, anger, suffering—the sorrows and separations of the mortal world had once been more than he could bear. As a child, he had therefore shut them out. He had locked himself away in darkness. Not listening. Not looking. Not hearing. Not asking. As though by ignoring everything around him, he could somehow continue living in peace.

But his second uncle had died.

And the tiger bandit in the earthen fortress had awakened him.

No one would shelter him from wind and rain forever. The many hardships of life were things he would inevitably have to face and endure while fully awake.

Because without sorrow, there could be no joy. Without parting, there could be no reunion. Without death, there could be no life.

Without the fear of losing something, one could never understand the value of possessing it.

Only when he shed tears did he finally understand the care his second uncle had given him over the years, the concern that had been both fatherly and motherly, the guidance that had been both teacherly and elder-like. Only then did he understand the trembling hand his grandmother had placed upon his face at parting, and see the tears hidden in the corners of her eyes.

Only then did he realize that even his muddled and insignificant life had been cherished and loved so deeply by those closest to him.

He no longer wished to live in shackles. He no longer wished to live in loneliness. He no longer wished to be a cold, unfeeling stone that gave no response to the world. He now possessed greed, anger, obsession, hatred, love, and loathing. From this day forward, he was a fragile yet living being of flesh and blood.

From this day forward, he possessed desires and hopes.

⸻

He let out an enraged roar and hurled his fist into the void. He heard the sound of a coffin shattering. He heard the violent pounding of his own heart—still fierce, but no longer suffocating.

In that instant, all the memories he had lost flooded back before his eyes, and surging emotions crashed through his chest! He broke into a run, faster and faster, like a fine horse galloping toward the open wilderness!

—Brother Xiao is looking for me. I need to go wait for him.

⸻

At the end of the tunnel, the pile of shattered stone and earth still blocked the way.

Li Si felt his way forward and sat down among the rubble. He wore only a single layer of clothing. The cold bit at him, his wounds throbbed with pain, and the fever made him drowsy.

Curling tightly into himself, he wrapped his arms around his body and forced himself to breathe steadily, trying to hold out a little longer.

From the other side of the tunnel came the faint shouts of the guards. The glow of their torches flickered in and out of view.

He found the sleeve dagger hidden in his cuff—the yamen runners had failed to discover it when they searched his outer robe—and gripped it tightly in his palm while studying the surroundings by the distant light.

The passage was narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. If weapons were swung, only one person could advance at a time. That was enough. If they came one by one, he could hold out for a while longer.

⸻

The guards’ footsteps drew closer and closer.

Li Si tightened his grip on the sleeve dagger and slowly rose, shifting from a seated position into a crouch, ready to spring up at any moment.

Suddenly, a small hole broke open in the pile of earth behind him, showering loose dirt and dust.

Li Si turned around.

A sliver of warm yellow light shone through the opening. Familiar voices drifted through it, wrapping around him like warmth.

“Boss! Look!”

“We broke through!”

“That’s great!”

“Boss, slow down! Be careful…”

A hand suddenly thrust through the hole—a hand covered in grime, wrapped in strips of cloth, stained with blood. It shot forward and firmly grasped Li Si’s trembling arm.

Then, in the darkness, a man’s hoarse, exhausted chuckle sounded.

“Little fool, I found you.”

Previous

Main

Next