"What are you doing?!"
The reed mat at the entrance to the makeshift shelter was roughly flung aside. Several pairs of military boots blocked both ends, and the gleaming bayonets reflected an ominous light in the torchlight.
"What are you doing in a place like this in the middle of the night?"
"Sir! Sir, we're good people!" The old man rose from among the children, bowing and scraping. He held up the puppet in his hands for the interpreter among the soldiers to see.
"I'm telling them the story of Sun Wukong... entertaining the children, just entertaining the children!"
Shen Le's head rang.
He'd learned this song when he was little, too. Back then, his teacher had led them in song in a bright, safe, warm classroom, telling them about the Japanese invasion and the stories of little heroes.
But now, this old man was in a dark, cold shelter, secretly performing for the children while the Japanese invaders could come searching at any moment. He was telling them that there had been children like this, little heroes like this, who had resisted the Japanese invaders alongside us, alongside them, and had been willing to sacrifice everything for the cause!
His chest heaved. Gripping the shelter's support beam tightly, he nearly burst into tears on the spot. The interpreter stared at the puppet in disbelief, taking in its shabby jacket and skirt before giving a derisive snort.
"This thing's supposed to be Sun Wukong?"
"We're poor, sir. We're poor." The old man stooped and raised the puppet a little higher, tugging its strings several times. At his movements, the puppet leapt nimbly through a series of flips: a front handspring, a back handspring, a sideways handspring, a front somersault, a back somersault, a tucked somersault, a spin, and a twisting aerial turn...
"Hmph! It'll do, I suppose."
The interpreter snorted, turned his head, and shouted a few words in Japanese. Then he led the soldiers away. The old man listened, holding his breath. Only after the sounds outside had faded did he put the little jacket back on the puppet and continue singing.
Shen Le stood in the darkness, watching the Little Puppet step forward, turn, and leap high before crashing down flat on its back. Its body kept twitching, its fists clenched tight. When the final verse came, he couldn't help joining in:
"The autumn wind blows through every village, spreading this moving tale far and wide. Every villager sings with tears in their eyes, singing of Little Erxiao the Cowherd..."
Inside the shelter, every child's eyes shone with tears as they looked up at the still puppet in the old man's hands. The flickering firelight fell on the Little Puppet's face from the firewood in the middle of the shelter, then shone from its face into every child's heart.
His vision slowly dimmed, then gradually brightened again. The Little Puppet lay quietly before him, its body bare, without the splendid Red Skirt or the drab little jacket. But this time, Shen Le caressed its cheek with a tenderness he'd never shown before.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong to blame you..."
After calming himself, he began looking up information and drawing designs, preparing to make the control bar for the marionette so he could tie all the Silk Threads to it. After drawing for a while, he opened Taobao and started searching.
Making the clothes himself was out of the question. His specialty was the restoration of ancient architecture, not textile restoration. Even if he could repair the damaged fabric on the Little Puppet, he couldn't make the tattered cloth whole again, let alone create a similar set of period clothing.
At this point, his best bet was to buy something...
Fortunately, the all-purpose Taobao had everything. For a puppet around sixty centimeters tall, one-third-scale BJD Doll clothes would fit perfectly. There were plenty of styles, and the prices... were reasonable enough. Ready-made traditional-style doll clothes cost one or two hundred yuan for the cheaper ones, and five or six, even seven or eight hundred for the more expensive ones. Of course, custom orders cost more.
Shen Le took a photo of his hand-drawn clothing design, then another of the puppet's clothes, which he'd washed and left to dry. Then he started browsing Taobao shops one by one and asking around.
"Hello, do you have this pattern and style in stock?"
"We don't have it in stock. We can make it to order, dear~~~"
"How much would a custom order cost?"
"It depends on what fabric you want. We have cotton, ramie, chiffon, polyester, silk, brocade..."
Shen Le happily browsed Taobao for a while. After comparing four shops, he spent 528 yuan on a traditional-style Red Skirt called "Peony Fairy" for the Little Puppet, along with a wig, a headpiece, and a necklace. Once he'd finished shopping, he looked at the time and realized it was already evening.
"Right, time to go out and find something to eat again..."
He stretched as he got up, finally having time to check his phone for recent messages. When he opened WeChat, he found the usual flood of messages in the class group, along with a message from the young police officer Shi Guangbing.
"Hello? Do you still have that puppet? I'd like to bring someone over to take a look. Would that be convenient?"
Shen Le had a good impression of him. Whether it was pulling Shen Le out of the river, staying up all night in a frantic search for the children, or rushing in to direct the evacuation and help treat them, Shi Guangbing had shown himself to be reliable. Shen Le was naturally willing to accommodate him.
"Sure. When are you coming?"
"Would within five minutes work?"
Shen Le strolled from the first room in the East Wing of the third courtyard to the sedan hall in the first courtyard. When he opened the mansion's front door, he saw three people standing shoulder to shoulder outside.
One was familiar: the police officer Shi Guangbing. The other two were strangers: a Baby-faced Youth and a Tang-suit Youth. When Shen Le opened the door, one raised his hand and focused his gaze, while the other lifted his phone and looked through the camera. Then they quickly exchanged a glance. Both their faces showed the same surprise.
Strange... The man standing before them, the owner of this Ancient Residence, was clearly just an ordinary person. Neither the Spirit Eye nor the app on their phones showed anything unusual.
His aura seemed normal. He wasn't tainted by anything Yin, but neither did he have the overwhelming Yang energy that could repel all evil. He didn't even have the feeling of being naturally protected from outside influences by an abundance of merit.
His spiritual pressure was normal, too. He wasn't a Daoist or a Buddhist, and from the way he carried himself, he clearly wasn't a martial arts expert.
How could someone like that live so comfortably, so at home, in a mansion with such dense demonic energy?
"You're the two who wanted to see my puppet?"
"Yes." Shi Guangbing stepped forward and turned halfway around, gesturing toward Shen Le with his right hand.
"They're from the municipal Cultural Affairs Bureau. This is Gu Yulin, and this is Zhang Bingxin. They're working on a project related to intangible cultural heritage. They heard you have a string puppet that's been passed down for decades, so they asked me to see if they could come have a look."
"Mr. Gu, Mr. Zhang, please come in." Shen Le smiled and nodded, hiding his true feelings. The city's Cultural Affairs Bureau might have a say in whether his Ancient Residence was designated a protected building. Getting to know two people from there couldn't hurt!
The three followed Shen Le into the residence. As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, the Baby-faced Youth let out a soft "Wow!"
"These wood carvings are beautiful! May I take pictures?"
"...Just don't share them," Shen Le whispered. The Baby-faced Youth had been hoping he'd say that. He was already snapping pictures with his phone. Beside him, the Tang-suit Youth, Gu Yulin, had raised his camera to photograph everything too: the roof ridge beasts, the hanging lotus carvings on the pillars, the Circle Chair in the main hall...
He photographed everything he saw, as if he couldn't bear to leave anything out.
Out of Shen Le's sight, rows of pale yellow numbers jumped erratically across the phone and camera screens, occasionally turning deep yellow or pale red.
These furnishings and decorations had all been permeated by demonic energy... They were still far from becoming demons, but their energy levels had already strayed well outside the normal range...