Blood Food Gang

"Taisui..."

Hu Ma murmured to himself, "So this is the Lord Tai Sui the Old Woman mentioned..."

But how could something so huge and bloated, a mass of flesh, grow up from beneath the earth?

How could anyone dare eat something so obviously unnatural, so horrifying?

No. They were feeding it to me?

The shock hit him so hard that it took more than a dozen breaths for him to recover. Countless thoughts flooded his mind, and he felt his chest convulsing, as though he were about to throw up all the Tai Sui Meat he had eaten.

"No wonder they say you're a lucky kid."

Second Master had noticed how pale Hu Ma looked, and now he believed him: the boy really had forgotten everything.

He sighed and patted Hu Ma on the shoulder. "You don't know how hard the Old Woman had to work to cut this Tai Sui for you. What you see now might be a whole mountain of flesh, but not every part of Lord Tai Sui can be eaten."

"Most of it is black and rotten. It's called Black Taisui. You can cut it off and eat it, sure, but something bad happens to people who do."

Hu Ma jolted to his senses. "What?"

"Some people turn into Evil Spirits after eating it. Others can't tell whether the world is real or not..."

Second Master said, "Most people just get sick and die after eating it, or end up with some other strange problem."

He pointed to a section of the enormous mound that looked like a deep hollow, its surface resembling layer upon layer of cut marks. "The side facing the sun is pale. That's the part you can cut off and eat."

"That's called White Ganoderma. It won't hurt you. In fact, it'll make you strong and nourish your body even better than grain."

"And better than White Ganoderma is Green Ganoderma. That kind can even cure illnesses and prolong your life!"

"Of course, it doesn't grow back as soon as you cut it. Every time you harvest some, you have to wait for Lord Tai Sui to slowly recover and grow it back."

"The Blood Food Gang from the prefecture comes down once a year to recruit people from our stockades to harvest it. We only get this chance once a year, so we go along and earn some wages, and keep a little for our own stockade to eat."

"Your Second Master here spent his whole life harvesting it. Those boys learned the trade from me."

"Of course, we call it Worship Taisui, not harvesting Tai Sui. Calling it harvesting is too disrespectful..."

"..."

"Harvesting flesh? You have to learn how to do that?"

Hu Ma found the whole thing so bizarre that he asked without thinking.

"Look at me, forgetting everything."

Second Master slapped his forehead and turned to Hu Ma. "But you've forgotten quite a lot, haven't you?"

Then, with a note of warning, he said, "Little Hu Ma, remember this: it's all right for me to bring you here to look, but when you're on your own, never go near Lord Tai Sui."

"Lord Tai Sui's flesh can ward off evil, cure sickness, and prolong your life, but it can also attract Evil Spirits. Why do you think there are so many Evil Spirits around this stockade in the Woods? It's because Lord Tai Sui is here..."

"My skills are nothing compared to your Old Woman's. She's a proper Ghost Walker. I'm just a miner."

"Those kids learned from me so they could work for the Blood Food Gang when they came down and earn a little money. Of course, they only do this work for three or four years. Unlike me, I've done it all my life."

"..."

"So..."

Listening to him, Hu Ma began to understand. "So your skill is warding off evil?"

"That's right..."

Second Master smiled and rubbed Hu Ma's head. "My skill keeps Evil Spirits from being drawn to me too easily. That's how I got this job. You have no idea how poor our stockade is. How much grain do you think we can scrape together in a whole year?"

"It's only through Worship Taisui once a year that we can earn a little money. Those boys came to learn from me for the wages, too."

Hu Ma slowly nodded, then suddenly asked, "If Tai Sui is so valuable, why not harvest it and sell it yourselves?"

"Tai Sui is valuable, sure."

Second Master nodded slowly. "But without the Blood Food Gang keeping watch, not just anyone would dare go cut it..."

"You wouldn't make any money. Heh, you'd be more likely to bring trouble down on yourself..."

"Before the Blood Food Gang comes down, the only person I know who can go harvest Tai Sui alone is your Old Woman. And don't go telling anyone about that."

"..."

Listening to Second Master, Hu Ma began to understand.

He'd seen plenty of things like this in his previous life. The African countries that produced blood diamonds didn't get rich off them.

And countries rich in oil weren't all swimming in money.

Especially that infamous triangle that produced a certain something. The locals there were poor as dirt...

So the two worlds weren't so different after all.

But Hu Ma knew the Old Woman was capable of harvesting Tai Sui on her own. Second Master seemed to have misunderstood. The Tai Sui she harvested wasn't just White Ganoderma...

He pondered that silently, then cautiously asked, "What's better than Green Ganoderma?"

