Chapter 25

After daybreak, the yamen runners found Bao Lang's headless body in the courtyard before the County Hall.

Wu Zhiyuan sighed, knowing that his official career had come to an end. Not only had he lost the Luminous Pearl the Military Governor intended to present to the Son of Heaven, but the Special Envoy had also been murdered right under his nose. All manner of eerie rumors were spreading unchecked among the people, and even his own runners fiercely resisted continuing the investigation.

Bao Lang, who had slain the snake and seized its pearl, had first gone mad and attacked people, then become a headless corpse. Before countless witnesses, the white snake had transformed into a dragon and appeared. With ghosts and gods involved, what power did mere mortals have to pursue the matter?

Bao Lang's head was soon discovered on the seventh floor of the pagoda at Lotus Flower Temple, where the Luminous Pearl had disappeared.

Skanda Bodhisattva glared with adamantine fury. His Vajra Demon-Subduing Pestle, which could destroy anything and sever every earthly vexation, stood embedded in the head, as though the Bodhisattva himself had executed the man. The dead man's twisted face sat beside the Blue Demon beneath the Bodhisattva's feet. All Bao Lang's obsessions, greed, and inner demons had vanished like smoke and clouds, never to return.

When the severed head appeared out of nowhere, the interior of the Many-Treasures Pagoda remained a sealed chamber under multiple layers of guard. At this point, there was no need to investigate further.

As for the Yang father and daughter, who had quietly disappeared, it was already an unimaginable stroke of luck that they had not come to trouble him. He dared not pursue them.

The city gates reopened, and the assorted travelers trapped in Xiagui could finally come and go freely. The story of the white snake avenging its wrongs would spread in every direction with their footsteps. The Changzhou craftsmen set off westward again to attend to the funeral arrangements of the supremely noble Princess Wanshou.

Princess Wanshou herself, meanwhile, was busily preparing to travel east. Yet no matter where she rummaged, she could not find the rouge, powder, and eyebrow pigment she had brought from Wu Zhiyuan's house. She was deeply puzzled.

Through the window, she asked Wei Xun and Thirteenth Son, who were preparing the tack and luggage, "Have either of you seen my makeup?"

Thirteenth Son shook his head blankly. Wei Xun's eyes were clear and innocent as he said, "I don't recognize those little jars and bottles."

Baozhu thought that was fair enough. Had she simply forgotten to bring them when she escaped the County Yamen?

Having learned nothing, she turned back to her search. Wei Xun lowered his head and continued preparing the tack, a sly smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

This girl clings to her blankets every morning and refuses to get up, he thought. She won't leave until she's been urged five or eight times. If she spends another two or four hours putting on makeup every day, we might as well give up traveling.

As for her using rouge to paint a hideous false wound on her face, or reddening her lips and announcing that she meant to toy with strange men-he had never encountered such terrifying implements. They had tormented him beyond endurance. The previous night, once she was fast asleep, he had slipped into her room, stolen them out, and dumped the lot into the bushes.

Before they departed, Yang Xingjian specially purchased a two-wheeled ox cart. Curtains hung around its canopy, and beneath its plain exterior he laid brocade bedding so Baozhu could rest whenever she grew tired on the road. But the county town was small, and he had failed to find a suitable maid for her. Feeling that he had let the Princess down, he kept fretting aloud.

Tired of hearing it, Wei Xun said bluntly, "She's accomplished in both letters and arms. She can solve cases and kill Luo Chengye with her own hands. She's perfectly capable of looking after herself. She doesn't need a maid."

Yang Xingjian heaved a great sigh at this. A green youngster really is naïve, he thought, and said, "You haven't the slightest idea what I mean."

Just then, Baozhu hurried out of the inn and bent her head to rummage through the luggage already loaded on the donkey. When she turned her back, both Wei Xun and Yang Xingjian fell speechless and stared.

As a Noble Princess, Baozhu had enjoyed fine clothes, exquisite food, and a throng of servants from birth. Though skilled with bow and horse and brimming with martial prowess, she was decidedly mediocre at everyday tasks such as dressing herself and arranging her hair. She could wear simply constructed Hu garments respectably enough, but the overlapping layers of a jacket and skirt were beyond her. Without a mirror to check herself, she had hurried out without noticing that a corner of her skirt was tucked up at the back. Once she turned around, her underpants were plainly visible.

