The words of thanks were light and casual, but the speaker’s expression was sincere, without her usual cold and distant demeanor—calm and composed.

Lu Tong’s gaze moved slightly.

Several days ago, she had used the life-saving debt from the execution ground in Sunan years before to pressure Pei Yunying into helping her with a favor.

She had asked Pei Yunying to paint an oriole picture and arrange for it to be placed in Fengle Tower.

Fengle Tower in Yanzhi Alley was the favorite haunt of wealthy merchants in the capital—for listening to opera, drinking wine, resting, and buying pleasure…

Her sister had originally ended up there by mistake because of Ke Chengxing, and had died there.

Pei Yunying readily agreed to this matter, even doing more than asked. His subordinates were well-connected and lived up to expectations, quickly figuring out Fengle Tower’s layout. Among them, the top-floor row of pavilions was specially prepared by Fengle Tower for distinguished guests—those “fat sheep” with certain status, different from ordinary wealthy merchants.

Qi Yutai always stayed in “Jingzhe.”

He was generous with money, and the proprietor was willing to reserve this upper room for him. When Lu Rou had her incident originally, the Qi family servants who rushed over to smooth everything over for Qi Yutai gave the proprietor some glimpse of this person’s extraordinary status.

Actually, from beginning to end, there was never such a “room-competing” customer, and Fengle Tower’s boss had never lent Jingzhe to another person for money.

However, just a few days before Qi Yutai’s incident, Fengle Tower’s boss had urgent business back home and temporarily returned to his village, leaving the wine house to his cousin to manage. This created many gaps to exploit.

First, they pretended to be a customer competing with Qi Yutai for the room, causing Qi Yutai, who had just taken the powder, to have his blood and qi surge upward. The “customer” wore a scent pouch containing medicinal materials that intensified wind evil entering the blood.

The “singing girl” casually knocked over an oil lamp, starting a great fire that burned the painting in the room, revealing the painting beneath—this was the artwork Lu Tong had specially prepared for Qi Yutai, and also the final medicinal catalyst for his “frightened madness.”

Though Fengle Tower wasn’t as well-guarded as Yuxian Tower, arranging things to this extent required considerable help from Pei Yunying. His subordinates were even more capable than Lu Tong had imagined, even making her feel that when he’d said he could help her kill Qi Yutai, it might not have been a joke.

However, the deed was done, and there was no point in regret.

Lu Tong thought for a moment, then reached for the pouch hanging at her waist, pulling out a small pink porcelain jar and handing it to Pei Yunying.

Pei Yunying was surprised: “What is this?”

“Jin Xianrong’s maintenance medicine. I’ve also prepared a dose for Lord Pei.”

Pei Yunying: “…”

Seeing his silence, Lu Tong rarely took the initiative to explain: “This fire was largely thanks to Lord Pei’s help. I thought about it—the matter at Sunan was, after all, many years ago.”

“Consider this a thank-you gift from me to Lord Pei.”

Pei Yunying’s expression was blank: “Take it away.”

“My lord might as well accept it.” Lu Tong said seriously, “I changed the formula. After the Huangmao Ridge hunting grounds incident, the Marshal had someone send hunting spoils, and I took deer blood from them. Deer blood is hot in nature, warms the kidneys and supplements yang, nourishes blood and benefits essence. It has great nourishing effects for kidney yang deficiency and is best used in medicine.”

“Even the Imperial Pharmacy couldn’t make a second bottle.”

She spoke with complete seriousness, as if this truly was some precious thank-you gift, and he would be a fool without vision not to accept it.

Pei Yunying didn’t get angry but laughed instead.

He said coldly: “If you try to push this thing on me again, tomorrow I’ll have people spread rumors throughout the Imperial City that I’m your fiancé.”

Lu Tong: “…”

She silently put away the medicine jar.

This person was ungrateful.

And shameless.

The atmosphere in the room grew cold for a moment. As if sensing her inner criticism, Pei Yunying coughed lightly, glanced at her, and said: “However, how did you think to mix cinnabar with those medicinal juices?”

The “oriole picture” in Fengle Tower’s “Jingzhe” room was something Lu Tong had commissioned Pei Yunying to create.

That thunder picture was an ordinary silk painting, but the “oriole picture” beneath the thunder picture was made with decidedly uncommon materials.

The silk had been pre-soaked by Lu Tong in medicinal juice made from red fragrant wadding. Along with the great fire, the painting emitted intoxicating fragrance that caused hallucinations.

The pigments used to draw the lines were personally mixed by Lu Tong—snake sheds, mica, smoke glue, blue-soaked water, insect white wax… various medicinal materials refined through special methods, mixed with cinnabar and painted into the picture. After half an hour, the color would fade. But once exposed to fire, the cinnabar would show color again.

