Chapter 121 — Strong Liquor
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 8
But the real astonishment, the thing that made their eyes go wide, was still to come.
Xiaobai gave a little laugh, her gaze now truly soft as water. She tossed her head, her hair streaming, put the wineskin to her lips, and began to drink in great gulps, glug after glug.
The Miao were greatly alarmed. Ming Li, not understanding what was happening, merely cursed Xiaobai inwardly for pulling such a stunt at a time like this; but in the eyes of the Miao, this woman was now all but the most extraordinary woman in the world.
Miao liquor was exceedingly strong. A wineskin this large was more than any man among the entire Miao people could drain in one go; most would be thoroughly drunk by the time they reached three-quarters. Yet now they watched this woman's throat work without pause as she drank on and on in great swallows, and one by one the Miao men were visibly moved.
And to top it all, Xiaobai had just made that most classic of gestures!
The Miao character was forthright, after all, and when so many men were faced with a challenge from a woman who looked so frail, how could any of them flinch? No one knew who gave the first shout, but a man flung his long-handled spear to the ground, untied the wineskin at his waist, and threw back his head to drink.
By Miao custom, nearly every man carried a wineskin. Once the first had begun, it was as if a pot had boiled over: the Miao threw down their spears and drank, a truly magnificent sight.
Only the Miao squad leader suddenly came to his senses. He reached for the wine at his waist, but his hand closed on nothing, and only then did he realize his wineskin was already in Xiaobai's hands. Watching his fellow men all around him drinking, the Miao leader went red in the face with urgency, in grave danger of being disgraced for all time if he did not drink now.
His eyes darted about, and in his desperation he hit on an idea. The Miao leader shot over to a Miao soldier standing near the riverbank, abruptly snatched the wineskin from his hand, and put it to his lips to drink in great gulps.
The soldier flew into a rage. A man may be killed, but liquor absolutely must not go undrunk; with a great shout he lunged to seize it back. But the Miao leader had been on his guard, and with a sudden kick he sent the man flying into the river with a splash that raised a huge spray of water, giving Xiao Hui, who was playing on the bank, a great fright.
The soldier was utterly aggrieved, and with his honor at stake, how could he let the matter rest? He scrambled and crawled up onto the bank, saw there was no hope of wrestling it back from the Miao squad leader, and stamped his foot in fury. Then he strode off at a run, charged into a nearby house, and moments later, amid cries of alarm, burst out again with a large wineskin of fierce liquor, planted himself with a flourish beside his Miao comrades, and began to drink in great gulps.
Ming Li was dumbstruck, and for the moment quite forgot the altar on the mountainside. There was a great crowd of Miao men on one side and, on the other, a single delicate woman, and both sides were drinking for dear life as if possessed. The spectacle was magnificent, and utterly absurd; it made a man break out in a sweat.
By now the scene had grown too spectacular to ignore, and it drew the surrounding Miao at once. Word spread in an instant, shrill Miao voices rising and falling on every side, and a great crowd came swarming over, at least three times the number of the onlookers from before.
Vendors abandoned their stalls, hunters dropped their quarry, and everyone in the houses came running out, ringing the place so tightly there was no gap at all, layer upon layer, a veritable sea of people.
Cries and shrieks came from the crowd now and again, no doubt mostly the excited shouts and cheers of the onlookers.