I instinctively looked toward the Liangshan camp to the west. Xu Delong, of course, understood what I meant and said, "It could not possibly be people from over there. After that scout left, I sent people to stake out the area within several miles. No one has come close since yesterday, while all 54 of their men are still there."
I said, rather bored, "Maybe you're mistaken, or maybe it's just a farmer having an affair. There are still people in our time who can run faster than you, so don't be so self-satisfied. When I was in school, I could run 100 meters in under 14 seconds if there was a dog behind me when I came out of the orchard." I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Now your task is to study hard. I'll ask you a word—how do you spell the 'dog' in 'mad dog'?"
"...GOOD?"
"...How do you spell 'good' in 'very good'?"
"...DOG!"
I patted him on the shoulder again and said, "Very good, you have the potential to be a philosopher."
I took the box containing the bottle and limped over to the Liangshan camp. Discipline here was extremely lax; lazy men were everywhere, swinging their arms and lounging around, most of whom I couldn't even name. I quickly found the jade-arm craftsman Jin Dajian in front of a tent; he was playing chess with another old man. I plopped down on the ground, and Jin Dajian, seeing it was me, asked, "What happened to your leg?"
I opened the box and handed it to him. He glanced at it and said, "What's this?"
I humbly replied, "The Wind Listener..."
"What?"
My heart sank. Could he not have heard of the Listening Wind Bottle? Because Li Shishi had also said that only wealthy people displayed such a thing.
Jin Dajian picked up a small fragment, about the size of a melon seed, and clicked his tongue, saying, "You can only say it used to be a Wind Listening Bottle." I was furious. He was playing the white horse not horse game with me. But I didn't dare say anything. It seems that capable people are often temperamental. Although Jin Dajian was the kind of person who could be ignored among the 108 heroes, at this moment, in my eyes, he was the most lovable person.
Jin Dajian threw the fragment back into the box, picked up the "cannon" and moved it to a different spot, saying, "I won't let you eat it."
The old man opposite him put the "cart" on the table and said, "I'm going to eat you."
Jin Dajian moved the cannon: "I won't let you eat it."
The old man on the high-speed train said, "I'm going to eat you up."
So they're both terrible chess players.
I finally couldn't stand it anymore, so I pointed to the bottom line and said to Jin Dajian, "Put the cannon here and take him down."
Jin Dajian glared at me: "Then wouldn't that just let his car lick it?" I had no choice but to point to one of Jin Dajian's cars and teach him: "He takes our gun, we take his car, it's not a loss."
The two old men gasped in unison, exclaiming, "What a brilliant move!"
I always thought that old men in ancient times were all chess masters. Look at their demeanor, waving a banana leaf fan and drinking Tieguanyin tea, sitting there all day long, apparently just grinding away at the chess pieces.
The old men also felt quite embarrassed and made an excuse to stop playing. While playing chess with Jin Dajian, the old man suddenly grabbed my foot. I was startled and just as I was about to pull away, Jin Dajian said, "It will be good for you to have him take a look at you. He is the miracle doctor An Daoquan."
I quickly took off my shoes and socks and handed my feet to An Daoquan. An Daoquan scratched my ankle a couple of times and said, "It's nothing." I said, "Then could you please check if I have any kidney deficiency or anything? Can't you tell from my feet?"
An Daoquan massaged my feet, and I placed the box in front of Jin Dajian again, saying, "With your skills, can you restore this bottle?"
Jin Dajian fiddled with the crumbs in the box and said without hesitation, "Yes!"
Then he said something that made me completely dizzy:
"As long as you can put it together."
Chapter Fifty-Five: Passing the Spear
It's like someone who's practically dead is told: "If you can get him to take the first step, I can make him run faster than Liu Xiang."
Seeing that Jin Dajian wasn't joking, I calmed down. This wind-listening bottle was quite brittle, so when it shattered, it broke into small pieces, not powder—but close enough. I picked up a shard the size of a pockmarked face, examined it for a long time, and finally couldn't help but ask, "Is this from the bottom or the rim?"
Jin Dajian glanced at it and said, "It's obviously for the mouth."
I picked up another piece that was about the same size and asked, "What about this one?"
