Lan Caolu was, frankly speaking, not at all eager to confront his son about the rumors the young man was spreading. He imagined a lot of drama, and arguing, and cringed at the mere idea of having to witness his son turn out to be one of these “young masters” that filled the sectarian ranks nowadays. So he procrastinated, and instead spent all his time in the library, having found a newfound joy in studying the contents of countless books the establishment had to offer.
He also acquired a wonderful discussion companion, a bright young woman by the name of Bai Caoren, who made such a strong impression on him the other day and looked forward to their regular meetings in the forest of old tomes and scrolls. Apparently, she was a traveling scholar of the Wuyun sect.
Having failed to manifest a golden core by certain age, she decided to dedicate her life to learning and other scholarly pursuits. In the sectarian world order that followed the treaty of Changan, people who couldn’t cultivate were considered second-class citizens and had to resign themselves to being auxiliaries for the cultivator ruling class. But she wasn’t bothered by it, and instead humbly resolved herself to making the best out of her mortal life, and living up to the highest standards of virtue, which was a way of life he both respected and admired.
He also found himself in awe of her tremendous knowledge on various topics, such as history, geography, economy, fine arts…in fact, it seemed there was nothing the young woman didn’t know, and her intellectual superiority became none less apparent when one day he challenged her to a game of xiangqi, and got utterly obliterated 3 times in a row.
Not wanting to stay indebted, “old man Lan”, as he initially introduced himself, did his best to share the stories of 100 years ago, his cover be dammed, telling her all about the kings and emperors of old. Despite being mundane, she expressed especially interest in the monastic teachings of the old monks and shared with him a sentiment that if all people- cultivators or not- followed them to the letter, the world would be a better place.
He…agreed with this point of view. Until now he only saw the current world order as corrupt and longed to the days of his youth. But perhaps neither way was perfect? Perhaps the monks of old were mistaken in their seclusion, and they should have put more effort into teaching justice and virtue to mundane people…perhaps if the kings of old were educated in the spirit of discipline and benevolence, the cycle of destruction could had been broken…
But there was one matter that bothered him, and one day, Lan Caolu finally gathered enough courage to inquire about it. He asked Bai Caoren what in the world was she doing this far in the north, so far away from Tianze, the hometown of her clan which was located in the very middle of central plains, far to the south.
It would perhaps be a bit of an overstatement to say that her expression stiffened at this question, for her face was always stiff as a stone; but her eyelid twitched ever so slightly, and he knew that this question caused the girl some level of distress.
“My family…” she started, then quickly corrected herself “no, my sister, who is the current head of the family, considers me quite useless and decided to sell me off to the highest bidder…in other words, I’m looking for a husband.”
Arranged marriage? The cultivator sects of this day and age really fashion themselves after the nobility of old! Lan Caolu was left speechless and didn’t know what to say to that. Truly, what had he been fighting for all these years ago? Families should be formed out of love! However, before he could formulate a decent response, she continued….
“…It’s not the only reason why I chose Yafan, though. I have…a penfriend, so to speak, living in this town. She’s a really intelligent girl around my age, and we’d often exchange books and correspondence in the past. I was dying to finally meet her in person…”
In that case, she should introduce her to Lan, too! Surely a friend of such a wonderful, bright young woman as Bai Caoren is also an amazing person in her own right!
However, an uneasy expression cast a shadow upon her face, and in that instant, he realized the situation was a bit more complex than what he initially assumed it to be….
“Master Lan, I’d be glad to introduce you to her. I’m sure she’d be overjoyed to hear some stories from the…old times. But you’d have to communicate through writing….She’s deaf.”
Apparently, that girl lost most of her hearing after a traumatic head injury suffered in childhood. The way she was now, she couldn’t hear any but the loudest sounds right next to her, and not being able to hear her own voice, she eventually forwent speech as well.
Since she couldn’t regularly interact with other children, it was decided that she should live secluded, cloistered life….boredom of which eventually sparked interest in scholarly pursuits. And now, supposedly there isn’t a book she hadn’t read, there isn’t a legend she hadn’t heard, and there isn’t a device she couldn’t take apart….and even Bai Caoren oftentimes found herself in awe of her penfriends intellect.
Naturally, this only made old man Lan even more eager to get to know such a bright young person, and he assured Bai Caoren that he is perfectly fine with communicating through ink; a meeting was scheduled, and in the morning of the following day they set out for the estate where the girl lived, which was located several kilometers away from the city itself, surrounded by evergreen pine forests.
………………
Wen clan was a family of rogue cultivators.
