"Then how does this child have a karmic connection?"
"Because he was a big old turtle in his previous life, and the Japanese blew him up in Lake Taibai."
Realization dawned on Ninth Lady. "That Giant Softshell Turtle!"
"That's right, him. See? He even belonged to your Water Palace." Cui Jiuyang walked ahead. "Let's find something to eat."
As he walked, he hummed a strange little tune Ninth Lady had never heard...
"In nineteen thirty-seven, the Japanese invaded the Central Plains~ First they attacked Lugou Bridge..."
Chapter 56: Meat flatbreads
Today, Ninth Lady suddenly craved Shovel Liu's meat flatbreads in the south of the city. Whenever food was involved, Cui Jiuyang was sure to tag along.
Shovel Liu was an unusual fellow. He had sold steamed buns, stuffed buns, wontons from a shoulder-pole stall, cured pork, and hot braised meats-none of those ventures had worked out, and he had lost every penny.
At fifty, he had somehow learned to make meat flatbreads and made a name for himself in Jining City.
His meat flatbreads were simply tasty, not some extraordinary delicacy.
The main reason he was famous was the shovel he used to make them.
He called it a shovel, but it was bigger than a washbasin.
His wife kneaded the dough and wrapped the filling to make palm-sized raw flatbreads, placing each one on his shovel as she finished it.
Once the big shovel was full, it held a whole sixteen.
Shovel Liu, a scrawny old man pushing sixty, would pick up the shovel, strike a stance, and start with Raising Fire to the Sky, followed by Nezha Stirs the Sea.
Right beside the road, he would turn three circles and perform an entire Demon-Subduing Staff Technique routine, whipping the shovel through the air without dropping a single flatbread.
It was as though he had glued the flatbreads to his shovel!
But when it was time to bake them, he would slowly slide the big shovel into the oven, give his hand a gentle shake, and flick his wrist up and down. Slap, slap, slap! All sixteen flatbreads would stick obediently to the oven walls.
Before long, the aroma of meat and toasted flour would waft out of the oven, filling half the street.
Half the people who bought Shovel Liu's meat flatbreads wanted to eat them. The other half came to watch the show.
Ninth Lady belonged to the half who genuinely wanted the meat flatbreads, while Cui Jiuyang belonged to the half who wanted to watch the tricks.
Holding their hot flatbreads, the two stood at the roadside and watched Shovel Liu perform.
"Hey, how do you think he learned that? He really doesn't drop a single flatbread." Ninth Lady had spent her recent days wandering the city with Cui Jiuyang.
They had grown increasingly casual with each other. Her way of addressing him had gone from Mr. Cui to Cui Jiuyang to Jiuyang, and finally to "Hey."
A bit of meat filling was stuck between Cui Jiuyang's back teeth, and he was trying to work it out with his tongue. Ninth Lady's question caught him off guard. "Huh?"
Ninth Lady repeated herself. "I said, how did he learn to do that? He doesn't drop a single flatbread!"
"With things like this, it's all practice," Cui Jiuyang said. "Do it enough, and you'll naturally get the hang of it."
He finally worked the filling loose and savored it for a moment. He considered swallowing it, then found the idea rather disgusting and spat it out. Distractedly, he said, "I'm telling you, Indian Flying Pancakes are the same. They put on a show while selling bread."
Ninth Lady turned to look at Cui Jiuyang. "Indian Flying Pancakes? Never heard of them."
"India is a country," Cui Jiuyang said. "Like the Great Qing Empire."
Ninth Lady asked, "Have you been there?"
Cui Jiuyang shook his head. "No. A friend of mine went. He said it was clean and hygienic."
Seeing the odd expression on Cui Jiuyang's face, Ninth Lady felt as though he was making some sort of sly joke... yet nothing he had said seemed particularly strange.
Ninth Lady finished her flatbread in a few bites, then turned and headed toward the city wall...
Cui Jiuyang followed her.
On the inner side of the city wall, a zigzag staircase ran along the masonry, barely wide enough for two people to walk abreast. The steps were so high that climbing them required something like a high-knee march.
Ninth Lady led the way, with Cui Jiuyang behind her, as they climbed the wall.
Halfway up, Ninth Lady suddenly said, "The troupe master found me right here, at the foot of this wall, and took me home."
Behind her, Cui Jiuyang could not make out her expression.
"People in Jining City usually leave unwanted children at the foot of the wall. For one thing, once you've left the child, you can go straight into the city or out of it, and nobody can find you."
"For another, so many people pass through here-dockworkers, merchants, freight haulers, wandering performers... once someone picks up the child, it's hard to track them down again. Whoever takes the child can do so without worrying."
"The troupe master never hid it from me. He always told me the same thing: he had found me and taken me in, and I had to train hard and perform Nuo opera well. That was how I could repay him."
Cui Jiuyang could sense an inexpressible trace of sadness in her words, but he did not know how to comfort her. He only said, "Unless they truly have no other choice, no parents would abandon their own children."
Ninth Lady said nothing more, and the two climbed the rest of the way onto the city wall.
It was still early in the morning, but the sun was already nearing the middle of the sky. Its light fell on the blue stone bricks atop the wall, making their worn, smooth surfaces gleam.
Looking out from the wall, they could see Lake Taibai, its waters still swollen. The rain had stopped seven or eight days ago, yet the water had not receded.
It had completely submerged the willows along the lakeshore. Here and there, idlers sat by the water fishing.
From high atop the wall, it looked as though strands of green leaves were growing underwater, making for quite a novel sight.
"Hey, you're the mighty Chief Sacrificer. Aren't you going to do something about all this water? What if it floods Jining City?" Cui Jiuyang pointed at Lake Taibai, sparkling in the sunlight, and teased Ninth Lady.
