Chapter 52: Li Anu

"Anyone who trespasses in the Li residence shall die!"

"What are you people doing!"

"In broad daylight under the bright sky, the Murong family of Gusu has no regard for the law! I, Li, will surely report—"

The noisy commotion drew closer. Lying in the dim woodshed, the feverish and semi-conscious Li Anu forced her eyelids open. Surrounding her were numerous other Li household servants and maids sprawled across the floor. For some unknown reason today, everyone seemed to have fallen ill with a plague, and they had all been driven into the woodshed by the estate guards and locked inside.

Word had it that Master Li had fallen ill as well?

Recalling a rumor she had overheard from a maid earlier that morning, a strange sense of satisfaction bubbled up in Li Anu's heart.

Even if death awaited them, hearing that the lofty, high-and-mighty master above was going to share the same fate sounded like a deeply comforting thought.

Her mother had been a maid in the Li residence responsible for laundry. Over a dozen years prior, a drunken guard had broken into the back courtyard and violated her. That guard had subsequently been expelled from the estate, and when pregnancy was discovered, her mother had nearly been cast out as well.

Perhaps her life was simply not meant to end there; her mother had stubbornly endured the freezing winter months with a heavily pregnant belly, working without a single day of rest. The very day after giving birth, she was ordered back to work by the housekeeper, only to die in a daze along the path back.

These were accounts she had heard from the wet nurses.

Ever since she was small, she had been raised by the maids of the Li residence and given the lowly name Anu. She held not the faintest impression of either a father or a mother, yet the bitter complaints tossed back and forth among the wet nurses had been absorbed into her mind without missing a single word.

From the time she understood the world, Li Anu had lived within the confines of the courtyard, never stepping a single foot outside. Being frail and sickly in her youth, she could only live and work alongside wet nurses harboring their own secret motives. Initially, the nurses had treated her quite well; a master of unknown origin had even heard of the situation and specifically came to praise the nurses before her. She could no longer recall what exactly had been said.

She only remembered that Master Li had bestowed a set of new clothes upon her and given her a proper hot bath.

Later on, the new clothes mysteriously vanished, the meals grew increasingly meager, and the masters seemed to care for her no longer.

As time passed, the wet nurses all began to view her as a burden, though no one was willing or dared to openly voice their neglect.

Yet they never treated her as a human being either. Occasionally, they would pinch her or prick her with needles, treating her much like Madame Li treated the hidden cloth dolls she tormented.

She rarely interacted with peers, nor did she even get to see anyone her own age. She could only live out her days within this narrow back courtyard. For prolonged periods, she had no one to speak with, which fostered her reticent and taciturn nature, causing her to bury any number of thoughts deep within her heart.

"Clack—clatter—"

Following the sound of chains hitting the ground, the door of the woodshed was pushed open. A man dressed in martial attire swept his gaze across the startled crowd of servants and spoke in a commanding, contemptuous tone, "All of you, out with you."

Enduring her bodily discomfort, Li Anu obediently walked out first, thoroughly accustomed to submission.

The others hesitated to varying degrees, earning them casual strikes from the wooden staff the man casually wielded.

How wonderful.

Li Anu lowered her head and fell in step with the crowd, feeling a flicker of delight. She was spared the beatings; after all, no one looked at her as a proper human being anyway, leaving her free to happily watch everyone else suffer misfortune.

Still, there were so many people.

Gazing at the bustling crowd filling the courtyard, her expression grew somewhat vacant. Fortunately, she usually looked this way anyway, and no one cared.

Yet as the crowd traversed the corridors and courtyards, stepping out of the Li residence and onto the streets for the very first time in her life, she finally understood what a multitude truly meant.

Everything her eyes met was filled with people—men, women, the elderly, the young, the robust, the thin, the short, the tall. She had no words to describe such a human torrent, and her mind went entirely blank.

Combined with her fever-addled and muddled head, Li Anu drifted aimlessly with the crowd choking the streets until she reached an open space in the center of Suzhou city.

It was evident that a group of buildings must have once stood here, though they had been mostly demolished, with construction debris piled high nearby. Several pointed tents had been pitched in the center, and a ragged beggar directed her to her place, instructing her to rest her hands upon the shoulders of the people standing immediately before and behind her.

She obediently followed the instructions, unwilling to invite any unnecessary hardships.

The two people directly in front and behind her were clearly discontented with the dirty child placing her hands upon them, yet they dared not voice any complaints, casting only looks of disgust and revulsion her way.

"None of you are to let go!"

"I'm talking to you! Let go again and your hands will be chopped off!"

Presumably because everyone was ill, no one possessed the strength to resist or cause a disturbance. The entire crowd wore sickly expressions, making them remarkably easy to direct and far more compliant.

Thinking to herself, as Li Anu wondered why she had to touch others, a surge of heat rushed from the body of the person in front, poured through her palms into her own body, and then snaked out from her other palm into the body of the person behind her.

The torrent of heat flowed endlessly, growing more intense by the moment. She felt light as a feather, her body swelling pleasantly as her physical discomfort and weakness rapidly melted away amidst a sensation akin to soaking in a warm bath.

She fell asleep.

It was the most blissful, sweet sleep she had ever experienced in her life. She even felt that dying right then and there would have been worth it.

"Get up. Master Zhang wishes to see you." Unfortunately, fate did not grant her wish, and she was soon shaken awake.

With just a slight exertion, Li Anu found herself vaulting up into a higher spot. Looking around in panic, she was pressed back down to the ground by the beggar who had awakened her, hearing him say, "Get used to the internal energy and your body..."

Though reticent, she was actually quite clever. After landing, following the instructions, and spending a brief moment getting accustomed to the flow, she skillfully mastered the circulation of internal energy, learning precisely how much force to exert to keep from bouncing about randomly.

The beggar looked at her in astonishment, seemingly devoid of any desire to converse further. He led her all the way into the tent, where she came face to face with 'Master Zhang'.

"What is your name?"

Master Zhang wore a warm smile as he reached out and patted her head.

"L-Li Anu."

Li Anu's voice was barely audible.

"What a wretched name." Master Zhang laughed heartily. "Your aptitude is quite good; you're actually able to accommodate over seven hundred points of internal energy."

Li Anu remained silent, yet a wave of inexplicable emotion stirred within her.

Was it because this master treated her like a human being, because of the egalitarian tone of his voice, or perhaps because of the affectionate pat upon her head?

She did not know, yet she felt a sudden urge to cry.

"How can a real man cry?" Master Zhang looked at her and said, "If you've ever suffered any grievances, just hit them back with your own hands. What use is all this weeping and whining?"

"Mm," Li Anu's voice was like a trembling mosquito.

"They're all cheap names, no different from Basin, Vat, Ox-child, Piglet, or Puppy. This Anu of yours actually has quite a memorable ring to it."

Master Zhang patted her head once more, looked up at the beggar who had brought her in, and instructed, "Take her to join the group with that Wang Piglet from earlier."

"Practice the body-forging technique diligently. Someday, stand before me as an upright, stalwart man."

Li Anu nodded vigorously. Following the beggar through the crowd, she arrived at another open space, stood among the throng, and went with the flow as she listened to the instructions and struck the prescribed postures...

In later days, she could no longer remember who the instructors were, nor could she recall who had studied the body-forging technique alongside her.

Yet she would never forget the serene smile and warm palm of 'Master Zhang'.

It was not until much, much later that she learned 'Master Zhang' was named Zhang Chengshi, and was hailed by many as the 'Martial Ancestor'.

Only, Master Zhang seemed completely unaware that she—no, strictly speaking, *she*, Li Anu...

was actually a girl.