116: The Eastern Slope
The burial at the eastern slope of the master's compound went on at the noon of the sixth day of the first moon of the seventeenth year.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past four years' accumulating *upper-hills burial protocol* the master had laid for any small accumulating dead at the grove of twelve pines, the small accumulating eastern slope was — by the small specific accumulating reading — at the small accumulating *real* burial-place of the master's accumulating compound. It was a small flat shelf perhaps thirty paces east of the hut, behind a small accumulating low ridge of grey rock that had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nineteen years and ten months — held the small accumulating *master's small specific other private dead* at certain years Heizi did not, by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning, ask.
The brothers and Ah Chou and the boy An Ashi dug six graves at the eastern slope at the dawn of the sixth day. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past three hours of the morning's accumulating digging — Ah Chou laid the small accumulating *combined tea* at Lu Jingzhi at the medic's cot at every quarter hour against the small accumulating *fever-and-bleeding* shape of the past night's accumulating wound. Lu Jingzhi — by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's eye at this morning — held. The wound at the side of the abdomen was, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, at the small accumulating *first-twelve-hours-decisive* shape. It would, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, perhaps close at the next two days. Or perhaps not.
The six graves were laid at the small accumulating *six-in-a-row* shape, with Tie-zhu at the small accumulating *eastern-end* of the row by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving. The eastern end was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past six and a half years' accumulating reading of the lame brother's accumulating *carpenter's eye for the country's small specific accumulating angle* — the small accumulating *correct* end for the lame brother. The other five — Yan Shaozhong at the position next to Tie-zhu, then Liu Erlang, Cao Hu, Liu Wenchang, Tian Erjia at the western end — were laid in the small accumulating *order of the joining* the brothers had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years, agreed.
By the noon, the six bodies had been laid in.
Heizi at the head of the row laid the small specific accumulating *one-mark-knowing*'s small specific saying for each.
He said in the small low voice for Yan Shaozhong: *Yan Shaozhong of southern Henan, thirty-four, the senior veteran who at the past two years' watching had been at the small accumulating *real-veteran's reading* of the small specific *moment*-teaching's accumulating taking-by-an-old-man's-saying-into-a-young-man's-saying. He held the *quarter-circle* well at his accumulating last engagement. He died at the recovery's third moment. He is at the eastern slope.*
He said for Liu Erlang: *Liu Erlang of Hebei, twenty-eight, the bog-iron-helper who had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past three years, laid in the small accumulating *forge-helper's careful work* at the smith's son's accumulating teaching. He took the *thrust-and-set* at the third wave's accumulating Sui spear. He is at the eastern slope.*
He said for Cao Hu, for Liu Wenchang, for Tian Erjia, in the small specific accumulating *one-mark-knowing's saying* for each.
He came to Tie-zhu.
He stood at the head of the easternmost grave for a long beat.
He could not — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past minute's standing — find his accumulating voice.
He stood.
The brothers and Ah Chou and An Ashi stood at the eastern slope behind him, at the small accumulating *waiting* shape of an accumulating *household of five-and-master* at its accumulating real-end of the small accumulating *coming-back of the original four* the lad had walked out of his foster father's accumulating village with, eleven years and ten months ago, in the dark of the third moon of Da-ye one.
Ah Si had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years — been at the third row of the burying ground of the hamlet of two wells.
Tie-zhu was now at the eastern slope.
The two — by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — would not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the next twenty years, return to the small accumulating home village in southern Hebei. They were, by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning, at the small accumulating *unreturned* shape the foreshadow of the lad's accumulating eleven-year-ago morning had laid: *Only one would.*
That one was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning — Heizi.
He found his voice.
He said in the small low voice: *Tie-zhu of the village. The carpenter's apprentice's nephew of Old Lu. Twenty-six. The lame brother. The defensive corner. The small specific *Khotanese cut* at the eastern post of the lean-to at the small flat place behind the long low ridge of the past tenth year. The small accumulating *I-will-come-back* he laid at the door of the household at the hamlet of two wells in the past ninth year, with the small accumulating *unfinished bird* with the charcoal-eye at his accumulating coat. He has — by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning — not, in this life, come back. The small accumulating *bird* is in the lad's accumulating coat now. The lad will, by the small specific accumulating reading at some accumulating year ahead — if the country allows — carry it back to Lan-gu of the hamlet of two wells. Tie-zhu is at the eastern slope.*
He stepped back.
