“What?” Qu Qin Yao had never heard of the concept of one Gu, three bodies before. She was just about to respond when Qing Xuzi swept his horsetail whisk and instructed her, “Seal the Gu worm. We will first find the primary host within Peony Pavilion!”
When the master and his two disciples returned to the front hall, a considerable number of young women dressed in vivid reds and greens had already gathered around Madam Jin. Though it was still early spring, these women all had their chests bared and exposed, displaying their snow-white, plump skin without the least bit of reservation.
Of the two most exquisitely beautiful among them, one wore a crimson gauze robe and the other a pink one. They sat one on either side of Madam Jin, speaking softly to comfort her.
A’Han’s eyes were quite dazzled by this sea of brilliant colors. He stood there woodenly, staring straight ahead, his eyeballs having entirely forgotten how to move.
This time there was no need for the master to intervene — Qin Yao grabbed her senior brother’s arm in exasperation and gave him a hard pinch first. A’Han yelped, realized his unseemly lapse, and immediately flushed red with embarrassment, bowing his head as low as it would go and not daring to steal another glance at those women.
Someone couldn’t help but let out a muffled laugh — clearly none of them had ever seen such a muddleheaded Daoist.
Qing Xuzi, seething with barely suppressed fury, inwardly scolded A’Han up one side and down the other without a pause. He let out a heavy snort and strode to the head seat and sat down.
Madam Jin looked up and saw Qing Xuzi, dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief, and rose to speak. “Reverend — having seen Mei Hong’s remains, have you found anything?”
Qing Xuzi swept his gaze across each person in the room with a composed, measured expression. He did not reply directly.
Madam Jin went on of her own accord. “Reverend, I will not conceal the truth from you — ever since Mei Hong’s incident, our establishment’s business has collapsed entirely. Everyone says our house is haunted by an evil spirit, and the regulars who used to come frequently no longer dare to visit. If this continues, I fear it’s only a matter of time before we have to close our doors entirely.”
As she spoke, she sighed again and again without ceasing. The woman in the crimson robe quickly soothed her, saying, “Mother, don’t be distressed. Though business is a little slow at the moment, once this matter fades from people’s memory after a while, things will naturally pick up again.”
“That’s easy enough to say,” the woman in the pink robe said with a look of contempt. “Who doesn’t know that you’ve recently caught the eye of the Fourth Young Master of the Weiyuan Marquess’s household and that you’ll be buying out your contract any day now to become his concubine? What does the glory or ruin of our Peony Pavilion have to do with you? What kind of an act is this, putting on a show of concern right now?”
“You—!” The crimson-robed woman glared daggers at the pink-robed woman and was just about to retort when Madam Jin snapped sharply, “Enough! There is a distinguished guest present — have either of you any manners at all?!”
Both women fell silent at once and each averted their gaze.
Qin Yao watched this scene with quiet fascination.
“May I ask, Madam Jin,” began Qing Xuzi, who had been silent up to this point, “has your establishment taken in any new girls recently?”
“Recently?” Madam Jin shook her head. “We have not. We go to Jiangnan every two years to acquire a new group of girls. The most recent time was last March.”
Which meant nearly a year had passed without any new arrivals. Qing Xuzi stroked his beard and asked again, “Then which lady was Mei Hong serving in her room before her death?”
The room fell instantly silent. After a moment, the sharp-tongued woman in the pink robe spoke up. “Mei Hong was serving in my room.”
She was naturally endowed with a brilliantly alluring appearance, with eyes and brows full of vivacity — far more alive and spirited than ordinary women, and even among the competing beauties of Peony Pavilion, she was one of the top-ranking. At this moment she was doing her utmost to project an air of unconcern, yet her hands, clutching the handkerchief, were trembling faintly.
Madam Jin reached over and squeezed her hand in reassurance, then said gently, “Yun Shao, please tell the Reverend the circumstances of that day once more, in detail.”
Yun Shao bit her red lip and began to speak. “Mei Hong joined the establishment last year and had already been serving at my side for a year. In her daily work she was diligent, though her mouth was a little loose and she liked to take petty advantages. On the day of the incident, she broke one of my rouge jars first thing in the morning. At noon when she was serving me my meal, she spilled soup on my skirt. I could see she had been distracted all day long, so I gave her a severe scolding and had her sent outside to kneel as punishment. But then by the afternoon, the girl had disappeared without a trace. I told Madam Jin, and everyone searched inside and outside — every corner — before they finally found the girl dead in the back courtyard flower bed.”
As she spoke, she seemed to recall the manner of Mei Hong’s death, and drew herself further back into her chair with a shudder.
Qing Xuzi frowned and looked at Yun Shao. “On that day, did Mei Hong say anything strange, or behave in any unusual way?”
Yun Shao forced herself to think carefully, then shook her head. “She only seemed a bit distracted and absentminded — she didn’t say anything in particular—” She stopped abruptly, a look of puzzlement crossing her face. “There is one thing I have always found strange. A few days before the incident, Mei Hong came to me asking about the background of someone in the establishment. I never mentioned it to the authorities because I felt it had no bearing on Mei Hong’s cause of death.”
“Oh?” Qing Xuzi’s interest was sparked. “Whose background was Mei Hong asking you about?”
Yun Shao made a pointed gesture with her lips toward the crimson-robed woman beside her and said with contempt, “Her — our Peony Pavilion’s current leading beauty, the great beauty Bao Sheng.”
The woman called Bao Sheng responded with cold, successive laughs of fury. “Yun Shao, oh Yun Shao — I know what you’re scheming! Because Young Master Lin the Fourth ignores all your attentions and instead has his eyes on me, you’re burning with jealousy and want to throw mud at me — what a ruthless and calculating mind you have!”
