AEDBE CHAPTER 4
A Eunuch’s Dream of Being Emperor by Li Ximin
CHAPTER 4
Amidst the increasingly chilly winds of late autumn, Li Hongtang searched everywhere for her mother. No matter who tried to dissuade her, her mind was made up; she was determined to find her mother, even if it meant recovering nothing more than a single bone. She flat out refused to believe that a living, breathing person could simply vanish into thin air without a trace. Nearly every morning when he woke up, Dongzi would notice a new streak of white hair sprouting among his sister's locks, and her appearance grew increasingly gaunt, her once-ruddy complexion turning more ashen by the day. Ever since their mother disappeared, Li Hongtang had stopped looking in the mirror entirely; she had forgotten about herself. Several times Dongzi wanted to mention it to his sister, but he held his tongue, unwilling to inflict deeper wounds upon her heart. What did those white hairs and that faded complexion mean for a girl in the prime of her youth?
Carrying a shoulder pole loaded with fresh white radishes, Shen the Sow headed into the town streets to sell them. She was an exceptional gardener in Tang Town, having cleared several plots of wasteland along the wild riverbanks by Tang Creek to cultivate all sorts of vegetables. She relied entirely on selling vegetables to trade for a few copper coins and keep her family fed; if she had to depend on Yu Gouzi, the household would have starved to death long ago. The white radishes in Shen the Sow's woven baskets were washed spotless, looking fresh, tender, and plump. While the people of Tang Town despised her incessant gossiping, they were quite fond of her produce.
Before she had even walked halfway down the street, the bulk of her radishes were already sold.
Her belly-like, plump face radiated a smug, triumphant flush, and her narrowed eyes scrutinized every single man walking down the street, particularly the lean ones. Ever since that night, whenever she stepped out of her house, she would scan the lean men with a bizarre, probing gaze, hoping to single out the man who had sneaked into her home in the dead of night. Looking back on it, that man had been quite something—thrilling enough to steal her soul away.
Once her radishes were nearly gone, Shen the Sow carried the remaining bundle over to Hu Xilai’s snack shop. Hu Xilai had a standing agreement with her to set aside some vegetables for him every day. As Shen the Sow passed the blacksmith's shop, she noticed its heavy wooden doors tightly shut, though the rhythmic ding-ding-dong-dong of hammering continued to ring out relentlessly. Even though the late-rice harvest was completely over, the blacksmith's shop remained closed, continuing to churn out the sound of beating iron day and night without pause.
Shen the Sow delivered the radishes into Hu Xilai's shop, where he stood with a solemn expression, cleaning a basin of pig intestines. His young son, Hu Tiansheng, was washing bowls nearby.
Placing the radishes into a bamboo basket on the kitchen counter, Shen the Sow flashed a flattering smile. "Boss Hu, look at these radishes—every single one is uniform in size. I always save the best ones for you; even if someone else offers a higher price, I won't sell them. I know that here in town, you, Boss Hu, look after me the best."
Hearing her flattery, Hu Xilai's brow remained tightly furrowed. Under normal circumstances, he would have chuckled heartily and bantered back with Shen the Sow using bawdy, teasing language.
Noticing Hu Xilai's gloomy, troubled expression, Shen the Sow probed, "Boss Hu, did you have another restless night of poor sleep?"
Hu Xilai replied in a muffled, grumpy drone, "How could I sleep well? I’m nothing like you, sleeping like a dead pig every single night—what a massive blessing that must be!"
Shen the Sow grinned until her eyes narrowed into slits. "How do you know I sleep like a dead pig every night? Could it be that you sneaked over to watch me sleep after dark?"
"Bah!" Hu Xilai spat. "Why would I go watch you sleep? Have I lost my mind?"
Shen the Sow gave her body a sudden jolt, causing her two massive breasts to bounce wildly beneath her tunic as if trying to burst through the fabric. "Boss Hu," she purred, "I know why you can't sleep well. Could it be because of that racket coming from the blacksmith's shop?"
The mere mention of the blacksmith's shop sent Hu Xilai's anger soaring to a boiling point. "That son-of-a-bitch Shangguan Qingqiu is deliberately trying to drive me to an early grave! Look at what he's pulling—it's completely against the laws of heaven! No wonder he spawned that dwarf freak of a son! I just don't understand what on earth he's hammering away behind closed doors day and night. I swear I want to put a torch to his damn blacksmith shop and let him hammer iron down in the netherworld!"
