Chapter 124

At the entrance to Shizhuo Village stood a large stone table. A chessboard was carved into its surface, and six stone stools sat beneath it.

Legend said that during the Daoguang era of the Qing dynasty, two Daoist priests wandered here and suddenly felt the urge to play a game. So they carved a table and chairs out of the mountain rock and invited little ghosts from all directions to sit and watch.

That one game lasted a full three days and three nights.

When the game ended, the two priests vanished, and the little ghosts stopped troubling the villagers. From then on, the place knew peace.

Now, all four corners of the stone table were chipped and cracked. The carved lines on its surface had long since been blurred away by the wind. Of the six stone stools, only two remained. Beside the old table, a scholar tree had grown up; its roots had thickened and twisted over time, pushing the stone table askew.

A group of old men and women sat beneath the tree. Some were knitting clothes, some mending shoe soles, some smoking dry tobacco and coughing. Every now and then they exchanged a few words, but no one seemed in the mood for much conversation.

From a distance, you could barely make them out, because their skin was almost the same color as the bark of the old scholar tree.

Even up close, if you did not look carefully, you might mistake them for a ring of old roots branching out from the trunk.

Zhao Mengyao walked past them wearing long sleeves, a hat, and a silk scarf, dragging a suitcase behind her.

The old people under the tree all stood up. The newcomer had herself wrapped from head to toe without showing her face, but from her clothes and figure alone, they could tell whose girl she was.

“Back home, are you, girl from the Zhao family?”

“Why didn’t you let your grandpa go pick you up?”

“Didn’t your grandpa leave the village the day before yesterday? Didn’t you come back together?”

“Have you eaten yet?”

Unlike the ordinary concern village elders usually showed the younger generation, the old people here treated Zhao Mengyao with an extra hint of caution and fawning politeness.

There was only one Zhao family in Shizhuo Village, living at the eastern end of the village.

These days, anyone in the village who made money rushed to build two- or even three-story Western-style houses. But Old Zhao’s family did the opposite. Instead of building upward, they kept expanding outward, ring after ring, until what had once been a simple brick-and-tile single-story home had become a sprawling courtyard compound with multiple sections.

Strictly speaking, taking up that much land for a house broke the rules. But the Zhao family supported the village’s lonely elderly and took in abandoned children from nearby areas. Put it plainly, they had turned their own home into both a nursing home and an orphanage. Expanding the place a little was hard to criticize on the surface.

A few more years from now, the old people under the scholar tree would probably have to swallow their pride and go beg the Zhao family for three meals a day too.

The Zhao family had never been prosperous in descendants. Going back four generations, there had been an old ancestress, now the oldest person in the village. Back then, she had taken in a live-in husband and borne a son. That son later had only one daughter, who in turn also took in a husband. She then gave birth to twin siblings, one of whom was Zhao Mengyao.

So now, the Zhao family consisted of only the old ancestress, her son Old Zhao, and the pair of twins.

Four generations, yet only four people remained.

The Zhao family had money. Rumor had it that during the Republican era, that old ancestress had once been invited by a warlord to tell fortunes and read fate. Later, before that warlord retreated to Tianjin to live out his days as a wealthy idler, he had specifically arranged for her to be escorted back to Shizhuo Village, together with several chests of gold and silver.

After the founding of the nation, the Zhao family did hand over some things. But the villagers all said their real wealth had long since been buried underground. Sure enough, once the winds shifted, the Zhao family rose right back up again.

But even without the story of hidden gold and silver, the Zhao family’s ancestress and her son Old Zhao were both famous fortune-tellers in the surrounding area. The mother and son never accepted ordinary clients. Every month or two, either people dressed like wanderers of the jianghu would come to seek them out, or cars and small jeeps would drive straight into the village. With money flowing in like that, how could their income ever be small?

Zhao Mengyao pushed open the gate and crossed the courtyard. Under the corridor of the east wing sat a row of old people, every one of them pale and ashen-faced. They were neither noisy nor restless, just sitting there quietly.

The west wing housed the orphanage. A few children with obvious intellectual disabilities, crooked mouths, and wandering eyes were playing there. At least they added a little life to the place, so it no longer felt quite so deathly still.

A heavy smell of boiling medicine drifted out from both wings. If you walked inside right now, whether you looked at the elderly or the children, there would definitely be quite a few lying in bed, suffering through illness.

It was normal for the old to fall sick. And among abandoned infants, there were plenty of boys as well, many born with congenital problems and therefore even more likely to die young.

So the Zhao family was often holding funerals, clearing out room after room, yet outsiders never found it suspicious. After all, no one really cared about lonely old people and abandoned babies.

