All Villains

At eight or nine years old, a boy is at an age that even dogs find annoying.

Chen Shi was already eleven, past the age of dog-annoyance, yet his mischievous antics had made him the absolute tyrant of Huangpo Village. Wherever he passed, chickens and dogs knew no peace; even a passing duck had to lay an egg before it could leave, making him someone loathed by both man and beast alike.

That morning, after finishing his breakfast, Chen Shi set down his bowl and chopsticks and scampered out excitedly, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Grandpa, I'm going out to play!"

Grandpa possessed a towering frame and wore a black robe embroidered with large peony blossoms. Standing before the offering table in the central room with his head lowered, he gave a muffled response, "Don't run too far, don't go near the river, and come back early at noon..."

"Got it!"

Before Grandpa could finish speaking, Chen Shi slipped away like a wisp of smoke, leaving no trace.

In front of the offering table, Grandpa still faced the altar, chewing at a leisurely pace. After a long moment, his throat bobbed with difficulty as he swallowed the food. Immediately afterward, he shoved the candle in his hand into his mouth, bit down, and began to chew at that same unhurried pace.

On the offering table sat two candlesticks and an incense burner. The candle in the other candlestick had been eaten down until only the wax drippings at the base remained, while the incense in the burner gave off curling wisps of smoke and was also on the verge of burning out.

Grandpa set down the half-eaten candle, took out a few sticks of incense, lit them, and planted them in the burner. He drew in a deep breath of the smoke, a look of intoxication washing over him.

Right behind the incense burner sat a black spirit tablet.

Inscribed upon the spirit tablet was none other than Grandpa's own name.

May ancestral virtues flow afar, the spirit tablet of Chen Clan Chen Yindu.

Once I'm full, I won't eat people anymore.

Chen Shi beat Grandma Yuzhu's dog until it yelped, battering this large black hound into total submission. Then, leading three or four village dogs, he waged a great battle against the dogs of the neighboring village. Returning victorious, he climbed up a tree to raid a bird's nest, getting pecked full of bumps by the mother bird and nearly tumbling straight down.

A short while later, the boy was swinging a dead snake to scare Erni from the east end of the village into crying for her mother. Before long, he arrived at Old Lady Wuzhu's melon patch to steal melons, only to be chased for three whole miles by a murderous-looking Old Lady Wuzhu before he managed to shake her off.

This constituted Chen Shi's simple and unadorned morning.

By midday, Chen Shi reached the Yudai River outside the village. Though he was sweating profusely from the heat, he still managed to resist the impulse to jump into the water.

Distant splashes and shouts drifted from the river. Three boys of about his age were having a fierce water fight in the middle of the river, looking thoroughly cheerful.

Those were three water ghosts who had drowned the year before, which was why Chen Shi dared not go down into the river to play.

The last time he jumped into the water to play, these three fellows had dragged him straight into the deep zone: one grabbed his feet, another wrapped his arms around his waist, and the third choked his neck, nearly drowning him.

Grandpa had jumped into the river and given the three water ghosts a severe thrashing before pulling him out.

"Chen Shi, come play with us!" one child beckoned to him.

The other two children wore innocent smiles as they waved to him as well, shouting, "Come play! A water fight is only fun with four people!"

The slightly older child smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, it's not deep at all, it only comes up to our waists!"

"Hurry down! What's the fun of playing by yourself?"

Chen Shi ignored them, turning away to make his way beneath an old willow tree on Huanggang Slope.

The three children still stood in the middle of the river, only the splashing and shouting had ceased, and their smiles had vanished as they slowly sank beneath the surface.

A bad seed from the old Chen family, sooner or later you'll drown and become a scapegoat! one child cursed resentfully.

The river water gradually swallowed their lips, noses, eyes, and the crowns of their heads, until at last the three children completely vanished.

A pair of feet slowly dangled down from the willow branches, swaying right before Chen Shi's eyes.

A scholar was hanged from the willow tree. Seeing Chen Shi look up and peer at him, he stuck out a scarlet tongue that stretched an entire foot long.

Chen Shi paid him no mind. The scholar had been hanged for a very long time, and his body had long since rotted away, leaving only his spirit lingering here.

He walked around to the back of the willow tree and placed a piece of watermelon before the stone tablet at the root of the tree, kowtowing to the slab. "Godmother, I've come to see you again. I brought you a piece of watermelon, it's ever so sweet."

The stone tablet was his Godmother. When Chen Shi was still very young, Grandpa had said that while the boy was fine in every other way, his destiny simply wasn't hard enough, and he needed to take a hard-fated entity as a godmother in order to be safely raised. And so Grandpa had brought him to this crooked-neck willow tree, making him kowtow to this stone tablet to take it as his Godmother.