Lowering her voice abruptly, Shen the Sow leaned in. "Boss Hu, people are saying... they're saying Shangguan Qingqiu is actually dead, and his two apprentices cleared out long ago. What's going on in that shop right now is just Shangguan Qingqiu's ghost haunting the place! How long has anyone in town actually seen him walk around? If he were still alive, how could he keep his doors shut forever and never show his face outside? Doesn't that make sense to you?"
Hearing Shen the Sow's words, the hair on Hu Xilai's arms stood rigidly on end, while the relentless sound of hammering continued to drift over from the nearby smithy.
Suddenly, a crisp, sharp crash rang out.
It was the sound of a ceramic plate slipping from Hu Tiansheng's hands and shattering against the floor.
Glancing at the broken pottery shards scattered across the ground, Hu Xilai scowled in heart-wrenching agony. "You good-for-nothing spendthrift! You're trying to shorten my life! In our small-scale business, how many copper coins can we possibly scrape together in a day? And here you are, smashing a plate to pieces in a single second as if plates could be picked up off the street for free!"
Knowing he had blundered, Hu Tiansheng stood frozen in place, utterly at a loss. He knew his father's temperament all too well—Hu Xilai's stinginess was legendary throughout Tang Town. Coupled with the fact that his nerves had been frayed to the brink of insanity by the unceasing noise from the smithy day and night, his father was already boiling with suppressed rage, leaving Tiansheng terrified of how he might be punished.
True to form, Hu Xilai grew only more furious the more he ranted. Finally snatching a wet pig intestine straight out of the wooden washbasin, he lashed out, whipping Hu Tiansheng mercilessly across the head and face. The slick, foul-smelling intestine struck with a stinging slap, inflicting both physical pain and a profound humiliation upon the ten-year-old boy. Screaming in distress, Hu Tiansheng bolted out of the snack shop.
Hu Xilai chased after him, hurling the pig intestine out the door in a fit of rage.
As Tiansheng quickly vanished into the distance, reality finally caught up with Hu Xilai. Oh no, I threw the pig intestine right out onto the street! Heart aching intensely, he scrambled over to the cobblestone pavement to scoop up the soiled meat. "Oh, my poor pig intestine—"
By the time Hu Xilai limped back inside the shop, Shen the Sow had long since slipped away. As he dropped the dirtied intestine back into the washbasin to scrub it clean, he realized something was amiss: one of the pig intestines was completely missing. Glaring with blazing eyes, he cursed aloud, "Damn you, Shen the Sow, taking advantage of someone's misery! Stealing my pig intestine—may your whole family drop dead of a plague after eating it! Oh, my pig intestine! I paid hard-earned cash for these, my money didn't fall from the sky or get stolen. Do you think making an honest living is easy? Every drop of sweat that hits the ground around here is as big as a pot lid!"
The month-long opera performances finally drew to a close.
The people of Tang Town felt a lingering reluctance for it to end; how wonderful it would have been if the plays could have gone on forever. Days with opera felt like celebrating the Lunar New Year every single day! Once the performances stopped, daily life in Tang Town abruptly turned dull, leaving the residents feeling hollow and lost. Regardless, the townsfolk remained filled with deep gratitude toward Eunuch Li for gifting them an unforgettable month of joy.
Though the plays had stopped, the townsfolk noticed that the opera troupe had not yet packed up and left.
For Dongzi, it was a profoundly lonely afternoon.
More often than not, numbness enveloped him. He refused to let his mind dwell on deeper matters; whenever thoughts of his mother, his uncle, or those horrifying nightmares surfaced, he would plunge into an endless abyss of grief and terror from which he could not extract himself. On this lonely afternoon, he brushed aside Abao's calls from outside the doorway, ignoring his friend's invitations to go out and play. He had no desire to step outside or face the outside world. At most, he would sit by the wooden attic window, staring blankly down at the pedestrians and narrow storefronts lining the street below. What a vibrant, lively child he used to be, running wild across the town and fields alongside Abao. Sometimes, Dongzi craved the sight of a snake just as intensely as Abao craved butterflies. They would search for butterflies among the weeds along the riverbank, and amidst the chase, they would occasionally spot a snake slithering through the grass. Upon seeing a snake, Abao would shriek in alarm, while Dongzi would watch it glide past with a captivated, mesmerized gaze. Back then, he used to fantasize about turning into a snake himself. His father, Li Cilin, had told him more than once, "Dongzi, you are a snake." Dongzi never understood why his father said such things. However, his sister had once mentioned that on a certain night before she conceived him, when their mother had pulled back the quilt to go to sleep, she discovered a snake coiled up right in the middle of the bed and cried out in sheer terror. Li Cilin, on the other hand, showed no fear. According to local folklore in Tang Town, a snake entering a household must never be killed—it was a spirit snake destined to bring good fortune to the family. Lighting a stick of incense, Li Cilin gently coaxed the snake off the bed, watching with a smile as it slithered out through the doorway. Shortly thereafter, You Sisi conceived Dongzi. Often, Dongzi truly felt like a snake himself, cursed with skin that remained perpetually ice-cold.
