Whether or not the Xue household had sent someone, Lang Jiuchuan did not know at present. But Nanny Wang had found her way here, and it was partly thanks to Ding Mangu. Nanny Wang’s own standing was relatively decent — though she was in service, her husband Wang Xi managed a rice shop on behalf of their household. Wang Xi was on familiar terms with Ding Mangu, who dealt in grain and provisions, and knew something of his affairs. When their mistress encountered misfortune and needed someone to help her find a direction, she had asked Ding Mangu, who had recommended Wanshi Pawnshop.

What she had not expected was that this person would turn out to be someone she had met before — the Lang Family’s Ninth Daughter, the one who had once helped Master Xue the Elder and his grandson avert a great calamity.

“After Xue Family’s First Young Madam learned that our young mistress had fallen ill, she came to pay a visit. She mentioned wanting to invite you to our household to have a look, and it was through Proprietor Ding that she also learned of Wanshi Pawnshop in Xunxiang Lane as a place that could resolve all manner of troubles — so she came to try her luck. She hadn’t expected it would be you as well, which is quite the coincidence.” Nanny Wang smiled warmly and made small talk. “But who could have anticipated that the Miss would see at a glance that I had come on behalf of our young mistress?”

Her words said one thing, but her tone carried a slight edge of amusement, tinged with a trace of probing skepticism and condescension.

“On the lower right side of your face, in the region corresponding to the position of the servant’s palace, there is a faint shadow of greenish-black — like a dark cloud rolling in, dim and without luster. The flesh beneath that area has sunk in by roughly the depth of three layers of skin, producing a ‘hanging needle’ line that cuts through that palace position, indicating misfortune for one’s principal.” Lang Jiuchuan pointed calmly at her face. “Left governs male, right governs female. You yourself have told me you are the wet nurse of the young mistress of Chengle Marquisate Manor. Since the servant’s palace on your face now carries darkness, it naturally means you have come because of her.”

Nanny Wang gave a sudden start, the condescension in her eyes diminishing somewhat. On instinct, she took out a small hand mirror and held it up to her face, looking where Lang Jiuchuan had indicated — and sure enough, there was quite a deep vertical line there, one she had somehow never noticed before.

She looked at Lang Jiuchuan again. At first glance, seeing Lang Jiuchuan so young, and with an air of fragility and insufficiency about her, Nanny Wang had felt some unease and condescension — how could someone like this resolve her mistress’s troubles?

But with what Lang Jiuchuan had just said, she began to feel she had misjudged the young woman.

And besides, those words carried an additional layer of meaning, did they not?

Nanny Wang grew somewhat anxious. “From what you are saying, Miss — does that mean I am afflicting my own mistress?”

Lang Jiuchuan shook her head. “Changes in the servant’s palace do not always indicate the servant afflicting the master. It can equally indicate the master afflicting the servant. You have been her wet nurse — if she has been touched by some Yin malevolence, and you spend your days in close company with her, you too will be influenced by its aura. In fact, you have already been affected. I can see some Yin malevolent energy on you. You have likely been feeling mentally restless and unsettled of late, frequently waking from nightmares in a cold sweat, with your heart beating rapidly.”

Nanny Wang felt a chill run down her back, and nodded quickly. “Exactly so, Miss. These past days I have been feeling anxious and unsettled, waking often from nightmares, and there is a persistent cold chill over my body. Are you saying I have been contaminated by Yin malevolent energy?”

Fear crept into her eyes. Could it truly be that her mistress had encountered something malevolent?

But how could that be? Her mistress devoted herself daily to honoring the gods and the Buddha, her devotion most sincere. How could something malevolent have touched her?

“There is some Yin malevolent energy on you. If it is not cleared, given time it will develop into persistent ailments clinging to the body.” Lang Jiuchuan said. “However, it is not particularly severe. Going to a temple to obtain a protective talisman and carrying some ash from before the Buddha should suffice. Now, regarding the servant’s palace on your face.”

She studied the hanging needle line. “This line, though deep, has only recently appeared — indicating that misfortune has befallen the mistress recently. But I would advise you not to serve in close attendance in the near term either.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Lang Jiuchuan said, “Your servant’s palace carries a hanging needle line with a sunken, overturned-boat shape, and on the left side of your upper cheek there is also a greenish vein cutting across. If another divination practitioner were to read your face, they might take one look and conclude — with their preconceptions already formed — that you bear a hidden mark of punishment and affliction in your life-gate, placing you in a configuration where a servant brings harm to the master. Could a wet nurse bearing such a reading, they would say, be allowed to remain in attendance?”

