Xuanzhou was a small city located in the desert in the northwest of Great Zhou. It was isolated from traffic and lacked trade, so the city had no chance of prosperity and it stood quietly in the heart of this northwest desert. Day after day, year after year, the city and its people grew old together, exuding a sense of isolation and independance from the world.
Luo Wei and Wei Lan stood side by side under the walls of Xuanzhou. Looking at the towering city walls and the open but deserted gates, Luo Wei asked, “Is this Xuanzhou?”
Wei Lan pointed to the plaque on the city wall and said to Luo Wei, “It says ‘Xuanzhou’ there.”
“It’s so quiet,” Luo Wei said. “Why can’t I see any people?”
“This city is small, and the population is scarce,” Wei Lan helped Luo Wei onto the carriage and said, “Let’s go into the city and have a look.”
On the roads of the city, pedestrians were still sparse, and there weren’t many shops on either side. The shopkeepers didn’t stand at the doors to attract business. The road, not particularly wide, was peaceful. But this was an unfamiliar carriage and coachman, drawing the attention of passersby.
Luo Wei sat in the carriage, listening to the sound of the bay horse’s hooves on the bluestone pavement. Looking at the road under his feet, Luo Wei curiously asked Wei Lan, “Why is the road paved with bluestones here?” They had passed through many cities in the northwest, and the roads were either paved with bricks or left unpaved. Xuanzhou, a small city, unexpectedly used bluestone, a material typically used in Jiangnan.
Wei Lan couldn’t keep up with Luo Wei’s thoughts and said, “What’s wrong with using bluestone for roads? Isn’t that what it’s for?”
“Of course, it’s different,” Luo Wei sat down next to Wei Lan and said, “This is a road material only used in the south, in Jiangnan. This is the northwest. I didn’t know they even had this type of stone here.”
“The Young Master is right!” an old man basking in the sun by the roadside heard Luo Wei’s words and enthusiastically struck up a conversation with the two people in the carriage.
Wei Lan stopped the bay horse.
“Uncle,” Luo Wei smiled at the old man, “Does Xuanzhou have any connection with Jiangnan?”
“Our ancestors came here to escape disasters from Jiangnan,” the old man, smiling and narrowing his eyes at being called ‘Uncle’ by Luo Wei, said, “Look at the houses here, they’re all in the style of Jiangnan.”
When Luo Wei had entered the city just now, he had felt that the houses in the city seemed familiar. After the old man’s reminder, he realized why. With their gray tiles and gray walls, they resembled the style of the water towns in Jiangnan. “Horse Head Wall,” Luo Wei pointed to the roof behind the old man and said.
“The young man’s accent sounds like someone from the outskirts of the capital, yet he even recognizes the Horse Head Wall. Are you from Jiangnan?” the old man asked Luo Wei.
At this point, Wei Lan helped Luo Wei off the carriage and stood in front of the old man.
In the short time Luo Wei and the old man had exchanged words, several other elderly people had gathered around them. It was rare for outsiders to come to this city, so everyone was curious about these two unfamiliar young people.
“I grew up in the outskirts of the capital,” Luo Wei said. “Later, I returned to Jiangnan to live, but my partner1 is from Xuanzhou.”
When Luo Wei referred to Wei Lan as his partner, the gaze of the old men fell on Wei Lan.
This wasn’t the first time Luo Wei had referred to him as his partner, but Wei Lan still grinned. If only this person would address him like this regularly.
Seeing Wei Lan’s silence, Luo Wei giggled again and pulled Wei Lan’s sleeve.
“Is this young man from Xuanzhou?” the old man who had spoken with Luo Wei asked Wei Lan.
“Yes,” Wei Lan nodded. “I left here more than ten years ago.”
“Who are your parents?” the old man hurriedly asked. “Say their names. Maybe us old folks here know them.”
Wei Lan glanced at Luo Wei. He didn’t even know who his father was, so how could he answer that?
