A House on Mount Linux

aka A House on the Mountain

by Hatka Bobra (aka Kuchka Kiwi)

Part 1: Old Servant Recollects That His Master Was Gentle and Unhappy

Mount Linux was shaped like a chipped old dog's fang. The south-west slope of the fang, at about three lis high, had a long narrow plateau. There was a house on it. Up close it looked grand, with dozens of rooms, almost a palace. Although, it was just a dot on the rock body from afar. Maples surrounding it were the only bright splotch reflecting the sunlight on the mountain black and grey façade.

When it rained, the concaved roof became black and glistered like steel, the maple leaves glistered too. Full moon painted the outline of the house and the pillars white, and the leaves shone white, while everything else merged together in the black background - like a woodprint monotint. White fog rose from the valley in the midautumn, its enormous towering masses reaching the plateau, and the house floated in the milky cloud, and the red maples floated around. In winter, the house and the trees were again the same white, but here and there a leaf would shake off the snow and shine with scarlet and orange through frost dew. That's how it went on in circles: rain, fog, winter, autumn, night, day. The house was falling into disrepair, it had been long forgotten. The black roof had collapsed inward and the rain poured right into the main hall. Stairs were dangerous to set a foot on. Ivy blinded the windows. Bats colonized the rooms.

* * *

Ding XuShun chose to walk. He ascended the mountain putting his foot on each stone step to pay his respect towards the family that once resided here. Their tragic story, well-known to everyone around, heeded a warning of human fragile existence. It reminded how easy a fall from heaven to earth was.

A powerful family of silk traders... The head of the family, a man full of many virtues - an honest, hard-working and courteous person. A role model for anyone. The insidious nephew, his uncle undeservingly put his trust in regarding all business ventures, who in reply treated his benefactor like a sworn enemy cursing him with foul words and even raising a hand on him. Little wonder that good-for-nothing scumbag ended up betraying the family and stealing from the uncle. He was caught on the mountain and brought to account. Upon having realized what kind of venomous snake he'd been nursing in his mighty bosom, the uncle fell into such rage that he murdered the nephew and threw his body into a bottomless chasm. Next, having drowned his despair in samshoo* and being possessed by the spirit if insanity, he raped his niece, Liu LiZhongs's (that's the name of the deceitful nephew) sister. Everybody heard her cry in his room but nobody dared to come in. For three days she mourned over her desecrated chastity and her beloved brother's death. A week later both she and the head of the family vanished forever from these parts abandoning their business and property. The master's assistant and his soon-to-be-loving-wife kept an eye on the household. After a dozen years she passed away from the broken heart and a disease caused by alcohol addiction.

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* samshoo - rice whisky

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Such was the grievous story an old servant told Ding XuShun in the half-ruined house on the mountain. As a boy, he saw the family's splendor with his own eyes as well as all posterior events and deaths leading to its decline.

He nestled down in one of the back rooms and provided tourist services guiding curious travelers around the estate for a couple of qians.

Time has stopped for the old servant. The events which took place twenty years ago were more vivid to him than the night's before. He kept his devotion to the perished master and was slowly crumbling to dust along with the house.

Sitting under the overgrown paperbark maples and rowans, the old man was narrating his heartbreaking saga...

"For his whole worthless life, that brat Liu LiZhong hated his uncle, who was like a father to him. Anything he did, he did from spite! When Liu LiZhong was a child and even later, when he was already a young man and should have known better, the moment his uncle reached for him, he always sank his teeth into the other's hand like a madman. I saw it with my own eyes."

"If I were the master, I would have given that scoundrel a good sound beating or two to keep him bedridden for a week! It probably wouldn't have helped but at least I'd feel better..."

"Pity, the master has never laid a finger on that brat - that's the man he was, calm and self-composed to the extreme."

"He felt sorry for those kids, all because they'd lost both parents at such tender age... that's what he was trying to do, to make up for their loss with his care. And he still held himself guilty! He would say, 'TeaBag, TeaBag, it's all my fault that the boy is so ill-behaved. I lack strictness with these kids.'"

"He said, 'Liu LiZhong, Liu LiZhong, what else do you want? You are like a son to me, I bathed you when you were little, I would do anything for you.'"

"And that useless punk... some kind of punk, almost an adult, taller than the uncle!.. that little shit answered, 'You say once again about me like a son, I'll rip out your motherfucker's hair.'"

"Did you hear that, the way he is talking? There's no brat ruder than him and with a fouler mouth in the whole world. Fancy that! With such an uncle, such an outstanding man!"

The old servant mixed up the past and the present and his hatred towards the long gone nephew came up with a bang.

"His sister, she was an angel when she was little... and after that for a while. She worshipped her uncle. Well, maybe she worshipped him a bit too much, she even got him worried. When she turned eleven, he forbade her to get into his bathing tub naked. The girl cried for two days and her brother, that nine-year-old shit, tore up the uncle's clothes and even tried to beat him."

