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Chapter 70: Passerby (I)
The village was still in chaos, the clamor of voices resembling the relentless buzzing of a hornet's nest. Some higher-pitched voices rose up from the mass––
"Ghost bird! The ghost bird's here––"
"How could the ghost bird be here? Who brought this evil omen onto us?"
"Oh no, oh no, someone's going to die, aaaahhhh––"
"Perhaps there won't be a death, but something bad is surely about to happen!"
The so-called ghost bird was not some new, mysterious creature, but none other than Xuanmin's black crow who was undoubtedly a Boji Mountain local. Perhaps because it had long lived in the foggy forest, and its cry was rather unique, the commoners living on the mountain had mythologised it as a yao mo.
As though the black bird were a comet that brought ill luck. If it hovered too long above the village, it would bring misfortune to everyone below.
"Ai––" that gloomy sigh rose up again, making Xue Xian grimace. Although the noise may have been terrifying to the locals, it had a different effect on Xue Xian –– after all, when Xuanmin had been pleasuring him earlier, that sigh had pierced through the fog and accompanied each and every one of his own breaths.
So it was highly awkward now.
As soon as he heard the noise, Xue Xian felt pain in his head, a sourness in his cheeks, and an itch in his hands. He wanted to hit the bird. He wanted to eat human meat.
That black bird really was spiritual. It circled the village a few times, then –– who knew where its strange magic came from –– actually came flying straight toward Xuanmin.
Thankfully the three had not yet entered the village, or else they would have caused complete chaos.
The bird really didn't know how to be subtle. It circled round and round, then settled gently on Xuanmin's shoulder and gave a soft caw, almost coquettish.
Great. Some villagers had seen this and were looking over in terror. They began to scream––
"Ghost bird! Look, it's the ghost bird, and it's hovering in midair!"
"Yes, yes, as though it's perching on something. But there's nothing there. How could it be perched there?"
They had originally used the invisibility spell to avoid attention, but now the stupid bird had arrived and they had become some kind of parade. Everyone in the village was staring at them, on high alert –– if not for the villagers’ fear of the "ghost bird" rumors, they would long have charged toward the group with brooms and rakes.
And the stupid bird wasn't even stopping. It seemed not to be afraid of humans at all. It tilted its head and looked back, bemused, at the villagers. Just as they began to tremble with fear, it decided to let out another sigh: "Ai––"
A long, drawn-out sigh with a slight tremor to it... Now the bird really was doing it on purpose.
Xue Xian was far too sensitive to that sound. He immediately turned and urged the bird's owner to give it a silencing talisman.
The bird: “...”
It seemed to fundamentally hate Xue Xian in particular. As the bird stared at a certain dragon with its round, beady eyes, all of its feathers stood on end and it reached its neck over to peck him with its beak.
Xue Xian was happy to engage. He pinched out two fingers and grabbed hold of the bird's beak, yanking it close to his face. Glaring into its eyes, he growled, "Whenever I'm bored, the thing that brings me the most joy is to find a bird somewhere and roast it in a pit. Here, in the middle of nowhere, I'm not that picky. I don't mind if the meat is raw or cooked. All I have to do is pluck the feathers, and then I'm ready to have my meal."
The bird: “...”
Under the threat of death, the bird was now frozen stiff. Then –– slowly, carefully –– it slid its beak out of Xue Xian's grasp and looked back, eyes brimming with tears, at Xuanmin.
Seeing that the damn bird even knew how to be a snitch, Xue Xian glared at Xuanmin too.
Xuanmin: “...”
A real live dragon, so petty as to bicker with a bird –– now that was a talent too. Clearly, ‘Xue Xian’ had been named well. [a]
Xuanmin had probably never expected to one day find himself in such a situation. He seemed out of ideas.
Of course, Xue Xian wasn't actually locked in a mortal battle with the bird. He wanted to use this opportunity to cast away the slightly strange atmosphere between him and Xuanmin and try to lead them back to normal. Especially as, the whole way here from the mountain hollow, Xuanmin had not said a word –– he'd been even quieter than usual, somehow.
