Chapter 41: Suffering Torment, Uncle And Nephew Reunite
Outside Gu Ling Town, in the Qian Shan Mine.
This place was the largest mine within hundreds of li around, where lead and mercury, silver iron could be smelted inside, refined into precious medicine, and occasionally spirit stones, precious medicine and such could be dug up.
The furnaces inside burned day and night without stop, the grass and trees in the surrounding fields were all cut down, poisonous water flowed everywhere, and over the past sixty years, the mine had grown larger and deeper, with large and small mine veins still unbroken.
Yu Le was barefoot, shirtless, stepping deep and shallow in the acidic water, with a pickaxe on his shoulder.
He mixed in with the crowd of sturdy-bodied but numb-faced people, hunched over like a rat, drilling into a mine tunnel that could only fit one person, walking for a little over half a shichen before reaching the bottom, then desperately digging inside.
Every three shichen, the iron pipes delivering air and water into the mine would be rung with clanging sounds, and people would come out in batches from inside, replaced by a new batch entering the mine, repeating endlessly day and night.
But for a single person, they had to dig a full six shichen inside before barely being able to exit the mine tunnel; digging a full nine shichen allowed them to mine a bit more ore, live a little better in the mine, and send out a bit more talisman money.
And today, Yu Le had mined for nine shichen in one go, finally crawling out of the mine tunnel utterly exhausted with a backbasket.
Although his body was extremely fatigued, covered in grime, his face even shining black, Yu Le’s expression still carried a smile.
He labored to carry the ore to the foreman, received a portion of dry rations, then squatted right there by the acidic water ditch, gnawing at it with his teeth.
Miners resting by the ditch saw him and teased:
“Yo! Looking good today, must’ve dug up a good haul, but no extra meal? Why keep gnawing on dry rations every day?”
Yu Le just grinned at the words, continuing to eat with his head down.
The other miners kept chatting idly: “He has a nephew learning the Dao in town, needs to support him, unlike us bunch of single dogs without worries about food or clothes!”
“Pah! A guy without a tongue, ask him and he’ll ignore you? I reckon he owes gambling debts, got his tongue cut off and sold in, just lying to avoid our mockery.”
“Heh heh, brothers, actually I’m saving money too, once I’ve got enough, I’ll go have fun in the marketplace.”
But someone hearing the chatter suddenly spoke up:
“Go have fun in the marketplace? We’re all on long-term contracts, the foremen and mine owner won’t let you go until they’ve squeezed every drop of oil from your bones.”
These words made the chatter by the ditch instantly quieter, the atmosphere much more oppressive.
Someone cursed under their breath: “Yeah, probably even if you go back, that little bird of yours won’t rise anymore, fat chance of fun!”
But the scabby-headed miner who’d talked about going for fun earlier still chuckled:
“No worries, no worries, I’ve thought it through, when the term’s almost up, I’ll break my left leg first, if they still won’t let me go, I’ll break the right one too, leaving only the third leg… that way, the foreman and mine owner can’t keep me eating dry rations in the mine, right.”
Hearing the scabby-headed miner’s words, everyone looked over sharply, even Yu Le stopped eating and looked at him in surprise.
Someone muttered: “A ruthless one.”
Others sneered, as if mocking the scabby-headed miner for being too naive.
Suddenly, a puff of poisonous smoke from smelting ore drifted over from a nearby hill, enveloping the group of miners, making them hurriedly curse and cover their mouths.
A burst of violent coughing came from their mouths, and without exception, they all hacked up thick phlegm.
Pah pah!
The thick phlegm they spat was a big puddle each, pitch black and shiny, with a metallic sheen, and flecked with blood.
Yu Le was no exception; he stared fixedly at the lead blood phlegm in his hand, dazed for a moment, then calmly wiped it on the ground and continued gnawing his dry rations.
Finishing the meal in a few bites, the group of miners lined up like dogs again and ran to a wooden bucket.
Without even a ladle, they stuck their heads into the bucket, gulping down water.
With so many drinking, even though each wiped their hands and washed their face first, the water in the bucket was still barely clearer than ink.
After drinking, the group found a spot sheltered from the wind right there, curled up to sleep, waiting for the day-in day-out return to the mine veins to dig.
But this day.
Yu Le and the others hadn’t slept long, just one shichen, when gongs sounded nearby, clamor incessant, disturbing their rest.
