In the courtyard, Ming Huashang sat on the day bed wearing a silver-crimson round-collar front-fastening padded jacket, with an apricot-colored rabbit-fur-trimmed overcoat on top and a red-and-white pleated skirt below — utterly listless and drooping.
The guard who had gone out to gather information returned: “In reply to the young gentleman, this winter has been cold, and the snow on Mount Mang has accumulated very deep. Last night the snow collapsed off the mountain and happened to block the only road down. Her Highness Princess Taiping and Prince Wei have already dispatched people to clear the path, but the road is very difficult to travel with fresh snow, and the accumulated snow carries a constant risk of collapsing again — in the short term, the mountain road will likely not be cleared.”
The charcoal fire had burned through the night and was reduced to faint embers dying away amid ashes; the room was very cold and still. Ming Huashang huddled into herself, doing her best to pull her hands up into her sleeves.
At the fourth watch, a thunderous sound had suddenly come from Mount Mang — without any warning, an avalanche. The noise had alarmed many people; even in the dark with the fierce wind, lights had been lit one after another throughout the estate.
When Ming Huashang heard about the avalanche she had still wanted to go back to sleep. The road was already blocked — there was nothing she could do about it; why not focus on the most important thing at hand, which was sleeping? But Ren Yao sat up the moment she heard the word “avalanche,” and the room next door was already lit with Ming Huazhang and Xie Jichuan up long before dawn. Ming Huashang could only force herself awake despite her drowsiness.
People sent from every household ran constantly in and out to gather information, and by the time the chen hour arrived, the situation was finally settled.
The road down the mountain was blocked. There were now only two choices: brave the risk of freezing to death in the ice and snow searching for another route, or stay in Feihong Garden and wait — and no one was going anywhere.
Ren Yao heard that clearing the road would take an indefinitely long time and burst out impatiently: “Useless — they cannot even clear snow? Tell me where the avalanche hit; I will go myself!”
“Elder Sister Ren, calm down first.” Ming Huashang had bundled herself into her clothes, her face largely hidden by fur, with only a pair of dark lustrous eyes showing. “One does not fight the heavens. Right after an avalanche is the most dangerous time — rushing out recklessly could mean being buried under snow. With whatever time we have, it would be better to think about something practical.”
“Such as — with so many young lords and ladies, servants and guards trapped up here, how much food and charcoal will be consumed per day? Does Princess Taiping’s stockpile hold out?”
When Ming Huashang finished, the room fell silent. They were all pampered young lords and scions — none of them had ever worried about food and clothing from birth; even Ren Yao had only fretted about her family’s title, never about mere livelihood.
Ming Huazhang was the first to speak: “I already sent someone to ask the steward of Feihong Garden. This place is built on a mountain and in-and-out travel is inconvenient, so there has always been a habit of stockpiling provisions here. Moreover, since Princess Taiping intended a grand banquet, food was stockpiled well before the new year — in the short term, food and drink should not be a concern. Charcoal is another matter, though. The moment I heard the avalanche I immediately had people go and obtain charcoal from the steward, and I also had the charcoal from mine and Xie Jichuan’s guest quarters moved over. Fortunately we went early — now it would surely be difficult to secure any more. But if we use it sparingly, seven or eight days should be no problem.”
Ming Huashang was astonished: “Second Elder Brother, you had all this arranged already?”
Xie Jichuan said playfully: “Second little sister — what did you think we were doing when we woke so early last night?”
Ming Huashang rubbed her hands together, somewhat embarrassed: “I was short-sighted. All I thought about was sleeping. Zhao Cai, go and take out all the food and pastries we brought.”
Zhao Cai answered brightly and briskly set out a row of food boxes. Xie Jichuan swept his gaze over the neatly stacked boxes and said with a laugh: “All of these are food?”
“Yes.” Ming Huashang was rather proud of herself, puffed out her chest and said: “I was afraid the banquet dishes would not be filling enough, so I brought a good quantity of filling things to eat. Do not worry — even if the mountain villa’s stores run out, we will be able to last a few extra days longer than anyone else!”
Xie Jichuan could not suppress a smile, and a rare trace of genuine warmth showed in his eyes: “It is lucky we have Second little sister’s foresight — from now on I am counting on Second little sister.”
