Meng Jiangnu turned back toward the old woman's house, wondering where she'd gone, worrying about the health and safety of the woman who abetted her. She searched for nearly an hour, but when she reached the tiny hut, she discovered that the fire had died out and there was no more smoke in the fireplace, even the old lady's cat was gone. There was nothing except a façade-a building front-no throne, no bed, no chairs, no marble floors, no elaborate carvings; there was no sign of life anywhere and, Meng Jiangnu anguished that she was truly alone. How can I find Xiliang if I don't know where I am? How can I reach the man I love?

Overhead, Jiangnu heard a fluttering noise, but it was more than just a fluttering, it was a colophony filling the morning sky, and as Jiangnu stretched her neck, she saw the heavens darkened by a hundred thousand geese. For a moment she thought the sun had dried up and faded into nothingness and she had been cast into a stygian hellish eternity; but the geese circled over her before they flew north by northeast in a different direction than Jiangnu had planned to go, into a different world, flying effortlessly over the great mountains to the north. Should I follow them; are they a sign from the goddess?

Jiangnu didn't have time to wonder. This is a sign from the goddess; everything I've done has been ordained by Kuan Yin. She must be showing me the way. Jiangnu turned from her path, thanking the goddess, as she followed the geese.

Jiangnu was used to rugged hills; she had grown up near the mountains, but she had never encountered anything as high as those that towered above her. She had never envisioned such heights and by the end of the day, she was gasping for breath, struggling up the mountains. By nightfall, she had sacrificed one of the packages she had made for her husband, dumping the homemade trousers she'd toiled over for nearly a month, too weak to lug it any further. Jiangnu and I can collect his gift on our way home; I'll tell him there's a present for him in the mountains and we'll search for it together.

After struggling for seven days, Jiangnu reached the mountaintop and when she looked down she was horrified: there, below her, was the emperor's Great Wall and there were hundreds of thousands of men, digging, hacking at the mountain, lugging stone, pulling, and tugging, trudging, struggling to build the largest structure the gods had ever seen.

Where's Xiliang? How can I find him? Jiangnu stopped thinking as she struggled down the mountain, realizing that going down was twenty times more treacherous than climbing up. I must find Fan Xiliang; I must find my husband.

As she neared the building project, she noticed that the workers were dressed in rags and resembled skeletons. Their gaunt bodies barely held the shape of their rags, let alone human form. If she hadn't known better, Jiangnu would have thought emaciated starving brainless six-year-old children were building the wall.

Surprisingly, no one noticed the peasant woman approaching. The men were toiling and the guards were watching their prisoners, facing the wall away from the mountain so Jiangnu strode boldly toward them, knowing she would persevere. When she entered the make-shift village, passing the hovels and huts of the workers, seeing the pits filled with bodies, she knew she wouldn't stop until she rescued her husband.

Halfway into the day, she was close enough to see the guards' platform, abandoned for the moment because two guards, Xiaoghua and Loo, had sat down to eat, exhausted from supervising so long in the broiling sun.

Meng Jiangnu rushed forward and climbed the shaky ladder to the top of the platform, nearly slipping as her foot missed a rung, but when she reached the top, she screamed so loudly that the ladder shook and fell to the earth. "Who has my husband? Who has Fan Xiliang?"

Within seconds, the guards raced back to their station, but it was too late. There was a demon on the top of the tower, a maniac screaming into the afternoon sun. The guards had faced the wrath of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, they had driven thousands of men to their death, but they had never seen such an odious obnoxious woman before. All the women they knew were quiet, non-responsive females, who knew their place in a man's world. They were wives and mothers who would never scream at their superiors in public.

The men stood at the bottom of the platform, looking up, wondering what to do.

Meanwhile, Jiangnu screamed for justice, as the sun sank lower and lower into the sky, screaming until her voice became hoarse, unable to stop. "Who has Fan Xiliang? Bring him to me-he is here unjustly-he has done no wrong. He is my husband. Bring Fan Xiliang to me. Bring him to me-e-e-e-e"

