AEDBE CHAPTER 3

A Eunuch’s Dream of Being Emperor by Li Ximin

CHAPTER 3

You Sisi had truly vanished; that foggy morning, alongside You Sisi's blurred retreating figure, became a catastrophic memory for Dongzi. Following her disappearance, Dongzi grew taciturn and withdrawn. He gave the cold shoulder even to the latter his good friend Abao when spoken to, let alone going out to play with him. Abao was infected by Dongzi's grief and grew profoundly melancholy himself. He often hid in some secluded corner, secretly watching Dongzi as the sat on the low wooden stool outside his front door. Feeling that an invisible hand was tearing them apart—a deeply cruel thing to happen—Abao's heart ached with quiet sorrow.

Unlike Dongzi, Li Hongtang went out every single day to search for their mother. She was determined to tread across every single mountain and valley surrounding Tang Town, refusing to stop until she found her. By day she searched for her mother, and by night she accompanied her silent younger brother with a heart full of boundless desolation. The nightly sounds of the opera became a distant background noise; from that day onward, Li Hongtang never set foot near the opera stage again.

Along the arduous path of searching for her mother, fragments of memory would surface in Li Hongtang's mind. Some of these things had been recounted to her by her uncle You Chengtuo, while others she had experienced firsthand—all of them bound intimately to her mother, and to herself. Back when You Sisi was pregnant, Li Cilin had consulted a fortune-teller, who predicted she was carrying a boy. Overjoyed, Li Cilin broadcasted to he met that he was finally going to have a son—something he had desperately yearned for since the day of his wedding, wanting sons, many sons. On the day You Sisi went into labor, Li Cilin paced anxiously outside the bedroom door, waiting for his son to be born. out of the room, the midwife was met with his frantic question: "Is it a boy or a girl?" With a completely deadpan expression, the midwife replied, "Go inside and see for yourself," before hurrying away. Entering the room, Li Cilin discovered it was a baby girl, nearly fainting on the spot. Regaining his senses with a jolt, he flew into a mad frenzy, snatching the peaceful infant straight from You Sisi's arms. Sisi shrieked, "What are you doing—" With a dark, murderous glare, Li Cilin snarled, "I'm going to shove her into the chamber pot and drown her! I wanted a son, not a daughter! Not a daughter!" step toward the chamber pot in the corner of the room. Knowing the horrors he was capable of in his blind rage, the frail You Sisi flung herself off the bed, scrambled across the floor, and locked her arms desperately around his legs, weeping hysterically, "Cilin, I'm begging you, spare our baby girl's life! I'm begging you, Cilin, I promise you I'll give you a son—a whole pack of sons! Just let her live!" With a brutal kick, Li Cilin shook her off and strode toward the chamber pot. Just as he was about to shove the waiting infant inside, You Sisi snatched up a pair of heavy scissors, pressed the sharp blades directly against her own throat, and shrieked, "Li Cilin, if you dare drown our daughter, I will die right here before your eyes!" Snapping his head around, Li Cilin saw that the scissor tips had already pierced her skin, drawing a trail of crimson blood. You Sisi's resolve was absolute. In a fraction of a second, his heart shattered; he walked silently back to the bed, placed the infant down, let out a heavy, defeated sigh, and trudged out of the room.Clutching her daughter to her chest, You Sisi had murmured through her tears, "Baby girl, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. No one can ever tear you away from me; you are the flesh of my heart! As long as Mum draws breath, I will never let anyone harm a hair on your head. You and Mum share a single heart..." This was the tale her uncle had shared with her. Though she had once questioned her mother about it, You Sisi had brushed it aside without details; yet deep down, Hongtang knew her mother loved her more than anything in the world, and she could never, ever bear to lose her.

...On a certain sun-drenched day, Li Hongtang and her mother were weeding the sweet potato patch. Fatigued from the labor, they sat down at the edge of the field to rest. A cool breeze swept across, making Hongtang feel wonderfully refreshed. Yet, catching sight of the deep blue and purple bruises blooming across her mother's forehead, a dull ache pierced her chest; she knew those marks were the handiwork of her father's drunken violence, despite her mother's claims of having bumped into something by accident. Softly, Hongtang asked, "Mum, does it still hurt?" Wiping away her sweat, You Sisi replied, "It doesn't hurt. How could a little bump like this hurt?" Hongtang pressed on, "Mum, why does Dad always get drunk and hit you?" You Sisi scolded gently, "Don't talk nonsense. Your dad didn't hit me; I'm just clumsy! You need to treat your father well. Life isn't easy for him either—he carries heavy burdens and grievances inside that he can't put into words!" Speechless, Hongtang raised her eyes to gaze at the distant, hazy mountain ranges. You Sisi followed her gaze out toward the hazy peaks and abruptly asked, "Hongtang, if one day I were to vanish, what would you do?" Startled, Hongtang replied, "Mum, you're not going to leave us, never!" Sighing deeply, You Sisi murmured, "Supposing... supposing one day I really did leave—" "Mum, stop it! That's impossible, absolutely impossible!" Hongtang protested. "How could you ever bear to abandon us? If Mum ever really vanished, I would hunt you down to the ends of the earth—even if it killed me, I'd find you! I mean it, and I'll do it! Mum, don't ever say things like that again, okay?" You Sisi looked back toward the hazy mountains in silence, her gaze lost and unfocused. That unfocused gaze sent a shiver of pure panic through Hongtang's heart.

