Not for Outsiders to Know

The few of them held their breath and focused, lying face-down on the ground without daring to raise their heads. After a while, they heard the soft clink of a teacup being set on the table.

They heard the extraordinary immortal say,

"If that is so,"

"then besides returning the money, you must pay back an equal amount for every silver coin you swindled, until you have repaid every household in full. Only then will your sins be redeemed. Can you do that?"

The two young Daoist attendants pulled long faces and said nothing. Zhang Zhenmei felt the pain of it too, but hurriedly replied,

"We can. We can."

"As for using Daoist arts to deceive people..."

Cold sweat dripped onto the ground. Zhang Zhenmei lay face-down, instinctively holding his breath. He waited for the reprimand, lowering his back even further.

Jiang She paused.

"You will stay here and recite the Dao for ten years, enlightening the birds and beasts of the mountain. Two hours every day, without fail."

"What do you say?"

Zhang Quan and Zhang Zhenmei knelt on the ground. For a moment, he thought of what this gentleman had said when he saw through his age, and remembered him saying that he had forty-seven years to live.

His heart suddenly seized.

To recite the Dao and accept penance in Xiangyang, spending ten years reading scriptures aloud to the birds and beasts in the mountains—no one in the world had ever heard of such a thing. It was a downright waste of time. How many years would he have left after those ten?

Thinking of it this way,

the world's pleasures—the flowers, the moon, drinking tea and playing music—had all become fleeting in the space of a single breath.

The midday sky was bright, and birds sang without pause in the spring air. Behind him, several goldfish swam in a courtyard vat, their mouths making soft popping sounds as they blew bubbles. The air still carried the smell of wine from the feast they had just enjoyed. Lu Family servants were clearing away the leftover cups and dishes, now and then making them clink together.

He could hear the guests and servants whispering among themselves, their low murmur rising and falling. The constables the magistrate had brought stood by the gate with their swords, shifting from one foot to the other and muttering to their colleagues.

Under the eyes of everyone around him,

Zhang Zhenmei straightened his back, bowed again, and knocked his forehead against the ground as he said—

"I accept this punishment. I dare not refuse."

"Then it is settled."

Jiang She looked toward the Mountain God.

"Please keep watch over them, Mountain God."

The Mountain God bowed. "Rest assured, sir. I will supervise and inspect them, and I will not fail you."

Jiang She raised a hand, and the three swindlers—the master and his two pupils—were lifted to their feet by an unseen force. They looked bewildered, then sensed something.

Their hearts tightened.

So this was an immortal's power?

How could he put it...? To make his deception flawless and convincing, Zhang Zhenmei had put in the effort to read many Daoist scriptures and had even recited mystic hymns.

Yet none of them contained an art like this.

Seeing that the matter was settled, the magistrate left his cousin's husband, Wang Erlang, behind and pushed his way out of the crowd, striding forward a few steps.

Magistrate Cheng Zhi knew how formidable this expert was and did not dare put on airs. But as an imperial official, he also could not address him with a lowly title.

So he said,

"I am Cheng Zhi, magistrate of Xiangyang County."

"The Lu Family are respectable residents of Xiangyang County and have always done good works. I never expected them to fall for these three men's scheme and have so much of their family wealth swindled away. Without you, even the last few acres of thin farmland owned by Lu the Eldest might have been sold off."

He stroked his beard and glanced at the three men.

Then he said, "They swindled the Lu Family, and who knows how many other households they would have cheated. Just look at their attire and bearing. They even claim to possess Daoist arts and cultivation, putting on such an intimidating show. Surely plenty of people believed them!"

"I, Cheng, thank you on behalf of the people of Xiangyang!"

The magistrate bowed.

Jiang She rose from the table and turned slightly aside.

"Your Excellency is too courteous."

"I am Jiang She. I am traveling through your region and have imposed upon you."

He smiled and said, "These men used Daoist arts to deceive people. If they had only tricked them out of a little incense money, that would have been one thing. But they even made people sell their family property. Even if I had not dealt with them, someone else would have sooner or later. And the magistrate has already come, hasn't he?"

Zhang Zhenmei's face turned pale.

Tree shadows swayed gently in the breeze.