"Some useless gossipers said that Liu LiZhong was jealous of his sister because of her improper love for their uncle..."

The old servant really fell into talk. Ding XuShun  wished he could write down that inspiring story. Regrettably, it wasn't appropriate for him to take out the notepad and a quill at a moment like that. He didn't want to hurt the old man's feelings. However, new details piling up turned out to be more and more intriguing. He really should memorize it all and tell over to his mom.

"Yeah... that low little piece of shit dared to suspect that his uncle could succumb to the niece's childish affection and do something unseemly to her. That's why when Liu MiLi (that's the girl's name) plunged into her uncle's bathing tub in her birthday suit, Liu LiZhong got in as well and demanded the uncle to soap his back instead of hers."

"When Liu MiLi cooked for the uncle and brought the food to his room, Liu LiZhong stormed inside on her heels and threw the bowls on the floor and... (the old man wiped an occasional tear away) at his own mother's little brother."

TeaBag blew his nose into a sleeve and continued,

"Lady Hu Zhei... what a courteous lady she was, how charming... The way they, she and my master, loved each other... And that piece of shit ruined it all! I mean that piece of shit Liu LiZhong, not the master."

"The master says, 'You need a mother. I will ask Lady Hu to look after you and show you some woman's care.'"

"And that brat says... What he said, I can't even repeat to such a civilized and well-dressed gentleman like you are... let's just assume it is done there... I believe..." he whispered pointing with his old honest eyes at the relevant part of Ding XuShun 's body as he winked meaningfully.

Ding XuShun  in his mind was already biting on his lip, fist, elbow and even the said relevant part to suppress laughter. He waved speechlessly to the old man meaning 'please, go on, don't mind me'.

"To think I didn't want to go!" he thought.

"So he says,.. 'F-f-f... (stares meaningfully at Ding XuShun 's lower abdomen, winks) ... this mother. And you, you come close to her, she'll get a glass of vinegar in her cow face.'  Did you hear that, what I just said? That's how he talked to his mother's brother! The way he talked, that punk..."

"And he just ruined everything, can you even imagine that? What kind of underage halfwit would protect a woman from her own fiancé? Not exactly a fiancé, to be honest, there never was a formal proposal... you know because of who... How couldn't she be safe with all those servants and visitors around? Why couldn't the master come up to her? What sort of lecherous animal did he take his own uncle for? Isn't love a matter decided in heaven after all? Not by some little shit!"

"That's all his fault that the master and Lady Hu Zhei haven't got married though she stayed in our house for twelve years and took care of the whole household."

"The master would say, 'Hu Zhei, Hu Zhei, leave us alone, go home.'"

"You see? What other man would sacrifice his feelings for the sake of a neurotic teen nephew?"

"And she'd say, 'I will never leave you. Your children will be my children.'"

"And he'd say, "Total nightmare. I'll drown myself to death.' That's because he knew they weren't destined to be together,.. suffered so much."

"I remember Liu MiLi says too.. Truth be told, I was so shocked. Looks like such younger brother was a bad influence on the girl,.. can't help such matters... though she was an angel in the flesh... total angel... Liu MiLi says, 'What the shit. You want children, go have your own.'"

"The master says, 'LeeLee, how can you, my little lotus flower! Total nightmare. I'll drown myself.'" 

"And her brother Liu LiZhong says, 'Serves you right, old mother...'" The old honest eyes focused on a certain part of Ding XuShun.

"The master, he only looked at the scoundrel with silent reproach... And he says..."

"Let me guess! Total nightmare, I'll drown..."

"No, no, no. I still hear his words like it was yesterday... He said, 'I bathed you when you were little. And that's how you speak... LiZhong, LiZhong...'"

"My, my... Madam Hu Zhei, what a woman she was!  Such a respectable father... he was the captain of the Imperial Guard in the Prefecture. I can still hear that bellowing voice at daybreak: 'On your feet, lazy shit! Line up in the yard!..'"

Tears stopped the sentimental old man from finishing the last phrase. Obviously, the memories brought to life images dear to him. The old man held an index finger vertically in the air showing he needed a moment to get himself together, then he gave out a grievous sob and continued:

"It's a pity you haven't seen it... that eagle-eye upon the whole household, that smooth decisive movement jerking the breast up... those were the breasts! Like two ripe watermelons!"

(Ding XuShun, amazed and terrified:) - Whose breasts? The captain of the Imperial Guard's?

(Old servant, no less amazed:) - Why?.. Haven't you been paying attention? I'm talking about Madam Hu!

"Fascinating! " said Ding XuShun amiably. "But can you tell some more about that good-for-nothing nephew... What was his name again... Liu LiZhong, was it not?"

"Ah, the nephew..." the servant drowned in memories...

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