A House on Mount Linux

Part 1: Old Servant Recollects That His Master Was Gentle and Unhappy

A House on Mount Linux

aka A House on the Mountain

by Hatka Bobra (aka Kuchka Kiwi)

Part 1: Old Servant Recollects That His Master Was Gentle and Unhappy

Mount Linux was shaped like a chipped old dog's fang. The south-west slope of the fang, at about three lis high, had a long narrow plateau. There was a house on it. Up close it looked grand, with dozens of rooms, almost a palace. Although, it was just a dot on the rock body from afar. Maples surrounding it were the only bright splotch reflecting the sunlight on the mountain black and grey façade.

When it rained, the concaved roof became black and glistered like steel, the maple leaves glistered too. Full moon painted the outline of the house and the pillars white, and the leaves shone white, while everything else merged together in the black background - like a woodprint monotint. White fog rose from the valley in the midautumn, its enormous towering masses reaching the plateau, and the house floated in the milky cloud, and the red maples floated around. In winter, the house and the trees were again the same white, but here and there a leaf would shake off the snow and shine with scarlet and orange through frost dew. That's how it went on in circles: rain, fog, winter, autumn, night, day. The house was falling into disrepair, it had been long forgotten. The black roof had collapsed inward and the rain poured right into the main hall. Stairs were dangerous to set a foot on. Ivy blinded the windows. Bats colonized the rooms.

Ding XuShun chose to walk. He ascended the mountain putting his foot on each stone step to pay his respect towards the family that once resided here. Their tragic story, well-known to everyone around, heeded a warning of human fragile existence. It reminded how easy a fall from heaven to earth was.

A powerful family of silk traders... The head of the family, a man full of many virtues - an honest, hard-working and courteous person. A role model for anyone. The insidious nephew, his uncle undeservingly put his trust in regarding all business ventures, who in reply treated his benefactor like a sworn enemy cursing him with foul words and even raising a hand on him. Little wonder that good-for-nothing scumbag ended up betraying the family and stealing from the uncle. He was caught on the mountain and brought to account. Upon having realized what kind of venomous snake he'd been nursing in his mighty bosom, the uncle fell into such rage that he murdered the nephew and threw his body into a bottomless chasm. Next, having drowned his despair in samshoo* and being possessed by the spirit if insanity, he raped his niece, Liu LiZhongs's (that's the name of the deceitful nephew) sister. Everybody heard her cry in his room but nobody dared to come in. For three days she mourned over her desecrated chastity and her beloved brother's death. A week later both she and the head of the family vanished forever from these parts abandoning their business and property. The master's assistant and his soon-to-be-loving-wife kept an eye on the household. After a dozen years she passed away from the broken heart and a disease caused by alcohol addiction.

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* samshoo - rice whisky

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Such was the grievous story an old servant told Ding XuShun in the half-ruined house on the mountain. As a boy, he saw the family's splendor with his own eyes as well as all posterior events and deaths leading to its decline.

He nestled down in one of the back rooms and provided tourist services guiding curious travelers around the estate for a couple of qians.

Time has stopped for the old servant. The events which took place twenty years ago were more vivid to him than the night's before. He kept his devotion to the perished master and was slowly crumbling to dust along with the house.