“If my partner could survive in Xuanzhou, why would he leave at such a young age?” Luo Wei said. “Both of his parents passed away long ago.”
“I used to beg on this street,” Wei Lan said to the old man. “Following my mother. At that time, everyone on this street called my mother Mrs. Wei.”
“Mrs. Wei?” the old men reminisced. They knew everyone in this city. A woman who begged on the streets with a child in tow all day long, a decade had passed, memories were somewhat blurred, and the woman’s appearance was no longer clear. But they remembered that there was such a beggar woman back then.
“You were the little kid back then?” the old man evidently recalled the mother and son mentioned by Wei Lan, his eyes lit up, and he asked Wei Lan, “Is it your mother who was buried in the Chishui River in the city?”
“Is that river called Chishui River?” Wei Lan smiled awkwardly and said, “I don’t remember its name.”
“You were still young back then,” an old man said. “I remember after your mother passed away, you disappeared too. Where have you been all these years?”
“I followed a cavalry troop to beg for a living,” Wei Lan said. “Eventually, I ended up in Jiangnan, settled down, and then came back with my partner.”
The old people looked at Luo Wei again. They had never seen such a handsome young man in their lives.
Luo Wei smiled generously at the old men.
“I remember now!” one old man slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “You’re the little brother Lan! Wei Lan2!”
Both Luo Wei and Wei Lan were pleasantly surprised. After leaving his hometown at a young age and returning more than a decade later, they didn’t expect the people from their hometown to still remember Wei Lan’s name.
“Yes, I’m Wei Lan,” Wei Lan said. “Does Uncle still remember my name?”
The old man proudly said, “I may be old, but my memory is good. I remember everyone in this city. Even if someone left thirty years ago and came back, I could still recognize them!”
“This old man is bragging again,” the old man who had initially talked to Luo Wei chuckled and scolded.
Several old people gathered together and started arguing, mentioning the people in the city one by one. They were competing to prove their memories were better than one another and got into a heated argument for a while.
“I like it here,” Luo Wei whispered to Wei Lan.
“As long as you like it,” Wei Lan said softly.
“Stop arguing,” after arguing about family genealogy for a while, an old man remembered Luo Wei and Wei Lan were there and raised his voice, “Both of you keep going, making these two brothers laugh!”
The old men then shifted their attention back to Luo Wei and Wei Lan.
“It doesn’t matter,” Luo Wei hurriedly said. “We’re not familiar with this place yet. Listening to the elders, we’ve learned a bit about Xuanzhou.”
“Brother Lan,” one old man asked Wei Lan, “now that you’re back, do you plan to leave again?”
“I don’t plan to leave,” Wei Lan said. “I want to settle down here.”
“That’s good,” the old man said. “Returning to one’s roots is better than wandering outside.”
“Do you want to live inside the city or outside?” another old man asked the two of them.
“Can we live outside the city?” Luo Wei asked. He had only seen endless yellow sand outside the city along the way. Could people live like this?
“Brother Lan, don’t you remember anything either?” the old man asked Wei Lan again.
Wei Lan shook his head blankly. Xuanzhou was actually unfamiliar to him as well. He knew no more about it than Luo Wei did.
- 官人 – guān rén : I’m getting a few translations for this ( Master, Husband, Official, Mister, Sir), I think ‘husband’ makes the most sense although it seems a bit of a strong term, it feels weird that gay relationships could be so well received in this small town! So I’m going to go with ‘partner’ for now as it’s less intense, but let me know if you think husband is more suitable here! ↩︎
- The man calls him 卫南 – Wei Nan instead of 卫岚 – Wei Lan. I’m quite confused about how it could be pronounced the same, does anyone know? I will write it ‘Lan’ nonetheless as Wei Lan is surprised next chapter to see that the character to write his name is different, so the pronunciation must be the same. ↩︎
Boundless Dao 
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