Rogue here means being unaffiliated with any sect. Such cultivation wasn’t forbidden- for example, Lan Caolu right now would be classified as a rogue cultivator, as well- but not belonging to a sect meant being deprived of various privileges that membership in such organization entailed. Thus the Wen family lived off trade and scholarship, two pursuits normally reserved for the mundane and yaren.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Through such ventures, they eventually acquired substitutional wealth and influence in certain circles. For example, they had shares in almost all northern trading guilds, and also actively sponsored scholarships and excavations all over the land.
In particular, they were looking for ancient artifacts- which after discovery, would be given to sectarian assembly to assess whether their nature was demonic or not, and in the case it wasn’t, it would be given back to the founder. That way, Wen clan gathered quite a collection of curious, ancient, and occasionally magical devices. They eventually planned to open a so-called “museum” in Yafan, where these trinkets would be up for display…for a fee, of course.
This reminded Lan Caolu of how the old relics would be paraded and shown on display in the monasteries of his youth during major holidays and celebrations. Although back then, such events had strong religious connotations, and they were only for monks to behold….
Speaking of which, he never saw the practitioners of today referred to as “monks”. It was always cultivator this or cultivator that. Looks like a monastic lifestyle really fell out of fashion…
They reached Wen mansion early in the afternoon.
It was September already, and the flowery summer was slowly giving way to autumn, yet it was still possible to see how splendid the gardens surrounding the estate are. The owners clearly spared no expense in obtaining the seeds of all kinds of exotic trees, flowers, and bushes, most of which were clearly not native to Yafan. As they were making their way over a wooden bridge build over a small canal connecting the surrounding ponds, he made a mental note to visit this place sometime in spring or early summer.
Their host was waiting for them in one of the nearby pavilions. She was absent-mindedly staring into the water, observing the goldfish swimming under the lotus flowers protruding above the shallow surface of the pond, and didn’t at all notice their approach until they were right next to her. Bai Caoren gently tapped on her shoulder, which first invited a look of surprise, and then a wide, sincere smile followed by an invitation to sit around the nearby table.
On its surface were sprawled multiple scrolls, alongside several tiny ink brushes and inkstones already mixed with water and filled with characteristic, black liquid.
Wen Feili looked just as he imagined a sheltered, scholarly girl to look. She was rather frail and somewhat malnourished, her skin was pale(but for whatever reason not as pale as Bai Caoren’s) and a pair of large reading glasses were seemingly glued to her nose. In fact, considering their sickly disposition, one could mistake the two young women as sisters, if not for Wen Feili’s chestnut-colored hair, characteristic of people with northern heritage, so contrasting with Bai Caoren’s deep black.
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She took a brushpen and, with unparalleled speed and precision, wrote the following greeting.
[Welcome, master Lan Caolu! Hello, Cao-er!]
Ah…so they knew who he was. So much for “old man Lan”. He could feel color come to his aged cheeks, and to hide his embarrassment, pretended to look the other way when writing his reply. However, neither girl seemed to have noticed, or cared, as they continued exchanging pleasantries on paper.
A human servant soon appeared and brought them green tea and snacks to go along with the conversation. Wen Feili silently nodded in gratitude, and the servant equally silently bowed and left them to their own devices. Lan Caolu found this exchange very heartwarming, and even suffered a few sips of abhorrent green liquid, before being presented with a lengthy scroll full of questions phrased as bullet points.
Wen Feili smiled and nodded, as she bit on a bit of a sweet pastry, and patiently waited for him to finish writing down his answers. Bai Caoren also smiled, but….he’d swear he saw a hint of sadism within that smile of hers! Ah, she totally knew what she was setting him up for, and she was clearly enjoying it!
Feeling utterly defeated by a couple of teenage girls many times younger than himself, Lan Caolu begrudgingly got to writing down his answers. The questionnaire inquired about…a lot of things he didn’t expect to be questioned about. He assumed that, just like “Cao-er”, their host would be primarily interested in learning about old-world politics or cultivation practices. But no, what she actually asked about was….
[….the utilization of black powder for military purposes such as mines, firebombs, and hand cannons.]
He grimaced. These devices were well known to him and brought severe losses to his soldiers. If there is something to be grateful for in the new age brought upon by his rival, it’s the outlawing of such horrific weapons of war, and the accursed incendiary medicine that powered them.
Nonetheless, a question is a question. He described all the weapons of old to the best of his ability, including their mechanism of action, and the effect they had on his soldiers and morale during the battle.
Next question….
[…the contact with foreign countries, and exchange of goods..]
He shook his head. There was pretty much none. If anything, the modern era is more cosmopolitan than any other that preceded it. Trade with foreign countries beyond the western mountains, and even expeditions meant to find new lands to settle beyond the eastern oceans…were unheard of during his youth.
[…..demonic artifacts..]
Redundant classification. While it was known that all unorthodox cultivation methods and magical devices carried a risk of qi deviation, ever threatening to destroy one’s mind and body, the level of persecution present in this day and age was unheard of.
