Ni Qinglan disappeared after the winter examinations.
The letter was sent by a candidate from Yanzhou who was friends with Ni Qinglan. In the letter, he revealed that Ni Qinglan had left the inn on the night after the winter examinations. The friend thought he was melancholy because he hadn’t performed well in the exams, so following the home address Ni Qinglan had mentioned in the past, he wrote to comfort him attentively, arranging to meet again in Yun Jing next year.
Judging from this Yanzhou candidate’s tone, Ni Qinglan had indeed failed the winter examinations. But if the friend’s letter had arrived, why hadn’t Ni Qinglan returned home?
At first, Cen Zishu could still comfort herself—perhaps her son was delayed on the road, maybe he would return in a few days. But watching one or two months pass, Ni Qinglan not only hadn’t returned, he hadn’t sent a single word back home.
Cen Zishu’s health had never been good. Recently she had been confined to her sickbed, eating little and sleeping even less. She had lost much more weight than before.
She wouldn’t let Ni Su take her pulse, nor would she let Ni Su inquire about her illness. Even the old physician who regularly came to examine Cen Zishu kept his mouth tight. Ni Su could only secretly take Xing Zhu to search through the medicinal dregs. During this search, someone caught them.
“Get up. I won’t punish you.”
Cen Zishu leaned against the soft pillow, scrutinizing the young woman kneeling before her bedside. “But don’t think you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s just that recently you’ve been blocking Ni Zong and his whole household for me, not letting them come in to pollute my eyes and ears. This can offset your punishment.”
“Mother…”
Ni Su raised her head. Cen Zishu had grown so thin that even her eye sockets had sunken somewhat. Looking at her, Ni Su’s heart felt increasingly uncomfortable.
“I asked the high monk at Great Bell Temple to consecrate a peace talisman. I’ve been too ill lately and forgot. Go fetch it for me.”
Cen Zishu’s weak and feeble voice carried an undertone of unyielding authority.
At this juncture, how could Ni Su be willing to go to any Great Bell Temple? But since Cen Zishu had spoken, she had no room to refuse. She could only leave the room, call the old steward to arrange household matters, especially to guard against Ni Zong bringing people over to cause trouble again.
Great Bell Temple was considered a famous temple from the previous dynasty. The large bronze bell in the temple was engraved with poetry and prose from many famous scholars of the previous dynasty. It stood on a clear and secluded mountain, quietly embracing mountain flowers and grasses, timeless.
Because of this, Great Bell Temple was often visited by literati and refined scholars who left many excellent masterpieces in the temple, making the mountain temple’s incense offerings flourish continuously.
Ni Su had been unsettled recently. Sitting in the carriage all along the way, her mind was full of her brother’s disappearance and mother’s illness. The carriage suddenly shook violently. The horse outside neighed. Without thinking further, Xing Zhu called out “Miss” while instinctively shielding Ni Su in her arms.
Only hearing a “thud,” Ni Su looked up to see Xing Zhu’s forehead strike the carriage wall. A bruised red mark appeared, quickly swelling.
“Xing Zhu, are you all right?”
The carriage stopped moving. Ni Su grasped Xing Zhu’s shoulders.
Xing Zhu was both in pain and dizzy. When she shook her head, she grew even more disoriented. “I’m fine, Miss…”
Rough hands lifted the curtain. A ray of sunlight fell across Ni Su’s profile. The old carriage driver, covered in mud, said to her: “Miss, our wheel is broken. It rained yesterday, and now it’s stuck in wet mud. I’m afraid we can’t go forward. But don’t worry, Miss. In an hour or so, this old man can fix it.”
“All right.” Ni Su nodded. This wasn’t her first time coming to Great Bell Temple. Seeing the stone steps and mountain path ahead, she turned to Xing Zhu and said: “You’re dizzy now and uncomfortable. I’ll go up by myself. You rest in the carriage for a bit.”
“This servant will accompany Miss.”
Xing Zhu’s fingers touched the red swollen bump on her forehead and she hissed.
“When we return to the residence, I’ll give you medicine to apply.”
Ni Su patted her shoulder lightly, lifting her skirt with one hand and stepping down onto the mounting stool the old carriage driver had set out. Fortunately, the wet mud was only in the puddle where the carriage’s right wheel had sunk. This mountain path had been dried sufficiently by the sun—when she stepped down, it wasn’t too muddy.
Great Bell Temple was halfway up the mountain. Ni Su climbed the stone steps, her back already covered in a thin layer of sweat. Knocking on the temple door, after exchanging a few words with a young novice monk, Ni Su was invited into the temple to fetch the peace talisman.
After worshipping the Bodhisattva in the great hall and drinking a bowl of clear tea, the temple bell rang out, vast and prolonged. The monks in the mountain temple had reached the hour for their lessons. As they busied themselves, Ni Su didn’t stay long.
Leaving the temple gate, at the bottom of the hundred stone steps was a cypress forest. The cypress forest was dense, branches thick and leaves heavy, blocking the sunlight. Within it, a cluster of firelight caught the eye.
She remembered that when she arrived, the gold-lacquered lotus pagoda in the forest had no oil lamp lit. Within the high walls, the monks’ chanting voices were long, while in the cypress forest, the flame light scorched people’s eyes.
From a distance, Ni Su saw an old monk emerge from behind the lotus pagoda, holding a large pitch-black wooden box. After a few stumbling steps, he slipped in the wet mud and fell.
He fell hard and couldn’t get up immediately. Ni Su hurriedly lifted her skirt to help him up. “Master?”
