Chapter 3: Mirror

"Hey, Brother Xiangping."

Li Xiangping was walking back with a basket on his back when he saw a girl approaching from afar. The girl had a round face and ordinary features, but her beaming smile added considerable charm to her eyes and eyebrows.

"Sister Yun," Li Xiangping smiled at the girl, then turned and handed her the basket of fish. "Look at the good fish your brother caught. Take a few home to try."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly." Tian Yun smiled and lowered her head. The girl had developed early; at eleven years old, she was already taller than thirteen-year-old Li Xiangping.

In Lijing Village, men and women typically married between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. Among their generation, only these two were the most suitable in age, and the girl had long since settled on the boy before her as her future husband.

"No, take them!" Li Xiangping insisted, stuffing two fish into Tian Yun's hands. He didn't think much of it; Uncle Tian was the most honest man in the village, and Li Xiangping liked him best, so naturally, he wanted to take care of his daughter.

After bidding farewell to Tian Yun, Li Xiangping hurried home and placed the basket into a small pond. He thought for a moment, then took out the mirror, wiped it clean, tucked it into his pocket, and picked up the three wooden boxes from the table before heading to the fields.

There, his two older brothers were doing farm work with their father.

The Li family had four brothers: Li Changhu, Li Tongya, Li Xiangping, and Li Chijing. In Lijing Village, everyone who spoke of the Li brothers gave them a thumbs-up. Tian Yun's father would often mention them with envy, saying, "Li Mutian is truly blessed!"

However, the supposedly blessed Li Mutian didn't see it that way. As the only person in Lijing Village who had traveled far, Li Mutian was tormented by the sight of his children toiling in the fields.

"Good men should study and become soldiers; working in the fields is for cowards!" he would scold, pointing at Uncle Tian.

But such was life; those who had seen the light often suffered more. Li Mutian had served in the army, killed men, and returned to Lijing Village in his forties, using his military pay to buy land and become a prominent household. Yet, he was the most discontent.

When Li Xiangping arrived at the field, his eldest brother, Li Changhu, was already waiting in the shade of a tree. Being the eldest, seventeen-year-old Li Changhu already had a mustache.

"Third brother, walk slowly, no rush."

Li Changhu smiled, patted Li Xiangping's head, and looked at him kindly.

"Uncle Tian said you had a big haul today!"

"Too many, brother!" Li Xiangping burst out laughing. "We'll finally have a good meal tonight!"

"You," Li Changhu wiped his sweat, picked up a wooden box, and called out to the fields: "Second brother––"

"Coming!" Second brother Li Tongya quickly walked over with his hoe. He first sat down and greeted Li Changhu as "eldest brother," then smiled at Li Xiangping.

"You two eat, I'm going back." Li Xiangping had been busy all morning and was ravenously hungry, so he quickly headed home.

***

While in Li Xiangping's basket, Lu Jiangxian had felt a faint, inexplicable pull attracting him. As they drew closer to the Li family home, this sensation grew stronger.

Passing the large locust tree at the village entrance and entering the village, the attraction reached its peak. Lu Jiangxian felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. The mirror in the basket trembled slightly, emitting a red glow.

"That is a part of me, or something vitally important to me," Lu Jiangxian realized.

"To the north! In the direction of that big lake!" As Li Xiangping slowly moved away from the village entrance, this attraction gradually faded. Lu Jiangxian secretly noted the direction.

Sticking close to Li Xiangping as he wandered around the village, and combining his own perceived mental activity with observations of people's actions and tones of voice, Lu Jiangxian could largely understand what everyone he encountered was saying.

He discovered that this appeared to be an ordinary small village. There were no martial arts masters scaling walls or cultivators flying around.

People diligently worked from sunrise to sunset, and the tools they used and the size of the fields were unremarkable.

"This place truly seems to be just an ordinary small village. Even the best house is only a two-story earth-and-wood structure..." Lu Jiangxian mused. "If there were cultivators, they surely wouldn't be living in small mud huts?"

"Great power brings great productivity. This small village is too backward," he concluded.

He now had a general understanding, and his future plans slowly began to take shape.

The Li family was unusually busy that night. The mother and two younger brothers were occupied with washing and preparing vegetables.

Li Xiangping had returned with a full load, and his youngest brother, Li Chijing, had even secretly caught a nest of plump field mice while gathering mulberries for silkworms in the back mountain, bringing them back in a grain sack. This delighted their father, Li Mutian, who clapped the two boys heartily on the shoulders, praising them until they were immensely proud.

At fourteen and fifteen, they were at an age of rapid growth, and the few dishes on the table quickly disappeared into their stomachs.

Li Mutian only took a single bite, and their mother, Liu Linyun, smiled as she watched her four sons. Only the large yellow dog under the table scurried anxiously, weaving between the six pairs of legs.

After dinner.

The moon slowly climbed above Da Li Mountain. Li Xiangping leaned against the wall, chewing on a long blade of grass, while his father, Li Mutian, gazed at the sky with a furrowed brow, as if searching for something.

"Oh, by the way, Father," Li Xiangping said, patting his father's pant leg and pulling the mirror from his pocket.

"I found this thing in the river this morning."

"Oh," Li Mutian took the mirror, squinted, and examined it from all sides. "Neither iron nor copper. What good thing is this?"

The crisp moonlight slowly drifted down in front of the house, as if coming alive, gathering little by little above the mirror's surface, forming a faint lunar halo. Li Xiangping couldn't help but rub his eyes; it seemed as though the most beautiful moonlight he had seen in thirteen years was appearing within that halo.

"Father!" Li Xiangping whispered.

"Silence!" Li Mutian exclaimed, his face paling with fright. He forced his eyes away from the lunar halo, his hands trembling uncontrollably. He shoved the mirror into Li Xiangping's arms and whispered low in his ear:

"Get inside, and tell your brothers to grab their swords and come out."

For the first time, Li Xiangping saw such fierce killing intent on his father's face. His eyes narrowed slightly, like a hawk poised to strike.

"Yes..." His voice trembled, his legs felt weak, and he slowly shuffled through the doorway.

The night was still young when Li Xiangping pushed open the bedroom door.

"Brothers... Father said to quickly get your weapons and go to the door." Li Xiangping almost cried out, whispering tremblingly to his two brothers who were leaning against the bed's headboard.

"What?!" Li Changhu stood up in shock, holding Li Xiangping with both hands and looking at him worriedly. "Is Father alright? Did he say what happened?"

Second brother Li Tongya, however, rolled over and retrieved two knives from under the bed. He then took down the rattan armor and long staff hanging on the wall, gazed grimly out the window, and whispered:

"It must be our enemies coming."

He handed the long knife and rattan armor to Li Changhu, held the staff in his hand, and clapped Li Changhu on the shoulder.

"Brother, no need to ask further. Third brother, you take Mother and fourth brother and hide in the backyard."

"Alright." Li Xiangping rushed off to find their mother. Li Changhu also quickly calmed down, put on his rattan armor, and walked towards the door, holding his knife.

Outside.

Li Mutian stood at the doorway, quietly looking at the melon patch in front of the house. Once both youths were standing behind him, he gestured, taking a long knife.

"You two, check around the front and back of the house, left and right, to make sure no one is around." The two immediately agreed and went off to search in opposite directions.

Li Mutian himself boldly walked into the melon patch in front of the house, bent down, and with a pull, astonishingly pulled a person out of the melon patch.