It was only two weeks later that I was able to finally meet Jin shixiong though the reunion was purely by accident. I was at second senior brother's peach blossom yard, in one of the tree branches plucking off ripened peaches (without second senior brother's knowledge or consent) because tenth was willing to pay big money to get them, when I saw a beautiful drunkard staggering his way through the peach blossom maze while taking chugs of wine from their calabash in a daze like fashion.
It was rare for senior brother Jin to get drunk, and I could tell he was drunk by the unfamiliar hazy look in his eyes, strange because he holds his liquor well. I had remembered that there was once where I had accidentally turned fifth's robe pink whilst I was washing it with shizun's red ones and fifth shixiong was so mad that he hanged me upside-down with a spirit infused rope tied to an unsteady branch and left me there for an entire night. When Jin shixiong had found out he dragged fifth out and drank him into a stupor with a record of forty-six cups in a drinking match.
I threw a peach at Jin shixiong to get his attention. I saw shixiong's willowy eyebrows knit as he looked up and there was a hazy look in his phoenix eyes before recognition sets in and he gave me a noncommittal lopsided smile that didn't look quite right.
Shixiong looked drunk and like he's been run over by a vegetable cart, it was the first time I'd seen him so unrefined and unkempt (unkempt by Jin shixiong's standard). The sash on his robe was fastened in a slipshod way and even his outer garment slipped down one of his shoulders which were so unlike the clean-freak shixiong is.
"Come down shidi, keep your shixiong company." To be honest, I don't think I should, a sober shixiong was dangerous enough as he is, I'd really rather not gamble with a drunk one whom I'm not quite sure recognizes which shidi he's talking to.
When Jin shixiong saw how uncooperative I was, he spoke in a louder tone. "Ling Ling." Ling Ling? There's no way in hell I'm going down now. Jin shixiong only calls me that when I'm in deep trouble. He'd always say it with a voice meant to enchant, soft and placating like how a mother calls out to a young son from the fields to come back home, but the next thing you know you're scooping poop from the magic beast den.
But Jin shixiong was tenacious. "Are you coming down, or do you want this shixiong to carry you down?" So down I go, because I know left to Jin's shixiong's devices, I won't just be 'carried' down as he puts it.
"Are you scared of me shidi? Why so cautious at the sight of me?"
"I've doted on you have I not? More so than any of the disciples" He had, but he wasn't always so nice.
He ran his hair through his fine locks, but I know the frustration stems from more than just my lack of reaction. He held his head in his palms for a moment, and I waited until he was ready to tell me what he wanted to say, but I was taken aback just a little when shixiong raised his head because he had looked as if he was about to cry. His eyes were glistening and his face scrunched up so grief-stricken and I realized he was trying his best to hold it in. Shixiong sighed a shaky breath.
I thought he was going to open up, to tell me of his sorrows and difficulties, of how he had the weight of the entire world he was struggling to carry and shizun's expectations to boot which might have been heavier than the weight of the world. But he did not, and he was still drunk. Very drunk.
I sat with my legs folded on the ground as I count the damage points done to second shixiong's peach blossom field. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen... twenty-one. There were twenty-one potatoes planted in the soil so far along the trails which Jin shixiong had graced in his drunk presence. But shixiong was still planting them, with his trusty sword he once fought millions with who dared intrude our sect, but that sword was now reduced to dig the earth to pave way for new potatoes. If shixiong's sword could speak it'll be crying now.
I know when those potatoes sprout, second shixiong will be. His beloved peach blossom field praised by all the romantic poems in books is now giving birth to potatoes.
I thought Jin shixiong had finally had enough but then he sauntered to shizun's prized Golden koi pond and started throwing the leftover potatoes he still had. Don't know if shixiong thought he was skipping rocks or feeding the fishes but by gods, only Jin shixiong would dare be this audacious and besmirched his shizun's koi pond like this. This pond was given the name Golden koi pond because the koi fishes in it were no regular koi, the koi fishes here shed golden scales and therefore was a novelty in all the realms even the disciples won't dare to feed it leftover breadcrumbs and their diets are strictly watched over by fourth shixiong himself. Who'd dare feed it mere commoner's food such as potatoes? Jin shixiong that's who.