Dongzi watched as an old vendor hawking maltose candy walked past beneath his window, his rhythmic, melodic cries carrying a potent, infectious charm. Something inside Dongzi's numb heart seemed to awaken. As the old man vanished from his line of sight, Dongzi's eyes grew damp. That maltose candy must have been intensely sweet, chewy, and elastic; whenever his mother bought it for him in the past, she would always gaze at him with a loving, affectionate smile and caution, "Eat slowly, Dongzi, careful you don't pull out your teeth. If you lose your teeth, you'll turn into a toothless old gap-tooth."
Dongzi's heart surged back to life—and with that awakening came an excruciating, piercing agony.
Abruptly catching the sound of some movement, he pricked up his ears.
Downstairs in the kitchen, someone seemed to be at work—scratching sounds, as if a pot were being scrubbed. Who could be scrubbing the pot?
Could it be his sister?
No, his sister had gone deep into the mountains to search for their mother and wouldn't return until nightfall.
Could it be his father?
No, his father never set foot in the kitchen, having repeatedly declared that washing and cooking were women's chores unbefitting of a real man; dragging him across the kitchen threshold even once was an absolute impossibility.
Could it be—
Dongzi's heart hammered frantically against his ribs. A familiar scent drifted to his senses—a faint, wispy trace of mother's milk that shamelessly coiled its way into his nostrils. Dongzi had been the last child in Tang Town to be weaned, continuing to nurse from his mother until he was six years old. Even at six, whenever he returned home, he would yank open his mother's blouse, bury his face in her chest, and latch onto her nipple like a feral wolf pup, sucking frantically... Of course, by that point, his mother no longer produced milk, and there were times he actually sucked blood out of her instead!
Without a doubt, it was Mum's scent; in his memories, his mother's scent was synonymous with the fragrance of milk.
It was Mum scrubbing the pot in the kitchen!
She had come home!
Dongzi's throat bobbed as a long-denied wave of overwhelming happiness surged straight to his head!
"Mum—!" Dongzi cried out, his heart a turbulent storm of conflicting emotions.
Scrambling and tumbling down the wooden stairs in a mad rush, he reached the kitchen doorway and distinctly spotted a familiar, cherished silhouette wearing a blue homespun tunic with a black cloth wrapped around her head—the exact same attire she had worn the morning she vanished into the thick fog.
With eyes brimming over with hot tears, Dongzi called out passionately, "Mum—!"
Just as he lunged forward to embrace her, the figure suddenly spun around.
"Ah—!"
Dongzi's eyes widened to their absolute limit, his jaw dropping slack.
Staring back at him was a pale, stark-white face completely devoid of facial features!
A wave of suffocating death-qi washed over him. For an instant, Dongzi felt as though a veil had blinded his eyes; blinking hard through his panic, he looked again, only to find the figure had vanished into thin air!
Wailing in despair, Dongzi screamed, "Mum—!"
No voice answered his cries.
Consumed by despair and bone-chilling terror.
A sudden rat-tat-tat of knocking rattled against the front door, rescuing him from the nightmare. Hurrying over, he wrenched the door open to find a white shadow slipping inside. It was none other than Eunuch Li. Staring in shock, Dongzi stammered, "You—"
Leaning upon his dragon-headed walking stick with one hand while clutching a small paper parcel in the other, Eunuch Li offered an eerie, sinister smile. "Dongzi, aren't you going to welcome me? By seniority, you should be calling me grandfather!"
Tear tracks still damp upon his cheeks and eyes swimming with fresh moisture, Dongzi glared at the uninvited guest with intense vigilance. "What are you doing here?"
Eunuch Li's gaze latched onto Dongzi's delicate face like a fly to sugar. "I came to see you, isn't that allowed?"
The death-qi radiating off Eunuch Li was cold enough to induce a shiver even in the dead of a scorching summer. Dongzi couldn't fathom how such an aura had been cultivated, why the old man had returned to Tang Town in his twilight years, or why his gaze held such unfathomable, creepy intensity. Remaining stubbornly silent, Dongzi treated his silence as his ultimate weapon against the eunuch.