On every festive holiday and auspicious day, Chen Shi had to come pay respects to his Godmother, offering up sacrifices and incense.

Rural customs were often like this.

When country folk took godmothers, some chose ancient trees, some chose stones of unknown origin, some chose temple gates in the mountains, and others chose nameless, tattered stone statues on the ridges—all in the hope of praying for peace and immunity from external evils.

Grandpa had once said that this stone tablet had an ancient origin, possessed absolute spiritual weirdness, and was capable of protecting Chen Shi, which was why he had him take it as his Godmother.

Only, over these past two years of kneeling and kowtowing to his Godmother, Chen Shi had not felt any spiritual manifestations whatsoever.

The stone tablet was ancient, and a few carved characters were faintly discernible, vaguely resembling words like Goddess and Goddess.

There were other characters buried deep in the soil, and the tablet itself was tightly entwined by the thick roots of the old tree, making them impossible to dig out.

Having paid his respects to his Godmother, Chen Shi muttered to himself, "Godmother, Grandpa is getting weirder and weirder. He always keeps his back turned to me. I haven't seen his face properly in many days. He even eats behind my back, and I don't know what he's eating... Yesterday morning several of our family's chickens died. It wasn't weasels biting them; weasels wouldn't dare come to our house to steal chickens..."

The stone tablet offered no response.

Yet whether it was a trick of the light or not, Chen Shi fancied he saw the characters on the stone tablet flash with a faint stream of light, only for it to vanish the next instant.

The boy thought nothing of it, pulling out a few sticks of incense, lighting them, and thrusting them into the earth before the tablet.

The scholar hanging from the tree saw this and kicked his legs in frantic eagerness.

"There's a share for you too."

Chen Shi produced another stick of incense, lit it, and stabbed it into the ground right beneath the scholar's feet. Catching the scent of the incense, the scholar hanging in the tree wore a look of utter intoxication.

Chen Shi stretched comfortably, lying lazily beneath the tree with his hands pillowed behind his head, entirely unafraid of the scholar hanging overhead or the water ghosts in the river. From who knows when, he had been able to see these "people" that others could not, and he had long since grown accustomed to it.

"Grandpa should be about done making lunch, but lately, the food Grandpa cooks tastes worse and worse. Yesterday the chicken he made was still raw, served up dripping with blood. Godmother, I always feel like Grandpa has been a bit abnormal lately, almost as if he wants to eat me."

With a blade of grass clamped between his teeth and a gaze lost in a trance, Chen Shi possessed a maturity unbefitting his age as he murmured, "Last night Grandpa brewed medicine for me again, making me soak in the medicine vat, but he stoked the fire way too fiercely and the water actually boiled. I think he wanted to boil me until I was done..."

After a moment, the ghost scholar hanging from the tree finished inhaling the stick of incense, stretched lazily, and said, "I'm good. Little Ten, you can ask."

--Little Ten was Chen Shi's childhood nickname. In the village, there were also those who called him Little Chen Shi, though it was usually meant as sarcasm.

Setting his worries aside, Chen Shi produced a volume of ancient texts, reading through it while asking, "I still don't quite understand this passage: The Master said: 'Was not he who first made the wooden images to bury with the dead without posterity?' How should this be interpreted?"

Huangpo Village was located in a remote area with no private academy, and the Chen family was poor, leaving Chen Shi with nowhere to study. Fortunately, however, the person hanging from the tree was a scholar. Thus, Chen Shi had rummaged through some ancient texts from home, and whenever he had free time, he would come to the willow tree to seek instruction from the scholar.

Once the scholar ghost was well-fed on incense, he would clear up his doubts and explain things to him, which was why Chen Shi, despite being only around ten years old, was already widely read in poetry and books.

"The meaning of this sentence is: The Master said, the very first person who offended me has already been beaten by me until his bloodline was cut off and his descendants wiped out."

The scholar ghost explained, "The Master wants to tell us that whatever you do, you must cut the weeds and eliminate the roots—especially when dealing with those who have offended us."

Chen Shi nodded with a vague understanding, reading on word by word before asking, "And how should “since you are here, make yourself at home” be interpreted?"

"Since your enemy has already arrived, don't let him leave. Just bury him right here."

"Then how should this passage be interpreted: He said by the river: What passes is like this, never ceasing day or night?"

"The Master stood by the river and said: Truly formidable people should stand by the river just like me, watching the corpses of their enemies float down the river day and night without stopping. The Master is simply too formidable, slaughtering enemies until their corpses filled the river surface. People of letters like us should learn from the Master more often."

Once Chen Shi had finished asking all his points of confusion, the scholar ghost answered every single one fluently, filling the young boy with boundless admiration. Looking up, he said, "When I grow up, I want to be just like the Master—to make people submit with virtue! By the way, Scholar Zhu, you possess five cartloads of talent and an ocean of learning, why on earth did you hang yourself here?"

