Ning Chen watched with a cold eye as the big men closed in around him.

One of them gave a shout and came at him.

But he stopped halfway there and looked off into the distance with alarm all over his face.

Hoofbeats, ringing.

A body of armored soldiers with spears in their hands came riding hard toward them.

Every villager watched them come, thrown into a panic.

The soldiers came up, reined in, swung down, and looked around them with a hawk’s eye and a wolf’s turn of the head.

Seeing Ning Chen, they came over quickly.

“Boy, you’re a dead man.”

Ma Bing said it with his eyes fixed on Ning Chen and venom in his voice, then struggled up and ran toward the soldiers with a hand on his stomach.

Seeing somebody coming at them, every soldier brought his spear to bear on Ma Bing.

The fright went straight through Ma Bing’s legs and he dropped to his knees with a thump, and said in a panic, “Soldier sirs, I’m one of your own… My name is Ma Bing. I am here on His Honor the Magistrate’s orders, collecting the bandit tax.”

He turned and pointed at Ning Chen as he said it, and shouted, “This man not only refused to pay the tax, he beat me… I beg the soldier sirs to see justice done for this small man.”

The villagers looked at Ning Chen with worry all over their faces.

The soldiers looked at Ning Chen, went down on one knee all together and called out with one voice, “General Ning.”

Shock filled the faces of the villagers around them. They had never imagined this young man was a general.

They looked at Ma Bing without thinking.

Ma Bing’s face was chalk white. He was shaking from head to foot, and the whole of him was struck stupid with fright.

Ning Chen said without warmth, “Take every one of them for me. Any man who resists, cut him down where he stands!”

“Sir!”

Ma Bing and his men were good enough at pushing ordinary people around, but faced with soldiers all wolf and tiger the courage had been frightened clean out of them long before.

Ning Chen came and stood in front of Ma Bing. “A few years apart and you’ve come up in the world. Time was you didn’t dare do more than steal chickens and dogs. Now you’re doing the government’s business.”

Ma Bing’s face was chalk white. He stared blankly at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen said mildly, “What, don’t you know me?”

One of the women said quietly, “He looks a lot like Little Chen.”

“Hush… Don’t talk nonsense. That’s a great official.”

“But he really does look like Little Chen. Just taller than Little Chen, and heavier. The eyes and brows are exactly the same.”

“Still at it? Do you want to die?”

Ning Chen turned his head and said, smiling, “Aunt Lan. Have you any of your wild-greens gruel left? I’d like a bowl of it.”

Aunt Lan’s eyes went wide.

Ning Chen’s smile was gentle. Aunt Lan’s family had never been well off, and they often filled their bellies with wild-greens gruel, but they always saw to it that he ate his fill.

“Are— are you really Little Chen?”

Ning Chen smiled and nodded. “It’s me. I’ve come back.”

“There, I told you… It is Little Chen.”

Ning Chen looked around at all of them with the smile all over his face.

“Uncle Dacheng. Don’t be afraid. Come on out.”

“Uncle Dazhuang. A few years apart and how is it you only get younger?”

“Uncle Pockmark. It’s been a long time.”

“Snotnose. How old are you now, and still with a nose that runs?”

Ning Chen greeted them all, smiling.

He had lost his mother at seven. Without these people he would not have lived to see this day.

Their faces were all stirred up.

But with those soldiers standing there, all wolf and tiger, nobody dared come up and speak to him.

Just then Wu Tiezhu came running back, out of breath.

“Look, it’s Zhuzi.”

“Zhuzi’s back, and nothing’s happened to him. Thank goodness.”

“It’ll have been Little Chen who helped Zhuzi.”

Wu Tiezhu grinned wide. “That’s right. Little Chen helped me… It’s all been cleared up. I’m in the clear.”

Ning Chen’s eyes came to rest on Ma Bing.

Ma Bing had gone white in the face, and the cold sweat was standing out on his forehead.

“Do you know who I am now?”

Ma Bing said in a shaking voice, “Ning— Ning Chen… It’s you? You frightened the life out of me… Little Chen, I’m only doing the government’s business. It isn’t in my own hands… We’re all from the same village. Raise your noble hand and let me go.”

Ning Chen pointed at the broken-in gate. “That’s right. We’re all from the same village… So I’ll treat you the way you treat the village.”

“Brother Zhuzi, I must trouble you to take them to the Ma house… Everyone concerned, take every one of them and bring them back to the county office.”

Wu Tiezhu grinned wide. “Right!”

Ma Bing was frightened out of his mind.