"The bottom..."
I picked up another piece...
Jin Dajian threw all the pieces I had picked out back into the box: "I see. If I were to rely on you to put it together, I wouldn't have to do anything all year—do you have any paper?"
I chuckled and pulled out a large roll of toilet paper for him. Jin Dajian said, "Too soft!"
I rummaged through the mess of papers in my pocket. Jin Dajian took a phone bill, fiddled with it in his hand, and called out, "Hey you... go get me an egg."
A young man walking past us asked in surprise, "You called me?"
Jin Dajian said with a grin, "If you agree, I'll call you. Go find me a raw egg."
The young man wasn't annoyed; he just said "oh" and left. I casually asked, "Who was that person?"
"Song Qing, the Iron Fan".
It took me a while to remember that this was Song Jiang's younger brother, the most inexplicable person on Liangshan, who seemed to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. However, the book mentions him quite a bit; Song Jiang would often "order Song Qing to arrange a banquet," and this princeling leader should receive a "Best Harmony" award. He was never seen fighting or arguing with anyone throughout the entire book, suggesting he was the kind of person who was extremely incompetent.
I couldn't help but feel a sense of longing: it seems there are people on Liangshan who are not as good as me. I asked Jin Dajian, "What do you think of this guy?" I thought Jin Dajian would scoff, but he said, "The young man is very capable and reliable."
By this time, Jin Dajian had folded the payment slip into a roughly cylindrical shape, then pinched the ends to make it resemble a wind-listening bottle. Song Qing also brought over the eggs, and even gave me a friendly smile. I felt a surge of goodwill towards him; I had always thought that such young masters were arrogant and haughty, but I hadn't expected him to be so polite. Now it seemed that Song Jiang's decision to bring him up the mountain was a testament to his cunning and shrewdness.
Jin Dajian cracked an egg, made a small hole, dipped his index finger in the egg white, smeared it on a shard of a bottle, and pressed it onto the paper model. Then he picked up another shard and pressed it on as well. Each shard, once in his hand, had a place in his hand with just a quick glance. Soon, as the number of shards decreased, the paper model was gradually filled with pieces. However, the later pieces took longer to figure out, and the last few dozen were the most difficult. Most of these shards were from the bottle's body, lacking a curve to judge. I kept giving him suggestions, and Jin Dajian almost got angry with me before I shut up. Actually, I learned it all from Baozi. Baozi once bought a jigsaw puzzle made up of thousands of pieces—an oil painting of a girl holding a jar, laughing foolishly under a sunset. Baozi liked to have me help her assemble it while watching TV, and then whenever she had a spare moment, she would rush over and haphazardly arrange the pieces. Just assembling the sunset made my eyesight drop by a fraction of a second.
Jin Dajian wouldn't allow me to say a word, so I simply lay down on the grass, propped my head on my arm, and stretched my legs into An Daoquan's arms for him to hold. I realized life was still pretty good. I saw Lin Chong and a big guy with a blue patch on his face fighting with two sticks on the grass. That big guy must be Yang Zhi, the Blue-Faced Beast, right? Sure enough, he was wielding the stick like a knife with one hand. Because I was lying down, both of them were upside down, which made me drowsy. Lin Chong suddenly stood up and said to me, "Xiao Qiang, get up. Didn't you want to learn the Lin Family Spear? I'll teach you."
I propped myself up on my arms and said excitedly, "Is it easy to learn?" After serving time-traveling clients for so long, it's finally time to reap the rewards. Although it might not be as good as falling off a cliff and meeting an old man with a white beard, the person in front of me is, after all, the instructor of 800,000 Imperial Guards. He should be better than the instructors of the Navy SEALs, right?
Yang Zhi handed me the stick he was holding, patted my shoulder and laughed, "Instructor Lin never takes on disciples. Today is your lucky day. Learn well."
I nodded repeatedly: "Thank you, Brother Yang. Sometime, I'll take you to get laser cosmetic surgery. I guarantee you'll transform from a 'blue-faced beast' into Tang Guoqiang..."
I stood opposite Lin Chong, and he nodded at me, saying, "Stab me first."