Liu Xianyang soon returned with a woven basket on his back. Chen Pingan was by the well, observing the process of digging and transporting earth. Liu Xianyang delivered a swift kick to Chen Pingan’s rear, sending the straw-sandaled boy stumbling forward, nearly face-planting. Chen Pingan turned to see the tall teenager and decided to let it slide.

“It’s done!” Liu Xianyang announced boisterously. “Master Ruan told me to stay put here these next few days, no running around. Digging the well by day and hammering iron by night. In about a week and a half, I’ll officially be his first disciple in town, something about a ‘founding disciple.’ I brought you a basket to help you gather stones, from the blacksmith shop all the way to the covered bridge. But fair warning, I can’t help you at the Green Ox Back water pit. Master Ruan said if I dare cross north or west of the covered bridge even half a step, he’ll break my legs!”

Liu Xianyang clapped an arm around the straw-sandaled boy’s neck and whispered conspiratorially, “Master Ruan says nothing ever gets lost in this town. He also said those outsiders follow a strange rule: they can be fair merchants, or deceitful swindlers, even the beggars can do anything. Just can’t be sneaky thieves. He says up here, the heavens don’t doze or blink, they’re always watching. Makes you shiver, doesn’t it? I know it does me!”

Liu Xianyang suddenly turned menacing. “Hey, you, Chen! You can keep living in my house, but don’t you dare sell my family’s treasure armor while I’m gone!”

Chen Pingan punched Liu Xianyang in the chest, causing the tall teenager to release him, rubbing his chest vigorously before regaining his breath. “Skinny little monkey! Where do you get such strength? Is it because you hike a hundred li with Old Yao every few days, or spend months chopping wood in the mountains to burn charcoal? Does that pump you up that much?”

Chen Pingan chuckled. “I bet I can carry a basket full of rocks and still beat you back to town.”

Liu Xianyang squinted. “Then let’s see who can hold their breath underwater the longest!”

Reaching the stream, Chen Pingan rolled up his trouser legs and said casually, “I’m not interested in contests of just a single breath.”

Before entering the water, Chen Pingan plucked a pile of spring grass from the bank to cushion the inside of the basket. He kept murmuring about adding more grass after every twenty stones. Liu Xianyang was so annoyed he almost threw his basket at Chen Pingan. But the straw-sandaled boy refused, saying that if Liu Xianyang carried the basket, he’d just toss the stones in carelessly, and Chen Pingan couldn’t stand that. Liu Xianyang nearly quit right then and there. These gaudy stones, worthless for centuries, were suddenly precious in Chen Pingan’s eyes? And Chen Pingan dared criticize Liu’s methods for being too rough?

But in the end, the tall teenager grudgingly waded into the water, searching for stones alongside Chen Pingan, determined to scour the small stream clean. The water was mostly knee-deep, only reaching waist-high in slightly deeper spots. Occasionally there were small, man-high pits formed by clustered boulders. These were Liu Xianyang’s time to shine. He would take off the basket and hand it to Chen Pingan on the rocks, then dive deep, retrieving the “snake-gall stones” he wanted from the crevices of massive boulders, even from within layered piles of stone.

Chen Pingan could do it too, of course, but it would be much harder, taking far more time and energy than it would for Liu Xianyang.

Before they reached the covered bridge, the basket was already seven or eight tenths full. Among the stones was a dark-green snake-gall stone that Liu Xianyang had struggled to retrieve from a deep pit, diving three times before finally pulling it out. It was as large as a palm, speckled with golden flecks, and marked with wavy patterns. The stone was dense and fine-grained, feeling remarkably heavy in the hand. As Chen Pingan caressed it, he could feel a faint, sharp edge.

Even a blind man would know this stone was special.

Finally, the two boys sat side-by-side on a large boulder in the stream. Liu Xianyang propped himself up on the stone, watching the flowing water. “Chen Pingan,” he asked, “have you ever thought about leaving town?”

