Ancient Well County was not far from Liangzhou City — no more than two hundred li in either direction. Even if the company traveled at an unhurried pace, they would not be late for General Dantai’s birthday.

Yet on the journey back, Dantai Qi’s mood was visibly off-kilter. The whole man carried an air of uncomfortable restlessness — deeply, profoundly ill at ease — as though he were afraid of something.

Li Chi asked him: “You mentioned earlier that General Dantai’s birthday is coming up soon. Looking at you squirm like that — is it because you didn’t bring back a gift and you’re worried the General will be displeased?”

Dantai Qi sighed and said: “That’s not all of it. When I left home, I boasted something tremendous. I told my father that I had long since become unrivaled…”

Li Chi laughed. “Once we’re back in Liangzhou, we can spar with you in front of General Dantai — we’ll all lose to you, and the General will believe what you said.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Dantai Qi said. “My father is a man of upright seriousness. He hates nothing more than taking shortcuts or playing tricks.”

Li Chi laughed. “I was only joking. Even if you asked me to put on a performance in front of General Dantai, I wouldn’t go along with the act. What you truly gained from this journey, what you came to understand — just sit down and talk it through with him, father to son, and he’ll be glad.”

Dantai Qi said: “Between the two of us, we’ve never had an honest conversation. He always looks down on me, I always look down on him, and we can’t exchange more than a few words before we’re quarreling, parting on bad terms.”

Li Chi said to him: “If you’re afraid to have a proper talk with him, I can rehearse it with you first — I’ll reluctantly take on the role of your father.”

Dantai Qi: “Get lost…”

Li Chi laughed loudly. “Take a look at how I am with my master.”

Dantai Qi thought carefully about it, recalling how Li Chi and his master, the Daoist Changmei, got along — and that was precisely the kind of relationship he envied. It seemed to be not merely master and disciple, not merely father and son, but also friendship.

Li Chi said: “The rules of propriety tell us that those of us who are younger must defer to our elders in all things — be respectful and obedient. But if that’s always how you relate to one another, is it still a father-son relationship?”

He advised Dantai Qi: “Try this — when you get back, don’t be so formal and serious all the time. Crack a joke with General Dantai.”

Dantai Qi thought about it and shook his head repeatedly. His father’s temperament was so rigid and stern — crack a joke with him? Forget it.

He sighed and said: “Let me think it over myself. In a bit, when we reach Wuji County up ahead, I’ll see if I can scout out a decent gift. Anything is better than going back empty-handed.”

Li Chi nodded. “That’s true enough. Elders always say, ‘Don’t bring gifts, don’t bring anything — just come home and see us, that’s enough.’ But that’s only because they’re sparing their children the expense. You actually bring a gift — whether it’s expensive or not — and they’re genuinely happy.”

Dantai Qi asked with some curiosity: “Really?”

“Of course,” Li Chi said. “Elders often say things they don’t mean. They do want gifts; they just don’t want their children spending money. And you don’t need to overthink it — haven’t you already brought General Dantai the best gift of all?”

Dantai Qi turned that over in his mind. What Li Chi meant, he gathered, was that this journey had truly taught him much, brought him much understanding — that he was no longer as arrogant and conceited as before. Such a transformation, to his father, was the greatest gift of all.

A child’s maturity is the finest gift a father can receive.

He was about to speak when he saw Li Chi glance toward Yu Jiuling and say with earnest gravity: “You’re bringing General Dantai back a daughter-in-law as lovely as a flower in bloom — the old man will…”

Dantai Qi spoke through gritted teeth: “He’ll chop me to pieces. He’ll chop all of you to pieces. Not one left standing. I fear he’d hack us to mince and still not feel satisfied.”

Li Chi startled, then looked again toward Yu Jiuling and said: “What a pity — you two star-crossed lovebirds. Marrying into a noble house truly is so very difficult.”

Dantai Qi: “Get lost… I respectfully ask you to get lost.”

—

Wuji County was less than sixty li from Liangzhou City. By the time Li Chi and the company entered the town, the sun was already slanting westward. Everyone decided to spend the night in Wuji County and set out again at first light — they would certainly reach Liangzhou before sunset the following day.

While the sky was still holding onto its light, they decided to walk around the city. The town was full of merchants from the Western Regions, as well as quite a few traders from the Central Plains, and the wares on offer were varied and eye-catching.

For Gao Xining and the young woman called Ruoling, it had been a very long time since either of them had walked through a market — so they were inevitably a little giddy, and the moment the walk was proposed, both of them brightened.

The group checked into the official post station. At this point, Dantai Qi no longer needed to conceal his identity, and he asked the station staff to send word ahead to Liangzhou — to inform his father quickly that he had returned.

They went out to explore the streets. They hadn’t gone far when they spotted a crowd gathered outside someone’s door. Something seemed to be happening.

Yu Jiuling had the disposition of a busybody, and there was no suppressing the curiosity — off she skipped to have a look.

Mister Yan said: “A young lady, carrying herself with so little dignity.”

Everyone was momentarily stunned — and when they realized that Mister Yan had been referring to Yu Jiuling, they all stared at him with expressions that said more or less the same thing: *…this can’t really be Mister Yan.*

Presently Yu Jiuling came trotting back, shaking her head. “It’s nothing — an elderly person has passed away. Neighbors and residents have come to pay their respects.”

Mister Yan said: “This elder must have been a person of great virtue and esteem.”

Yu Jiuling replied: “I asked around. Apparently she was a midwife — in her seventies. Over the course of several decades, she delivered countless infants in this city. People have come to see her off.”

“A venerable soul who wrested lives from the hands of death.”

Li Chi said: “Since we’ve encountered this, let’s buy some spirit money and burn it for her.”

