The following day, the academy remained closed for the holiday. Qin Yao had not slept well the night before, and waking up that morning, she felt somewhat weary.

After washing and getting dressed, Qin Yao seized a moment while Caiping and the others went outside to empty the water basins. She quietly retrieved the hairpin she had hidden beneath her pillow. She hesitated for a long while, reasoning that her cosmetics case was ordinarily kept by Caiping and the others, and that her mother sometimes came by to tidy things up as well. If she hid the pin inside the case, there was no guarantee it would go unnoticed. Better to keep it on her person at all times, so that she would never risk accidentally giving herself away.

Having settled on this, she wrapped the hairpin in a silk handkerchief and carefully tucked it against her chest.

Once everything was in order, she happened to glance up and caught sight of a face in the mirror — vivid and expressive — and she paused, slightly startled. The person looking back seemed somehow far more radiant and lovely than usual, not at all like her ordinary self.

When Caiping returned with the water and stepped through the door, she found Qin Yao sitting in a daze before the mirror, her hair still loose and flowing like clouds around her. Her waist looked slender against it, and her profile was serene and gentle — beautiful, like a figure from a painting.

Only the faint flush of red across her cheeks betrayed that her thoughts were somewhere far away.

Caiping slowed her steps. Recalling the handsome young gentleman she had seen the day before, she understood perfectly well what was going on, and cleared her throat with a cough. That sound was like a thunderclap, and it finally recalled Qin Yao’s wandering soul back to her body.

Caiping came forward to help Qin Yao with her hair and makeup. Seeing that Qin Yao was unusually quiet and obedient, sitting perfectly still and letting her do as she pleased, Caiping lowered her voice and said, “Before you returned to the manor last night, the Young Master came by several times. When you still hadn’t come home after so long, he pressed me to tell him exactly where you had gone and why you were out so late. I had no choice but to say you had gone to find the Daoist Master in the western outskirts and might not make it back for some time. Only then did the Young Master let the matter rest.”

Qin Yao already had a guilty conscience, and hearing this from Caiping, she felt as though she were sitting on a bed of needles. She dreaded the moment her brother might suddenly press her for answers, demanding to know exactly who she had been spending time with.

It took considerable effort before Caiping finally finished her hair and makeup. Qin Yao then hurried to the main hall to pay her respects to her parents. All the way there, her heart was in her throat — she could not be sure whether someone as perceptive as her brother might spot some crack in her composure.

But when she arrived at the main hall, there was only Qu Chen Shi sitting at the head of the room, listening to the household servants report on matters. When she saw Qin Yao, she quickly sent the stewards away and smiled warmly. “I had a feeling you’d be up by now. Mother has prepared all sorts of congee and pastries, just waiting for you to come eat.”

Qin Yao glanced around the room, then went and sat down at the table. “Where are Father and Elder Brother?”

“They’ve gone to the office.” Qu Chen Shi ladled a bowl of mutton congee for Qin Yao herself and urged her to eat it while it was hot. “These days, it seems the court is planning to compile some kind of dictionary. The Hanlin Academy recommended your brother to oversee the project. He has been run off his feet these past few days — even the day before yesterday, when he went to the academy to pick you up, he had specially asked the Academy Director for half a day’s leave. After returning, he worked late into the night writing and revising to catch up, not sleeping until very late.”

Qin Yao was briefly startled, then said happily, “Mother, Brother has only been at the Hanlin Academy such a short time, and already the Academy Director has asked him to lead the dictionary compilation. That means the Director thinks highly of him — you ought to be pleased.”

Qu Chen Shi smiled so broadly that the fine lines at the corners of her eyes deepened. “That is exactly what I said. I have been making him all sorts of nourishing food these days, to keep his strength up, so that he can take this opportunity to make a good impression before the senior officials and earn an early promotion.”

Then, as though remembering something, she said, “A couple of days ago, Madam Feng and Feng Chuyue came to visit. They mentioned that since Boyu took up his post at the Court of Judicial Review, he has already resolved quite a few impressive cases. The Presiding Justice, Lord Liu, has submitted a memorial to the Ministry of Personnel, and within a few days he is to be promoted to Deputy Judge of the Court of Judicial Review. Just think — from clerk to deputy judge, that is three ranks at once. Your father heard and kept saying that Boyu is no ordinary young man, and that one day he might very well rise to become a court minister.”

Qin Yao paused with her spoon in midair. It struck her that ever since she had entered the academy to study, she had not seen Elder Brother Feng or Feng Chuyue for quite some time. Listening to her mother, it seemed Elder Brother Feng was truly destined for great things. She only wondered how Feng Chuyue was getting on lately. Though she had the holiday these two days, she had a number of things to take care of, and might not have the chance to run into the siblings.

She was still thinking about this when she heard her mother ask from beside her, with a note of hope in her voice, “Yesterday, when you went to South Marsh Garden with some of your classmates, did you happen to run into Boyu and young Miss Feng?”

At the three words “South Marsh Garden,” Qin Yao’s face instantly burned. Without pausing to consider the deeper meaning behind her mother’s question, she quickly bent her head over her bowl of congee to hide it, and murmured vaguely, “Yesterday, something happened there. I went to Mount Wuniu in the outskirts to find my master, so I didn’t run into Elder Brother Feng or Chuyue.”

Qu Chen Shi could not conceal her disappointment, and said dejectedly, “A perfectly good Flower Festival, and again it gets tangled up with spirits and monsters. Honestly, in this mother’s opinion, you should marry soon. Once you are a married woman, your master can hardly keep dragging you around fighting and killing.”

