Futile Devices Scans

Li Si’s movements paused.

Commander Zhang—he had not heard those words in a very long time.

That day, when he learned from Administrator Li that the court had ceded the three towns, and learned that Brother Xiao had deceived him, he had walked through the streets in a daze, not knowing why his chest hurt as though it had been cut open. Was it resentment toward Brother Xiao for deceiving him?

But once he returned home and saw Grandma injured, he had no time left to “resent” Brother Xiao.

In the month afterward, he hurried back and forth every day, coming and going busily, worrying over news from Kuiyuan, yet unconsciously blurring Brother Xiao’s face in his heart.

Because every time he thought of Brother Xiao, that heart-carving pain would surge back into his chest, leaving him unable to breathe, leaving him in suffering and torment.

He was not good at expressing the gloom and distress in his heart. Ever since parting from Brother Xiao, he no longer had any desire to confide in anyone. Every day, he only lowered his head and worked. Although he did talk with Grandma and Godmother, it was all mutual care and reminders. This pain had always been hidden deep in his heart, pressed down by him with all his might, yet because of one sentence from the Strongman, it gushed out like spring water…

–

Li Si’s face went pale, and his fingers clenched even tighter.

The Strongman screamed miserably in a lowered voice, squeaking and begging for mercy. After much pleading, good words and bad, he finally saved his poor ear—it had been pulled long! The left and right sides were no longer even!

With a cold face, Li Si threatened the Strongman and demanded that he take him to see the “Immortal Fire Army.” The Strongman already both respected and feared him, so there was no need for threats at all. He quickly agreed to take him there that very night, then covered his ears and slipped away in dejection first.

–

That night, Li Si went with the Strongman to the “Immortal Fire Army’s” camp.

He had not expected that this temporarily recruited force would already number as many as three thousand. True Master Shen Xiao had selected a batch of soldiers from the Imperial Guard whose Five Phases belonged to fire—unlike the Commander, who had carefully chosen capable men and strong warriors; here, as long as they belonged to fire, that was enough.

Afterward, he had gathered a large wave of local ruffians and scoundrels whose phases belonged to fire from among the common folk as well, forcefully scraping together the number of three thousand. This group was a mixture of good and bad, and most of them were bad: petty villains who cheated, swindled, abducted, and tricked, vicious and wicked, lazy and cowardly. They were quite handy when bullying the common people, but the moment they encountered an enemy, they would collapse and scatter like flowing water, utterly useless.

But what did True Master Shen Xiao care? As long as he sat firmly upon the throne of State Preceptor, shouldered the great reputation of “protecting the state,” soothed His Majesty’s anxious and unsettled heart, lined his own pockets by eating up military pay, immersed himself in the beautiful dream of being an Immortal Master, and scraped by one day after another, that was enough.

Li Si trembled with anger, his palm gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. The Strongman feared that he would draw his sword and chop off a pig’s head in public, or charge back into the palace and chop down the Immortal Master. He was so frightened that his hair stood on end, and he kept urging, “Don’t be angry! Don’t be angry!”

Li Si clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and forced himself to calm down.

What use was anger? What use was impulse? What use was killing the Strongman? If he charged into the palace and chopped down that demonic Daoist, how would he escape unscathed? And what kind of involvement would Grandma and Godmother suffer?

He was silent for a long while before he said to the Strongman, “For now, pick out those among them who can be used and list them as the upper army. Train them properly. As for the lazy and unruly ones, list them all as the lower army and keep them under strict control. Do not let them go out into the streets to cause trouble and harass the common people.”

The Strongman agreed again and again, then asked him for a great deal of advice on training soldiers, trembling with fear as he sent him out of the camp.

–

Li Si walked about a hundred paces, then recalled all of Brother Xiao’s words and deeds when he had served as “Commander Zhang,” his respect and kindness toward his subordinates and the common people, and the way everyone admired and submitted to him with utter devotion…

With a cold face, he turned back again, frightening the Strongman until he trembled all over once more. The Strongman asked ingratiatingly, “Deputy Commander Li, is there anything else?”

Li Si’s face was still cold, but his tone softened. “Strongman, may I ask your honorable surname and given name?”

Yes. They had known each other for so long, yet the Strongman had never had a chance to give his name, and Li Si had never asked.

Flattered beyond measure, the Strongman said, “Oh, no need for all that respect, no need at all. This lowly one’s name is Zheng Jiu—Zheng with the ear radical, Jiu as in wine.”

