Quail Fair

Zhou Yang watched the two black shadows on the ground beside him.

As if sensing his gaze, the two shadows shook and twisted in an instant. The hazy forms swayed into human outlines, their features gradually emerging beneath the black mist.

One shadow was tall and broad, with regular features. It was Qian Heng, who had just died;

The other was tall and thin, his face painted with rouge and powder. He was unmistakably Li Yichun, who had died earlier!

Seeing what the two shadows looked like, Zhou Yang was even more certain that, even with his mind attached to his Manifestation Body, he could collect the last words and lingering shadows of those who had recently died around it!

For now, Gao Hongbo's was the only lingering shadow Zhou Yang had failed to collect.

From this, he surmised that, while using his Manifestation Body, he could only collect the last words and lingering shadows of those who had recently died nearby.

He could not collect those of people who had been dead for some time, as he could when there in his true body.

Even so, it was an unexpected gain for Zhou Yang.

He had no way to take the two lingering shadows into the Knife Credit Ledger for now, so he could only wait for another opportunity. He just didn't know whether the lingering shadows that had attached themselves to him would also return to his true body when his mind returned to it.

After giving the two lingering shadows a brief look, Zhou Yang turned his attention back to the scene.

Chang Dafeng pulled over the hem of Qian Heng's clothes and wiped the blood from his dagger. After returning the blade to his boot, he drew the pipe tucked into his waistband and lit a bowl of tobacco. He brought the mouthpiece to his lips but did not hurry to smoke. Instead, he narrowed his eyes at Ding Ling and sneered:

"You thought you could turn into a ghost with a passage of scripture you heard at the Quail Fair?

"If it were that easy to become a ghost, how would anyone have a chance to survive?"

He paused, then clenched the mouthpiece between his teeth and took a few puffs.

Smoke wreathed his face, and his voice grew low. "It was his own fault for harboring wicked thoughts and taking a passage of ghost scripture seriously.

"It was my fault too. I shouldn't have taken him to that Quail Fair.

"Do you know Baligou Township? Have you heard of the Quail Fair there?"

Changing the subject, Chang Dafeng asked Ding Ling about something else.

Ding Ling said nothing and merely shook her head.

"I've spent years traveling around, and I drew a map of my own.

"I estimated the distances and directions between the places on it myself, so they might not be accurate. But if you set out from my village and follow the routes drawn on the map, you can reach each of those places.

"Baligou Township is on my map, just a day and a night's walk from my village.

"Don't underestimate this map of mine-with it, you'll at least know which places you must never set foot in, and you'll be able to seek good fortune and avoid disaster!" Chang Dafeng chuckled. "I'll take you as my final disciple.

"I'll give you this map as your initiation gift!"

As soon as he said it, he reached into his clothes without hesitation, pulled out a piece of birch bark, and handed it to Ding Ling.

Ding Ling unfolded the piece of birch bark, which was about the size of two palms. On it were winding routes, carved with a knife and drawn in some unknown pigment. The routes intertwined, and a place name was written at the end of each one.

This so-called map was excessively crude; "route map" would have been a more fitting name.

It had no directional markings. Every route began at a place called Pheasant Neck Village, and the routes were woven together to form the map.

To find the places marked on it, one first had to find the place called Pheasant Neck Village.

On the map, Zhou Yang spotted the location of Baligou Township, which Chang Dafeng had mentioned.

Daliang Village lay in the lower right corner of the map, with no routes leading to it.

This suggested that Chang Dafeng had probably come to the village for the first time and had not yet fully worked out the route.

Every place marked with the word "ghost" on this map was somewhere people had died.

One would have had to brave many dangers and spend a long time traveling the jianghu to piece together and draw a map like this!

Most of the places on the map were marked with the word "ghost," or the character for "obstruction," signifying an Obstruction Circle. Places where the living gathered were scattered sparsely across the map, as though the living were completely surrounded by evil ghosts.

With evil ghosts everywhere, Ding Ling would be much safer traveling through the surrounding area once she had this map and found the place called Pheasant Neck Village.

"The troupe leader killed Qian Heng in front of me.

"And before Qian Heng died, he sang that passage from the Health Preservation Scripture...

