The Celestial Official of the Grave-Robbers, a Journey to Zhongshan

November fifteenth.

The sun was pleasant, and the wind had no bite.

Qin Geng woke from his afternoon nap, sat up on the plank bed, and stretched. His joints crackled from head to toe.

"Xiao Wu, you're up? A big ship's coming in from Shanghai today. Heard there'll be plenty of rich folk aboard. Want to get there early and wait?"

Xu Jin was crouched by the door, wiping down a rickshaw. He looked back as Qin Geng rose.

"I'm not going today."

Qin Geng shuffled over to the water vat, scooped up a dipper of cold water, and gulped it down. Wiping his mouth, he said, "I've got some personal business this afternoon. You and Uncle Xu go ahead. If trouble comes, don't meet it head-on. Keep clear. If anyone picks a fight, wait till I'm back tomorrow and I'll settle it."

"We know what to do."

Xu Jin answered without asking anything more.

Qin Geng washed up and changed into a neat set of short clothes, then pulled a thick cotton jacket over them and tied it snugly at the waist. He looked ready for anything.

After leaving the shack, he did not hurry off. Instead, he stopped at the shop that sold braised meat.

"Shopkeeper, a pound of pork cheek, two smoked chickens—the fatty ones—and five big flatbreads."

"Right away! Just a moment, Brother Wu!"

Before long, the smell of meat filled the shop.

Qin Geng sat on a long bench inside and ate in great mouthfuls, without so much as a drink to wash it down.

Tonight, he was going into Bell Mountain. It would drain his strength, and it might cost him his life.

Without fat in his belly, he would have no strength. Without strength, he would die.

This meal was to make a proper offering to the temple of his five organs and build up his vitality and spirit.

He swept through the food like a gale through scattered clouds. Only after rubbing his warm, full belly did Qin Geng pay the bill, satisfied, and head out of town.

Bell Mountain, Heaven-Reaching Gate.

When Qin Geng arrived, the sun had just begun to dip west. It was near the end of the shen hour, leaving him some time before their appointed meeting at the you hour.

Heaven-Reaching Gate lay on Bell Mountain's eastern slope. It was no city gate, but a natural stone archway: two enormous rocks facing each other, with only a narrow strip of sky between them, like a doorway into another world.

The elders used to say Bell Mountain was a mass grave, thick with yin energy. Heaven-Reaching Gate was worst of all. Pass between those stones, and you crossed the gates of hell.

Yet now, the last light of sunset spilled through the woods and gilded even the withered trees and dying grass. Far from sinister, the mountain had the bleak beauty of late autumn.

The mountain wind did not howl like wailing ghosts, as it did at night. It merely stirred the treetops with a soft rustle.

Several people had already gathered in the clearing beneath the two great rocks.

The most conspicuous was Lu Xingmin, Shopkeeper Lu.

Today he wore a close-fitting black jacket, its cuffs bound tight, and a pair of quick boots with thick layered soles.

At his feet sat a long black wooden case, its lid open.

Shopkeeper Lu crouched beside it, handling several cutout paper figures and arranging them inside.

The figures were finely made, with brows, eyes, noses, and mouths. They looked almost alive, save for their deathly white faces and two circles of rouge on their cheeks. Something about them was deeply uncanny.

Three others stood near Shopkeeper Lu.

One was a woman in her early twenties, with her hair in a Daoist topknot held by a wooden hairpin so dark a purple it was nearly black.

She wore a blue Daoist robe washed pale with age, a peachwood sword on her back, and a yellow cloth pouch at her waist.

She was taking stacks of yellow paper talismans from the pouch, along with a small jar of cinnabar, and inspecting them carefully.

The other two were men, one old and one young.

The older man looked about fifty. Dressed in a drab gray short jacket that buttoned down the front, he crouched on a rock smoking a long-stemmed pipe. In his hand he held half the shaft of a disassembled Luoyang shovel.

