Starry River of the Sky (2 page)

“Rendi.”

“Well, Rendi,” Master Chao said, “that is a good idea.”

Rendi’s dark frown lightened. They tilted the
gang
and slowly rolled it into the inn, the hot sun burning their necks. But when they brought the wine into the back storeroom, a small figure ran in like lightning, and Rendi’s scowl returned.

It was Master Chao’s young daughter, Peiyi. Her round face still showed remains of her breakfast, and the bottoms of her pant legs were brown with dirt. Rendi wrinkled his nose, looking at her as if she were a worm in a half-eaten peach.

“Who’s that boy?” Peiyi asked, stopping in midstride.

“That’s Rendi,” Master Chao said without turning. He was mixing realgar powder into a small bowl of wine. “Rendi is going to take over some of Jiming’s chores. Rendi, this is my daughter, Peiyi.”

Rendi sniffed and rolled his eyes away from her in contempt. Peiyi’s eyes narrowed.

However, Master Chao seemed not to notice and brought Peiyi in front of him. He gently pushed her tangled hair from her cherry-blossom-pink face. She stood as still as a carved statue, with only her eyes moving, as her father dipped his finger into the wine mixture and carefully wrote
wang
, a symbol of power, with it on her forehead. Rendi watched from the doorway, and a strange, jealous anger filled him.

“That should protect you from the Noxious Animals,” Master Chao said to her, and sighed. “Day of Five Poisons, already! Spring was hardly here, and now it’s summer.”

Peiyi didn’t answer, for her eyes were glued on Rendi in the doorway. He had been making rude faces at her, pretending to be each of the five poisonous animals—snake, scorpion, centipede, spider, and toad. His last impression
was of the Noxious Toad, which he made by bulging his eyes and sticking out his tongue.

“Why is that boy here?” Peiyi said, her lips pursing.

“I told you,” Master Chao said. “With Jiming gone, we need someone to help with the chores.”

“We don’t need him!” Peiyi protested. “Jiming will come back!”

Master Chao sighed again, this time a heavy sigh that fell like a stone in water. “Your brother made his decision,” he said, standing up stiffly. Without another word, Master Chao walked out of the room.

Peiyi stared after her father with forlorn eyes and then looked at Rendi. The strange, jealous anger from before had lingered and strengthened, and he jeered at her.

“Baby!” Rendi said. “Too young to drink the wine, so you have to wear the
wang
sign! Watch out for the Noxious Animals!”

Peiyi glared. “Horrible!” she hissed at him, and ran out of the room.

To Rendi, this small Village of Clear Sky and its inn were horrible. Peiyi was forced to show him everything, and she fumed with anger as he sneered at the rough wooden floors, the humble and broken-down houses, and the yellowing weeds dying between the rocks in the walls.

The only thing Rendi could not scorn was the strange, endless plain of stone that lay beyond the inn. The smooth rock ground stretched beyond sight, as if someone had wiped away part of the landscape with a rag.

“What is that?” Rendi gasped in spite of himself.

“It’s the Stone Pancake,” Peiyi answered. She was glad there was at least one thing this horrid boy could not mock. “My ancestor made it.”

“Made it?” Rendi said in disbelief. “You’re lying!”

“It’s true!” Peiyi insisted. “My ancestor was a great man.”

“
Your
ancestor?
My
ancestor was the…” Rendi sputtered, and then stopped.

“What did your ancestor do?” Peiyi said. “Mine moved a mountain!”

Rendi bit his lip in frustration. His ancestors were far greater than the ancestors of this dirty-faced girl! But he swallowed his words bitterly and, instead, said, “How?”

T
HE
S
TORY OF THE
M
AN
W
HO
M
OVED A
M
OUNTAIN

W
hen this place was called the Village of Endless Mountain, my esteemed great-grandfather moved here. He was an
extraordinary man. He was so determined and courageous that when he wanted his tea made of Nan Ling water, he journeyed the hundreds of miles to the Long River and braved the brutal and violent waves to get it. He was so smart and clever that he never lost a game of chess in his entire life. He was so strong and powerful that he pulled two oxen by their tails through the street. So wondrous was my honored great-grandfather that all, even the spirits above, looked upon him with admiration.

So, when one fall morning he looked out his window and was displeased, the ground seemed to join his family with their trembling. “I see nothing out my window,” my great-grandfather cried. “Why can I not see the sky, the sun, and clouds?”

“Honored father”—his two sons and wife bowed at his feet—“our house is next to the mountain. You do not see the sky in your room, because the mountain blocks it.”

My esteemed great-grandfather sputtered, “I must be able to see the sky! I cannot let the mountain block the heavens! We will move the mountain.”

He gathered shovels and pails, and he and his obedient sons began to dig. One bucket at a time, they began to carry the mountain away. Obviously, this seemed an impossible task, like emptying the ocean with a rice bowl. Yet my honored great-grandfather was not discouraged, and day after day, he and his sons carried away buckets of earth.

All the villagers came to watch in amazement as my great-grandfather and his sons attempted to move the mountain. Their awed whispers carried to the clouds, and the Spirit of the Mountain overheard. The Spirit gazed down at my great-grandfather and his tireless, unyielding shoulders bearing away stones of the mountain and was alarmed. The Spirit took human form and rushed down.

“Why are you trying to move the mountain?” the Spirit asked my honored great-grandfather. “To carry it away, bucket by bucket—is that not impossible? Even if you were to live a hundred years and work every day, you could not achieve it.”

My esteemed great-grandfather brushed away the words. “I will move this mountain,” he said. “If I do
not move the mountain in my lifetime, my sons will continue my work and their sons after that. Eventually, this mountain of annoyance will be gone!”

The Mountain Spirit heard the truth in my honored great-grandfather’s words and began to quake and shiver with fear. Without another word, the Spirit left. The next morning, the sun streamed into my great-grandfather’s room. He leaped from his bed and ran outside.

The mountain was gone.

Instead, there was an empty stone field that seemed as flat as a plate and as endless as the sky. My honored great-grandfather stood with pride. He had moved the mountain.

“And that is why we have the Stone Pancake,” Peiyi finished. “It is where the mountain used to be, before it fled from my great-grandfather’s power and wisdom.”

“No one uses it?” Rendi said.

“Nothing grows on it, no one builds on it, and no one travels on it,” Peiyi said, shaking her head. “It’s so big that
if you walk on it far enough, you’ll see nothing but the sky and the flat stone and get lost! Sometimes we use a small bit of it near the inn for celebrations, like weddings, but usually it is left bare.”

“I can’t believe it,” Rendi said. But the never-ending flat land drew out in front of him, and he could think of no other explanation.

“The missing mountain is also why this place is called the Village of Clear Sky,” Peiyi couldn’t help adding. “Because the sky is clear of the mountain.”

Clear of the moon too
, Rendi thought grimly.

That evening, in his new bedroom at the inn, the moans of the sky returned. Rendi clenched his teeth and covered his ears with his hands until, finally, he glared out his window into the dark. Below the groaning of the night, he heard the satisfied snores coming from the bedroom of Master Chao. Was Rendi the only one who heard the sky? Was it just in his head? Why wouldn’t it leave him alone? Another cry echoed.

“Stop it!” Rendi whispered fiercely into the moonless sky. “I’m not going to listen to your whining anymore!”

But the night just gave a mournful noise in answer, and
Rendi scowled. He would forget about the sobbing sky, the missing moon, everything. He would forget it all. He turned from the window, shutting his eyes. There was nothing to see anyway. Outside, there was only blackness and the poor Village of Clear Sky.