Lamps Around the Earthen Pit, a Sword Hidden in Plain Sight

Autumn rain in Yi Province either did not fall at all, or fell for days on end.

This morning's rain, however, was rather unusual.

The sun had already risen in the east, a brilliant white pearl lighting up the green mountains and the little town, yet rain continued to fall.

Shopkeeper Ma had settled the wages of the restaurant's cooks and workers and given them extended leave.

This morning, though, Zhong Jinqiu was making breakfast.

At the long stove in the kitchen, Zhong Jinqiu had finished scaling a large fish. He pressed it lightly with his fingers, and each press made a small bone spring out.

He pinched the tips between two fingernails and pulled them free along the grain of the flesh.

Chu Tianshu stood leaning against the doorway, arms folded, a distinctly distrustful look in his eyes.

Uncle Zhong's skills were trustworthy, and he would surely remove every fish bone, but being good at martial arts did not mean being a good cook.

The chicken whose bones Chu Tianshu had smashed the night before had not tasted very good when they ate it afterward.

Shopkeeper Ma said, "What, you don't trust his cooking? Back then, I invited him to be my chef. It's just that he's stingy and has no patience when cooking for others. Only when he's cooking for himself will he take proper care."

Chu Tianshu said, "But these past few days, he'd rather drink with dried radish than set foot in the kitchen."

"Isn't dried radish tasty?"

Zhong Jinqiu pulled out a larger fish bone and tossed it straight into his mouth. "Once you've mastered Eating Makes an Immortal, you'll understand. If you can still find something that suits your taste then, you could eat it for a lifetime and never tire of it."

As he spoke, Zhong Jinqiu finished preparing the fish and put it in a pan to fry. A fire was also lit beneath the iron wok beside it.

Chu Tianshu and Shopkeeper Ma went over to help, stir-frying in several pans at once.

In only a moment, five side dishes were plated. The fried fish was simmered in sauce, then skewered on a bamboo stick. They lifted a pan away, exposing the flames beneath.

The whole fish was set directly over the fire to reduce the sauce, and within a few breaths, it too was placed on a plate.

The three each filled a bowl with rice and, rather than going to the table, stood beside the stove.

Chu Tianshu put a chopstickful of fish in his mouth, and his expression changed at once.

"Uncle Zhong, isn't this a little short on food? It's not even half what I usually eat for breakfast!"

Zhong Jinqiu shovelled rice into his mouth. "Don't eat too much before killing."

Chu Tianshu laughed. "I'm just sweeping away some disgusting things. Once I'm done, I'll have even more of an appetite. I won't feel sick."

"I mean..."

Without looking up, Zhong Jinqiu picked up a bite of food.

"Eat too much and it puts a burden on your internal organs. The force behind your blows won't be as nimble, and the killing won't flow as smoothly."

Chu Tianshu said, "Oh," and obediently ate his meal.

There really was not much food, and with three people eating, it disappeared all the faster.

The two old men put down their bowls first, and Chu Tianshu cleared the plates.

Shopkeeper Ma sipped some hot tea and closed his eyes to sense his sparrows. After a short while, he opened them and said, "They're far enough from town now."

Chu Tianshu ate the last chopstickful of garlic greens and gulped down two mouthfuls of tea. "Heh, I wouldn't count on them not turning back. Let's get to work while we can."

Shopkeeper Ma was the first to leave.

Carrying a woven bamboo chest and wearing a bamboo hat and straw rain cape, he walked alone. Rather than heading for the mansion, he went south through town.

He passed through an orchard and reached a hillside, where seven or eight people were already waiting, each holding an umbrella in one hand and a kerosene lamp in the other.

Shopkeeper Ma swept a glance over them. Not one was under fifty, and the man at their head was Meng Lianfa.

"Why did you come? Where's Meng Shuangjiang?"

Meng Lianfa had married into his wife's family. His father-in-law's family had several other branches of relatives, whose children also worked at Meng Lianfa's factory.

But when that female sorcerer entered the Meng household all those years ago, Meng Lianfa's own children were not the only ones she killed.

The other branches had hated Meng Lianfa bitterly ever since and rarely had dealings with him. Yet unexpectedly, the elders from those families had all come today.

"Xiaobao is the only surviving seedling of all our families now, so we all came."

Meng Lianfa looked somewhat haggard, but his back was ramrod straight. "As for Shuangjiang, I gave him and his wife all the cash we had at home and told them to go into hiding."

"In these troubled times, people kill people, and warlords kill warlords too. If we fail today, it will depend on whether he can make money breed money, and whether a day will come when he can use his own fortune to buy our enemies' heads!"

Shopkeeper Ma was taken aback for a moment, then laughed. "That's just the sort of thing you'd say, Meng Lianfa."

Meng Lianfa closed his eyes briefly. "I received a great kindness from Master Ma back then, and now the three of you are risking yourselves again. I truly don't know how to repay you..."

"Since we came across it, we couldn't just watch a child become a sacrifice, much less watch a whole crowd of children be slaughtered. You're not the one in the wrong here, and neither are we... Hey, don't you go kowtowing. Don't give me a bad omen at a time like this."