Ming Huazhang cast Xie Jichuan a cool sideways look; Xie Jichuan caught it and immediately shifted toward Ming Huashang: “Second little sister, you see — he is glaring at me again. If he refuses to share with me later, you must stand up for me.”
Ren Yao’s cheeks creased; she could not imagine this being something that Xie Jichuan, famous scion of the Xie clan known for aristocratic character and integrity, could possibly have said. Ming Huazhang looked over at Xie Jichuan with undisguised exasperation and said: “Shu Li, go add a basin of charcoal.”
The moment Ming Huashang heard it she asked quickly: “Second Elder Brother, are you cold?”
Ming Huazhang swept a glance at Ming Huashang’s entirely colorless face and said: “In winter I personally have little need for charcoal — I am well accustomed to it. But you are not.”
Ming Huashang was startled, not knowing that Ming Huazhang had such a habit: “But why?”
Ming Huazhang did not like to publicize things about himself. Xie Jichuan said with a cheerful smile: “Because he feels that warmth and comfort erode one’s will. So in order to keep his edge, he neither uses ice in summer nor charcoal in winter — and he does not even sleep on a soft bed.”
Ming Huashang’s jaw dropped in profound astonishment. Xie Jichuan, seeing her reaction so large, said: “Do the two of you not live in the same household? He has been like this all these years — and you genuinely did not know?”
Ming Huashang quietly retracted her jaw. She truly had not known. She then recalled her own life — drowsy in spring, sluggish in autumn, napping all summer, sleeping through all three months of winter — and condemned herself deeply.
All the more so when Ming Huashang looked around and saw Ming Huazhang with his formidable self-discipline; Ren Yao with her lifelong practice of martial arts; and Xie Jichuan — though he was teasing Ming Huazhang — was himself wearing only a single layer, sitting upright in the cold room without so much as a shiver. Clearly the Xie family also had some requirement of forging their sons’ willpower through cold.
Of all four people present, she alone was freezing like a dog.
Ming Huashang felt a small pang of low spirits. Why were her peers always so remarkably accomplished? Then she noticed a servant bring in a basin of freshly blazing new charcoal and set a box of pastries down beside it. She twitched her nose and at once recognized these were plum blossom cakes from the pastry shop at the south end of the city.
Ming Huashang lifted the lid — sure enough, they were the plum blossom cakes she knew so well.
Ming Huashang looked over at Ming Huazhang in astonishment. Ming Huazhang was a little embarrassed; he gave a quiet cough and said: “You had been thinking about them all along. When I was passing by, I had someone pick them up.”
Xie Jichuan’s eyebrow shifted meaningfully: “I do not usually eat pastries, but I have heard of this particular shop — one chance in a lifetime to get anything from it. When I passed by, how was it I could not manage to buy any?”
Ming Huashang could hardly fail to understand that Ming Huazhang had specifically queued for them on her behalf. She cheerfully took out the plum blossom cakes and, smiling warmly, distributed them to everyone: “Thank you, Second Elder Brother! Brother Xie, Elder Sister Ren — you have both been up since the small hours and still have not eaten anything. Come and try the most fashionable treat in Luoyang!”
Ming Huashang held the pastry out to Xie Jichuan with crescent-curved eyes. Xie Jichuan found he had nothing more to say. He accepted the delicate little plum blossom confection and reflected that although Ming Huazhang was cold and aloof, his little sister was truly good at winning people over — her ability to read a room was perfected to a fine art.
After handing one to Xie Jichuan, Ming Huashang offered one to Ren Yao. After being in a state of fright and anxiety all morning, Ren Yao was indeed somewhat hungry — but she caught the faint, ethereal sweet scent and instinctively wanted to refuse: “I do not eat sweet, cloying things…”
“No harm in trying — it might just suit your taste.” Ming Huashang pressed the pastry into Ren Yao’s hand. “With an avalanche and then being stranded, the mountain villa is likely to be in chaos for a long time — who knows whether the kitchen will even prepare breakfast. If we eat something now to hold us over, we will have the energy to figure something out afterward.”
Ren Yao found a pastry being forcibly placed in her hand and went completely blank. All these years she had been like a taut bowstring, drilling relentlessly in martial arts without a moment’s lapse. She had set her heart on proving she was no inferior to any young gentleman. Cosmetics and rouge, pastries and sweets — the sorts of things belonging to a woman’s world — she naturally ought not to like.
