Fire

"What a bizarre night!"

There had been no resentful woman in white, nor even another figure in Zhang Xuezhou's bedroom.

Throughout the entire night, only Zhang Xuezhou had walked back and forth in the room.

"But I distinctly heard a woman scream when I got up!"

The only piece of evidence at the scene now was a length of white silk.

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the tightly tied silk and listened to Rong Tianding add fuel and spice to his account, mentioning that Zhang Xuezhou might well have wanted to try hanging himself. A chill crept into his heart.

"Cousin, let me tell you, I sleep as still as can be. I don't move around at all. You could bang gongs and drums beside me and still not wake me!"

When Zhang Xuezhou was little, Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong had suspected several times that he had died during the night. They had only let him live to see the next day because they could not bear to throw him away.

Having to wake up and return to reality at a set time, Zhang Xuezhou did not know how to explain it, much less how to make anyone believe him.

He could only say that he slept exceptionally soundly and could not possibly have done anything out of the ordinary.

"Let's go question Daoist Mu. He promised to send a ghost to our Rong Household, but we didn't see one. Instead, he came here and used some crooked trick from the jianghu," Rong Li said angrily. "He must have learned those tricks from people who roam the jianghu and burned some stupefying incense in our Rong Household!"

"What kind of stupefying incense could do that?" Jia Zhiyuan asked in a low voice, his face deathly pale.

"How should I know what kind?" Rong Li said impatiently. "Anyway, there are all sorts of stupefying incense in the jianghu. They could give you a quick whiff, and before you knew it, you might follow them away and end up sold to a brothel!"

"That outrageous?" Jia Zhiyuan asked in astonishment.

"If we could get some stupefying incense, wouldn't our household be able to have whatever we wanted..."

"If you dare learn those crooked jianghu tricks, I'll break your legs today!"

The little idea had barely risen in Rong Tianding's mind before it was knocked back down.

For the Rong Household, it had not been an easy night.

Zhang Xuezhou had paced back and forth in his room all night, while they had spent most of the night outside. The ordeal had worn them all out.

This did not match their agreement with Daoist Mu.

The Rong Household wanted to see a ghost, not breathe some stupefying incense that robbed them of their senses and strength.

Rong Li thought it over for a while and felt she had figured it out.

She did not even stop to rest, and temporarily scaled back the slaughtering business in the east market.

"Come on, let's go outside the city and settle accounts with Daoist Mu!"

She tucked her pig-slaughtering knife into her belt and strode out with the gait of a tiger.

"Auntie and Mother really were carved from the same mold. Come to think of it, Mom doesn't seem to have that kind of temperament!"

Rong Li and Lady Yourong did things like wind and fire, acting as soon as they decided on something and rarely beating around the bush.

Song Fengying, on the other hand, was busy in her livestream room tricking middle-aged men into sending her tips.

Zhang Xuezhou pondered it for several seconds, but still could not make sense of the difference.

Could it be that I'm dissatisfied with Mom, so in my dream I made my parents' personalities complement each other in a different way...

He muttered a few words in his heart, then put the matter aside and hurried after Rong Li.

"Li Erlang, Wang Jiadi, Mao Renfeng, Zhu Dan, grab your weapons! We're getting ready for a fight!"

Rong Li was not entirely reckless; she knew to bring people along for a fight.

Jia Zhiyuan was no one to count on, and there was no need to mention Rong Tianding, who spent his time painting. Zhang Xuezhou had plenty of strength, but he still could not slaughter a pig deftly, so it was hard to say he would be fierce in a fight.

At Rong Li's shout, Li Erlang and the others hurriedly tied up the pigs, then picked up clubs.

Running a pork stall brought occasional trouble, and accidents could happen when buying or driving pigs as well. They were used to fighting and had even become a gang few people in the east market dared provoke.

Listening to Rong Tianding mutter about the Rong Household's glorious exploits, Zhang Xuezhou somehow thought of the gang of hoodlums Zhang Manqian had beaten into submission.