Still, Li Hongtang remained completely in the dark regarding what her father, Li Cilin, was actually up to. He left the house at the crack of dawn every day, returning late into the night—and sometimes failing to return at all. He had instructed his daughter that You Sisi was likely never coming back, as even he had no way of tracking her down, and ordered Hongtang to look after the household and her younger brother. Given his recent shroud of secrecy, Hongtang sensed that an even greater storm was brewing. Defying her father's orders, she refused to give up her search; as long as she hadn't laid eyes on her mother's corpse, there remained a possibility that she was alive—a flicker of hope she vowed never to abandon. That very morning, while combing the village nestled in the West Mountains door-to-door, Hongtang unexpectedly ran straight into her father. on their faces, Li Cilin dragged her out to the edge of the village and snapped with fierce impatience, "Hongtang, why won't you listen to me? I've told you countless times—your mother is gone, stop looking for her! If she wants to come home, she'll come back on her own; if she's iron-clad in her refusal, you could search the ends of the earth and never find her! Get back home right now." Left with no alternative, Hongtang had been forced to leave the village.

Dusk fell, the setting sun bleeding across the sky like fresh gore.

Descending from the mountains, Li Hongtang walked across the farmlands. The late-season rice harvest was mere days away, yet her mother remained unfound—what was she to do! As she trudged along, a pattering of footsteps suddenly echoed from behind her—light, childlike footsteps. Twisting around, Hongtang spotted the town's dwarf, Shangguan Wenqing, wobbling toward her through the crimson glow of the setting sun. Halting in her tracks, she called out, "Wenqing, where on earth are you headed?"

Ambling right up to her, Shangguan Wenqing tilted his massive, disproportionate head up toward her face, wearing a broad smile. Though his head was monstrously out of proportion with his tiny body, his smile lacked any sense of malice; in the eyes of the kind-hearted Hongtang, his expression appeared quite bright. "Just out for a casual stroll," Shangguan Wenqing replied.

Filled with pity for him, Hongtang cautioned, "Wenqing, you shouldn't wander around aimlessly. It'll be pitch dark soon, hurry home before a wild mountain hound snatches you up."

Rocking his gargantuan head from side to side, Shangguan Wenqing chuckled, "Don't worry, don't worry, wild hounds can't catch me."

"Stop talking big and get home safely!" Hongtang urged. "I can't chat anymore, I need to get back myself."

The smile vanished from Shangguan Wenqing's face in an instant as he delivered a grim, solemn warning: "Hongtang, did you know? Your uncle You Chengtuo is dying!"

Her expression darkening instantly, Hongtang snapped, "Spit, spit, spit! You're the one who's dying, don't curse my uncle!"

Pouting his lips in an aggrieved expression, Shangguan Wenqing protested, "When have I ever lied? I'm telling the truth, your uncle You Chengtuo is really dying, he hasn't been able to get out of bed in days."

Refusing to believe a single word, Hongtang threatened, "Keep talking nonsense and I'll beat you!"

Unfazed, Shangguan Wenqing insisted, "Hongtang, is there anything happening in Tang Town that escapes me? I am the living immortal of Tang Town! Your uncle is genuinely dying; I heard it straight from old apothecary Zheng Shilin's mouth. Your uncle secretly sent someone to smuggle him in to diagnose the illness, but with all of old Zheng's medical wizardry, he's completely helpless and at his wits' end. Old Zheng said your uncle might be beyond saving."

A cold jolt shot through Hongtang's heart: "Did you hear old Dr. Zheng say that with your own ears?"

Nodding vigorously, Shangguan Wenqing replied, "I heard him and his son talking with my own ears—nobody else was around. Old Zheng even told his son to keep it strictly confidential, never imagining that I, the living immortal, would overhear. I knew you'd be passing through here this evening, so I waited specifically to tell you."

In a flash of sudden rage, Hongtang lashed out with a kick: "I'll teach you to spread wild rumors!"

Though a dwarf, Shangguan Wenqing possessed uncanny agility; dodging her kick with nimble dexterity, he scrambled straight into the roadside rice paddy, rustling the stalks before vanishing entirely from sight within seconds.

A hard, unyielding lump wedged itself tight in Hongtang's throat, impossible to swallow down and impossible to spit out. Tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over as a wave of agonizing grief wracked her chest.

Deep into the night, Li Saogu's lanky silhouette slipped out through the front gateway of the Li estate. Like a wandering ghost, he threaded his way through the darkened alleyways until he stopped before a residence in Qinghua Lane. Extracting a razor-sharp blade from his waistband, he slid it deftly into the door crack and gently nudged the wooden latch aside. Treading with absolute stealth, he pushed the door open and slinked inside.