Li Si cupped his fists to him seriously in salute and said, “Brother Zheng, you have done bad things, but you are not a bad person. Commander Zhang also said that you have a conscience…”

Carefully, he omitted the two words “but not much,” then continued seriously, “These soldiers will go into battle and defend the city with you in the future. The capital’s safety also rests upon all of you. I must trouble you to put real effort into training them.”

Zheng Jiu had been an orphan with no one to discipline him since childhood, drifting around the capital’s streets and spending more than ten years as a thug. Only now, in his twenties, after being beaten violently twice by Li Si and taking a trip before the gates of hell, had he suddenly awakened and turned over a new leaf. In his whole life, he had never heard such kind words. He was so moved that tears and snot streamed down his face, and he declared his loyalty again and again. “Rest assured! This lowly one will definitely do everything he can! I’ll train them seriously!”

–

From this day on, Li Si became even busier.

Aside from his daily duties at the Imperial City Directorate and caring for his family, whenever it was his turn to rest, he would also go to the Immortal Fire Army’s camp and help Zheng Jiu train soldiers. From those three thousand soldiers as hopeless as mud that could not be propped onto a wall, Zheng Jiu struggled to select two thousand men for the upper army, dragged them crookedly and unsteadily to the drill ground, and barely began training them.

After Tao Shi learned of this, he volunteered to come help train the soldiers too. One after another, some of the other soldiers who had gone to Ant County also learned of the matter, and all came running over on their rest days to “meddle in other people’s business.”

Under the noses of His Majesty and the Immortal Master, this group of ordinary soldiers who were neither generals nor commanders secretly dragged this demonic army, which would originally have brought disaster to the nation, little by little into something resembling human shape.

–

Spring gradually grew warmer, and in the little courtyard Li Si had rented, many wild grasses grew lushly.

Grandma could speak in complete sentences now, and with Li Si supporting her, she could also barely get out of bed and walk a little. Li Si had never mentioned Second Uncle to her, but this old woman, blind in the eyes yet not blind in the heart, had long since guessed that her second son would never return. At night, she had secretly shed tears, yet by day, she acted as though nothing had happened, not letting her grandson and goddaughter see her sorrow.

The physician instructed Li Si to support Grandma for some movement every day and let her get more sun, so Li Si wanted to clear away the weeds in the courtyard and make more space.

In the pitch-black night, he lit a lantern and crouched in the courtyard, pulling weeds. He did not notice that a clump of thorns had grown in the corner of the courtyard. The moment he reached out, he was pricked into letting out an “ow!”

Hearing the sound, Madam Yao ran out from inside the house. “Si’er! What happened?”

“Nothing. I was pricked by wild grass,” Li Si replied. He shone the lantern on that clump of thorns. It was all thorny green branches, without even a single little flower to accompany them, and he could not tell what kind of plant it was.

“Godmother, I’ll go get the firewood knife and chop it down.”

Madam Yao looked carefully and advised him to stop. “This is yueyuehong, also called the Four Seasons Flower. It blooms in spring, and it blooms in winter too. It is very hardy.”

Li Si covered the bleeding back of his hand and crouched down to examine this rosebush carefully. Seeing that it had grown into a full, clustered clump, covered in sharp thorns, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, it did indeed look very hardy. But it was bare all over, with only a few scattered small leaves. How did it look like something that could bloom?

Madam Yao said, “Give it some fertilizer, and in a few days, it will come alive.”

So Li Si pulled out all the weeds in the courtyard, leaving only this rosebush with its wild-growing branches, showing off its might. He also learned from Godmother and crushed dried eggshells into powder. In the morning before he left, he watered it, and at night, he carried a lantern to bury fertilizer around it—of course, he was pricked into crying out again and again.

–

In mid-March, His Majesty finally found enough excuses, saying that when the Xiao army withdrew, they had burned, killed, and looted along the way, tearing up the peace agreement first, and therefore the previously promised cession of the three towns no longer counted. In court, he repeatedly declared, “Not one inch of our ancestors’ land may be given to another,” speaking with force and resounding conviction; he also issued a new edict to the three towns, retracting his previous order, and sent several great generals to lead troops north in support.

Among them were the venerable Commissioner Zuo, Zuo Shi Dao, as well as his own younger brother Zuo Shi Zhong, who was likewise a famous general.

After Li Si learned of this matter, he was extremely delighted and hopeful. He thought that now, Kuiyuan would finally be safe.

–

However, the court did not release military authority. It still had His Majesty himself and the civil officials of the Bureau of Military Affairs commanding this great army from afar. Not long after old General Zuo set out, he fell ill on the road due to his advanced age and had no choice but to temporarily resign. After his younger brother Zuo Shi Zhong replaced him as commander, he unexpectedly fell into an encirclementw and died in a tragic battle. The other reinforcement forces also suffered great defeats and retreated.

