Chapter 37: Ji Dongyun

  Ji Dongyun

  Yao Fansheng heard that the person outside the window was Li Haoniu, and said in surprise: "Why aren't you sleeping yet?" He thought for a moment, feeling that his question was foolish, so he invited him in: "Come on in and talk, I'm not sleeping either."

  Li Haoniu entered Yao Fang's room once again.

  Li Haoniu came in and saw Yao Fan, then hesitated to look at the outer room. Yao Fan knew what he meant, waved his hand and said: "Third sister is like my own sister, it doesn't matter, whatever you have to say, just say it."

  Li Haoniu slightly lowered his head, gritted his teeth, and suddenly knelt down in front of Yao Fang, looking up and asking: "Master! Are you going to rebel?"

  Even if a thunderstorm suddenly broke out on this dry summer night, with flashes of lightning and loud thunder, followed by a heavy downpour, it would not have shocked Yao Feng more than Li Hai's words. Yao Feng's mind and body suddenly tensed up, feeling as if he had stepped into a pit while walking at night, his heart racing with shock.

  Li Haibei knelt there, raised his head and saw Yao Fang's change in an instant. His two eyes suddenly opened wide with excitement: "Master, Li Haibei dares to guess that the story you told tonight has a deeper meaning!"

  Yao Fan's expression instantly returned to calm, and he didn't help Li Haoniu up either. He simply turned back quietly and sat down on the kang, crossing his legs: "Get up and talk, we don't do kneeling here. Tonight I'm just telling a story to relieve everyone's boredom, what deep meaning could you possibly think it has?"

  Li Haoniu stood up, swallowed hard and bowed his head to say to Yao Fan in a low voice: "The master has recruited so many partners for no reason, is it just to build some useless and worthless wooden houses? I heard that the foreign ash is only available in Guangzhou, transported from thousands of miles away in the Western world, and it's extremely expensive. The master bought it, is it just for paving a playground? Do all the shops in the world need such a large playground? What's the point of doing this?

  Nowadays, there are so many beggars waiting to die on the road of Donglai. The East House not only sends people to collect them in large numbers locally but also teaches people to go down to the village and recruit everywhere. Let's just say that I'm a thing with an unknown origin, the East House clearly sees through it, but is willing to cover it up and use me. This shows that there are some things that you, the East House, simply don't care about!

  Yao Fan clasped his hands together in front of his chest, a faint smile on his face: "The world is suffering from a great drought, I've recruited many more helpers, and my hometown in Shandong will have fewer people starving to death. I think you're a capable person, it's just that I was afraid you'd starve to death before recruiting you, what's wrong with that?

  "As for those wooden houses, they are for the future refugees to live in. They can be used for three years without any problem. After three years, when the drought is over, the refugees will return to their homes and resume their work, so there's no need to build them too well. That playground was built for my colleagues to learn how to ride bicycles, we couldn't always borrow the training ground from the garrison, could we?"

  Li Haoniu asked in surprise: "Why does the landlord think that this severe drought will last for three years?"

  "Maybe one year, maybe two years, it's hard to say, I'm just making a rough guess."

  Li Haoniu was like a man who had made up his mind: "I heard the master's story, and I think that if he didn't want to rebel, how could he say that the emperor and the local tyrants were bandits? And how could he tell us about the appearance of a peaceful and prosperous world? If the master didn't want to rebel, and wanted to create a utopian paradise, how could he say such strange words?"

  "We, these brothers, have all received the great kindness of our master in taking us in and giving us life. Yet our master does not allow us to kowtow or kneel, and every evening he treats us with fragrant tea as a favor. Isn't this just a way of winning people's hearts by adding unnecessary details? Our master has established a system of team leaders for each work group, with ten men in each group. Is this not just like training an army? In the future, when we rise up, won't it be just like the Xiang Army, with ten teams making up one battalion and five battalions making up one regiment?"

  Yao Fanshen listened and became more afraid, fearing that if Li Haoniu could see through it, how many others couldn't? He immediately rebuked: "How dare you! Where did you get such absurd ideas? This way of doing things is the Westerner's method, I learned it from the West!"

  Li Haoniu saw Yao Fan's death and did not admit it. He suddenly knelt down again: "Master, I Li Haoniu can see that you have a great ambition! But since you want to do such a big thing, don't you need an old horse who knows the way?"

  "Your eyes are shining brightly: 'You know the way!?' "

  Li Haibei listened to Yao Feng's words without any fear, but instead with a kind of excitement. He immediately knocked his head three times: "Report to the master, Haibei had previously participated in the twist and had also been the vanguard of the cavalry."

  "Damn it! I knew it all along! You're definitely not an ordinary person!"

  Because it was a serious matter, Yao Fan thought for a moment and looked into Li Haoniu's eyes, asking seriously: "Do you know the bandits Zhang Le Xing and Zhang Zong Yu?"

  Li Haoniu looked at Yao Fang with clear eyes: "I only brought a thousand cavalry, not the big head, I have seen Zhang Zongyu several times, all of them listened to his orders, we fought battles and didn't have the opportunity to get to know each other carefully."

  Yao Fandao said: "Since you want me to believe you, then be honest and tell me clearly about your past history. I don't trust someone who is evasive and secretive. Speak up."

