Early the next morning, Shen Hui finished his morning practice, got everything ready, and headed for the mountain gate.
Jingming was already waiting there.
She wore blue-gray Daoist robes, with a cloth sash washed almost white tied at her waist and her hair pinned into an immaculate bun.
Standing in the morning snow, she seemed wreathed in a thin veil of pure air, lending even the bare branches and bedraggled snow behind her a touch of color.
Shen Hui approached and bowed. "Sorry for the trouble, Senior Sister."
Jingming said nothing. She merely dipped her head, then turned and started down the mountain.
Shen Hui hurried after her.
Treading through fresh snow, they crossed the leafless woods and descended along the same path Shen Hui had taken on his way up.
After they had walked a while, Jingming suddenly asked, "Do you know any spells for tracking demons or hunting ghosts?"
Shen Hui paused, then shook his head honestly. "No."
Jingming kept walking, her voice level. "Then how do you intend to subdue the demon?"
Shen Hui thought for a moment. "I was planning to ask around Li Family Village first and find out where those people were killed. Once I know, I'll go there and have a look."
"And then?"
"Then..." Shen Hui drew his gaze back and looked toward the mountains looming faintly in the distance. "I'll use myself as bait."
Jingming's steps faltered. She turned to glance at him.
"Use yourself as bait?"
"Exactly."
Shen Hui nodded. "Now that the Wolf Demon has eaten people, it won't fear them anymore. And with the villagers staying off the mountain lately, it must be running short of flesh and blood. If someone were to wander into its territory at a time like this..."
He left the rest unsaid, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
"Aren't you afraid it'll eat you?" Jingming asked flatly.
"With Second Senior Sister backing me up, what have I got to fear?" Shen Hui smiled easily.
Jingming gave a noncommittal snort, but offered no objection.
After another stretch of walking, she suddenly said, "I know an aura-sighting art. When we get there, I can trace the flow of demonic aura to find the beast."
Shen Hui's eyes lit up, and he promptly gave her a thumbs-up. "That makes it even safer. You're amazing, Senior Sister."
Jingming ignored him.
They continued on their way.
Li Family Village lay at the southern foot of Deer Rest Mountain, a little over two hours' walk down from the mountain.
By the time the village's outline appeared in the distance, it was nearly noon.
The sky remained dull gray. Fine, dense snow was still falling, piling thickly on rooftops, treetops, and the stone roller at the village entrance.
Something felt wrong about the village.
Every household had its doors and windows shut tight, with not so much as a footprint in the snow outside.
An occasional wisp of cooking smoke rose from a rooftop, only to be torn to shreds by the icy wind.
Just as Shen Hui and Jingming entered the village, they spotted several people gathered ahead.
Half an earthen house had collapsed. Its roof beam had snapped, a broken rafter jutted out, and shattered tiles littered the ground.
Several men had set up a ladder and were removing the intact tiles one by one, passing them down to the people below.
A pile of broken rafters and beams lay nearby. The breaks looked fresh; the collapse could not have happened long ago.
One man was tossing a broken beam onto the woodpile when he looked up and found himself facing Shen Hui and Jingming.
He froze briefly. Then his gaze fell on their Daoist robes, and his eyes suddenly brightened.
"D-Daoist masters?"
At his shout, everyone beside him turned.
Once they saw the robes Shen Hui and Jingming wore, they set aside their work and crowded over.
"Are you Daoist masters from Clear Wind Temple?"
That shout was like a stick thrust into a hornets' nest.
Several nearby doors creaked open, and people began poking their heads out.
Within moments, the two of them were surrounded.
Old women wrapped in tattered padded jackets stood on tiptoe to peer over at them. Women holding children squeezed to the front, only to be pushed back again. A few half-grown children darted between the adults' legs, then shrank back after their fathers slapped the backs of their heads.
At last, a gray-haired village elder was helped through the crowd to the front.
His back stooped and his face deeply furrowed, he squinted at Shen Hui and Jingming for a long while, then suddenly slapped his thigh.
"Oh! They really are Daoist masters from Clear Wind Temple!"
He tottered toward Jingming as he spoke. "Immortal maiden, I caught a glimpse of you from afar a few years ago, when you came down the mountain with Master Ji Chen!"
Jingming gave a slight nod in greeting.
With the elder's facial recognition complete, the villagers immediately grew animated, all talking at once.
"Have you come to get rid of that Wolf Demon?"
"That beast has made our lives a misery!"
"Please, masters, come into the village and warm yourselves by the fire..."
The jumble of voices gave Shen Hui a headache. He quickly raised his hands and pressed them downward. "Please, everyone, don't rush. There are a few things I'd like to ask first."
But scarcely had he finished speaking when the gray-haired elder's knees buckled, and he dropped straight to the ground.
"Daoist master!"
Shen Hui jumped in alarm. Before he could work out what was happening, the elder's next wail followed right on its heels—
"We can't go on living like this!"
Shen Hui hurried forward to help him up. "Please, sir, don't! Get up, and we can talk this over..."
Rather than rise, the old man went limp against Shen Hui's supporting hands and sank down until his backside landed squarely in the snow.
He tipped his face upward and slapped his thighs with his bony hands, throwing his voice into a full-throated howl.
"Master, you have no idea! Several people in the village have already died! My grandniece's husband's second uncle went to Cat Ridge for firewood a while ago and never came back! When the villagers went looking, they only found half his body. That beast had even carried off his backside..."
Shen Hui was baffled.
Why does this sound like wailing at a funeral?
He tugged hard on the old man's arms. Two pulls, and the man had not budged.
Scrawny as the old man looked, his backside seemed rooted to the ground.
