Chapter 114: “Peach Blossom Spring”

Sang Luo was busy in the kitchen when she faintly heard some commotion. She took an oil lamp and went out to the small courtyard just as Shen Lie was coming up the mountain. The night was so dark she couldn’t see clearly. Raising the lamp, she called out, “Shen Lie?”

“It’s me.”

Sang Luo’s entire body relaxed with a wave of relief, quickly followed by joy. She took a few steps forward to meet him outside the courtyard. She looked him up and down, seeing nothing amiss, and smiled, “I’m glad you made it back safely.”

He returned faster than she had expected, and these past ten days, especially the last few, had been quite stressful. Every household was stockpiling food, and tensions were high. Living in a secluded house, Sang Luo’s family had been particularly worried, and the other families had been concerned for them as well.

“We just ran into Uncle Shi at the foot of the mountain. He told me about the refugees. Don’t worry, we’ll arrange everything. Dashan and I found a place. Uncle Zhou and the others will come over shortly to discuss the next steps.”

Hearing that they had found a place, Sang Luo’s eyes lit up. There was no better news. Unable to contain her excitement, she asked, “What kind of place is it?”

Before Shen Lie could answer, Shen An and Shen Ning, who had heard the commotion, came running out. They shouted “Big brother!” and rushed towards Shen Lie, cheering.

Shen Lie quickly held out a hand to stop them. “Don’t come too close, I’m very dirty.”

Deep in the mountains and forests for a full thirteen days, with some climbing and tree climbing along the way, it was quite a mess. If it weren’t for the cold weather, Shen Lie felt he’d be smelling pretty bad by now.

Shen An and Shen Ning stopped their forward rush, and it was only when Shen Lie moved that Sang Luo saw the large bundle he was carrying in his other hand. She moved the oil lamp closer to get a better look and exclaimed before she could finish her question.

Shen Lie didn’t even have time to hide it, hastily saying, “Don’t be afraid, it’s just a pelt.”

But Sang Luo couldn’t help but feel scared. She recognized it as a black bear because the pelt still had the bear’s head attached.

Terrified, she looked at Shen Lie. “Did you encounter a blind bear?”

As she held the oil lamp up and down to inspect him, she asked, “Are you injured?”

Perhaps due to Sang Luo’s reaction, Shen Lie couldn’t help but smile. “No, thankfully we waited a few days this time and brought medicine. With just me and Dashan, we managed to handle it. But it was because of being chased by this black bear that we found a good place.”

His eyes gleamed with joy. “Though it’s a bit far, it’s very safe.”

Sang Luo glanced outside and said, “Let’s talk inside. Put your things down first. Haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”

Coming home so late, they must have been in a hurry all the way.

Shen Lie nodded. “Afraid of traveling in the dark, we didn’t have dinner. There’s jerky in the basket.”

Sang Luo smiled. “Then let’s talk in the kitchen. I’ll make you some noodles.”

With that, she led the way with the oil lamp, Shen Lie following a step behind her. Shen An and Shen Ning deliberately lagged behind, trying to get a glimpse of the black bear skin illuminated by the flickering light of the lamp.

But it was too dark outside to see anything clearly. It wasn’t until they entered the courtyard and the light from the main house spilled out that they saw it and took a step back in shock.

Shen Lie: “…”

He felt a bit awkward, knowing this wasn’t ideal, but only by selling pelts like this could they fetch a good price.

After hiding their weapons under the bed and putting the basket in the main house by the entrance wall, the large bundle of pelts was placed on top of the basket. Sang Luo and Shen Ning went to cook, while Shen An helped his elder brother wash his hands and face with warm water.

After a bit of commotion, Shen Lie and his family hadn’t had a chance to say much when Zhou Cunzheng, Old Lu, Lu Erlang, Old Chen, Chen Youtian, Chen Dashan, and Shi Dalang arrived.

The dough was just put into the pot when Sang Luo asked Shen Ning to watch over it. She was busy welcoming everyone in. On such a cold day, it wasn’t good to stand in the courtyard, and the soy sauce was being made in the kitchen. So she invited everyone into the main house.

Four stools were set up for the elders, while the younger ones stood.

