– How can I help, reverend father? – murmured Baby Snake coming at last to the monk (it took him much more time than he had thought at first).
– Go up to the monastery, – heshan smiled with his parched lips. – And send some servants to me. Don't ask the monks – they won't do it. But walk carefully, my boy, for there are several pitfalls with pickets at the bottom around here. I have managed not to fall to one by mere chance, but then I stepped over that bamboo...
Cai the Baby Snake hesitated, not wishing to leave the wounded alone; then he glanced through the foliage to the gate tower of the most famous monastery of the Empire.
A motley hawk was hovering over his head hunting for prey.
– It is... it is mean, – the words rang almost inaudible in the bamboo thicket.
The monk smiled again, and this tormented smile showed how hard it was for him to pronounce any word:
– No... You simply don't understand, boy... If you want the patriarch of Shaolin to admit you as a novice, forget these words.
– Which ones?
– Justice and meanness. Human moral is not valid at the feet of Buddha, and don't try to decide whether it is good or bad. It's simply quite a different thing. Altogether different.
Cai the Baby Snake didn't answer. He was looking at the hieroglyphs adorning the tower, his face hardened, cheekbone line became distinct, thin wrinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes, and now he looked much older. So much older that the wounded heshan doubted whether he was right calling this man a boy.
And whether this man really needed any teaching?
A tiny snake, very like a grass-snake but for the small yellow spots on its neck, its scales glistening, crawled on its business near the bandaged heshan's foot and vanished in the grass.
It was very small; just a baby.
Heshan was fully aware what a bite of such baby snake would lead to.
3
The wounded heshan said the truth: calling the monks wouldn't do any good. For, on leaving the intricate grove, Cai the Baby Snake saw almost at once the three candidates who managed to survive running out of breath to the main entrance of Shaolin. (Baby Snake recognized even from afar the hasty lad whom the gatekeeper ordered to return and whom he had given a half of his flat cake).
This lad was the first to reach the entrance. He announced his achievement by pummeling with his fists on the gate.
– I've come! – he was crying in a shrill voice choking with joy. – I've come! Open me the gate!
The other candidates, Baby Snake included, got tired of his cries very soon and sat down to wait nearby. In about three hours a man dressed as a servant, a yoke on his shoulders, approached to the too-hasty lad. He put his burden to the earth and explained to the insistent competitor who had already become hoarse that the main entrance is usually being opened only for the highly important persons, while he, the noisy hurrying cub, is not important to the least measure; the said doors are also opened for the reverend fathers to come to and fro – namely, for those of them who had succeeded to pass final tests and the Labyrinth of Mannequins; so, if the loud-crying youth pretends to belong to the same rank then he, the servant, would immediately report this to someone of the reverend fathers for them in turn to report to the patriarch himself for him in his turn to...
Hearing about the patriarch and the Labyrinth the unhappy competitor shut up at last and waved his hands begging the servant to stop.
After that he dragged together with the other candidates along the monastery walls to look for some door more suitable for their circumstances.
Baby Snake lingered a little to explain to the servant (who forgot at once all his jokes) where to find the wounded heshan in the grove. He also wanted to ask why there are servants at all in the monastery: wasn’t it said by Baizhang the patriarch in ancient times: "A day without working should be a day without eating"? Some people were sure that the saying ran "Those who don't work shouldn't eat!" but this was less probable for Baizhang meant not the mankind in general but himself only; the old teacher of the Law could not allow himself not to work more than one day... Or hasn't he said anything indeed?
Baby Snake wanted to ask about all this, but he didn't. During the last few days he has learned to hold his tongue; at least this was what he said to his companions after catching them up: it would be wiser not to be curious.
Still Baby Snake managed to get some brief pieces of information from the servant: the latter lived with his family and other hired villagers in a settlement at the lower part of the monastery territory just behind the outer walls surrounding it. There he should come in order to visit the wounded monk.
Then the servant took up his yoke and ran to the grove swinging so deftly that no water was spilled from the two small tubs; and Cai the Baby Snake shuffled after his companions.
By that time those ones have realized to their general disappointment that they could not enter even through the side door they had found: it was intended for those monks who had not yet passed the tests but had to leave the cloister for some time on some mundane business according to the decision of the community and the permission of the patriarch.
Somebody from behind the door asked the candidates in a sarcastic tone whether they had left the monastery in their former lives fulfilling some tasks of the community. If such is the reason of their trying to enter where they were not asked then they are really foolish. So they had to continue their rueful travel around the longed-for monastery.
At last they found the back gate, but nobody paid any attention to them there too. The door did not open (the candidates have already accustomed to the rite). So they had to sit down again and wait till the night came. Nothing happened not counting a pot full of slops splashed out over the wall. This action could not be considered a sign of hospitality, of course. Fortunately, it missed the goal.
When the night came accompanied by a chill wind and all other candidates lay down wrapped in their cloaks and began to snore unanimously, Cai the Baby Snake sat for a while alone near the dying camp fire he had made; then he stood up and trudged down the path shown to him by the yoke-servant. It seemed the lad better to spend the night in the settlement: if even nobody would let him into some house, there certainly were cosy places like barns or haylofts just fit for a lad who hadn't got a cloak to wrap in...
