The Master at the town's Official Academy was surnamed Hua. He was getting on in years, his hair white as snow.
He knew some Internal Art and had kept himself in good shape. Compared with other men his age, he was still hale and hearty, without a trace of frailty.
After Pan Long explained why he had come, old Master Hua considered it for a moment and asked, "You read a travelogue and came all the way to the Peach Blossom River. But did it occur to you that the travelogue might be a lie?"
"Of course it did," Pan Long said earnestly. "But being fooled once wouldn't cost me much. Even if I made three or five trips for nothing, as long as one account proved true and I could help, I'd consider it worth the trouble."
Old Master Hua smiled. "Good. In that case, come with me."
He led Pan Long to his study, pushed aside the desk, and lifted a floor tile. Beneath it lay a wooden box.
There was nothing rare inside the box, only a few notebooks.
"These are notes passed down in secret among generations of Masters at the Official Academy. You may read them here."
Pan Long opened a notebook and found that most of its entries concerned matters the Imperial Court would consider treasonous: records of local criticism and resistance to certain Imperial Court policies, key passages from books the Imperial Court had ordered banned and destroyed, and the like.
He searched through them and soon found a record of the Peach Blossom River's River God taking brides.
Years ago, the River God of the Peach Blossom River had rendered service during a palace coup in Great Xia, and the emperor had appointed him River God. Lustful by nature, he had once