Thick snow in Baijia Village was slowly melting under the persistent pressure of the sun.
Yet, just as in previous years, melting was a stubborn business. The deep ice and snow on the muddy ground remained fiercely resilient.
The sun was a rare guest and an honored one, bringing bursts of laughter that echoed across the village.
After lunch, the area right in front of Fourth Master Liang’s house became the liveliest spot. A long, neat row of thatched-roof eaves sat bathed in the warm, rich scent of sunlight. A large group of men and women gathered there to bask in the warmth, chat, and share daily gossip. Mischievous children pulled half-meter-long, crystal-clear icicles from the eaves to use as "ice swords," chasing one another in noisy excitement.
Fourth Master Liang and Uncle Fang sat at the edge of the crowd, gazing out at the snow-covered fields in the distance, each lost in their own thoughts and keeping silence.
Fourth Master Liang was sixty-four years old, while Uncle Fang was thirty-seven. Despite the significant gap in their ages, they often found common ground on certain topics that could easily get them all heated up.
Fourth Master Liang sat in a bamboo chair, a sudden craving for tobacco quietly creeping over him. He took out his long pipe, narrowed his eyes, and used the yellowish thumb and index finger of his right hand to pinch a tuft of tobacco from his pouch and pack it into the bowl.
"Fourth Master, would you like to try this?" Seeing this, Uncle Fang quickly pulled a pack of cigarettes from his tunic and smiled as he offered it to Fourth Master Liang.
The performance Uncle Fang had given on the stage that day had deeply moved a member of the audience, who had rewarded him with a pack of cigarettes. Uncle Fang had a pipe of his own, much smaller than Fourth Master Liang's, but ever since he took to the stage to perform local opera, he had smoked it very rarely.
Fourth Master Liang suddenly stopped his hands, opened his eyes slightly, cast a sideways glance at the pack of cigarettes, but shook his head and went on gently pressing the small pinch of yellow tobacco into his pipe. "I'm still used to this. That stuff of yours... I don't care for it." He gave Uncle Fang a slight smile, his hand reaching into his pocket and fumbling around.
Uncle Fang hurriedly stood up and said, "Let me!" He drew a box of matches from the pocket of his Zhongshan suit, pulled one out, struck it, and lit the pipe for Fourth Master Liang. Then, he shook a cigarette out of the pack for himself, lit it, and began puffing away.
The two of them sat blowing clouds of smoke, each smoking his own, and fell into another long silence. Wisps of pungent smoke slowly rose before them, teasing an aged yet spirited face and a young yet weathered one.
At that moment, a sudden, deafening roar shattered the quiet! A massive chunk of heavy snow collapsed from the top of a straw stack near the bamboo grove a short distance to the east, instantly kicking up a ring of snowy waves like flying flower petals and shattered jade several meters high, sparkling with brilliant prismatic colors in the sunlight.
The noisy crowd was startled at first and turned their heads toward the sound, but seeing it was nothing serious, they went right back to chatting.
The children, who had been laughing and playing, cheered at the sight and rushed over, brandishing their long "ice swords" and starting a snowball fight around the straw stack. Uncle Fang's third, fourth, and fifth children, in particular, looked as though they were ready to tear the entire straw stack down.
Fourth Master Liang and Uncle Fang silently puffed on their smoke, continuing to drift downward through the hazy fumes...
Soon, Fourth Master Liang reached his thumb and index finger back into his tobacco pouch. Uncle Fang once again leaned over to light the pipe for Fourth Master Liang, then shook out a second cigarette for himself and lit it.
"That matter—are you still planning to pursue it?" Fourth Master Liang tapped his pipe against the leg of his chair and asked Uncle Fang with a frown. "You've been searching all these years, and to this day there hasn't been a single word. I'm afraid... she's probably long gone from this world. Besides, Jiangnan is a huge place. Trying to find someone there is no different from searching for a needle in the ocean!"
Uncle Fang had a mouthful of smoke paused in his breath and froze. He didn't release the smoke until Fourth Master Liang finished speaking. On his sallow, lean face, his small eyes suddenly widened a fraction, and a heavy fog of sorrow settled between his brows. The short remnant of his cigarette burned down against the flesh of his fingers.
Uncle Fang had once belonged to a large family of six siblings, and he was the youngest. During the chaotic years of war, his eldest, second, third, and fourth elder brothers were seized one after another as forced laborers. Unable to bear the inhuman torture of the hard labor, his eldest brother rebelled fiercely and was beheaded on the spot. His second brother managed to escape at first, but was later recaptured and executed in public. His third and fourth elder brothers had the good fortune of escaping as well, but somehow were later discovered on a mountain path and shot dead on the spot.
