White Horse Neighing in the West Wind – Chapter 18

Li Wenxiu also wanted to join the advance party, and Supu welcomed her first. After the events of last night, Li Wenxiu had become a hero everyone respected. Che’erku enthusiastically supported her joining. Su Luke was somewhat unwilling, but the words of objection would not come out of his mouth.

Old Man Ji seemed to have been frightened by last night’s events. While drinking his morning bowl of sheep’s milk, his hands fumbled and he smashed the bowl. When Li Wenxiu poured tea for him, his hands trembled so badly that he splashed the tea across the front of his robe. She asked him what was wrong. His eyes held a look of both fear and irritation, and he suddenly turned, went back into his room, and shut the door hard behind him.

Snow lay thick everywhere, too deep for riding. The seven members of the advance party all went on foot, following the trail of footprints through the snow. Chen Dahai’s tracks led straight west, as if heading directly into the Gobi Desert. It seemed that although his arms were wounded, his footwork was still formidable. The six Kazakhs, remembering the old tales of evil ghosts haunting the great desert, could not help feeling uneasy.

Su Luke shouted, “Even if we meet evil ghosts today, we must go and catch that bandit. Supu, don’t you want to avenge your mother and brother?”

Supu said, “Of course I’ll go with Father. Aman, you had better go back!”

Aman said, “If you can go, so can I.” But in her heart she was thinking: If you die, how could I go on living alone?

Su Luke said, “Aman, you’d better go home with your father. Che’erku is a coward, and he’s terrified of ghosts!”

Che’erku glared at him fiercely and strode ahead.

The most feared thing in the great desert is a thousand li without water: once your carried supply runs out, you can only die of thirst. But after this heavy snowfall, ice and snow were everywhere you bent down, and that chief worry was gone. They could not ride, but they were spared the sting of sand driving into their faces. The further west they went, the clearer Chen Dahai’s trail became. Before long, his footprints were no longer covered by fresh snow, so they had been left after the wind and snow stopped.

Che’erku muttered, “That wretch is tough. This storm couldn’t finish him off.”

Su Luke suddenly cried, “Eh, there’s another person’s footprints!” He pointed at the tracks and said, “This person steps exactly into the bandit’s prints with every stride. If you’re not careful, you wouldn’t notice.” The others looked closely and indeed saw that each footprint held two layers, one shallow and one deep.

Everyone speculated about the reason. Sangser suddenly said, “Could it be a ghost?”

This was what everyone had already been thinking. His blurting it out sent a shiver through them all.

The group steeled their courage and continued west. The snow was deep enough to reach their shins, and progress was slow. That night they camped out in the open on the snow. They swept away the snow, dug pits in the sand, wrapped themselves in blankets, and lay in the hollows, and were not so very cold.

It was Camel who dug Li Wenxiu’s pit. He was a man of great strength, and he respected this Han hero, so he dug a sand pit for her, between his own and Supu’s. The seven pits formed a circle, with a great fire burning in the middle.

The sky above was very blue, and bright stars blinked their eyes. A gust of wind swept up the snow from the ground and sent it dancing through the air. Li Wenxiu watched two fragments of snow fluttering up and down and said to herself, “Just like a pair of jade butterflies.”

Supu took up the words, “Yes, just like them! A long time ago, a little Han girl told me a story about butterflies. She said there was a Han boy and a Han girl, and they were very fond of each other, but the girl’s father wouldn’t let the boy marry his daughter. The boy was very sad, and he fell ill and died. One day the girl passed by her beloved’s grave, and she lay on it and wept.”

As he spoke, a scene from eight or nine years ago rose up in both Supu’s and Li Wenxiu’s minds: on a small hill, a boy and a girl sat side by side tending their flock of sheep. The girl told a story, and the boy listened, lost in wonder. When she came to the part about the Han girl weeping on her beloved’s grave, the girl’s eyes filled with tears, and the boy felt sadness too.

Only, Li Wenxiu knew the boy was the very Supu sitting before her now, while Supu believed that little girl was dead.

Supu went on, “The girl wept on the grave so bitterly that suddenly the tomb cracked open with a great fissure, and the beautiful girl leapt in. Later the two lovers were transformed into a pair of butterflies, always flying together, never parting again.”

Aman broke in, “That’s a beautiful story. Was it the little girl who gave you the map on the handkerchief? Is she dead?”

Supu said sadly, “Yes, it was her. The old Han man said she was dead.”

Li Wenxiu said, “Do you still remember her?”

Supu said, “Of course I remember her. How could I forget?”

Li Wenxiu said, “Why don’t you go and see her grave?”

Supu said, “Right! After we kill those bandits, I’ll ask the old Han man who sells wine to take me and see it.”

