The little servant's legs were short, but he sure ran like the wind. Perhaps because of how young the servant was, the crazed way he ducked and weaved through the crowd made Xue Xian feel as though he were on a ship in the middle of a storm. Every once in a while, though, he had to stop and wait for Liu-shiye, his eyes darting back and forth across the increasingly busy streets in search of his master. At no point did he notice the strange item stuck to the back of his neck.
Xue Xian’s mobility was limited. Although he’d been able to fashion himself a paper body, it didn’t mean that he could suddenly walk with it: he was still half-paralysed. Using just his two flimsy hands, he held on as tightly as he could to his new 'chair'.
The paper material of his body was so thin that Xue Xian bounced up and down on his chair like a wild dog. If he flapped in the wind any longer, he might vomit all over the poor servant's neck. Luckily, they soon arrived at Liu-shiye's compound. Ningyang County was quite a wealthy place, and Liu Xu lived a comfortable life as its shiye. His home was far better than the run-down ruins of the Jiang family compound.
Although its façade was relatively humble, the set-up inside was quite something.
"Quite something..." Xue Xian stuck out his head gingerly from behind the servant's neck and discreetly took a look around him. He sneered to himself, "Quite something, if you want to curse yourself to death!"
The servant: “???”
The little servant froze right as he was about to step across the threshold. He suddenly had the feeling that someone was standing behind him, whispering into his ear... Someone stuck so close to him that they seemed to be breathing onto his neck. Sweating profusely, his scalp tingling with fright, he asked, "Wh-wh-wh-who's speaking?"
Xue Xian casually replied, "Guess."
The servant: “...”
Riding the servant's nape like a horse had been bad enough, but now he had made the kid cry.
The servant was only about twelve or thirteen years old, with no more courage in him than could be held on the tip of a needle. These whispered words from Xue Xian terrified him so much that he began to run as fast as he could. He was no longer waiting for those behind him to catch up –– he burst into tears and ran straight toward the guest hall before accidentally tripping on the threshold and falling flat on his face.
The fall was so abrupt that Xue Xian failed to hold on tightly and was jolted off of the servant’s nape. He floated lightly onto the floor. Just as he was meaning to grab onto the servant's robe again, the little rascal scrambled back to his feet and scurried away, leaving Xue Xian there, alone and unable to move.
Xue Xian: “...”
He had gotten what he deserved. [a]
There was now a random piece of folded paper on the ground, but nobody took notice of it. The guest hall was currently a complete mess: all sorts of people in various states of panic were gathered around one young man, crying and wailing.
This young man was soaking wet, with a tangle of wet hair stuck to his face that someone had swept to the side, revealing a tragic, pale face and tightly shut eyes. He appeared to have taken his last breath.
Liu-shiye pushed his way into the hall. Taking in the scene before him, he was so shocked that his legs buckled beneath him.
“Jin-er, ah...!"
Xue Xian suddenly turned around at this sound –– just in time to see a huge foot looming above him and about to come down.
Xue Xian: “……………”
His eyes flashed. Forget Liu-shiye, he had to get out of here! He saw that one of the stones paving the ground had a dry grass stem on it and reached out to use it as leverage to move himself away. But just as he began to move, his body was picked up between someone’s fingers.
"What bastard [b] dares to pinch me? Let go!" Xue Xian couldn't help but yell out. He swivelled to see who it was, then thought he might faint.
That stupid monk!
The reason Xue Xian had come to the Liu compound was so that he could keep an eye on Liu-shiye and find a good time to interrogate him further. But why in the world had the bald donkey followed? He had no business here, and had clearly not been planning to help Liu-shiye –– surely he hadn’t come all the way here just to catch Xue Xian again?
Out of all the niezhang [c] to fight in the world, why was the bald donkey so obsessed with him? In his heart, Xue Xian cursed the monk: he was sick of him!
He held onto the dry grass stem as tightly as he could. In the end, the monk had to pick the grass, too.
As Xuanmin held the 'fugitive' up for inspection, its painted eyes moved ever so slightly. Xuanmin looked back at the Xue Paperman with a sense of disdain.
Xue Xian rolled his eyes. “...” And who the hell are you?
At the same time that this exchange was happening, Xuanmin had found a small, round pebble on the ground. He used the tip of his foot to lightly kick it. It rolled softly around, and came to a stop right in front of Liu-shiye's feet. As Liu-shiye stumbled into the room, he tripped over the pebble, wobbled precariously, and fell to the ground with a thud.
And what a coincidence –– of all the ways to fall, he had to fall right on top of that silent, lifeless youth's chest.
"Cough –– cough, cough!"
Liu-shiye rushed to clamber back up. Just as he was about to curse whatever good-for-nothing had dared to trip him, that seemingly dead young man suddenly began to cough up water. He coughed so violently that it seemed he might explode, yet he made no sound. After some time, his face turned crimson, and he finally took a breath, and calmed down once more.
The crowd in the guest hall erupted with surprise and joy.
