To Travel by the Edge of a Creek

Chapter 1: Crane Song

GenZany

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

To Travel by the Edge of a Creek - Chapter 1: Crane Song

"A Ling¹, hurry and sweep up the leaves in front of the gate." An unrestrained youth of about sixteen or seventeen years called out to her from the highest step in front of the gate.

The girl known as A Ling, about fifteen or sixteen years old, heard the call and, despite being unwilling, reluctantly picked up a broom. The girl bound her hair loosely on top of her head, a few wisps sticking to her rosy cheeks. A belt, embroidered with a bamboo pattern, encircled her waist, the knot tied haphazardly on one side. The drooping belt swayed side to side with her light movements, displaying a lovely, adorable side of Jiang Ling as she swept up the fallen leaves one by one along the road from the entrance of the mountain.

The Crane Song Sect was a humble sect with only four people. Because the sect was situated on Crane Song Mountain, her shifu, Yun Yangzi, offhandedly bestowed the sect with the name "Crane Song Sect." In total, the sect had three disciples. Aside from the things only shifu could do, like giving classes, everything else in the sect was arranged by the three disciples.

Jiang Ling was the youngest shimei² of the three disciples. Light chores and manual tasks were her responsibility. At times when Jiang Ling was inevitably disobedient, Gu Yun, her second shixiong, would say: "Shimei's qinggong³ is the best, so naturally we gave shimei these kinds of trivial tasks. This way, twice the work gets done with half the effort, and you can cultivate along the way." Right, shixiong and shijie were always heading down the mountain to perform manual work in towns to provide for the four of them. From big deeds, like assisting the local authorities by going to local bandit hideouts in the mountains to punish evil and eliminate wickedness, to small deeds, like helping the villagers find lost chickens and ducks, with the remuneration from these tasks, the master-disciple group would not go hungry.

Shifu always said that there are many paths in cultivation, and sweeping the floor was one of them. Jiang Ling objected, saying that shifu was just hoodwinking them into taking care of odd jobs for him. She thought that cultivation was studying manuals and practicing martial arts. Yun Yangzi would say: "No, all things are a form of cultivation. Naturally, life is one, too." Thus, aside from martial arts practice and going down the mountain to earn money, the sect collected the yearly harvest and gathered wild vegetables and fruits, sending Jiang Ling down to exchange the remaining bounty with local villagers and hunters for other vegetables and meat. The four of them seemed less like a sect and more like a reclusive family.

Jiang Ling held the broom as she thought about how the falling leaves continued to fall as she swept, and how she continued to sweep as they fell. As long as the tree stood on the mountaintop, there would never be a day where she finished sweeping. Unconsciously feeling down, the broom dropped out of her hand and a wind rose from the ground beneath her feet. For a moment, she couldn't open her eyes, and she could only clench her hands tight. When she could open her eyes, she was happy to see that shifu and shijie, travel-worn and weary, had returned. She saw Yun Yangzi step lightly on the falling leaves and land beside Jiang Ling. Yun Yangzi was wearing long, light gray robes, with the beard of a mountain goat on his chin. He was tall and slender, with sword-like slanted eyebrows, a bright gaze, and a trace of unusual elegance.

"This master was not here, and so you are this lazy." Yun Yangzi's expression was strict, like it hadn't been in the past, "When you have finished sweeping, come eat."

"Understood, shifu." Jiang Ling was scared by Yun Yangzi's sudden reprimand, and she felt somewhat wronged. She nodded, clutching the broom which had, at some point, already returned to her hands, and continued sweeping.