Chapter 669: What Kind of Salt?

In Yuezhou, at the foot of Mount Tianzhu...

It truly deserved its former reputation as an immortal’s scenic retreat.

Ten years ago, Yuezhou had still been a barren wilderness, haunted only by demons and ghosts, with no trace of human habitation. When the court first began relocating people northward, Song You, Lady Calico, and the Swallow had accompanied the group here; at that time, Yuezhou was only just beginning to see settlers. Even now, it was still far from its peak prosperity. Flying in on the crane, they could see that the villages below were nowhere near as densely scattered as those in the Central Plains. And yet, this Mount Tianzhu already had a fair number of people.

At the foot of the mountain, there were even two tea stalls, a dumpling shop, and a sour drink stand. Some of the local villagers had converted their own houses into thatched inns for passing travelers.

There were quite a few people going up the mountain today.

No doubt it was the New Year season.

At the moment, the Daoist was sitting at a tea stall at the mountain’s base, three bowls of steaming tea set before him.

His cat had taken the form of a young girl and was carrying a water skin over to the sour drink stand, haggling with the stall owner, trying to persuade him to fill her entire skin for only ten wen.

The swallow, in the guise of a youth, had gone to buy dumplings from another stall.

The Daoist himself sat still, enduring the hardship of waiting to be fed.

“Miss, you really are stingy...”

In the end, the sour drink vendor let the little girl talk him around. Perhaps, seeing Song You in Daoist robes, he took her for the disciple of a poor, wandering priest, short on funds and forced to pester for such a bargain. In any case, after only a few words he agreed, taking the water skin from her.

With one hand holding the skin and the other wielding a wooden ladle, he poured the drink in a steady stream straight through the narrow mouth without spilling a single drop as though a thread were being drawn.

Glug, glug, glug...

He kept at it until the entire skin was filled to the brim. Not a single drop wasted.

The girl watched intently, face serious. Others might have thought she was impressed by the vendor’s skill; in truth, she was just checking to make sure he really filled it to the top.

“Here you go, little miss.” The vendor handed the water skin back and asked, “You from the Northwest?”

“No.”

“Then how come you like sour drinks?”

“My Daoist priest likes to drink them!”

“Your master’s from the Northwest, then?”

“No, he just likes sour things.”

“I see. I thought you folks might be among those who’ve moved here from Longzhou in recent years.” The vendor grinned and held out his hand. “That’ll be ten wen.”

“Here you go...” A small, fair hand dropped ten wen polished bright yellow from wear into his palm.

“Count them! Not a single one missing!” Naturally, there was neither one short nor one extra.

Lady Calico, satisfied, returned with the drink.

Almost at the same moment, the youth came over with three bowls of dumplings and three bowls of tea with steam rising in thick curls.

In the chilly, mist-heavy air at the mountain’s foot in early spring, such a hot breakfast was a pleasure in itself.

Slurp!

“There are so many people here,” Lady Calico said after gulping down a dumpling, glancing at the Daoist. “The last two times we came, there wasn’t a soul.”

“More people is a good thing.”

“Feels like it didn’t use to be like this.”

“That’s true...”

The Daoist turned his head to look around.

Some spoke in thick northwestern accents, likely migrants from Longzhou and other regions, driven here when the northwest climate shifted from wet to dry. In a way, this change was indirectly linked to him.

But with his current frame of mind, it stirred little emotion. He heard far more voices from the southern prefectures and a jumble of accents.

Who could say when or if they would ever blend together.

“When you finish that bowl of dumplings and this bowl of porridge tea, you won’t be able to turn back into a swallow,” Lady Calico murmured to the youth in a conspiratorial tone.

“Porridge tea” was her private name for the filling tea served along the roadside here, brewed with all kinds of ingredients.

“Can’t you also not turn back into a cat?” the Swallow replied meekly.

“I can turn into a big-bellied cat!”

“...”

The Daoist ignored their whispering and kept his attention on the voices at the table beside him.

