Bridge Of Birds Read Online Free PDF Page B

whether it was the same
     as a Great Root of Power. The bonzes found three other references, but only one of them
     was contemporary.
    “Thirty years ago, at a price of three hundred talents, which I cannot possibly believe, a
     Root of Power was sold to the Ancestress,” said the abbot, looking up from his lists.
     “There is no further mention of it, and I assume that it is still in the dear lady's
     possession.”
    Li Kao looked as though he had bitten into a green persimmon.
    “If that woman laid eyes on me, she'd have my head in two seconds,” he said sourly. Then
     he had second thoughts. “Come to think of it, it would be a miracle if she recognized me.
     She couldn't have been more than sixteen when I was summoned to the emperor's palace, and
     that was a good fifty years ago.”
    “Master Li, you were summoned by an emperor?” I asked with wide eyes.
    “Several, but this particular one was old Wen,” he said. “In the carefree days of my youth
     I once sold him some shares in a mustard mine.”
    We stared at him.
    “A mustard mine?” the abbot said weakly.
    “I was trying to win a bet concerning the intelligence of emperors,” he explained. “When I
     was summoned to court I assumed that I was going to be rewarded with the Death of Ten
     Thousand Cuts, but Emperor Wen had something else in mind. Oddly enough, it was
     sericulture. Some barbarians were trying to learn the secret of silk, and the emperor
     thought that they might be getting close to the truth. 'Li Kao,' he commanded, 'sell these
     dogs a mustard mine!' It was one of the most ghastly experiences of my life.”
    Li Kao turned and trotted back out the door, and we followed like sheep as he started back
     toward the monastery. I was learning that there were many sides to Master Li, and I
     listened with fascination.
    “I had to turn their brains to butter with strong wine, and every morning I pried my
     eyelids open and glared at red-bearded barbarians who were snoring in puddles of vomit,”
     he said. “They had the constitutions of billy goats, and it was a month and a half before
     I was able to persuade them that silk is extracted from the semen of snow-white dragons
     that breed only in caverns concealed in the mysterious Mongolian glaciers. Before sailing
     away with the sad news, their leader came to see me. He was an oaf named Procopius, and
     the wine had not improved his appearance. 'O great and mighty Master Li, pray impart to me
     the Secret of Wisdom!' he bawled. A silly smile was sliding down the side of his face like
     a dripping watercolor, and his eyeballs resembled a pair of pink pigeon eggs that were
     gently bouncing in saucers of yellow wonton soup. To my great credit I never batted an
     eyelash. Take a large bowl,' I said. 'Fill it with equal measures of fact, fantasy,
     history, mythology, science, superstition, logic, and lunacy. Darken the mixture with
     bitter tears, brighten it with howls of laughter, toss in three thousand years of
     civilization, bellow
    
    
     kan pei
    
    
     - which means ”dry cup“ - and drink to the dregs.' Procopius stared at me. 'And I will be
     wise?' he asked. 'Better,' I said. 'You will be Chinese.' ”
    Li Kao led the way back to the infirmary and slowly walked up the long line of beds.
     Weariness bowed his shoulders, and in the bright morning sunlight his wrinkled skin was
     nearly transparent.
    The children of Ku-fu looked like wax effigies. Fang's Fawn had always been pretty, but
     now the bone structure was showing beneath her smooth skin. She was exquisite as a carving
     in white jade is exquisite, without warmth or life. On the bed next to her was a
     woodcutter's daughter named Bone Helmet, a thin, plain girl who had been gentle and
     loving. Since she had been old enough to thread a needle, she had worked on her father's
     burial garment, and he had proudly worn it at every festival, and now the heartbroken
     father had dressed his