East?
Surely he was joking. Qufu lay not far to the east!
That was the home of Confucius himself! What foreign evil could possibly come from the Kong family estate?
Cui Jiuyang thought the old man was bluffing, so he began counting on his fingers to perform his own divination.
Well, he would never have known without trying. Those two ghostly things had some ability after all-they could actually interfere with parts of his divination. Not much ability, though. At most, they were just a little better than Cui Jiuyang.
After a good long while, Cui Jiuyang finally worked it out. Old Man Xiang was right: they had indeed come from the east.
Hah, so Confucius's home was haunted now?
Now that was a novelty.
This ghost had some nerve. Wasn't it afraid some great Confucian scholar would pull out a slip of paper reading "The Master did not speak of strange phenomena, feats of strength, disorder, or spirits" and seal it away? If they then used it as a bookmark in some old volume, it might have to wait until its next life to see daylight again.
Still, Cui Jiuyang could not work out how those two foreign spirits had taken away the great Iron Rhino. Their ability to interfere with divination had something to it.
Ghostly methods... Cui Jiuyang's gaze fell on Spirit Medium Wei.
The old woman knew all about crooked arts. This called for her expertise.
Ever since Spirit Medium Wei had heard about the Malevolent Flood Dragon, the ghosts, and that fellow Cui, she had started feeling afraid. This affair was far too complicated, and she wanted to pull out and stop getting involved.
But her greed kept itching at her, so she quietly asked Meng Er beside her, "Second Master Meng, well... Fifth Master Yang didn't make it clear earlier. Once this is settled, how much will he give us in offerings? Could you give me a hint?"
Meng Er was straightforward and a little more lively. "Fifth Master didn't say, but... the dockworkers, porters, and boatmen are all whispering that the canal's haunted now. Nobody wants to work."
"Think about it. What flows through this canal may look like water, but isn't it really silver? How much does the association lose for every day work stops?"
"Just to get the workers back on the job-well, think for yourself how much Fifth Master might pay!"
Spirit Medium Wei was torn again, inwardly gritting her teeth. That was gleaming silver they were talking about!
But was the Malevolent Flood Dragon easy to deal with?
Were foreign evil spirits easy to drive away?
Was a sorcerer named Cui... really so easy to get along with?
She reckoned there was a thirty-percent chance this Cui Jiuyang belonged to that extraordinary Cui family...
She gritted her teeth. They might not be able to afford offending Cui, but he still had to listen to reason!
The ghosts might be hard to subdue, but her own immortal patron was no pushover either!
As for the Malevolent Flood Dragon... if he really was one of those Cuis, never mind a Malevolent Flood Dragon—even a true dragon inside that great lump of iron probably couldn't turn the world upside down!
She was going to earn this money!
Just as she resolved to wade into these muddy waters, Cui Jiuyang looked over. "Granny Wei, can you tell what method those two ghosts used to steal the great Iron Rhino?"
Hearing Cui Jiuyang ask her, Spirit Medium Wei hastily took out several gray rat hairs, knelt beside the puddle, and muttered something under her breath.
When she finally finished muttering, she waved the gray rat hairs in the air, and they burst into flame on their own.
Spirit Medium Wei tilted her head as though listening to something. Only after a long while did she finish listening and stand up.
"Mr. Cui, it should be the Five-Ghost Transport Technique, but the immortal says..." Her expression was rather strange.
Mama Liu wiped away her sweat and asked, "Don't stop halfway! What do any of us have to hide from each other?"
Spirit Medium Wei smiled. "Oh, listen to you. Who would hide anything from anyone?"
"The immortal says there was something wrong with that Five-Ghost Transport Technique."
"The five who answered the summons weren't the Five Directional Strongmen of Jining City at all. They were evil ghosts from who knows where, and they carried the Iron Rhino straight to Lake Taibai south of the city."
Lake Taibai?
Old Man Xiang had been looking about and pondering this and that beside them. Old as he was, his ears were sharp, and he had caught every word Spirit Medium Wei whispered to Meng Er.
