Chapter Ten: Jiang Xiaodao

Night had fallen. Thick, dark clouds blanketed the sky, and a howling north wind rattled the doors and windows.

Jiang Xiaodao opened his eyes, feeling dazed and disoriented. Surrounded by darkness, he had no idea where he was. It was only by a sliver of faint light filtering through a crack in the door that he could make out a pile of firewood stacked against the wall.

It seemed to be a storeroom.

His left cheek was swollen so severely that his eye was squeezed into a mere slit. He tried to raise his hand to rub it, only to discover his limbs were bound with hemp rope. Faintly, he could hear the sound of voices from the next room.

"Hey! Anyone breathing in there?" Jiang Xiaodao shouted. "Bucktooth?"

However, the only response was the wailing of the old north wind.

"Hey! If you’re going to kidnap someone, couldn't you have done your homework? I’m an orphan! Even if I had parents, my family wouldn't have the money to pay a ransom!"

Jiang Xiaodao yelled several times, but when no one answered from outside, his patience wore thin.

"Bucktooth! Go to hell! Are you all mutes? Didn't you hear your daddy talking to you? Every one of you is my son! Sons, bring your daddy a bowl of water!"

After cursing for a long time until his throat grew hoarse, a loud "bang" echoed as the door was flung open.

A figure stood in the doorway, snarling, "Say one more word and I’ll cut out your tongue!"

Jiang Xiaodao shivered, immediately clamping his mouth shut. He shuffled backward into the room, staring at the silhouette in the doorway.

"Bu... Bucktooth?"

The stranger didn't answer. He strode forward, grabbed Jiang Xiaodao by the back of his collar, and dragged him out.

Jiang Xiaodao looked around in a panic. It looked like any ordinary farmhouse courtyard. As they reached the entrance of the main house, the man didn't waste a word, lifting his leg and kicking Jiang Xiaodao hard in the backside.

Jiang Xiaodao tumbled forward in a heap. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the light, he recognized his assailant as Gong Baonan, the man who had slapped him earlier.

"You again? Didn't you want to slap me to death? Good son!"

This time, Gong Baonan neither struck him nor wasted his breath. He simply turned, closed the door, and walked past Jiang Xiaodao to sit down silently on a chair.

Following the man's movement, Jiang Xiaodao looked up at the scene before him and froze. The room was brightly lit, the oil lamp flickering, and the firewood in the stove burning fiercely.

On the earthen kang sat five burly men. One of them, a man with a shaved head and only half a face, glared with such murderous intent that he resembled a wrathful guardian deity in a temple. Gong Baonan and Guan Wei, the two younger men, were forced to sit in the lower positions.

For a moment, Jiang Xiaodao felt as if he had descended into the underworld. These men were no longer human; they were ox-headed and horse-faced demons, Yama and his judges!

Even as reckless as he usually was, his spirit crumbled before this display of power. He tried to search the crowd for Bucktooth, but to no avail.

"Who... who are you people?"

Jiang Chenghai tucked his hands into his sleeves, leaned forward, and grinned. "We're good people."

The group erupted into boisterous laughter.

Jiang Xiaodao suddenly realized this was the same old man who had been listening to the storyteller at the crossroads, and he quickly changed his tune.

"Grandpa, I shouldn't have stolen your money pouch. I was wrong, I really was! I'm an orphan, and I only turned to this path because I couldn't survive. Please, sir, be the bigger man and spare me this once!"

Hearing this, Jiang Chenghai frowned and turned to Gong Baonan. "This kid isn't as stubborn as you said."

Gong Baonan paused. "I guess he's just scared because there are so many of us."

Someone on the kang immediately chimed in, mocking, "Old Seven, I think you just look too delicate—you can't even keep a little brat in line!"

Guan Wei added fuel to the fire, "I think so too. With that face, you’re not cut out for the underworld. You’d better go find a woman and live off her!"