Li Wenxiu said, “If the grave really did crack open with a great fissure, would you jump in?”

She had not meant to ask that question. But she could not hold it back, and she asked.

Supu laughed, “That was only in the story. It wouldn’t really happen like that.”

Li Wenxiu said, “If that little girl missed you very much, and day and night longed for you to come and be with her, so that her grave truly cracked open with a great fissure, would you be willing to jump in and stay with her forever?”

Supu sighed and said, “No. That little girl was just a good friend from when I was small. This whole life, I’m going to stay with Aman.” And he reached out and took Aman’s hands in his.

Li Wenxiu asked no more. She had not wanted to ask those questions in the first place. She had known the answer all along, but she could not stop herself from asking. Now, hearing it, there was nothing but added sorrow.

Suddenly, from far away, a Tianling Bird began to sing softly, singing so sweetly, so plaintively, so full of mournful longing.

Supu said, “I used to catch Tianling Birds all the time and play with them, and when I was done I’d kill them. But that little girl loved Tianling Birds. She gave me a jade bracelet and asked me to let the bird go. From then on I stopped catching them, and I’d only listen to the Tianling Bird singing in the middle of the night. Listen to it. How beautifully it sings!”

Li Wenxiu made a soft sound of assent and asked, “That jade bracelet, do you still have it with you?”

Supu said, “That was such a long, long time ago. It’s broken and lost.”

Li Wenxiu said quietly, “Mm. That was such a long, long time ago. It’s broken and lost.”

The Tianling Bird kept singing. In the cold winter night, the Tianling Bird is not supposed to sing at all. Perhaps it had some sorrow it could not keep bottled up?

The snoring of Su Luke, Che’erku, and Camel was far louder than the Tianling Bird’s song.

***

At first light the next morning, the seven ate their dry rations and followed the tracks onward. The sunlight was pale and gave only a faint warmth. But with the sun out, no one was afraid of evil ghosts anymore.

By afternoon the trail in the desert had split into two sets of footprints. The second person had evidently grown tired of stepping exactly in the first one’s tracks. Su Luke cheered. These were people, not ghosts. But who was the other?

By now the direction they were heading had long since diverged from Li Wenxiu’s usual path to her shifu’s dwelling. She suddenly thought: Perhaps this bandit isn’t going to join his gang at all. Perhaps he’s following the map woven on the handkerchief, searching for the Gaochang Labyrinth on his own.

She spoke her conjecture aloud. Su Luke and the others were stunned for a moment, then agreed all at once. Sangser said, “There’s not a drop of water in this stretch of desert ordinarily. Han bandits wouldn’t come here.”

Su Luke shouted, “If he’s fleeing to the labyrinth, then we’ll follow him to the labyrinth. Even to the edge of the world, we’ll catch that evil bandit.”

For generations the tribe had passed down the legend of a labyrinth in the great desert, filled with countless treasures. But no one knew the path to it, and getting lost in the desert was no game, so no one had ever dared venture out to find it. Now the Han bandit had a map to lead the way, the snow and ice in the desert would not melt for twenty or thirty days, and behind them a great force followed in support. What was there to fear?

Besides, Su Luke had always considered himself the bravest warrior on the great grasslands. He hoped only that Che’erku would show weakness and shrink from the chase. But Che’erku showed not the slightest sign of fear.

Li Wenxiu said, “Yes, let’s all go and see whether there really is a Gaochang Labyrinth in this world.” She thought of her parents, who had lost their lives for this. If she herself could find the labyrinth, she would at least have fulfilled her parents’ dying wish.

Aman said, “The elders of the tribe always say that the treasures in the Gaochang Labyrinth could let the countless thousands upon thousands of people on both sides of the Tianshan live happily forever. That’s been the legend for a thousand years, and yet no one has ever found it.”

Supu said happily, “If we find it, then everyone can live happily! That would be truly wonderful!”

Aman said, “Aren’t we happy enough as it is?”

Supu scratched his head and laughed, “Very happy, very happy.” He truly could not think of anything in this world that could make his life happier than it already was. It would be best if Mother had not died, and his brother were still alive.

Li Wenxiu was thinking: No matter how many rare treasures there were in the Gaochang Labyrinth, even if they were all given to me, they could never make my life truly happy.

On the eighth day, the seven followed the tracks into a range of mountains. The rocks were jagged and sheer, and the going grew harder with every step. Fortunately the tracks in the snow were plain to see, but the terrain was treacherous and the paths rough. There were no proper paths at all, just following the other person’s footprints through mountain slopes and valleys. The road ahead seemed endless, and the two lines of footprints in the snow appeared to lead straight down into hell itself.