Enough was enough, even if I ate the guts of a mountain lion I wouldn't dare be this daring, so I walked to Jin shixiong and wrestled his basket of potatoes away from him. Even under the influence of alcohol Jin shixiong was no weak opponent and I cursed under my breath at his stubbornness. Let it go! I used my entire weight to hold the basket down because shixiong had his tall height as leverage. Why is it still not budging?! I started kicking my feet up this time in a koala hug and thought it finally worked because shixiong's hold loosened.
Shixiong finally let go all the way. "Who's there?" I fell on my butt cheeks and grumbled at the sudden drop. It was fourth shixiong who came calling.
Then I saw fourth shixiong's eyes went wide like peaches, whipping from me to the potatoes in tandems from one second to the next, then to the koi pond in aghast, it finally dawned on me on what this situation looked like. "Yo- yo- you... how brazen!" I was as dumbstruck as fourth was when I pointed my hands to its left, wanting the real perpetrator to take the blame only to find that it was met with falling peach blossoms and no one else.
Jin shixiong this traitor! This rotten potato farmer, fish offender, shidi kidnapper drunkard had bailed on me first.
Left with no other choice I threw the entire basket of whatever potatoes left inside to the koi pond and ran like a prey escaping for his life leaving only dust in my wake. "Nineteenth! You dare run!" Fourth shixiong's yell stretched for miles with the wind. Why wouldn't I dare? Else would I sit here waiting for you to eat me whole?
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The next time I saw Jin shixiong it was a dusk in Ah Bai's cave, he had been more gentle and good-natured. Probably from guilt.
Before whenever he greeted me I would at least make the effort to nod but this time I was still simmering from what happened the last time so I ignored him when he called out "shidi."
He coughed into his fists a few times and I ignored him all those times. "Shidi, this shixiong got you a few candied hawthorns from the street vendors while shixiong was down. Want some?" Did shixiong snack on those candied hawthorns on his way up or what, why was his voice becoming so sickeningly sweet?
I moved three paces away from this traitor of a shixiong and continued brushing Ah Bai's feathers as if I wasn't the one shixiong was talking to. Shixiong slid the parcel and it bumped against my thigh.
"Shixiong heard that you were punished to squat for what happened... the other day." I'd like to correct him that I wasn't squatting, but fourth made me chant scriptures from dawn till the next dawn while holding basins of water, it was so scarring that I can recite the entire sutra backwards now.
"Shidi you're on kitchen duty? Tell shixiong what they made you do, they won't dare to go overboard with shixiong around."
I took a nearby stick and drew for him a potato. I'll be peeling baskets of potatoes every day till the end of time was what fourth shixiong told me. Even if I ascend to immortality, I'll still be peeling potatoes.
I considered it my good fortune that fourth didn't bring the matter to shizun otherwise shizun will be scaling my skin instead of the golden koi's.
"Ah." was all that Jin shixiong said.
I took the candied hawthorns out of its pouch and gave some to Ah Bai before taking some for myself. Shixiong gave me another present, this time it was only a book with blank scraps of papers put together by a thread.
"Shidi, you're a good listener but it's hard to talk to someone who doesn't respond." I thought shixiong liked me because I don't say anything, I wasn't a faithful listener by choice either. "Write what you want to say." I don't really have anything to say though.
"The assembly in two weeks, shidi is coming right?" Usually the assembly of grandmasters only allows two disciples as entourage, and usually shizun would bring eldest and second shixiong but fourth had begged second shixiong to ask shizun to bring me along this time because he thought I needed inspiration from awe-inspiring martial art grandmasters to get my act together. Maybe I wouldn't be so troublesome and more diligent in studying after coming back. Maybe.
After the rest of the disciples knew about it, they had looked at me like I was something special; to be able to stand alongside eldest and second in this big event I must be. I'm not special, but a special case.
I wrote a word on the paper inside, "yes".