As soon as they entered, Zhou Cunzheng and the others saw the large bundle of animal skins by the door and recognized them as black bear pelts. They sucked in a breath of cold air. Zhou Cunzheng looked at Shen Lie and said, “Can I have a look?”

Shen Lie nodded.

Zhou Cunzheng went over and rummaged through it. Several people crowded around, inspecting the bear and wolf pelts, judging by their thickness that there were several wolf pelts.

“You encountered blind bears and wolf packs? How many were there?”

Shen Lie replied, “Eight wolves. I have three wolf pelts and one black bear pelt here. The other five wolf pelts are with Dashan.”

This shocked not only Zhou Cunzheng but also Shi Dalang and Lu Erlang, who had just returned from crossing the mountains with him. This time, only Shen Lie and Chen Dashan had gone into the mountains.

Lu Erlang swallowed nervously. “How did you deal with them?”

Everything was peaceful, no one was injured, and not a single wolf escaped.

Shen Lie glanced at Chen Dashan and smiled. “We have to thank Grandma Chen for this. Her maternal family are hunters, and they have a method. If you put some medicine on the arrows, any beast shot with them will collapse within a few steps, unable to survive. When we encountered the wolf pack, Dashan and I both climbed up a tree. The wolves surrounded the tree, so it was scary but safe.”

Chen Dashan quickly said, “That medicine was bought with Alie and the younger sisters’ money. We made quite a bit. When we head into the mountains later, those skilled in archery will each be given a small bottle for self-defense. But this stuff is very poisonous. It’s said to be throat-sealing if it draws blood. You have to be careful when using it.”

He actually gave some of the money he earned from selling mountain chickens while hunting, but Shen Lie only accepted a small portion as a gesture, insisting they first stock up on food, salt, and medicinal herbs at home.

When everyone in the room heard there was such a good thing, they were all delighted. What people feared most when venturing into the deep mountains was poisonous snakes and fierce beasts.

During this past month and a half, everyone had been practicing archery a lot, especially the young people. Those who were good at it quietly changed their bows and arrows. With this stuff on hand, venturing into the deep mountains would be much safer.

Next was asking Shen Lie and Chen Dashan about the shelter they found. Even Zhou Cunzheng, who was now only considered half of their own, wasn’t kept in the dark. They roughly explained the situation.

It turned out that the place they found, starting from Shili Village, would take five and a half days to reach if they traveled fast. It was quite secluded, with a way in and a way out. They stumbled upon it accidentally while being chased by a blind bear that suddenly appeared. It was a narrow mountain crevice only wide enough for one person to squeeze through. The bear couldn’t get through, so Shen Lie ended it with an arrow.

After killing the black bear, they didn’t rush to deal with it because they were looking for a place to stay. Now that they found such a narrow cliff, they naturally wanted to explore further. This exploration almost followed the cliff face through a mountain, leading to the discovery of a paradise.

“As you go deeper into that cliff, you’ll reach a wide-open space surrounded by several connected towering peaks. It’s not very big, probably about thirty percent the size of our Shili Village, but there’s plenty of vegetation and a water source. It’s spring water seeping out of the mountains, not a major waterway. There are many caves or cave-like places of various sizes between the mountain walls for shelter.”

Just from Shen Lie’s description, Sang Luo’s mind was already conjuring up the words “Peach Blossom Spring.” Well, it was a more challenging version of the Peach Blossom Spring.

Zhou Cunzheng and the older Chen nodded excitedly. “Did you climb to the top of the surrounding peaks? Can you come back down?”

Chen Dashan nodded. “Alie and I split up. Normally, when climbing a mountain, you can only reach the summit. Going down is a cliff. There’s no way down. You can only return the way you came. So besides the entrance we entered, it’s not possible to climb down from the surrounding peaks. And because the peaks are high and there are many trees, looking down from above, you can only see trees. People probably wouldn’t be visible.”

Now even Shi Erlang and Lu Erlang’s faces showed excitement. This meant that as long as they concealed the entrance well, they could completely live normally in the valley without having to hide cautiously.

They had originally had alternative places to escape disaster, but now, just hearing about it, the two of them felt that this trip was really worth it!

Sang Luo asked Shen Lie, “Are there any other passages besides the one you entered?”