Moving without a sound toward a bedroom door, he caught the heavy, bellows-like snoring echoing from within. The door stood ajar, yielding easily to a gentle push. Stepping inside, Li Saogu latched the door securely behind him. remained blissfully ignorant of her legal name, and Li Saogu was no exception; everyone simply called her "Shen the Sow" due to her immense, porcine proportions.

Unable to make out the details of the sleeping woman's heavy frame in the dark, Li Saogu groped his way toward the bedside. A wave of body heat washed over him—the distinct aura radiating from Shen the Sow's flesh, mingled with a heavy, cloying feminine musk. A hot surge rushed straight to Li Saogu's head, completely disorienting him as the thick, heavy scent inflamed his senses. He never imagined he could sink so low as to be driven to a frenzy of raw lust by an aging matron. Groping blindly across the mattress in the pitch black, his hands collided with Shen the Sow's fleshy body. Escaping his throat came a low, feral growl as he hurled himself violently onto her.

Shen the Sow's thunderous snoring cut off abruptly.

Groggily, she muttered, "Gouzi, what the hell are you playing at? Sneaking back in the middle of the night and not letting a body sleep!"

Mistaking Li Saogu for her good-for-nothing gambler of a husband, Yu Gouzi—who frequently spent his nights whoring and gambling away from home—Shen the Sow offered no resistance. Without uttering a syllable, Li Saogu yanked down her loose underdrawers, unholstered his throbbing, raging manhood, and plunged straight into her core while his hands clamped viciously onto her generous breasts. Consumed entirely by a wildfire of raw desire, Li Saogu slammed into her with brutal, punishing thrusts. Stiimulated by his ferocious assault, Shen the Sow's own dormant passions flared to life; letting out feral, ecstatic moans, she arched her heavy hips and met his thrusts with eager, shameless abandon.

When the tempest finally exhausted itself, Li Saogu collapsed into a limp heap of exhaustion.

Yet Shen the Sow remained unsatisfied, whining, "Gouzi, how long has it been since you actually serviced me! I thought you were completely shot and useless down there. Come on, go again, I want more—"

She reached out blindly to pull him back into her embrace.

Snapping instantly back to his senses, Li Saogu vaulted off the mattress, hauled up his trousers, and leaned over the head of the bed. Pressing a heavy palm down onto her head, he rasped out a venomous, disguised threat: "You rotten bitch, listen to me carefully: if you ever dare flap your loose jaws and run your mouth again, I'll cripple you for good!"

With that, Li Saogu slipped away into the night like a shadow. Though he had originally intended to teach Shen the Sow a brutal lesson, his nerve had ultimately failed him.

Once he vanished, Shen the Sow jolted fully awake, realizing the man who had just used her body was not her husband Yu Gouzi at all—yet she hadn't managed to recognize his voice! Leaping out of bed, she lit an oil lamp, stomped her foot, and cursed into the empty air: "Whichever son of a bitch that was, taking advantage of old Lady Shen!" Sitting on the edge of her mattress with her heavy chest heaving, she rationalized that at the very least, getting taken advantage of by a stranger beat enduring Yu Gouzi's gambling cronies when her husband whored her out to cover his debts. Thinking along those lines offered a shred of grim comfort, easing the knot in her stomach. Yu Gouzi routinely lost his shirts at the gambling dens; when he ran out of cash, he regularly offered up his wife as collateral, bringing his debt-collectors home to violate her. in the grip of fate, she had long Since shed all remaining shreds of shame in Tang Town, running her mouth with reckless abandon and earning the universal annoyance of everyone she met.

Loose lips, however, always exacted a heavy toll.

As she racked her brain trying to recall whose ire she might have incurred to warrant a midnight rapist sneaking in to violate and threaten her, Yu Gouzi finally swaggered back into the house. Humming a vulgar little ditty, Yu Gouzi strolled into the bedroom to find the oil lamp blazing and Shen the Sow glaring at him with a dark, thunderous scowl. Grinning foolishly, Yu Gouzi teased, "Sow, were you staying up waiting for me?" Glancing sideways at his smug expression—evidently he had cleaned up at the tables tonight—Shen the Sow felt a fresh surge of incandescent rage. While her husband was out winning coin, his own wife was being degraded at home. Snapping entirely, she lunged off the bed, kicked off a frayed cloth shoe, and rushed him, raining fierce blows across his head and face.

Utterly bewildered, Yu Gouzi ducked and dodged, crying out, "Sow, have you lost your damn mind? What are you beating me for out of nowhere!"

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Shen the Sow roared, "I have lost my mind, I'm going to beat you to death, you useless piece of trash! What evil sin did I commit in my past life to end up shackled to a subhuman beast like you in this one!"

Flaring into sudden anger himself, Yu Gouzi snatched the tattered shoe from her hand and hurled it across the room. "You ungrateful, rotten sow, have you finally lost your damn mind?"

Fuming with fury, Shen the Sow scrambled back onto the bed and lay facing the wall with her back to him. Dragging a heavy string of copper coins from his pocket, Yu Gouzi tossed it triumphantly onto the filthy table, stripped off his clothes, blew out the oil lamp, and climbed into bed. Reaching out a hand to stroke Shen the Sow's shoulder, he was met with total silence. She remained consumed by the mystery of whose toes she had trodden upon to invite such retaliation. She had hurled plenty of vicious gossip at everyone in town, leaving her unable to narrow down a single culprit. Suddenly, her thoughts locked onto Eunuch Li.