Lu Tong had Pei Yunying use this material to paint the seven orifices of the figures in the painting.

As the fire grew fiercer and burned away that thunder picture, the Bureau of Ceremonies’ “Pond Spring Grass Dream” had unknowingly been attacking Qi Yutai for a long time. His dementia was already on the edge—it only needed one final medicinal catalyst.

Qi Yutai had just taken powder and smelled the incense. With blood and qi combining and qi gathering in yang, suddenly seeing this oriole picture would evoke shadows of past events. Seeing the painted figures with blood flowing from their seven orifices would inevitably cause his heart to become weak and water to stop, weak qi to flow chaotically, creating constant confusion.

She had seen Qi Yutai’s medical records. Though the real circumstances were all covered up, she could still clearly see that after the Yang family case in Mangming Village years ago, Qi Yutai had been bedridden for a long period. And afterward, the Grand Tutor’s mansion had driven away all birds.

If the first time he could suppress fright from external objects, the second time would inevitably be much more severe.

And after that, Fengle Tower’s fire continued burning. The fire had started from the top pavilion, and the oriole picture was completely consumed by fire, leaving no trace. Even if someone suspected later and went up to the pavilion, seeing only post-fire ruins, they couldn’t discover any clues.

They would only think it was the ravings of that Grand Tutor’s son who had taken too much cold food powder and was mentally confused.

“Truly seamless.” A voice of admiration reached her ears. Pei Yunying tilted his head slightly: “However, this method is novel—where did you learn it?”

This kind of color-changing pigment technique wouldn’t be taught in medical classics or pharmaceutical theories.

Lu Tong was startled.

She lowered her head and took a sip of the white lotus flower dew in front of her. The flower dew was ice-cold, making the sweetness seem slightly bland, even revealing a hint of bitterness.

“My father told me.”

Pei Yunying was slightly stunned.

Perhaps for appearance, the sweet drink vendor had put two pieces of broken lotus petals in the bamboo cup. The pink and white flower fragments floated in the clear liquid, rising and sinking like small boats illuminated by moonlight on a summer night lotus pond.

Lu Tong was in a trance for a moment.

Someone seemed to be calling from behind: “Tong girl, Tongtong, slow down!”

She was bouncing ahead, and when she turned back, she saw her mother pulling Lu Rou and calling to her. Lu Qian and her father walked behind, each holding several tubes of sweet drink.

“Hurry up!” she complained. “We’ll miss the water opera—”

Every year around the summer solstice, Changwu County would have people set up stages by the small river in the county to perform water opera.

At this time, families throughout the city would take ferry boats to the riverside to watch the performances.

Children didn’t like the most famous plays from the troupe—all that talk of love and hate, promotions and wealth, loyalty and filial piety sounded distant and boring.

The most popular were ghost plays—like the Zhang family estate where a child died unjustly today and turned into a vengeful ghost tomorrow for revenge, or the Li family temple where the wealth god statue would transform into an old woman at night to eat the hearts and livers of wealthy families, or the ghost bride from the new grave on the neighboring mountain who would pick a passing man each night to marry… Children would scream in fright while listening with great interest.

Lu Tong also loved listening to that play “Headless Ghost’s Vengeful Death and Retribution.”

One year the troupe had a burst of inspiration and revised that “Headless Ghost” play.

The lanterns on stage were dim, only the actors’ painted faces and bright costumes stood out. When the big red lantern briefly illuminated the paper-made mansion gate, a large white face with blood flowing from seven orifices suddenly appeared on the wall.

“Waaaah—”

Lu Tong’s loud crying startled a flock of white egrets from the lotus pond.

That year many children watching the opera in Changwu County were frightened to tears. Lu Tong developed a fever when she returned home. The neighbor lady insisted she had been possessed by evil spirits and wanted to go up the mountain to fetch a spirit medium to call back her soul.

Lu Rou and Lu Qian sat by her couch, looking at her with worry.

She huddled at the foot of the bed wrapped in a blanket, feeling that large white face could appear at any moment inside the curtains, in front of cabinet doors, or under the table. She didn’t dare close her eyes for even a moment.

In just two days, her originally round little face had become noticeably thinner.

Her father walked in from outside and told her to dress properly and get out of bed.

She refused.

“Get up,” her father said. “I’ll teach you to catch ghosts.”

Catch ghosts?

Curiosity about ghost-catching ultimately overcame her stubborn refusal to get up. She reluctantly got out of bed and walked to her father’s side. Her father had her sit at a table covered with paper and handed her a brush dipped in pigment.

The pigment looked like cinnabar but was different from ordinary cinnabar—the texture was too thick.

Her father had her write a character.

Lu Tong wrote the character for “ghost” in wild, flowing strokes.

The red writing was messy like a drawing, indistinguishable as character or talisman. Her father held his forehead and sighed.