Jiangnu's last outburst was so protracted that the guards were forced to take a dozen steps back from the tower and as they did, they realized the entire camp was watching the witch-woman and all the slaves had stopped their work and the other guards were cowering in fear. Then, slowly, Xiaoghua and Loo turned to face each other knowing their jobs were on the line if they failed to control this woman, knowing the emperor would burn their fields, decimate their village, torture the women first-catting out their tongues, then their toes, then their hands, then slicing them into ribbons before going after the children and the cattle and the ducks and geese and the nesting robins, before finally hacking each man to death-slowly, blow by excruciating blow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Get down! This is our station." Xiaoghua hoisted the ladder and climbed up, but as he reached the halfway point, holding onto each rung carefully so Jiangnu wouldn't be able to dislodge him, he had an idea. When I capture her, I'll take her to the wall and toss her off the top, then no one will ever defy me again. No sooner had the thought filled his mind than the ladder slipped and Xiaoghua fell to his death. The moment his limp body struck the earth, Loo realized that the howling woman looming over him was sent by the gods. No one has such power-not even the Great Emperor-no one can overcome the guards with such impunity. We must not disturb the woman again. Loo crept slowly away, praying that the gods hadn't seen him, hoping the other men wouldn't be able to identify him when the emperor discovered what had happened.

And then the terrible Jiangnu screamed again, her voice filling the sky, as she blanketed the mountains with her anger and shook the foundations of the Great Wall. "Where is my husband? Who has my husband?" She screamed so loudly that half the wall collapsed into a pile of dust and debris and hundreds of guards were killed and the slaves ran as far away as they could to avoid Jiangnu.

"The earth is shaking. Run for your lives!"

Boulders slipped from the Great Wall as another portion crashed to the ground and, where once there had been unending activity, there was now nothing but carnage and destruction. Where once there had been hope, albeit, slim, now there was nothing but devastation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Unknown to Meng Jiangnu, Fan Xiliang had died the night before and his body was lying in a shallow trench at the base of the wall, "Never put bodies under the wall," Xiaoghua had suggested, "bodies disintegrate, but the wall is forever. Put the bodies at the base of the wall and fill it in later." And then he laughed sadistically, "Perhaps the bodies will rot enough to leave a deeper pit and perhaps the rain will fill it and create a river by the wall; perhaps we will give Emperor Huangdi two lines of defense instead of one." Xiaoghua wanted to remember his thoughts; he wanted to find a way to share them with his superiors and wished he knew the art of writing or that he could find a slave to record them, but he was too ashamed to seek out a slave who could help him. Xiaoghua had wanted many things-but mostly he wanted power, not as much as the emperor, but enough to be in control of his immediate surroundings, yet his memory was lax and within an hour or two of most events, his mind became a tabula rasa, ready to receive new information, ready to serve the king. But now, none of that mattered-Xiaoghua was dead.

Miraculously, as if to complete Xiaoghua's hope of finding a writer, Fan Xiliang's body was forced to the top of the pile as the Great Wall collapsed around his carcass and his shattered body lay at rest on the silken earth; it was as if Fan Xiliang's death had been preordained by the great goddess as the last sign that Kuan Yin cared enough about Meng Jiangnu to restore her husband's body to her.

As soon as the wall collapsed, Jiangnu climbed down the guard's platform, grabbing the horizontal pieces as she descended like a spider climbing out of her web, still fearing nothing, knowing she was invulnerable as she floated from the top of the guards' tower to the earth and sailed across the uneven ground effortlessly, floating, flying, flinging herself toward her Fan Xiliang.

When she reached Xiliang's body, she fell to her knees and held him in her arms, caressing his hair as her tears fell gently on his face and for an instant, she thought she saw him breath again . . . until she realized she had gazed through her own tears and her vision was merely the motion of her them and not of her husband being reborn.

Then the Goddess Kuan Yin stood over Jiangnu, knowing she was the only one who could help the widow, knowing she was the only one who could save Jiangnu and Xiliang for all eternity. Listen to me, feel my strength, remember me as the old woman who helped you, remember me as the flock of geese. I have always been with you and will be with you forever if you just listen to me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jiangnu felt a sudden coldness consume her; it was as if the goddess stood nearby, calming her, cooling her down. What must I do to be reunited with Xiliang?

Jiangnu saw the broken hairpin on a cord hanging around her husband's neck and as she untied it and touched it to her broken half, they became one. "Just like us; we are united for all eternity."

