By the time Xu Yuan had hung up the clothes to dry, Lin Wanmo had reached Aunt Wang's doorstep.
Aunt Wang's leftover-food shop was at the west entrance of the alley. And just how long could one alley be?
That showed just how fast Xu Yuan was at washing clothes!
The shop wasn't open at night.
The canal curved around Ghost Witch Mountain and flowed past the south side of the county seat.
A wharf stood seven or eight li from the county seat. Boats scudded across the river, and several hundred laborers in town made their living at the wharf.
Those who pulled carts or carried cargo, their bellies running on empty, would come to the leftover-food shop for a meal.
Aunt Wang's shop had been open for over a hundred years. It was a Family Tradition, too.
Aunt Wang's parents were of the same generation as Xu Yuan's grandfather. They had been among the first residents of River Worker Alley.
The small shop at the front was for business; the room at the back was Aunt Wang's home.
Lin Wanmo went in through the back door. The rear room was cramped and dim, permeated by a strange, greasy aroma.
No one was in the room. From the attic came the steady sound of someone chopping bones.
Thump, thump, thump!
"Aunt Wang?" Lin Wanmo called toward the stairs.
The chopping stopped. After a moment of dead silence, a head floated out from the stairwell.
Its hair was gray and disheveled, its expression wooden and cold.
Seeing Lin Wanmo, the head broke into a kind smile. "Little Mo, you're here."
Then came the sound of footsteps from the attic, and a body started down the stairs.
The head and body moved in sync, with three feet of space between them.
Halfway down, the body suddenly slipped and tumbled down the stairs.
But the head remained floating up above, perfectly fine. With a worried look, it called out to its own body, "Oh dear... Be careful!"
The body rolled down and hit the floor with a slap, scattering like a pile of building blocks.
Two arms and two legs, two hands and two feet, and organs like the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys all rolled out of the torso...
They lay scattered across the floor, yet not a drop of blood was in sight!
Lin Wanmo sighed and deftly turned to close the door, so no passerby would see and get the fright of their life.
Then she helped Aunt Wang put her hands and arms back together first.
"All right, all right, I can manage from here." Aunt Wang chuckled.
In the truest sense of the phrase, Aunt Wang was all thumbs and arms as she reassembled her whole body and stuffed her organs back into her belly.
At last, she caught her head as it floated over and set it on her neck. It seemed she hadn't connected the spine properly; she turned her head left and right a few times, and with a crack, it finally moved freely.
"All done..." Aunt Wang had just started to speak when she suddenly grimaced, reached into her belly, and adjusted the position of an organ. Only then did she look comfortable.
"Now I'm really all set."
Lin Wanmo felt for her. "Aunt Wang, you've had it rough."
Aunt Wang chuckled, not at all worried about herself. "I'm fine. You're the one who's really had it rough, child."
Aunt Wang took her hand and patted it gently as she chided, "Xu Huanyang, that heartless scoundrel, dragged a fine girl like our Little Mo into such hardship."
A stubborn look rose on Lin Wanmo's face. "This is my fate. I don't blame him. He showed my family kindness beyond measure. Without him, I'd have died long ago."
"Enough, enough," Aunt Wang said, waving her hand. "Let's not talk about him. Don't worry. For your sake, at the very least, I'll hold out until the seventh month's Ghost Festival next year."
"Thank you, Aunt Wang. If you elders hadn't helped hold things together, I don't know if I could have fulfilled Xu Yuan's father's wishes."
Aunt Wang asked, "Did you come here for something today?"
"Xu Yuan's back."
Aunt Wang was surprised. "He's back so soon? You arranged for him to leave in the first place to keep him out of this mess... Wait!" Aunt Wang looked disbelieving. "He..."
"He made it!"
Aunt Wang jumped to her feet and paced excitedly around the little room. Her head floated away from her body of its own accord.
"Ah! Look at me, getting carried away like this old woman."
Aunt Wang put her head back in place. "That boy's something else! I'd say he's got more promise than that old Xu Huanyang!"
Lin Wanmo looked worried. "But there are some hidden dangers in him, too."
She explained the matter of the gunpowder Inner Pill.
As for the Pingtian Society, compared with the problems facing the Xu family, it barely counted as a problem at all.
Aunt Wang was astonished. "That boy... He really is a daredevil."
"You're a Pill Cultivator, too. I'm worried, but I didn't dare tell Xu Yuan. I came to you first to see if we could think of a solution."
"An Inner Pill condensed from gunpowder! Not only have I never encountered such a thing, I've never even heard of it. That boy's got guts, real guts—and he actually pulled it off!" Aunt Wang paced with her head bowed. "Don't panic. Let me think..."
Lin Wanmo hadn't blamed Xu Yuan for it. From his account, it was clear that, at the time, the first thing they had to consider was how to stay alive!
Xu Yuan also knew that condensing an Inner Pill with gunpowder would inevitably leave hidden dangers.
Aunt Wang paced and muttered to herself. "Before the Sixth Stream, it should be all right. The Inner Fire's power is limited."
"But after the Sixth Stream, the Inner Fire grows much stronger. A Pill Cultivator becomes like a great furnace, with a ball of gunpowder inside that could explode at any moment. When that happens, he'll be blown to pieces..."
Lin Wanmo couldn't help stamping her foot. Auntie, I came to you for help finding a solution, not to have you make me even more anxious!
Aunt Wang realized what she'd done and apologized. "I'm getting old. I talk too much."
She shut her mouth and paced around twice more, then suddenly clapped her hands. "I think I've got a way!"
Lin Wanmo looked at her expectantly. "What way?"
Aunt Wang looked at her, then hesitated.
"Please, just tell me."
"Have him take up Artisan Cultivation as well, and make a cage for his own Inner Pill."
Lin Wanmo's brows furrowed deeply.
The cramped, shadowy room fell into dead silence.
After a long while, Lin Wanmo finally spoke. "You should know that once a member of the Xu family becomes an Artisan Cultivator, they can't escape that fated calamity. It's the price the Xu family paid for losing that wager against the heavens back then!
"When you lose, you have to accept your fate. For all the Xu family's descendants, this is 'written in the stars'!
"Xu Yuan's grandfather and father both met terrible ends!"
That was why Xu Yuan's father had never passed down the ways of Artisan Cultivation to him, even though the Xu family's talent for it was second to none in the world.
That was why Lin Wanmo had fought with everything she had to win Xu Yuan that one slender chance to become a Fate Cultivator.
The preciousness of Old Year Grain had far exceeded Xu Yuan's imagination.
Only a Fate Cultivator had even the slimmest chance to "change fate."
If he couldn't become a Fate Cultivator, the other paths of cultivation would be of little use. He might as well remain an ordinary person.
Before you continue