Because he was so young back then, Uncle Fang had miraculously escaped the disaster. The sudden ruin of his family made him taste all the bitterness and sorrow of the human world. And through all these years, the person who weighed most heavily on his mind was his only older sister. She had been taken away to Jiangnan by a fellow villager back then, and from that day on, there had been no news of her whatsoever—he had no idea whether she was dead or alive now.
In secret, Uncle Fang had never stopped searching for his sister. Taking advantage of every opportunity to travel and perform opera, he tried every possible means to inquire about her whereabouts, swearing that he would find her—he wanted to see her alive, or her body if she were dead. This matter hung like a heavy weight, pressing deep and firm upon his heart, impossible to shake off.
"That's not necessarily true..." Uncle Fang tossed away his cigarette butt and stood up.
"Oh? Could it be that you've already found some sort of clue?" Seeing that Uncle Fang seemed to be hinting at something, Fourth Master Liang instantly perked up and took a few deep puffs of his smoke.
Uncle Fang turned around, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth, and said to Fourth Master Liang, "Last month when I was performing opera in Zhangjiazhuang in the mountains, I heard someone speaking with an accent from Jiangnan, so I asked him about the situation. He told me that someone in his village who went to Jiangnan years ago is coming back to visit relatives."
"Is this news reliable?" Fourth Master Liang stood up, hurriedly finished his last puff, extinguished his pipe, and gently placed it on the bamboo chair.
"Reliable! That man has already written several letters home. I've even been to his house. There's no mistake!" Uncle Fang relaxed his furrowed brow.
Fourth Master Liang paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. After a moment, he muttered to himself, "If we really can find Huizi, that would be wonderful! In the blink of an eye, it's been more than thirty years. The year she left home, she was only sixteen, just like the China roses in the courtyard..."
Just then, Fang Yi hurried through the crowd straight toward Uncle Fang. "The pigsty collapsed from the snow, and the wild boar is going wild again."
Hearing this, Uncle Fang immediately cursed, "That damned wild boar! Sooner or later, I'll pull out those two tusks!" With that, he rushed back home in a flurry.
Fang Yi was about to leave when Fourth Master Liang grabbed him by the scruff. "Young Master Fang, I haven't seen you come out these past few days of snow. School has been out for ages—are you still reading some kind of book?"
"The snow is too deep, so it's not convenient to go out. At home, I made a wooden clothes-hanging rack for my eldest sister, second sister, third sister, and fourth sister." Fang Yi batted his clever eyes and beamed at Fourth Master Liang.
Fourth Master Liang said nothing. Taking Fang Yi by surprise, he hooked his foot behind the boy and tripped him to the ground. Taken aback, Fang Yi executed a flawless carp kipping maneuver and sprang back to his feet. "Fourth Master, you launched a sneak attack! That's cheating!"
Fourth Master Liang roared with laughter. "Cheating? If this were a battlefield, which enemy wouldn't cheat? Can you win a war just by being honest and naive?"
Fang Yi rubbed his head and smiled. Catching sight of Fourth Master Liang's pipe resting on the bamboo chair, he asked, "Fourth Master, should I light it for you?"
Fourth Master Liang squinted his eyes and nodded. Of all the children in the village, Fang Yi was the one he cherished the most.
Crossing his legs, Fourth Master Liang hummed a tune as he settled back into his chair, watching Fang Yi light his pipe. Fang Yi's pipe-lighting technique was far superior to his father's—fast as lightning and steady as threading a needle.
"Fang Yi, you don't need to hide things from me anymore. I know you've been secretly learning Shaolin Kung Fu, though there's nothing wrong with that in itself. But you must keep a steady head! We must never use our fists against good people. But when it comes to bad people, we must rely on our fists to settle matters when necessary." In an instant, Fourth Master Liang transformed into a venerable master of the martial arts world and began lecturing Fang Yi on "the philosophy of the fist."
Ever since he was a child, Fang Yi had loved brandishing spears and staffs. One day, he found a copy of the Shaolin Secret Manual in a corner at school and became completely obsessed with martial arts, unable to stop himself.
He taught himself directly from the book, executing every stance and posture with impressive form, and even invented many new moves of his own. But he had kept his martial arts practice hidden from his parents all along, fearing they would worry about him stirring up trouble.
The reason Fourth Master Liang knew Fang Yi was secretly practicing martial arts was that one summer, Fang Yi had fallen asleep while reading the Shaolin Secret Manual beneath a large tree, and a strong wind had blown the book away into a nearby ditch—right where Fourth Master Liang happened to be passing by.