Unexpected

The steward trembled with fear, but when he saw his master's face, he chimed in, "Yes, yes. To try such crooked tricks on the Qian Family—they truly don't know what's good for them."

Master Qian Dayou looked weary. He sat in his chair, turning his prayer beads. Yet as he turned them, the hostility radiating from him only grew!

He had used this very trick to extort money from the dead before.

He had never imagined that one day, someone would turn the trick he had used on others against him!

He slowly closed his eyes.

Master Qian recalled the many ways to extort money from the dead.

The scheme meant using a corpse to swindle someone out of money.

There were all kinds of methods, each with its own regional flavor. Some carried corpses around to peddle grief, some came to the door wailing to the heavens, and some wept over souls and threw themselves to the ground.

What had happened in his rear courtyard looked like the kind where someone came to the door wailing to the heavens.

But a corpse had appeared in the rear courtyard last night. If that was the trick, someone should have come to his door to wail in mourning this morning.

So he had set men in ambush and waited and waited, but no one came.

This turn of events left Master Qian uncertain.

Had he guessed wrong?

As he turned his prayer beads, he felt this was not a local's work. Any local would have heard something of Qian Dayou's reputation and known that this trick would not work on him.

He himself had risen as a Market Tiger.

Third Master was a man in the magistrate's office, too.

In that case—

The prayer beads stopped in his hand. Qian Dayou opened his eyes and said abruptly, "Go look into it again. See if any unfamiliar faces have appeared nearby, especially monks staying as guests or Daoists traveling alone."

The steward beside him answered at once and went to make arrangements.

Master Qian narrowed his eyes and thought back over last night: the dead woman standing in the passageway of the rear courtyard in the dead of night, right on the old madam's route back from the Buddha hall.

His anger had not subsided, but now he saw the crucial point.

"You people know my rear courtyard awfully well!"

He rolled the prayer beads in his hand. With each bead that passed beneath his fingers, the fire in Master Qian's belly burned hotter!

He had dealt with the guards yesterday.

But he still needed to ferret out the traitor inside!

The steward returned after giving orders outside and stood beside his master, not daring to speak.

He watched his master turn his prayer beads in the chair. After a long while, Master Qian spoke again. "Oh, and find me a suitable ritual master. I want someone to drive the ill fortune away from my mother. The fright has scattered some of her soul, and she needs someone to summon it back."

"Yes, sir," said the steward.

When the steward went out again, Master Qian sat alone in his armchair. A cool breeze came from somewhere and brushed past him, carrying a strange scent to his nose.

He sniffed carefully. The scent seemed familiar.

He stood and looked around with a frown, but found no source for that peculiar fragrance in the main hall.

After making a circuit, he sat down again, turned his prayer beads, and resumed chanting Buddhist scriptures.

He put it down to a momentary fit of fancy.

Then, before long, he smelled it again.

The hairs on the back of Master Qian's neck stood up.

This time, it was no fit of fancy! He sprang from his chair as if launched by a spring and hurried out of the room in a few quick strides.

"Master."

The two household guards stationed at the door looked bewildered when their master suddenly rushed out, but they still came forward.

A fierce glint flashed in Master Qian's eyes. He pointed straight at them. "Go kill a black dog and a rooster. Find me a bowl of cinnabar, too, and bring me the knife I keep in my study!"

"Yes, sir!"

They did not know what had happened, but their master's face looked grim. They dared not ask questions and scrambled off in a flurry to do as he ordered.

As for Qian Dayou,

he stood outside the main hall, sniffing hard at the scent inside. Sweat began to bead on his forehead.

Something was wrong.

If he remembered correctly,

that was the smell of the corpse that had appeared in the rear courtyard last night! But the corpse had been burned! How could its smell be here again, in the main hall?

Strange! This was bad!

Outside the city, at the Earth God Shrine, where Xu Feng was staying.

"Three days after death, the belly swells and gas escapes from time to time. The body must be wiped down with the Realgar Righteous Qi Formula before it can be sewn."

"Five days after death, the skin rots and flies and maggots cover the body. It must be wiped down with the Great Qi Righteous Qi Formula. Do not pull it with a large needle; a fine needle or hooked needle is best—"

"After death..."

"The Realgar Righteous Qi Formula uses realgar as its guide, arsenic as its chief ingredient, and strong liquor—"

"The Great Qi Righteous Qi Formula uses..."

"Before sewing a corpse, one must consult the gods—"

"When Sewing a large corpse at night, use willow twigs dipped in water to drive away cats, sparrows, and dogs. Do not let them near the corpse. Avoid the cries of infants and calls between men and women."

"The birth date and hour must not clash. Blood must not be seen, and great mourning must not meet great joy."

"If a whirlwind appears outside the door, drive it away. Do not let it cross the threshold."

"If there is... outside the door, one must..."

"A clear day is best for sewing a corpse. Cloud or rain will do, but there must be no thunder."

"A fine brush is best for tracing a corpse. Find the bones first, then the meridians, and only then set the features right. When they are right, they align; when they align, the qi flows smoothly—"

In the side room, Xu Feng spoke at length. With each point he gave under questioning, delight grew on the tall, thin Master's face.

By the end, Zhao Er no longer bothered to hide it.

Xu Feng watched the tall, thin Zhao Er laugh openly in front of him.

Zhao Er tipped a few drops of strong liquor into his mouth.

Three days!

It had only been three days!

Xu Feng could not recite those books backward, and he made an occasional mistake.

But this was more than enough!

At least to Zhao Er, his knowledge was complete, without gap or omission! How did that saying go? This boy's future knew no bounds!

"Good, good!"

Even Zhao Er had not expected himself to speak so gently.

He looked at Xu Feng and said slowly, "Well done! You've done what I asked, so I can't go back on my word.

"Wait here. At noon today, we'll go into the city for a meal.

"And as for Incense Divination—"

He left the room. When he returned, he held a large blue-covered, thread-bound book.

Xu Feng saw its title.

The book was plain to a fault.

Four characters were written on its cover.

[Corpse-Sewing Incense Manual].

Excitement surged through Xu Feng. Zhao Er, Zhao San's Master, was clearly a man who kept his word.

What he said, he did.

Xu Feng fully expected Zhao Er to open the book to a page and let him read it.

Instead, his tall, thin Master walked straight over and thrust the whole book into Xu Feng's arms. "You've done well, so I can't come up short.

"At first, I thought biting off more than you could chew would do you no good. I planned to teach you one Incense Divination formula and let you digest it first.

"But now I might as well give you the whole thing! You can learn it!

"These are the nine Incense Divination formulas I learned from your grandmaster. I wrote them down in advance so nothing would be lost or mistaken when I passed them on. Open it and have a look. Every Incense Divination formula I learned is in there!"

He stroked Xu Feng's head and said gently, "You've earned this reward!"