CH 70

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 bad omen onto us?"

"Oh no, oh no, someone's going to die––"

"Perhaps there won't be a death, but something bad is surely about to happen!"

The so-called ghost bird was not some new apparition, but none other than Xuanmin's black crow. 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 though the black bird was a comet that brought ill luck, and that if it hovered for 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 touching him earlier, that sigh had pierced through the fog and accompanied each and every inhale and exhale. 

So it was highly awkward now.

As soon as he heard the noise, Xue Xian felt a pain in his head, an ache in his elbows, an itch in his hands. He wanted to hit the bird. He wanted to murder someone.

That black bird really was somehow magical. It circled the village a few times, then 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 them, then settled gently on Xuanmin's shoulder and gave a gentle caw, almost coquettish.

Great. Some villagers had seen them 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 was here and they had become some kind of parade. Everyone in the village was staring at them and were all on high alert –– if not for their fear of the "ghost bird" rumors, they would long have charged toward them with 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, and just as they had begin to tremble from fear, it decided to let out another sigh: "Ai––"

A long, drawn-out sigh with a slight tremor to it... now it really was doing it on purpose.

Xue Xian was far too sensitive to that sound. He turned and urged the bird's owner to give it a silencing talisman.

The bird glared back at him.

It seemed to fundamentally hate Xue Xian in particular. As it stared at the 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 and yanked 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 on 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 said nothing.

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 said nothing.

A real live dragon, so petty as to bicker with a bird –– now that was a talent too. Clearly, Xue Xian's forename, which meant idle, had not been given wrong.

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.

But as he glared at Xuanmin, the monk glanced back at him and then raised a hand to cover his eyes.

Xuanmin's hand was not soft –– his thin knuckles pressed against Xue Xian's brow and nose. And it was unclear just how good he was at that cleaning talisman spell, for all of that sweat that had poured out of him back at the building due to the dragon spit had disappeared, and his hand was pristine –– it 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, it had become even weirder...

In fact, as a paper man, he had often had his face or eyes be blocked by Xuanmin –– the monk's intent had been "out of sight, out of mind". But now that he was in human form, the implication became different. 

And, in that moment, 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 he 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 the 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 their situation. And Xuanmin seemed to have done something else to the bird, for as they walked with it 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 a good side to it: 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, Old Uncle Li who lives on the west side of the village passed away," sighed the woman in the date-colored coat. "They say that he hid a rope and hung himself by the bed. As he died, his hand clutched a red, embroidered robe."

"Old 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 Auntie Li passed from illness a few years ago? Li Two and the others had feared that their father would not be able to get over her death, so had taken advantage of the fact that he'd gone senile and told him that Auntie Li had only gone into the city to see a doctor. Remember?"

"I remember hearing about it. They said that, each day, Old Li would forget everything from the previous day, so would constantly ask Li Two, 'Where's your mother?'"

"Yes, but apparently he recently became lucid again and realised that his sons were lying to him, and that Auntie had long died," the woman in the date-colored coat sighed. "Before, when Old Li had been dumb, he could still survive on a day-to-day basis. But after he woke up, he lost the will to live. As soon as Li Two took his eyes off his father, Old Li had found a quick 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 hovering right there on 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 –– 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 in a bun walked out. She held a colorful decorative knot in her hands, and on the knot was tied a dried-out tortoise shell.

She fiddled with the knot, then hung it onto a nail by the door. As she caressed the tortoise shell, she looked out behind her.

In that moment, Xue Xian thought that she had seen them. But her gaze only skidded across them as lightly as a dragonfly across water, and landed behind them at the village gate. Then she looked away, arranged her bun, and returned inside.

"Let's go," Xue Xian said.

But, not having heard a response, he turned around and saw that the soldier's face was wet –– he had begun to cry. 

As though in a dream, he followed Xue Xian to the door, but did not enter, instead staring 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, gui, to signify 'return', gui. In this area, we have a tradition where if someone has departed and not yet returned, that knot is supposed to help bring them back."

A new knot each month –– from spring and summer to autumn and winter.

"I..." The man looked back longingly at the woman, who stood in the kitchen surrounded by 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 home?"

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."

"Yes... I'll stay here and watch over her, and my parents," the soldier said. "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, had expended blood and sweat, but 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 man stood there for some time, then suddenly said to Xuanmin, "I-I heard that there was a pill you could take where you could decide where to go in your next life. If I found one now and took it, would it still work?"

Xuanmin paused. Before he could open his mouth, Xue Xian scoffed and shook his head. "Why do you all have this need to put your next life, and even the life after that, on this one? I've met many people like you. The last man who asked me that question was also a soldier. He prayed over and over all night long, asking me whether I had this time of medicine. But everything that has to do with life and death is evil magic. The price is too high for humans to pay –– as if anything that good would be so cheap."

But the soldier replied seriously, "Not necessarily. When I was young in the village, I heard Uncle Qu say that there was a magic pill from his hometown where if you take it, you can decide where to go for your next life, and you can even take on the burden of someone else's fated misfortune..."

Seeing that Xue Xian looked annoyed, he quickly added, "Uncle Qu comes from Langzhou... they have all sorts of miraculous things there. Perhaps it really––"

"Stop thinking about it. It's of no use to you," Xue Xian said. He hated beating around the bush, so he said it directly to the man.

The soldier immediately sighed, looking as though the last of his energy had left him. He hung his head. "I understand. I was just... thinking about it."

But... wait.

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.

"Uncle Qu?" 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 pill that allows you to take on the burden of someone else's misfortune...

For these two things to appear together could not be a coincidence. Xue Xian glanced over at Xuanmin and met eyes with him again. He quickly looked away and said, "Shall we go find that man?"

If they could pin down a more specific location, or find out more about this so-called "magic pill", perhaps they might be able to find a cure to Xuanmin's spider mole 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 for that "Uncle Qu". 

As the two, accompanied by Xuanmin's black bird, headed toward Uncle Qu's house, on a mountain road not far from the village, a long carriage train was taking a break from its journey to look out at the view.

These were none other than the group from the Taichang, who had been into Dustpan Mountain and then come back out.

The leaders of the train were still a young man and a young woman: the Taizhu and Taipu.

The Taizhu lightly scratched off his mask and looked over at the young woman doing another divination. Irritated, he said, "What is it? Has he used another hiding spell? Or has he changed location overnight?"

They could only divine something once per day, so their knowledge of the location of the person they were looking for was still knowledge from the previous day.

They had gone all the way to another mountain before they'd realised that something was amiss, and had taken several turns to come back to Dustpan Mountain.

This time, the Taipu said nothing for so long that the Taizhu worried something dramatic had happened again.

"That person is indeed at Dustpan Mountain. There's no way it could be wrong this time. There is nothing to pollute the divination. But..." The Taipu paused, then said, "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 Great Priest?" the Taipu asked.

"Of course. But that was just a coincidence," the Taizhu replied.

"I don't think so. In this divination, he also came to Dustpan Mountain... and only left recently."

One coincidence was a coincidence, but two? That was very difficult to explain away.

A sudden thought crossed the Taizhu's mind. "Could it... really be the Great Priest? Where is that person now?"

The Taipu raised a finger and pointed into the village at the south side of the mountain, lazing quietly under the morning sun. "That village right there."

The two turned to each other, their piercing gazes meeting through their masks. Then, the Taipu 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.

The letter was addressed to the Great Priest, and was signed by the Taipu. She gave it to the dove to send back to the Ministry.

"Now that the letter's been sent, we should head into the village and check it out. After all... this concerns the Great Priest. We must not be reckless," said the Taizhu.

The Taipu nodded. "Yes."