The scholar ghost let out a long sigh, his voice choking as he sobbed, "In the present day, treacherous flatterers hold sway in the court and petty men monopolize the literary fortune. Though I am filled with erudition, I failed the provincial examinations ten times running, shaming the teachings of the sages and lacking the face to see my family again. So I simply hanged myself right here, and made an end of it once and for all."

Just as he reached this point, the rumbling sound of carriage wheels suddenly traveled over.

Chen Shi closed his book and stood up to look. He saw a few fine horses on the country road escorting an exquisite and ornate carriage as it drove toward them.

Seated upon the horses were robust men clad in red Feiyu Robes. Looking extremely capable and sharp-eyed, their gazes swept over toward his side.

"My lord, there's a child!" one of the men sat in the saddle, bowing toward the interior of the carriage.

"A child? Children are good, children are good."

A woman's voice drifted from within the carriage, laughing lightly, "Children are pure, without schemes, and easy to handle. It won't branch out into extra troubles. Fang He, go ask that child."

"Understood!"

A man in a Feiyu Robe vaulted down from his horse, walking swiftly up to Chen Shi. Taking out a piece of shattered silver the size of a fingertip, he wore a kindly smile and spoke warmly, "Little kid, this piece of silver is for you to buy candy with. Elder Brother wants to ask you something: when you were playing around in this village, have you ever seen some children? The kind who look very strange, not like living children at all. They're just like, just like... a group of porcelain dolls!"

The scholar Zhu, hanging from the tree, warned with sudden alertness, "Little Ten, don't pay him any mind! This person is an Imperial Guard from the city, a lackey of the powerful and wealthy, and he means no good. Imperial Guard money is known as life-buying money; if you take his money, you'd better watch out for losing your little life!"

Although it was still the Great Ming Dynasty, imperial authority was weak, and local aristocrats and noble families had risen up together. The Imperial Guard was no longer the imperial family's personal guard, but had instead become guards raised by aristocratic clans, mostly handling affairs for those powerful families.

Chen Shi stared fixedly at the fragment of silver in the Feiyu Robe man's hand. He wanted it badly, but then he shook his head and said, "My grandpa says I can't take things from strangers."

The Feiyu Robe man grew even more amiable, smiling as he said, "My name is Fang He. We didn't know each other just now, so we were strangers, but now that you know my name, don't we know each other? We're not strangers anymore. This is my reward to you, so it doesn't count as something from a stranger, right?"

Chen Shi nodded happily and caught the piece of silver.

The corners of Fang He's mouth curved into a smile: "Since we're friends now, can you tell me whether you've ever seen those little children who look like porcelain dolls?"

Chen Shi nodded. "The children you're talking about, are they under a foot tall and do they travel in groups?"

Joy appeared on Fang He's face as he hurriedly nodded, turning around with a voice that trembled slightly, "My lord, those things really are here..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a figure suddenly flashed from within the carriage. Chen Shi felt a wave of fragrance wash over him, and he saw a dignified and beautiful woman in purple appear beneath the tree.

The other men in Feiyu Robes hurriedly dismounted one after another, hastening over to the tree to surround Chen Shi and the purple-clad woman in a tight circle.

The woman in purple possessed fine features and snow-white skin. She wore a Feiyu Robe on her upper body and a horse-face skirt on her lower, both in purple. Her expression was somewhat agitated, yet she feigned composure as she smiled faintly, "Little brother, have you seen those porcelain dolls? Where are they?"

Chen Shi, however, did not answer. With a strange expression, he stared fixedly at the woman in purple's shoulder.

The woman in purple paused slightly, turning her head to check her shoulder, but found nothing amiss.

"Little brother, my lord is asking you a question!" one of the men in Feiyu Robes stepped forward, shouting with the utmost majesty.

Chen Shi withdrew his gaze. The reason he had been looking at the woman's shoulder was simply because the scholar's feet happened to be resting right across her shoulders at that moment.

The spot where the woman stood was precisely where the scholar had hanged himself.

The purple-clad woman glanced at the man who had spoken, her expression sinking. "Impudent!"

The Feiyu Robe man hurriedly backed down.

Regaining her gentle and pleasant demeanor, the woman in purple said, "Little brother, we came from Xinxiang, we aren't bad people..."

Chen Shi looked up, meeting the woman's gaze, and smiled sweetly. "Big Sister is so pretty, even prettier than Zhu Youcai!"

Hearing this, the woman in purple felt great joy in her heart. This child knows how to talk, I can leave him an intact corpse later. It's just that the name Zhu Youcai doesn't sound very much like a woman's name. I suppose it must be some pretty woman, though it's a pity bumpkins pick such vulgar names.

----Failed at stock trading, came back to write books!