Wangting Manor had been quiet for seven or eight days. Although many people came and went through the courtyards daily, delivering messages, no one had tracked down the whereabouts of Shen Langhun and Tang Lici. Fu Cui was convinced that those two must be traveling together, but after extensive searching by the scouts, no one had seen a man with a red snake tattoo on his face. They had captured quite a few men with abdominal injuries, but none were Tang Lici. They had also searched the nearby villages and towns several times, but no one had seen any suspicious individuals matching their descriptions. Shen Langhun and Tang Lici had vanished as if they had disappeared into that smoky mist, leaving no trace to follow.
The winter days were cold and clear. After several days of rain and snow, today finally brought sunshine. Tang Lici had been recuperating in a civilian dwelling on the edge of town for seven or eight days. The homeowner had taken his one thousand taels of silver notes, happily hiding them in the cellar, remaining silent throughout and turning a deaf ear to whatever happened above.
Tang Lici had not applied makeup to A’Shui and the other two. He had merely taught them some basic techniques for disguise. A’Shui and the others smeared charcoal ash and egg white on their faces, turning their originally delicate features gray and unsightly. They applied a bit of rouge under their eyes, making their eyes appear red and swollen. Although their technique was far from Tang Lici’s masterful skill, it made them look completely different from before.
Tang Lici applied light makeup to his own face, disguising himself as a woman. A’Shui bound his abdominal wound with cloth strips to stop the bleeding. To prevent anyone from discovering his injury, she wrapped thick layers of cloth around his waist, making him appear to be a pregnant woman carrying a child. His silver hair was too eye-catching, so A’Shui ground ink and applied it to his bound silver hair, dyeing it black, then wrapped it with a dark-colored headband to conceal the strangely colored hair.
Fengfeng spent the entire day climbing on Tang Lici’s bed. Tang Lici would lean against the bed sitting up, while Fengfeng crawled to the foot of the bed, burying his head in the bedding and exposing his little bottom with his back turned. Tang Lici ignored him most of the time. Sometimes when the weather was truly cold and Fengfeng shivered from the chill, he would cover him with a blanket, but whenever he moved to help, Fengfeng would burst into tears as if he had been severely beaten.
The days passed like this for seven or eight days. Tang Lici’s abdominal wound gradually healed. A’Shui changed his bandages every few days. Although the wound healed quickly, she felt no joy in her heart. Shen Langhun’s blade had penetrated very deeply and overlapped with two old scars on his abdomen, tearing open the old wounds. The wound was very large, almost revealing the organs beneath. When she first applied medicine, she vaguely saw a mass of bloody, blurred flesh deep within his abdomen. That must be Fang Zhou’s heart… but… in that brief glimpse, she felt that thing didn’t look like a human heart.
It was a mass of… something very ominous… very frightening…
A human heart buried in the abdomen, after several years of time, what would it become? Would it still be a heart?
She had no opportunity to examine it more carefully. Tang Lici’s wound healed very quickly, and by the eighth day, it had scabbed over nicely. While recovering, Tang Lici would sit on the bed reading books. She couldn’t understand why he could still read books like “Three Character Classic” and “Thousand Character Classic.” Tang Lici read very slowly. Sometimes by candlelight, with snow falling outside the window, the shadow of the book reflected on his beautiful face… as if there was a kind of tenderness, lingering in that lamplight and snowy sounds.
Lin Bu was a learned scholar, a great expert in classics. Tang Lici did not discuss books or poetry with him. He read alone, not conversing with anyone or expressing any opinions. Leaning against the bed, he would gaze at a page for a long time, then slowly turn the page and look for a long while more.
At such times, his mood must be very peaceful. Although no one knew what he was thinking, he was indeed very peaceful.
On a clear winter day with high skies and broad clouds, the front door creaked open. Yu Tuan’er returned from buying vegetables. Seeing the quiet interior, she stuck out her tongue and quietly poked her head inside. Tang Lici was leaning against the bed reading. Today he had not disguised himself as a woman. A’Shui sat on a kitchen stool with her chin propped up, quietly staring at the clean stove in a daze. Fengfeng sat on Tang Lici’s bed, seriously watching two small insects flying around the ceiling.
“Mmm… mmm mmm…” Fengfeng saw Yu Tuan’er return and pointed at the flying insects on the ceiling. “Wu wu wu wu…” Yu Tuan’er stepped through the door and with a wave of her hand, the two small insects fell down immediately. Fengfeng laughed at once and crawled toward her, pointing at the floor and then at the wall. His soft little mouth pouted, “Hoo… hoo wu…” His beautiful eyes opened very wide, “Gu gu gu…”
Yu Tuan’er saw him pouting and pointing this way and that, his gaze extremely focused, but she didn’t know what he was saying. Fengfeng crawled over and grabbed her sleeve. “Wu wu wu… wu wu wu…”
“Even if you ‘wu wu wu’ a hundred times, I still won’t know what you’re saying!” Yu Tuan’er pinched his face. The baby’s cheeks were pink and adorable, but as soon as she reached out to pinch his face, Fengfeng turned his head and bit her, looking very unhappy, then crawled under the blanket to hide.