Shen Lie and Chen Dashan glanced at each other and both nodded. Shen Lie said, “There is indeed one, but it’s easier to find from the inside than from the outside.”

“What do you mean?”

Shen Lie looked a bit strange and said, “It’s a very deep cave. At the deepest point, there’s an upward-sloping opening. That’s the exit. From there, you can go outside. But… the exit from the outside looks more like a larger rabbit hole.”

A normal person seeing such a hole from the outside would either guess it’s a rabbit hole or wonder if it’s a snake’s den. In any case, no one would have the courage to dig around in it, let alone stick their foot in.

In fact, Shen Lie suspected that the hole might have been dug out by rabbits or something, and they discovered the new world after digging through it. It was baffling.

Otherwise, the cave didn’t look like it was artificially excavated. Who would bother to make an exit no bigger than a rabbit hole?

But Sang Luo found it amusing. “This exit is good. If there were only one entrance, I was worried that one day we’d be discovered and captured. Having an exit is better.”

Shen Lie and Chen Dashan laughed too. Chen Dashan said, “That’s what we thought too. We temporarily sealed the small exit from the inside, but if we need to leave one day, we can open it up from the inside and leave.”

Old Man Chen, who had already heard about the situation in the valley at home, now knew more details. He smiled and said, “This is great. With caves and water sources, entrances and exits, being able to enter and retreat, deep in the mountains, far from the crowd and sufficiently hidden, as long as both passages are well sealed and concealed, even threatening beasts won’t be able to get in. Our families hiding here to escape calamity couldn’t be better.”

Everyone’s faces were filled with smiles, seeing hope.

Lu Erlang looked at everyone and asked, “What’s the next step? Now that there are refugees in the county, should we follow the original plan and transport grain first, or should we evacuate too?”

As soon as this was said, Zhou Cunzheng shook his head.

He looked at the main room of the Shen family’s main house, where, apart from two beds and a table, the room was so crowded that people were standing shoulder to shoulder because it was filled with grain stored on bamboo shelves.

“We have limited manpower, and every family has hoarded a lot of grain. Without six or seven trips to transport it all, we can’t leave yet. We need to buy time to transport the grain. Moreover… the court is still functioning. If several families leave, once the Great Qian Dynasty restores stability, our properties and homes that we’ve built up over the years will have nothing to do with us.”

In the future, our descendants will only be able to hide in the mountains as refugees. They won’t be able to enter the city or even show themselves to others. They’ll have to spend their days hiding in the mountains, or be recruited by the government and start over from scratch.

The Chen family, who had truly experienced the hardships of starting from scratch, deeply understood this point. It’s easy to abandon everything, but it’s extremely difficult to build up a family legacy.

Old Man Chen also nodded. “Let’s transport the grain first. We can consider this issue after all the grain has been transported. I’ve been to the city gate in the past few days to take a look. The refugees are currently gathered at the city gate. Some wealthy households are providing clothes and porridge. It’s not yet a time of chaos. We just need to be cautious and vigilant. It’s too early to make any moves now.”

Everyone agreed on this point. Dealing with refugees wasn’t easy. As Zhou Cunzheng and Old Man Chen said, without at least six or seven trips, the grain couldn’t be transported completely. First, there needed to be someone stable at home.

Next came the discussion of transporting the grain.

To Sang Luo’s surprise, the first thing Old Man Chen proposed was how to transport her family’s grain.

Old Man Chen’s exact words were: “As everyone knows, in recent days, Sang Luo, along with Xiao An and An Ning, lives too remotely. During peacetime, it’s fine, but in situations like this, no one can rest assured. Instead of having people from every family come out to keep watch at night, in my opinion, since Alie has already taken the risk to scout out the route and spent a lot of money to prepare poison arrows for us, the grain from their house can be divided among us. Each family can pick three bags of their own and help carry one bag from Alie’s family. Let Alie stay in the village. First, it’s safer at home, and there’s no need for people from each family to keep watch at night. If we really need to transport grain into the mountains, we won’t have enough people to help keep watch anyway. Second, with Alie in the village, wouldn’t we all feel more at ease about the village’s defense?”

