Chapter 97 — The Song Beneath the Waters
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The river-bearing beast carried them downriver for seven or eight hundred li before Shen Mu noticed a village built beside a temple on the bank. He started slightly — for there, perched on the worn plaque of the dilapidated temple, sat a little girl with three braids. He promptly had the beast halt along the shore, left the white fox on its back, and went ashore alone.
The villagers, he found, lived in comfort and contentment, each going peacefully about their business; several old women were just then on their way to burn incense at the temple, half a pig in hand as an offering.
When Shen Mu reached the temple gate, the little girl spied him and scrambled down in a fluster to hide inside. "Sang E, I saw you.
Why hide from me?
" Shen Mu said, smiling.
The girl came back out of the temple, grinning. "I wasn't hiding from you at all! I was waiting for you to come in and light incense, going on about how you'd been sickly since childhood with weak kidneys and all that, so then I could have a good laugh at you!
" Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Glancing around, he saw that the temple had been kept spotless, without a speck of dust; only the incense burner in the courtyard still sent up its fragrance. He walked up to the enshrined statue: it was a little girl, her features just like Qi Xia'er, the form Sang E had taken. He circled behind the statue and found no bones, and only then did his heart settle.
Walking out, he asked curiously, "Why do you live here? " Sang E was smug with pride.
"I'm earning merit here! This village is under my protection. The villagers make offerings to me, and I drive off fierce beasts for them. Sometimes I haul up river water to irrigate their fields and bring rain; when the rain is too heavy I scatter the dark clouds for them; when there's no wind I conjure wind; when storms come I drive the wind away. In the old days I ran all over, catching people and beasts to eat, until that old bald thief caught me and suppressed me. Now I've made myself a Buddha and a patriarch right here in this temple — people to feed me offerings, and merit to earn on top of it! " Shen Mu laughed.
"Weren't you heading upstream?
How did you end up here? " "That day we broke the ice dam together, I wandered every which way and ran into monks from the Little Thunderclap Monastery. We fought, and since I couldn't beat them, I fled. I fled all the way here and hid in this temple — and as luck would have it, bandits came raiding, so I ate the bandits. When the villagers saw me, they took me for the temple's god manifesting its spirit, and offered up cattle and sheep and burned incense to me. Having accepted their gifts I felt a little embarrassed, so I began doing things for them. " Sang E hopped back onto the plaque and swung her bare feet.
"So they treated me even better, and I felt even more embarrassed — and that's how I came to settle down here. " Shen Mu laughed heartily.
"Goodness done without intending it is goodness still. You're on your way to Buddhahood.
" With that he turned and left. Sang E watched him go and murmured, "I don't want to become a monk anyway.
What fun is there in eating nothing but vegetables every day. . . " Shen Mu climbed back onto the river-bearing beast, and the great green-backed creature swam slowly out of the shallows, gathered speed, and headed downstream.
He looked back once at the old temple, where the little girl's braids swayed and swung as she received the villagers' incense and offerings.
The Yong River rolled on, its waters surging and foaming.
When they reached the docks of Jianglong City, Shen Mu and Xue Hu'er went ashore and entered the city. The city had already fallen into the hands of the Nether Demon Cult, and though Granny Zhu had not shown herself in the guise of Fu Yundi these past days, nothing untoward had happened here — after all, Fu Yundi often went into seclusion to cultivate. At the inn, Shen Mu summoned the innkeeper.