Ever since childhood, Zhao Mengyao had hated the smell of home. That stinking, rotten odor often drove her nearly insane, making her want to set the east and west wings on fire.

Even after she grew older and learned what those people were actually used for, the disgust in her heart never went away.

Fortunately, her great-grandmother had always been open-minded. Not only had she let her study, she had even allowed her to leave for school elsewhere, hoping only that one day she would bring back a man with upright features and deep good fortune to marry into the family.

“Mengyao, why are you back?”

The one who spoke was her brother. Though the two of them were twins, born moments apart, her older brother Zhao Xilu carried the worn-down air of a man nearing thirty.

At the moment, Zhao Xilu was brewing medicine. Eight small stoves were lined up in front of him. He held a fan in each hand and was hard at work.

In the corner behind him crouched a filthy woman bound in chains. She was insane and spent all day clutching a rag doll and pretending to nurse it.

To outsiders, this looked like proof that the Zhao family was kind-hearted, that they had taken her in.

But Zhao Mengyao knew the truth. When she had just entered high school, this woman had already carried two pregnancies for her brother Zhao Xilu, giving birth to a boy and then a girl. The first had not lived past a hundred days. The second had not even survived a full month.

The woman had gone mad, and so they had chained her here.

Every morning when Zhao Xilu got up, he would lead her into the courtyard to sit in the sun. Every evening when he returned to his room, he would lead her back inside.

Zhao Mengyao did not like this brother of hers. He had always treated her well, but she found him false and cold-hearted, far less straightforward and kind than she herself was.

There were hired helpers in the house, yet her brother still insisted on doing everything personally every day.

That would be one thing if he did not know what all those things were for. But he did know, and his talent for casting curses was far greater than hers.

Even so, at a time like this, all she could do was cry out to him in grievance:

“Brother, someone put a curse on me.”

As she spoke, Zhao Mengyao took off her hat, rolled up her sleeves, and exposed the patches of skin that were already suppurating.

Zhao Xilu jumped in fright and hurried over to inspect her.

“How did this happen to you?”

“Someone put a curse on me.”

“Where’s Grandpa? Didn’t he go to find you?”

“Grandpa didn’t come back?”

“No. Didn’t you see Grandpa?”

“I did, but I thought once Grandpa had me sign those two support agreements, he went home.”

“This...” Zhao Xilu frowned. “Mengyao, go inside and sit down first.”

“Where’s Great-Grandmother? I want to see Great-Grandmother.”

“Great-Grandmother is seeing guests right now. She doesn’t have time.”

“I’m in this state already. What guest could be more important than me?”

“Someone from the main family has come.”

“The main family?”

Zhao Mengyao froze. She had heard about the main family before. In the family ancestral hall, the tablets were arranged in two rows. One row was left empty, while the other held only her parents and grandmother, relegated to a lower corner.

The empty places in the center were reserved for the main family. Even if they could not place the main family’s ancestral tablets there, they still had to leave the space open for them.

When she was little, Zhao Mengyao had once innocently asked, “Why can’t we put the main family’s tablets there?”

Her great-grandmother had given a dark little smile and replied, “Because the main family thinks we’re unlucky.”

The main family was in Jiujiang. Unlike the side branch of Shizhuo Zhao, the Jiujiang Zhao of the main line were true jianghu people. Back in the Qing dynasty, they had even produced a Dragon King.

But according to jianghu rules, if only one member of a clan succeeded in river walk, or if no successor appeared for a hundred years before or after, then that Dragon King family still had no right to hang up the Dragon King plaque.

So the main line only called themselves the Zhao Clan of Jiujiang, never the Dragon King Zhao.

Sometimes, when a family’s foundations were not strong enough, forcing the Dragon King plaque into place only invited disaster.

“Then... then what do I do...”

“Mengyao, I said it already. Go wait in my room. I’ll be there in a moment.”

“All right.”

Zhao Mengyao had no choice but to head deeper into the courtyard, pass along the corridor, go through a side door, and enter her brother’s room in the rear courtyard.

The furnishings inside were simple. To the north was a study, the middle room was a sitting room, and to the south was a bedroom.

Under the old-style wooden bed in the bedroom was a nest, with a feed basin and a water basin placed in front of it.

Not long after, the door opened again, and Zhao Xilu came in leading that woman.

“Mengyao, take off your clothes.”

Zhao Mengyao hesitated.

Zhao Xilu took a deep breath. “Then your brother won’t help you.”

“No, Brother, you have to help me.”

