Chapter 44
Proofreader:- Mim
The next day, just after Mao Shi (5:00–7:00 AM), Li Zhi brought Li Xiangsheng along to visit Hei Huo’s room.
Due to his terrifying appearance, no one wanted to share a room with Hei Huo, so he lived alone.
After the third knock on the door, Hei Huo opened it from inside.
He was wearing his only set of ragged clothing and was still barefoot. Although the injury on his shoulder couldn’t be seen fully, judging from his complexion, it didn’t seem serious enough to affect his strength.
Li Zhi let out a sigh of relief and handed over the food box in her hand.
Hei Huo only stared at her in confusion.
“I invited my friends for a feast last night. These are dishes I set aside in advance, including wild rabbit meat, which will help your wound recover,” Li Zhi said with a smile. “If you don’t mind, please accept it.”
Hei Huo opened his mouth slightly, seemingly puzzled by this unexpected kindness and unsure how to respond.
Li Zhi smiled, shoved the food box into his arms, and left the small courtyard with Li Xiangsheng.
“Elder sister, why are you treating an outsider so well?” Li Xiangsheng asked curiously.
“Because he’s useful,” Li Zhi answered succinctly.
The next day, Li Zhi was cleaning the stables when a large shadow suddenly fell over her. Looking up, she saw Hei Huo, who was supposed to be recovering in his room.
Hei Huo nodded to her, picked up a broom from the corner, and silently began working.
“Ah, Hei Huo!” Li Cien emerged from a stall in the corner, holding a handful of horse feed she had picked up from the ground. She placed it into the nearest trough and ran over to Hei Huo happily, carefully observing his face. “Are you all better now?”
Hei Huo nodded in response. His silent and towering figure made him resemble a strong, gentle ox in front of Li Zhi and Li Cien.
“Steward Li gave you five days to rest. Why are you here today?” Li Zhi walked over to him and asked with concern.
“There’s too much work. You can’t manage it all,” Hei Huo replied.
“We’ll manage if we just work a little faster. If your wound tears open again, that would be bad,” Li Zhi said.
Despite her repeated efforts to persuade Hei Huo to return and rest, he stubbornly insisted on working.
With Hei Huo’s help, the heavy pressure on Li Zhi and Li Cien was suddenly reduced by half. Before the shift was even over, they had already completed all the work in the stables—every feeding trough was full of hay, and all the horses’ waste had been cleaned up.
After finishing the stables, Li Cien ran outside to play with her brother, while Hei Huo sat cross-legged on a patch of dry hay outside the stable, staring thoughtfully at Li Cien’s lively figure in the distance.
Li Zhi sat down not far from him.
Hei Huo didn’t look at her, but after a while, he spoke.
“I had a daughter… If she hadn’t died, she would be her age.”
Li Zhi turned to look at him. Hei Huo’s face was covered with a complex expression, one that wasn’t quite sorrow but rather confusion—like someone opening a box they had intended to keep sealed forever.
“My daughter and I—on a large ship, they captured us and sold us to a slave master in Yan country. My daughter… was beaten to death. I killed the slave master and escaped. Later, I was caught again.”
Hei Huo’s memories came out in short, disjointed sentences.
He would say a sentence, pause to think for a while, then say another sentence, as though picking up pieces of an image from that long-sealed box.
“I went to many places. Many. I can’t count them all,” Hei Huo said. “No one accepted me. They said I was dirty, unclean. They said I stole things, that I didn’t work. They joined forces to drive me out.”
“Why… are you different?” He looked at Li Zhi, his black-and-white eyes filled with confusion.
“They are weak and therefore afraid. I am different,” Li Zhi replied.
“You are very strong?”
“My ambition will never yield.”
Hei Huo fell into thought.
“But my body is fragile, even though my ambition is as strong as anyone’s,” Li Zhi said. “What I worry about most is that one day, my body will shatter before my will.”
“Martial strength cannot subdue the mind,” Hei Huo said. “It is not omnipotent. Strength is just the bluffing of the weak.”
“Though martial strength cannot conquer the mind, it can protect the lives of oneself and one’s family from harm. Strength is not all-powerful, but combined with wisdom, it can overcome all difficulties.”
Moved by Li Zhi’s determination, Hei Huo fell silent for a long while before speaking again, “In your Zhongyuan culture, there’s a saying: ‘A life-saving grace must be repaid a thousandfold.’ My martial arts—if you are willing, I can teach you.”
“I would certainly like to learn to protect myself, but my younger siblings…”
“If they are willing to learn, they can learn too,” Hei Huo said. “But my skills are very difficult.”