“Yuezhou may be just beginning to recover, and business here is good, but I doubt it’ll last many years. Best to make plans early, so we don’t run into disaster again.”

“Isn’t that the truth...”

“

Sigh...

”

“

Sigh...

”

The two of them sighed in unison.

The Daoist turned to look; it was two short, thin merchants, their accents sounding like they were from the Yuzhou area.

“Climbing Mount Tianzhu today at least brings a bit of good luck, maybe we can catch a trace of immortal aura, and things will go more smoothly from now on.”

“Once we’ve earned enough, we should just go back home.”

As the Daoist ate his dumplings and sipped his tea, he listened in. Unable to contain his curiosity, he finally turned and asked, “May I ask, gentlemen, hasn’t the unrest in the north already been pacified? And I’ve heard the chaos of demons and ghosts in Yuezhou has also been well contained. Why, then, are you so worried, and what kind of disaster is it you fear?”

At this, the two merchants instantly fell silent.

Seeing that he was a Daoist priest, they relaxed a little. After exchanging a glance, they both looked puzzled.

“Sir, you are...”

“I’ve only just arrived in Yuezhou and don’t know the situation here. It seems to me this place, having just begun to recover, should be full of vitality. Hearing your concerns, I couldn’t help but be curious, so I ventured to ask.” The Daoist gave a polite bow. “Please rest assured, there’s no other meaning behind my question.”

“You jest, sir. This place is in the middle of Yuezhou. No matter where you came from, you must have traveled several days to get here, so you can hardly say you’ve ‘just arrived in Yuezhou.’ More accurate to say you’ve just arrived in this area.”

One of them smiled as he corrected him.

“What you say isn’t exactly wrong. Speaking only of Yuezhou, the land is vast, the population sparse, and the soil fertile, it does indeed look full of life. But the Great Yan as a whole is not so.” The other lowered his voice. “These days, the world grows ever more unsettled. Have you not heard? A few years ago, Prince Wenhan of Yizhou rebelled; after that, the prefect of Zhaozhou joined with the local garrison to revolt; and two years ago, Liu Wang in northern Yangzhou also turned traitor. I’ve heard the court’s suspicion and suppression of the northern garrison grows harsher by the day. General Chen Bukui, the Imperial Guardian Duke’s cousin, has taken great offense at this. It’s already common knowledge in the north.”

The man didn’t elaborate further.

But Song You had already grasped the implication.

Yuezhou and Hezhou were the route connecting the northern frontier garrisons to the heartlands of the Great Yan. Decades ago, when the northern tribes failed to take Hezhou, they came south through Yuezhou instead, turning it into a wasteland. What these merchants feared was that the northern garrison, like Prince Wenhan in Yizhou, the prefect of Zhaozhou, or Liu Wang in northern Yangzhou, might rise in rebellion, march south through Yuezhou, and bring war in their wake.

Even without Chen Ziyi, the northern garrison’s cohesion had been greatly reduced, split up, and repeatedly suppressed, but its strength was still far beyond what those other rebels had commanded.

The times were unstable, rebellions breaking out everywhere.

In this era, with poor communication and information slow to spread, if a rumor was common knowledge among ordinary folk, then either someone was deliberately spreading it, or the clouds of war truly were gathering overhead.

Either way, it was not good news. The Daoist couldn’t help shaking his head, sighing with a feeling hard to name.

It had been only ten short years since he last left Changjing, only ten since he last came to Yuezhou, yet already the Great Yan seemed on the verge of storm and turmoil.

The Divine Dao, in the end, was only an appendage to the human realm.

And human affairs... were far more difficult and tangled than those of the Heavenly Palace.

After thanking the two merchants with a bow, he turned back only to see that Lady Calico’s bowl was nearly empty, with just two wilted vegetable leaves, one lone dumpling, and some oil-slicked broth left. She was using a small wooden spoon to scoop up a spoonful of dumpling soup, carefully bringing it to her lips.

She took it in, closed her eyes, tilted her head slightly back, and smacked her lips a few times in quick succession, looking utterly content.