In Dachu, midwives were held in great respect. The vast majority of them charged nothing to deliver babies. Someone once said that their hands were stained with blood — yet that blood was the blood of lives entering the world.

Li Chi’s group saw a vendor selling spirit money by the roadside and bought some, then went to that household to burn it. They happened to see someone carrying a pair of gloves into the house — gloves sewn from red cloth, vividly bright in color.

Yu Jiuling was curious. “What are those for?”

Li Chi had once heard his master, the Daoist Changmei, speak of this. In many places, people believed that midwives delivered infants and protected mothers in childbirth — that they were souls who wrestled against ghosts and gods for human life. Their hands had brought countless babies into the world and saved countless mothers.

So when they arrived before the court of the King of Hell, he would order their hands cut off as punishment. By sewing gloves from red cloth and placing them on the hands of a deceased midwife, the King of Hell would no longer order her hands severed.

Yu Jiuling, upon hearing this, was indignant. “Life and death and sickness and age are all the natural workings of the world — what right does the King of Hell have?”

Li Chi said: “Ordinary people fear that midwives will be punished in the underworld after death, so they prepare red gloves, along with many other things, including a letter of condolence — not an ordinary one, but one written expressly to appeal to the King of Hell for leniency, and so forth.”

“Allow me to go,” Zhang Yuxu said. “Let me give the people some peace of mind.”

In his Daoist robes, he walked unhurriedly into the courtyard and of his own accord performed the funeral rites for the departed elder.

It was a chance encounter — and Li Chi never imagined he would dream of it that night. Yet the dream, when it came, felt to him… rather interesting.

They bought a few things on the street — nothing precious. Li Chi then said to use the silver they had swindled from the county magistrate Liu Shengchun and his associates at Ancient Well County as a congratulatory gift for General Dantai.

Ten thousand taels as a birthday gift was certainly not a trifling sum — yet Li Chi felt it wasn’t quite enough. He knew that the silver would ultimately be used by General Dantai for the frontier soldiers under his command. So he discussed it with Yu Jiuling, and they totaled up all the silver and gold they had brought along. Between it all, it came to several tens of thousands of taels. Li Chi told Yu Jiuling to calculate what they would need for the journey back, then send everything remaining as a gift to General Dantai — a contribution, however modest, to the Western Liang frontier army.

That night, not long after Li Chi fell asleep, he dreamed of the old midwife.

The dream was so vivid it felt like being there in person.

Li Chi felt himself walking along a desolate little path, flanked on both sides by strangely-shaped trees that reached out like clawing demons.

From somewhere in the grove came faint sounds that resembled weeping — quite unsettling.

Yet Li Chi felt not the slightest fear. He followed the path forward and found that ahead, improbably, there was a city. He raised his head to look, and saw two large characters above the gate… *Fengdu.*

At that very moment, a voice appeared at his ear.

*”You are the sovereign of men — why have you descended to the realm of the dead? This is not a place you should be. Return at once.”*

Li Chi startled at the words. He had felt no dread before — yet this sudden voice truly gave him a fright. He thought someone was playing a prank on him. He looked all around, but saw no one.

*”The Magistrate of the Underworld, acting on the King of Hell’s command, respectfully requests that the sovereign of men take his leave. Do not linger in the realm of the dead — the sovereign’s vital force is too potently yang, and will cause harm here.”*

Li Chi jolted, suddenly disoriented. He opened his eyes and found himself apparently back in the post station room. Everything was dark around him. He could dimly sense a fitful night breeze passing through — and noticed that the window had come open at some point.

Li Chi got up, latched the window, and thought: what a nonsensical dream.

He drank a mouthful of water, then returned to bed and lay down. Before long he was asleep again.

Moments later, he seemed to hear a wretched cry. He tried to open his eyes but could not. Into his ears drifted a series of anguished pleas, and then a voice of immense authority.

That imperious voice declared: *”Remove her gloves. Does a scrap of red cloth think it can block this realm’s rightful punishment? In your life, you snatched several dozen souls back from this realm’s grasp — you have violated the laws of the underworld. I will have your two hands severed!”*

Hearing those words, Li Chi’s rage flared without warning.

*”You dare?!”*

Li Chi planted one foot upon the ground — and the earth shook and mountains split asunder.

Li Chi stepped into the realm of the dead.

—

Not long after, in another room of the post station, Zhang Yuxu suddenly jolted awake. He scrambled out of bed, rushed into the courtyard, looked left and right, then ran to the door of Li Chi’s room.

“Li Chi? Sir?”

Zhang Yuxu called out urgently several times. Li Chi groggily pulled the door open. Seeing it was Zhang Yuxu, he smiled and said: “What are you doing not sleeping in the dead of night? Don’t tell me you’ve come to make unwanted advances on me.”

Zhang Yuxu asked: “Sir… did you just have some kind of dream?”

Li Chi blinked, looking puzzled. “How did you know I was dreaming?”

Zhang Yuxu swallowed with some difficulty, then studied Li Chi with great and careful scrutiny. After a long while, he said in a low and weighty voice: “Just now — I also had a dream…”

Li Chi laughed. “What did you dream about this time? A grown man, frightened awake by a nightmare, coming to me for company.”

Zhang Yuxu shook his head, fixed Li Chi with a very strange look, and said: “I dreamed that the King of Hell was crying out for mercy — voice full of distress, screaming and begging the sovereign of men to spare him.”

Li Chi’s chest went tight.

Zhang Yuxu said: “It seems… I saved him.”

Li Chi curled his lip. “What utter nonsense. Go back to sleep.”

He shut the door and stood inside a good long while, unable to make sense of why Zhang Yuxu had come. Though he supposed he really had been hitting someone just now — and it had felt tremendously satisfying…

—