Chen Pingan replied, “Not really. You need money to travel, and what would happen to the house? No one would take care of it. It could collapse. Besides, I need to visit my parents’ graves and pull the weeds.”

Liu Xianyang sighed. “You always worry about useless things. No wonder Song Jixin says you’re cursed, just wandering around in circles in this tiny place, never getting anywhere.”

Chen Pingan turned and smiled. “Do you remember what I told you about that tree?”

Liu Xianyang scoffed. “A tree growing on a grave? Why is that so surprising? Besides, it’s the grave of some ancestor from another branch of the Chen family. It has nothing to do with you, Chen Pingan!”

Chen Pingan sat cross-legged, sighing softly, “I wonder if there are many other Chen’s outside of town.”

Liu Xianyang retorted, “I don’t know about outside town, but I know there are only a handful of Chens in town, and besides you, they all seem to be hereditary servants of the four clans and ten families. The funny thing is, they act like slaves inside those houses, bowing and scraping, but the moment they leave, they immediately change their tune, looking down on everyone. That’s why Old Yao is right. If you, Chen Pingan, ever become their servant, that will mean the end of your branch of the Chen family that never left town.”

According to Old Yao, there used to be two branches of the Chen family in town. One branch had moved away a long time ago. Chen Pingan’s branch used to be prosperous, but that “used to be” was so long ago that even Old Yao couldn’t say for sure if it was five hundred, eight hundred, or a thousand years ago. Later it was split into several branches, and the number of people became less and less. Their luck was probably taken away by the migrated branch. The incense was often cut off, so many graves were not looked after, and most of the graves were on the mountains that were ordered by the court to become mountains under prohibition.

The last time Old Yao took Chen Pingan into the mountain, he pointed to a place on one of the mountains and told him that it was where the ancestors of the other branch of the Chen family were buried, and the feng shui was very good. As for Chen Pingan’s branch, Old Yao said that even the gods could not find them. In recent centuries, the descendants of the Chen family have been useless, all of them were impoverished households. Apart from struggling not to be slaves to the four clans and ten families, they were useless.

Chen Pingan had secretly tried to find the grave of the Chen ancestor, but when he arrived, he only found weeds and many foxes and rabbits, but he did not see the grave. There was a tree that the grass-sandaled teenager did not recognize. It was not tall, much shorter than the old locust tree in the town.

Weeds are overgrown, foxes and rabbits haunt, lonely, and a tree is lush.

Chen Pingan shook his head. “Before my mother died, she made me swear that I could be a beggar, and even starve to death, but I was not allowed to be a servant for those rich families.”

Liu Xianyang blurted out, “Didn’t your mother also make you swear before she died that you must never go to the dragon kiln as an apprentice?”

The straw-sandaled boy’s face darkened. He did not refute, nor was he annoyed by being exposed.

Liu Xianyang felt a little guilty. He was not the kind of person who would say “sorry” after doing something wrong. He could only pretend that nothing had happened and stood up and said, “Let’s go, let’s dig a well. By the way, I’ll pester Master Ruan again and try to get you to come here as a short-term apprentice, and it will be easier to find stones then.”

Chen Pingan said, “Don’t worry, wait until those two groups of people give up and leave the town. During this time, I will help you take care of the house.”

Liu Xianyang asked curiously, “Why do you think I can escape this disaster by becoming a disciple of Master Ruan?”

Chen Pingan thought for a while, and said uncertainly: “It’s like it suddenly rains, you always have to find a roof to hide under, right?”

Liu Xianyang turned to look at the Jianlu Iron Shop. “Who do you think Master Ruan is? He doesn’t look like a very powerful person, can he suppress those two groups of people?”

Chen Pingan comforted him: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Liu Xianyang turned his head and said, “You, Chen Pingan, look like a poor man, so are you a poor man?”

Chen Pingan grinned and was speechless.

Liu Xianyang stood up and asked, “Do you want me to carry it to the covered bridge for you?”

Chen Pingan shook his head: “No, it’s not heavy.”

“Remember to return the basket to me next time.”