Even though they slept like the dead, they couldn’t block the gongs wandering the mine one after another.
A pangolin foreman and a toad monster, two monsters sauntering along, woke the miners in batches, then asked questions arrogantly.
Soon it was Yu Le’s batch’s turn.
Everyone inwardly cursed the two monsters.
Muttering things like “If we were outside, we’d have killed you two long ago,” “Pah! When did monsters dare strut in front of us”…
But when the monster foreman actually walked up.
The miners all gave awkward laughs, and some miners who prided themselves on connections secretly pulled out snacks like dried rats and dried lizards stored on their person, going up first to bribe the two monster foremen.
“Calling everyone up today, did you find a new mine?”
“Monster grandpas, consider me first for the new mine!”
The two monsters nodded um-um-hm-hm without speaking, until they’d eaten the snacks offered by the miners, then shouted:
“What are you thinking! We’re here on the mine owner’s orders to find someone.”
“Is there anyone among you called Fish Head or Fish Tail?”
Hearing it was to find someone, the miners exchanged glances, especially those who’d offered snacks, their faces slightly pained.
But someone still tried to cozy up:
“Hey! Here it’s all stones, the ditches flow with acidic water left from smelting, even fish demons couldn’t live in it.”
The pangolin foreman clanged the gong discontentedly: “Wake up, all wake up!”
The toad monster blustered:
“Who said we’re looking for a monster! Looking for a person, surname Fish!
Right, heard he’s tongueless, or maybe tailless, you seen him?”
So gradually.
Most of the miners turned their gazes to Yu Le, faces full of suspicion.
One probed: “You two monster grandpas looking for the waiter called Yu Le?”
Clang clang! The gong rang louder.
“Right! Right, someone called Yu Le or Yu Sad or whatever.”
No escaping now.
All the miners fixed their eyes on Yu Le, and whoosh, cleared a path, leaving him alone exposed.
Seeing the two monster foremen looking for him, Yu Le had already shrunk his body inwardly.
But now named directly, he couldn’t dodge, could only give a face full of awkward smiles, hunch over, nod and bow to greet the two monster foremen.
The pangolin and toad monster eyed each other, asking respectively:
“Gua! You’re Yu Le, nickname Yu Lao Er?”
“Don’t you have a nephew learning the Dao in the dojo, called something like Du Gu Guan?”
These two questions made Yu Le’s face show suspicion too, instantly panicked, and also a trace of seemingly impossible hope.
The other workmates buzzed with discussion:
“Knows it so clearly, here for good news or bad?”
“This guy really has a nephew learning the Dao in the dojo.”
Some gloated maliciously, hating to see good: “Eight or nine out of ten, here to collect debts maybe.”
But most people.
Seeing the two monster foremen with such fanfare, unwilling thoughts bubbled up in their hearts: “Could it be, could it be…”
Yu Le himself steadied his mind, kept the awkward smile on his face, hesitated, then nodded.
Seeing him nod, the two monster foremen shuddered, faces suddenly changing.
They turned chameleon-like, kowtowing to Yu Le:
“Aiyo! Greetings Master Yu, forgive this little monster for being blind.”
“Master Yu, good fortune to you, we’re here to take you out of the mine, invite you back to enjoy blessings!”
Unprecedentedly, they fussed over Yu Le warmly.
Seeing Yu Le dazed for a long time without speaking, the two little monsters looked suspicious.
“Eh! Master Yu, why no words? We monsters have bad memories, but haven’t offended you.”
Luckily then, a miner whispered: “This Yu Lao… Master has no tongue.”
Hearing this, the two little monsters startled in fear, immediately shouting:
“Who! Who dared cut out Master Yu’s tongue.”
“What sin, wouldn’t cut my life root even, let alone Master Yu’s tongue.”
Luckily Yu Le came to, straightened up, eyes shining with indescribable light, smiling to stop the two monsters.
After explanations from the surrounding workmates, the two little monsters recalled the mine owner’s words, that Yu Le originally had no tongue.
Only then did they calm their fright.
But the two monsters remained cautious; the pangolin even lay flat, desperately inviting Yu Le to mount and carry him.
Just like that, the two monster foremen who’d been strutting moments ago, one banging gong, one carrying man, humbly and warmly disappeared into the mountain valley.