"He's afraid I might get other ideas, and he's also afraid I won't trust him or cooperate with him. So he gave me this map to reassure me and make me trust him... Am I right, Mr. Zhou?"

Ding Ling lowered her head to look at the map while she spoke with Zhou Yang in her mind.

Zhou Yang smiled. "Clever. Now you can work out the reasons for yourself without me having to point them out."

"That's because you taught me well, sir," Ding Ling replied softly.

She paused, then suddenly said, "Once a person becomes a ghost, they no longer have human thoughts, humanity, or a mind of their own.

"I'd rather die than become a ghost.

"Please believe me, sir."

Ding Ling's thoughts were plain in her words, without the slightest attempt to disguise them.

"After someone becomes a ghost, do they no longer have an awareness of their own?" Zhou Yang asked.

"Mm." Ding Ling said, "That's what everyone says, anyway."

Chang Dafeng breathed out a cloud of smoke and spoke up. "The Quail Fair in Baligou Township is the biggest fair for a hundred li around.

"People go there to find work, trade away things they don't need, and ask about what's happening in the surrounding areas.

"Everyone who attends has to raise a male quail.

"The quail has to be a white-throated one caught in the wild. You raise it yourself, then take it to the fair to fight other people's quails.

"It doesn't matter whether it wins or loses. What matters is that you take good care of it. After that, it's your token for getting into the Quail Fair. Put two quails that have fought before together again, and the winner will strut around while the loser flies all over the place. People use the quail you bring to tell whether you're the same person who attended the fair before.

"They make the Quail Fair so complicated to keep ghosts from sneaking in.

"Most living creatures drop dead on the spot when they encounter a ghost.

"Even if some ghosts are especially cunning and dangerous, and might be able to conjure up a quail,

"when it meets its old opponent, the ghost's quail won't be able to react the way it should. Then everyone will be on guard and won't let it into the fair."

"Were you the one who brought Qian Heng into the fair?" Following Zhou Yang's wishes, Ding Ling asked Chang Dafeng aloud.

"Yes."

Chang Dafeng narrowed his eyes, his voice growing low again. "Some of the information at the fair is true, but some of it isn't.

"You can't believe everything you hear.

"I've heard more than a dozen different passages supposedly from that Health Preservation Scripture alone.

"Becoming a ghost isn't so easy. Thinking you can turn into one by reciting a few passages of some wild scripture is nothing but a fool's dream!"

"If you thought Qian Heng couldn't become a ghost either, why did you kill him?" Ding Ling pressed. "There were three of us before, and now only two remain. What are we supposed to do next?"

"Two are enough!" Chang Dafeng bared his teeth in a sinister grin. "Qian Heng harmed Shitouzi and set his heart on becoming a ghost. He'd gone down the darkest path there is.

"Once someone has harmed a companion, can you still let him lurk behind you every day, eat with him, and live with him?

"If a dog bites someone, it has to be beaten to death!

"Once it gets a taste for humans, people become its prey, not its masters. The next chance it gets, it'll go straight for someone's throat!

"It's the same principle. From the moment Qian Heng went down that wicked path, death was the only road left for him as far as I was concerned!"

What Chang Dafeng said did make sense.

But his real thoughts might not have been entirely as he said.

Ding Ling was silent for a moment before speaking again. "The main thing is that Qian Heng admitted himself that he recited that passage from the Health Preservation Scripture after killing Shitou... I'm guessing you couldn't be sure whether that passage worked either.

"Of course, it would be best if it didn't work. But if it did, killing Qian Heng now would eliminate the danger before it arose, right?"

"People say that killing yourself in red clothes can turn you into a vengeful ghost, and that someone who drowns after jumping into a well will become a ghost... So many ways of becoming a ghost have been passed down. Who can say which one actually works?" Chang Dafeng sneered repeatedly.

His words muddied the question of whether killing someone and reciting scripture could turn a person into a ghost. He fixed his gaze on Ding Ling and said, "After hearing that passage, did you also start thinking of killing me to become a ghost?

"I advise you to think it through. This so-called transformation into a ghost is actually a ghost growing out of a person. It looks just like the person who became a ghost, but they're really two different things altogether!

"You are you, and the ghost is the ghost. You die, and the ghost lives!

"Don't think you're the one becoming a ghost, or that you'll gain any abilities or benefits from it!"