Monster Bird Aha

Luo Yan returned to Heaven Dou City three days later.

Yet the moment he entered Heaven Dou City, Luo Yan sensed something amiss.

It was too noisy.

Every alley seemed to be bubbling; the clapper of storytelling echoed in the teahouses, storytelling voices drifted from taverns, and even the beggars at the east bridge clapped bamboo strips and chanted, "A single lamp on Sea God Island, shining bright enough to leave two souls silent."

Luo Yan stood by the street, chewing on half a grass stem and listening for a moment.

Good grief.

He muttered softly, "I've only been gone a few days, and Aha already has a theme song."

He had originally intended to find a place to rest his feet first.

As a result, every time he passed a bookstall, he could spot the two characters "Aha."

Some were written on tattered paper, some carved on bamboo strips, and others simply sketched with charcoal on the base of walls.

The handwriting varied wildly, and the contents were even more outrageous.

Luo Yan squatted opposite the old bookstore in the south of the city, spent two copper soul coins, and bought a copy of the "latest handwritten edition."

The paper was more wrinkled than his face, and upon it was written:

The night Haoyue left the island, he once said to Tianyue: 'In this life of mine, I have only ever lost to you.'

Having read it, Luo Yan wore a peculiar expression.

"I didn't write this." He muttered, "Has pirating started up this fast?"

Flipping further ahead, he spotted another line: After Tianyue returned to Soul Return Hall, whenever the moon was full, he would invariably ascend Angel Peak alone. Others thought he was paying respects, but in truth, he was gazing toward the sea.

Luo Yan burst out with a "pfft."

What on earth was all this, yet coincidentally, this fake book was written as if there were some truth to it.

The phrasing was refined, employing abundant negative space, and managed the pacing even better than he, the "original author."

If he were truly an uninformed onlooker, he would likely believe three parts of it.

"Not bad."

He stood up and patted the hem of his robe. "Heaven Dou City has already learned to write its own fun; in that case, I must reap a harvest."

Then he decided to add fuel to the fire.

That evening, Luo Yan found an utterly inconspicuous old inn, lit a lamp, and toiled away for half the night.

He used willpower to age the paper artificially and pressed his handwriting down into exceptionally fine, fly-head regular script.

The contents spanned only half a page, though the title was quite striking:

Just Who Is Aha?

He wrote:

"There is a monster bird in the world named Aha. Its feathers are greyish-blue, its cry resembles laughter. For a thousand years it does not call, but when it cries, a hundred birds all laugh."

"In his youth, Tianyue once found this bird beneath Angel Peak. The bird understood human speech and frequently called his name. Later, it followed Haoyue off the island and went out to sea. On the night Sea God Island sent the lamp, the bird perched on the window, hearing the silence within the room last through the dusk. At dawn, the bird flew from the window, and the lamp went out."

"Hence, what people today call 'Aha' is no human. It is a bird. Some say: the bird has already transformed into a person. Others say: the person is likewise a bird."

Upon finishing, Luo Yan chuckled to himself for half the night.

I am a genius!

He slumped over the table, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably. "Aha is not a person! Hahahaha—!"

The next day, he folded this half-page of paper into three portions, stuffing one into the door crack of the east-city tavern, pressing one beneath the storytelling master's clapper, and tossing one beside the garbage pile in the back alley of the Seven Treasure Hotel.

In less than half a day, Heaven Dou City exploded.

"Aha is a bird?!" A customer shouted in the teahouse.

"Nonsense! Aha is clearly a person, someone who came out of the palace!" Another slammed the table.

"You're all wrong!"

A scholar suddenly stood up in the corner, his face flushed red. "Aha is a lamp from Sea God Island that turned into a bird! It witnessed everything, and that's why it wrote these things!"

The entire hall erupted into a hubbub.

Some laughed, some cursed, and some instantly fished out paper and ink to write a "counterattack."

The storytelling master stood on the high platform, unable to strike his clapper even once.

Luo Yan simply sat on the second floor, ordered a pot of tea, and watched the patrons downstairs argue until their faces were red and their ears crimson, like watching a grand play without needing a ticket.