Old Yang turned and glared at Wei Xun, spreading his hands as if to say: Do you understand now?

Seasoned and experienced, Yang Xingjian remained calm. He looked around for a passing woman who could warn Baozhu, but Wei Xun was already striding straight toward her. Yang Xingjian's face changed in alarm, and he called in a hushed voice, "No! You can't tell her directly!" But he was too late to stop him.

Wei Xun went to Baozhu's side and pointed at the luggage hanging from the donkey's back. "I just saw a caterpillar fall into your quiver."

Baozhu feared insects more than anything. Her lovely face instantly paled, and she rose on tiptoe to peer into the quiver. "Where? Where did it fall?" While she was distracted, Wei Xun moved his wrist and, with the lightest touch, drew out the tucked corner of her skirt and smoothed it down.

I learned this trick of feinting east and striking west while stealing on the streets as a child, he thought. I haven't used it in who knows how many years. Using it now to straighten her skirt is rather funny. Turning back, he saw Yang Xingjian shaking his head furiously, his face full of disapproval. Wei Xun showed a row of small white teeth and smiled all the more happily.

Only Baozhu remained in the dark, clutching her quiver and asking over and over, "Where did the caterpillar fall? Why can't I see it? You're not teasing me again, are you?"

With everything in Xiagui County settled and no one left to stop them, the party finished preparing their cart, mounts, and luggage and set out.

Baozhu rode the donkey, Wei Xun led it by the reins, and Thirteenth Son brought up the rear. With Yang Xingjian sitting on the cart and driving the ox, the four left through Xiagui County's eastern gate. Baozhu was still puzzling over the dubious caterpillar when she saw a tall figure in black standing beside the official road outside the gate, radiating heroic vigor and dashing charm. It was Huo Qilang, who had already departed, waiting for them.

Hearing her mention "teasing people," Huo Qi came forward with a smile and interjected, "Has Wei Da been playing tricks again? The day we broke into the jail, I saw him steal the magistrate's official seal in passing and hide it on a roof beam in the County Hall. Magistrate Wu must be searching himself mad by now. Unless he tears down the hall and rebuilds it, he'll never find it. He'll never imagine the seal is hidden right over his head."

With his trick exposed, Wei Xun curled his lip indifferently, while Baozhu and Thirteenth Son burst into helpless laughter. Only Yang Xingjian, an official himself, felt a pang of fellow feeling. Merely imagining what losing his official seal would be like sent a chill rising from his soles. How could he laugh?

Looking from behind at Wei Xun's lithe, vigorous figure, Baozhu laughed and thought how freely and nobly he acted: righting injustices he encountered, then brushing off his sleeves and leaving once the deed was done, concealing both his identity and his name. Who would have guessed that in private he loved practical jokes so much that a day without one left him itching? He was full of mischievous, playful boyishness. She wondered who had raised him.

Then she remembered something else. "Now that the truth of this case has come to light, there's just one thing that still doesn't fit. Who stole the false pearl Chen Yu made?"

Wei Xun said, "I have a guess, though it may be wrong."

Baozhu urged him, "Tell us!"

Wei Xun said, "When I went to investigate the pagoda at Lotus Flower Temple, I noticed that during the day, heat gathered at the top. The upper floors were extremely hot. I suspect the egg Chen Yu used to counterfeit the Luminous Pearl hatched."

Baozhu frowned. "Nonsense. There was no mother bird to brood over it. How could it hatch on its own?"

Wei Xun said, "You don't know this, but snakes don't need their mothers to brood over their eggs. As long as the surroundings are warm enough, they can hatch by themselves. There was a transparent stain on the soft brocade padding inside the Lacquer Box. If that was fluid left behind when a snake egg hatched, it would make sense."

Baozhu murmured in acknowledgment, but after thinking it over carefully, she still felt something was wrong. "But even if the little snake hatched and slithered away, it would have left its shell. It couldn't leave everything seamless as a heavenly robe. The three people there would certainly have noticed a clue."