Everybody were sleeping in the settlement: servants and their families. Only a few dogs barked lazily at Baby Snake from behind low fence – there could be no thieves here, consequently, no need in high fences and furious hounds. Although the Shaolin monks treated the hired workers with contempt and forced the servants to demonstrate their deepest respect to the venerable shaven-headed fathers, still the service was too profitable and nobody wanted to loose it because of such silly things as pride. An extra bow wouldn't break your spinal column, would it? On the other hand, the position of a man working for the famous monks promised much benefits: the population of the province eagerly supplied the inhabitants of the settlement with food, fabrics and bundles of copper coins in exchange for the promise to put in a word for them in front of the merciful Buddha, that is in front of the reverend monks clad in yellow cassocks.
Moreover, servants and members of their families were given full right to leave the monastery according their own wish or need and to return, unlike those monks who had not passed their final tests or had not obtained a special permission of the patriarch.
Baby Snake Cai crossed the quiet settlement from one end to another but didn't risk to knock at any of the doors and was already thinking to go away, but at this moment he noticed a candle-lit window in a low lopsided house at the southern end of the settlement. Looking around him and seeing nobody Baby Snake flung himself over the fence and in no time reached the interesting window. Leaning at the wall still warm from the day sun he peeped into the half-opened shutters: he heard long drawn-out moans inside as if a diseased or wounded person was trying in vain to get asleep. But it sufficed the curious Cai to cast a single glance at
the scene to understand everything. He hemmed noiselessly, his lips curved into a wide smile. An extraneous spectator could have thought that such a sly and meaningful smile was more becoming for a grown-up man than for an inexperienced youth; but there were no other spectators nearby besides the Baby Snake himself.
So the first glance was immediately followed by the second one.
Inside the room a naked woman sat on a carpeted stove-bench to the left of the window; Cai the Baby Snake, being invisible, could see her half-turned. She was in her thirties, plump and heavy-breasted, broad-thighed – in other words, just a person to make love with and to give birth to many children. But it seemed to Baby Snake at first that the woman was going to break all natural laws being in the process of laying an egg which would be quite normal for a duck or a hen but not for a human female. The egg was visible between the woman's hips, smooth, bluish and glossy; it was moving a little up and down, and each movement caused the tormented fatty to groan again and to stroke convulsively the shining surface of the egg. In some minutes the egg produced a long smacking sound and rose above her haunch stretched apart, making the woman to bend like a lashed cat. And it appeared that the egg had a face.
Just a usual face, nose, mouth, eyes... it was simply a face, may be somewhat excessively wet with perspiration, belonging to quite a usual monk whom Baby Snake could not have seen before because the woman's thighs and the stove-bench edge hid him.
The man rose to his feet and went wearily to a small table in the far corner of the room. There he took a towel, wiped himself dry and threw the crumpled towel through the window, barely missing Baby Snake who managed to jump aside. Then the reverend libertine touched with his finger a small kettle standing on a portable brazier, found it warm enough and began to pour wine or tea (depending on what the kettle had been initially filled with) to a pair of earthenware cups. The monk was evidently not young but sinewy and skinny; at each movement muscles were finely playing in his lean but not at all emaciated body. The fatty stretched her arms and legs on the stove-bench, completely exhausted. The monk looked at her askance and seemed not to enjoy the view. Chewing his thin lips he took a canvas bag from under the table, put his hand in it and soon took out a small paper packet. Aromatic vapour rose over the cups (so it was exactly tea in them); the monk dropped a small pill out of the packet to his palm, thought a little and dropped another one. A cup in one hand and pills in the other the monk approached his partner.
– Drink it, darling, – sang the monk in a sweet voice giving the pills to the woman. – Do drink it and let us play "cloud and rain" once more! Why are you in so dark a mood?!
– Give me peace, you indefatigable! – the woman tried to wave her hand negatively at the pestering lover but failed. – I'm almost spent!
– Don't you worry my sweet bun! – Baby Snake heard. – You should know better than anybody: we the golden-headed arkhats [15] are resourceful! Swallow but two grains of the Spring pills and you'll become able for the delights of love till sunrise!
The woman answered something but Cai the Baby Snake didn't hear her words: they were drowned in a sudden sound of many feet tramping behind the fence.
In a moment the latch locking the gate was torn off by a strong blow from the other side and the gate itself flung wide open; a dozen of guards rushed into the yard. They were as shaven-headed as the owner of the very efficient "spring pills" but much larger in size – real giants arousing esteem and awe, able to cut a horse into halves with a single thrust of halberds they were armed with. It was the patriarch himself who choose them and whom they obeyed.
In the past the patriarch Meng Zhang, formerly a brigand, replaced with such "iron men" the Emperors' garrison in Shaolin; during the years of his power he succeeded to raise both the glory and the wealth of the cloister significantly. In general, the main task of the heroic guards was to ensure that nobody could leave Shaolin boundaries without permission, but the "iron men" were also used to make round-up in the servants' settlement where some beauties were always ready to open their doors for the reverend fathers.
