Monster Bird Aha

Luo Yan returned to Heaven Dou City three days later.

But the moment he entered the city, Luo Yan sensed that something was off.

It was too noisy.

Every alley seemed to be bubbling over. Storytellers' blocks cracked in teahouses, tales were recited in taverns, and even the beggars by the eastern bridge were clacking bamboo beaters as they sang, "A lamp upon Sea God Island, shining on two who uttered not a word."

Luo Yan stood by the street with half a blade of grass between his teeth and listened for a while.

"Good grief."

He murmured, "I was only gone for a few days, and Aha already has a theme song."

He had originally intended to find somewhere to rest his feet first.

Yet every bookstall he passed displayed the two characters "Aha."

Some were written on scraps of paper, some carved into bamboo slips, while others had simply been scrawled in charcoal against the base of a wall.

The handwriting came in all sorts of styles, and the contents were even more outrageous.

Luo Yan squatted across from an old bookshop in the southern part of the city and spent two Copper Soul Coins on a "latest handwritten copy."

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

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

Luo Yan's expression turned strange after reading it.

"I never wrote that," he muttered. "Are pirated editions appearing this quickly already?"

Flipping further on, he found another line: "After Tianyue returned to Soul Return Hall, he would climb Angel Peak alone whenever the moon was full. Others believed he was paying homage, but in truth, he was gazing out at the sea."

Luo Yan burst out laughing.

What even was this? Yet somehow, this fake book sounded convincing.

Its wording was refined, with plenty left unsaid. It had a better grasp of subtlety than he did, the "original author."

If he had truly been an uninformed spectator, he might have believed a third of it.

"Not bad."

He stood and dusted off his robes. "Heaven Dou City has already learned how to make its own entertainment. Then I should reap a harvest."

Then he decided to add fuel to the fire.

That night, Luo Yan found an utterly unremarkable old inn, lit a lamp, and stayed up writing for half the night.

He used Willpower to age the paper, then pressed the handwriting into tiny, fine script.

The content only filled half a page, but the title was striking:

Who on Earth is Aha.

He wrote:

"There is a Monster Bird in this world, named Aha. Its feathers are gray-blue, its cry resembles laughter. It does not call for a thousand years, yet when it does, all birds laugh."

"When Tianyue was young, he found this bird beneath Angel Peak. The bird understood human speech and often called his name. Later, it followed Haoyue from the island and sailed out to sea. On the night Sea God Island sent its lamp, the bird perched by the window. Hearing no words from within the room for the entire night, it flew out at dawn, and the lamp went out."

"Thus, the Aha of whom people now speak is not a person, but a bird. Some say the bird has become human. Others say humans are birds as well."

After finishing it, Luo Yan laughed by himself for half the night.

"I'm a genius!"

He collapsed onto the table, his shoulders shaking. "Aha isn't human! Hahahahaha—!"

The next day, he folded the half-page into three copies. He slipped one through the crack in the door of an eastern tavern, tucked one beneath a storyteller's wooden block, and tossed the last beside a pile of trash in the back alley of the Seven Treasure Hotel.

Before half a day had passed, Heaven Dou City exploded.

"Aha is a bird?" a customer in a teahouse shouted.

"Utter nonsense! Aha is obviously a person, someone from the palace!" Another slammed the table.

"You're all wrong!"

A scholar suddenly stood from a corner, his face flushed red. "Aha is a lamp from Sea God Island that turned into a bird! It saw everything, which is why it wrote all this!"

The entire hall erupted.

Some laughed, some cursed, and some immediately pulled out paper and brushes to write rebuttals.

The storyteller stood atop the raised platform, so rattled that he could not even strike his wooden block.

Luo Yan sat on the second floor. He ordered a pot of tea and watched the customers below argue until their faces turned red, as if he were watching a grand show that required no ticket.

The tea was weak, but he found it more fragrant than wine.

"Now this is more like it."

He chuckled softly. "When I'm gone, Aha remains. When I'm here, there's even more Aha."

Then he heard someone at the next table whisper, "Do you think Aha is messing with us? He first wrote some unofficial history, and now he's claiming to be a bird. Does he just not care whether we believe him?"

Luo Yan turned to look at the speaker.

It was a young man in worn clothes, speaking quietly with his companions, his brow knotted tight.

Luo Yan gave a small sound of surprise and tossed a peanut into his mouth. There are still a few smart people in Heaven Dou City.

Still, smart people were no use either.

Whether Aha was a bird or not did not matter at all. What mattered was that everyone had begun to go "mad" over the question.

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

All he had to do was wait and collect Willpower.

He remained in the teahouse until the sky darkened.

The argument downstairs had not stopped.

Someone slapped Who on Earth is Aha onto a table. Someone else bellowed that "the Monster Bird nonsense is obviously fake," while another stood on a stool and yelled, "Who cares whether it's the real Aha or a fake one? When is the next installment coming out?"

By the end of it, the storyteller was so harassed that he could not get off the stage. He simply tossed his wooden block into the air and declared, "Everyone, I am Aha!"

The hall fell silent for a moment before bursting into laughter.

One drunk laughed so hard that he dropped his wine bowl. "You? You can't even say 'if you wish to know what happens next' properly, and you dare pretend to be Aha?"

The storyteller's face reddened. He picked up his wooden block again. "If I'm not, then why are you all chasing after the next installment?"

Luo Yan watched from upstairs, slapping his thigh.

"Good lord, even the storytellers can't resist anymore."

He laughed until tears nearly came out. "At this rate, even the wonton seller will claim to be Aha tomorrow."

He lifted the tea that had already gone cold and took a gulp. Willpower seeped in from every direction like thin streams.

The laughter, curses, and arguments downstairs were all absorbed bit by bit by the Elation Mask.

He murmured, "Laugh. Keep laughing. Once you're done laughing, get ready to pay the price."

He stood and walked down the stairs, unnoticed by anyone.

Everyone was gathered around the storyteller. Luo Yan circled past the edge of the crowd and left the teahouse.

At night, Heaven Dou City was even brighter than it had been in daylight.

He strolled slowly along the main street, looking for something to eat. At a street corner, an old man selling sugar-roasted chestnuts stirred his wok with a loud clatter.

Luo Yan took out five Copper Soul Coins and bought a bag.

Just as he turned around, he saw a gray shadow peek out from the mouth of an alley across the street. It glanced at him swiftly, then ducked back in.

Luo Yan's hand paused.

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

He knew the type too well. Back in Notting City, he had done that work himself.

He pretended not to notice and continued walking.

Sure enough, the child followed him and said quietly from three steps away, "Big brother, someone asked me to give this to you."

Luo Yan lowered his gaze.

The child held a narrow folded note, its edges sealed with red wax.

"Who gave it to you?" he asked.

"An older sister."

The child said, "A very pretty older sister."

Luo Yan smiled.

Ning Rongrong...

He took the note and casually stuffed the bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts he had just bought into the child's hands. "Take these and eat them. If the person who paid you asks, tell her you couldn't catch up to me."

The child ran off happily. Luo Yan walked beneath a lamp and tore open the wax seal.

There was only one line on the note:

"Seven Treasure Hotel. Come early."

Luo Yan crumpled the note and slipped it into his sleeve.

He raised his head to look at the sky. The moon had already risen, a thin crescent hanging above the upturned eaves of Heaven Dou City.

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