Dark clouds hid the moon in the dead of night.
Lu Sui knocked on the door of the east wing in the outer courtyard and called softly:
"Uncle Wen!"
Hearing the noise, Dou Xiaowen came out with a lamp, slid back the bolt, and opened the door to look.
Lu Sui and Xiaotang stood outside.
The latter held a lantern, illuminating their figures.
"Eldest Young Master, at this hour..."
He glanced up at the sky, reckoning it was past two in the morning.
The gate between the inner and outer courtyards had been locked early. Maids, serving women, and guards were forbidden to pass through; otherwise, they would be seized as thieves.
"It's a matter of utmost urgency! I didn't know whom to turn to, so I had to disturb your rest, Uncle Wen."
Seeing Lu Sui's solemn face, which bore no hint of jest,
Dou Xiaowen opened the door wide and stepped aside to usher Lu Sui and Xiaotang in.
"You're too considerate, Eldest Young Master."
An outer robe draped over his shoulders, Dou Xiaowen walked with steady steps and lifted the thick cloth curtain over the doorway:
"If there's anything I can do to ease your worries, just say the word."
Lu Sui had Xiaotang wait outside and entered the room alone.
Before long, the oil lamp inside was turned up, and the smell of tobacco drifted out.
Dou Xiaowen puffed on his pipe, holding the straw doll in his right hand and turning it over several times.
"You found this in your bedding, Eldest Young Master?"
"Yes."
Lu Sui nodded and added:
"I asked Xiaotang. Today, only Granny Ma from Concubine's courtyard came by once, to deliver ginseng soup.
"Xiaohuan and the others brought all the other food."
Dou Xiaowen set down the straw doll and looked at Lu Sui, who sat opposite him.
Rather than pursue that line of conversation, he asked:
"Why didn't you tell the master directly?"
"There are two reasons I've disturbed you in the middle of the night, Uncle Wen."
Lu Sui feigned hesitation, as though weighing his words.
"First, Granny Ma is an old servant in Concubine's courtyard. This involves the inner household. Bringing it before Father before we've gotten to the bottom of things could easily turn it into a family scandal. That wouldn't be appropriate."
The eldest young master really had wised up after his illness.
The wrinkles at the corners of Dou Xiaowen's eyes relaxed, and a smile rose to his lips.
Sometimes, a wealthy household was no different from a miniature imperial court. Open struggles, hidden intrigues, and malicious tricks between its various residences were commonplace, leaving little peace.
But however they threw tantrums and pulled one another's hair, in the end, they kept their squabbling behind closed doors.
If word spread outside and became public, they would become a laughingstock and lose face.
That was absolutely unacceptable.
People lived for their good name; face was what they sought.
Poor households were like this, and wealthy ones were no exception.
Lu Sui continued:
"Second, making straw dolls and beating effigies have always been superstitious practices of ignorant country women. I had my doubts, so I wanted you to take a look for me, Uncle Wen, and see whether this thing really can hurt people."
Dou Xiaowen set his pipe aside and said with a smile:
"So you're testing me, Eldest Young Master."
Lu Sui chuckled without denying it, then rose and bowed with his hands clasped:
"Who in the Lu household doesn't know you've braved Shaqing Pass? You've weathered plenty of mighty winds and waves."
He laid out the teacups and poured Dou Xiaowen some tea:
"How many years' worth of salt have I eaten? Faced with something this uncanny, I'm at sixes and sevens. All I can do is come cling to your thigh."
The eldest young master's silver tongue was even better at pleasing people than the master's.
Dou Xiaowen narrowed his eyes, thoroughly enjoying this deftly measured flattery:
"Whether making straw dolls or beating effigies, in the old days, it was called 'Witchcraft and Gu Art.' Practicing it greatly damages your hidden virtue and can easily leave you without descendants.
"In the Land Beyond the Pass, only those afflicted by the five detriments and three deficiencies, those born lacking, dare learn it."
Witchcraft and Gu Art?
Lu Sui lowered his eyes. Could this be the [Art] the ancient temple's shrine needed to record?
"Whether Witchcraft and Gu Art works mainly depends on two things. First, accumulated resentment must become Baleful Intent, which is used to bewilder the mind."
Dou Xiaowen pointed at the yellow ritual paper on the straw doll's chest:
"Second, a 'medium.' Cursing someone from afar, secretly bringing illness upon them, transferring fortune and borrowing lifespan... all these methods require a medium."
"What is a medium?"
Lu Sui asked at the right moment.
"The body, hair, and skin are received from one's parents and formed from essence and blood."
Dou Xiaowen said:
"The simplest approach is to take your hair, nails, or clothes you've worn.
"For something fiercer, they need your 'Qi and blood'-such as an object you carry close to your body, or blood from your fingertip."