The monk courting the plump woman seemed to understand perfectly well what did the sudden noise in the yard mean. Being an experienced man indeed, the golden-headed arkhat did not lose any time in vain: naked as he was he jumped out of the window and ran headlong around the house striving to reach the back door. But the guards appeared to be defter, they all stood in his way and one of the moral guardians struck the fornicator across his back with the halberd shaft. But this blow of justice missed its goal for the saint father ducked hastily and when he rose again he had a big basket in his hands – a good basket made of willow twigs, very convenient for carrying fish from the market or linen for washing. However, the basket could be also applied for other, less peaceful, tasks: its bottom hit rather sensitively the face of the nearest guard and in a moment its hard edge struck another "iron man"'s stomach. The latter uttered a guttural sound and stooped demonstrating thus the sheer relativity of his nickname; the monk abandoned him trying to apply his awful basket to all remaining guards in order to reach the salutary back door by any means.
The plump beauty was watching the scene from the window; she almost choked with a pill and a frightened cry when a large blade had nearly cut away some part of her unlucky lover's body – she could not discern in the melee whether it was his hand very important for fighting or some other body member resembling a clenched fist and much more important for the favorite entertainment of the holy father. But the monk strained his body better than his lady had done when playing "cloud and rain", and the halberd fell down missing him. Moreover, two other halberds crisscrossed with a clang just over the shaven monk's head, the basket hit successfully someone's feet, and the guard fell down with a squeak at the same time knocking down one of his companions.
Both of them jumped up immediately pouring forth a flow of curses and were ready to resume fighting; but at that moment some rhythmical tapping at the gate made all combatants stand still better than the thunder and lightnings of the Jasper Lord should do it were it his will to come to the place in his heavenly bronze chariot.
A small demon was standing near the opened gate.
At least, one could think that only a demon should have such a face. His mouth was like a narrow black slot twisted in the most incredible way, his right cheek was composed of interlaced seams and scars, his nose was mutilated by a double fracture and eyes were hardly visible between the heavy eyelids and wide oedemata below. He had a large wooden disk pressed under his elbow.
The small demon went slowly to the guards and the guilty monk who leant at the fence, put his disk down at the latter's feet and stretched his hand commandingly.
The monk gave him his basket without saying a word. The monster rotated it in his fingers, threw it into the air several times and deftly caught it again by the handle, then made some steps along the waiting men, as if deep in thought.
– Old Ghao is looking at the see, – the muffled words went out of the awful mouth.
The basket made an intricate loop over the demon's head.
– Old Ghao wants to catch a wily fish, – the basket rushed up but stopped halfway, flew off the monster's hand, turned upside down, then it was grasped by his foot and finally seized.
The guards picked up their halberds and watched this performance shaking their heads in sheer astonishment.
– Old Ghao plays with the wind, – the demon began to jump adroitly on one foot, from time to time sitting down for a moment and turning the basket around him.
All of a sudden, as unexpectedly as he has begun his play, he stopped, threw the basket to the naked monk and went away to the gate, not forgetting to take up his disk.
– Reverend Feng! – shouted the lascivious monk. – Please, wait a little! I beg you, show me the trick once more! Reverend Feng!..
He ran to the gate after the demon.
The guards didn't even move to stop him.
...When the invaders have fin
ally left the yard, the plump woman shut the window; but in a minute she opened it again and looked out: it seemed to her that some shadow passed by her house. But there was nobody there.
For safety's sake the woman looked up. There was of course some place above the window just up to the eaves but it was not enough for any creature larger than a swallow, and the worthy woman was not afraid of swallows.
If she were told that this swallow was Cai the Baby Snake, she would be very surprised indeed.
4
The great teacher Sunzi was the author of many wise sayings which should be constantly quoted by anybody who wants to deserve the name of a strategist, and one of his sayings was such:
– Subtlety! Subtlety is the thing you need! There are no such affairs in which you would not use scouts.
The honest family that has given birth to our friend Cai the Baby Snake agreed completely with this piece of wisdom quite proved during the long centuries. For the professional scouts of the Cai family participated in almost all famous events giving food for long chatter in marketplaces and taverns. Baby Snake’s great-grandfather had contributed much to the success of Zhu Yunzhang, leader of the rebelled "red kerchiefs", who managed to take Beijing in incredibly short time, – afterwards it was explained by the activity of spirits wishing to help the future monarch and founder of the new dynasty; old Cai used to giggle for all remaining years of his inconspicuous life remembering how he had once spent three days hiding in a cesspool at the outskirts of the future Northern Capital [16] .
Baby Snake's grandmother was so diligently asking for alms in the northern provinces that two of the local governors died suddenly of volvulus and thus had no possibility to discuss in details the plan of their conspiracy. Cai the Baby Snake did not know his father; there were hardly more than three persons in the whole Empire who'd seen the face of Cai the Big Ears, for he covered it with a hood even visiting his wife; Baby Snake himself also happened to do some things of the kind not meant for telling in taverns.
Messiah Clears the Disc Page 4