Xue Xian had not been looking for long when Xuanmin glanced back at him. Xuanmin looked him up and down, then raised a hand to cover Xue Xian’s eyes.
Xuanmin's hand was not soft –– his thin knuckles pressed against Xue Xian's brow and nose. And it seemed like the cleaning talisman was the best trick in Xuanmin’s sleeve, because his hand was pristine. All the sweat he’d shed back at the bamboo building from the effects of the dragon spit had vanished, and his skin even smelled a little like the wilderness around them: pleasant and mild.
Xue Xian found that he had gone ahead and erected his own tombstone. He'd wanted to set their relationship back to normal, but now that Xuanmin had covered his eyes for some reason, things had become even weirder...
It was true that, as a paper man, Xue Xian had often had his face or eyes blocked by Xuanmin –– Xuanmin’s intent had been ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ But now that Xue Xian was in human form, the implications changed.
At that same moment something else happened too. Xue Xian didn't know what Xuanmin did to the bird –– he neither cajoled it nor scolded it, and in fact did not speak at all –– but Xue Xian suddenly heard the crow flap its wings and then calm down.
He faithfully stood there in the darkness cast by Xuanmin's hand, not moving except to blink once, his eyelashes gently batting against Xuanmin's palm and fingers.
Xuanmin's fingers twitched, and he lifted his hand away.
He did not look at Xue Xian, as though he really were ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Lightly, Xuanmin said, "Alright, let's go."
That black bird really had become obedient again. It stood perched silently on Xuanmin's shoulder, every once in a while stealing an embarrassed glance at Xue Xian and then furtively looking away again, as though it was suddenly aware of the situation. Xuanmin seemed to have done something else to the bird as well, for as they walked with the bird into the village, the terrified gazes of the villagers did not follow.
"Where's the ghost bird? How could it have disappeared?"
"Yes, it was just here..."
As they left the villagers' murmurs behind, Xue Xian realised that the commotion caused by the stupid bird had had its benefits: now, the village itself was much quieter, with not a single person on the street.
They followed the route pointed out to them by the soldier. They reached the pond and strode onto a simple narrow bridge across it.
But only a few steps in, they heard someone's voice beneath the bridge.
Without stopping, Xue Xian glanced down and saw two early-rising women squatting on a stone platform at the edge of the pond, laundering clothes and chattering away amidst the light splashing of the water.
"Ai–– what a shame. Last night, Lao-Li-shu [b] who lives on the west side of the village passed away," sighed one of the women, who wore a date-colored winter coat. "They say that he took a rope and hung himself by the bed. As he died, his hand clutched a red, embroidered robe."
"Lao-Li? Didn't he lose his marbles five or six years ago? How did he even know how to hang himself?"
The woman in the date-colored coat shook her head. "You know how Li-dashen [c] passed from illness a few years ago? Er Li-zi [d] and the others feared that their father would not be able to get over her death, so they took advantage of the fact that he'd gone senile to tell him that Li-dashen had only gone into the xian cheng to see a doctor. Remember?"
"I remember hearing about it. They said that, each day, Lao-Li-shui would forget everything from the previous day, so would constantly ask Er Li-zi, 'Where's your mother?'"
“Yes, but apparently he recently became lucid again and realised that his sons were lying to him, and that dashen had long died," the woman in the date-colored coat sighed. "Before, when Lao-Li-shu had been dumb, he could still survive on a day-to-day basis. But after he woke up, he lost the will to live. Er Li-zi took his eyes off his father for one second, and Lao-Li-shu had taken the easy way out.”
"Ai... Some things are better left unknown..."
By the time the two women had finished speaking, Xue Xian and Xuanmin had already finished crossing the bridge. The soldier, however, seemed to falter, staring into space while standing in the middle of the bridge, before scurrying after Xue Xian again.
"We're here..." The soldier's tone seemed hesitant. He pointed at a small mud hut by the road: from the outside, the house seemed to have three rooms, with two side by side and a third squeezed behind them; probably two bedrooms and a kitchen.
As the soldier spoke, the house happened to stir and one of the bedroom doors was pushed open. A woman with her hair tied in a bun walked out. She held a colorful decorative knot in her hands. A dried tortoise shell was attached to the knot.