The bone broth was indeed rich and fragrant.

Song You had been about to remark on how quickly she’d eaten, perhaps even pretend to praise her, when, after lowering his head slightly, he noticed that his own bowl now contained more dumplings than when it was first served.

“...Lady Calico, what is the meaning of this?”

“What-

meow

?”

“Your dumplings are all gone?”

“There’s still one in the bowl!”

“Then how do you explain my bowl?”

“What?”

Lady Calico froze with her spoon in hand, staring straight at him. Her little face was expressionless, deadly serious, her eyes clear and steady without a hint of falsehood.

“One bowl of dumplings is enough for me. There’s no need for you to do this.”

“What-

meow

?” She glanced left and right, then said gravely, “Hurry and eat. We’ve got a mountain to climb.”

“Changing the subject...” The Daoist shook his head as he spoke.

“Want to add salt?” The little girl leaned forward, staring at him with concern.

“...”

The Daoist sped up his eating. Once he’d finished and paid, they started up the mountain.

Yuezhou wasn’t exactly warm to begin with, though the weather had been pleasant in recent days. At the foot of the mountain it was merely a touch chilly, but once they climbed higher, the cold became noticeably sharper. Fortunately, with a belly full and round, food in the stomach naturally brought warmth, and walking kept the chill at bay.

They went up the mountain at an unhurried pace, his mood quite good.

There were plenty of fellow climbers on the mountain.

“So many people.” Before long, Lady Calico had turned back into a cat. Her belly was not at all round, her small paws stepping in quick little paces beside the Daoist. This alone proved she truly hadn’t eaten much. As they walked, she sighed again, “With so many people, it’s really inconvenient.”

“Lady Calico, don’t go sniffing around, that’s cow dung.”

“Oh...”

The cat immediately trotted back.

By mid-afternoon, the group reached the summit. Indeed, there were plenty of New Year’s visitors.

Clearly, most weren’t the displaced migrants from the north, but local officials, merchants doing business, or scholars and travelers who had come for the famed scenery, some even fellow Daoists.

Someone had even built crude wooden huts on the mountain to collect fees from visitors for temporary lodging.

As for Mount Tianzhu itself, the towering stone pillar ahead, there were many people on the narrow paths winding upward, inching along like ants. At the summit, the palace buildings sent curls of incense smoke drifting into the clouds.

“Excuse me, may I ask...”

The Daoist stopped someone who had just come down from Mount Tianzhu and inquired politely, “Is there already someone living in the palace up there?”

“If there’s a palace, of course there’s someone in it.” The traveler replied, then, after a moment’s thought, looked Song You over. “You must have been here before, sir? Back then, when all of Yuezhou was deserted, naturally there was no one in the Mount Tianzhu palace. But now that Yuezhou is inhabited again, of course the place wouldn’t be left empty.”

“And who might they be?”

“An old gentleman and three younger ones. They look after the palace above and receive incense-offering guests.”

“Many thanks.”

“It’s just a few words, don’t mention it.”

The traveler waved a hand and went on his way.

The calico cat stayed at the Daoist’s side, licking the fur on her foreleg. Only when no one was around did she quietly ask, “Last time we came there was no one. So these Daoists, where did they come from? Is it just whoever arrives first gets to keep it?”

“Mount Tianzhu is so famous, how could it be that simple? More likely they were appointed by the Ministry of Rites.”

“Oh, I see...”

Lady Calico instantly looked disappointed.

So it wasn’t just becoming a deity and sitting upon a temple altar that required an imperial decree. Even working as a Daoist in a temple, helping sweep the grounds, also needed official sanction.

She had thought it was first come, first served. If that were the case, then by rights, years ago when there wasn’t another soul here, they had already come, climbed that mountain pillar, entered the palace atop it, and even cooked porridge there. By that logic, the palace should belong to them.

“Let’s go.”

As the day drew later, fewer people attempted the climb to the top of Mount Tianzhu. The Daoist led the cat and the youth upward.