"Dongzi, why are you crying?" Eunuch Li asked softly.
Dongzi stayed mute, seeing no reason to answer a single question from the man, wishing only for him to clear out of his house immediately.
Sensing Dongzi's hostile resistance, Eunuch Li let out a faint, dry sigh. "Your father mentioned you're fond of maltose candy. Look, I bought some for you."
With that, Eunuch Li extended the small paper parcel toward him.
Refusing to take the offering, Dongzi jammed both hands firmly behind his back.
A flicker of awkward tension crossed Eunuch Li's face before he set the parcel down onto the dining table, turned around, and began hobbling out using his dragon-headed cane. Reaching the doorway, however, he paused and doubled back. Stalking right up to Dongzi, he stared down at him with unblinking intensity. Letting go of his cane, he let it clatter uselessly to the floor. Instead of retrieving the symbol of his authority, he dropped to his knees, reached out with trembling hands, and cupped Dongzi's face. His palms felt freezing cold—resembling the hands of a corpse—sending a violent wave of goosebumps and terror through Dongzi's frame. Wanting to flee, Dongzi found it already too late. Abruptly throwing his arms around Dongzi in a tight embrace, Eunuch Li began murmuring frantic, unintelligible words. A heavy, decaying stench wafted off the old man's body, churning Dongzi's stomach and threatening to make him vomit. Without warning, Eunuch Li leaned in and planted a kiss directly against Dongzi's cheek. Letting out a piercing shriek of horror, Dongzi shoved the eunuch down onto the floor with all his might, bolted for the stairs like a madman, and slammed the attic door shut behind him.
Pressing his back against the wooden panels, Dongzi fought desperately to drag air into his burning lungs.
Shangguan Wenqing sat alone atop a massive boulder near the bridgehead, gazing out across the expansive mountain wilderness toward the west. He had arrived long before the sun began its descent and remained seated as dusk approached. A gentle smile lingered on his lips, yet his eyes swam with palpable anxiety. High above the distant Wugong Ridge, a pall of heavy black vapor hung thick in the air, chilling the blood even on this bright autumn day. Shangguan Wenqing was waiting for someone. He knew that after sunset, that person would cross the small wooden footbridge over Tang Creek and return to Tang Town.
A young laborer carrying a shoulder pole laden with firewood drifted into Shangguan Wenqing's line of sight.
The young man was Wang Hairong, though he was not the person Shangguan Wenqing was waiting for. Despite possessing striking, handsome features, Wang Hairong remained chronically unmarried due to extreme poverty. While families with a bit of disposable income in town could afford to purchase firewood, the destitute were forced to scale the mountains and chop their own. Drenched in sweat, Wang Hairong reached the bridgehead, dropped his load to catch his breath, and cast a long look toward Tang Town before exhaling deeply. "Almost home once I cross this bridge!" he muttered to himself. Catching sight of the dwarf perched upon the boulder, a flash of disdain crossed his mind; though Wang Hairong occupied the lowest rungs of Tang Town's social ladder himself, as Shen the Sow liked to point out, no matter how handsome he looked, his lot in life remained that of a hired farmhand.
Striding up to Shangguan Wenqing, Wang Hairong barked aggressively, "Move over! You're tiny as a bug, yet you're hogging such a huge rock."
Refusing to lower himself to a petty dispute, Shangguan Wenqing meekly scooted sideways to carve out a spot for him. Settling down with a relieved sigh, Wang Hairong used his sleeve to mop the sweat from his brow. A pungent wave of heavy body sweat drifted over to the dwarf, prompting him to wrinkle his nose and sniff softly. Catching the gesture, Wang Hairong lashed out with a vicious slap across Shangguan Wenqing's oversized head. "You three-inch nail, trying to act disgusted by my smell!" Unfazed and unangered, Shangguan Wenqing smiled gently. "Wang Hairong, that didn't hurt at all. Care to try another one?" Raising his hand threateningly once more, Wang Hairong stared down at the smiling dwarf, only for his arm to slowly drop back to his side.
Slipping off his worn straw sandals to inspect his bare soles, Wang Hairong winced as he examined several raw, weeping blood blisters. Noticing the injuries, Shangguan Wenqing murmured softly, "That must hurt terribly, right?"
Snapping back irritably, Wang Hairong spat, "Whether it hurts or not is none of your damn business!"
Sticking out his tongue playfully, Shangguan Wenqing smiled.
"What are you even doing sitting out here all by yourself?" Wang Hairong demanded.