Shen the Sow had spat malicious rumors about Eunuch Li on more than one occasion. Shortly after the eunuch's return to Tang Town, she had gone around whispering endlessly about his status as a eunuch and all the sordid implications attached to it. That very morning, while squatting over the communal latrines in Urine-Stench Alley to relieve herself, she had struck drift up idle chatter with Second-Aunt Wu in the neighboring stall. The conversation inevitably moved toward Eunuch Li: "That old eunuch sure is rolling in wealth, treating the whole town to operas day in and day out. Where do you suppose a creature like that got his money? Bound to be ill-gotten gains if you ask me." Second-Aunt Wu had warned her, "You'd better watch your tongue. No matter where his silver came from, Eunuch Li treating us to free operas is a blessing. Look at the wealthy folks in this town—they'd take their money straight to the grave before spending a copper to benefit the common folk." Hearing that, Shen had dropped the subject. Urine-Stench Alley served as Tang Town's premier hub for gossip and intelligence; lined entirely with outhouses, it was where the entire community gathered every morning to drop waste or empty chamber pots, allowing rumors to spread thick and fast through the reeking vapors. Shen the Sow's morning remarks about Eunuch Li had undoubtedly been overheard by more ears than just Second-Aunt Wu's; in a town with loose lips, it wouldn't take long for the gossip to wind its way straight to Eunuch Li's doorstep.

Could that midnight intruder have been dispatched by Eunuch Li?

Holding Dongzi's hand in hers, Li Hongtang stepped across the threshold into You Chengtuo's home in You Village. You Chengtuo's wife, Yu Shuizhen, was tending to a pot of simmering medicinal herbs out in the kitchen. Calling out, "Auntie—," Hongtang watched as Yu Shuizhen emerged to greet them. "Hongtang, what brings you two out here?" With deep anxiety bleeding into her voice, Hongtang asked, "Auntie, is Uncle sick?"

A bleak, haggard shadow crossed Yu Shuizhen's worn face as her eyes reddened. "Heaven only knows what happened. The night he came back from your place, he collapsed and hasn't been able to leave his bed for days. Your uncle was always such a rugged, robust man—he shouldn't have fallen like this out of nowhere, he's never had a sick day in his life! Even Dr. Zheng is baffled, unable to diagnose what's wrong with him." Hongtang's eyes welled up with sympathetic tears: "Auntie, where is Uncle? Take me to see him right now!"

Wiping away her tears, Yu Shuizhen murmured, "He's in the bedroom. Ah, misfortune never comes alone—your mother is still missing, and now your uncle has mysteriously fallen. Is the heavens truly determined to destroy this family?"

Guiding them inside, Yu Shuizhen led them into the bedroom.

The room was saturated with a thick, cloying stench resembling a wretched hybrid of rotting dead mice and spoiled meat.

Lying flat on his back atop the wooden sleeping platform with his eyes tightly shut and unmoving, You Chengtuo's skin was the color of withered parchment; merely days of illness had reduced him to a skeletal frame of skin and bones.

Leaning close to his ear, Yu Shuizhen whispered, "Chengtuo, Hongtang and Dongzi came to check on you."

You Chengtuo's voice fluttered out like a dying spider's thread, unrecognizable from his usual booming resonance: "Didn't I tell you not to let them know?"

Softly, Yu Shuizhen replied, "I didn't tell them, goodness knows how they caught wind of it."

Sighing faintly, You Chengtuo forced his lifeless eyes open, turned his heavy head with immense effort, and offered a bitter, strained smile: "Hongtang, Dongzi—"

Tears broke from Hongtang's eyes like shattered beads.

Paralyzed by sheer terror, Dongzi shrank behind his sister's skirts, peering out with wide, silent eyes at You Chengtuo's prone form.

"Don't cry, don't cry," You Chengtuo whispered. "Uncle isn't going to die. King Yama won't dare collect my soul."

Starting from a certain autumn night, the residents of Tang Town began hearing the crisp, rhythmic ringing of a blacksmith's hammer echoing through the dead of night—a sound distinct and fundamentally different from the theatrical melodies of the opera. The locals reasoned that with the late autumn rice fast harvest approaching, the blacksmith Shangguan Qingqiu must be driving his two apprentices through grueling overtime shifts to hammer out farming sickles.

While the hammering remained subdued and muffled during daylight hours, it grew piercingly loud and intrusive once the world fell silent at night, grating heavily on people's nerves and destroying their sleep. Hu Xilai, the proprietor of the Yueilai Snack House in Tang Town, suffered from chronic insomnia; kept awake by the relentless clanging, he felt as though his skull was about to fracture. Driven past the brink of endurance, he grabbed a burning torch, marched down to the blacksmith's shop, and hammered his fists against the door in a furious demand for silence. From inside, the rhythmic ding-ding-dong-dong of the hammer continued unabated, treating his pounding fists with utter contempt.

