Chapter 4: Lu Wucheng’s Self-Questioning

It was just when the sky had barely begun to lighten.

Lu Wucheng was digging a hole to bury Fan Dan, who had taken his own life.

Jin clung to Fan Dan’s body, crying loudly.

“You dig as well, Jin.

Crying will not bring Master Fan back to life.”

It was a harsh truth, and all the more cruel for a child, yet Lu Wucheng spoke it without mercy.

Jin did not grow angry at those words, but instead looked even more sorrowful.

“I understand your grief.

But this is something that cannot be changed.

However, Jin, there are still three things you can do for Master Fan.”

Hearing that, Jin calmed down a little.

“If we leave him like this, his body will eventually be eaten by birds.

Digging a grave and laying him to rest is the first.

To the east, Master Fan has a son.

You must go there and deliver his hair so that his son can perform his funeral rites—this is the second.

And the third is for you to mourn him there and pray for the peace of his soul.”

Lu Wucheng’s words were difficult, and Jin did not fully understand them.

However, he understood that if left as he was, Fan Dan’s body might be devoured by beasts.

Wiping away his tears, he stood up, took a hoe, and began digging alongside Lu Wucheng.

“Um, big brother…”

Seeing that Jin did not know how to address him, Lu Wucheng realized he had not yet introduced himself.

“My name is Lu Wucheng.

Call me Lu or Wucheng as you like.”

“Then… Lord Lu.”

“No need for ‘lord.’

If calling me directly feels uncomfortable, then call me Lu-dono.”

Lu Wucheng spoke without warmth, not stopping his hands as he dug.

“Then, Lu-dono.

Why did Master take his own life?”

“Jin.

Can you read?”

Jin quietly shook his head.

In other words, the blood-written message Fan Dan had left was nothing more than meaningless streaks to him.

“Master Fan took pride in living within the royal domain of Yu and respected the King of Yu.

That is why he chose to die as a subject of Yu.”

The true reason was likely also that, as an old man, he would only become a burden on the journey to Buyong.

He must have believed that would not be for Jin’s sake.

However, the fact that he had deliberately left behind a message written in blood meant that what Lu Wucheng said was not wrong either.

“I am uneducated, so I do not understand Master’s thoughts.

But can things like a dynasty or a king, pride or respect, really become a reason to die?”

“—I do not know.”

Lu Wucheng suddenly shouted.

It was not from the fatigue of digging since morning.

There was clear anger on his face.

“I do not understand Master Fan’s feelings at all.

But what I can say is that everyone has something they believe in, something they desire, something they cannot compromise on.

If a person chooses how to live, and sometimes even to die for those things, then others have no right to complain about it.”

Shouting, Lu Wucheng continued digging as if venting his pent-up anger.

The mud, heavy with water from the flood, weighed down his movements, yet he did not stop.

—To think he died of his own accord and entrusted his household to a stranger he had only met yesterday.

What Lu Wucheng felt was anger toward Fan Dan.

Fan Dan had likely thought he was acting for the sake of Lu Wucheng and Jin.

Indeed, for a wealthy merchant to take his own life for the sake of a single apprentice was not something one would expect, and Fan Dan, who did so without hesitation, was a man of virtue.

However, that was Fan Dan’s own matter and had nothing to do with Lu Wucheng.

Nor did it have anything to do with Jin, who had been left behind.

And—his desire to die in loyalty to the King of Yu was likely also genuine.

Though he had once fled, he had returned west again and remained in Mengshen even as his household dwindled.

Jin’s presence may have been the final push, but deep down, he had likely always wished for this.

If that was the case, then what was a dynasty?

Fan Dan was a man of the marketplace, not an official serving Yu.

And yet he could not forget it, wished to remain close to it, and even desired to offer his life for it.

—Then what kind of dynasty, what kind of state, what kind of king could inspire such feelings in him?

At its root, it was because a foolish ruler had arisen in Yu that so many disasters had occurred.

It was not Jiang Han—the current King of Yu—who had caused it.

However, Jiang Han was not without fault.

He was weak.

Because he lacked strength, he had easily yielded to the threats of the barbaric state of Zhuan.

As a result, Zhuan carried out misrule and oppressed the people.

Their inaction during the flood, causing countless innocent people to suffer, could also ultimately be traced back to the King of Yu’s failings.

In that sense, Fan Dan, too, could be called a victim.

And yet, Fan Dan had not resented the King of Yu and had died with respect in his heart.

As he had told Jin, Lu Wucheng did not deny that way of life.

He did not believe he had the right to.

Even so, he could not find a way to quell the anger that kept welling up from deep within his chest.

—Father…

Was this what you meant when you told me to see the world for myself?

Lu Wucheng was still young.

He was nineteen years old.

Though he spoke as if enlightened in front of Jin and calmly presented reality, he had yet to fully understand the injustices that filled the world, nor did he know how to face them.