Second Master chuckled. "Of course there's something. Lord Tai Sui isn't only found in our Old Yin Mountain. There are great mountains elsewhere with whole mounds of flesh growing in them. Some even grow in cities."

"The bigger the mound, the more likely it is to produce rare parts. White Ganoderma and Green Ganoderma are both fairly common, and can be harvested on a regular schedule. The others are much rarer."

"For example, Blood Ganoderma is even rarer than Green Ganoderma. After you harvest it once, it takes three years to grow back."

"But its effects and value are countless times greater than Green Ganoderma's. You couldn't buy even an ounce of it with an ounce of gold..."

"..."

"That expensive?"

Hu Ma already knew Blood Ganoderma was precious, but he was still startled. His curiosity burned.

"What does eating it do?"

"..."

"No idea."

Second Master said, "I only dug up one tiny piece of Blood Ganoderma in my whole life. I had to fight three other miners over it before I finally got my hands on it. But that precious thing? We wouldn't even dare smell it, let alone eat it. I handed it straight to the foreman and got a little gold ingot in exchange."

"Heh, you have no idea how valuable that little gold ingot was."

He spoke with great animation. "Right here in this stockade, I could've married any woman I wanted."

"I could've bought several years' worth of grain and built myself a little stilt house..."

"..."

"Then..."

As he listened, Hu Ma couldn't help thinking that Second Master lived outside the stockade, in a place that was nothing special. So where was his little stilt house? And his wife?

Second Master seemed to know what he was thinking. Perhaps he'd also realized that Hu Ma had forgotten everything.

He sighed. "That damn Zhao the Ninth, the father of your dad's eldest brother, beat me at pai gow and won my little gold ingot. You've seen the finest stilt house in the stockade? That's his. And it was thanks to my gold ingot that he married the prettiest girl in the Zhou family..."

"How else would I know how useful a little gold ingot could be?"

"..."

Hu Ma didn't know what to say. It seemed he'd touched on a sore spot for Second Master...

But hearing all this had gradually helped him understand what he'd been through since waking up.

He'd been eating Blood Ganoderma the whole time.

He remembered clearly that he ate Tai Sui every day, at least a pound of it.

He'd nearly burst from eating so much.

Only the Old Woman's threatening stare had made him force it down...

If Blood Ganoderma was worth its weight in gold, didn't that mean he'd been eating more than a pound of gold every day?

...But how had the Old Woman managed to feed him this stuff as if it were ordinary food?

Of course, no matter how capable the Old Woman was, she couldn't have an endless supply of Blood Ganoderma. Otherwise, why would she be holed up in this stockade?

That was probably why she'd sent him to Second Master.

Only if he gained the protection of the Ancestors, or learned Second Master's skill at warding off evil, could he truly live without relying on Tai Sui Meat.

"Second Master..."

He thought it over, then tried to sound as clueless as someone who'd forgotten everything. "How can I learn your skill?"

"Learning my skill isn't easy!"

Second Master was an easygoing man. He forgot all about his lost gold ingot as soon as he turned around, lifted Hu Ma onto his back, and headed into the Woods with a laugh. "To learn my skill, first you need a strong body and a good constitution. Second, you need to endure hardship and know how to bear pain."

"Who wouldn't want to earn money as a flesh-harvesting miner? So why have only a few of the boys who studied under me learned the trade? Because they couldn't."

"You're still injured, so normally I'd let you recover first, then take a good look at your constitution."

"But the Old Woman said it was urgent. Besides, she fed you so much Tai Sui Meat to cure you... It must've been Green Ganoderma, right? Your constitution couldn't be this good otherwise... So your body should be fine. No need to bother with that."

"Tonight, I'll help you Ignite the Furnace first!"

"..."

"What's Ignite the Furnace? What does that mean?"

Hu Ma wondered, but he had no time to ask. Second Master strode off into the Woods with him on his back.

This time he didn't break into a run, and Hu Ma's body didn't grow hot. The deep, shadowy Woods seemed all the more dark and mysterious. He even thought he heard a rustling all around him. But when he stared into the gloom, he saw only a few branches quietly withdrawing.

"The first thing you need to do to Ignite the Furnace is take a sworn mother."

Carrying Hu Ma on his back, Second Master searched through the Woods until he stopped beneath a great willow by a stream.

No one knew how many years the tree had been growing. Its trunk was as thick as a man's embrace, and its drooping branches hung like countless strands of hair in the darkness.

"Little Hu Ma, kneel and bow your head. Be sincere."

Second Master set Hu Ma down. "I'll bear witness. Starting today, she's your sworn mother."