Chapter 32: The Jianghu Performer
Third day of the twelfth lunar month.
The calico cat was already standing at the head of Song You’s bed very early in the morning. She first sat still for a long time, staring at his face. Seeing that he showed no signs of waking, the cat was torn between calling him and not wanting to disturb him. Yet, she had to call him. Eventually, she chose the middle ground and began to softly, very softly, call out, “Daoist priest, Daoist priest.” She was afraid he would hear her, yet also afraid he wouldn’t.
The epitome of indecision.
There was no choice. That day they had to go to the temple fair to buy a horse.
Also, the Daoist priest had said “we” instead of “I”.
Who would have thought that a tiny cat could actually buy a big horse one day?
“Daoist priest, Daoist priest, Daoist priest…”
Finally, Song You was awakened by her calls.
When he opened his eyes, the cat’s head was right in front of his eyes.
“What are you doing, Lady Calico?”
“Oh!” The calico cat instantly pulled back. She hesitated for a moment before blinking a few times and saying, “Just checking on you.”
“I was just sleeping.”
“Hurry and get up. Let’s visit the temple fair.”
“No rush, no rush.”
“If we don’t go early, all the horses will be bought up.”
“Then forget it.”
The calico cat turned her head and stared at him sternly. After a few seconds, she urged repeatedly, “Get up quickly! Hurry, hurry!”
With that, she bit the corner of the blanket and tugged it to the side.
Song You had no choice but to get up.
Getting dressed and washed took only a quarter of an hour, and the calico cat stayed by his side the whole time, keeping close and watching intently, as if supervising and urging him.
“Lady Calico, are you going out as a cat or in human form?”
“What do you think?”
“There are many people at the temple fair. Cats are too small and might easily get stepped on.” Song You paused, “If you transform into human form, you can accompany me. If you go out as a cat, I’ll have to carry you.”
“I’ll transform into human form.”
“Please go to your room.”
“Okay!”
The calico cat dashed back to her room.
“Daoist priest!”
Song You sighed. She had probably forgotten where she put her clothes again.
“Help me find my clothes!”
He wasn’t wrong at all.
After some fuss, they finally set off.
Yuewang Temple was in the east of the city, quite a walk away. They could take this opportunity to find a shop where they could eat breakfast that they hadn’t yet tried. After Lady Calico’s glaring and urging, they headed toward the east of the city.
Song You carried half a string of cash[1] and two pieces of officially minted silver. His bosom felt heavy and bulged throughout the whole journey.
The closer they got to Yuewang Temple, the more crowded it became.
Most of the passersby were heading in the same direction.
In these times, religious festivals were of utmost importance, with few things more significant. With the day being both the birthday of the Yuewang deity who was widely revered locally as well as the day the grand temple fair started, everyone from high-ranking frontier officials to commoners or cloistered young ladies from good families all ventured out and headed to Yuewang Temple.
Many jianghu people from faraway places had also come to attend the fair.
Song You happened to run into Prefect Yu, but did not go up to greet him. Instead, he paused like other commoners to watch Prefect Yu and his retinue pass by.
He faintly heard people around him discussing.
“Is that the prefect?”
“Who else could it be?”
“Why does the prefect’s procession have so few people this year? Last year, it stretched half a li!”
“Who knows?”
Song You smiled as he listened.
He let the prefect’s procession pass, and a few more steps brought the Yuewang Temple into view.
The area outside the temple was crowded with people, and the roof shrouded in clouds of smoke. The sound of musical instruments also drifted over from that direction. The street soon became extremely congested. With vendors and street performers filling every alley around the temple, the human tide made movement almost impossible.
Before they even arrived, they could already hear the shouts of vendors hawking their wares.
“Traveling through the jianghu, selling for money or not. I’m setting up the stall first, everyone passing by please take a look, just watching is free.”
“Passing through this treasure land with empty pockets and a rumbling stomach. I’m selling some herbal remedies first.”
“Herbal remedies, herbs growing tall. Ten people go to gather, nine lose their lives...”