That cup of tea was very plain, yet he felt it tasted sweeter than wine.

"That's right."

He smiled softly, "I am gone, but Aha remains; I am here, and Aha is everywhere."

Then he heard someone at the neighboring table whispering, "Do you think this could be Aha toying with us? First, he writes an unofficial history, and now he writes that he's a bird. Does he simply not care whether we believe it or not?"

Luo Yan turned his head to look at that person.

It was a young man in worn garments, speaking in a suppressed voice to his companion, his brows knitted tightly together.

Luo Yan let out an "oh" and tossed a peanut into his mouth, thinking: In Heaven Dou City, there are still a few clever people.

However, being clever was useless.

Whether Aha was a bird or not was completely unimportant; what mattered was that everyone had begun to go "mad" over this question.

And Luo Yan merely needed to sit right there and listen to them shout.

Waiting to gather willpower was all he had to do.

He remained seated in the teahouse until the sky grew dim.

The arguing downstairs still had not stopped.

Someone slammed Just Who Is Aha? onto the table, someone else yelled at the top of their lungs that "the monster bird theory is sheer fabrication," and another stood on a stool and shouted, "Never mind whether the real Aha is fake or the fake Aha is real, when is the next installment coming out!"

Arguing to the bitter end, the storytelling master found himself unable to step down from the stage, so he simply tossed his clapper into the air and declared, "Everyone, I am Aha!"

The hall fell dead silent for an instant, followed by roaring laughter.

A drunkard laughed so hard he dropped his wine bowl: "You? You can't even read the four characters 'to know future events' smoothly, and you dare pretend to be Aha!"

The storytelling master's face flushed a deep red as he picked up his clapper again, shouting, "If I'm not, what are you chasing the next installment for!"

Luo Yan watched from the upper floor, slapping his thighs in amusement.

"Good grief, even the storyteller couldn't help himself."

He laughed until tears spilled from his eyes. "If this keeps on, tomorrow the wonton vendor will have to claim he's Aha too."

He picked up the completely cooled tea, gulped down a mouthful, and streams of willpower seeped in from all directions.

The laughter, curses, and debates downstairs were all gradually absorbed by the Elation Mask.

He murmured softly, "Laugh, go on and laugh. When you're done laughing, prepare to pay the price."

He stood up and walked down the stairs; no one paid him any heed.

Everyone was swarming around the storytelling master, and Luo Yan bypassed the edge of the crowd, exiting the teahouse.

Night had fallen over Heaven Dou City, its lights blazing even brighter than in daylight.

He strolled slowly along the main street, looking for something to eat. At the street corner, an old man was selling sugar-roasted chestnuts, his spatula clattering noisily.

Luo Yan fished out five copper soul coins and bought a bag.

The moment he turned around, he caught sight of a grey shadow emerging from an alley across the street, casting a swift glance at him before shrinking back out of sight.

Luo Yan's hand paused.

It was the sort of child specifically hired to run errands and deliver letters for others.

He knew it all too well; back in Notting City, he used to do that kind of work himself.

Feigning ignorance, he kept walking.

Sure enough, the child followed him, speaking in a low voice from three paces away, "Older brother, someone asked me to give this to you."

Luo Yan lowered his gaze.

Clutched in the child's hand was a very narrowly folded slip of paper, the edges sealed with red wax.

"Who gave it?" he asked.

"An elder sister," the child said, "a very pretty elder sister."

Luo Yan smiled faintly.

Ning Rongrong, was it...

He took the slip of paper and casually shoved the newly bought sugar-roasted chestnuts into the child's hands. "Take these and eat them. If the person who paid you asks, just say you couldn't catch up to me."

The child ran off in high spirits. Luo Yan walked under the light of a streetlamp and tore open the wax seal.

There was only a single line of text on the paper:

Seven Treasure Hotel. Come early.

Luo Yan crumpled the paper and tucked it into his sleeve.

He looked up at the sky; the moon had already risen, a slender, thin crescent hanging from the upturned eaves of Heaven Dou City.

"What could she want with me...?"