After saying this, Liu Xianyang jumped off the boulder and walked quickly in the stream, splashing countless splashes of water.

Chen Pingan carried the basket on his back, carefully got off the boulder, went ashore, and slowly walked towards the covered bridge.

After Chen Pingan walked for a while, he heard a burst of footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw that it was Liu Xianyang.

In the warm spring sunshine, the tall teenager grabbed the basket from the straw-sandaled boy and carried it on his back. He turned his head and sneered, “Looking at you carrying the basket from a distance, you look like a little grasshopper carrying a big rock. It’s really pitiful. I’ll do you a favor and carry it to the covered bridge for you.”

In the spring breeze, two teenagers walked together.

“Hey Chen, if I become proficient in the future, I will definitely go out and see the world, marry a wife who is more beautiful than Zhi Gui, drink the most expensive good wine, live in the biggest house, and ride the fastest horse!”

“I want to see mountains as high as the sky, and rivers that are countless times bigger than our stream.”

“In short, I, Liu Xianyang, will never stay here and wait to die for the rest of my life.”

In the spring breeze, the tall teenager yearned for the future, and the straw-sandaled boy chewed on the roots of grass, one spoke and the other listened.

—–

Chen Pingan carried a basket of stones back to Liu Xianyang’s yard, and still picked out the few stones that he liked the most and took them to the side room. The rest was still left in the stove room. After locking the house door and the yard door, he ran to Nibbling Lane. When he arrived at his yard, he saw the black-clothed girl sitting in the yard basking in the sun. After Chen Pingan said hello, he began to boil the medicine.

Chopping sounds were constantly coming from the next yard. This was very strange. Although Song Jixin was living a life without parents in the eyes of outsiders, he had been well-fed all these years, and even had a lot of money on hand. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was better than the young masters of the four families’ houses. Compared with the direct descendants of the ten clans, it was not bad at all. Writing utensils, desk games, and stationery, many luxury items that Chen Pingan had never seen or heard of, were moved into Song Jixin’s house one by one every now and then. In fact, there were never any real dirty, tiring, or physical jobs at Song Jixin’s place. Pickled vegetables were too smelly, so Song Jixin did not allow the maid Zhi Gui to do it. Chopping firewood was too tiring, so Song Jixin bought bundles of firewood and bags of high-quality charcoal every year.

When Chen Pingan brought the medicinal soup to the girl in black, the yard next door was still chopping wood intermittently. Chen Pingan couldn’t help but walk to the wall next to the yard while Miss Ning was drinking the medicine. He tiptoed and looked over, and found that Zhi Gui was holding a kitchen knife and chopping down “a person”, which was a wooden blank. Chen Pingan had been burning porcelain for many years and had seen many good things, and had chopped countless trees, so he could see the approximate depth at a glance. The wood was jade-like in color and must be very old, and the puppet was covered with dense red and black dots. The puppet had been chopped into many sections by Zhi Gui.

The girl suddenly turned her head and found Chen Pingan. She wiped her face full of sweat and dirt, raised her arm, wiped her face, and smiled reluctantly: “You’re back, I wanted to borrow a firewood knife from you earlier, but your guest refused to open the door for me.”

Chen Pingan was stunned for a moment, “I’ll get you a firewood knife right away. Don’t use too much force at the beginning. The firewood knife is not as good as the kitchen knife and is easy to slip, so don’t hurt yourself.”

The girl sat on the small bench, exhausted, and waved her hand: “I know, go get it quickly.”

Chen Pingan took back the firewood knife, and the girl was already standing by the wall of the yard, smiling and asking, “Do you know what that thing is?”

Chen Pingan shook his head: “I don’t know.”

Zhi Gui didn’t give an answer either. She turned around and continued to sit on the small bench and chop hard.

Her unskilled and stagnant movements, and all kinds of thankless and wrong postures made Chen Pingan very anxious, but since she didn’t ask for help, Chen Pingan wouldn’t be sentimental. He turned around and saw that Miss Ning was no longer in the yard. Chen Pingan remembered something and walked quickly to the house, placing something on the table, opposite the girl in black.