He had none of Spirit Medium Wei's complicated concerns. His mind had already wandered far away, imagining how he would spend it if Fifth Master rewarded him with a tea tray full of silver ingots...
Just then, Cui Jiuyang interrupted Old Man Xiang's fantasy by suggesting that there was no hurry to go to Lake Taibai; they should inspect the sunken boat first.
Meng Da and Meng Er agreed. They had already prepared a reed-leaf-shaped skiff at the dock. Such a little boat was no good on great rivers, but on the canal's calm, windless waters, it could be rowed faster than a water flea.
"What's the point of looking at that sunken boat? Why don't we go straight to Lake Taibai and find the great Iron Rhino? That Malevolent Flood Dragon's been asleep all this time. It must be having a lovely dream—it won't wake up easily!" Sitting in the boat, Old Man Xiang was blinded by greed, intent only on settling the matter quickly and collecting his reward.
What he did not know was that a pair of eyes in the city had already fixed on him.
Chapter 21: Ghosts
A luxurious carriage swayed along through Jining City. The curtain over its window lifted, revealing a pretty face no bigger than a palm.
"You're saying two of our Message Cranes split apart just now?" the wide-eyed young woman in a fashionable Western dress asked the assistant beside her.
The assistant had a closely cropped head and regular features, but a three-inch knife scar at his temple marred his looks, making him seem vicious and sinister.
He wore a fashionable Western suit and expensive gold-rimmed glasses. Though only an assistant, he was dressed more grandly than many students returned from abroad or sons of wealthy families.
The assistant took out a bamboo box, opened the lid, and showed the young woman two cracked paper cranes.
She nodded, lifted the curtain at the front of the carriage, and looked at the carriage ahead, which bore the emblem of a string of copper coins. "It seems we must get that old fellow from the Fuxiang Commercial Association to make up his mind sooner."
The Fuxiang Commercial Association was one of the Twelve Great Commercial Associations. In wealth and influence, it ranked second, directly behind Shengdelong.
Its chairman, Lu Zhongqian, was getting on in years, somewhere past sixty-five and nearing seventy.
At his age, he should long since have handed over to his children or grandchildren. Or, if they were no good, he could simply have collected his dividends as a major shareholder and relinquished the chairmanship.
But he refused. Despite his age, he insisted on keeping his position, running here and there all day long.
He truly was capable, though. Above him, he maintained ties with the province's great warlords; below him, with the officials of Jining Prefecture. In between, he also did business with foreigners.
For a merchant of his stature, signing contracts, checking ledgers, and approving requisitions were all far too specific.
All he had to do was maintain those connections, and his subordinates would naturally turn them into money.
With Old Master Lu keeping the association's business thriving, the other shareholders could hardly force him to step down. After all, they depended on him to make money.
Recently, however... one connection had left him unsure how to proceed.
An adjutant of the provincial military governor, Zhang Huailing, had sent a telegram asking him to receive some guests.
This was no great matter for Old Master Lu. Relatives or friends of distant acquaintances often came to Jining Prefecture, and he would entertain them on those acquaintances' behalf. Playing the host gave his old friends face and allowed him to make new ones.
Ordinarily, he loved doing this.
This time was a little different. These guests had arrived in Jining Prefecture but had gone to Qufu first instead of coming to Jining City.
The telegram said they wanted to see the hometown of Confucius.
The wording it used for Confucius was exceptionally respectful. Could they be old scholars?
Old Master Lu did not dare neglect them and sent his men straight to Qufu to see whether they could bring the guests back.
Four men went, and two returned first to report. "Master, we did find the people you sent us to receive... but they wanted to spend a few more days looking around Qufu, so we came back first to report. Master, they're two Japanese people."
Two Japanese people?
That was a little unexpected, but it made sense.
Old Master Lu had heard that Governor Zhang of their province answered only to Director-General Duan in the central government, and Director-General Duan was very close to the Japanese.
The Japanese already wielded considerable influence beyond the Great Wall. After replacing the Germans in Qingdao, they had gradually begun establishing themselves in Shandong as well.