Wei Xun said, "There's a kind of snake whose eggshell softens around the time it hatches. Once the little snake emerges, the shell becomes its first fine meal. If it happened to be that kind of snake, then perhaps it really was heaven's will."

Everyone fell silent. Wei Xun himself admitted it was only conjecture, impossible to verify. Throughout the case, whether it was intestines hauled over a beam, a fried human head, the white snake manifesting, or a flood dragon passing through, every eerie trace had been deliberately created by human hands. Yet they still felt that many coincidences had been guided by unseen ghosts and gods.

The Changzhou craftsmen had passed through Xiagui County because of Princess Wanshou's death. Wei Xun had fallen ill, and the theft and murder had happened to be pinned on the Green-Robed Wanderer. Step by step, they had all become mired in the affair, compelled against their will to help solve it. Only after the truth of Yingniang's murder emerged had they been able to leave Xiagui.

Every result arose from a cause; every recompense arose from karma. Now that the Tombstone Carvers' family had avenged their terrible wrongs through Wei Xun's hands, they hoped Yingniang's spirit in heaven could rest in peace.

After more than ten days trapped in Xiagui County, the summer heat was gradually receding. Leaving the sealed city behind, they saw a crane soar through the clouds into a clear sky. Beneath the lofty heavens and refreshing air, their stifled spirits were swept clean.

Baozhu looked up and saw a thin, ethereal cloud drift slowly across the sky. Its outline shifted ceaselessly, resembling a girl clad all in white gathering her skirts and bowing gracefully. Faint and elusive, light and lovely, it might have been a real sight or merely an image born of her thoughts. She hesitated briefly, and by the time she wanted to call the others to look, the cloud had scattered on the wind, leaving no trace.

Long after they left Xiagui, when the city was no longer visible behind them, Wei Xun took out the Lacquer Box and handed it to Baozhu. "It's yours."

Baozhu stared in surprise. "The craftsmen gave you this to repay you. You wouldn't even leave them your name. Isn't this all you have left?"

"I said beforehand that I was having the Lacquer Box made as a gift."

Wei Xun pressed the box into her hands and hurried forward with the donkey, not daring to look back. The implication was that it had always been intended for Baozhu.

He added, "You heard what the craftsmen said. Wei Da's blessings are too scant and his fate too frail to bear a treasure. You're the noblest person in this party. You should keep it."

Huo Qilang hastily called out, "Stop yielding it to each other! Let me, Huo Qi, sell it and divide the money. Everyone gets a share. Wouldn't that satisfy both sides?"

Baozhu opened the Lacquer Box and held the pearl in her palm, turning it over and examining it. In a low voice, she said, "It would be nice if we could sell it."

Seeing her thoughtful expression, as though she had a bellyful of words bottled up, Thirteenth Son asked clearly, "Do you find the bloodstains dirty, Ninth Lady? I can take it to a stream and wash it for you."

Baozhu immediately denied it. "Despite his disability and injuries, that tombstone carver tried every means to clear his daughter's name and avenge her. He never yielded, hiding the pearl in his own flesh and blood. He was truly a mighty warrior of this world. How could such a warrior's blood be dirty? It's just that this pearl is very strange..."

Huo Qi quickly asked, "Strange how?"

Baozhu sighed. "I can't quite say. It's simply unlike any pearl I've handled."

Because Princess Wanshou's personal name was Baozhu, whenever treasures presented to the palace from the Nine Provinces and Four Seas contained the word "pearl" in their names, the emperor generally bestowed them directly upon her. On birthdays and festivals, he gave her pearls by the bushel. Thus, the fine pearls she had seen in her life were beyond counting, unrivaled by anyone under heaven.

Wei Xun knew she had a discerning eye. "Ever since you saw this thing, you've seemed uneasy. We have a long journey ahead, so there's plenty of time to hear you explain."

Huo Qi and Thirteenth Son drew closer too, both looking intensely curious.

Baozhu sighed. "Then I'll explain briefly. Just listen if you like. This bead has the luster of a pearl on its surface. Pearls fall into two kinds: sea pearls and snake pearls..."

Thirteenth Son asked in surprise, "Are there really such things as snake pearls? Do snakes spit them out of their bellies?"