It was actually the old monk who had given Ni Su the peace talisman in the temple just now. His beard was snow-white and somehow all curled up, looking rather comical. Grimacing without any dignified old master demeanor, seeing this young woman’s plum-green gauze skirt brushing through the filthy mud and getting dirty, he exclaimed: “Female benefactor, how terrible to dirty your garment.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Ni Su shook her head, helping him up. She saw that the box he had been holding had opened its clasp from the fall, with some animal fur edges emerging from the gap, moving in the wind.
The old monk met her gaze while rubbing his bottom: “Oh, some days ago the rain wouldn’t stop and washed away that area behind the lotus pagoda. I was looking at how to repair it when I dug up this box in the mud. I don’t know which devotee prepared it to burn as winter clothing for a deceased person.”
This cypress forest at Great Bell Temple was originally left for common people to burn winter clothing and funeral money for deceased persons during festivals.
Before Ni Su could respond, the old monk heard the faint chanting from the mountain temple above. His face showed difficulty. “The temple has already begun its lessons.”
He turned back toward Ni Su, pressing his palms together: “Female benefactor, this old monk looked at the memorial text in the box. The deceased soul was a pitiful person who died young. This winter clothing is fifteen years late. This old monk intended to burn it on their behalf, but today the temple’s lessons will likely continue until after dusk. Would the female benefactor be willing to burn it on behalf of this old monk?”
The old monk’s words were earnest.
“I…”
Ni Su had just begun to speak when the old monk stuffed something from his hand into hers, then limped toward the stone steps outside the forest while covering his bottom: “Female benefactor, this old monk must hurry to the temple lessons. This matter is entrusted to you!”
He was too different from monks Ni Su had seen before. White-bearded and aged, yet not steady, not weathered, and even less solemn.
Ni Su looked down at the beast-head wooden carved bead in her hand. It was fierce and detailed, but she couldn’t tell what ferocious beast it was. Her heart felt inexplicably strange.
“This old monk’s beast bead is much more useful than those two peace talismans you’re wearing.”
The old monk’s voice fell. Ni Su raised her head to look back. In the cypress forest, the light and shadow were gray-blue and dim. At the end, branches and leaves trembled—his figure was nowhere to be seen.
As the old monk said, the wooden box contained only a cloak with an animal fur collar and a memorial text dampened by moisture. The ink on the memorial text had spread over most of it. Only faintly could one discern that the year and month written on it was indeed fifteen years ago.
Having accepted the old monk’s wooden carved bead, Ni Su could only borrow fire from the oil lamp in the lotus pagoda and light the thick black cloak in a copper basin placed nearby.
Flames inch by inch devoured the crane embroidery outlined with silver thread on the cloak. Under the firelight, Ni Su made out two character marks: “Zi, Ling…”
Those were embroidered characters on the cloak’s cuff.
Almost at the instant she finished speaking, behind the lotus pagoda on the colored rope tied between two cypresses—used to warn people not to approach the collapsed area—a copper bell moved, ringing softly.
Though it was May in the mortal world, this gust of wind facing her seemed to blow from some harsh winter, stabbing Ni Su’s cheeks with pain. Dust rose from the basin. She raised her hand to block it.
The eternal lamp inside the gold-lacquered lotus pagoda extinguished completely. The copper bell rang again and again.
The wind howled, growing increasingly severe. Ni Su stood up and nearly couldn’t remain steady. Her eyes found it difficult to see. Cold fog suddenly rose in the forest. The wind weakened somewhat, but the sky grew even darker blue-black. Fine sounds rang in her ears.
Drops of icy cold fell into her thin summer shirt. Ni Su’s eyes felt dry. Belatedly realizing, she lowered the arm blocking her face and looked up.
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, who would believe that in midsummer May, on a mountain temple afternoon, the sky turned black as ink, snow falling like threads?
Snow particles fell on Ni Su’s jet-black hair. Her face was frozen pale, her nose tip slightly red. She stood dazed in disbelief in this snow before her eyes.
The cold from deep in her bones climbed up her spine. Ni Su instinctively wanted to leave here quickly, but thick fog surrounded her, enveloping the blue-black cypress forest. Even the chanting from the mountain temple could no longer be heard.
The sky darkened completely in an instant. In her panic, Ni Su bumped into a cypress tree. Her nose acquired a scrape. Without light she couldn’t move an inch. Calling loudly for the temple monks, she heard no response for a long time.
Unease filled her heart. She struggled to grope forward.
Mountain wind, cold snow, thick fog wove together.
The rustling sound of footsteps on fine grass drew near.
Behind her, a warm yellow flame spread to the edge of her skirt. Ni Su lowered her eyes.
The snow grew heavier, like goose feathers swirling.
Ni Su stared at the unmoving firelight on the ground and turned around.
The fog dissipated considerably. Snowflakes adorned the cypress branches.
The warm light spreading outward converged at a solitary lamp not far away. A tall figure stood beneath that patch of branch shadows. Almost at the instant Ni Su turned around, he moved again.
Her eyes wide, she watched him approach. Between heaven and earth, he held the only light source in his hand. That warm light illuminated the black cloak on his body.
The pitch-black animal fur collar, the garment’s hem glimmering with fierce silver-light embroidered patterns.
He possessed a pale and gaunt face, hair dark and lustrous, lashes thick and long. Coming barefoot, wind didn’t move his clothes, snow didn’t fall on his shoulders.
He drew near, bringing cold penetrating snow intent.
Under the lantern’s flame light, he stopped and seriously scrutinized Ni Su’s face, frozen pale.
Ni Su’s pupils constricted slightly. Snow particles struck her cheeks. The cold wind prompted a strong ringing in her ears. She faintly discerned his clear, calm voice:
“Who are you?”