“Ow!” Yu Tuan’er rubbed her hand. “He bites…” Tang Lici turned a page of his book and said leisurely, “He’s asking you to kill the little spiders on the wall and floor.” Yu Tuan’er glared at him. “You know what he’s saying, so why don’t you do it?” Tang Lici closed his book. “If you help him kill them once, and tomorrow you don’t continue helping him, he’ll cry.” He placed his hand flat on the bedding. The blanket was water-green, making Tang Lici’s hand appear white as jade. “Can you kill spiders for him all the time?”
Yu Tuan’er tilted her head to look at him. “You’re really heartless. Your mother definitely didn’t love you when you were little.” Tang Lici sat very straight, maintaining an upright and elegant posture, as if there was a palace in front of him. “Your mother loved you very much.” He smiled slightly. “That’s why you’re not afraid of anything.”
“I’m afraid of death.” Yu Tuan’er saw A’Shui’s gaze turn toward them and immediately headed to the kitchen. “I’m very afraid of death. Besides death, I’m not afraid of anything.” Tang Lici lowered his eyelashes slightly. Yu Tuan’er carried the vegetable basket and chattered with A’Shui about what dishes to make for lunch. He was thinking… the little girl surnamed Yu was not afraid of anything except death.
It would be easy to kill her.
Tang Lici spread out his right hand. His palm was very white with few wrinkles, both straight and smooth. This hand had killed many people. Sometimes he would apply a layer of “autumn soap” to the edges of his fingernails – a type of poison, not too toxic, but it would cause skin to fester and leave deep scars.
He liked to leave marks on others, preferably the kind that would never fade. As a child, he would carve characters into cats and dogs, cutting too deep, blood flowing everywhere. They all died, making the game very boring. Later he left scars on people. Anything that would never fade brought him great pleasure.
Yu Tuan’er was not afraid of anything except death. It would be easy to kill her, but once she was dead, she truly wouldn’t be afraid of anything anymore. Tang Lici opened the book he had been reading, lowering his gaze to read quietly. People must have things they fear – everyone is the same.
“Sister A’Shui, what were you thinking about just now?” Yu Tuan’er took out the radishes, arranging them in a row on the cutting board. “Didn’t you even hear Fengfeng asking someone to kill spiders?” A’Shui shook her head. She had been completely lost in thought. “No, I was thinking about Young Master Tang.” She took the radishes, washed them in clean water, and began peeling them.
“What about Young Master Tang?” Yu Tuan’er broke off a piece of crisp radish to eat, the sound of her chewing fresh and clear. “Wondering if his wound has healed?” A’Shui shook her head and smiled gently. “I don’t know… thinking and thinking, it seems like I thought of nothing, yet also like I thought of many, many things.” Yu Tuan’er leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Hey, Sister A’Shui, can a person survive with such a big gash cut across their belly? Could he be… a monster?”
“A monster?” A’Shui was startled and set the basin full of radishes aside. “He can survive because Young Master Tang has high martial arts skills and a strong constitution. He’s certainly not a monster.” Yu Tuan’er gave a small snort. “I think he’s quite like a monster.” She crouched down to light the fire and stopped talking about Tang Lici.
A demon… A’Shui mixed the cut pork with seasonings and silently looked at the iron pot on the stove. If she had never known Tang Lici, perhaps she too would think such a man was just a demon. But now she always felt… if a few more people said he was a demon, he might truly… completely transform into a “demon.”
A kind of demon that deliberately concealed all humanity, taking pleasure in manipulating others’ emotions, omnipotent, indestructible, never dying.
Tang Lici would transform into this kind of demon. Since Chi Yun’s death, this tendency had become even more obvious.
But… would becoming a demon really be better than being human? Wasn’t it because he couldn’t bear the pain of being human that he gradually transformed into a demon? Fang Zhou was dead, Chi Yun was dead, Shao Yanping was dead… there were many things that could never be recovered no matter how desperately one tried. What he had lost was far more than just human lives. Young Master Tang was… simply a very timid person. He broke down too easily. To prevent people from noticing and mocking him, he would rather become a demon.
A’Shui briefly stir-fried the pork in the pot, covered it with a lid to simmer, and raised her eyes to look outside. She saw Tang Lici spread out his palm, examining his fingers carefully, not knowing what he was thinking.
Yu Tuan’er finished washing the vegetables and stood up, about to set up another wok when she suddenly heard footsteps. Lin Bu hurried in from outside. “Miss A’Shui, Miss A’Shui.” A’Shui put down her spatula. “Young Master Lin?” Lin Bu held a rolled notice in his hand. “Today a notice was posted on the stone tablet at the entrance of Chengfeng Town, saying that demons are hidden in Chengfeng Town. Wangting Manor, in order to eliminate the demons, will select one person from the town each day to behead, using human lives for rituals, until the demons appear and are destroyed. If the demons don’t appear for one day, Wangting Manor will kill one person. Now most of the people in Chengfeng Town have fled, and the people from Fengliu Shop have also captured many people and hung them on trees outside the manor, saying they’ll kill one person per day.”