Lu Sui looked at the straw doll. The hemp threads wound crookedly around it were dark red, as though soaked in blood, and a lock of hair was sewn over its heart.
"That's right. This straw doll took your 'blood' and used your hair, Eldest Young Master. It can pin down your soul with nightmares, keeping you from sleeping well or eating. Within three to five days, your essence and Qi would gradually dry up, and you'd fall ill, unable to rise."
Dou Xiaowen paused before continuing:
"Fortunately, their skill falls a little short. They can't 'dot the ink' for you. If they'd dotted in the five facial features, you'd have bled from all seven orifices and died that very night."
A chill crept into Lu Sui's heart.
The Land Beyond the Pass is far too sinister!
How am I supposed to deal with methods like these, impossible to guard against?
You could be sitting at home and simply drop dead, with nowhere even to start hunting down the killer!
"No need to worry, Eldest Young Master. Witchcraft and Gu Art isn't infallible. Casting a curse comes at a tremendous price to the caster and can easily shorten their life.
"Besides, witchcraft and Gu are easily broken. Suppression will do. Anyone with a little knowledge who practices a few methods of the Suppression Art and finds a suitable warding object can fend off seven or eight out of ten attacks."
Dou Xiaowen reassured him:
"Common folk putting up door gods and peachwood charms, wealthy households using stone tablets to block Baleful Intent-these are all customs passed down from early efforts to stop Witchcraft and Gu Art from harming people at will.
"As long as there's a warding object in the house, evil entities will have trouble entering."
Lu Sui breathed a sigh of relief and could not help asking curiously:
"Uncle Wen, where's our family's warding object?"
He thought back but had no clear recollection.
"Well, you'll have to ask the master about that.
"In any case, the Lu Family's warding object ranks highly not just in this little patch of Changle County, but even in Yongning Prefecture."
Dou Xiaowen laughed and steered the conversation back.
"Since they've used witchcraft and Gu to make a straw doll and harm you with the Nightmare Art, Eldest Young Master, they're most likely an 'insider.'
"I practice external body-hardening arts, so I'm not well suited to a contest of magic with that scoundrel from afar, but..."
Dou Xiaowen grinned:
"Though I lack the ability to duel with magic, I happen to know a few ways to break it."
With that, the Lu household's head steward abruptly rose, went into the inner room, and dragged out a large wooden chest.
"Uncle Wen, why do you keep all your treasures in this chest?"
Lu Sui asked.
The blood-circulating ointment used for his massage and that book of the Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing Great Art had both come from this large wooden chest.
"This is no ordinary chest, Eldest Young Master."
Dou Xiaowen patted its rim and said proudly:
"Years ago, I borrowed silver from the master to buy golden-thread nanmu and had this chest made! You couldn't tell, could you?
"For this chest alone, I still have to work for the Lu Family for another ten years."
Lu Sui's eyes widened. This wooden chest gathering dust in the corner was actually made of golden-thread nanmu?
As the trade saying went, a block of nanmu at home was worth more than a chest of gold. That showed its value.
After all, golden-thread nanmu was reserved for the imperial family, used for the great pillars and beams of palaces and imperial tombs.
It was said to be extremely difficult to procure. An emperor of the previous dynasty had once conscripted tens of thousands of laborers to fell and transport this wood. If a thousand entered the mountains and five hundred returned, that already counted as the mountain god's blessing.
A single large log took two or three years to float downstream and then travel through the canal to the capital, consuming untold wealth.
"Golden-thread nanmu doesn't rot for a thousand years, and insects and ants won't bore into it. It represents the pinnacle of wood's nature.
"I once knew an expert in the mountains who raised a 'Golden Silkworm.' He fed it copper and iron, and it spat out lumps of gold.
"I tried every means, begging grandfathers and pleading with grandmothers, before I finally pried his mouth open and learned the method.
"You need fine golden-thread nanmu as the 'material,' pile up all sorts of good things, and nurture it for eight or ten years. Once it starts giving off a treasure glow, it can gestate a Golden Silkworm."
Dou Xiaowen's face brimmed with longing, as though a dazzling mountain of gold stood before him, beckoning.
Eating copper and iron, spitting out gold... Has Uncle Wen been taken in by a scam?
Lu Sui muttered inwardly.
In his previous life, Lu Sui had seen that same expression and tone on plenty of old men duped by the national-treasure crowd.
"Take this."
Dou Xiaowen bent over, rummaging and sorting through the chest.
After a while, he took out a small peachwood axe.
"As the old saying goes, a peachwood bow and thornwood arrows ward off calamity."
"Witchcraft, Gu, and the Nightmare Art use Qi and Blood as a medium, leaving traces that are hard to find. We can only break them with suppression first."
"Suppression means borrowing a form to stand in for something else. Eldest Young Master, this peachwood axe is your warding object. It can anchor your soul. Whatever happens next, you must not let your attention stray."