Shopkeeper Ma pointed at the group. "Don't pull any stunts. Just behave yourselves and do as I say!"

He walked behind them, where the soil had already been dug open.

The place where the coffin had been buried a few days ago had been filled in carelessly, with broken wood and roots thrown inside and covered with a layer of loose earth.

Now it had been dug out with ease, revealing the coffin pit as it had been.

Shopkeeper Ma first tossed his straw rain cape into it.

Several old men immediately gathered around, overlapping the edges of their large umbrellas at different heights to cover the entire pit.

Shopkeeper Ma opened his chest and took out a straw mat, shaking it open.

Yellow banner cloth was affixed to the inside of the mat, bearing a great cinnabar incantation as tall as a person. He spread it over the rain cape at the bottom of the pit.

Shopkeeper Ma jumped into the pit and directed the old men to set the kerosene lamps around its edge. Then he yawned and lay down.

"Everyone stay still. Just wait like this."

Shopkeeper Ma stuck a yellow talisman to his forehead, crossed his hands over his lower abdomen with his fingers forming a seal, and began murmuring an incantation under his breath.

The umbrella holders all had tense expressions as they stood motionless around the pit.

Wind blew through the mountains, and occasional threads of rain drifted through the gaps between them, falling on Shopkeeper Ma's face.

Southwest of town, in the mansion's rear hall.

The old eunuch felt a slight chill on his face and reached up to touch it. It was probably damp air blowing in from outside the hall.

At a glance from him, a servant went over and closed the two carved wooden doors of the rear hall.

Sunlight could still shine through the paper windows, but the room somehow felt dimmer. Drowsiness welled up in the old eunuch, and he could not help yawning.

He had slept beside the jade coffin the night before to foster a bond with it. It seemed he had not slept very comfortably.

"Tell Siniang not to warm up her voice this morning. Let me have some peace and quiet..."

A servant outside answered, but the old eunuch did not hear. With one arm resting on the table and his head propped on his hand, he fell into a deep sleep.

At that moment, Chu Tianshu and Zhong Jinqiu were walking down the road, already able to see the mansion with its vermilion gates shut tight.

Zhong Jinqiu wore a bamboo hat and carried a bamboo pole over his shoulder.

Chu Tianshu held an umbrella in his left hand and wore a sword at his waist.

Today he had wrapped a thin chain around his waist, with a flat copper ring attached.

The peachwood sword was narrow at the tip and thick toward the top. When passed through the copper ring, it caught before reaching the guard, though not tightly.

If he had to face an invisible evil spirit, he would need the wooden sword. With a reach of his hand, he could draw the entire peachwood sword straight out of the copper ring.

If he needed the iron sword, a slight vibration of force the moment he gripped the hilt would draw it from its sheath, leaving the peachwood shell hanging from the copper ring.

"Which way should we sneak in?"

As he walked, Chu Tianshu said softly, "Chu Tianshu is in the southeast. Southeast counts as my lucky direction. Which way do you like, Uncle Zhong?"

Zhong Jinqiu said, "I don't mind. Plenty of people like to guard against directions where outsiders might sneak in, so perhaps it makes no difference which way we go in."

Chu Tianshu looked thoughtful. "I see."

He was walking a little ahead, so he simply went straight on. When he reached the gate, he climbed the stone steps and raised a hand to knock with the copper ring.

"Who is it?"

Footsteps came from inside the courtyard, along with a few words of complaint. "They should at least have left two soldiers to guard the gate. Now we have to open it ourselves..."

The gate opened, revealing a martial actor in the prime of life, wearing a soft gauze cap and close-fitting jacket and trousers, with his back to the spirit wall.

Whoosh!!

An arm shot out like a venomous snake and closed around the martial actor's throat, its grip snapping his throat bone.

"I'm here to see Brother Zhou."

Chu Tianshu's voice was smiling, warm and cheerful as he squeezed through the gate.

The martial actor's eyes widened. With a flick of his arm, Chu Tianshu sent him forward to lean gently against the spirit wall.

He drew the peachwood sword out whole and slipped it into the umbrella. He closed the canopy and held it in a reverse grip in his left hand, concealed by his sleeve.

"Brother Zhou invited me on an outing a few days ago. Since rain and sunshine have come out together today, making for a uniquely fine view, I thought I'd invite him out for a walk too."

Chu Tianshu kept talking as he walked around the spirit wall and into the front courtyard.

The people in the front hall all turned to look at him, displeasure on their faces.

Troupe Leader Chen was accustomed to wearing a smile. He hurried out into the light rain to meet him and cupped his hands.

"You've come at an unfortunate time, sir. Adjutant Zhou returned to the city this morning..."

In the corridor along one side of the courtyard, Liu Siniang frowned as she saw the troupe leader and the visitor about to meet beside the large lotus jar.

She loved singing and loved listening too. Since she could not warm up her voice this morning, she was listening to the rain beneath the covered corridor.

The martial actor who had opened the gate was usually a noisy fellow, yet after saying a couple of sentences, he had made no further sound.

His voice had cut off a little... too cleanly.

She suddenly realized something. "Look out!"

Clang!!

A flash of cold light burst from Chu Tianshu's umbrella.