Boiling with indignation, Hu Xilai bellowed from the street outside, "If you bastards keep this up, nobody in this town is going to survive! Stop right now, or I'll put a torch to your smithy!"

Right at that moment, a crisp, mocking giggle cut through the air. Before Hu Xilai could process the sound, the dwarf Shangguan Wenqing scuttled out from some unseen shadow.

Glares locked downward, Hu Xilai barked with bulging eyes, "Wenqing, go tell your old man to shut down his shop and get some sleep! You're driving people insane with this racket!"

With a serene smile, Shangguan Wenqing replied, "I'm about to go insane from it myself. In fact, I'd thank you to burn this place down—that way I could finally get a decent night's sleep!"

Hu Xilai thought to himself: What kind of twisted logic is this dwarf spouting? Is he trying to goad me? His temper flared to a boiling point. "You think I don't have the guts to burn this place down, is that it?"

Still smiling, Shangguan Wenqing shrugged. "I didn't say you lacked the guts. Go ahead and burn it if you like; honestly, it has nothing to do with me. Nothing in this world has anything to do with me."

Dropping those words, Shangguan Wenqing bolted off, vanishing into the darkness within a matter of seconds, leaving Hu Xilai to wonder if the creature had crawled straight into a stray dog's den.

Inside the smithy, the hammering refused to miss a single beat, completely ignoring Hu Xilai's existence. Trembling with helpless rage, Hu Xilai ultimately lacked the final ounce of nerve required to strike a match and torch the building. Cursing viciously under his breath, he retreated in defeat. Hu Xilai spent that entire night staring wide-eyed at the ceiling.

When he pulled open the wooden shutters of his eatery the following morning, dark, ink-stain-like rings bruised the skin beneath his eyes. Casting a venomous glare toward the smithy across the street, he noted that the hammering had continued unabated through the night. Vowing to march over and demand an explanation the moment they unlatched their doors, he was met with a frustrating mystery: the smithy remained bolted tight all day long. In fact, for a remarkably extended stretch, the shop doors never once opened, yet the relentless sound of iron-working hammered out unceasingly day and night, leaving everyone to wonder what Shangguan Qingqiu and his apprentices were up to behind closed doors. Hu Xilai concluded that if things kept going this way, he wouldn't be far from the grave—and if he died, he would die a casualty of the blacksmith's hammer.

That very noon, an out-of-town herbalist stepped across the threshold into Yueilai Snack House.

Sinking onto a bench, the traveler called out to Hu Xilai, "Bring me a pound of braised pig's head and a warmed pot of rice wine."

Nodding sluggishly, Hu Xilai asked, "Anything else?"

After pondering for a moment, the traveler replied, "Once I finish the wine, cook me up a bowl of taro dumplings."

"Coming right up—," Hu Xilai acknowledged.

As Hu Xilai set about slicing the pork, the traveler glanced up and asked, "Boss Hu, you look terrible today. Did your wife bully you last night?"

"Talk nonsense!" Hu Xilai snapped.

The traveler burst into hearty laughter.

Moments later, the food and drink were served. The traveler drank and dined in solitary peace. With zero other patrons lingering in the shop, Hu Xilai drifted over out of sheer boredom, pulling up a stool to sit across from the traveler. "You haven't come around in ages," Hu Chenglai remarked. "Where have your travels taken you lately?"

Taking a sip of wine, the traveler replied, "Indeed, it's been quite a while since I last visited Tang Town; this place is so damn isolated, hard to justify stopping by too often! Lately I've been hitting up other mountain districts to source stock. Business is brutal these days—break your back from dawn to dusk and you barely scrape together a handful of copper coins."

"Ain't that the truth," Hu sighed. "Scraping together a living isn't easy for anybody these days."

The traveler chuckled. "Well, you've got it good compared to most—sitting pretty running a snug little shop with guaranteed income, no need to run yourself ragged across the country."

"Hard work, all of it hard work!" Hu muttered.

Out of the blue, the traveler posed a pointed question: "Tell me, has a red-haired ghost passed through Tang Town recently?"

Startled, Hu Xilai blinked. "What kind of red-haired ghost?"

"Relax, not a literal ghost," the traveler clarified. "A foreigner—grows a shock of bright red hair. Anyone who's laid eyes on him calls him the red-haired ghost."

Puzzled, Hu asked, "Foreigners? There are people with red hair?"

"Judging by your tone, the red-haired ghost hasn't made his way to Tang Town yet," the traveler observed.

"You think he'll come?" Hu asked. "I wouldn't mind laying eyes on a red-haired man!"

"Might happen. He's a missionary, travels all over spreading his faith; liable to wander into Tang Town any day now."

"Preaching what kind of faith?" Hu inquired.

"Something called Jesus-teaching, telling folks to believe in a heavenly god, kind of like devotion to Guanyin Bodhisattva."

"Does anyone actually buy that?" Hu scoffed.