In essence, some men would have to stay behind to defend, while others would transport the grain into the mountains, allowing Shen Lie to focus on defense.

Everyone had no objections, and Shen Lie also felt that this way he could be more at ease. He bowed his hand. “Thank you, sirs, for taking care of us. I will stay in the village to continue training the children and keep an eye on the surrounding situation.”

With the matter settled, only Zhou Cunzheng felt a bit embarrassed. He had a lot of grain in his house and many sons, but what he had said earlier was that they didn’t know where the place of refuge was, so they handed over half of the grain to Shen Lie’s group to take into the mountains.

When it came time to actually transport the grain, according to Shen Lie’s estimation, the one-way journey took five and a half days at a fast pace. If they were carrying grain, it would take at least six days each way, making it a total of twelve days for the round trip.

With so much grain in his house, it was completely unreasonable to let others help transport it. The Zhou family wasn’t like Shen Lie’s family, who organized the matter of seeking refuge, spent money on medicine, and found the place of refuge. Moreover, with Sang Luo holding such a special position among the families, how could they ask others to help transport the grain for their family?

But after years of being the village head, Zhou Cunzheng quickly came up with an idea after a moment of contemplation. He asked Shen Lie, “Along the way, do you have places to stay overnight? Are there any caves or other places to store grain? If there are, we can divide the journey into two parts: the first half and the second half. Each family can mark their grain, and some people can carry the first half, while others can carry the second half. My sons can go and carry the first half, and we can hand over the grain to you halfway.”

This way, they wouldn’t need to know the location of the place of refuge, and his family wouldn’t need to contribute anything.

When Old Man Chen and Old Man Lu heard this idea, their eyes lit up. “This is a good idea! This way, the older ones in our families can also go with your children to carry the first half, and the younger ones can go with Dashan to carry the second half.”

Everyone smiled as they looked at each other. With the four families together, they immediately calculated in Shen Lie’s main room how many people each family would contribute, and how much grain each family would take away.

“Prepare some dry food and water when you go back, and set off before dawn tomorrow. It’s also convenient for outsiders. Just say you’re going into the mountains with Dashan to learn hunting.”

Learning hunting was something they had been doing outside the mountains for so long, so it was a ready-made reason.

This time, Chen Dashan didn’t get any rest. Before leaving, he patted Shen Lie on the shoulder. “For those pelts, when you go to the county, help me find a buyer for my family. No matter the price, sell them if you can. Give the money to my grandma. Also, that medicine is effective. I think we should get some more.”

This was a private conversation between the two of them, but Zhou Cunzheng’s ears were sharp. He quickly said on the side, “Forget about the money for the poison arrows earlier. Our family will contribute to it later. We can’t always let you bear the cost. I’ll bring it to you tomorrow.”

This last sentence was directed at Shen Lie.

The reason why he said to forget about the money for the poison arrows earlier was because Old Man Chen had asked each family to help transport grain for Shen’s family. Including this achievement, it was not appropriate for him to mention it again.

Both Old Man Shi and Old Man Lu also expressed their intentions. The family’s recent economic situation was not good, and the two families hadn’t saved much money, but they should contribute to the cost of buying medicine.

Shen Lie looked at Sang Luo, and Sang Luo shook her head, saying, “We appreciate your intentions, but our family relies on everyone’s help to transport so much grain. The cost of the medicine will be covered by our family.”

Old Man Chen was actually speaking up for their family. Defense and grain transport into the deep mountains were two different matters. It was okay to take turns, but Shen Lie had always stayed outside, which was the concern of everyone for their family, and Sang Luo still knew that much.

Moreover, she had a rough idea of the economic situation of several families. They hadn’t been able to stock up on common medicinal herbs until now, so she didn’t want everyone to spend more money at this point.

Just as Zhou Cunzheng was about to say something else, Sang Luo smiled and said, “Uncle Zhou, we appreciate your intentions, but our family has a lot of grain. Transporting it into the mountains is not an easy or peaceful task. So, let’s consider the cost of the medicine as payment for helping us transport the grain.”

Zhou Cunzheng saw Sang Luo smiling but with a firm expression. He could only look at Old Man Chen and Old Man Lu.

Old Man Chen finally made a decision, “Alright, let’s go with what Alie said.”