–

In May, news of the great defeat returned to court. His Majesty was furious, dismissed a batch of officials, and beheaded another batch.

Because of this, the war situation once again became deadlocked and stagnant.

–

When Li Si learned of this news, it happened to be his rest day, and he was on the drill ground helping Zheng Jiu train soldiers.

Zheng Jiu spoke of the matter in a low voice, and also said that His Majesty had appointed Defense Commander Li as Pacification Commissioner of Hebei and Hedong to succeed as commanding commissioner and once again march north to support Kuiyuan. But Defense Commander Li was a civil official. In this lifetime, he had only fought one city-defense battle—and that had only lasted three days before both sides began suspending hostilities and negotiating peace. How could he command a great army in battle?

The Strongman was worried that repeated dispatches of troops north, followed by repeated great defeats, would enrage the Xiao state, and that they would once again raise troops and come south to the capital. Then this Immortal Fire Army might truly have to take the field to defend the city.

Li Si was no longer worried about the Immortal Fire Army’s ability to defend the city. He was only worried that True Master Shen Xiao would command recklessly and do some demonic thing that sought death. He was even more worried about Kuiyuan, which had already been scorched in the flames of war for five months, and Ant County, insignificant and cared for by no one in court.

The weather in May had already grown hot. The bright sun shone high, and the soldiers on the drill ground had all been tanned dark. Zheng Jiu, even more so, was soaked in sweat.

Li Si himself had tanned a little too, yet unlike before, he no longer wore a face covering to avoid the light and other people’s gazes. Under the blazing sun, he stood calmly together with the soldiers, his heart full of deep worry, his expression even colder and more stern, already possessing the authority of a leader.

Under the blazing sun, two tiny sparrows flew over, pecking at the scattered horse bran on the ground. After filling their bellies, they hopped onto a wooden rack nearby and began playing, chasing each other and hopping about.

Li Si tilted his head and watched them. For the first time, he clearly saw that inside the sparrows’ pointed little beaks, there were also soft pink little tongues. The two little sparrows chirped and hopped for a while, then stopped, leaned their heads together, rubbed their fluffy little heads against one another, and pecked at each other’s beaks.

One of them was clearly fluffier and plumper than the other. It pressed down the smaller sparrow, repeatedly holding the other’s little tongue in its beak and lightly pecking it. The other was pecked until it chirped nonstop, yet it neither dodged nor resisted. Instead, it nuzzled upward affectionately.

Li Si stared blankly. The cold sternness on his face melted like ice and snow, revealing innocence and bewilderment.

Zheng Jiu asked him, “Deputy Commander Li, what are you looking at?”

Li Si said blankly, “Sparrows… fighting. It’s bullying it…”

Zheng Jiu glanced over and laughed. “Hahaha! Deputy Commander Li, that isn’t bullying!” He leaned closer and said in a low voice, “Deputy Commander, you’re no longer that young. Have you never touched matters of romance? This is something even birds know, yet you don’t?”

Li Si turned his head and looked at him blankly. Seeing his teasing smile, he asked in confusion, “What are matters of romance?”

Zheng Jiu pressed two fat fingers together obscenely, making an intimate, lovey-dovey gesture. “A young gentleman and a young lady, mutually in love, tender and affectionate! If Deputy Commander wants to know, I can take you to the pleasure lanes tonight to broaden your experience. Even our Emperor Emeritus used to go often. His romantic affairs with that courtesan Li Shi Shi were written into who knows how many storybooks…”

Zheng Jiu chattered on about the Emperor Emeritus’s bygone romantic affairs, but not a single word entered Li Si’s ears.

He stared blankly at those two little sparrows affectionately touching beaks. Beneath the blazing sun, all the blood in his body seemed to burn, as though even his bones had been burned into powder…

Zheng Jiu chattered on for a long while but received not the slightest response. He lowered his fingers and looked up, only to be so frightened that he sucked in a cold breath.

—Li Si stood silent and soundless, but his face was already covered in tears.

–

Li Si did not manage to finish training the soldiers that day.

He had grown up a little, but he was still not mature or strong enough to disguise himself as calmly and normally as Brother Xiao had then.

With tears streaming down his face, he once again walked through the capital’s streets in a daze.

The Xiao army had withdrawn for two or three months already, and the capital that had been looted empty soon recovered its prosperity. Tribute taxes from the south came continuously along the river with boats large and small, and the national treasury was filled again; tea houses and wine shops, entertainment quarters and brothels, were bustling and crowded, human voices noisy and lively, once again dressing up the illusion of a peaceful and flourishing age.