"Of course they do, quite a few converts actually. Let me tell you, when that red-haired ghost was preaching down in Tingzhou City, whole crowds of people started following him. Triggered a massive uproar, it did! White-Brow Daoist Priest over at Yellow Dragon Temple threw a fit, condemning it as an evil cult and rallying everyone to boycott the foreigner. Not content with mere words, White-Brow even dispatched thugs to collar the missionary, trying to force him out of town or outright murder him. Eventually, the missionary's converts brought the local magistrates in, leaving White-Brow with no choice but to release him. Even after letting him go, the Daoist priest kept agitating his followers to make life a living hell for the foreigner. Finally, the missionary packed up and left Tingzhou City to preach out here in the mountain districts."

"You don't say? Does this red-haired ghost travel alone?" Hu asked.

The traveler nodded. "Entirely alone."

"That red-haired bastard's got some serious grit," Hu remarked. "Ain't he scared of bandits?"

"Nope. Rumor has it he actually ran dead into a band of mountain bandits once. Not long after they hauled him off into the hills, they released him unharmed—and even handed him a pouch of copper coins to fund his travels."

Astonished, Hu blurted out, "Why the hell would they do that?"

"Word is, even the bandits got converted to his faith."

Hu sucked in a sharp breath. "Now that's some dark magic right there!"

The traveler burst into laughter. "Well, look at that—talking your ear off finished my wine and polished off the pork. Go on, cook up those taro dumplings for me!"

Chuckling, Hu conceded, "You outsiders sure get around, knowing all kinds of wild tales." With that, he scurried off to the kitchen to prep the dumplings.

Dongzi had kept a strange dream locked away from his sister Li Hongtang: on the very night his uncle You Chengtuo departed their home, Dongzi had dreamt of You Chengtuo clad entirely in white robes, mounting a horse fashioned out of bamboo frames and white funeral paper, and soaring straight up into the clouds. He had never been able to wrap his head around how such a flimsy paper steed could support his uncle's heavy frame. He had only ever laid eyes on such horses inside funeral paper supply shops dealing in goods for the dead. Ever since that night, every time Dongzi passed the funeral shop, he would grind to a halt, fixing his gaze on the paper horse displayed inside and fantasizing about it taking flight. Invariably, the shopkeeper—a hunchbacked man known as Hunchback Li—would hobble out to the doorway and chuckle gently, "Run along now, Dongzi, stop staring at these things; playthings like this aren't meant for the likes of you." Hunchback Li possessed a massive, grotesque hump of dead flesh piled high between his shoulder blades; having never taken a, he earned his sole livelihood crafting funerary goods. His craftsmanship was peerlessly exquisite—reportedly self-taught, the paper figures and horses he wove looked terrifyingly lifelike. Obediently, Dongzi would resume his walk, nursing a sudden, wild fantasy: might Hunchback Li one day mount his own paper steed and fly away?

The morning following the completion of their late-rice harvest, the household was saturated with the sweet, rich fragrance of newly threshed grain. With the harvest wrapped up, Dongzi knew his sister Li Hongtang would resume her relentless quest to comb every distant mountain and village far beyond Tang Town in search of their mother. Throughout the grueling days of harvesting, their father Li Cilin had remained completely invisible across the fields, wandering off on mysterious, opaque errands. Still, Li Cilin had hired a few extra hands to assist them with the reaping.

That morning broke bright and clear. Through the open courtyard skywell, patches of brilliant cobalt sky were visible, carrying the crisp, clean scent of morning dew. Li Cilin had spent yet another night away from home; waking Dongzi up and feeding him breakfast, Li Hongtang prepared to set out on her search once more. Stroking her younger brother's hair, she instructed, "Be a good boy, Dongzi, and don't wander off. I've left your lunch ready on the stove, just heat it up when the time comes. Wait right here for me to come home." Dongzi nodded. Suddenly, his eyes locked onto a streak of stark white hair threading through his pale sister's locks. That single strand of white hair drove into Dongzi's heart like a dagger, twisting a sharp, agonizing pain through his chest—she was merely seventeen years old, blossoming in the prime of her youth, yet premature white hairs were already crowning her head. He longed to voice his heartbreak to his beautiful sister, yet the words choked in his throat; speaking them aloud would only inflict an extra layer of cruel, compounding pain upon her.

Just as Li Hongtang reached for the front door, a breathless figure stumbled across the threshold.

Soaked in sweat, a young boy lunged toward her, sobbing uncontrollably, "Big Sister, my dad, he, he—"

The visitor was You Chengtuo's son, You Musong.

A heavy lead weight plummeted in Hongtang's chest, confirming her worst fears, yet she forced an outward mask of calm. "Musong, take a breath and tell me slowly, what happened?"

Gasping for air, You Musong choked out, "My dad, my dad, he's gone—"

Hearing the undeniable announcement of mourning, Hongtang's breath seized in her throat, and she collapsed unconscious onto the dirt floor. Frozen in horror, Dongzi stood like a statue, incapable of forcing a single sound past his lips. Did Uncle really fly away on that paper horse? he wondered numbly. Dropping to his knees, You Musong scooped up Hongtang with one arm while pinching the philtrum beneath her nose with trembling fingers, crying out, "Big Sister, Big Sister, wake up, please—"

...

His face etched with desolate grief, Dongzi walked in utter silence past Abao's front door. Catching sight of him, Abao hurried out to trail in his wake. In that moment, Dongzi's eyes registered nothing of the outside world. Trotting behind him, Abao fretted, "Dongzi, please don't be sad, I know your uncle passed away."