The brothers and Ah Chou and the boy An Ashi each laid one small accumulating handful of earth at the lame brother's accumulating grave. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past hour's accumulating filling, the six graves were filled. Six small accumulating low mounds at the eastern slope.
Heizi did not — at the eastern slope — weep.
He had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and ten months — not wept since the low rock behind the burned eastern row of the hamlet of two wells.
He did not weep now.
He kept the discipline.
He filed.
He filed Tie-zhu, in his accumulating dark catalog, at the small specific accumulating *named*: *Tie-zhu of southern Hebei, age twenty-six.*
The dark catalog stood — at the noon of the sixth day of the first moon of the seventeenth year — at twenty-five named entries plus the small accumulating *unnamed thousand+*.
The household was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this noon — five-and-master, with Lu Jingzhi at the medic's cot at the small accumulating *first-twelve-hours-decisive* shape.
That afternoon, at the small wooden bench inside the hut, by the small specific accumulating reading at the master's saying — the master had been at the small wooden stool at the noon's accumulating beside-the-cot reading and had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past hour, returned to the cot — Heizi sat.
He took out, from the inner pocket of his shirt, the small accumulating unfinished bird with the charcoal-eye and the small dark ribbon.
He laid it at the small wooden bench.
He looked at it for a long beat.
He filed.
He laid one finger, very gently, at the small accumulating *charcoal-eye* of the bird — the small accumulating *eye* the lame brother had finished, alone at the watch at the small flat place behind the long low ridge in the past tenth year, at the morning before the brothers' first encounter with the four-band's accumulating *outer arc*.
The bird had been — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and seven months — in the lame brother's accumulating coat at every accumulating walk.
It was — at this afternoon — in the lad's accumulating coat.
He laid the small accumulating bird back at the inner pocket of his shirt against his ribs, beside the small finished indigo pouch with the *生*.
He filed.
That evening, by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's accumulating eye at the medic's cot, Lu Jingzhi at the medic's cot's accumulating *first-twelve-hours-decisive* shape — passed the small accumulating *twelve-hours mark*. The wound at the side of the abdomen had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past evening's accumulating careful binding — held. The bleeding had — by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's eye — closed. The fever had not — by the small specific accumulating reading at Ah Chou's hand at Lu Jingzhi's brow — risen.
Lu Jingzhi was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk's accumulating reading — at the small accumulating *will-perhaps-heal-now* shape.
Ah Chou said in the small low voice: *big brother. By the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — the brother will, by the small specific reading I am giving, perhaps heal at the next two months. The wound at the side will, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, leave a small accumulating *scar* the brother will carry at the inner abdomen for the rest of his accumulating life. The brother will not, by the small specific reading I am giving, be at the small accumulating *fully-fit* shape for perhaps four months.*
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning — the lame brother had at the corner saved Lu Jingzhi's life, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, by the small specific accumulating *first-thrust* that broke the three Sui veterans before they reached the small accumulating *medic's tent's* accumulating cot."
Heizi nodded.
He filed it.
He filed: *the lame brother had, by his accumulating death, saved Lu Jingzhi.*
In the small lighter catalog of moments, beside the small specific noon of Tie-zhu's burial, he set: *the small specific dusk of the sixth day of the first moon of the seventeenth year, when Lu Jingzhi at the medic's cot passed the twelve-hours mark and would, by Ah Chou's eye, perhaps heal — saved by the lame brother's accumulating *first-thrust*.*
The lighter catalog stood at perhaps one hundred and fourteen items.
The dark catalog stood at twenty-five named entries plus the *unnamed thousand+*.
That night Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire.
He listened.
The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a small specific *staff-officer-and-apprentice* whose accumulating *eleven-and-master* had at the past two days become the *five-and-master* with one of the five at the medic's cot, and whose accumulating *small specific other carpenter's apprentice's nephew* who had walked out of the village with him eleven years and ten months ago lay at the eastern slope under perhaps four hands of upper-hills earth.
He did not weep.
He filed.
He sat his watch through.