It is the end of the year. The weather is bitterly cold and the earth seems to be frozen. The north wind howls, making the sky a murky yellow.
This year is the seventeenth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.
In a remote small village in northern Zhili, the sound of hoofbeats is heard. A dilapidated donkey cart slowly drives out. There are two people sitting in the cart, a man and a woman. The man is in his fifties, with white hair and beard and shabby clothes. The young woman is about twenty-one or twenty-two years old. She has thick eyebrows and big eyes and seems to be the old man's daughter.
The donkey cart is carrying a huge wooden barrel. It is over one person tall. The barrel is bound with iron sheets and is very sturdy. It seems to be used for holding water. Here, the land is barren. Moreover, there is a severe drought. The land yields no harvest at all. Even the daily drinking water for the common people has become a problem. The villagers can only go to the water workshop in the nearby town to buy water.
The old man driving the cart is surnamed Yan. His name is Yi. He is a hunter in the village and is extremely skilled with a gun. Sitting behind is his daughter, Yan Yin. On this day, the father and daughter go to the town to buy water. The small village is only five or six kilometers away from the town. The father and daughter chat and laugh along the way and soon arrive at the water workshop in the town.
After buying water, the old man buys a new pair of shoes for his daughter. Then, not daring to stay any longer, he hurries back. The dog at home, Dabai, is about to give birth in a few days. He has to go back and watch. When the donkey cart is halfway there, in front of a dense forest, suddenly there is a cloud of dust rising in the distance ahead. Old Man Yan quickly stops the cart by the roadside and gets off with his daughter and hides aside. After a moment, more than a dozen horses come galloping like a whirlwind. The people on the horses are all dressed in Taoist robes. Behind them is a strange object that looks like a shovel but isn't. It's hard to tell what kind of weapon it is.
The people on the horses come up close. The leader pulls the reins. The horse neighs loudly and stops. The people behind also stop their horses. The leader is very tall and thin. His face is long and narrow like a horse's face. The man with the horse face rolls his strange eyes and looks up and down. He shouts harshly, "Hey, old man, have you seen an injured young man? That young man has a long scar on his face."
Old Man Yan is displeased in his heart when he sees that these people are impolite in speech. He replies in a muffled voice, "I haven't seen him."
The man with the horse-like face was just about to explode with anger when a burly fellow behind him urged, "Seventh brother, we must focus on our important business. If we waste time and fail to catch the person surnamed Wu, none of us can bear the wrath of the old master."
The man with the long face snorted disdainfully. His eyes flicked from Old Man Yan to Yan Yin. He cursed, "Damn it! This country lass is rather a looker. What a pity for this pretty face. Let's go."
Yan Yin quickly lowered her head, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. Old Man Yan seethed with anger inside. His left hand stealthily reached into his bosom and gripped his self-made flintlock.
The man with the horse face led the others and whistled sharply. Then they galloped away like a gust of wind.
Old Man Yan spat on the ground forcefully. "What a bunch of scoundrels!" He climbed onto the donkey cart and with a loud "cluck," urged the donkey to head home.
In no time at all, they arrived in front of their humble abode. The small village was nestled by the mountains and beside the shimmering water. There were only a few scattered households. The Yan family's home was perched on the hillside next to that ancient locust tree.
Old Man Yan alighted from the cart and was about to go inside to find a ladle to scoop water. Suddenly, a shrill scream pierced the air. It was Yan Yin.
Old Man Yan was jolted out of his thoughts. He spun around quickly and saw Yan Yin's face drained of color, filled with horror. Her fingers trembled like leaves in the wind as she pointed at the large iron bucket on the donkey cart that was usually used for holding water!
At some point, the lid of the bucket had been opened. A blood-soaked arm reached out and rested on the edge of the bucket, as if reaching for help.
Old Man Yan's heart pounded like a drum. As he peered closer, he saw that the bloody arm was motionless, as if frozen in time.