Ignoring the question entirely, Shangguan Wenqing countered with one of his own: "Do you happen to be sweet on Li Hongtang?"
Flushing in panic, Wang Hairong stammered, "What are you talking about?!"
Falling silent, Shangguan Wenqing turned his gaze back toward the winding footpath leading into the western mountains, letting his eyes stretch toward the horizon. The orange-red glow of the setting sun washed across his face, rendering his expression all the more enigmatic. Incapable of reading the dwarf's inscrutable mind and realizing the hour was growing late, Wang Hairong yanked his straw sandals back on, rose to his feet, dusted off his trousers, hoisted his firewood, and stepped onto the swaying wooden footbridge.
Shortly after Wang Hairong crossed, Shangguan Wenqing spotted a solitary figure emerging from the distant mountain foothills.
Rising to his feet, he tracked the approaching, gradually sharpening silhouette with unblinking focus.
The newcomer was none other than Li Hongtang.
In Shangguan Wenqing's eyes, she was the most breathtaking woman in Tang Town—indeed, the most gorgeous woman in the entire world, putting even the stage actresses to shame.
Returning alone, she had evidently failed to locate her mother once again.
Night without opera performances felt desolate and bleak. The townsfolk bolted their doors early, blew out their oil lamps, and turned in early to kill the long hours of the autumn night. As darkness deepened, the rhythmic clanging of the blacksmith's hammer grew increasingly crisp and loud. With the sole exception of Hu Xilai, the residents of Tang Town had long since grown accustomed to the background noise.
Li Hongtang retired to bed early.
Scarcely minutes after hitting the mattress, she sank into a deep slumber.
Awake in the dark, Dongzi lay staring open-eyed at the ceiling. His sister was utterly exhausted, and he harbored a lingering dread that if she continued her desperate, endless crusade across the mountains, she would eventually drop dead from sheer fatigue along the way.
If his sister died, what would become of him? She remained his sole emotional anchor in the world.
A chaotic storm of anxiety swirled inside Dongzi's mind. Thoughts of his sister invariably summoned the image of the white paper horse soaring through the blackened sky, leaving a streak of starlight in its wake... Presently, murmurs slipped from his sleeping sister's lips: "Mum... Mum, I see you. Don't walk so fast, wait for me—" Knowing she was dreaming of their mother once more, Dongzi lacked the heart to wake her. Waking her would be too cruel; since she couldn't find their mother in the waking world, why deny her the solace of seeing her in dreams? Dongzi desperately wished he could dream of his mother too—whether reality or illusion, catching a glimpse of her or resting in her embrace would be a blessing. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he never dreamed of her; in that regard, his sister was far luckier than he, for his nights were invariably populated by nightmares! The moment darkness descended every evening, an inexplicable panic would seize Dongzi, dreading the visitation of fresh horrors—which explained why sleep constantly eluded him for hours.
Reality, however, proved just as terrifying as any nightmare.
Knowing this all too well, Dongzi always sensed that ominous, unpredictable forces stirred beneath the cover of night. Indeed, beneath the shroud of darkness, hidden and unspeakable events constantly transpired across Tang Town. Deep into that very night, Dongzi's hyper-sensitive ears picked up the whisper of light, floating footsteps.
Pulling his blanket up over his head, he found he could still not shut out the mysterious sounds. Though he longed to wake his sister or crawl into the warm, comforting safety of her bedding, he restrained himself.
Terror and curiosity wrestled fiercely inside his chest.
Curiosity ultimately conquered fear. Slipping out of bed on silent tiptoes, he crept toward the window.
Pushing the wooden lattice open a crack without a sound, a rush of freezing wind swept inside, making him shiver. Straining his eyes into the hazy gloom of the street, he spotted a cluster of dark, shadowy figures drifting stealthily in the direction of Xinglong Lane. Who were these mysterious interlopers? Holding his breath in sheer terror lest the shadowy silhouettes spot him—unimaginable consequences awaited if he were caught.
A bone-deep chill crawled upward from the soles of his feet.
Dongzi couldn't help recalling the long, reed-mat-wrapped bundle carried by the masked men that fateful night; if these intruders discovered him, would they roll him up in a mat and haul him away too? He wondered, too, if his father, Li Cilin, was among those shadowy figures—since his father had failed to return home once again tonight.
The unceasing hammer blows beat rhythmically against Dongzi's racing heart.