“We’re not afraid of difficulty!” Li Zhi said.
Hei Huo glanced at her and said, “Tonight, bring those who want to learn to the northern hillside.”
Before this, Li Zhi hadn’t been sure if this gamble would pay off.
She thought perhaps Hei Huo was simply born with long legs and ran fast. Perhaps that arrow-catching move was something she imagined. Perhaps it was all her overthinking—maybe Hei Huo didn’t know any martial arts at all.
But in the end, Heaven still favored her.
…
As the sun set and the moon rose, atop the small hillside.
Hei Huo stood with his hands behind his back in front of the four of them.
“Big Brother Hei Huo, can I learn too?” Jia Sui asked shyly. “I want to learn how to run away faster. Can you teach me lightness skill?”
“I want to learn hidden weapons! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!” Li Cien said excitedly.
“I want to become a general,” Li Xiangsheng declared.
Hei Huo shook his head and said, “I can’t teach any of those.”
“Then what can you teach?” Li Xiangsheng asked.
“I know… Leg Techniques.”
“Leg Techniques?”
Hei Huo looked around, walked to an area with sparse wild grass, bent down to pick up a handful of stones, and handed them to Li Xiangsheng. Then he gestured for everyone to step back.
Li Xiangsheng and Li Cien exchanged a glance, puzzled, but complied. Li Zhi and Jia Sui also moved backward.
With Hei Huo at the center, a circular clearing was opened up.
“Throw them at me, however you like,” he said to Li Xiangsheng.
Hei Huo exhaled lightly and loosened up his limbs. Then his expression changed—because Li Xiangsheng had thrown the first stone.
It was a stone thrown lightly, without much force, as Li Xiangsheng was still unclear about what Hei Huo intended to demonstrate.
Hei Huo crossed his arms in front of his chest in an X-shaped stance. The previously calm muscles on his body suddenly bulged, like a weapon finally unsheathed. His eyes locked onto the stone, and with a swift lift of his leg, he struck it. The stone instantly changed direction, rebounding back at an even faster speed and brushing past Jia Sui’s startled face.
“Again!” Li Xiangsheng was shocked and immediately threw a second stone.
This time, the angle he threw was extremely tricky, deliberately aiming to make it harder for Hei Huo to strike.
Yet the stone was effortlessly kicked aside with a spinning kick from Hei Huo.
“Again!”
This time, a handful of stones flew toward Hei Huo!
Hei Huo remained composed. He finally dropped his arms from his chest, placing his hands on the ground and performing three consecutive somersaults at an astonishing speed. It was hard to imagine that his thick, rock-like muscles could move so gracefully and swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, half of the stones had already been struck away by Hei Huo’s lightning-fast leg strikes. His kicks were precise and steady, and the raised leg didn’t even tremble in mid-air.
After landing, Hei Huo looked calm and at ease, his breathing steady.
He turned to Li Xiangsheng and opened his tightly clenched right hand.
The remaining half of the stones scattered to the ground.
Even though Li Zhi had read countless travelogues and strange tales, she had never seen such a bizarre yet lightning-fast leg technique!
The others were even more astonished. Jia Sui and Li Cien’s mouths seemed to have forgotten how to close, while Li Xiangsheng’s eyes blazed with determination, unable to hide his desire to learn the technique.
“Do you want to learn?” Hei Huo asked.
“Yes!” Li Xiangsheng’s voice was the loudest.
Hei Huo turned and walked down the hillside, dragging a heavy piece of wood back with him.
The wood had been smoothed down, flat like a large pebble. It measured about three to four feet thick and was finally hung on a sturdy tree branch.
“Watch me.”
Hei Huo stood in front of the wood and gave it a gentle push. The wood began swinging through the air, accompanied by a heavy whooshing sound as it came hurtling toward his face.
He remained calm and agile, dodging to the side just as the wood was about to strike him. As the wood swung back, he returned to his original position, ready to dodge again when it came at him.
The heavy wood swung back and forth rapidly, but each time, Hei Huo dodged it perfectly.
Finally, Hei Huo grabbed the wood to stop its momentum and turned to face the group. “Who wants to try?”
A silence fell over the group before Li Xiangsheng stepped forward first. “I’ll do it.”
He stood in the spot where Hei Huo had been, and once he was ready, Hei Huo pushed the wood. As soon as he let go, the wood swung toward Li Xiangsheng’s face.