Baozhu said, "Snake pearls are pearls produced in freshwater rivers. Ancient legends often tell of great snakes carrying pearls out of rivers to give to people, so freshwater pearls are commonly called snake pearls. Their luster isn't as strong as that of sea pearls, and their substance isn't as dense, so they're less valuable, though still very beautiful. But this pearl has a dull luster and an uneven texture. It falls short of either kind."

Huo Qi said, "But it really glows! That night, I went over specially to look. It had a faint, hazy glow."

Baozhu sighed. "That's exactly what's strange. Pearls and luminous pearls are actually entirely different things. Pearls grow inside living creatures such as oysters and mussels, while a luminous pearl is a piece of jade polished into a sphere. During the day, when it isn't glowing, it's blue-green, with no pearly luster on its surface."

Huo Qi asked in astonishment, "A luminous pearl isn't a pearl at all?"

Baozhu shook her head. "Luminous pearls are also called Marquis Sui's Pearls. They're dug out of stone, and there are two kinds: those that glow constantly and those that don't. The constantly glowing kind is rare. Most don't glow all the time."

Thirteenth Son asked, "Do they flicker on and off?"

Baozhu smiled and shook her head. "No. That kind of bead needs to absorb Golden Crow Essence during the day before it can glow at night. If it's wrapped in layer after layer and stored in a treasury, it soon becomes an ordinary stone and needs sunlight to replenish it. There was once a case in the Imperial City Treasury of a luminous pearl supposedly being stolen and replaced. When they got to the bottom of it, it had merely been shut away too long and needed some sun. It hadn't been replaced at all."

Hearing her clear, orderly explanation and seeing how widely knowledgeable she was, everyone felt admiration.

Baozhu said, "This heirloom pearl of Chen Yu's combines both qualities, yet its color and surface luster fall short of a pearl's, and its brightness at night falls short of a Marquis Sui's Pearl. It's neither fish nor fowl. That's why I found it strange, though it wasn't appropriate to say so at the time."

Yang Xingjian had been following behind, listening silently. Now he spoke. "Though I know nothing of appraising treasures, I understand a little of human nature. When the tombstone carver said his late father had purchased the pearl from Western Merchants at a high price, I grew suspicious. An outsider unwilling to make a living through his inherited craft, with no experience in trade, dared sink all his money into the jewelry business, where prices are so inflated. He truly had no sense of his own limits.

"Though Western Merchants may possess rare treasures seldom seen in our land, one should only trade with them if one has the discernment to recognize what they are. When it comes to taking advantage of outsiders, they are experts. The fact that Chen Yu's father found the pearl so difficult to sell after buying it supports that suspicion."

Baozhu asked in surprise, "You mean his father was cheated by the Western Merchants?"

Yang Xingjian shook his head and sighed. "I wouldn't presume to say. It's only conjecture. The man has been dead for more than thirty years. Where could we go to verify it?"

Everyone found his reasoning sound and felt a sense of melancholy.

Suddenly, Wei Xun reached out and gently took the pearl from Baozhu's hand. Then he gripped it between two fingers and squeezed. Amid Huo Qi's startled cry, a crack appeared on its surface.

Baozhu's face changed in horror. Neither ordinary pearls nor luminous pearls had a core. Even crushed to powder, they would contain at most a grain of sand. However powerful Wei Xun's fingers were, he was flesh and blood. He could not possibly crush something so dense by sheer force.

Huo Qilang wailed, "Senior Brother, why be so ruthless? Even if it isn't genuine, we could sell it cheaply for drinking money!"

Wei Xun laughed. "We can't verify this, we can't verify that-it's left me itching inside. Today, I have to get to the bottom of something."

With his rebellious, untamable nature, how could he heed anyone's warnings? He squeezed again. Under a second application of finger strength fierce enough to shatter steles and split stone, the pearl could no longer withstand him. Its surface broke apart, and the lustrous outer layer flaked off like damp plaster from a wall, exposing an utterly ordinary glazed glass bead.

In Chang'an, five hundred coins could buy a bushel of these things. They were toys for amusing children and raw material for glazed roof tiles. A single bead was not worth even one coin.