Just as the shadowy figures dissolved into the distance and Dongzi prepared to latch the window and crawl back into bed, a different sound caught his ear—a faint, continuous rustling. Dongzi's heart clenched anew. He often cursed his own hyper-acute hearing, which cursed him by capturing sounds imperceptible to ordinary mortals, laying a crushing psychological burden upon his shoulders. He recalled hearing once that pouring water into one's ears and trapping it inside would cause the ear canals to rot, eventually deafening a person and granting permanent silence. Desperate to turn his own ears deaf, he had once poured water inside and plugged them with cotton, yet his hearing stubbornly refused to rot, continuing to pluck the faintest whispers from the world around him.
Following the rustling sound, Dongzi's curious gaze swept back across the misty street.
He spotted a dark shape depositing something right beneath the wooden shutters of the blacksmith's shop. The figure appeared too small for an adult—more resembling a child. Could it be Shangguan Wenqing? If so, what on earth was he repeatedly stacking beneath the blacksmith's door, and what was his purpose? Given the dwarf's eccentricity, Dongzi could never decipher his twisted logic.
Then came the sharp scrape of a flint striker.
Moments later, a tiny spark flickered into view.
The child stood directly before the threshold of the smithy, watching as the spark blossomed into a flickering flame. The dancing light illuminated the child's face! Stifling a gasp of pure horror in his throat, Dongzi thought, How could it be him?! Why would he try to burn down the blacksmith shop?! Watching as the pile of dry kindling stacked against the wooden doors caught fire and began to blaze, the child bolted away at a dead run.
Didn't the boy realize that if the blacksmith's shop caught fire, the entire row of tightly packed houses lining the narrow street would inevitably be consumed by a roaring inferno? Dongzi understood the devastating reality all too well! Panic-stricken, he threw caution to the wind and screamed at the top of his lungs: "Fire! The blacksmith shop is on fire—!"
His frantic shrieks echoed wildly down the lanes of Tang Town.
Jolted awake by his cries, Li Hongtang scrambled off her mattress, spotted the crimson glare, and joined her brother in screaming, "Fire! The smithy is on fire, everyone wake up and help put out the fire—!"
The blaze was swiftly contained and extinguished by the rushing townsfolk.
What left the residents utterly bewildered and stunned, however, was that despite the fire raging right against the exterior of the smithy, the occupants inside remained completely oblivious. They never unlatched the door to join the firefighting efforts; instead, they simply continued hammering away inside as if nothing had happened. Once the flames were beaten out, the villagers stood staring blankly at the bolted wooden shutters while the steady ding-ding-dong-dong of iron-working echoed from within.
A massive, chilling secret was buried inside that blacksmith's shop!
Who had set the fire?
Public suspicion instantly locked onto the unknown arsonist. Had the culprit been identified, they would have been sewn into a wicker pig-basket and drowned straight into Maiden's Pool. Arson was an unforgivable, heinous crime that threatened the lives and property of every single soul in Tang Town.
With a grim expression, a neighbor turned to Dongzi and pressed, "Do you know who set the fire?"
Shaking his head, Dongzi lied, "I didn't see clearly."
In truth, he knew precisely who the arsonist was.
Yet he refused to speak. He refused to let that person be torn apart by the wrath of the enraged townsfolk. Dongzi understood with absolute clarity that if he pointed the finger, the culprit would meet a gruesome, agonizing end. He didn't want to gaze upon a dead person's blank, lifeless face, nor did he want that individual erased from a world that was already drowning in despair.
Hu Xilai suspected nothing unusual about the day. Consumed by his habitual jittery irritability, he remained entirely oblivious to the emotional turbulence churning within his younger son, Hu Tiansheng. Hu Xilai had joined the bucket brigade to fight the fire the previous night; once the flames were doused, suspicious neighbors had briefly eyed him sideways, recalling his public threats to burn down the smithy. In vehement self-defense, Hu Xilai had thrust a finger toward the heavens and bellowed, "I swear to the high heavens—if I had anything to do with this fire, may my entire family drop dead without a soul left alive before you even lay a hand on me!" Believing his oath, the crowd had cleared him of suspicion. Returning home to his bed, however, the unceasing hammer blows continued to hammer relentlessly against his frayed nerves. Lying in the dark, he had cursed bitterly: Why couldn't that fire have burned the damn smithy down to cogs?! He hadn't managed a wink of sleep all night.
Around midday, while Hu Xilai busied himself prepping ingredients for the noon meal, Hu Tiansheng slipped quietly out of the snack shop.