Lu Tong was puzzled.

She sat stupidly for a moment, about to ask where exactly they were supposed to catch the ghost, when she saw the red writing on the white paper gradually fade away, as if an invisible person stood nearby, silently wiping away the writing with a cloth.

Lu Tong jumped up in shock: “There’s a ghost!”

But her father pressed her shoulders, making her sit back down.

He picked up the oil lamp from the table and gently passed it over the white paper that had faded to nothing. The previously disappeared writing reappeared.

“This is…” Lu Tong stared in amazement.

“I asked the troupe leader about this. Using snake sheds, mica, smoke glue, blue-soaked water, insect white wax… various medicinal materials refined through special methods, mixed with cinnabar and painted into pictures. After half an hour, the color fades. But when exposed to fire, the cinnabar shows color again.”

“The silk cloth on stage had already been painted with faces using this pigment. When the performance reached the middle, the young male lead passed a torch over it, and the cloth naturally showed the different color.”

Her father stood at the table, looking at her and sighing: “Tong girl, there are no ghosts in this world.”

Young Lu Tong now understood the whole story and felt somewhat relieved, but recalling the pale face on the cloth still made her feel frightened. She had to ask skeptically: “All things are different—we just haven’t seen them. What if there really are some?”

Her father was silent for a moment. After a long while, he said: “Then there’s no need to fear either.”

Lu Tong blinked.

“The books say: ‘When you see a ghost, don’t fear it, just fight it. If you win the fight, that’s good. If you lose, I’ll just be the same as it.'”

He stroked his beard: “This is the way of ghost-catching that I’m teaching you.”

When you see a ghost, don’t fear it, just fight it.

This “way of ghost-catching” was often recalled during her time on Luomei Peak. Every time she searched corpses in graveyards, she would tell herself “people are ghosts not yet dead, ghosts are people already dead”—no need to worry or fear.

And in this world, there were many people far more vicious and cruel than ghosts and monsters.

It all came down to one word: “fight.”

The lamplight was dim. A gust of strong wind swept by, and tree branches outside the door were beaten against the wooden window with crackling sounds.

Lu Tong came back to her senses, took a gulp of white lotus flower dew, and said with lowered head: “My father heard the formula from the troupe. Later, when we had exams at home, I used it to cheat.”

Pei Yunying’s expression was strange: “Cheat?”

“That’s right.”

She didn’t have to go to school in the neighboring county like Lu Qian, but her coursework was no less demanding. Every six months, her father would hold exams at home.

That was simply her nightmare.

Clever as she was, she thought to use her father’s “way of ghost-catching” to write poetry and texts she couldn’t memorize with cinnabar mixed with medicinal materials on white paper. But she was discovered before she could even light the fire starter—after all, lighting lamps during the day was a bit too much.

Her father scolded her thoroughly.

“What kind of behavior is this sneaky trickery all day long! Where’s the ruler? Who hid my ruler!”

Lu Qian had already run off half a li away with the ruler. Lu Rou came to mediate but was pushed out the door by their father with an iron-blue face.

“From childhood onward, don’t spoil even one bit—spilled water can’t be recovered, regret comes too late! You all just indulge her.”

He also scolded her: “I taught you the pigment method, not for you to use on such crooked and evil ways!”

Thinking about it, Lu Tong couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Her father had always prioritized moral education. When she was young, just wanting to get by in her studies by secretly writing was considered “crooked and evil ways.” But now, she used this “way of ghost-catching” to design fires and frame people, and not only that—before this, she had already killed and buried bodies, using any means necessary to achieve her goals…

The smile on her face gradually faded. Lu Tong was quiet for a while, then said: “He must be very disappointed in me.”

She had grown into exactly what her father least wanted her to become.

All around was dark, only the wind howling outside the window.

“I think he would be proud of you.”

Suddenly someone spoke in the silence.

Lu Tong looked up.

“A person single-handedly coming to the capital to avenge her entire family, killing three enemies and still escaping unscathed, with the last one looking close to finished—if I ever have such a daughter, I’d definitely be very proud.”

He spoke casually, as if it were an offhand remark.

A hint of cold, crisp fragrance drifted through the air. The flame illuminated the handsome, sharp features of the person before her. Though heavy rain was about to fall, because of this patch of soft, warm color, there was somehow a sense of beautiful scenery.

He looked at Lu Tong and smiled: “If your father knew what you’re doing now, he would probably only feel heartache.”

Lu Tong’s heart trembled.

She had been away from home too long and no longer dared hope for the tolerance and indulgence of the past, much less dared hope for heartache.

Lu Tong collected her emotions. “‘If I ever have such a daughter…'” she repeated Pei Yunying’s words, frowning. “Is the Marshal taking advantage of me?”

