An Unexpected Visitor

Wang Qilin looked at Xie Hama.

Xie Hama pondered for a moment. "Why do you ask about the painting's background, sir?"

Wang Qilin said, "I once heard a story about a scholar who acquired a painting of a woman of unsurpassed beauty. Every night, the woman would come out and share his bed."

"Later, the scholar disappeared. His family couldn't find him anywhere. By chance, someone noticed the painting hanging in his home and discovered that it depicted not only a woman, but a whole group of men. They were merely part of the background, so they were hard to spot."

"And the missing scholar's portrait was among those men!"

"As lifelike as could be!"

The ruffians trembled.

Xie Hama said, "There's a sect in the martial world called the Blossoming Flower Pavilion. Supposedly, their wondrous brushes can paint all living things. They can paint people into pictures, and demons, ghosts, and monsters too. I imagine the painting you mentioned was their work, sir."

Wang Qilin said, "Let's go take a look at Foolhardy's home."

Foolhardy was a nickname. No one knew his real name, only that his surname was Sha. He had been born bold and was a bit of a simpleton, which had earned him the nickname Foolhardy.

A young man named Hou Jun had grown up with Foolhardy. He said, "That Foolhardy dared to do anything, even as a kid. One summer night when we were little, we were playing hide-and-seek, and he brought a shovel along. Guess what he used it for?"

"His Lordship is here to investigate a case, not solve riddles. Spit it out!" Xu Da glared at him.

"Yes, yes! The kid dug open half a grave with that shovel and hid inside!"

Someone else nodded. "He did that sort of thing later too. Once, he hid in a grave to dodge his creditors, and even took the dead person's spirit tablet out of it."

Wang Qilin said, "Someone like that would be well suited to working for our Heaven-Listening Bureau."

Xie Hama said, "One is enough. Haven't we already got one right there?"

Xu Da was looking all around.

Foolhardy lived in an old house in the countryside. It was dilapidated, with half a side wing collapsed and walls leaning every which way, like a ruin.

It was evening, and the sun was setting.

The afterglow cast a gloomy desolation over the crumbling old house.

After entering, Xie Hama sniffed. "Something's wrong. There's a strange stench in the courtyard!"

"The stench of a corpse?" Wang Qilin asked.

Hou Jun gave an awkward smile. "Foolhardy's privy collapsed. He usually relieves himself in the courtyard."

Xie Hama, who had also thought he had smelled a corpse and found a clue, felt the corner of his mouth twitch. He wanted to throw up.

Xu Da patted his back with great concern. "Why are you retching so badly? Pregnant? Whose is it? A boy or a girl? Wait, you added both chili and vinegar to the braised lamb earlier. You're having one of each!"

He had heard Xie Hama's earlier dig at him.

This master doesn't hold grudges. I settle them on the spot.

The room was a complete mess. Tattered clothes and worn-out shoes lay everywhere, unwashed bowls and chopsticks were piled in a basin, and several filthy, ragged quilts were tangled together on the bed. Wang Qilin had grown up poor too, but he had never seen a household in such a wretched state.

Yet filthy and chaotic as it was, the place did feel lived in.

He lifted the pot lid. There was cold porridge inside. Xu Da directed his attention to the windowsill, where half a roast chicken sat, messily gnawed.

Hou Jun picked up a blue cloth garment draped over the foot of the bed and showed it to him. "Lord Wang, these are the clothes Foolhardy usually wears. Look, his clothes are here, and he left his roast chicken at home too. That means he hasn't gone far, right? If he were going on a long journey, he'd have packed a few things, wouldn't he?"

Xu Da smacked the back of his head. "You've fucking said everything there is to say. What's Lord Wang supposed to say?"

Hou Jun said aggrievedly, "I was too anxious."

"That alone isn't enough to determine whether he went away." Wang Qilin surveyed the surroundings. "Does Foolhardy have any money or grain at home?"

"A little grain, all in the jars. No money. He dreams of being rich, but he spends all day loafing around. Where would he get any money?" The ruffians laughed.

Wang Qilin was dumbfounded. You lot have the nerve to laugh at your own companion for loafing around?

Still, judging by what they had found so far, Foolhardy really didn't seem to have left on a long journey. No wonder the hoodlums had rushed to find Xu Da when they discovered that both he and the painting were gone.