Zhao Mengyao took off her clothes. As she undressed, the corners of her mouth twitched from time to time, because many of the festering places had stuck to the cloth. Pulling the clothes off was like tearing away a layer of skin.

“Mengyao, go into my study.”

Zhao Mengyao walked into her brother’s study.

Inside, the altar table, incense burner, and candles had already been set out.

Zhao Xilu heated a black needle over the candle flame again and again, then plunged it into the ash of the incense burner and stirred it around before pulling it out. He walked over to Zhao Mengyao and drove it straight into her forehead.

“It hurts...”

“Endure it.”

After the needle tip went in, Zhao Xilu beckoned to the woman on the floor.

The woman crawled over, came to Zhao Mengyao’s feet, opened her mouth, and bit down on Zhao Mengyao’s ankle.

“Ah...”

“Endure it, little sister.”

Zhao Mengyao lowered her head and looked at the woman, her eyes full of venom and hatred.

The woman was sucking at her.

Gradually, the suppurating sores on Zhao Mengyao’s body began to shrink. Dead skin formed over them, and her condition visibly improved. Meanwhile, patches of festering sores began appearing all over the woman’s body.

Zhao Mengyao felt even more disgusted with her brother now. He had actually taken the woman who had borne him two children and turned her into a curse vessel.

The purpose of that vessel was to transfer curses placed on another person onto herself. It could transfer poison as well.

The woman opened her mouth and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily as blood overflowed from between her lips.

Zhao Xilu kicked her and cursed, “Go cough blood somewhere else. Don’t dirty this place.”

The woman immediately crawled out.

“Mengyao, do you feel better?”

“Brother, I’m much better now.”

“Good. Rest here for a while. I’ll go check whether Great-Grandmother is finished.”

Zhao Xilu left the room and went to the main room in the rear courtyard. The door to the main room already stood open, which meant the visit had ended.

As soon as he entered, Zhao Xilu saw a gloomy young man about his own age sitting there. There was a split-like scar in the center of the young man’s forehead. It looked like an old wound, yet also like a fresh scab.

Behind the young man, an old man was drinking tea with Great-Grandmother.

Great-Grandmother was very old, but she still looked full of spirit. Amid her white hair, quite a bit of black still remained.

“Xilu, come pay your respects to Young Master Yi of the main family, then greet Uncle Tian.”

“Yes, Great-Grandmother.”

Zhao Xilu first bowed to the gloomy young man. “Greetings, Young Master Yi.”

The moment he finished bowing, he saw the other man slowly turn his head and let his gaze fall on him.

The wound in the center of the gloomy young man’s forehead seemed to squirm.

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of the young man’s mouth.

“You are filth in its purest form.”

Though displeasure rose in Zhao Xilu’s heart, none of it showed on his face. Instead, he turned and bowed to the old man. “Greetings, Uncle Tian.”

Young Master Yi was obviously surnamed Zhao. As for this uncle, he was likely a hereditary servant of the main family.

The old man waved with a smile. “All right, our visit is over. It’s time for me to go.”

“How could it be an intrusion? We’re family. We should visit each other more often. I’ll see you out.”

“No need. If we’re to come and go more often, then let’s not put ourselves in chains over formalities.”

The old man walked over to the young man, first wrapping a strip of cloth around the young man’s forehead, then bending down, lifting him onto his back, and carrying him out of the main room.

After they had gone, Zhao Xilu could not help asking curiously, “Great-Grandmother, why did the main family suddenly send people here?”

“That Young Master Yi is ill. His heavenly eye has opened at the brow, like a crack in the gate between life and death. Neither yin nor yang, neither fully human nor ghost. It is the malformed sign of one who should have died in the womb, one who should never even have been born, and yet he was forced into life and has lived until today.

“The people of the main family want to find some method to suppress that gate of life and death and let him truly come alive. In recent years they have tried quite a few methods, but none have worked well. That is why they thought of us, their fallen branch relatives, and came to seek a way to break the deadlock through curses.”

“Then do you have a way, Great-Grandmother?”

“Of course there is a way. You only need to keep the gate suppressed. Why insist on using living qi or dead qi? Use a substitute wrongful-death curse, press someone else’s life onto it, and wouldn’t that close the gate of life and death?”

“That really is a good method.”

“But they refused.”

“Why?”

“They said they did not want to use a method that harmed human harmony, and were afraid they would not be able to shake off the consequences later.”

“What’s there to shake off? Doesn’t our family already have a way to get rid of the consequences?”

“I think the main family plans to have that Young Master Yi perform river walk by lamplight.”

“River walk?”