Li Si walked in panic through the lively streets and alleys. All the prosperity and clamor had nothing to do with him. Everything he thought of was only that small mountain city, the thick snow between the mountains, the broken sunlight in the forest, and a pair of hands with fingers intertwined.

After returning to the capital, every time he thought of Brother Xiao, his chest hurt as though his heart were being cut open. He had once thought he had some strange illness, and had once thought it was “resentment” toward Brother Xiao for deceiving him…

Only now did he finally understand.

They were husband and wife. They were mutually in love. They were tender and affectionate.

But Brother Xiao had said: Little fool, I’ll bully you one last time.

Clearly, Brother Xiao also loved him. Clearly, he wanted to be tender and affectionate with him, yet he had still deceived him.

So that final tenderness had been Brother Xiao’s farewell to him.

So his heart had been carved away by Brother Xiao.

–

In a trance, he returned home. When he pushed open the courtyard gate, he saw that large clump of green thorns in the corner of the wall. That wild thornbush, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, had formed a small flower bud at the very highest branch, and on this day, it had bloomed.

In this flourishing age, peonies were honored: brocade clusters of blossoms, heavenly fragrance and national beauty, famed throughout the world. The wildflower in the corner of the wall was not even half the size of a peony, and its faint red color was far from a peony’s graceful elegance. Li Si had never pruned its branches or trimmed its leaves either, instead letting it grow wildly, so it had not produced a flourishing mass of flowers, only this one tiny bloom.

But this lonely, tenacious, high-spirited little flower faced the faint breeze, bathed in the blazing sun, and proudly lifted its head toward Li Si, wantonly displaying its own beauty.

Li Si stood dazed at the courtyard gate, his pair of eyes red from crying, only staring fixedly at it.

He stood there in a daze for a very, very long time.

–

After a long while, his godmother supported Grandma out from the house, just about to let her bask in the sun in the courtyard. Only then did the two relatives discover him standing foolishly at the courtyard gate, and both were startled by his reddened eyes, hurriedly asking him what had happened.

Li Si wiped the tear stains from his face, ran forward a few steps, and helped Godmother support Grandma. He shook his head and said, “I’m fine. I thought of an old acquaintance I met in Kuiyuan. Godmother, stay with Grandma and let her bask in the sun. I’ll make the meal.”

Calmly, as though nothing had happened, he lit the fire and cooked, washed clothes and swept, tidying the house until it was clean and neat. Then he went out to the street, bought the next month’s worth of medicinal herbs for Grandma, and carried back a basket piled full of charcoal.

At night, after serving Grandma and helping her to bed early, he gave Godmother a few reminders, then went out alone to a place he had never been before.

—Administrator Li’s private residence outside the palace.

He respectfully paid a visit to Administrator Li and begged him to put in a few good words before His Majesty, so that now that the court had some money again, the three thousand strings of reward money owed to the soldiers could be issued quickly.

Administrator Li told him not to worry. He had already been doing his utmost to urge this matter along, and the money should be issued next month.

Li Si felt reassured, then begged Administrator Li again, wanting a chance to meet His Majesty alone and speak with him.

Administrator Li asked in confusion, “Why is this?”

Li Si lowered his head and said, “I heard that His Majesty has appointed Defense Commander Li as Pacification Commissioner of Hebei and Hedong, succeeding to the post of commanding commissioner, to go north once more and support Kuiyuan. I want to beg His Majesty to allow me to go with the army.”

Administrator Li said in surprise, “Why is this? This absolutely must not be done! Even young Commissioner Zuo suffered a great defeat and died. Right now, the court has no troops and no grain. Defense Commander Li has merely been framed by the peace-faction ministers, who want to take the chance to push him out of the capital. Once he goes, he will certainly suffer a great defeat too! Whether he lives or dies is hard to say!”

Li Si said, “Precisely because of that, I should go with the army all the more. I have been to Kuiyuan and Ant County, and I know the situation there. I have a way to contact Kuiyuan City and unite the defenders with the reinforcements, which can help Defense Commander Li fight this battle. On the day I returned to the capital, I once explained to His Majesty that Ant County has a secret passage, but at that time, His Majesty must have been wholly intent on ceding the three towns and unwilling to listen to me explain in detail. Now I want to speak to him again. Even if he is unwilling to listen, at the very least, let me go with the army so that I can explain everything clearly to Defense Commander Li.”

Administrator Li was silent for a long while, then sighed. “Since you have such resolve, and truly care nothing for life or death, I will do my utmost to help you.”

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