But now Ming Huashang had pressed upon her a very “womanly” little pastry — small and lovely, the petals delicate and beautiful, with a sweet fragrance like a hook threading quietly into her nostrils. Ren Yao firmly believed her own heart belonged to swords and spears, not to flower-and-fruit confections like this — but throwing it back also seemed wrong. She told herself it was purely for the sake of social obligation, and reluctantly placed the plum blossom cake in her mouth.
It was truly delicious — no wonder they were so difficult to buy.
Seeing the satisfaction in Xie Jichuan’s and Ren Yao’s expressions after their first bites, Ming Huashang felt even more delighted than if she had eaten the cake herself. She looked toward Ming Huazhang, her eyes bright with expectation. Ming Huazhang could not refuse, and took one piece by way of acknowledgment.
Ming Huashang was even more pleased. She called out to Zhao Cai in rapid succession: “Zhao Cai, take out the pine blossom tea we brought — pine blossom is cool and crisp, the perfect pairing with the plum blossom fragrance!”
Ming Huazhang heard this and did not know what to say: “You brought your own tea when going out?”
Ming Huashang was just about to proudly extol the many virtues of her homemade pine blossom tea, when suddenly a clamor of footsteps came from outside. Someone pounded furiously on the door: “Something terrible has happened — a vengeful spirit has come to claim lives — someone else has died!”
Ming Huazhang, Ming Huashang, and the other two hurried quickly to the scene. Ren Yao drew a sharp breath and pointed at what lay ahead, her voice shaking with horror: “Look — what is that?”
The cold was severe, the snow great, all vegetation withered away, and the trees were reduced to bare, naked trunks — the scene was monotone and bleak at a single glance. Yet at that moment, a vivid splash of red tore through the dark stillness of winter. At the very top of the tallest tree hung a woman in red. Frost had already settled on her face; her body had been bound into a grotesque shape with thorns, swaying back and forth in the wind. Most horrifying of all were those two blood-drenched holes in her face.
Her eyes too had been cruelly gouged out.
Ming Huashang suddenly fixed her gaze and carefully identified the woman’s features — then looked at Ming Huazhang in tense alarm: “Second Elder Brother, this is…”
Ming Huazhang recognized her too. This was Princess Taiping’s most personal attendant — they had had a brief encounter with her just yesterday when going to pay their respects.
A crowd had gathered at the edge of the grove, voices chaotic and emotions running high. Two deaths in two days — many could no longer bear it and were clamoring to go down the mountain.
Ming Huazhang ignored the people shouting and yelling, and started forward through the crowd. Ming Huashang was startled and instinctively grabbed his sleeve.
Ming Huazhang gave her a slight shake of his head, indicating it was fine, and then strode toward the body. The crowd that had been clamoring all at once went quiet, everyone staring at Ming Huazhang as though they had seen a ghost.
Ming Huazhang was unmoved. He circled the corpse and examined it carefully, then said to Xie Jichuan: “Xie Jichuan — come give me a hand. First let us get her down.”
Xie Jichuan stood in the crowd with a thoroughly unwilling expression: “This sort of thing — you needn’t think of me.”
He was just about to lift his foot when a figure came charging from the back of the crowd: “I’ll go, I’ll go!”
It was the dissolute young lord Jiang Ling. Though he was good-for-nothing in many ways, he did have daring. Xie Jichuan, who had only half raised his foot, naturally withdrew it again. Ming Huashang watching from the back asked: “Brother Xie, are you not going?”
Xie Jichuan gave a gentle smile: “I will remain here to protect you and Miss Ren.”
Ming Huashang glanced at Ren Yao — stiff all over and yet still forcing herself to appear unafraid — and said: “Then I shall trouble Brother Xie greatly. I am going to help Second Elder Brother see if there is anything useful I can do.”
Ming Huashang finished speaking and lifted her cape to walk out into the snow. Ren Yao drew a sharp breath, unable to help herself: “What kind of upbringing did those two siblings have? With something that gory — are they truly not afraid?”
Xie Jichuan gave a soft, almost inaudible laugh: “Indeed. I thought those siblings were not alike at all at first — but looking at it now, they do have their similarities.”