Nanny Wang’s face went pale. “But you said it is not I who afflicts her — it is my mistress who…”

“Others may not say it that way. Some might choose to flatter the mistress and place the fault on you first. Once the mistress hears those words, how well would you fare?”

Lang Jiuchuan said plainly, “You are, in your daily conduct, rather a kind-hearted person. It is on that account that I offer you these extra words. Whether you take them to heart is your own matter.”

The woman carried a faint light of merit on her — she was a person of good heart. That was why Lang Jiuchuan had chosen to speak these words of benefit to her. As for whether she listened, that was entirely up to her.

Nanny Wang immediately rose and gave her a respectful bow. “This servant is deeply grateful for your guidance, Miss.”

What Lang Jiuchuan had said was indeed reasonable. Another practitioner might not speak this way at all — they might simply say she was afflicting her mistress, and then both she herself and her entire household would be cast out without further consideration.

A servant marked as afflicting her master was useless wherever she went.

Nanny Wang now held Lang Jiuchuan in complete admiration. “You are truly good-hearted, Miss. I know what I must do. But as for my mistress — I beg you to make a visit.”

“She has been afflicted by a lingering condition?” Lang Jiuchuan said.

Between the bridge of Nanny Wang’s nose and the servant’s palace, there ran a thread of red — what was also known as an Yin Malevolence Line — which indicated that the principal of the household was afflicted by a lingering ailment, with disaster entering the threshold. At the lighter end, an illness that dragged on without cure; at the heavier end, loss of life.

And since Nanny Wang herself carried Yin malevolent energy on her body, it meant that the young mistress had attracted something malevolent, and that she had already been struck back by the malevolent force — for it to have spread and affected those around her in such a manner, one could see how grave her situation had grown.

Nanny Wang’s eyes reddened, and she nodded. “My young mistress is already unable to rise from her bed. She is a truly fine person, gentle and fair to everyone around her. As for whether I truly afflict her — if I do, then I will leave without a second thought. I only ask that the young miss can recover.”

Lang Jiuchuan cast her thoughts back to Xue Family’s First Young Madam’s natal family — they seemed to be surnamed Zheng, from a family of scholars and literary tradition. This Xiao Zheng Shi, then, had married into a household of meritorious nobility.

Nanny Wang had already begun to speak of the strange circumstances surrounding Xiao Zheng Shi. She had married into Chengle Marquisate Manor three years ago, yet had not conceived a child in all that time. At first, people had said she was still young, that there was no need to rush — but a year or two was one thing; three full years with no heir was, for a noble manor, certainly a matter of concern.

And so Xiao Zheng Shi had taken to actively tending to her health and constitution. In her daily life she devoted herself to charitable works, burning incense and offering prayers to the Buddha for a child. But no child ever came, and instead she had grown inwardly troubled and unable to feel at ease, growing thinner and thinner with each passing month.

Toward the latter half of last year, she had fallen ill with a wind-chill. It dragged on in fits and starts. Imperial physicians from the palace and renowned civilian practitioners had all come to take her pulse and prescribe remedies. Prescription after prescription was tried, and still no improvement came. She had spent the New Year lying in bed recovering, and after the new year, she could no longer even rise from the bed.

Nanny Wang said with barely contained anger, “My young mistress is so ill she cannot get up, and there are still those who have the nerve to make their cutting remarks — saying she got sick from praying so desperately for a child, and saying things like she is a hen that won’t lay eggs and ought to vacate her place already. Bah — they are nothing but small-hearted people!”

She looked at Lang Jiuchuan. “At first, our young mistress thought it was nothing more than a wind-chill. But in the past half month or so, she has been saying she constantly dreams of someone demanding her life — accusing her of taking what belonged to them, their face contorted with rage — and then a Bodhisattva appearing to reproach her for irreverence, all manner of muddled and disturbing visions. Only then did we realize something was truly not right. Could she have encountered something malevolent? Just then, Xue Family’s First Young Madam came to visit, heard of this, and mentioned you. And my husband and I also learned of Wanshi Pawnshop in Xunxiang Lane through Ding Mangu. And so, with our mistress’s leave, we came here to beg for your help.”

Nanny Wang rose and knelt down before Lang Jiuchuan. “If the Miss can resolve our mistress’s affliction, we are willing to offer a thousand taels of gold as compensation, and to donate alms and build bridges in your name.”