Liu-shiye stood there in shock for a while, then came back to his senses. He quickly ordered his men to take the shaoye away to rest, and then to call the doctor.
He briefly took time to console his weeping wife, then turned to stare at the pebble on the floor with an indecipherable expression. Next, he glanced at Xuanmin.
All the chaos and commotion earlier had exhausted Liu Xu. Above him, the sky was finally beginning to lighten as soft dawn light shone onto the courtyard, illuminating their surroundings. Liu Xu looked Xuanmin up and down once more…
He still thought this monk was far too young to be any kind of high priest. There was just no way he’d had the time to garner any meaningful experience. To become a high priest at twenty-something was simply unfathomable. And the copper coin pendant on this monk's hip wasn't impressive at all. Anyone apart from the most clueless peasant would immediately assume someone like that was a jianghu scammer.
But the sequence of events that had just occurred told another story...
As soon as Xuanmin had said, "Someone took the curse for you," his son Liu Jin had fallen into the well. And, just now, Liu-shiye had been running normally, but suddenly encountered a pebble, which had caused him to trip, which had caused his son to wake up again.
One of these events by itself might be called a coincidence, but all things considered, Liu Xu found it impossible to pronounce it all a coincidence.
Could this monk really be a high priest?
Liu-shiye wrung his hands and put an awkward smile on his face. He put his hands together and hastily saluted Xuanmin. "Good eye, good eye..." he said.
Xuanmin ignored him. Instead, he cast a disinterested glance at the courtyard.
Liu-shiye noticed this, and exclaimed with joy. "Dashi, just now I was neglectful. Please forgive this servant for that. Don't read too much into this humble one’s reckless behavior. There is an explanation for my impoliteness back there. Look around you... I specifically hired a master to come and design the layout for me. With such feng shui protecting me, how could my days be numbered?"
Xue Xian scoffed. "Superficial."
Actually, at first glance, Liu-shiye's courtyard really did look impressive, with nothing out of place. The house faced south and had its back to the north, and its form followed the natural shape of the nearby hill. Its central courtyard was designed according to a Huizhou Prefecture tradition known as ‘Return of the Four Rivers’ [d], which was excellent for drawing in good fortune and good qi. At the front hall, they had even passed by a fish pond in the shape of a zigzag: this was ‘Winding Waters Enter the Hall’, used for success in one's profession and blessings for swift promotions.
Of course, Xue Xian only knew one or two things about geomancy –– he wasn't even human, so such things were hardly his concern.
When it came to evaluating the auspiciousness of the compound, he went with pure instinct. When the servant had first brought him in through the front doors, he'd found that being in the compound made him extremely uncomfortable, so he'd instinctively said that Liu-shiye must’ve been trying to curse himself to death.
When it came to diagnosing the actual problem, and curing it –– that was a job for the bald donkey [e], not him.
He had just fought an extended battle with Xuanmin's fingers, and the struggle to and fro had exhausted him. He had no choice but to settle down and let Xuanmin figure things out. He wasn't sure how much more this thin paper body could take –– but for the sake of self-preservation, the formerly arrogant Xue Xian now had no choice but to humble himself.
Xuanmin had shoved him back into the pouch, and he was now leaning out of the edge, observing the Liu compound with a bored gaze. Suddenly, someone next to him made a noise.
"What are you doing? Where are we?" Jiang Shining had finally gathered the courage to climb up as well and to stick his head out of the pouch. He appeared genuinely afraid of Xuanmin, and only dared to speak in the lowest voice possible, so that no one else beyond the pouch could hear.
"That shiye guy's place," Xue Xian replied. "Can't you tell? Are you half-deaf? People have been making so much noise here..."
Confused, Xue Xian couldn’t help but steal a glance at Jiang Shining. "Are you mute again?"
Jiang Shining slithered back into the pouch, and finally mumbled, "Just remembered something from the past."
"The past?" Xue Xian asked.
"There are hard feelings between the Jiang family and Liu-shiye," Jiang Shining said quietly.
"What kind of hard feelings?"
A pause, and then: "People died."
Xue Xian did not know what to say. It was a matter of life and death, and all Jiang Shining could use to describe it was ‘hard feelings’?
Xue Xian wanted to ask for more, but Xuanmin suddenly turned around and gestured toward a side door. "Who is behind the wall?"
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The author has something to say:
The behind-the-scenes stuff is challenging my wits and my courage…
[Acknowledgments to people who gave money on JJWXC]
Thank you, kiss kiss~
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[a] Here, Musuli uses the expression “Failed to steal a chicken, and wasted a handful of rice in the process”, which is used to indicate when someone has tried to take advantage or profit, but ended up being punished for their bad intentions.
[b] Here, Xue Xian uses 孙子 (sun1 zi), which literally means “grandson”. Using it implies that he is the person’s “grandfather”, i.e. their superior, who demands respect and deference. A more literal translation of the insult might be, “What lowly one dares to pinch me?”