Inside the courtyard, a gentle breeze stirred, lifting a corner of Lu Zhiming’s blue robe. The chill of winter brushed past his eyebrows, but it didn't penetrate him at all. He stared at the teacup in his hand and said,
“Different people see different things.”
“The same person, at different times, may see the same thing differently.”
“For me, when I first knew it, it was a loquat tree, and it still is now.”
“If what you see now is a sword, it might not be in the future.”
Wen Chaosheng stood in the garden, where white pieces were scattered, quietly gazing at the tree in front of him. The flashes of blades and swords he had seen earlier seemed to be merely a momentary illusion from being within the chess game. The cold sweat on his back dried with time, but the swaying loquat tree no longer had Killing Intent.
It could still capture Chaosheng’s attention immediately, but when Chaosheng tried to see something in it, he saw nothing at all.
Chaosheng looked up, his gaze piercing into the branches and leaves of the loquat tree, and asked Lu Zhiming,
“Mr. Lu, has this loquat tree ever borne fruit?”
Lu Zhiming replied with certainty,
“Yes, when it was in Yan, it bore fruit every year.”
Chaosheng said in surprise,
“In this world, people are divided by north and south, and trees are too?”
Lu Zhiming smiled and took a shallow sip of tea.
“Whether trees are divided by north and south is debatable, but how can people be divided by north and south?”
“Are the people of Yan and the people of Qi so different?”
Chaosheng bent down and picked up the white chess pieces from the ground, putting them one by one back into the cloth pouch.
“Although I was outside the county for three years, I saw many things within the county. Many common people work their entire lives and cannot earn the golden leaf you casually took out. Even glory is but fleeting, and their lives are confined to the small space beneath their feet.”
“For them, what is divided by north and south is more than just people?”
Lu Zhiming pondered for a moment before saying,
“When I came from the North, I heard a Confucian scholar from Qi say four words: ‘Poverty leads to change.’ He said that when people are in dire poverty, they should strive to change their current situation and not be trapped by their environment.”
“I think he made sense.”
Chaosheng’s movement of picking up the chess pieces paused slightly, then he said,
“Mr. Lu, many people know countless grand principles, but they still can’t live their lives well.”
“I pride myself on being intelligent, and I even think most people in this world are not as capable as I am, but Liu Jinshi’s single sentence, a refugee status, and ten taels of silver trapped me outside the county for three years. In these three years, I tried everything to survive, but if I hadn’t met Dog Master, hadn’t met you, hadn’t met Zhang Hunter, I would have died countless times.”
“Some stand above the clouds, a glance downward revealing the human world.”
“Some are frogs trapped in a well, craning their necks for a hundred years, still confined to a small space.”
“The principle ‘poverty leads to change’ is correct, but people are different. Whether one can change or not depends on both oneself and the environment.”
“Compared to people, trees are much simpler. If a tree from the North can survive in the South, it should, in theory, be able to blossom and bear fruit.”
Lu Zhiming did not refute Wen Chaosheng’s viewpoint based on his age and experience. He thought carefully for a while, and a thoughtful expression appeared between his eyebrows.
“For me, people and trees are actually quite similar.”
He explained.
“This loquat tree stopped blossoming and bearing fruit a very, very long time ago.”
“It has probably forgotten that it is a tree.”
Chaosheng picked up another chess piece, looked at Lu Zhiming, and asked curiously,
“Mr. Lu, why do you carry a tree with you when you travel the Jianghu?”
Lu Zhiming gently tapped the lid of his teacup, producing a crisp sound:
“A tree cannot live without roots. Of course, I didn’t bring a whole tree down the mountain. It’s just that the mountains are long and the waters are far, and I was afraid I would forget the taste of my hometown, so I broke off a loquat branch when I left. Later, I had a family and bought a house here, and this loquat branch was buried in the soil. Who knew that after a cold snow, it actually grew roots, and with a spring breeze, it became a tree again.”
After speaking, Lu Zhiming smiled as he looked at Chaosheng:
“Chaosheng, I have been here for over thirty years, and the dust of travel has long faded. How do you know I once traveled the Jianghu?”
Chaosheng did not shy away:
“My eyes can see some things that ordinary people cannot.”
Lu Zhiming:
“Oh? For example?”
Chaosheng finally picked up all the white pieces from the ground and handed the cloth bag to Lu Zhiming:
“For example, when playing chess with me, you are always thinking about other things.”
“It seems you have quite a few things troubling you.”
With that, Chaosheng turned and walked towards the woodshed. Lu Zhiming stared blankly at Chaosheng’s retreating back until the sound of chopping wood echoed from the woodshed again. Only then did he come back to his senses and casually poured the now-cold tea from his cup under the loquat tree…
…
Morning market.
The white-haired woman bought the vegetables and meat needed for the day, placed them all in a stone basket, covered them with a black cloth, and turned to walk towards the market entrance.
At the market entrance stood a memorial archway, with a plaque hanging on it that read: Fish and Rice Forest.
This archway had stood in this place for some years, having been built twenty-seven years ago, the year before Liu Jinshi came to Ku Hai County to take office.
After Liu Jinshi took office, the archways in Ku Hai County were almost never replaced, but every year he would apply to the Royal City for appropriations. As for where that money ultimately went, the people of Ku Hai County did not know.
As she passed through the archway, the white-haired woman suddenly stopped.
In front of her stood a slightly hunched old man dressed in brown cloth. The old man had kind eyes and a benevolent face, with a smile on his countenance.
“Madam Lu, would you mind catching up with an old friend?”
The wind was strong today, and people were coming and going on the street. Everyone wanted to avoid staying outside for long. The pedestrians hurrying by tightly wrapped their clothes around themselves, and no one noticed them.
Upon seeing the old man, Madam Lu’s brows furrowed with a hint of coldness. She ignored him and turned to walk away from his side. After taking just two or three steps, the old man spoke again:
“The people from Wangchuan came to Ku Hai County not to find you.”
“Meeting you is my personal wish.”
“I have kept your secret for thirty years, without uttering a single word.”
“Now, I also want to ask you for a favor.”