She fiddled with the knot, then hung it onto a nail by the doorway. As she caressed the tortoise shell, she looked out behind her.
For a moment, Xue Xian thought that she had seen them. But her gaze only skidded across them lightly: [e] in reality, her gaze lingered at a spot behind them, in the direction of the village gate. Then she looked away, arranged her bun, and returned inside.
"Let's go over there," Xue Xian said.
But he heard no response. Xue Xian turned around and saw that the soldier's face was wet –– he had begun to cry.
As though sleepwalking, the soldier slowly followed Xue Xian to the door, but made no attempt to enter the kitchen. Instead, he stared numbly at that decorative knot. He seemed to want to touch the tortoise shell, but with no arms, all he could do was look. He gazed at the knot for some time, then turned and looked into the window at the woman inside.
"What tradition is that knot about?" Xue Xian asked.
The soldier paused as he swallowed down his sobs and said, "We use the shells of tortoises, to signify the notion of 'return'. [f] In this area, we have a folk custom where if someone has departed and not yet returned, their family hangs a knot like this outside their door."
Every month, the knot was replaced with a new one –– from spring and summer to autumn and winter, until their loved one returned.
"I..." The soldier looked back longingly at the woman, who stood in the kitchen surrounded by steam and smoke from the stove. He fell silent again, then said, "I've changed my mind... Don't let her see the dog tag."
He seemed not to have seen her for many years –– he could not tear his eyes away. It was only after a long time that he forced himself to look back at Xue Xian and Xuanmin. "Could I please ask you to bury the dog tag in front of the house?"
Xue Xian looked at his desolate face and nodded. "Okay," he said. "As long as you're sure. Once we bury it, we'll leave, and we won't be back. If you change your mind again... No one will be able to help you."
"Mn... I'll stay here and watch over her and my parents," the soldier said in a low voice. "As long as they don't see the dog tag, they'll maintain some hope..."
He had fought countless battles, had wielded weapon after weapon, and had expended blood and sweat. But he had probably not cried very much. As he sobbed, he appeared to be aggressively pushing his sadness back down so as not to make too much noise.
The soldier stood there for some time, then suddenly said to Xuanmin, "I-I heard that there was a pill [g] you could take where you could decide your rebirth. If I found one now and took it, would it still work?"
Xuanmin paused. Before he could respond, Xue Xian scoffed and shook his head. "Why do you people always want to put your next life, and even the life after that, in dependence on this one? I've met many people like you. The last man who asked me that question was also a soldier. He recited prayers all night long, asking me whether I had this type of medicine. But any item that claims to have control over life and death is evil stuff. They always come with a price, and that price is too high for humans to pay. As if anything that good would come cheap!"
But the soldier replied seriously. "Not necessarily,” he said. “When I was growing up in this village, I heard Qu-shu say that there was a miracle pill [h] from his hometown where if you take it, you can decide where to go for your next life. You can even take on the burden of someone else's fated misfortune..."
Seeing that Xue Xian looked annoyed, he quickly added, "Qu-shu comes from Langzhou... They have all sorts of strange and wonderful things there. Perhaps it really––"
"Stop thinking about it. It's of no use to you," Xue Xian said. He hated being vague for the sake of politeness, so he didn’t mince his words.
The soldier immediately sighed. His body language deflated and he hung his head, as though the last of his energy had evaporated. "I understand. I was just... thinking about it."
But... hold on.
Xue Xian suddenly frowned and clicked his tongue. "Something in what you just said sounded familiar. Where did you say the old man was from?"
The soldier's voice was still hazy and weak, so that some of the words he uttered were hard to make out. It had taken time for Xue Xian to register what he'd said, and he needed to confirm it again.
"Qu-shu?" the soldier said, stunned, then repeated, "Langzhou. More specifically, I think he comes from the Xia Mountain area or some other such mountain."
Xia Mountain, Langzhou.
A miracle pill that allows you to take on the burden of someone else's misfortune...
Those two things had to be related –– it could not be a coincidence. Xue Xian glanced over at Xuanmin and found himself immediately making eye contact again. He quickly averted his eyes even as he said to Xuanmin, "Shall we go find that man?"
