Yanzi Li San: The Complete Saga - (3) Cleverly Retreating from the Silver Note

(3) Cleverly Retreating from the Silver Note

This book is the third volume in the comic series adapted from the novel "The Legend of the Great Thief Yanzi Li San." After offending Da Heita while performing street art in Tianqiao, Li San took refuge atop the square pagoda at Taoranting (Pavilion of Joyful Ceramics). He slept by day and operated by night, committing crimes throughout the city. One day, in the bustling Dazhalan market, he cleverly stole a huge silver note from Zang Decai, a retired eunuch from the late Qing Dynasty, causing a major upheaval in the official circles. Zhang Lu, now aligning himself with Detective Captain Ma Yulin, devised a trap to capture Li San. However, with the help of his friends, Li San miraculously returned the silver note face-to-face, foiling the detectives' plot.

Taoranting, once one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing (an old name for Beijing), used to be a favorite gathering place for scholars and literati. Now, however, it presented a scene of wild countryside: vast muddy puddles, an endless cemetery, countless desolate graves, overgrown with weeds, broken gravestones, and crumbling mounds—a sight filled with melancholy.

2. After outsmarting Da Heita and leaving the bustling Tianqiao, Li San, having nowhere to settle, followed the people mourning at the desolate graves and arrived here. By the reed pond, he spotted a square brick pagoda and thought to himself, "Ah, this will be my home."

3. Soon, as the sun set and the moon rose, he saw no more visitors and approached the pagoda. The pagoda base was steep, and beside it stood a large tomb with a stone tablet, surrounded by a low wall. Li San imagined this must be the tomb of a wealthy person.

4. He thought as he left, the pagoda base was about two zhang (roughly 6.6 meters) wide, then with a "hawk's takeoff," he leaped to the top of the high pagoda. It turned out there was still a small flat area on top of the square pagoda, and a small wooden cabin. The cabin door was locked with a steel lock green with rust, clearly indicating it had been uninhabited for a long time.

5. Li San used his shoulder to push open a wooden door. By moonlight, he saw the cabin's four walls were bare. He left the door ajar to air out the dampness and sat down to rest on the grassy path of the platform in front of the cabin. At this moment, an autumn moon floated high in the sky, moonlight like water, the clear sky like a sea.

6. Li San left the bustling city, sitting alone on the pagoda top, gazing out. A sudden wave of homesickness washed over him. He thought of his childhood, drifting alone, without a single room or a single plot of land. Now, in this vast capital, he couldn't even find a place to call his own. How unfair was the world? Tears welled up in his eyes.

7. He didn't know how long he sat there, only feeling the deepening night and cold wind. He then gathered a few handfuls of old, withered grass, entered the wooden cabin, and lay down on the weeds. He thought, "Well, so be it! If they don't give me a way to live, then those rich people shouldn't expect to live comfortably either!" With this firm resolve, he gradually fell asleep.

8. From then on, the square pagoda cabin became Li San's secret abode. He slept by day and operated by night, committing crimes everywhere. Consequently, rumors spread throughout this ancient capital about wealthy households being robbed and rich people being plundered.