Except for necromancy. The art that broke the greatest taboo and tampered with the soul itself was always forbidden, and for a good reason.
[….clockwork technology…]
That was something he never heard of in all of his 100-year long life. Clock..work?
He looked up at Wen Feili, who until now was happily chatting with Bai Caoren over the content of the answers he provided so far. He cleared his throat in order to attract attention, then realized how dumb and insensitive this action was considering the condition of his host.
Unsurprisingly, Wen Feili didn’t react in any way. However, Bai Caoren did, and she immediately turned her attention to him, a questioning look in her eyes.
Not wanting to exclude the deaf girl, he quickly brushed the question on whatever space was available on the sheet of paper provided for him, clumsily spilling ink all over it.
[I’ve never seen this term before. What is clockwork, what is technology?]
Wen Feili giggled silently. Then, looking at Bai Caoren for a few seconds, as if asking for confirmation or permission, she took out a small, square box.
Inside, there were two oblong, metallic devices. She took them out and put each of them on their ear. Some kind of clip-on earrings?
[Do I look presentable?]
A simple question. Presentable…ah, she was just asking if she looks pretty? He scribbled an answer.
[Very fine, indeed!]
She giggled again and took them off. At times like that, he was painfully aware that he’s just an old man out of his times talking to a teenage girl over tea and cookies.
He never felt this when talking to Bai Caoren, the silent, the stoic young woman gave him a feeling of comfort and familiarity that he most certainly wasn’t experiencing when interacting with her friend.
However, just as he was about to start brooding, Wen Feili did something unexpected. She took apart one of the objects, revealing countless gears and strings inside. He had never seen anything like that. He gave her a questioning look, and she sighed, then proceeded to write the reply.
[Beyond the mountains, far to the west, there are occasionally discovered ruins of ancient buildings. Inside them, my family recovered several such objects, which purpose was at first unknown to us. That is, until we tried tinkering with them, and building our own replicas….]
She leaned back and meticulously put the device back together, allowing Lan Caolu to ponder the meaning of the words presented to him so far, before continuing the explanation.
[To our surprise, the replicas worked on their own. They are neither powered by qi, nor by water, nor by physical outside labor, yet they can produce effects such as spinning or turning or…measuring time. Hence the name we assigned them, clockwork technology.]
Measuring time was usually done with candles, hourglasses, or sundials. The contraptions that measure time were called “clocks”. However, no method known to man so far was able to accurately do so for a prolonged period of time. A candle burned out, an hourglass had to be manually turned, and the sundial was dependent on the moves of celestial bodies.
A device that never runs out…that’s almost like…immortality itself. The ultimate goal of cultivation…
And this girl claims it’s possible to achieve it without a trace of qi?
He couldn’t help but ask…..
[Are you…also mundane?]
She shook her head, and projected a tiny flame above her hand, wordlessly answering his question. Then she wrote another lengthy reply.
[Although these devices don’t need qi to function, the one I built is actually additionally powered by life’s energy, and automatically synchronizes with the meridians of whoever it’s put on.]
Wait, isn’t this…a so-called demonic artifact?
He blinked several times. Wen Feili admitted she created an artifact capable of tampering with a person’s qi…just like that? Isn't it...heavily dangerous in this day and age?
Lan Caolu nervously looked left and right, trying to see if anyone’s spying on them. Alas, all that surrounded them was the rustling of bushes and chirping of whatever birds still haven’t departed these lands before the incoming winter.
[Don’t worry, master Lan. Only the three of us, and my parents, know about it. The secret is safe.]
He immediately scribbled the answer, the erratic movements of his wrist spilling even more ink around.
[Of course! I do not condone the spirit of innovation! You can count on me!]
The spirit of innovation…yes, this is the most straightforward way to describe this young woman and her ideas. Perhaps she is on the edge…of discovering something amazing, something revolutionary! If it’s possible to achieve the same results as cultivators do even without the use of qi, then…the unequal social order that has been choking this world for almost a century will be threatened…but then that means, a terrible danger, after all…
As he was nervously ruminating over all the what ifs, he stopped paying attention to his companions, and drifted into his own world. Wen Feili gave him a questioning look, but Bai Caoren just shook her head with a gentle smile and knocked her temples. Having realized what her friend is trying to say, Wen Feili just giggled silently, and patiently sipped on her favorite green tea, waiting for the old man to return to the mortal realm.
Finally, he came back, and asked one final question- one he was perhaps expected to ask in very beginning, but forgot, overwhelmed by the political implications of this situation.
[But what is the intended function of these two devices you are constructing?]
The deaf girl smiled, and slowly, meticulously wrote her answer, seemingly putting an uncharacteristic level of effort into conjuring every individual character.
[It’s a sound amplificator. With its help, I’ll be able to hear again!]