Song You couldn’t help but stop to listen with a smile to the humorous and catchy sales jingles like the other commoners.
This was what made it lively.
“Stay close, Lady Calico.”
“Where do we buy the horse?”
“I don’t know, let’s look for it first.”
“Okay!” A large figure and a small figure headed towards the densest part of the crowd.
The sights were indeed eye-opening.
There were acrobats.
Tossing plates and bowls, climbing poles, walking tightropes, jumping through fire hoops, throat-stabbing with iron spears, neck-choking with iron chains…These were mostly skills honed through hard practice.
There was a monkey trainer.
The trainer and the monkey cooperated seamlessly, one commanding the monkey to perform tasks and the other playing the fool for laughs. The trainer would threaten with a knife, and the monkey would immediately cower. However, the moment the trainer was inattentive, the monkey would grab the knife and counterattack. Any observant person could tell that it was a prearranged act, but the performance was so natural that it made everyone laugh heartily.
There was the magic rope trick.
A rope was thrown up into the sky and the end was immediately shrouded in clouds of smoke. The rope also became straight, and a person could actually climb up along it. As the climber gradually disappeared into the clouds, the rope fell back down in front of the audience’s eyes. The clouds of smoke dissipated and the person was gone, leaving the audience shouting in alarm.
There were fire breathers.
Initially, they drank oil to breathe fire just to add to the fair’s excitement. However, the crowd soon noticed that though the oil had been used up, the performer could blow fire by just approaching a torch. Eventually, they didn’t even need a torch, just spouting flames from their empty mouths.
Everyone realized this was true skill.
Thus copper coins clinked all over on the ground.
There were conjurors.
An empty basin could instantly produce birds, fish, and snakes. With another wave of the hand, they would vanish for no reason. Similar to latter-day magic, these conjurors needed a cloth to obscure their tricks. They either used clever sleight-of-hand tricks or swift and nimble movements.
Song You paused for a moment at every spot.
Lady Calico was initially focused on buying a horse, but gradually she was captivated by these performances. She obediently stayed close to Song You, her eyes wide with wonder.
Whenever someone brought over a tray for tips, Song You never refused, always giving at least a few wen.
In general, only jianghu people were this generous.
It wasn’t that they were wealthy. It was because they understood the hardships of traveling through the jianghu and were particular about such things. Either they avoided watching or if they watched, they would give a little no matter how strapped for cash they were.
However, just as they had finished watching and were about to leave, Song You felt something amiss. Reaching into his bosom, he found the half-string of coins still there, but the two pieces of officially minted silver were gone.
This was interesting.
Song You turned back, looking at the middle-aged performer who was still demonstrating conjuring tricks.
Scanning the surroundings, he heard cheers again and again.
Even patrons in nearby inns were tossing down money.
He said nothing and waited there for a while.
Having strolled around for so long, it was already long past noon. One by one, the jianghu street performers stopped, saying they needed to prepare their meals. The crowd also gradually dispersed.
Only then did Song You approach the performer.
This man looked around thirty or forty. He was broad-shouldered and solidly-built with a fierce-looking face. At the moment, he was eating heartily with a few subordinates.
He ate well, there were large chunks of boiled meat.
“Your meal is quite sumptuous,” Song You said, smiling as he stood before him.
The performer looked up at the shadow and saw that it was a young man leading a little girl. He was taken aback, and asked in a foolish way, “What do you want? We’ll only start after finishing our meal.”
“It’s no big deal,” Song You said politely, his voice calm. “I just happened to drop some silver while watching your performance here just now. I wondered if you saw them.”
“Hmm?” The performer was puzzled, “If you lost silver, you should report it to the authorities. The temple fair is crowded and chaotic so thieves are inevitable...You don’t really think I can make things disappear into thin air since we know some magic tricks, do you? Are you framing us?”
As he spoke, he grew angry.
With his already robust physique and swarthy complexion, once he raised his eyebrows and glared, any trace of foolishness vanished, leaving only a terrifying ferocity.
But Song You remained mild and calm. “I just saw that while your mastery of the Art of Telekinesis had not reached the acme of perfection, you have already reached great heights. It’s far beyond my abilities, so I came over to ask.”
