Chapter 204 — A Youth's Embarrassing Past

Shen Mu and the lame old man stared at each other, eye to eye. Old Huo's face was still cold, though his heart was warm. "We're grown men now. None of that sulking. We came to see how you've been getting on these days — and along the way, to let you have a look at whether our hands and legs are still of any use."

The lame old man laughed. "Old Huo ran here all the way from the Great Thunderclap Monastery, so you ought to know he came expressly to see you. The Great Thunderclap Monastery is tens of thousands of li from here; it's only two or three thousand li from Hidden Cripple Village. As for me, I did not come to see you at all — my leg sits in the Imperial Preceptor Jingping's mansion, the nearest thing to you there is."

Warmth stirred in Shen Mu's heart. Old Huo said, "Never mind the lame old man's mockery. Underneath, he's a good sort. When you were small you wet the bed all the time. Granny had never raised a child, and you wore her patience through with it, so she took it into her head to give you to the next village to raise. She carried you over the first day, and the second day there you were, lying in Granny's bed again. However many times she sent you off, back you came, just as mysteriously — and of course it was the lame old man who stole you back."

The lame old man shook his head. "Not a bit of it. What I hate most in this world is children. If I had two legs, I'd be behind him every day of my life, kicking the cheeks of his backside."

A faint ache settled in the pit of Shen Mu's heart. He could scarcely believe it. "When I was little and wet the bed, Granny wanted to give me away? Granny doted on me so..."

"Several times over."

Old Huo said, "Granny had never borne a child or raised one, and you peed like a waterfall. You cried at night, cried when you were hungry, cried when you'd eaten too much, cried when you couldn't sleep. The cow in the pen nearly went mad from your noise at midnight. Small wonder Granny had enough of it. We old things had enough of it too. Even the village head and the pill master said then that giving you away would be all for the best — then there'd be peace."

The ache in Shen Mu's heart deepened. His face darkening, he said, "Grandpa Village Head and Grandpa Pill Master said to give me away as well? How is it I never knew of such a thing?"

The lame old man laughed. "You weren't even a year old. How could you remember? Wetting the bed every day was one thing — the real trouble was that you did your business in it too. The Mute Artisan said at first he'd give you to someone else to raise and throw in a milk cow for good measure. Then you stopped wetting the bed, and so you weren't given away..."

"Grandpa Mute Artisan wanted to give me away too?"

Shen Mu fell silent a moment. "At least I still had Grandpa Blind and Grandpa Deaf to dote on me."

Old Huo said, "The blind old man did dote on you. But after he picked you up and lifted you high, and you peed in his face, and Granny tried to give you away, he said no more."

The lame old man said, "When you were little, the one the deaf old man could least abide was you. You were forever crawling up onto his writing desk, tracking ink everywhere, and you peed in his inkstone..."

He sighed. "You were cuter when you still wet the bed. Once you grew a little you stopped being cute — you'd climb up on the village stone idol and pee on it."

Shen Mu was utterly crushed. Bitterly he said, "Grandpa Huo, Grandpa Lame, I am the cult leader of the Dark Demon Cult now. Can we please leave off the bed-wetting? Let me look at your legs and arms."

The lame old man said to Old Huo, laughing, "This business of being given away by Granny for wetting the bed — when I'm dead and shut up in my coffin, I'll think of it and laugh hard enough to jump right out of it."

A hint of a smile surfaced on Old Huo's face. "So will I."

His face black as a pot, Shen Mu walked out into the courtyard, carried the pill furnace and the medicine cauldron indoors, and examined the two men's arms and legs. He drew out the Preserved Vigor Sword, opened a small gash in the lame old man's leg, and took a few drops of blood to study closely.

After a while he cut Old Huo's arm as well, drew a few drops of blood, and pondered them a moment. "Old Huo's arm has lost nearly half its vitality, but it has been well kept — as though someone used Buddhist true words to shake the blood-nature in the arm and keep the blood fresh. Nourish it with efficacious pills and medicines, restore its vitality, and it can be reattached. Refine it a few more years, and it will be as good as new."

Old Huo said, "My arm was placed in the Pagoda of Myriad Aspects. That pagoda holds the flesh bodies of the Tathagatas of every age, and the monks chant true words day and night to keep the flesh bodies alive."

Shen Mu started in fright, and the words burst out of him: "Are there truly a thousand Buddhas in the Great Thunderclap Monastery?"

Old Huo shook his head. "I never counted them. There should be."

Shen Mu steadied himself and examined the lame old man's leg. "Grandpa Lame's leg... the blood has gone bad. The leg is dead. It cannot be reattached."

The lame old man's face went pale, and the smile vanished from it. He cried out, "How can that be? The world calls me the Divine Legs. These two legs were refined to the divine realm. How could they die? And this leg was cut off only recently — a mere twenty or thirty years ago. I refuse to believe my leg is inferior to Old Huo's Divine Fist. It must still be alive!"

Shen Mu showed a plain, artless smile. "Grandpa Lame, bear your loss with equanimity. It is dead. It cannot be reattached. And just now I tasted your blood — there was five-spice powder in it, and a smoked savor. I'd guess the Imperial Preceptor Jingping made that leg into a cured ham."

The lame old man laughed in fury. "You little wretch, coming to hoodwink me again. Could the Imperial Preceptor Jingping be so poor he'd pickle my leg and eat it as cured meat?"

Then panic seized him again. "That fellow Jingping truly is poor. He wouldn't actually have made it into cured meat, would he?"

Shen Mu looked insufferably pleased with himself.

Old Huo said, "Don't frighten him. Thieves have little courage."

Shen Mu laughed. "Old Huo's arm and Grandpa Lame's leg have a little less vitality than Grandpa Tu's lower half, but the good fortune is that their vital force remains. I'll first nourish the vitality of your severed limbs with medicine. In ten days or half a month it should be raised to the point where it can revive. Then reattaching them will be no trouble. Grandpa Tu's lower half was grown onto the Wizard Venerable's body, so it left no hidden peril behind. Yours are somewhat worse off — they had no living flesh to nourish them."

Old Huo and the lame old man each breathed out in relief. Old Huo said, "So long as they can be reattached, that is all that matters."

The lame old man laughed. "I took one portion of every efficacious medicine in the imperial palace treasury. Have a look at which ones can be put to use. If any are still wanting, I'll go and... borrow some more."

"No need. The Taixue Academy's storehouse should hold these ingredients."

Shen Mu went out into the courtyard and was about to examine the varieties of efficacious medicine when suddenly Snow Fox's voice came from beyond the gate. "Young Master, the Imperial Preceptor Jingping has come to call."

"The Imperial Preceptor Jingping again? Could Grandpa Lame's affair have come to light, and he has tracked me here?"

Shen Mu went taut with alertness. He turned, shut the door of the main hall, straightened his clothes, and opened the door to look. The Imperial Preceptor Jingping stood outside. This middle-aged man who overawed every quarter of the realm looked faintly ill at ease; he stood there a long while before saying slowly, "The Taixue Doctor is a man of vast wealth. Might I borrow a little money?"