Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig

"What do we do now?" Feng Yushu asked.

"Go to He Manor." Ning Zhe replied without hesitation. "Zhang Yangxu said Ye Miaozhu died there, didn't he? Let's go take a look."

"Huh?" Feng Yushu immediately grew tense. "Isn't it... dangerous to go there now?"

After all, that was where Ye Miaozhu had died.

"It is." Ning Zhe didn't deny it. "If we go charging in unprepared, like Ye Miaozhu did, we'll almost certainly die."

But things were different now. He had stolen part of the Snake God's identity. If there was ever a moment to venture into the unknown and risk everything, it was now.

Ning Zhe strode lightly along the uneven stone-paved road. His steps were so brisk that his toe nearly caught in a crack and tripped him, but his superhuman reflexes let him quickly regain his balance and keep going.

Ning Zhe sighed. "Even a god like the Snake God will get into trouble if he breaks a taboo..."

Rules applied equally to everyone. They didn't change depending on who you were. The Snake God was subject to the same laws as the common people.

The two left the Ancestral Hall and headed north along He Family Village's main street. The daytime view was far clearer than at night. From the road, they could make out the verdant mountains in the distance—the rim of the basin where the village lay, stretching on and on in overlapping shades of green.

The streets were still bustling. Elderly people who had just finished eating sat in Wicker Chairs, squinting as they watched their children and the neighborhood kids run around in groups, chasing and playing along the roadside, the yellow paper stuck to their faces fluttering in the wind.

At times, they would stop and stare curiously at Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu as the pair strolled past, then watch them head off into the distance, toward the river's headwaters.

If not for the same dry, old yellow paper pasted to every face, each sheet crookedly marked with its owner's name, the scenes might even have seemed warm and welcoming. The paving stones beneath their feet and the roof tiles overhead were simple and gentle, as if they had wandered into an old town lost to time, where the weight of history and the meagerness of human life could both be felt.

After passing an intersection, they saw two patches of deep green on either side of the road. Several black-and-white birds perched on the branches, neither flying nor calling.

"What kind of birds are those?" Feng Yushu asked, looking up at them in puzzlement.

"Magpies," Ning Zhe said absentmindedly. "Black with white markings, deep blue wings, and a little bright yellow on the tail as a warning signal. They're the classic kind of magpie."

How could he identify them at a glance...? Feng Yushu had only brought it up to break the oppressive silence that had hung over them all the way here. She hadn't expected Ning Zhe to answer so readily.

Ning Zhe continued, "By the way, those two trees are wild plum trees that haven't been grafted. You can tell from the main stems at the bottom. Wild plum trees, like osmanthus trees, don't have a single thick, distinct trunk. They grow more like scattered shrubs. The tall, straight ones are the result of grafting."

"Wild plum trees?" Feng Yushu paused.

She looked up at the dense green crowns of the plum trees by the intersection, then at the magpies standing motionless on their branches. A phrase slipped out before she could stop herself: "Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig?"

"Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig?" Ning Zhe echoed in confusion, then immediately realized what she meant. "Oh, right. You mean the traditional custom in Qinzhou? They say that if newlyweds see magpies perched on plum branches, it's a good omen for a harmonious, happy marriage."

Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly. "Yes, the older generation really believes in it. When I got married, my dad specially invited a master of traditional Chinese painting from Yun Province to paint a 'Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig' ink painting. He said it would bring good luck and help us live happily together."

"That's nice." Ning Zhe didn't comment much on other people's family matters. Besides, he couldn't afford to invite a master painter from Yun Province to his own wedding.

He wasn't even going to get married.

Ning Zhe raised his head beneath the plum trees where the magpies perched, gazing at the silent birds crouched on the branches, neither flying nor calling. A sense of unease rose within him.

He still remembered the scene he'd seen in what might have been a hallucination from the Snake God's memories: a young woman leaning by a window, humming to herself in the drizzling rain. A bright red gown covered her. With no Waist Wrap to cinch it, the dress hung loosely on her, and her vivid red lips looked as if they'd just been painted with rouge.

"Was that a traditional Qinzhou Wedding Dress?" Ning Zhe wondered.

If he'd only seen the vision itself, it wouldn't have set his mind wandering. But now he'd found clues that seemed to match it elsewhere, and that was another matter.

"A woman dressed in wedding finery, but with no features."

"Magpies at an intersection, perched on the plum branches, neither flying nor calling."

Could there be a connection between the two?

Keeping the question to himself, Ning Zhe continued upstream with Feng Yushu.

Past the intersection with the plum trees, pink scraps began appearing along both sides of the road. They were firecracker papers scattered over the street, soaked through by the two rainstorms last night and this morning. Even the puddles beside the road were pink, and a faint smell of gunpowder lingered in the air.

"Looks like we're on the right road," Feng Yushu said quietly. "Zhang Yangxu said he and Xie Sining followed a street strewn with firecracker papers on both sides until they reached that broad mansion, He Manor."

"It's probably fine during the day. Walking this road at night must be oppressive."

Ning Zhe looked around. At some point, fewer and fewer people had been out on the street, until now there was no one at all. He looked ahead: the gates and houses stood empty, without a single person in sight.

He walked over to a two-story building and touched the pottery-clay chimney built into its wall. "It's still warm."

The chimney was still warm, but no one was in the kitchen.

The shops along the street were all open, their interiors clearly visible. A small bundle of licorice lay on the pharmacy's scale. Half a basin of water sat on the steps in front of it. A broom made of bundled bamboo branches lay in the middle of the street.

Every detail suggested that people had been active here until recently—and in considerable numbers. This had been a lively market street. Yet the scene before Ning Zhe was one of utter desolation, as if everyone had vanished.

Feng Yushu turned her head. A lounge chair set outside the fruit shop rocked gently, then slowly came to a stop, as though the person who'd been sitting in it had just gotten up and gone elsewhere.

"Strange. Where did everyone go?" Ning Zhe grew even more alert. Carefully avoiding the pink firecracker papers that might stick to his shoes, he continued forward on light feet.

Suddenly, he thought he heard something—faint and indistinct.

"What was that sound?"