At the words “marry soon,” Qin Yao’s heart gave a violent leap. She did not dare respond, and only kept her head down, drinking her congee one spoonful at a time. When she finally finished, she said to her mother, “Mother, yesterday my master and I discovered a malevolent entity on Mount Wuniu. Today I need to go to the temple to discuss what to do about it with my master. It is getting late — I should be on my way.”

Seeing that her mother, though visibly displeased, did not say anything to stop her, Qin Yao breathed a quiet sigh of relief, turned, and slipped away at once.

She boarded the carriage and told Lu Da to drive toward Qingyun Temple.

Halfway along the route, she suddenly heard someone call from in front of the carriage, “Miss Qu.”

She lifted the curtain and looked out. It was Chang Rong and Wei Bo, both on horseback, waiting in her path.

Chang Rong smiled when he saw Qin Yao, and said quickly, “The Young Lord knows you are headed to Qingyun Temple today, so he sent Wei Bo and me to wait for you here. He has gone to the Duke of Lu’s estate to speak with Young Master Jiang Sanlang about something, and once he has finished there, he will come to Qingyun Temple to meet you, Miss Qu.”

Qin Yao nodded and did her best to maintain an unabashed expression as she settled back into the carriage.

When they arrived at Qingyun Temple, her master and A’Han were in the courtyard practicing their exercises. Seeing Qin Yao, they both blinked in surprise. “Why have you come so early?”

Qin Yao found her master’s composure more puzzling than ever. “I came to find out what is going on with that malevolent entity in the Cangheng River,” she said.

She took the cloth hanging from the tree that belonged to her master and handed it to him to wipe away his sweat, then asked, “Master, what did Abbot Yuan Jue say?”

“He was not at the temple last night.” Qing Xuzi wiped his sweat as he spoke. “I waited for him for a long while and he did not come back, so I left word for him. I expect he should arrive around this time.”

Qing Xuzi’s estimate proved correct to the minute. The master and his disciples had barely stepped inside and had not even had time to drink their tea when Fu Yuan came running in to announce, “Master, Abbot Yuan Jue has arrived.”

This time, Qing Xuzi was quite courteous, and quickly asked Fu Yuan to invite Yuan Jue inside.

Qin Yao had assumed Yuan Jue would arrive as before, accompanied by a retinue of disciples. To her surprise, he had brought only a single young novice monk with him, traveling simply and without ceremony — for once without putting on airs. And his expression carried a trace of urgency, quite unlike his usual unhurried, unruffled manner.

Once inside the room, he sent the novice monk away, accepted the tea Fu Yuan offered, took a sip, and asked gravely, “The message you left yesterday said there was something strange in the Cangheng River?”

This was the first time Qin Yao had observed Yuan Jue at close range. She saw that he was refined and clear-featured, composed in his bearing, and carried a distinctly scholarly air. A sudden odd impression struck her — that as her own brother aged, he might come to carry himself in much the same way as Yuan Jue. Though the two were of different generations, both represented the absolute pinnacle of gentle, unworldly elegance. What puzzled her was that Yuan Jue had secluded himself in monastic life for many years, yet his every movement and gesture seemed anything but that of a monk — he bore more of a resemblance to a great Confucian scholar of the present age.

Qing Xuzi wasted no time, telling Yuan Jue in thorough and complete detail everything he had seen at the bottom of the Cangheng River the day before. When he finished, feeling that it was still not enough, he laid out for his inspection every sutra scroll he had taken from inside the coffin.

“From the look of this array formation, it is clearly the work of some eminent Buddhist monk who had poured all his effort into constructing it, in order to suppress that creature beneath the river. I cannot fathom why the formation has broken down and allowed the malevolent entity to escape.”

Upon hearing this, Yuan Jue abruptly rose to his feet, took up the sutra scrolls, and carried them to the window. He examined them page by page in the morning light. After a long while, his expression turned profoundly dark. He sank back down, and murmured faintly, “Could it be that what was suppressed beneath the river is actually a Jade Corpse?”

“A Jade Corpse?” Qing Xuzi was visibly shaken. “I recall that you once mentioned, in your earlier years, that the great Buddhist patriarch Zhida had once subdued a demonic corpse. That corpse took the form of a woman and was known as the ‘Queen of the Undead’ — supremely ferocious and malevolent. After coming forth into the world, it would roam far and wide in search of men whose souls were compatible with its own, transforming them into male corpses, and from among those selecting a Corpse King — known as the Golden Corpse. Should the Corpse King and Corpse Queen unite, they would bring catastrophe upon the world of the living. This was what later generations came to call the calamity of the ‘Gold Set in Jade.’ Could it be that the female coffin lying beneath the river actually contains the Jade Corpse?”

Upon hearing this, Yuan Jue spun around sharply. “Those two coffins you found beneath the river — did both of them contain sutra scrolls, or only the one in the female coffin?”

Qing Xuzi, with years of experience in subduing the supernatural, had always been attentive to the crux of any matter. Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Only the female coffin contained sutra scrolls. The male coffin was completely empty.”

Yuan Jue was silent for a brief moment, then spoke slowly. “In those days, Patriarch Zhida, in order to pacify the malevolent energy of the Jade Corpse, had a false coffin specially placed beside hers — so that the Jade Corpse would not feel lonely and desolate inside the coffin, growing restless and eventually breaking through the formation to return to the world, where it would then seek out a suitable male companion to transform into a Golden Corpse. By all indications, the malevolent creature beneath the Cangheng River is indeed the Jade Corpse without question. What remains unclear is when exactly it broke through Patriarch Zhida’s formation, and where it may be lying dormant at this moment.”

Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Qin Yao broke in. “If it is only a corpse, why would it feel lonely and desolate?”

Yuan Jue turned to look at Qin Yao, settled back into his chair, took a sip of tea, and said, “That is quite a long story.”