Chapter 6: Jade

Li Tongya and Li Xiangping entered the reed marsh. Pushing aside the layers of reeds, they peered inside. The green-gray mirror was warm and emitted a white light. Li Xiangping looked at the direction and whispered,

"This is the direction of Moonlight Lake. It's just a half-hour walk along the ancient Li path."

Li Tongya shook his head and said, "We can't take the ancient Li path. We have to go through the reed marsh."

Li Xiangping quietly agreed and started to crawl forward with his brother.

Lu Jiangxian felt the gravitational pull growing stronger. As they entered the reed marsh, the scene before him brightened. A vague landscape appeared, seemingly a clear and refreshing lake, with a dozen or so white egrets standing on one leg, resting on the shore.

As Li Xiangping continued to move forward, the green-gray mirror in his hand grew increasingly hot, making him uneasy. He looked up at his second brother, who had a stern face, his eyes filled with worry.

"Can mortals really meddle with the fate of immortals..." Li Xiangping touched the mirror, seemingly unaware of the heat.

"Good mirror, obedient mirror, we're almost there." He cradled the green-gray mirror and murmured.

Before long, the two emerged from the dense reed marsh. The shimmering Moonlight Lake and a flock of startled egrets came into view.

Lu Jiangxian stared directly at a rocky sandbar in the lake. Among the moss-covered rocks, a piece of white jade was firmly lodged in a crevice, emitting a white light.

The hot green-gray mirror emitted a pale white moonlight, and before Li Tongya and Li Xiangping, the vague image of the sandbar and the white-lit jade in the crevice appeared.

Li Xiangping and Li Tongya exchanged glances, both seeing surprise and joy in each other's eyes. Li Xiangping nodded vigorously, stripped off his clothes, and was about to step into the lake.

"Wait!" Li Tongya held him back and shook his head,

"I'll go get it. You stay on the shore with the mirror. If the moon moves to that position and I haven't returned,"

He pointed to the sky,

"hide the mirror in the reed marsh and run to the ancient Li path. Don't go home. Wait until the sun is high before coming back to check the situation." Li Tongya looked at his younger brother solemnly.

"Yes..." Li Xiangping's voice trembled, wiping away his tears as he looked at his second brother.

Li Tongya laughed and took off his clothes, revealing his strong arms. He turned and swam into the lake, leaving Li Xiangping hiding in the reed marsh, staring at his brother.

He had been to Moonlight Lake with his father and brothers many times before, swimming back and forth countless times. He easily swam to the center of the lake.

He carefully explored the crevices among the rocks. After about fifteen minutes, he had searched the entire sandbar.

"It's not here." Li Tongya frowned and checked again, pulling out five or six small crabs.

Indeed, he felt a cool, smooth object with his fingers. He used his fingers to extract a piece of jade about two inches wide.

The jade was long and rectangular, with some characters carved on its surface. Li Tongya examined it in the moonlight,

"Tai... Yue... Qi... Yang Lun..." He could only recognize a few characters. Li Tongya had learned to read as a child, but the characters on the jade were intricate and ancient, making them hard to identify.

He looked calmly at the shore, clutched the jade in his hand, and swam back to the shore.

"Third brother!"

He called out lowly from the shore, and Li Xiangping emerged from the reed marsh. Just as Li Tongya was about to show the jade, it turned into a white light and shot into the mirror as soon as he opened his hand.

The two were startled by this sudden change, watching the mirror's surface glow with white light, the moonlight forming a halo and entering the mirror.

Lu Jiangxian felt as if he had been struck by lightning. A white light hit him directly, and a vast amount of knowledge rapidly flooded his mind. He cried out in pain and fainted.

Li Tongya and Li Xiangping watched as the mirror, which had swallowed the jade, gradually calmed down, the white light fading.

Golden-red morning light spread across the sky, illuminating Li Tongya's bare upper body, highlighting the golden lines. He looked down at his younger brother and said,

"Let's go home first."

——

Li Mutian sat by the red-lacquered wooden table, listening to his two sons recount the entire story. He nodded and said to Li Tongya,

"Good job."

He and Li Changhu had tossed and turned all night, but now that the two children had returned safely, his heart was finally at ease.

"Our house is not small, with the front door and the back yard. The back yard is close to the mountain. I've been thinking of tearing down the two melon fields in front to build two houses, forming a large courtyard. Once the front door is closed, no one can spy on us."

Li Mutian spoke slowly. He had had this idea for a long time. The children were growing up, and it was time to divide the family.

The Li family, with his savings, could be considered a prominent household in the village. Li Mutian had bought more than ten acres of paddy fields after returning from the army, plus the five acres of good land inherited from his father, totaling nearly twenty acres.

The land in Lijing Village was fertile, and the reed marsh and tidal flats were treasures for survival.

Without the need for labor, twenty acres of land could support more than ten people in a good year. The Li family had already reached the level of a landlord who could close the door and live comfortably.

Because the Li family had land and grain, his four children could read and write. Li Mutian had never liked idle rich households, so he required his children to read and farm every day, ensuring they could live well after the family was divided.

"Now, the family cannot be divided, and the wives must be chosen from close relatives."

Li Mutian thought of the large households he had seen in the city, where the whole family lived in a large courtyard, reading and serving as officials, practicing martial arts and leading soldiers, a very glorious sight! In contrast, poor farming families divided everything cleanly, with no one interfering with each other.

"That's what we'll do!"

Li Mutian's eyes lit up as he called out to the two children.

"Go to the fields and call your older brother back to level the foundation. Leave the fields to the tenants to handle. Your youngest brother doesn't need to pick mulberry leaves this afternoon. From now on, he will study all day with the teacher."

"Alright." Li Xiangping, who had been up all night but was still energetic, darted out the door.

Li Tongya looked at his father, pondered for a moment, and then said,

"Father, are you planning to follow the clan rules in the books, establish a family temple, open a clan hall, read and serve as officials, and practice martial arts and lead soldiers?"

"We have been accumulating for two hundred years; it's time."

Li Mutian smiled and waved his hand.

"As for reading and martial arts, the ancient Li path is extremely dangerous. Entering the Dali Mountains is almost certain death. Reading and martial arts can't be sold to the emperor of Yue. It's merely for the sake of passing down the family legacy and self-preservation..."

Li Tongya nodded and said softly,

"Perhaps there are better things than reading and martial arts."

"Don't talk nonsense here."

Li Mutian laughed heartily, patted Li Tongya's shoulder, and walked out with his hands behind his back.

(End of Chapter)