Jiangnu took the magic bowls from her rucksack and laid them on either side of her husband. "You will need these more where you're going than I will. Besides, we are united now . . . we are one." Jiangnu placed the water bowl next to Xiliang's right hand and the food bowl next to his left. "You'll be thirsty before you are hungry, my husband, you'll need water faster than food." Jiangnu prayed for her dead husband, then she prayed for his family, and finally, she prayed for her own. Then she prayed that the emperor would fathom the meaning of justice and atone for his crimes against humanity. Gods and Emperors never pay for what they do but, it is time for Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi to make his atonement. Jiangnu paused, waiting for thoughts from the goddess, I must see the emperor. I must show him the atrocities he has committed. I must show him his despicable guards, his broken wall, his emaciated slaves, Jiangnu's lips curled in disgust as she uttered the word slaves, and she vowed never to refer to human beings again as anything less than men or women-ever, ever again. I must show the emperor the bodies of the men he has killed. I must show him that the wall can never be finished by slave labor; I must show him the entire wall will collapse if enough women shout him down. He must understand that women are more powerful than the greatest emperor on earth; he must come to realize the power of the people, and he must know that I am free-I am The Great Wall in China.

In reverence, Jiangnu backed away from her husband's body just as the goddess revealed herself, "Jiangnu, you have realized that you are The Great Wall in China, now both you and Xiliang will live forever as long as you obey me and listen to everything I say."

The conversation was brief, but Jiangnu's plan was set. She knew what she must do if she wanted to be reunited forever with Fan Xiliang.

The goddess took Jiangnu's hand and led her gently into the night, away from the collapsed wall, away from the screaming men (whom Jiangnu had not even heard until this moment), away from the guards. No one can harm you because you are free forever.

And as the goddess and Jiangnu walked toward the mountain, away from the chaos she had caused, the goddess composed a magic incantation and wafted it back to Xiliang's body.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hold the jade hairpin in your left hand.

Picture yourself free and you will be reborn.

Soon, Kuan Yin thought, my children will be reunited, and they will live forever as reincarnated souls.

And then, just as suddenly as the wall had collapsed, Kuan Yin opened the earth around Xiliang and he and the hairpin and the bowls were swept down below the Great Wall as the goddess entombed them in the ancient limestone cavern she had created eight thousand years before. Kuan Yin created a magical ramp from the cavern to the earth, then she set a golden door in place and hid all the bodies behind it, with the exception of Xiliang, whom she left in front-to guard the door and the men. The goddess still had one more gift for Xiliang, but she could complete her door to eternity, she was interrupted by the sounds of the other gods, wondering why she was spending so much time with earthlings. And as she fought them (out of range of Jiangnu), the cavern and its magical contents continued to form, and the spells that Kuan Yin had evoked, continued to work their magic. The door sealed itself as Xiliang was separated from the others and there was nothing that even the great goddess Kuan Yin could do about it until the future reincarnation of Meng Jiangnu found a way to open it. Once a goddess created a spell, it would last for all eternity.

After quieting the other gods and assuring them she had no ill-intentions, Kuan Yin returned to the cavern and shuttered at her failure. "Two thousand years from now, your living reborn soul will find a way to reunite with your lover, but for now," Kuan Yin touched him on his head, wishing she had the power to reunite him with Meng Jiangnu, and she then shed a tear for the mortal as she vanished in the night-for now she had other battles to fight because her battle with the other gods had just begun.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Meng Jiangnu, feeling abandoned by Kuan Yin, continued trekking alone toward the mountain, but now she had no magic bowls to provide for her. I don't want to live without Xiliang, I will wait for his spirit to come and collect me and then I will die.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The empire was vast, but Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi's spies were everywhere and he quickly learned about the disaster at the Great Wall, but he had also heard the rumors of the courage and beauty of the great woman, Meng Jiangnu, who ravished his soldiers. "I will find her and torture her until all the heavens erupts in anger. When I find her, she will die the slow death, regretting that she ever learning how to breathe."

Emperor Qin and his army reached the site within two days and immediately confronted his senior supervisors. "Kill one hundred guards and let their deaths be recorded in the annals, then go to their villages and kill their families."

The emperor surveyed the damage and realized the gods were involved. A woman could never have done this-not without help from the gods; no mere woman could have destroyed my wall.

Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi looked to the right and left. His wall was secure for an eternity in both directions. It was merely this tiny section that collapsed. "This will never happen again, but first I must find this woman . . . and she will die."


On to Chapter Thirty-Four
News of the Avalanche
Back to Thirty-Two
Avalanche!
Complete Chapter List

The Scot Walker Story Page

Tarheel Writer Home Page

I'd love to hear what you think!  Leave me a comment on our contact us page.