The younger one looked about Qin Geng's age. He was tall and thin, his eyes darting everywhere as he idly kicked pebbles across the ground.

Even from a distance, Qin Geng caught a strange smell on the two men.

It was the earthy reek of years spent burrowing underground, mixed with a stale odor he could not name. Even the pipe smoke could not cover it.

Qin Geng glanced at the older man's face and stopped short.

He looked... familiar.

After a moment's thought, Qin Geng remembered.

Wasn't he the appraiser at Hengtong Pawnshop in the south of town?

Xu Chun had once wanted to pawn an old pocket watch he had picked up, and Qin Geng had gone along. This was the old man who had examined it. His eyes were so sharp he could have spotted a mosquito's leg from three feet away.

Who would have thought the pawnshop appraiser had another trade beneath the surface?

"Xiao Wu's here."

Hearing footsteps, Lu Xingmin looked up. When he saw Qin Geng, a faint smile crossed his face. He beckoned. "Come on over. Meet everyone."

Qin Geng walked over quickly.

"Everyone, this is the Xiao Wu I told you about."

Lu Xingmin patted Qin Geng's shoulder and introduced him to the three. "Don't let his age fool you. He's already a third-tier rickshaw puller. Strong legs, a sure sense of direction, and real skill to boot."

Then he turned to introduce them to Qin Geng.

"Xiao Wu, this is Daoist Miaoxuan of the Daoist Human Sect."

Lu Xingmin gestured toward the woman in blue.

Qin Geng hurriedly cupped his hands. "Greetings, Daoist Miaoxuan."

Miaoxuan inclined her head slightly. Her keen gaze swept over Qin Geng, and surprise flickered in her eyes. She returned the salute. "I am Miaoxuan. Brother Qin, your blood and vitality are abundant, your temples are slightly raised, and your steps are steady and strong. You don't seem like an ordinary rickshaw puller who relies on his legs alone. You look as though you've practiced martial arts."

"A little, nothing worth mentioning."

Qin Geng answered.

"You're too modest, Brother Qin."

Miaoxuan did not press him. She smiled. "Those filthy things fear martial artists with abundant blood and vitality most of all. That vigorous yang energy of yours is a good thing."

At the words "filthy things," Qin Geng could not help picturing the zombie that knew martial arts from that night. His back tightened, and he instinctively took half a step away.

"Enough. Don't frighten the boy."

Lu Xingmin smiled and pointed to the older and younger men. "These two have quite a background. This is Third Master Cao, and that's his nephew, Cao Xiaoliu. They're officials of the Directorate of Astronomy's Mound-Sealing Bureau. Dealing with things underground is their specialty."

"The Directorate of Astronomy? The Mound-Sealing Bureau?"

Qin Geng was taken aback.

The Great Xin Dynasty might have been tottering on its last legs, but he had heard of its official institutions.

Wasn't the Directorate of Astronomy where they read the stars and made calendars for the emperor?

Why did it have a Mound-Sealing Bureau?

And a Mound-Sealing Celestial Official?

Wasn't that a tomb robber in government robes, straight out of the stories?

Qin Geng looked at the old man crouched there with his pipe. He could not for the life of him connect this pawnshop appraiser with an imperial official.

"Hey, don't listen to Old Lu's nonsense."

Third Master Cao knocked the bowl of his pipe against his shoe and grinned, showing a mouthful of tobacco-yellow teeth. His Tianjin accent was unmistakable. "Celestial Official? If I ever rose that high, smoke would be curling from my ancestors' graves."

He stood and dusted off his backside. When he held out his hands, Qin Geng saw that his index and middle fingers were much longer than most people's, like a chicken's claws.

"I'm only the head of the Earth Official's Office here in Ping'an County Town. Just call me Old Cao."

"Born and raised in Tianjin. I got lucky and landed a government wage. Most days, I just keep watch over this patch of ground and make sure the restless things underneath don't get out and hurt people."