He was startled, then laughed: “I was comforting you.”

“I’m not dejected—why would I need comfort?”

Pei Yunying studied her.

Lu Tong sat under the dim lamplight, her expression normal, her tone flat, as if the flash of loss in her eyes just now had been an illusion.

He lowered his head and smiled, not continuing that topic, instead bringing up another matter.

“Although Qi Yutai is temporarily deranged and mad, Cui Min is treating him and may restore his clarity in the future.”

“Once he regains clarity, if Qi Yutai says that on the night of Fengle Tower’s fire, he fought with a customer over the upper room, the lie will immediately be exposed.”

“That old fox Qi Qing might not fail to notice something strange in all this.”

“Dr. Lu,” he said, “aren’t you afraid he’ll give Qi Qing clues?”

With the Qi family’s caution, even if they couldn’t find that “oriole” painting, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t become suspicious. Once suspicious, after eliminating all enemies, the Lu family incident in Changwu County might be brought before the Qi family’s eyes again.

The lamplight was utterly silent.

After a long while, Lu Tong smiled slightly.

“I’m not afraid.”

Her eyes were exceptionally bright in the lamplight as she spoke calmly.

“Who would believe a madman’s words?”

She said mockingly: “I’m afraid even his father wouldn’t believe his own son.”

…

“Pitter-patter—”

Bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky. Lu Tong had just returned to the residential quarters when rain began falling in the courtyard.

The rainwater still carried summer heat. Lu Tong placed the oil lamp on the table. Lin Danqing was leaning out to tightly close the wooden window near the table, finally pushing hard with her palms.

Lu Tong asked: “Why close it so tightly?”

The residential quarters separated men and women. In the summer heat, they usually left some gaps for ventilation at night.

Lin Danqing climbed back onto her couch, pulled out a story book from under her pillow, and read aloud: “Look what’s written here: ‘Men who have affairs and women who keep lovers can all fly—they don’t need to go through doors.'”

“There are also young and vigorous men among the new medical officials. What if one of them gets spring fever some night and feels around for the wrong room? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing? Better to be careful.”

Lu Tong: “…”

“It’s written quite reasonably,” she turned to ask Lu Tong, “Don’t you think so, Sister Lu?”

Lu Tong avoided her gaze and said impassively: “…Yes.”

…

The rain fell steadily, washing the courtyard ground clean.

Pei Yunying returned to his mansion, putting away his umbrella at the entrance.

The vast mansion was empty and hollow. There was a bunch of roses in the vase in the main hall—Pei Yunshu had come during the day to arrange them for him.

Most of the time he stayed at the Marshal’s residence. When not at the Marshal’s residence, he kept watch in the palace. This mansion was often empty, but since Pei Yunshu and her daughter moved next door, he had been coming back more frequently.

The mansion’s servant women would come to clean during the day, then return to their own homes at night. He disliked being served, so the mansion only had a few trusted bodyguards who wouldn’t appear unless there was business.

Pei Yunying lit a lamp and entered the study.

The study was still as he had left it. Wooden blocks were scattered messily on the low table, several sheets of drawing paper were spread before the desk, and wolf-hair brushes hung on the brush stand—several were brand new, recently bought but barely used.

He sat down at the table and began collecting the papers scattered by the wind. As he gathered them, his movements gradually slowed.

At Fengle Tower, that oriole picture painted with special pigments was created by his own hand.

Lu Tong had commissioned him to paint this picture because she knew he was skilled at painting, and giving it to other painters in the capital carried the risk of them revealing secrets.

Actually, since his mother’s death, he hadn’t picked up a paintbrush. He should have refused, but for some unknown reason, he ultimately accepted her proposal.

Pei Yunying shook his head and smiled helplessly.

Lu Tong said that if her father were alive and learned she was now using the methods he had taught her for revenge, he would be very disappointed.

What about him?

If his mother knew that the painting skills she had taught him hand by hand—reading “Painting has eight qualities: ancient and moist, water pure and bright, mountains should be towering, springs should be free and easy, clouds and mist appearing and disappearing, wild paths winding, pines bent like dragons and snakes, bamboo hiding wind and rain at night”—the painting and calligraphy he had learned were ultimately painted on the walls of flower houses and brothels for tricks and deceptions, what would she think?

She probably wouldn’t be disappointed, would she?

He leaned back against his chair rest, gazing at the wolf-hair brushes on the brush stand in the dim light. Thinking of something, a trace of self-mockery flashed through his eyes.

After all…

This could also be considered ridding the people of harm.

“When seeing ghosts, do not fear, but fight them…” “The living are ghosts who haven’t died…” — from “What Confucius Did Not Discuss”

“The Eight Standards of Painting…” — from “Complete Collection of Landscape Painting”

“All those men who have affairs…” — from “Silent Drama”