"What you see by day, you think of by night. That must be how it is!"

Having forced the connection, Zhang Xuezhou felt that everything related to his dream made sense.

The difference from reality was that he was a good citizen in real life, while here he had fallen in with a gang of hoodlums.

The Universal Cloud Daoist Temple was three li outside the city, not very far from the east market.

After striding briskly for about half a shichen, the group could already see the Daoist temple with its black tiles and white walls.

"What's going on? The Universal Cloud Daoist Temple's on fire!"

When they reached the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple, thick smoke was billowing through it, and several worshippers were helping put out the fire.

"Where's Daoist Mu?"

Rong Li called over a worshipper and asked politely.

"Daoist Mu was overcome by the smoke and fire. We dragged him over there, but he still hasn't woken up!"

"What?"

The Rong Household had been in an uproar all night, but the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple outside the city had fared even worse.

Rong Li watched several worshippers beating at the flames with branches and felt that most of the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple would burn, perhaps until only a few walls remained, before the fire stopped.

Seeing Daoist Mu reduced to such a state, Rong Li's resolve to settle scores faltered, and she felt she could no longer make trouble for him.

She walked several dozen steps before she saw Daoist Mu lying in a patch of green grass.

Daoist Mu's gray robe had been burned black, and most of his hair and beard had been singed away. His mouth and eyes were twisted askew, and he kept convulsing and foaming at the mouth. He had none of the bearing of an accomplished master he had shown before.

"What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and save him!"

They could not put out the fire at the Universal Cloud Daoist Temple, but they could help Daoist Mu and keep him from dying here.

Rong Li called out, then slid her pig-slaughtering knife back into the leather sheath at her waist and helped Daoist Mu up onto her knee.

"The Daoist must have inhaled smoke in the fire. That kind of smoke is terribly harmful. I've heard that many people caught in fires weren't burned to death but choked to death on smoke instead!" Li Erlang said thoughtfully.

"I'll pat the Daoist on the back!" Mao Renfeng said.

"I'll go find some water to splash on the Daoist's face!" Zhu Dan said as well.

Everyone pitched in at once, and Jia Zhiyuan also followed a physician's hand movements to massage Daoist Mu and get his blood flowing.

"How long has he been unconscious?"

After they had been busy for quite a while, Daoist Mu was still foaming at the mouth. Jia Zhiyuan had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

He had seen fires and people fighting them, and he had also seen people choked by smoke, but none had been like Daoist Mu, their mouths and eyes twisted as they kept convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

And ordinary people who had been choked by smoke and fire did not seem able to survive as long as Daoist Mu had.

More than ten minutes later, Jia Zhiyuan finally began questioning the worshippers.

"The Daoist has been unconscious for more than half a shichen," one worshipper said. "When we got here, we saw him lying on the ground, convulsing."

"That long?"

Jia Zhiyuan was startled and looked at the others.

"Did you see clearly what the Daoist was doing at the time?" Rong Li asked the worshippers in a grave voice.

"When we went in, we saw several big red tables, several broken incense burners, and all sorts of red and white cloth tangled together. The Daoist was lying in front of the big red tables. He was probably performing some kind of ritual and accidentally let the fire in the burners catch the strips of cloth!"

"There were three big red tables and three incense burners. I also saw three little wooden figures on the tables!"

"There was another little wooden figure clutched in the Daoist's hand... now there's only a head left!"

The worshippers all talked at once, describing what they had seen when they first entered the temple and piecing together roughly what had happened.

Rong Li pried Daoist Mu's right hand open with force, revealing a little wooden head in his palm.

"This workmanship is terrible!"

Rong Tianding looked at the wooden head, then at its features, and felt that its face looked somewhat familiar.

His gaze shifted several times before finally settling on Zhang Xuezhou.

"Cousin, take a look. Doesn't this wooden head look like you?"