  After finishing speaking, Yao Fan slightly raised his voice and said: "Third sister, pour a cup of tea for Li Haoniu."

  Then Li Haoniu got up and sat down on the edge of the kang, recounting his past experiences one by one.

  Li Haoni was originally born into a small landlord family in Jinan Prefecture, but because both his parents were opium addicts, their land and houses were gradually sold off completely. Seeing that his family had gone bankrupt and his two opium-addicted parents were getting more hopeless by the day, Li Haoni took advantage of the Nian Rebellion to steal a villager's horse and join the rebels.

  There's a saying that goes, "The poor read books, the rich practice martial arts." In Shandong Province, folk martial arts were very popular. When Li Haoniu was young, his family was wealthy and had many horses. He had formally apprenticed himself to a master to learn knife fighting on horseback, and could wield a 50-jin (about 25 kg) long sword with ease while riding. This skill made him stand out, and he became a cavalry commander in the Nian Army. As the Nian Army gradually declined, Li Hongzhang annihilated the last remaining Nian troops in Anhui Province. Li Haoniu also changed his name and fled back to Shandong with a group of followers, hiding from those who might recognize his accent, which would have meant certain death.

  Because everyone in his hometown knew he had joined the bandits and was still a wanted man, he couldn't return to Jinan Prefecture. So he relied on his literacy skills and became a cart driver at a carriage shop in Tai'an. Last year, when he took a wealthy merchant to Jinan Prefecture, he was unfortunately recognized by someone, and in his panic, he hastily escaped back to Tai'an, sold off some of his belongings, abandoned his job, and fled eastward, becoming a beggar, drifting to Qingdao Port.

  Yao Feng listened to Li Haoniu's words and asked: "Then what do you plan to do in the future?"

  Li Haoniu sat on the edge of the kang, holding a bowl of boiling water brought by San Jie, and said sincerely to Yao Fang: "Since I met Master Dong, I had planned to hide my name and serve as a partner under Master Dong for the rest of my life. However, after observing Master Dong's actions and listening to his words tonight, I realized that Master Dong is a rare hero in the world, with true knowledge and ambition that encompasses everything. From now on, I am willing to serve as Master Dong's loyal dog, following him wherever he goes!"

  After the third sister sent the water in, she stood by and listened, because Yao Feng didn't let her leave. She heard that Li Haoniu was openly instigating Yao Feng to rebel, and after being shocked, she suddenly asked: "You said you were hiding your surname and name, aren't you called Li Haoniu?"

  "My real name is Jidong Yun, and my mother's maiden name is Li."

  Yao Feng heard this, suddenly stretched out his hand and pressed it on Li Haoniu's shoulder, saying: "You know loyalty, so the start is not bad. What you said tonight, I'll pretend I never heard. Rebellion is just a word, from now on, don't mention it to anyone. In short, from now on, what I say, you do."

  Li Haibei gazed at Yao Fang's eyes, which were full of profound meaning and grand ambition. Suddenly, his heart was struck by a brilliant lightning bolt. He excitedly stood up and made a deep bow: "Please rest assured, Master! I know my place! In the past, more than 80% of the Qing Dynasty's demons who died at my hands. If I fall into the government's hands, it will be a capital offense for sure. So, I definitely won't betray you, Master! Please put your mind at ease!"

  "Get up," said Yao Fang faintly. "From now on, I'll tell some stories every night when the meeting is held. You can read and should listen carefully. If there's anything you don't understand, come ask me."

  After that, Yao Wenyuan added: "The revolution requires theoretical guidance. Without advanced revolutionary theory to arm the mind, it will always be a mob and cannot become a great cause."

  Hai Niu nodded and said: "I'll listen to you, Master Dong!"

  Having said that, he bowed again and respectfully backed out.

  Third sister saw Li Haoniu walk out of the yard from the window slit and turned back to face Yao Fan without saying a word.

  Yao Feng sat still, staring at San Jie, who gazed back at him with wide eyes. After a while, she said, "San Jie only asks one thing of Big Brother: no matter what Big Brother does in the future, he must take San Jie with him."

  Yao Fan nodded.

  Third sister saw that Yao Fang hadn't spoken clearly, and added: "When I was young, my feet were bound, but after being sold, the human trafficker thought that people with bound feet couldn't walk fast, so they removed the cloth from my bound feet. Third sister walked all the way from Gaoyou to Qingdao Port, her legs are very strong, and since arriving here, third sister has never had her feet bound again."

  Yao Feng smiled and said: "That's for the best. Otherwise, you'll follow me traveling all over the world, but no one will carry you."

  ……

  As the day of the Zhou family's ancestral worship ceremony arrived, Yao Feng could no longer avoid it and simply hung his camera around his neck, rode his mountain bike, and led a group of his subordinates riding 28-inch farm bicycles to the Zhou family's village in a grand procession.

  The rural dirt road is rugged and uneven, but because it hasn't rained for a long time, the surface is dry and hard, making it feel refreshing to ride a bicycle on.

  Yao Feng rode in the carriage, leaning back and savoring the pure natural breeze blowing towards him. He had finally relaxed a bit. Ever since he decided to rebel that day, his mind had been tense all along, but now he finally had a chance to unwind.

  Yao Fan's entourage closely followed his cycling team.