Ninth Lady tucked a windblown strand of hair behind her ear, a gesture that made her look gentle and serene.
"The Ji River left this lake behind, but it didn't leave a river channel or a Water Eye here," she said. "Even if I wanted to drain it, where would the water go?"
"We can only wait for it to recede slowly. Fortunately, the sluice gate is holding. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know how to save the situation."
The soldiers who had patrolled the stretch of wall above the sluice gate had long since withdrawn. With the water no longer rising, the danger had naturally passed.
Now, quite a few children were running back and forth atop the wall, playing.
Carefree children always drew the eye. After watching them for a long while, Cui Jiuyang suddenly asked, "Did you ever run around and play like that when you were little?"
Ninth Lady thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No. Every day, I practiced and recited my lines. Otherwise, I was alone with the troupe master, learning his secret Nuo Mask arts."
"I played like that when I was little," Cui Jiuyang said. "But... later, I had to go to school, so I didn't get to do it as much."
Puzzled, Ninth Lady asked, "Then when did you learn all those abilities of yours?"
Cui Jiuyang smiled wryly. "I studied for less than half a year, I suppose... Well? Didn't expect that, did you?"
Ninth Lady could hardly believe it. "Less than half a year? Your family taught you? No wonder Granny Wei was scared off. Is your family's cultivation that advanced?"
Recalling the blockbuster-like spectacle of his two great-grandfathers fighting as heaven and earth seemed to collapse around them, Cui Jiuyang said, "Let me put it this way. If my great-grandfather were here, that Malevolent Flood Dragon would be no different from a loach... I wouldn't have needed to risk my life at all."
Ninth Lady was stunned. "Your great-grandfather is that powerful? His mastery must be sky-high."
Cui Jiuyang pursed his lips and held a hand level with his eyebrows. "Not bad. About this high."
Ninth Lady swatted him. "Stop fooling around. I meant his cultivation, not his height."
"I meant his cultivation too," Cui Jiuyang said. "From the foot of the city wall up to where I'm holding my hand-that's how high his cultivation is!"
Ninth Lady giggled at his teasing.
Just then, an old man emerged from the shadow of the gate tower atop the wall and headed straight toward them.
"You two, you two! Something terrible is about to happen!"
Chapter 57: Fishing
The moment the old man came around the gate tower, Cui Jiuyang sensed something amiss. He performed a divination on his fingers, found his answer, and smiled.
This old man... was not human.
As a sacrificial official of the Water Palace, Ninth Lady could naturally sense it too.
In theory, the old man might even have to address Ninth Lady as "Honored Chief Sacrificer."
The little old man was short, reaching only about Cui Jiuyang's chest. He had a head of white hair and wore a short, front-fastening jacket, blue cloth trousers, and old cloth shoes with layered soles.
He approached, bowed, and only then spoke. "An exalted immortal of the Jishui Water Palace stands before me. This humble old land god offers his respects. Mr. Cui, greetings to you as well."
He was actually the Land God of Jining City.
Cui Jiuyang gave a snort and nearly laughed. This really was Shandong-people loved addressing others as though they held a position one rank higher.
A clerk became a section chief, a section chief became a director, and a director became a bureau chief...
"Honored Chief Sacrificer" would have been perfectly sufficient, but he insisted on calling her an exalted immortal.
All right, he certainly knows how to flatter people!
But what does the local land god want with us?
Ninth Lady and Cui Jiuyang exchanged a glance. In the end, Exalted Immortal Ninth spoke. "I wouldn't dare call myself an exalted immortal. What brings you to us, Lord Land God? You were just saying something terrible was about to happen?"
The old land god pointed toward the distant sluice gate.
"Exalted immortal, I must inform you that, well... it's going to break!"
"It looks perfectly fine up here, but a few days ago, someone fought that Giant Softshell Turtle in the lake. When he went berserk and unleashed his power, he smashed into the blue stone beam at the very bottom of the sluice gate and damaged it. Now that beam is coming loose. It won't be able to hold the gate much longer!"
"How badly is the beam damaged?" Ninth Lady asked anxiously. "What should we do?"
"Please let this humble old man finish, exalted immortal," the land god continued. "The beam isn't quite beyond holding up. The real problem is... there are several unexploded Heaven-Shaking Thunders still lying on the lakebed..."
"That shouldn't be much of a problem..." Cui Jiuyang cut in. "If they didn't explode then, why would they explode now? After soaking in water, they'd be duds. They won't go off."
"Please don't be hasty either, Mr. Cui," the land god said. "This humble old man hasn't finished yet."
"You saw those people fishing, didn't you? Some of them hooked those Heaven-Shaking Thunders and pulled them up... They thought they'd found something valuable, but when they opened them, they discovered they were wrapped so tightly that no water had gotten inside at all!"
Cui Jiuyang was utterly fed up with this land god and his dramatic pauses. He kept telling half the story and holding back the rest. Who could stand that?
"As long as nobody lights them, how could they explode?" he said. "If they're down there, just leave them down there."
The land god shook his head like a rattle drum. "No, no! Among the people who battled the Giant Softshell Turtle that night, there was a man who could command insects... He left some insect eggs in the nearby water. This humble old man saw it happen. The Flame-Breathing Beetles that hatch from those eggs can cling to the bombs and ignite them-even underwater!"
Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady paled in alarm. This old land god had saved the most important part for last. That was a sickness! He needed treatment!
Cui Jiuyang snapped anxiously, "Instead of wasting all this time talking to us, you could've fished out the explosives yourself or crushed the eggs!"
Before you continue