“Ning Chen, spare me! Let me go! We’re all from the same village, and I’m only doing the government’s business—”

Wu Tiezhu said angrily, “Shut your mouth! Little Chen has taken His Honor the Magistrate himself, and he’s being beheaded in public in Lingzhou city today… And the hill bandits, Little Chen wiped them all out.”

“Little Chen has said it himself. The court never levied any bandit tax at all… Every coin that was taken, you bastards stole.”

“Ma Bing, your good days are over.”

Ma Bing’s face went the color of dead ash. His Honor the Magistrate had been killed, and the prop his family leaned on had gone out from under them.

Ma Bing and his men were taken away.

Ning Chen went over, opened the bundles, took out what was in them and shared it around.

“Little Chen, did you really wipe those bandits out?”

Aunt Lan worked up the courage to ask it.

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Rest easy. The hill bandits are gone. The magistrate took bribes and squeezed the people, and he’s being beheaded in public in Lingzhou city today. The court will send a good official down after this, and none of you need live in fear anymore.”

“And another thing. In a while I want you all to tell me every evil the Ma family has done these past years. I’ll bring them to account under the law, every one.”

“And when I’ve looked into it properly, every coin of the bandit tax taken from you will be given back.”

A cheer went up from them all.

“Little Chen has come up in the world. It’s wonderful… If your mother knows of it down below, she’ll be happy for you.”

“Little Chen, what grade of official is a general? Is it a very big one?”

“Little Chen, are you married yet? Do you remember Erniu? When she was small she used to run around at your heels and say she’d marry you when she grew up.”

With the soldiers no longer there, they all loosened up a great deal, and the talk came easier.

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Aunt Wu, don’t start. Erniu is only eleven this year.”

“That’s nothing. The years go by so fast… Wait a few more and Erniu will be grown.”

Ning Chen’s forehead filled with black lines.

“Aunt Wu, the truth is I’m already promised.”

“You child, changing your mind the moment it suits you… You said it yourself, that you’d marry Erniu one day.”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “I never said any such thing.”

“That’s what Erniu told me.”

“She was lying to you!”

Ning Chen could not hold his ground against it. “It’s bitter cold out. Everybody get home… It’s getting late, and I have to go and pay my respects to my mother.”

“Little Chen, when you’ve done at your mother’s grave, come to your aunt’s house… Your aunt will go home right now and make you the wild-greens gruel.”

“You bet!”

It took some doing before Ning Chen got away.

There was a hillside behind the village, and the village buried its dead there.

When Ning Chen’s mother died it was the village that helped bury her.

On the way he met Wu Tiezhu coming back.

The two of them carried the offerings up the hillside behind the village.

Wu Tiezhu went first to his own father and mother.

Ning Chen came to a grave mound of bare earth and stopped short in spite of himself.

The snow had been cleared off the mound, and there were ashes in front of the marker, and offerings.

Somebody had come to pay respects to his mother.

It would have been somebody from the village.

Ning Chen looked at the marker. The marker was only a board, and after all these years the writing on it had worn away in patches.

Ning Chen knelt and knocked his head on the ground three times, with all respect.

Then he took out the offerings and set them out.

Ning Chen’s mother’s surname was Wu. Her name was Wu Rui, an ordinary enough name… Most of the people in this village are surnamed Wu.

Ning Chen lit the incense and the paper.

He burned the paper and said quietly as he did it, “I don’t know what I ought to call you. I imagine your son is with you down below by now, so you must know I’m not your son.”

“But I took your son’s body, and it let me live a second life… I don’t know what heaven meant by arranging it so. All the same, I think I ought to call you Mother.”

“The longer I’ve been in this world, the less I can remember who I used to be… More and more often I feel I am the Ning Chen of this world. That I am your son.”

“The moment I learned you were murdered, it was as if a hand had closed on my heart. It hurt so much I could hardly breathe, and my mind went blank… When I came back to myself there was only one thought in my head, and that was to settle the score for you.”

“Not one of the people who harmed you will get away from me… However high he stands, however much power he holds.”

“That I come from another world is a secret I don’t dare tell anybody… So you’re the only one I can tell.”

Ning Chen went on and on, saying what was in his heart.

Until footsteps sounded. He turned his head, and Wu Tiezhu was coming toward him.

Wu Tiezhu came to the grave, knelt and knocked his head on the ground three times, with all respect.

Ning Chen gave him some of the spirit money.

When the spirit money had burned through, Ning Chen went and paid his respects to Uncle Wu’s family.

When that was done, Ning Chen looked at Wu Tiezhu. “Brother Zhuzi. What do you mean to do now?”

(End of Chapter 152)