Dongzi offered no reply, lacking even the energy to speak.

Persisting, Abao chimed in, "Dongzi, did you know? I'm grieving too, really I am."

Dongzi kept his forward march, thinking to himself: Uncle didn't die. He just rode that gorgeous paper horse up into the sky, and one day, he's going to ride it right back down. A bitter, burning acidity choked his throat as his vision blurred with hot tears. Trudging behind him, Abao broke down into soft, hiccuping sobs. Passersby cast sorrowful, pitying glances at the two children, while soft-hearted women openly brushed away sympathetic tears.

Arriving at the doorway of Hunchback Li's funeral shop, Dongzi planted his feet and stared through tear-swelled eyes at the paper horse resting inside. Hobbling out to the threshold, Hunchback Li asked softly, "What is it you're after, Dongzi?" Pointing a trembling finger at the paper steed, Dongzi choked out, "Uncle Hunchback, can you give me that paper horse?" With immense gentleness, Hunchback Li replied, "If you want it, Dongzi, take it." "Uncle Hunchback, but I don't have any money to pay you right now," Dongzi stammered. Turning back into the shop, Hunchback Li retrieved the paper horse, stepped out to present it, and said, "Take it as a token of your filial heart, Dongzi. I won't charge you a copper." "Uncle Hunchback, I swear once I grow up and earn money, I'll pay you back every coin as a formal debt," Dongzi promised. Sighing, Hunchback Li patted his shoulder. "Enough talk, Dongzi, just take the horse and go."

Lifting the paper horse high in both hands, Dongzi turned down the narrow street toward the eastern edge of town.

As he passed Abao's doorway, Dongzi halted and instructed over his shoulder, "Abao, go on back home."

Abao nodded obediently.

Right at that moment, they crossed paths with Eunuch Li, clad in his pristine white robes and strolling leisurely from the opposite direction, leaning heavily upon a lacquered, dragon-headed wooden walking stick. Recognizing the staff instantly, Abao knew it was the very same cane his father Zhang Faqiang had spent two agonizing days carving; he had wondered at the time who could possibly require such an ornate dragon-headed walking stick, never imagining it would end up in the hands of Eunuch Li. Pacing slowly down the street, Eunuch Li nodded courteously in measured acknowledgment as villagers stepped aside to bow and greet him with respectful smiles—a level of universal reverence no other soul in Tang Town commanded.

Dongzi and Eunuch Li intersected directly.

Glaring with unmasked coldness, Dongzi refused to yield an inch of the path.

A faint, inscrutable smile ghosted across Eunuch Li's lips as he stepped aside to let the boy pass, his sharp gaze lingering thoughtfully upon Dongzi's delicate, sorrow-marred features. Striding straight past him, Dongzi carried on. Eunuch Li tracked the boy's slender, retreating frame with his eyes, his stark white eyebrows twitching faintly as he swallowed hard.

Holding the paper horse aloft, Dongzi marched out past the boundaries of Tang Town's narrow lanes and headed toward You Village.

Following You Chengtuo's passing, Li Cilin suddenly re-emerged into the light, looking as though he had crawled straight out of a rodent's nest—his hair a tangled rats' nest, his face stubbled with unkempt growth, his expression shrouded in gloom and swimming with genuine, agonizing grief. Joining his own children, he made the journey to You Chengtuo's home. You Chengtuo's corpse rested atop a wooden door panel laid across the main hall, covered modestly from chin to toe with a length of white homespun cloth. Donning traditional mourning garbs of coarse hemp tied about their brows, his grieving widow, his sons, alongside Li Hongtang and Dongzi, stood in solemn silence to the left of the bier.

Binding a strip of hemp cloth tightly around his forehead, Li Cilin collapsed onto his knees beside You Chengtuo's body and burst into a howling, wailing lament. His cries echoed with the wild, feral resonance of a starving wolf howling through a dark mountain forest—piercingly shrill and deeply uncanny. Yu Shuizhen maintained a blank, expressionless mask as she stared down at the man who once been her husband's sworn brother, offering not a single word. Every member of the You family exercised rigid self-restraint in Li Cilin's presence, making it abundantly clear that You Chengtuo had left them with explicit instructions before his death. Dongzi, too, fixed a cold, unblinking stare upon his wailing father, entirely incapable of telling whether the man's tears held an ounce of genuine sorrow.

Throughout the funeral procession, Yu Shuizhen and her sons wept and wailed to the heavens, while Li Hongtang cried until her face was thoroughly drenched. Dongzi, however, refused to shed a single tear. Catching sight of his dry eyes, Li Cilin flew into a sudden rage, delivering a vicious backhand across the boy's cheek: "You ungrateful little bastard! Your uncle treated you like gold when he was alive, and now that he's gone you can't even squeeze out a single drop of water for him!" The blow landed with bone-cracking force, instantly swelling Dongzi's cheek to a furious crimson emblazoned with five distinct finger-prints. A searing, burning agony flared across his face while his ear rang with a persistent, high-pitched whine.

Even then, Dongzi refused to cry.