And after the two monsters and man fully vanished, not even the gong audible, the remaining miners still stared dazedly, a long time before snapping out of it.
People kept murmuring:
“So he really has a nephew, really saving money for the nephew.”
As for why Yu Le’s nephew dared come to the mine to find kin, even making the monster foremen so obsequious.
He must not only have gotten rich, but found backing, or had considerable magic power himself, so the mine let him go so easily.
At once, these woken miners couldn’t sleep anymore today, hearts jumping like toads inside.
Though they’d long heard that in the mine, miners occasionally dug up treasures or got fished out by immortal cultivator relatives, thenceforth living the good life.
But they’d never dreamed such fortune would appear right beside them, and to the most unremarkable among them, the tongueless Yu Lao Sun.
This beat hearing rumors of lucky ones from neighboring mine tunnels or mines, making them even more envious, jealous to death!
Many even daydreamed for a moment, if such good fortune happened to them…
But soon.
Clang clang gongs rang again, but this time not searchers, but fierce foremen with whips driving them into the mine.
Some still hesitated, even glaring hatefully at the monster foreman, muttering “If I had relatives come” “Wait till Grandpa strikes it rich.”
Resulting in crack crack crack, just three whips.
The monster foreman shattered their daydreams, making them cry “Into the mine into the mine” “I wanna dig ore”!
………………
Meanwhile.
Fang Shu wore the Du Gu Guan daoist robe, standing silently on the mine’s hilltop, motionless as he gazed at the mine slaves like ants burrowing in the mountains and pits.
Only until the two monster foremen carried Second Uncle Yu Le before him did his calm face show obvious change.
Second Uncle Yu Le rode on the pangolin, staring at Fang Shu from afar, constantly rubbing his eyes, afraid it was an illusion.
Only close up, confirming no mistake, the one on the mountain was his intact nephew—Fang Shu!
Only then did a stone in Yu Le’s heart finally land.
But the closer to Fang Shu, the more restrained and awkward Yu Le became, hunching his back, constantly rubbing hands, from head to toe at a loss and ashamed to be seen.
Seeing this, Fang Shu suppressed his emotions.
Fang Shu didn’t rush to speak with Second Uncle, just silently stepped forward, offering a prepared clean clothes talisman and a clean daoist robe.
The clean clothes talisman could not only clean clothes but wash filth from the body, just not as clean and comfortable as scrubbing in the bathhouse.
After removing most of the filth and donning the daoist robe, finally looking human again, Second Uncle Yu Le’s face gained some vitality.
He finally dared lift his eyes, scrutinizing Fang Shu’s spirited, vibrant face.
Fang Shu seeing this suddenly grinned, even deliberately preening by shaking his daoist robe, showing off the bright Du Gu Guan characters, and spoke their first words:
“Second Uncle, I’m now part of the dojo, we can eat the good stuff and drink the spicy now.”
Second Uncle Yu Le’s face also broke into a grin, beckoning him closer.
Fang Shu obediently stepped up.
Second Uncle Yu Le reached out, hesitantly like it was red-hot, touching the daoist robe, especially the Du Gu Guan characters on the chest, as if afraid to dirty or ruin it.
Fang Shu also began chatting idly with Second Uncle.
Explaining where this daoist robe came from and what it signified, to prove he hadn’t lied earlier.
But his Second Uncle Yu Le actually didn’t need the explanation.
Yu Le knew at a glance that this material and embroidered named daoist robe was something only inner courtyard disciples who’d entered the Dao and formally joined the dojo could wear.
It represented the face of that dojo.
If randos dared wear it casually and were recognized, even beaten crippled or killed on the spot by the dojo, no one would seek justice.
And in just over half a year, Fang Shu had passed tribulation to enter the Dao and become the Dojo Master’s formal disciple; even in Yu Le’s over ten years in the marketplace, he’d only occasionally heard of such.
This was worth celebrating, a great event to glorify ancestors!
But as Yu Le stroked the embroidered characters on Fang Shu’s collar, listening to Fang Shu’s “showing off.”
Uncontrollably, two rows of old tears streamed down his face.
At once, pride and heartache mingled indeterminately on Second Uncle Yu Le’s gaunt face, leaving Fang Shu at a loss.
“Child, how much suffering you must’ve endured…”
Second Uncle Yu Le’s throat gurgled soundlessly, unable to speak, only shouting endlessly in his heart.