Trudging up to the threshold of the blacksmith's shop, he fixed a venomous, hate-filled glare upon the tightly shut doors. All the recent madness—his father turning into a raving lunatic, screaming, beating, and cursing him over nothing—was all the fault of this cursed smithy. He hated the shop, and he utterly despised the blacksmith, Shangguan Qingqiu.
At that moment, a hand gently patted the top of his head.
Turning around and lifting his chin, Hu Tiansheng found himself staring up into a pale, smooth-skinned face as white as chalk.
It was Eunuch Li. A wan, sickly smile stretched across the eunuch's face as he crooned in his peculiar, affected lilt, "Child, do you like eating maltose candy?"
Unlike Dongzi, Hu Tiansheng harbored no fear of Eunuch Li. Like many residents of Tang Town, he held a naive, simple affection for the eunuch, thanks to the month of grand opera performances Eunuch Li had funded. Throughout that month, Tiansheng had hurried over every single evening with a low wooden stool, waiting eagerly outside the gates of the Li estate for the curtains to rise. He deeply idolized Eunuch Li; how magnificent it must be to possess such wealth, treating an entire town to operas, dwelling in a palatial mansion, commanding universal respect, and living a life entirely free of financial anxiety. He even caught himself fantasizing: if Eunuch Li could pull strings to get him castrated and installed as a palace eunuch, he would be ecstatic. His whole family would enjoy the fruits of his rise, and his father Hu Xilai would finally be freed from breaking his back to scrape together a living.
Flashing an eager smile, Hu Tiansheng nodded. "I love it!"
Eunuch Li reached beneath the folds of his pristine white robe, retrieved a small paper parcel, and handed it over. "Child, here is your maltose candy. Take it and eat."
Taking the parcel, Hu Tiansheng's mood shifted instantly, a joyous light sparkling in his eyes. The revered Eunuch Li had personally gifted him candy—what did that signify? Ordinarily, tasting a single piece of maltose candy was an impossible luxury; his stingy-to-the-core father would never spare a single copper for such treats. Every time he watched the old vendor hammering off chunks of candy for others, his heart ached. Once, unable to resist his cravings any longer, Tiansheng had stolen a single copper coin from his father to buy some candy, only to be caught—prompting a beating so severe his father nearly broke his backside, leaving him in agony for days.
Clutching the paper parcel tightly to his chest as if fearing the candy might sprout wings and fly away, Hu Tiansheng stammered gratefully, "Thank you, Eunuch Li!"
Patting his head gently, Eunuch Li murmured, "Run along and find a quiet spot to eat your candy, child. Don't tell a soul—I bought this specially for you alone."
Flushed with a dizzy sense of undeserved favor, Hu Tiansheng nodded vigorously and bolted away.
Eunuch Li tracked the boy's slender, retreating frame with a pensive gaze, his facial muscles twitching faintly.
Turning on his heel, Eunuch Li resumed his unhurried, measured stroll down the lane.
Hu Tiansheng sprinted all the way until he reached the Earth God Temple at the eastern edge of town.
Sinking down beneath the ancient camphor tree, he gingerly unrolled the small paper parcel. The paper had stuck stubbornly to the candy; after painstakingly picking away the adhering scraps of paper, he popped a piece into his mouth and bit down eagerly.
The maltose exploded with a sweetness that sent his spirits soaring to the heavens.
Stopping halfway through, he decided to save the remaining portion to share with his older brother. Satisfied and content, he rose to his feet to head back home.
Suddenly, a wave of dizziness washed over his brain.
He sank back down onto the ground.
The area was completely secluded, devoid of any other living soul. A flicker of unease rippled through Tiansheng; How did I end up all the way out here? he wondered. The swirling rumors surrounding You Chengtuo's mysterious death were fresh in his mind. The thought of You Chengtuo's fate spiked his breathing into a rapid, panic-stricken pant as his eyes widened in fright. Struggling to stand and flee the spot, he found his legs turned completely to jelly, refusing to support his weight. He tried to scream, but an invisible weight choked his throat solid, stifling any sound. The dizziness compounded, dragging his consciousness downward into an abyss of crushing heaviness. Leaning his back against the trunk of the tree, his body went entirely limp.
How he wished someone would wander past, discover him, and carry him home.
Yet not a soul walked by to rescue him.
Closing his eyes, Hu Tiansheng sank into a deep, heavy stupor.