Xu Da put the Ice Plant Bead in his mouth and shook his head. There was no yin energy in the room.

Xie Hama said gravely, "There's something strange about this house. It makes me feel very uncomfortable, but I can't yet say exactly what's wrong."

"In any case, no one uninvolved should come in here casually again!"

Wind leaked through the house, sending chilly gusts whistling through it.

The ruffians scrambled to get out.

Back at the station, Wang Qilin asked, "You said there was something strange about his house. What sort of strangeness? Let's think it over together."

Xie Hama said, "I was only fooling those ruffians. We can't let them think we're incompetent."

Wang Qilin: ┓(´∀`)┏

It was a strange affair. Over the next three or four days, he took Xu Da and Xie Hama along and mobilized the local ruffians to search for Foolhardy, but they found no news of him at all.

Someone did come looking for him, however.

At the time, Wang Qilin was in his room feeding grass to the grass carp. Then he saw his nephew race in on his short little legs, his dark face even darker with excitement as he stammered, "S-s-someone..."

"What about someone?"

Heidou gestured at him, spreading his arms as wide as he could.

"Someone's flying in the sky?"

Heidou shook his head, picked up a broom, straddled it, and began to run.

"Someone's riding a broom through the sky?"

Xu Da said, "Someone's riding a big horse!"

Heidou nodded vigorously.

The visitor on horseback was someone Wang Qilin hadn't expected, yet his arrival made sense.

Huang Huaji.

The warhorse beneath him was tall and powerfully built, with a glossy black coat and four hooves as broad as bowl rims. Its mane streamed as it ran, its momentum fearsome. One glance was enough to tell it was a fine steed capable of traveling a thousand li.

Heidou clung to the door and peeked out at it with one eye, then slowly drew his head back. Closing his eyes, he ran around the courtyard with the broom between his legs.

He imagined himself riding across the battlefield in proud triumph.

The wind blowing into my face is quite boisterous.

After a few steps, he collided with a mountain. He opened his eyes to look.

It was his own mother.

Our eyes met. This was an enemy I couldn't beat.

Heidou dropped the broom and bolted, running faster than a horse. "Uncle, may you live as long as heaven!"

"Elder Sister, bring some tea."

The old general stopped him. "There's no need for tea, Lord Wang. I've come to ask a favor."

Wang Qilin said, "You're too formal, General. Please, say whatever you need to."

The old general sighed. "Yun'er slept from last night until just a little while ago. When she woke, she said she had reached the second floor, and tomorrow night she would reach the ground."

Wang Qilin asked, "What will happen when she reaches the ground?"

The old general smiled bitterly. "I don't know, but I can't let her reach the ground. I can't let her take that risk."

"So?"

"So I want you to take a look inside that pagoda. If a ghost is still haunting Yun'er, it should be hiding inside."

Wang Qilin asked in delighted surprise, "Then do you know where that pagoda is? I suspected something was wrong with it too, but after returning, I searched the records and found no mention of a ten-story pagoda. I asked some people as well, but couldn't find out where it was."

Huang Huaji slumped, several times seeming about to speak, only to stop.

Seeing this, Xie Hama flicked his Taoist robe. "Lord Wang, of course you found no record of that pagoda, nor could you learn its location. Under ordinary circumstances, no one can see a pagoda built upside down into the earth!"

Huang Huaji suddenly glared at him and demanded sharply, "What do you know?"

Xie Hama said slowly, "Don't be afraid, General Huang. I don't know the secret you're keeping, but I do know what the Ten-Story Limitless Pagoda is."

"As the saying goes, numbers are odd and even, yin and yang. Heaven's numbers are odd, and belong to yang; earth's numbers are even, and belong to yin. Heaven is above, so anything extending toward heaven must use odd numbers. That is why Buddhist pagodas all have odd numbers of stories: three, five, seven, or nine."

"Following that principle, how would an even-numbered, ten-story pagoda be built?"

"It would be built down into the earth!"

At this, a look of horror appeared on Huang Huaji's face.

"Boundless Heavenly Worthy." Xie Hama formed a Taoist seal with his hand and intoned the invocation, wearing a deep, inscrutable smile.

You thought you'd seen the second layer and assumed I was on the first.

In fact, I was on the fifth!