When the Japanese consulate was built in Jinan Prefecture, Governor Zhang wanted to send gifts to the Japanese consul stationed there. Among the long list of gifts, he had specifically requested the treasure of Weishan Lake-the Nine-Ring Silver Carp.
A Nine-Ring Silver Carp was not actually nine feet long. Rather, because of Weishan Lake's unique water quality, silver carp developed successive bands of dark markings on the scales along their backs as they grew, each ring larger than the last.
The local fishermen called each ring a "foot," so a nine-foot carp was naturally a large silver carp with nine rings of dark markings.
Even a three-ring or five-ring silver carp was a rare delicacy. One might not turn up in ten or even twenty netfuls.
So what of one with nine rings?
Because these silver carp had lived for so many years, the texture and flavor of their flesh were completely different from ordinary fish.
They could only be stewed into soup. Any other preparation would be a waste.
Stewed in a great iron pot, the broth was, needless to say, milky white. One sip, and it would hardly be surprising if you swallowed your tongue along with it.
And then there was the flesh after the soup had been stewed. Even after a full two to four hours of simmering, the fish still had resilience and bite... its texture resembled a plump, tender chicken, but its savory flavor surpassed it a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
Its only drawback was... how hard it was to find. That depended on luck. Sometimes, only one or two would be caught in all the vast expanse of Weishan Lake over an entire year.
Under the former Qing dynasty, whenever a Nine-Ring Silver Carp was caught, the dignitary who won it with an astronomical bid would invite friends from far and wide to a splendid Nine-Ring Carp Feast.
As the saying went, "Nine rings of silver scales churn snowy waves; porcelain chopsticks lift jade through cloudy broth." That alone showed how rare and precious the Nine-Ring Silver Carp was.
Fortunately, Lu Zhongqian had extensive connections and no small amount of luck. He personally coordinated the search and ultimately managed to send a living Nine-Ring Silver Carp along the canal to Jinan Prefecture.
After turning it over in his mind, Old Master Lu concluded that these Japanese guests had to be entertained properly. He could not afford to neglect them.
Still, he felt somewhat uncomfortable. The Japanese reputation in the Divine Land was a little better than that of the British and French, but only a little.
And in recent years, it was no longer necessarily better at all.
But in times like these, what was the point of still calling it the divine land?
The country had fallen into such a state, plagued by troubles within and threats without. The name "divine land" had long ceased to fit, and no one even knew where tomorrow's hope might lie.
Thinking about it was no use! Whenever his thoughts turned to such things, Old Master Lu always sighed in melancholy.
Today, Old Master Lu had already been sitting at the entrance to the Fuxiang Commercial Association's guildhall for half an hour. He waited and waited, but the two honored Japanese guests still had not arrived.
Along with his anxiety, he felt an uneasy premonition, though he could not work out where it came from.
As all these thoughts ran through his mind, two carriages came into view. The first belonged to the association. The one behind it presumably carried the two Japanese guests.
For some inexplicable reason, Old Master Lu felt nervous, despite his advanced age and long experience in business-a lifetime of commercial battles large and small, plots and schemes, even wars and changes of dynasty.
The carriage stopped smoothly. First out was the assistant in his immaculate suit. He put on white gloves and held out his arm, and the young woman in the Western dress took it as she slowly stepped down.
Two of the association's own men got out of the carriage that had led the way and came over to introduce the visitors to their master. "Master, this is Miss Abe and her assistant, Mr. Togo."
Miss Abe spoke first, in remarkably fluent Chinese. "Deputy Adjutant Chen told me that you have many years of experience in business, Mr. Lu, and operate countless enterprises in Jining City. Meeting you today, I can indeed see the bearing of a distinguished elder."
Old Master Lu smiled and cupped his hands. "You flatter me, Miss Abe. You are young and accomplished, far more so than this old man."
Beside her, the assistant named Togo spoke in a cold, hard voice. "May I ask whether you have prepared the things we requested in the telegram, Old Master Lu?"
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