“If he’s going to walk the river, then he cannot be tainted by things like this. They’re afraid something will go wrong during river walk. Oh, right. What did you come to find me for?”

“Mengyao is back. She seemed to have been cursed. I already helped her break it.”

“Your grandpa didn’t break it for her?”

“That’s the strange part. Grandpa didn’t come back with her.”

“What?” Great-Grandmother’s eyes filled with confusion. “Bring Mengyao in. I want to ask her about everything in detail.”

“I’ll go right away.”

Not long after, Zhao Mengyao was led in by Zhao Xilu.

“Great-Grandmother...”

The moment Zhao Mengyao entered, she burst into tears and knelt by Great-Grandmother’s side, hugging her leg.

She did not like Great-Grandmother’s smell. The woman did not look all that old, but a stench of rotting flesh clung to her. At close range, once it broke through the layer of powder and perfume meant to suppress it, the smell was nauseating.

But Zhao Mengyao knew very well that everything pleasant she had been allowed in this house, including the freedom to carry off a human-skin cursed object with her to college, had all been possible because of Great-Grandmother’s support.

“Get up and tell me properly. What exactly happened?”

“Yes, Great-Grandmother.”

Zhao Mengyao recounted the entire matter.

She spent a great deal of time describing how Zhou Yunyun had bullied her and mistreated classmates, making her own act of cursing Zhou Yunyun sound like a counterattack born of being pushed beyond endurance.

Great-Grandmother listened patiently through all the nonsense at the beginning, but as soon as she heard the end of it, her eyes turned savage.

Smack!

A slap landed hard across Zhao Mengyao’s face.

“Great-Grandmother.”

Zhao Mengyao stared at the old woman before her in disbelief, her voice rising with shock.

Smack!

Another slap followed, even harder this time, sending Zhao Mengyao sprawling to the floor.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot!!!”

Great-Grandmother spat out the word three times. “Since your grandpa didn’t come back, that means he must have received the blood boat you burned. Knowing the temperament of our family, he has probably already gone to settle the matter and give an account.

“But since you went to the hospital in broad daylight and saw that girl Zhou Yunyun still alive, lying there recovering in her hospital bed, you should have understood that your grandpa had run into trouble!

“If even your grandpa couldn’t block the other side’s move, what right do you have to still be alive?

What curse is this?

They were just playing with you, waiting for an idiot like you to lead them right to our door!”

Great-Grandmother immediately turned to Zhao Xilu. “Quick, go bring Uncle Tian and Young Master Yi back!”

“Yes, Great-Grandmother.”

Zhao Xilu ran out at once. It was not long before he hurried back with panic on his face. “Great-Grandmother, Young Master Yi and Uncle Tian are nowhere to be seen. They’ve probably already left the village and gone far away.”

At that, Great-Grandmother Zhao Juanhua slumped sideways in her grand armchair.

Zhao Mengyao still sat on the floor clutching her face. This was the first time in memory that Great-Grandmother had ever struck her. When she was little, no matter how mischievous or troublesome she had been, Great-Grandmother had rarely even spoken harshly to her, and had always favored her far more than her brother.

Zhao Xilu tried to comfort her. “Great-Grandmother, Grandpa may not necessarily be in trouble. Maybe something else delayed him. Look, Grandpa hasn’t gone far from home in years. Everyone says the outside world has changed a lot. Maybe Grandpa was dazzled by it.

“And even in the worst case, if someone really has come to our door, this is Shizhuo Village, and our family is Shizhuo Zhao. No matter what, outsiders shouldn’t be able to act wildly here.”

Zhao Juanhua covered her forehead with her left hand and waved her right.

“That Zhou Yunyun this fool cursed is from Nantong. Since they sent this fool word about Nantong Corpse Retriever Li, that means they had already found out it was this fool who did it.

“They arranged a time to meet her and demand an explanation. This fool didn’t go, but do you really think they intended to meet her in the first place?

“They probably saw right through her and knew she was an idiot, so they planned to use her as bait.

“And just by chance, your grandpa had already gone because this fool used the human-skin cursed object without permission. He was right there, and so he really got hooked.

“After catching the fish, they still weren’t satisfied. They kept using this fool as a line and even marked down another time and place to meet.

“Heh.

Again and again, with every move so proper and orderly. Do you really think it was written for this fool to see?

“They were taking every step in a way that was upright and aboveboard, all for Heaven’s way to witness.

“Tell me, what kind of person walks in that way?”

Zhao Xilu could not answer.

“Go prepare wine and a banquet. Since they have the confidence to come all the way here like this, then I... will kneel first in terms of posture.”