If they could pin down a more specific location, or find out more about this so-called ‘miracle pill’, perhaps they might be able to find a cure to Xuanmin's Tongshou Spider bite sooner.
The two did not delay further. They did as the soldier had requested and silently buried the dog tag in the earth in front of the mud hut. Then, following the direction in which the soldier had pointed, they went in search of that ‘Qu-shu’.
Accompanied by Xuanmin's black bird, Xue Xian and Xuanmin headed toward Qu-shu's house. At the same time, on a mountain road not far from the village, the riders who made up a long carriage train were taking a break from their journey to look out at the view.
These were none other than the group from the Taichang Si, who had gone into Boji Mountain and then come back out.
The leaders of the train were still a young man and a young woman: the Taizhu and Taibu.
The Taizhu lightly scratched his mask and looked over at the young woman as she performed another divination. Irritated, he said, "What is it? Is he using some technique to hide himself? Or has he changed location overnight?"
They could only perform one divination per day. To hunt down the person they were looking for, they had to do a new divination, or else their information would remain a day old.
It had taken the carriage train going all the way to a second mountain to realise that something had been amiss back here. They’d had to take several turns to come back to Boji Mountain.
This time, the Taibu said nothing for so long that the Taizhu worried something dramatic had happened again.
"That person is indeed at Boji Mountain. There's no way it could be wrong this time. There is nothing to pollute the divination. But..." The Taibu paused, then added, "But he's dead."
"Dead?" the Taizhu repeated, astonished.
"But the most confusing part isn't that."
"There's something else?"
"Remember how I said I thought I saw the Guoshi?" the Taibu asked.
"Of course. But that was just a coincidence," the Taizhu replied.
"I don't think so,” the Taibu said. “In this divination, he also came to the Boji Mountain hollow... and only left recently."
One coincidence was just a coincidence, but two? That was very difficult to explain away.
A sudden thought crossed the Taizhu's mind. "Could it... really be the Guoshi? Where is that person now?"
The Taibu raised a finger and pointed into the village nested under the morning sun at the south side of the mountain. "That village right there."
The two officials turned to each other, their piercing gazes meeting through their masks. Then, the Taibu took out a brush from her horse's bags, dipped it in ink, and began to hurriedly compose a letter.
Meanwhile, clearly following a silent procedure, the Taizhu whistled into his fingers and summoned a dove. [i]
The letter was addressed to the Guoshi, and was signed by the Taibu. She gave it to the dove to bring to Famen Si.
"Now that the letter's been sent, we should head into the village and check it out,” said the Taizhu. “After all... this concerns the Guoshi. We must not be reckless.”
The Taibu nodded. "Mn."
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[a] Xue Xian’s given name 闲 (xian2) means “idle”.
[b] Lao-Li-shu means “old uncle Li”.
[c] Shen: see glossary. Li-dashen means “auntie Li”; the “da” which means “great”, “big”, or “eldest” is used to denote her age.
[d] 二李子 (er4 li3 zi) means “second Li”, a very colloquial way to denote the second son of the Li family. (子 means son, but is also a diminutive form similar to “-ito/-ita” in Spanish. I interpret it as the diminutive form here.) It is likely that –– like Lu Nianqi and Lu Shijiu –– this man does not have a ‘proper’ name and is known exclusively as Er Li-zi. In my original TL I translated this as “Li Two”.
[e] Musuli uses the expression that she likes to use, “as light as a dragonfly across water/a pond”
[f] “Tortoise” 龟 (gui1) and “return” 归 (gui1) sound exactly the same in Mandarin.
[g] The Chinese word 药 (yao4) means “medicine/medication” in general -- there is no specific word for “pill” and other forms of medication when discussing such things casually. I chose to use “pill” here because, in English, it makes more sense that a folk rumor would give the miracle medicine a specific form.
[h] Musuli uses 神药 (shen4 yao4) here. 神 means god/godly, divine, magical/mystical, etc.
[i] The Chinese word 鸽子 (ge1 zi) means both pigeon and dove. I chose ‘dove’ because it matches the all-white aesthetic of the Taichang Si.
This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!
I'm really confused.
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