From a distance, seeing the herd of cattle and horses emerging from the forest path, Eric jumped to the ground, gathered all his strength, and shouted loudly, “Hey—, Jack! Your wife is marrying my brother tomorrow. Are you coming to the wedding banquet or not?” Eric had been thinking about this sentence all day, and now that he shouted it out at the top of his lungs, he felt immensely satisfied.

These were two completely different groups of boys.

Beneath the bridge, five herdboys were surrounded front and back by groups of pigs, cattle, horses, and sheep. They wore brimless straw hats, the patched cuffs and pant legs rolled up high, and their bare feet were caked with mud, their skin tanned dark by the sun. The six boys on the bridge, though also dressed in coarse cloth, were all clean and tidy. They had just spent an idle day and were eager to find some fun before nightfall.

“Don’t pay attention to him.” Facing Eric’s provocation, Brian Smith didn’t want to respond. He was starving and just wanted to go home and fill his belly. “Let’s take a detour and wade across the river.”

Thinking of the plan for the evening, Jack almost agreed with Brian Smith’s suggestion, but the laughter from the boys on the bridge made him change his mind.

Jack walked at the front, followed by more than a dozen horses, with Brian Smith and the others trailing not too far behind—they were still a bit afraid of Eric.

Eric was the second young master of the Shen family, not at all stupid, tall and sturdy, with narrow eyes that always seemed to warn others with a sidelong glance: he was not someone to mess with.

Jack actually accepted the challenge, which made Eric very happy. He stood in the middle of the bridge with his hands on his hips, his five companions lining up on either side, completely blocking the way.

“You’re blocking the road,” Jack said in a muffled voice. Behind him, the gentle herd of horses, noticing someone was in the way, all stopped and patiently waited for the problem to resolve itself.

Eric had been waiting for this moment for a long time and said with a grin, “I’m here to deliver your invitation. Tomorrow your wife will become my sister-in-law. Come over and say a few auspicious words, and I’ll have my father reward you with a few copper coins. Oh dear, where’s the invitation? I just had it a moment ago.”

Eric pretended to search himself, and his companions burst out laughing. Lance, who was half a head shorter but just as sturdy, chimed in, “Maybe Jack already got the invitation from Mr. Qin’s house. After all, Fangfang is his wife.”

The boys on the bridge laughed so hard they could barely stand up straight. The youngest, Baldy, who had just been allowed to join the gang and was eager to show off, pointed at Jack and said, “Your wife… your wife is going to call someone else husband now, haha, Jack…”

Jack had heard enough. He gave the chestnut horse beside him a hard slap. Startled, the horse leapt forward.

For the narrow bridge and the boys of Wildwood Town, the chestnut horse was like a giant beast. The boys blocking the way scrambled to get out of the way, and their neat formation instantly fell apart.

“Jack, that’s my family’s horse! How dare you…” Eric was furious.

The chestnut horse didn’t know who its real owner was. In two or three strides, it dashed off the bridge, with the rest of the herd close behind. The boys could only press themselves fearfully against the bridge railings, watching helplessly as the horses passed.

Eric would never allow the showdown he had planned for days to end like this. With the last two horses still on the bridge, he was no longer so afraid. Seizing an opening, he leapt at Jack.

The two boys started wrestling on the bridge, while the dozen or so horses turned around on the bank, gazing blankly at the scene before quickly losing interest and lowering their heads to graze on the roadside grass.

Eric was taller than Jack and looked stronger, but he didn’t have the upper hand in the fight. Even with his companions loudly cheering him on, he couldn’t manage to defeat his opponent right away.

With a splash, both boys tumbled over the bridge railing and fell into the river.

The water wasn’t deep, just over their waists, but Eric, the bridge’s usual overlord, lost much of his nerve as soon as he hit the water. Jack, on the other hand, was as agile as a fish in the river and quickly took control.

Eric’s companions shouted threats from the bridge, but none dared to get in the water to help.

“Ding…”

A sound the boys had never heard before rang out by their ears, so sharp it felt like it would pierce their eardrums. They turned to see, a dozen paces downstream on the bank, a strange adult had appeared without anyone noticing.

The stranger wore a blue, front-fastening long robe, his hair tied up in a tall round bun with a long hairpin stuck through it, a few wisps of beard hanging from his chin, and a long sword strapped to his back. Even to the most critical eye, he looked like an “immortal hermit,” but in the remote Wildwood Town, his attire just seemed bizarre.

In his left hand, the stranger shook a brass bell the size of a fist, producing a piercing sound out of proportion to its size.

“Who are you? What are you doing in Wildwood Town?” Eric stood in the river and asked in a trembling voice. He had never been afraid of a lone stranger, even an adult, but for some reason, that bell seemed to have hollowed out his heart.

Jack stood beside Eric, silent, treating the bell’s sound as an enemy and focusing all his energy on resisting it.

The stranger put down the bell and took out a dull-colored bronze mirror with his right hand, slowly waving it at the boys, finally pointing it at the two soaking wet boys. After a moment, he asked, “Are you hot?”

He probably hadn’t spoken in a long time; the sound from his throat was hard and rough, as strange as the old bronze mirror in his hand.