…

Old Tian first carried his young master out of Old Zhao’s house. The moment they stepped through the Zhao family gate, he broke into a run.

Once out of the village, he deliberately avoided the main road and headed instead toward the fields and the stream.

Only after he had run enough to start sweating did he slow down. He himself could have kept going, but the young master on his back could not take much more jostling.

“Young Master, are you all right?”

“I’m fine...”

“Young Master, that place was filthy, stinking beyond words. No wonder you didn’t like it there. I didn’t like it either. It felt stifling.”

“It is filthy. Using living people to refine cursed objects; using support for lonely old people and the adoption of children as a medium to shift backlash away.

“This side branch has mastered all of those tricks.”

“That’s exactly why our main family split this branch off in the first place. Back when the Dragon King of our Zhao family was alive, he made that decision personally and even set down a family rule that descendants of the main family were forbidden to practice curses.

“If it weren’t for finding a solution to your physical condition, Young Master, the family head would never have had me carry you here to try our luck.

“But it really is strange. This branch has been split off for so many years already. When they first got this place in Shizhuo Village, we thought it would be a Zhao village of sorts, but after arriving we found there was only this one Zhao household, and their line has grown so terribly thin.”

Zhao Yi said, “That old woman uses the lifespan of her own descendants and blood kin to nourish and sustain herself. How could the line not grow thin?”

“This...” Shock spread across Old Tian’s face. “She would actually do such a thing!”

“Grandpa Tian, this side branch cannot be touched again.”

“I understand. Don’t worry, Young Master. Once we get back, I’ll report everything to the family head. If we don’t sever ties with a side branch like this, it may become a major hidden danger when you perform river walk.

“For the sake of your success in river walk, perhaps we may even have to ask the family head to...”

“There’s no need. When we first went in, we already saw that Zhao Xilu. He’s the same kind of person as that old woman, filthy through and through, without even a shred of clean white left in him.

“But the second time I saw him, the qi of violent death had already begun to steam up in his features, and that qi was passing on to the old woman as well.

“This side branch is probably facing a great calamity.”

“That’s why you had me hurry and run out?” Old Tian asked.

“Yes. If not, were we supposed to stay behind and help them weather disaster?”

“As if they deserved it. Bah!”

“It’s just that my illness... I’m afraid it will be hard to find a suitable method after all. I wanted to perform river walk for the family too. Sigh.”

“Young Master, don’t worry. If we can’t find a method below, the family head will go above to look for one. Though our Jiujiang Zhao are a famed clan of the jianghu, the river runs vast and deep, hiding dragons and flood dragons alike.

“If all else fails, we can seek out a true Dragon King family. A family with that kind of deep foundation should have a way to cure your illness.”

“Grandpa Tian, how could a true Dragon King family be so easy to approach? And even if we did approach them, why would they hand over their foundations just to cure me and help me perform river walk later?

“I’ve read the notes left behind by our ancestor, that Dragon King. On the path of river walk, what one suppresses is not only evil things. Sometimes, the people one suppresses are no fewer than the evil things.”

“Young Master, other Dragon King families might not, but one family... no, two families, might actually be possible.”

“Oh?”

“After those two families joined by marriage, their power blazed like fire, only to be cut off all at once. Even though their status remains lofty now, in truth they’re only being held up by widows and orphans, barely keeping the family name from collapsing.

“Your condition may be an illness, Young Master, but it is also an opportunity, a mark of talent. If the family head brought you to their door to seek fictive kinship, or even a marriage match, even if it meant marrying into their family...

“With that old lady’s temperament, she would probably bet the family’s foundations on you, help you perform river walk, and raise you to glory.”

“Heh... heh heh...”

“Young Master, what are you laughing at?”

“Eating up a dead household, and not just one, but two generations of Dragon King families. You people really dare to think big. Aren’t you afraid you’ll choke to death?”

“Young Master, all things depend on human effort. Opportunities have to be fought for.”

“Yes. People running toward death usually do it with all the energy in the world too.”

“Young Master, that attitude of yours...”

“If you’re really planning that, then go right ahead. As for me, I suppose there’ll be no need for river walk after all. I’ll just stay at home, eat, drink, and enjoy myself while I wait for the whole family to be wiped out. At least then my trip into this world won’t have been wasted.”

“Young Master...” Old Tian still wanted to say more, but then he saw smoke rising ahead. Looking closer, someone had lit a fire by the riverbank and was cooking outdoors.

“Grandpa Tian, I’m hungry. Go buy something to eat. I can smell roasted sweet potatoes.”

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