Old Man Yan pulled out his self-made flintlock with a determined look. He took a deep breath to calm himself and then slowly approached. In the bucket, he saw a young man in his twenties or thirties floating on the water. His features were delicate, yet his face was as pale as a sheet. A long, menacing scar on his face was truly terrifying.
Old Man Yan held the gun firmly in one hand and slowly reached out with the other. He gingerly placed his index finger under the man's nose to check for breath. There seemed to be a faint hint of life.
—He's alive! Only then did Old Man Yan let out a sigh of relief. But he was deeply puzzled. He had no idea when this fellow had sneaked into this wooden barrel. It seemed that this person was the one those impolite ruffians were looking for just now. Those guys definitely didn't seem like good people. So, the person they were after should not be a bad person.
Old Man Yan beckoned to his daughter and called her over to pull that person out.
The two of them strained with all their might to pull the man out. The water in the bucket had been dyed a deep red by the blood oozing from the scarred young man. It was no longer fit for drinking. Old Man Yan felt a pang of regret. But saving a life was more important. Old Man Yan and his daughter Yan Yin quickly carried the scarred young man onto the kang in the inner room. Old Man Yan asked Yan Yin to boil a pot of water. Then they carefully took off the scarred young man's clothes. They saw a deep, gaping wound on the young man's left chest. His right arm had also been slashed open. Old Man Yan slowly cleaned the wound with hot water. The scarred young man remained unconscious, as if lost in a deep slumber.
Yan Yin asked with concern, her eyes filled with worry, "Dad, can this person still be saved?"
Old Man Yan sighed deeply, his face etched with worry. He shook his head slowly. "Whether he can be saved depends on his own fate.
The next day, Old Man Yan went to the mountain and picked several kinds of medicinal herbs. He mashed them into a medicinal paste and applied it to the wound of the scarred young man. Perhaps it was not his time to die. Under the meticulous care of Old Man Yan and his daughter, the young man's injury gradually healed.
During the time when the scarred young man was recuperating at Old Man Yan's home, they gradually learned from the young man's mouth that his surname was Tang and his name was Tang Zhen. He was from Changsha, Hunan Province. When he was young, he followed his father in business and came to Beijing. After his father died of illness, due to his youthful carelessness, he offended some friends in the underworld in business. Those who were chasing him were the friends in the underworld who he had offended before. He escaped all the way here but was still caught up by those people. He killed two people and fought his way out desperately. When he saw Old Man Yan's water cart parked by the roadside, he climbed into it when Old Man Yan was not paying attention. Only then did he escape with his life.
After finishing speaking, the scarred young man knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times heavily to Old Man Yan to express his gratitude for saving his life. Old Man Yan hurriedly helped him up.
From then on, Tang Zhen stayed at Old Man Yan's home. After recovering from his injury, Tang Zhen did not say he would leave. Every day, he went hunting in the mountains with Old Man Yan and did some farm work. After a long time, a wisp of affection of Old Man Yan's daughter Yan Yin was gradually tied to this handsome Tang Zhen.
Tang Zhen seemed to like Yan Yin very much too. Old Man Yan saw this and was delighted in his heart. After the Spring Festival, they held a wedding ceremony for the two. In the blink of an eye, it was summer again. Yan Yin's belly grew bigger day by day and it became more and more inconvenient for her to move. Old Man Yan and Tang Zhen discussed and decided to dig a water cellar in the small garden behind their house to store some rainwater for emergencies.
The two immediately started working. Old Man Yan took two large picks for digging and started digging in the small garden.
The two were very agile. In a short while, the water cellar had been dug more than ten feet deep. Old Man Yan's iron pick suddenly hit a hard object. With a clang. Old Man Yan frowned, put down the pick, touched it with his hand. It was round. He pulled it out with all his strength. Old Man Yan was so frightened that he let out a cry and sat down on the ground.
—Held in the palm was actually a human head carved from stone!!