Gong Baonan, unable to save face, turned to Jiang Xiaodao and cursed, "You little brat, you sure know how to read the wind. Where did that toughness go?"

Jiang Xiaodao wasn't stupid; he could tell at a glance who was the boss. Ignoring the others, he pleaded solely to Jiang Chenghai.

"Grandpa, I was blinded by greed. I really was just starving, that's why I stole on the street. I'll return the money, please just let me go."

Jiang Chenghai pursed his lips. "You stole my money, of course you should return it. But if I just let you go for nothing, what would the brothers in the underworld think of me?"

"Then... what do you want?"

"Taking an arm, is that too much?"

Jiang Xiaodao was stunned. "No, no, no, Grandpa! That’s not worth it! I’m all alone in this world, it’s hard enough as it is. If you take my arm, you're killing me! The Jiang family line will end with me!"

"Hmm? You're surnamed Jiang?" Jiang Chenghai’s interest was piqued. "Which Jiang?"

Jiang Xiaodao hesitated, his eyes darting around, and he retorted, "Grandpa, which Jiang are you?"

A thin man with a mustache on the kang nodded slightly, praising, "Not bad, still smart enough to play games even at a time like this. Not bad at all!"

Jiang Chenghai didn't play riddles. He smiled. "My surname is Jiang, as in the great rivers and seas."

Jiang Xiaodao’s spirits lifted instantly.

"Oh! Grandpa, it’s a misunderstanding! We’re all one family from five hundred years ago. If we go back and check the genealogy, I might even be your distant nephew!"

The group roared with laughter again.

"You really know how to climb the family tree!"

"It's not climbing the tree, we really are related!" Seeing a glimmer of hope, Jiang Xiaodao seized the chance. "Grandpa, for the sake of our shared ancestry, can't I just give you the money back?"

Unexpectedly, Jiang Chenghai waved his hand.

"Since we're of the same clan, why bother returning it? Besides, you worked so hard to steal it; wouldn't you feel bad giving it back?"

What was that supposed to mean? Jiang Xiaodao was bewildered. "I don't follow."

"The money can be yours. But you have to earn it!"

"Grandpa, I have no skills. Can't I just give the money back?"

Jiang Chenghai shook his head. "It's easy to invite a god, but hard to send him away!"

Jiang Xiaodao pulled a long face. "I'm just a small, weak kid, I can't fight you all!"

"Who said anything about fighting?"

"Then what do you mean?"

Jiang Chenghai suddenly pulled a Mauser pistol from his sleeve and slammed it onto the edge of the kang.

"Put that money pouch on your head. I'll take a shot at you. If I hit it, the money is yours, and I'll give you five more taels of silver as a handout to a clansman. How about it?"

Jiang Xiaodao didn't understand. "That doesn't seem to have anything to do with having 'skills'!"

"Having guts is a skill!" Jiang Chenghai explained. "When I fire, you have to stand still. You can't run, you can't move. If you do that, the money is yours. If you run or move and I shoot you dead, then that's your own fault."

Jiang Xiaodao swallowed hard and whispered, "Is there no other choice?"

Jiang Chenghai shook his head. "If you want to return the money, you have to leave an arm behind. Do you want to be a cripple, or do you want to take a gamble and go home with money for the New Year?"

The others began to jeer.

"Kid, just lose the arm, forget it!"

"With one arm, you can still scrape by. When you're begging on the street, people might feel sorry for you and give you an extra coin!"

"Our big brother’s aim isn't very good, and it’s the middle of the night—if he misses and blows your brains out, there won't be anyone to bury you!"

Jiang Chenghai leaned forward, his massive frame blocking the oil lamp, and the room seemed to darken instantly.

"Well, kid? Do you have the guts to play?"

Gong Baonan and Guan Wei narrowed their eyes, waiting, like the rest, for the boy's answer.

Provoked, Jiang Xiaodao thought for a moment, then put on a show of defiance, stiffening his neck.

"Fine, let's play. You're a man of your word, don't you dare go back on it!"