Ghosts and monsters

The old man led Yunqi into the stockade.

Through their conversation, Yunqi learned that the old man was named Sang Munai and was the chief of this stockade. Yunqi began calling him Munaigong, and Munaigong answered with a cheerful chuckle, without explaining that "Nai" was actually his surname.

Looking at the tightly packed houses of the Miao stockade, Yunqi realized that his wanderings through the mountains where the three regions met had brought him into the Miao Borderlands first, rather than the Southern Wastes.

This stockade was called Chestnut Creek Stockade, and the little stream in front of it was called Chestnut Creek.

Chestnut Creek Stockade ran from north to south, with rows of houses spread across the eastern mountainside. A fence of thorny wood surrounded it, its thorns a full three inches long. The gate stood in the middle of the fence on the stockade's western side.

Munaigong led Yunqi deep into the southern end of the stockade, pointed to the uppermost house, and said, "Guest, you can stay in that one."

Yunqi took a look. The house occupied the highest point in the stockade's southeastern corner. Getting up there was somewhat inconvenient, but that was no trouble at all for him.

He nodded and bowed to the old man with his hands clasped. "My thanks to Munaigong and the stockade for taking me in."

Munaigong waved a hand and said, "Even the Red-Crest Lord said you were a guest who could bring light. Your coming here is a blessing for our stockade."

The old man pointed at the house again and said with a broad grin, "A Daoist priest stayed in that house before."

"Oh?"

Yunqi immediately asked, "Has a wandering Daoist visited before?"

The old man nodded. "Yes, but that was back when the stockade had just been built. Our ancestors said that without that priest, the stockade would have been gone long ago. Since then, no Daoist priest has passed through our village for many years. Oh, and our ancestors said that priest was young too. Looked just like a child. Perhaps he was even younger than you, guest, haha."

Then Munaigong spoke for a while to the Miao people gathered around him, his words rolling and tumbling out. Soon, they dispersed.

Munaigong led Yunqi up the steps and wooden ladders toward the house.

Munaigong's hair had turned white, but his body was still remarkably robust. He climbed one flight of steps and ladder after another, making his way from the bottom of the stockade to its highest point without so much as a labored breath.

The two climbed a ladder straight from the roof of the household below to the place where Yunqi would stay that night. The house had stood empty for a long time and accumulated plenty of dust. The built-in bench along the veranda was already covered in a gray film. When they pushed the door open, a cloud of dust rose, making Munaigong sneeze repeatedly.

Like a sparrow, small yet complete with every organ, the little house had everything one needed. Yunqi was very pleased; all it needed was a bit of cleaning.

Just then, two Miao aunties came in, one carrying a rag and a bucket of water, the other holding bedding. Yunqi hurried to thank them and take the things from them, but neither would let him, speaking urgently as they refused.

Munaigong smiled and stopped Yunqi. "You're our guest. Of course we should do the cleaning."

As he spoke, Munaigong drew Yunqi outside, where they looked down over the stockade from above.

"Where have you come from, guest?"

"Just call me Yunqi, Munaigong. I came from Yu Zhang."

Seeing some confusion in the old chief's eyes, Yunqi added, "It's east of Zhuzhou."

"That's a long way away!"

The old chief spoke.

Yunqi smiled and nodded.

"And where are you going?"

Still smiling, Yunqi shook his head. "Nowhere in particular. I'm just roaming about."

"Oh, I know. That's what they call wandering like the clouds!"

Yunqi nodded repeatedly.

"Then, Priest Yun, in all your wandering along the way, have you ever seen a Miao stockade this big?"

Yunqi shook his head with a chuckle, without explaining to the old chief that "Yun" was not his surname, nor was "wandering" used quite that way. As for a stockade this big, of course he had never seen one. Before this, he had never even seen a Miao stockade!

The old chief nodded, as though that was only to be expected.

"The Fourteen Streams of Hong River in Great Green Mountain have fourteen stockades. Chestnut Wood Stockade now has fifty-seven households and two hundred and twelve people, making it the second-largest of the fourteen. When I first became chief, the stockade only had a hundred and fifty-three people."

The old chief spoke cheerfully, deep wrinkles folding over one another on his dark face.

Naturally, Yunqi knew what he ought to say at a time like this. When an old man met an outsider, he would of course want to speak of his lifetime's achievements.

"You've governed the stockade well, Munaigong, and deserve credit for its growing families and population. Thank you for all your hard work over the years."

Listening to those scholarly words, the old chief first smiled and nodded, then seemed to feel that was improper and shook his head instead.

Yunqi smiled and asked another question. "Munaigong, on my way here, I saw that every household had a picture like this pasted on its door. What is it for?"

Yunqi pointed at the colored picture on the wooden door.

All the color had faded from the picture on the door of the house where Yunqi was now staying, and its design had grown rather blurry, but he could still make out the shape of a rooster. On his way here, he had seen one of these pictures pasted at the entrance of every occupied house. Those pictures, however, were clearly freshly painted. They depicted a great rooster with a red crest and golden claws, holding a large centipede in its beak and pinning a venomous creature beneath each foot.

"This is the Red-Crested Lord House-Guarding Picture. The Red-Crest Lord can subdue evil ghosts and devour venomous creatures. Paste him on your door, and he'll keep your soul from going astray and drive venomous creatures away."

Yunqi pondered this. The problem was that, although the Red-Crested Lord House-Guarding Picture on his house was worn and tattered, he could still sense a trace of pure yang magical essence lingering in it. The newer Red-Crested Lord House-Guarding Pictures the villagers had painted later, however, were merely hand-drawn images, with no divine presence at all.

"And who is this Red-Crest Lord?"

Yunqi was very curious about that. After entering the stockade, he had noticed that every household kept chickens, with roosters especially numerous. Young ones, strong ones, old ones-they were everywhere, on the roofs, on the ground, and on the railings. None feared people. They strutted wherever they pleased, like generals making their rounds, as though they were the true masters of the stockade.

Yet Yunqi did not seem to have seen that great rooster from earlier again. He had no idea where it had gone.

The old chief hesitated, but then remembered the Red-Crest Lord's ringing crow from earlier. Besides, Yunqi was dressed as a Daoist. After some thought, he explained, "To explain that properly would take a long story..."

Yunqi brushed the dust off the veranda bench with his sleeve and invited the old chief to sit down and tell him.

"Great Green Mountain nurtures the Miao people, but it also nurtures venomous snakes and all manner of insects. There's plenty of rain and mist in the mountains. Sometimes, once the mist rises, it won't disperse for two or three months. Sometimes black mist rises, and you can't even tell day from night. So the mountains nurture ghosts and monsters too."

"Ghosts and monsters?"

Yunqi asked.

The old chief nodded. "All kinds of ghosts and monsters. There are Water Monkeys in the water and Mountain Fiends in the hills. Water Monkeys pull people into the water, and Mountain Fiends drag people up into trees. Both like eating people, eating them until not even the bones remain. There are Fox Fiends in the woods too. They can take human form and trick people into going somewhere secluded, then kill them. There are also Mist Fiends and Wailing Ghosts. When a Mist Fiend raises mist, people can't find their way out, and their souls dissolve into it. When a Wailing Ghost cries, it lures people's souls away. Sometimes it rains for several months. At times like that, the dead buried in the earth come back to life. Those living dead remember nothing. They kill any living thing they see, then drink its blood."

The old chief spoke calmly.

Two chapters posted together. This is the first.

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