The performer’s expression immediately hardened.
Actually, he hadn’t used the Art of Telekinesis during his performance but just tricks of the hand. Yet he didn’t argue or deny it. He simply studied Song You for a moment before cupping his hands. “May I ask where you come from?”
“I am Song You from Hidden Dragon Temple on Yin-Yang Mountain.”
“I see, so you’re a Daoist priest. Apologies.”
“No need to apologize.”
“How much did you lose?”
“Twenty taels of officially minted silver.”
The performer immediately turned and waved at the person beside him. He neither magnanimously admitted the theft nor denied it again. He did not even offer some polite excuse like, “Since it's fate that we’ve met, we’ll compensate you for the loss as a token of friendship.” Instead, he just ordered his subordinate to fetch the money.
Two pieces of girdled beehive silver. They were not the lost ones, but matched the amount.
Song You weighed the silver pieces in his hand twice and then put them away.
One could only say it was hard to determine whether jianghu people were good or bad but they all adhere to principles to some extent.
“Thank you.”
“My apologies for the offense.”
“However, I have another question.” Song You asked. “With your skills, why do you engage in this line of work?”
“You jest.” The middle-aged man laughed, surprisingly with a touch of carefree ease. “This Art of Telekinesis originally evolved from jianghu magic tricks. Besides, this is the only skill we have. In these times, what other job can make more money? Or do you think pretending to be a great master to con the nobility is more honorable and easier?”
Song You couldn’t help thinking for a moment. “Fair point.”
“We also have our own rules.” The middle-aged man picked up his rice bowl and started eating again as he spoke. “We only take officially minted silver, not wen or pieces of silver. If a master sees through us or someone suspects us, as long as they can find us and report what happened, we will always return the money.”
“I see.” Song You couldn’t help pondering this.
In Great Yan, officially minted silver started from ten taels. Taking only officially minted silver and not wen or pieces of silver was convenient for carrying on one hand and also avoided robbing poor people based on the denomination on the other hand. It was a kind of mentality of robbing the rich, but not the poor.
The latter rule also somewhat prevented people from reporting to the authorities.
Jianghu people respected mutual principles.
In these times, ordinary people generally did not trust the authorities much unlike latter-day people. Jianghu people had their own ways of solving problems they encountered and would be ridiculed by their peers if they reported to the authorities. As for normal wealthy people, it would be hard for them to realize that they were robbed by someone two zhang away. Even if they discovered it, they would not report it to the authorities as long as their money was returned, fearing retaliation from jianghu people.
Actually, the risks have been greatly reduced and being mobile made it even less risky.
Standing before the performer, Song You still asked, “Aren't you afraid of being interrogated by the authorities?”
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man squinted and paused his eating. He looked up at Song You. “Are you joking with me?”
“I'm curious,” Song You said, his expression unchanged. “You perform this kind of magic trick. If something like this happens and you encounter an experienced constable, won't you be the number one suspect?”
“You are trapped by your own knowledge. To most people, this is just a sleight-of-hand trick. Even if they know there’s something fishy, how many would think of someone taking things from a distance? Even if someone did figure it out, we would be long gone.”
“I see. Thank you for the explanation.” Song You seemed thoughtful and nodded as he spoke.
“Is there anything else?”
“Then I'll take my leave.”
“Daoist priest!” As Song You was about to leave, the man stopped him again. He was still worried and scrutinized Song You as he said, “Don't you dare report this to the authorities!”
Meeting his gaze, Song You thought for a moment and then nodded. “Alright.”
The man had vividly informed him not to be confined by what he knew. The man had principles, and although Song You was not a jianghu person, he was willing to adhere to those principles this time.
He decided not to report to the authorities this time.
However, adhering to principles did not mean confusing right and wrong.
Constable Luo was experienced and competent. He would likely suspect something and come to consult Song You in time. When that happened, he would have to tell him.
It was just uncertain whether he would run faster or Constable Luo would chase faster.
1. A string or guan is 1000 wen. ☜
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