"Sir, please get up first. Take your time and tell me..."
"I can't get up!"
The old man slapped his thighs. Unfortunately, he could not squeeze a single tear from his eyes, though his dry wails kept growing louder.
"Oh, the bitterness in my heart! Word of this has spread all over the county town. The storytellers even gave that beast a name—'Road Lord,' or something! Li Family Village's reputation is ruined!"
The more he spoke, the more worked up the elder became. He grabbed Shen Hui's sleeve. "My grandson was about to get married! We'd already sent the betrothal gifts! Twenty jin of white flour, five feet of cloth, and a pair of silver earrings, but then..."
At this, he finally managed to squeeze out two tears.
"But then, as soon as the people in Liu Family Hollow heard we were from Li Family Village, they wouldn't even see us! They sent word through someone else that the wedding was off! My grandson had been looking forward to it for half a year. He hadn't even held her hand, and just like that, his wife was gone! And they pocketed the betrothal gifts!"
Shen Hui's head was spinning. He was about to try soothing the man when a voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.
"Pocketed what? The people in Liu Family Hollow aren't stupid. Who'd want to marry their daughter off to an idiot?"
The crowd burst out laughing, and the mood in the snowy clearing grew cheerful again.
The elder's face stiffened. He sprang up from the snow, turned, and cursed, "Which son of a bitch is farting that donkey-bollocks nonsense? Come out and say it to my face if you've got the guts!"
The crowd parted, and a scabby-headed man swaggered out, bobbing his head.
"I said it. What about it?"
He looked about thirty and wore a greasy, ragged padded jacket hanging open to expose the dingy inner garment beneath. The cuffs were worn shiny; who knew how long it had been since he had washed it.
At the sight of him, the elder's beard quivered with rage. "Three Scab! What stinking dog farts are you spouting? My grandson's just a little simple and honest! How is he an idiot?"
"How is he an idiot?"
Lai Zitou sneered. "That fool of yours even eats chicken shit. If that's not stupid, what is?"
Someone nearby let out another helpless laugh.
The elder flushed scarlet and pointed at Lai Zitou's nose. "You don't know a donkey's bollocks! My grandson's an earnest boy!"
"Earnest?"
Lai Zitou spat on the ground. "That's called being a fucking half-wit!"
"You're the half-wit! You son of a bitch, you're just burning up inside because you can't get a wife yourself, so you're here farting nonsense! You're so rotten you're practically smoking!"
"I'm rotten? That idiot of yours shat in the well at the east end of the village and made everyone drink his shit soup, and you're calling me rotten?"
"What makes you say he did it? Was his name written on the shit? Or did someone see him do it? Bring them out to confront him!"
"Fine, I will! Two Dullard, come out and tell us!"
A small, skinny man in the crowd hurriedly shrank back. "No, no, no! I didn't see anything! Didn't see a thing..."
Now that he had the upper hand, the elder grew even more belligerent. "See? Nobody saw it! Stop slandering decent people! I bet you did it yourself, and now you're the thief shouting 'Stop, thief!'"
Lai Zitou stamped his feet in fury. "Well, you old bastard! Throwing your seniority around to bully people, are you? What about that idiot of yours pissing into the millstone at the village entrance last time? Plenty of people saw that!"
The elder faltered, then stiffened his neck. "Children don't know any better. So what if he peed a little? You wet your pants when you were a child too!"
"A child? Since when do children grow that big? Since when do children eat three heaping bowls in one sitting?"
They traded barbs, their quarrel growing fiercer by the moment.
The elder no longer looked frail at all. He rolled up his sleeves and tried to charge forward, only to be grabbed by someone beside him.
Not to be outdone, Lai Zitou flung his ragged padded jacket to the ground, revealing a gray shirt covered in patches upon patches, and slapped his chest as he shouted.
"Come on, then! Come on, you old bastard! Just try laying a finger on me!"
The crowd dissolved into a bubbling pot of chaos.
Some tried to talk them down, others held them back, and a few spectators who thought the trouble was not nearly big enough egged them on from the sidelines.
Standing amid the din, Shen Hui felt his temples throbbing.
He took a deep breath and turned to Jingming.
She stood there with her usual expression, as though she had heard nothing.
When she noticed him looking, she merely returned a cool glance. Her eyes said it plainly: You took this job. You sort it out.
Helpless, Shen Hui turned back, gathered his breath, and called in a deep voice.
"Everyone—"
The crowd quieted for a moment.
Seizing the opening, Shen Hui strode between the elder and Lai Zitou and held out his arms to separate them.
He looked at the elder first. "Sir, we can discuss your grandson's marriage later. Right now, the Wolf Demon is what matters most."
Then he turned to Lai Zitou. "Brother, I heard everything you just said. Let's take care of the important business first. Can we do that?"
Lai Zitou curled his lip, but said nothing more.
The villagers settled down a little as well.
Shen Hui cleared his throat and finally brought the conversation back on track. "May I ask whether anyone here has seen the Wolf Demon with their own eyes?"
The previously clamorous crowd fell into an awkward silence.
One man shook his head and said, "Only a few have seen it from a distance. They said the beast's taller than a man when it stands up, and it can shove rocks down with its front paws..."
Shen Hui nodded, then continued, "Where exactly does the Wolf Demon appear when it attacks people?"
Another middle-aged man hurried to answer. "Up on the ridge! That beast has claimed the trail. Anyone who takes it comes to grief!"
Shen Hui turned and looked in the direction the man was pointing.
All he saw was a boundless expanse of white snow between heaven and earth, with two neighboring peaks jutting high into the sky like a pair of cat's ears.