Her eyes and brows were not as brilliantly alluring as Yun Shao’s, but she possessed an uncommon quality of cool elegance — more like a noble daughter from a prestigious family than a woman of the pleasure houses.
Qin Yao looked back and forth between the two women with genuine interest, silently musing that Peony Pavilion’s proprietress truly understood the art of running a business. The women within the establishment each had their own distinct appeal and unique charm — how could business fail to thrive?
Madam Jin wore an expression of exasperation and stamped her foot, crying, “Of all the times — can the two of you not be still for even a moment?!”
She turned to glare at Yun Shao. “Are all the men in the world dead? Is this Fourth Young Master Lin the only one worthy of your notice? Do you still remember how Bao Sheng looked after you when you first entered the establishment? She was new herself, and yet she went out of her way to look after you at every turn, treating you like her own little sister. Now that Bao Sheng has found a good match and is about to leave, you don’t even rejoice for her — let alone that — you spend every day making trouble for her. Yun Shao, oh Yun Shao — what am I to do with you?!”
Yun Shao’s eyes immediately brimmed with tears, and she fumed, “Young Master Lin the Fourth clearly noticed me first! How is it that within just a few days, he swore undying vows of love to Bao Sheng? Madam Jin, tell me — if she didn’t deliberately scheme to steal him away, what was it? I know she’s always been sharp-tongued and competitive — always has to outdo me in everything. In the past I never bothered to argue with her, but why did she have to go after Young Master Lin the Fourth as well?”
She raised her jade-pale finger and pointed it straight at Bao Sheng. Even in the full height of her fury, she was devastatingly beautiful.
Qin Yao rubbed her chin, puzzled. This Yun Shao — whether laughing, teasing, raging, or scolding — had a natural allure in everything she did. Compared to Bao Sheng, she truly was the superior of the two.
Qing Xuzi swept his horsetail whisk and turned to look at Madam Jin. “Madam Jin, the matter within your establishment is beginning to take shape. In order to prevent harm to the innocent, I must discuss things properly with you. If you would kindly step outside with me for a word.”
Madam Jin heard this and quickly rose to lead Qing Xuzi out through the door.
Shortly after, Madam Jin returned to the room and had a maidservant fetch forty bowls — not one more, not one less — and place them before each of the beautiful women present.
With a solemn expression she said, “Each person is to let one drop of blood from their finger fall into a bowl. The truth of Mei Hong’s death will become clear on its own.”
The women let out a collective gasp.
Madam Jin saw that everyone was staring at her in bewilderment, with no apparent intention of following her instruction. She gritted her teeth and said, “I’ll go first.” With that, she went to the table, deftly took up a small blade, and drew it across her index finger. Several drops of blood fell into a bowl.
The room fell utterly silent.
After a moment, a soft voice rose. “I will go next.” It was Bao Sheng. She approached the table, followed Madam Jin’s example, let her finger blood drop into another bowl, then looked up at the assembled women and said, “Little sister Mei Hong died such a wretched death. We owe her an answer.”
It seemed these words stirred something in everyone present — the onlookers who had been watching with cold detachment now one by one stepped forward, letting their blood drip into the bowls. In no time at all, not one of the forty bowls was left empty.
Qin Yao smiled coldly to herself. What a brazen and shameless evil creature — so confident that they lacked the ability to find her out?
She cast her eyes downward, drew out the Gu worm from within her robe — sealed with a spirit-suppressing talisman — and carefully placed it on the table.
Qing Xuzi gave a nod, swept his palm across the Gu worm to remove the seal. In a moment, the worm wriggled twice and began to slowly creep forward.
Qin Yao quietly watched with anticipation, waiting for the Gu worm to crawl toward the blood bowl of the host and identify her — but to her surprise, the worm had only moved half an inch before it curled up and lay still once more.
Qin Yao waited and waited with patient endurance. Half an incense stick’s worth of time passed, and still the Gu worm remained completely motionless, as if it had been frozen by some immobilizing spell.
Madam Jin raised her head and looked at Qing Xuzi in bewilderment. “Reverend, what—”
Qing Xuzi cast an unhurried glance toward the assembled women, and laughed coldly to himself. No wonder that person had been so bold and fearless — they had come prepared.
He considered for a moment, then beckoned A’Han close and whispered a few words into his ear.
A’Han gave a nod, turned, retrieved his pack, unrolled the wrapping cloth, and produced a dull, grey five-edged mirror.
Qin Yao looked closely and could not help but gasp inwardly. In order to deal with this evil creature, her master had actually brought out the temple’s most treasured protective artifact — the Boundless Mirror.
Qing Xuzi took the Boundless Mirror, swept his horsetail whisk, and silently recited a spell. After a long moment he formed a hand seal and cried out, “Rise—!” The dull, unassuming mirror surface suddenly blazed forth with brilliant light. After a while, it rose steadily into the air and hung suspended at mid-height, its radiance streaming directly down onto the Gu worm on the table.
Shortly after, the Gu worm stretched itself out and began to twist its golden body. In the next instant, moving with somewhat stiff but deliberate motion, it began to crawl toward the bowls of finger blood.
The atmosphere in the room instantly congealed. A current of unease spread silently through the air. The worm crept forward with extraordinary difficulty at first, but gradually it moved faster and faster, faster and faster — until, reaching a particular bowl, it suddenly leaped into the air and landed with a splash in the bowl of blood.
“Ah—!” Someone fell back onto the ground, their body trembling violently.
Madam Jin’s face went pale. She stared at the woman on the ground in disbelief. “It’s you?!”