A massive green grasshopper hopped out from the weeds behind the ancient camphor tree, hopping its way right up to Hu Tiansheng. Lingering briefly before him, the insect scrambled up onto his chest before vanishing entirely from sight within seconds, as if melting straight into the boy's frail frame. Tiansheng remained blissfully unaware of the grasshopper; had he seen it, he would likely have fainted from terror. To the people of Tang Town, grasshoppers commanded deep, fearful reverence; in local folklore, grasshoppers served as the earthly vessels of the deceased, reincarnated ghosts returning briefly to the mortal realm.
After an indeterminate stretch of time, Hu Tiansheng fluttered his eyes open.
Stumbling sluggishly to his feet, a dazed, unfocused light swam in his eyes.
Muttering to himself, he murmured, "Where on earth is this—"
Tiansheng found himself standing amidst a breathtaking meadow bursting with vibrant blossoms, their rich fragrance hanging thick in the air. All around him moved throngs of people clad in brilliant, colorful garments, singing unfamiliar, enchanting melodies as they frolicked and danced across the grass. It was a mesmerizing wonderland. Tiansheng's heart bounced with lively delight; he longed to dash over and join their joyous dances and singing. Yet whenever he approached them, the figures would abruptly vanish, reappearing mere yards away. Chasing after the joyous, gorgeously attired folk, Tiansheng felt an infectious, boundless euphoria envelop him.
Then he heard someone calling his name.
Startled, he wondered how anyone could possibly know his name in this strange and wondrous realm. Following the source of the voice, he spotted a colossal tree standing at the very center of the meadow—a tree unlike any he had ever witnessed, its boughs bursting with blossoms where every single flower bloomed into a radiant, smiling human face.
The voices calling his name belonged to several children playing up among the branches.
Waving cheerfully down toward him, the children beamed radiantly. "Tiansheng, hurry up! Come on up and play with us, it's so much fun up here in the tree—!"
Ecstatic, Hu Tiansheng sprinted toward the gigantic floral tree, while all the dancing revelers in the meadow parted gracefully to clear his path.
Halting beneath the magnificent tree, he craned his neck upward and muttered in bitter disappointment, "Such a massive tree—how on earth am I supposed to climb it?"
A child peering down from a branch chuckled, "It's simple! You just come up whenever you want."
Tiansheng murmured longingly, "Oh, how I wish I could come up and play with you all!"
The moment the words left his lips, his body lifted effortlessly into the air like a wisp of goose down. As his feet cleared the ground, a startled gasp escaped his lips.
The children overhead chanted in unison, "Don't be scared! You'll be flying right up into the tree in no time—"
Suppressing his fluttering nerves, Tiansheng felt his body loft upward on a warm gust of wind like a kite caught in a thermal. It was an indescribably magical sensation—far more wondrous even than eating maltose candy. Floating effortlessly upward, Tiansheng reached the branches, where eager hands reached out to haul him aboard.
After playing among the boughs for a little while, one of the children suggested, "Hey, how about we play a game?"
"What game?" another asked.
Grinning, the first child proposed, "Let's all jump down to the ground, and then fly right back up to see who's the fastest!"
The children clapped and cheered in enthusiastic agreement. "Yeah, let's do it!"
Without hesitation, one by one they pitched themselves off the branches. Though the tree stood dizzyingly high, they landed on the grass below without the slightest scratch. Tiansheng, however, froze in terror; the height was terrifying, and paralyzing doubt gripped him. What if he broke his legs upon impact? He had never dared jump down from any high elevation in his life.
Spotting his hesitation, the children below encouraged him, "Jump down, it's nothing! Look at us, we're completely fine. It's just like how you flew up here a minute ago—nothing bad will happen, hurry up and jump—"
Tiansheng's legs shook uncontrollably.
A local man tramping along the path toward Tang Town happened to pass by the Earth God Temple and glanced up to spot a child standing precariously upon a thick bough high up in the ancient camphor tree, leaning forward as if preparing to jump. Stunned in disbelief, the man recognized the boy instantly as Hu Xilai's youngest son. Charging over to the base of the trunk, he bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Kid, don't you dare jump down! You'll fall to your death!"
Hu Tiansheng seemed entirely deaf to his warnings. The hazy, unfocused glaze in his eyes steadily cleared, replaced by a radiant, beatific expression of pure joy.
Spreading both arms wide, his outstretched limbs resembled the wings of a soaring bird.
Yet he was no bird—merely a child, an ordinary, flesh-and-blood child of Tang Town.
A sudden gust of wind whipped across the clearing.
The branches swayed violently in the gale, rocking Tiansheng's frail frame back and forth.
The man screamed frantically, "Child, do not jump! Stay right where you are, don't move an inch! I'll figure out a way to get you down, just don't move—!"
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