Locked stubbornly within his heart burned a singular conviction: Uncle You Chengtuo wasn't dead; he had merely mounted the white paper horse and flown up into the heavens, and one day, he would ride it right back down to them...

With You Chengtuo's funeral rites concluded, Li Cilin approached Yu Shuizhen with an offer: "Let me bring you and the boys back to live in town, that way we can keep an eye on one another and offer some mutual support."

Shaking her head, Yu Shuizhen forced a bitter, weary smile. "Thank you for your kindness, but no. You Village is our home, and we'll manage just fine on our own. By the way, before your senior brother drew his last breath, he left me with a final message to pass along to you: if You Sisi ever finds her way back home, treat her right! And even if she's truly gone for good, you must still look after your two children with a decent heart."

"Naturally," Li Cilin agreed.

Packing up his children, Li Cilin departed You Village.

Yu Shuizhen and her sons escorted them out as far as the village boundary. By then, icy autumn gales were whipping across the desolate, windswept hills. Glancing back over her shoulder as they trudged away, Li Hongtang caught sight of Yu Shuizhen repeatedly wiping her eyes with her sleeve, while You Musong stood frantically waving a final farewell.

Little did Li Hongtang know that this parting from Yu Shuizhen and her family would be their final farewell for all eternity. Not long afterward, Yu Shuizhen packed up her household and led her sons away from You Village, abandoning those mountain lands entirely. They vanished without leaving a forwarding address, without uttering a single word of warning prior to their departure. Perhaps You Chengtuo had already mapped out their escape before his death—knowing he could no longer shield them, he had sensed the closing jaws of danger tightening around Tang Town. Yet, where on earth could a true sanctuary be found? Where existed a paradise for ordinary people? Anywhere genuine human footsteps trod, mortal peril lurked in the shadows!

Following You Chengtuo's passing, a profound sense of mourning rippled through Tang Town, quickly transforming his mysterious death into the prime topic of gossip for after-dinner conversations. Word spread that on the very night You Chengtuo died, he had roared at the top of his lungs through the dark hours until dawn, his gravelly voice echoing across the skies of You Village and terrorizing every resident within earshot. The moment his frantic screams finally died out with the morning winds, the heartbreaking wails of the You family rang out, alerting the village that You Chengtuo had perished, leaving them forever defenseless. Wild theories sprouted up: some claimed he had been dabbling in forbidden esoteric martial arts, suffered a catastrophic deviation of his inner qi , and paid with his life; others insisted he had contracted a bizarre, incurable affliction that ruthlessly crushed his robust constitution; while a third faction whispered that he had grievously offended the local deities and suffered divine retribution.

The final legend proved by far the most popular.

Whether this particular tale had originally oozed out from the reeking vapors of Urine-Stench Alley remained unverified.

At any rate, the narrative possessed such vivid, circumstantial detail that the majority of Tang Town swallowed it whole within a matter of days.

According to the legend, on that silver-mooned midnight, You Chengtuo stumbled out of Li Cilin's house reeking of alcohol. Weaving unsteadily through the quiet lanes, he headed toward the eastern edge of the town. Passing the local Earth God Temple, he collapsed into a drunken stupor at the foot of the ancient camphor tree standing before the gates. Through his bleary, alcohol-fogged vision, he spotted an elderly white-haired crone leaning upon a wooden staff who approached him with a gentle, benevolent smile: "You've had too much to drink, son, hurry on home. The autumn night wind has a bitter bite, sleeping out here in the open will bring sickness!" Priding himself on his decades of martial conditioning and robust physique, You Chengtuo had bristled at the concern, spitting back a gravelly roar: "I'm fine! I regularly dive into icy rivers in the dead of winter, a little breeze is nothing!" Undeterred, the old crone persisted with maternal warmth: "Don't tempt fate; countless heroes have fallen to arrogance and met untimely ends! Take an old woman's advice and get yourself home!" Instead of accepting the kindness, You Chengtuo exploded in drunken insolence: "You meddling old hag, what business is it of yours if I drop dead right here! Piss off and stop annoying me!" With a sad sigh, the old crone simply vanished into thin air before his eyes. Moments later, feeling his stomach heave with violent, swirling nausea, You Chengtuo hauled himself up, staggered over to the trunk of the ancient camphor tree, and vomited a foul deluge of bile that stained the sacred bark. Not content with that, he proceeded to unbutton his trousers and unleash a long, steaming stream of urine straight across the holy tree trunk. Now, the ancient camphor tree served as the Earth God's divine arboreal vessel; how could You Chengtuo, a mere mortal, be permitted to desecrate it with impunity? Enraged instantly, the Earth God struck him down with divine wrath. The moment he finished urinating, You Chengtuo felt a crushing, sledgehammer blow strike the center of his skull, shocking him instantly back to sobriety. But awakening came too late; had he heeded the old crone's warnings earlier and fled the spot, all would have been well—little did he know the crone was none other than the Earth Goddess herself. Stricken with a splitting agony resembling an iron spike driven deep into his brain, a shrieking, blinding migraine crippled him as he bolted in a blind, stumbling panic back in the direction of You Village...

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