Holding his breath, Li Xiangsheng dodged to the side. He succeeded the first time, but on the second swing, he wasn’t as lucky. The wood struck him on the cheek, sending him stumbling back several steps.
The dull thud of impact made the onlookers wince as though they felt the pain themselves.
“Brother!” Li Cien cried out, running over to support the swaying Li Xiangsheng.
“Who’s next?” Hei Huo asked again.
Jia Sui’s face showed fear, and even Li Cien hesitated.
Finally, Li Zhi spoke up, “I’ll go.”
“Are you sure?” Hei Huo looked into her eyes.
“I’m sure.”
After a moment, Hei Huo said, “You didn’t lie to me. You’re very strong.”
Li Zhi smiled, then walked to stand in front of the wood.
Hei Huo placed his hand on the wooden block.
“Miss!” Jia Sui cried in terror.
Li Zhi closed her eyes, holding her breath and focusing her mind. She listened carefully to the sound of the wind.
Sometimes, vision was a burden—especially when facing something so fast it left afterimages.
Li Zhi wasn’t sure if her approach would work. She didn’t know if her choice was correct, but she had the courage to give it a try.
The sound of insects chirping, the rustling of grass, the beating of her own heart.
Amidst all these, there was suddenly the sound of wind.
Relying on her instincts and hearing, Li Zhi decisively dodged to the left. The wind from the wooden blocks brushed past her ear, and as the next wave approached, she swiftly evaded again.
Three consecutive times, she avoided the strikes of the wooden blocks.
The wind stopped.
Opening her eyes, she saw Hei Huo’s approving gaze.
After the long night of training, Li Zhi and the other three returned to their small courtyard. Among the four, only Jia Sui was unscathed. Out of fear of the crushing wooden logs, she had chosen to withdraw, staying on the sidelines to handle the logistical support of Hei Huo’s lesson.
Taking advantage of the remaining one or two hours to rest, the others rushed to their rooms, but Li Zhi calmly carried a basin of water back to her chamber to wash.
After scrubbing off the dirt and fatigue, she lay on her bed, staring blankly at the dust floating through the air.
She used to love holding her twin sister’s hand, watching the specks of dust drift and imagining each speck held a new and free world.
She loved that ever-warm hand and loved the fleeting worlds they imagined—meeting only once before parting forever.
Back then, she didn’t know that her own fate would mirror those tiny, wandering specks of dust.
The dust would meet, drift apart, and never meet again.
Tears dampened her pillow as she unknowingly slipped into an uneasy, drifting dream.
Early spring sunlight poured gently into a young girl’s bedroom. Two childish faces wrestled playfully on the bed.
After settling down, one of them finally spoke up, saying what had been caught in her throat several times, “Banban, Banban, can I ask you for a favor?”
She held her sister’s hand tightly, gazing at those pure, lively eyes with an almost pleading look.
“If Sister asks, of course I’ll say yes.”
“You don’t want to know what I’m asking for?”
“Whatever it is, I’ll do it. Anything.” The younger sister answered playfully, carefree.
“I want to ask you to give me the chance to accompany the imperial entourage on this southern tour.”
“Sure.” The younger sister agreed without hesitation.
“I’m taking your chance to accompany the entourage. Don’t you want to ask me why?”
“Silly Sister, what’s mine is yours. There’s no ‘yours’ and ‘mine’ between us.”
The older sister looked at her, seemingly about to cry. But in the end, her eyes, her mouth, and every feature on her face blossomed into a smile—right in front of her sister.
She looked so happy, so joyful to have earned the opportunity to accompany the entourage on the southern tour.
So the younger sister smiled, too.
How she regretted it. For being so blind, so ignorant. For never asking “why.” Even as the thunderclouds rolled above her head, she remained clueless.
How she regretted it.
She never asked. Not even once.
——
Translator’s Note: – Ohh Myyy Godd there’s more to the story than we already know.
What do you guys think about it?
From what I know till now isn’t Li Zhi the elder sister? But why is the reference in this past events different?
Notes for Context:
- Lightness Skill (轻功, Qinggong): A martial arts technique in wuxia stories that allows practitioners to move lightly, run fast, or even walk on walls and water.
- Hidden Weapons (暗器, Anqi): Weapons that are typically concealed and used for surprise attacks, often appearing in martial arts literature.
- Leg Techniques (腿法): A common martial art skill focusing on powerful kicks, agility, and swift footwork.
- “Heaven still favored her” (天道眷顾): A common phrase in Chinese literature indicating that fortune or destiny smiled upon someone who was determined or deserving.