Baozhu hurriedly took the remnants from Wei Xun's hand and examined them closely. The flakes that had fallen from the glazed glass bead were a mixture of pearl powder and mineral dust. Some unknown substance had bound them together, allowing them to be wrapped around the glass bead and polished smooth to create this neither-one-thing-nor-the-other "luminous pearl."

Huo Qilang watched helplessly as Wei Xun crushed her chance of making a fortune to pieces. Utterly dejected, and struck by several dagger-like glances besides, she knew she was no longer welcome. After a few casual remarks, she took her leave.

Wei Xun, however, felt he had personally exposed a fraud that had endured for years, and a triumphant smile appeared on his face. Only when he noticed Baozhu's disappointment did he say, "Sorry. I'd already given it to you, but then my fingers got itchy and I crushed it."

Baozhu shook her head and sighed. "I have plenty of pearls this size, so I don't regret losing it. I'm only thinking how heaven toys with people. A false pearl ruined Chen Yu's family and cost them their lives. It's pitiful and tragic."

The tragedy of the Tombstone Carvers' family and the great treasure-theft case that swept through the city had all arisen from a luminous pearl counterfeited by Western Merchants. Three generations of the Chen family, the Changzhou craftsmen, Bao Lang, and even Military Governor Cui Keyong had lacked the discernment and experience to recognize it.

Even if someone had vaguely sensed something amiss, no one had been as utterly uninhibited as Wei Xun, daring to crush a treasure by force to test its authenticity. Only when it reached her hands had its true form finally been revealed.

Seeing Huo Qi far off, and knowing that everyone remaining was aware of Baozhu's identity, Yang Xingjian finally voiced what he had long held back. He said contemptuously, "That barbarian slave Bao Lang had a wolf's ambition. Even if presenting the pearl had won him promotion, he could never, in his entire life, have become worthy of meeting the Princess. What incurable stupidity, what delusional wishful thinking."

Baozhu thought that even if no one had tried to murder her, and she were still safely in the palace, and this "luminous pearl" had reached Chang'an without incident, it would probably still have come into her hands as a gift from the Son of Heaven. She could only say that unseen forces had their own ordained course.

And she would merely have thanked him for his boundless grace, tossed it aside because of its poor quality, and never thought of it again. Yet such an insignificant plaything in royal hands could stir up winds of blood and rains of slaughter among ordinary people, leaving countless people dead. The world was indeed cruel and unpredictable.

But Chen Yu and Yingniang would never know any of this.

After pondering for a long time, she finally understood.

"To help Chen Yu's family, the Changzhou craftsmen risked death and poured their hearts' blood into making this Seven-Treasure Glazed Glass Box. Thinking it over, the most precious treasure in this whole pearl-theft affair was actually this empty box, filled with chivalrous spirit. I never imagined that 'Buying the Casket and Returning the Pearl' could be such a happy thing."

She thought of how she had wandered the world, tasted every hardship, and traveled all this way with an unadorned face. Now, at last, she had a respectable cosmetics case. It was a little small, but handy. When they passed through the eastern capital, Luoyang, she must buy some brightly colored makeup to put inside. With limited space in the Lacquer Box, should she buy Great Red Spring or Tender Wu Fragrance for her lips? Whatever else she chose, Pomegranate Blush was essential.

Thinking of the dozens of rouge shades waiting for her to choose from, Baozhu's heart flew ahead, and a simple, happy smile appeared on her face. Beneath the brilliant sunshine, her glances sparkled with life, and her skin glowed like rosy clouds.

Holding the Seven-Treasure Glazed Glass Box against her chest, she smiled openly at Wei Xun. "I like this gift very much. Thank you."

Dazzled by her radiance, Wei Xun's gaze faltered, and he dared not look straight at her. He hurriedly lowered his head and led the donkey onward. Whatever their authenticity or value, all the jewels in the world are merely lifeless things, he thought. How could they rival the dazzling light a living person gives off? Only someone like her deserves the name Baozhu-'precious pearl.'

If another mysterious case were ever pinned without cause on the Green-Robed Wanderer, the only charge he would gladly admit to was "stealing a pearl."