It was a snake bile stone, just enough to hold in one hand, like a frozen and solidified honey, with delicate texture and the right color.

Ning Yao was a little strange.

Chen Pingan smiled: “Miss Ning, this is for you.”

The girl in black who never left her knife suddenly asked, “Do you like this one the most?”

Chen Pingan was a little embarrassed, “This one… is probably fourth best, the best three, I have already hidden them.”

Only then did she accept the stone, pinched it with two fingers, and held it over her head. The light entered the house through the window, reflecting on the stone.

She raised her head, squinted her eyes, and carefully observed the subtle texture of the stone.

She looked at the stone.

The teenager looked at her.

—–

In the middle of the night, a teenager sneaked into Nibbling Lane, like a wild cat walking at night, silently, and quietly came to Gu Can’s yard. He found the big water tank that was placed in the corner of the yard, squatted down, and found that the snake bile stones that were originally piled up neatly had been rummaged and scattered, as if this person knew the value of the stones earlier than Chen Pingan. Gu Can was the only freak in town who liked to collect snake bile stones, and no matter how many he found in the creek, he only took one home each time. The child only selected the most pleasing stone, and after accumulating over time, he had saved fifty or sixty stones, which he used to cover the gaps at the bottom of the water tank.

After Chen Pingan moved away many snake bile stones with dry colors, he saw that there were no signs of digging at the bottom of the water tank, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

He began to dig the soil bit by bit with his right hand. Finally, when he touched the oil paper, his heart trembled and he slowed down.

Finally, he took out the object wrapped in oil paper. It looked like a book.

After hiding it in his arms, Chen Pingan carefully filled the soil back, and then carefully looked at the snake bile stones. The remaining stones were all “dead”. Compared with the stones that Chen Pingan had newly picked up from the creek these two times, whether it was color, texture, or weight, they were completely different. The stones in front of him were like lifeless old men, while the ones that Chen Pingan picked up were like newborn babies, full of vitality.

Chen Pingan thought for a while and planned to leave Nibbling Lane from his house.

When he arrived at the door of Song Jixin’s yard, he heard a creaking sound and the door opened. Chen Pingan had to pretend to knock on his door and shouted, “Miss Ning, are you asleep? I’m back to get something.”

The lights in the house soon turned on, and the girl in black opened the yard door for Chen Pingan.

Over at the next door, the maid Zhi Gui slowly walked out of the house and arrived in the yard. Seeing Chen Pingan’s vague figure, holding a large, yellowed book in her arms, she shook her head and said tsk tsk tsk, as if she had just caught a pair of adulterers.

She walked alone in Nibbling Lane, jumping and bouncing.

Her golden double pupils looked particularly cold and sacred in the dark alley.

Letting the slender and graceful girl, like a dragon swimming in a narrow stone crevice, seem like she was about to transform into a dragon and swim away into the river as long as she left the alley.

—–

Although Ning Yao let Chen Pingan into the yard, and even into the house, her face was very ugly. She sat at the table, with one arm resting on the knife sheath and her fingers gently tapping the handle.

After Chen Pingan made sure that Zhi Gui had entered the alley, he awkwardly explained, “I went to Gu Can’s house to get something, but she was just about to go out, so I had to come here to hide. Miss Ning, please don’t think too much about it.”

She asked, “What is it?”

Chen Pingan hesitated and took out the oil paper bag. “I don’t know yet.”

She turned around and said, “Open it yourself first and then decide whether to let me know.”

Chen Pingan nodded, sat across from her at the table, and opened layers of oil paper. Debris kept falling on the table, and finally, a ancient book was revealed.

There were only two words on the cover of the ancient book, and Chen Pingan only recognized one of them, mountain.

He put the ancient book on the table, turned it around, and pushed it towards the girl in black, asking curiously, “Miss Ning, what is this word?”

The girl turned around again, glanced down, and said, “Shake.”

The title of the book is Shake Mountain.