“What’s going on?”
“All kinds of things, smuggling, drug trafficking, drug trafficking is the most common, arms trafficking. And the most bizarre of all, getting some virus in from outside the country, infecting people, infecting livestock. They come in over the snowy mountains and put their lives on the belt of their trousers just to plague the livestock of our herdsmen. The herders’ livestock are the livelihood of their families, and a small amount of the virus can kill hundreds of cattle. There was a young man from Xinjiang in our team whose family’s sheep were poisoned by this virus that was brought in by criminals from outside the country. His father was waiting for money for an operation, but the sheep died and the money for the operation was lost.
Moon Fullbow was dumbfounded to hear that I was talking to him about a completely different world. He had been in the jianghu since he was born and knew it like the back of his hand, but he knew nothing about what happened outside of it.
“What happened afterwards?”
“Afterwards what afterwards?”
“Did he …… take his revenge?”
“Sort of, he died later, aged 19, in the same year as you. That mission we had to block a group of stowaways posing as lost tourists from a pass in the Kunlun Mountains that were also carrying this virus. We caught a large group of them at the time, but it just so happened that one of them went to get physically exhausted and fell behind, and when he saw our firepower, he took a sneaky shortcut and tried to slip away. People like them must have carried a virus on each one of them, you must ask why right, to ensure that they must have been able to bring the virus to our territory. My comrade braved gunfire to block him, but he was shot by enemy bullets ……”
I rubbed my throat hard, it didn’t matter how many times this happened, I got choked up just mentioning it.
I adjusted my emotions and continued, “Then the gunfire induced an avalanche and everyone was buried. Our squad lost three of our comrades, and it was the heaviest battle I had ever led. I was in a bad mood at the time and was suspended from my character several times by my leader, and then I retired from the army. I never told anyone why I retired. It wasn’t until I kept thinking, did our sacrifice mean anything, protecting the herders? Yes. But these things can never be forbidden, we stopped this group and soon there will be another group, it will never stop. Somewhere in the world there is something like a dark perpetual motion machine, producing enemies for us far and wide, each of which we have to risk our lives to intercept. I can’t figure out what they’re trying to do, going over snowy mountains is not much more comfortable than going through the fires of hell, and it makes no f*cking sense that they’d climb through the fires just to come and plague us.”
The moon full of bows said, “But it will be worse if you don’t do it.”
I nodded and said, “Yes, I’ve just figured it out now. There’s a place for everyone, we can’t maintain peace forever, we can only maintain peace for a time. But enough righteous people can keep evil out of the country forever. It’s the same thing with the jianghu, you expect peace forever, that’s impossible, and you don’t have to wonder why the bad guys are doing evil, maybe there’s something wrong with their brains. My girlfriend, Chu Xiaoxiao you know, she’s a schoolteacher, told me that Americans love to say that it’s God’s business to forgive them, we just have to send them to God. Whoever is behind the stirring up of the jungle, we’ll just send them to God.”
In fact, Moon is just a kid, only better at kung fu, and I can still shyly act as his life coach in this regard.
He is too young and the burden placed on him is too heavy for him to bear at his age.
Moon Full Bow said, “But the situation in the jianghu is still a bit different from what you said. Your enemies are your enemies, but now, my enemies, most likely, are those I have to protect. The people of Jianghu are now becoming less and less compliant with the rules of the government, the government has given us a lot, but they are still not satisfied ……”
“Hey, it’s useless for you to think so much, you can only take one step and see what happens.”
“A temporary peace?”
“Yes, temporary peace.”
He fell into a deep thought, holding the steering wheel without speaking. At this time, another car drove up from the opposite direction, and I recognised it as Cai Xiaobing’s car, which was Chu Xiaoxiao’s return.
I patted Moon Man Bow on the shoulder and then jumped out of the car, leaning on my crutches, as Chu Xiaoxiao pulled up next to us.
“You guys are back? I have some tremendously powerful news to tell you today.” Chu Xiaoxiao said to me as she probed.
I pinched her face and was about to go inside with Chu Xiaoxiao when I heard Moon Full Bow say to me from behind.
“Zhang Chao, you say there is no eternal peace, but Uncle Shifu and your mother are seeking eternal peace.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, this is what Shifu told me yesterday. Shifu told me to bear with it, he said that Shifu founded Junran back then so that the jianghu would never be in trouble again. Shifu said that although Shifu is no longer alive, the idea is still being closely executed by Han Kun, and that after seventeen years, their grand wish will soon come true.”
Yue Man Gong said it with such seriousness that I was embarrassed to utter the phrase they were bragging about.
Perhaps Yue Man-bow had a much deeper respect for my father than I did, and I didn’t dare to call my father a foolish dream to his face.
Yue Man Gong was not stupid, he could see that I didn’t believe him and shook his own head and said, “I believe it, but I don’t know what Master Uncle is planning to do. I’m wondering, now that so much has suddenly happened in the jianghu, is someone in an organised rebellion against Junran?”
Chu Xiaoxiao said, “Rebellion against Junran? Not buying a house from Junran Real Estate? Haha.”
“If Junran is trying to settle the whole Jianghu, then he will definitely eradicate some of the forces in the Jianghu, it could be that these forces are working against Junran, what is happening now is just the opening scene, the good show has not really started yet.” Moon Full Bow said.
That made sense.
I didn’t think the construct my dad and my mum or when they designed it could really keep this restless jianghu honest, but the legend was always there in the jianghu.
The problem is that I don’t even know what the idea is now, let alone know how the enemy should see it.
However, if I don’t know, there are two people who certainly do, one is Li Liang and the other is Han Kun.
It seems that I will have to ask Han Kun again.