Everyone stared in amazement at the man in blue in the courtyard. They watched him from afar, awed and afraid to approach, whispering quietly to those beside them.

The magistrate thought about the strange case of the missing villagers. After weighing his words, he asked, "Nineteen people from the county disappeared for seven days. We searched everywhere and couldn't find so much as a hair. I just overheard a little here in the courtyard. They had simply slept for a very long time?"

"Is that true?"

"It is," Jiang She said.

Magistrate Cheng Zhi's eyes widened slightly. A few breaths later, he spoke again.

"Wang Er said that in their dream, they lived through forty years of spring and autumn in a single night, and that the people and things they encountered all seemed real..."

"Only when they woke from the dream did they learn that seven days had passed in the world outside."

Jiang She saw the magistrate's hesitation and the yearning in his expression.

He chuckled inwardly.

"There was such a thing."

The magistrate felt a little itch of curiosity and wanted to ask more. But there were too many people in the courtyard, and beside him stood an elderly man of uncanny bearing. He already knew this man was the Mountain God of Lumen Mountain, the lord of the mountains and rivers in this region.

Even though the Mountain God held such a lofty status,

his manner and bearing showed that he treated this gentleman with great respect.

Cheng Zhi became even more cautious and did not dare presume.

He said, "I will not trouble you further today. Another day, I will pay you a visit. I hope you will not leave me standing outside, Lord Jiang."

"You will be welcome."

"As for what happens next, Magistrate, you may judge the matter according to the law." Jiang She lifted his teacup and took a sip.

This was no time for a conversation. The magistrate kept looking at him with eager eyes, but in the end, he had no choice but to lead his men away.

Before he stepped out of the courtyard gate,

he heard a voice from the man drinking tea at the table.

"By the way."

Magistrate Cheng Zhi turned back, full of expectation.

He saw the gentleman leisurely set down his teacup, sweep his gaze across everyone in the courtyard, and smile gently as he said,

"Today's matter is not for outsiders to know."

After giving that final instruction, Jiang She looked down at his belly.

The guests and servants who had dreamed had all eaten, and Lu the Eldest and the Grand Matriarch had eaten their fill too. But he had not yet had a meal.

Come to think of it, his last meal had been one he'd mooched off someone at a temple.

Walking beneath the locust tree, Jiang She picked up the bamboo basket and gave it a shake. The mountain delicacies inside included some tea buds that had dried a little, though they were still fine. He wasn't sure what kind of wild berries they were, but those looked edible too.

He stared at the fish, which had dried out and died.

The fish stared back at him with its white eyes.

Jiang She sighed and offered it with both hands.

He bent down and gently set it before an ant hole at the base of the tree, watching the insects crawl to and fro below.

His voice was soft. "Thank you all for taking me in for seven days."

"I have troubled you greatly."

The dust and grime on the dried fish seemed to part on their own as soon as they touched his hands, as though some force were repelling the dirt. It had not been stained by dust from beginning to end.

Jiang She straightened and looked toward Li Bai and the Mountain God.

Behind the two of them stood Yuan Danqiu and Meng Haoran, who had shamelessly stayed behind.

He smiled.

"Let's go."

"They've eaten their fill, and haven't thought of the fact that someone here still hasn't eaten."

"Mountain God, could you send me another fish?"

At the same time,

several dozen yards away, the swindler Zhang Zhenmei and his two pupils had received their punishment. With their heads hanging, they prepared to leave the Lu Family and began packing their bundles.

One pupil buried his head among the odds and ends, counting his copper coins with care and reluctance. As he searched, he suddenly let out a cry of delight.

"How did we end up with twenty extra coins?"

The pupil beside him glanced over. "Maybe you counted wrong?"

"I count them three times every day. How could I be wrong?" The first pupil protested, carefully slipping the twenty coins into his pocket before continuing to pack.

As he rummaged through the things,

"Huh?"

"So that's where the umbrella was. You said you couldn't find it, but it was right here underneath everything!"

The two of them simply crouched on the ground and packed together. After tying up their bundles, they stuffed them into several stacked back-baskets. Qingyu pressed down on the bamboo strips with his fingers as he counted, looking puzzled.

"We're missing one of our bamboo baskets. Where did it go?"