Jiang Ling’s mind was not sharp, but his physical strength was at least serviceable. Under Ming Huazhang’s direction, they finally managed to lower the woman to the ground in a stable manner.
The corpse fell, and the onlookers backed away another step as one, expressions of both terror and revulsion crossing their faces. Only Ming Huazhang, as though feeling nothing whatsoever, crouched in the snow and slowly turned over the woman’s garments to examine her.
Jiang Ling loved excitement and adventure the most, but even he found those hollow eye sockets of the dead woman’s to be deeply unsettling. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and felt a measure of pity: “Wei Zi was such a delicate beauty — those eyes especially, they spoke as plainly as words. To have them gouged out like that. Truly a pity.”
Ming Huazhang looked up at that: “You knew her?”
“Of course.” Jiang Ling said. “She was one of Princess Taiping’s most capable attendants. Anyone who goes regularly to the princess’s residence knows who she is.”
Ming Huashang had walked over and, hearing Jiang Ling, asked: “Then did you see her recently?”
“I saw her once, just when I arrived at the garden with Baby.” Jiang Ling said, then blinked and suddenly caught on: “You are not suspecting me, are you? I already said it was the snake ghost. How could it possibly have been me?”
Ming Huashang also blinked with equal innocence and asked: “What is a snake ghost?”
Seeing that Ming Huashang still did not know, Jiang Ling grew conspiratorial, leaned close, and lowered his voice: “I hear someone brought an unclean thing to the mountain villa. The snake ghost has possessed someone here and is looking for a substitute victim at the banquet. Do you know about snake ghosts?”
Ming Huashang shook her head. Jiang Ling, looking at Ming Huashang’s clear, finely curved eyes, felt his desire to show off surge, and began to hold forth: “They say that in the Fangzhou region of the Jiangnan West Circuit, miasma clouds the air thickly and snakes and insects cover the ground; many travelers are bitten to death by snakes. People bitten to death by snakes die with resentment in their hearts and slowly become snake ghosts, trapped in the miasma and unable to find release — unless they can find a substitute to die in their place. So when traveling through the mountains of Fangzhou, if you encounter a beautiful woman, never look up. If you do not look at her you still have a chance of survival; but if you look into her eyes, you will be bitten to death by a snake and become her substitute.”
Jiang Ling deliberately lowered his voice at the end, trying to create a frightening atmosphere. Yet the beautiful young woman before him did not stir in the slightest, only said “Oh” and asked: “If you look into her eyes you die?”
“Yes.” Jiang Ling said. “Have you not seen Chi Lan from yesterday and Wei Zi today — their eyes are both missing? Goodness knows which accursed soul came back from the miasma region possessed by a snake ghost without knowing it, and after the spirit entered Luoyang it was then brought to Feihong Garden by a guest. The snake ghost chose Chi Lan as a substitute victim; after Chi Lan died her resentment did not dissolve, so she chose Wei Zi; now Wei Zi needs to find someone else. Who will that be?”
Ming Huashang found this rumor too outlandish to be believed, and asked: “How do you know about affairs in Fangzhou? Surely you did not make this up on your own?”
Jiang Ling, feeling slighted, said angrily: “How would this young lord possibly deceive anyone! Have you not heard that there was a line of writing in blood found under Chi Lan’s body yesterday — that is the snake ghost selecting a substitute victim!”
Ming Huashang was still about to express further doubt when Ming Huazhang — who had been silent for a long while — stood up and said, cool and clear: “He is not lying. It is indeed a ghost from the Jiangnan West Circuit.”
Both Ming Huashang and Jiang Ling were taken aback at once, and turned to look at Ming Huazhang together. Ming Huazhang pointed at the corpse on the ground and said: “The thorns binding her are black thorns — a product native to the Jiangnan West Circuit that does not grow in the capital region.”
The three of them had been speaking loudly enough for the gathered crowd to hear. With even Ming Huazhang confirming it was true, the panic in the crowd grew even more severe. Suddenly someone pointed at the trunk of a tree and said in horror: “That writing…”
The crowd scattered with a burst of noise. Ren Yao looked back — and only now noticed that the trunk behind her was coated with blood, on which was written:
“Those who look upon me — die.”