Lu Zigan was startled and recalled that the person who sold him the Wordless Stele at the Xi’an Ghost Market had worn a white windbreaker with a hood: “You’re the one who sold me that half of the Wordless Stele?”
Hu Hai shrugged his shoulders and said, “I know it’s not proper to ask for sold antiques back, but I only just learned that the Wordless Stele cannot be reunited into one piece. I originally thought you wouldn’t be able to complete the Wordless Stele!” What he said was half-true and half-false. In reality, this was completely fabricated—he just needed an excuse to bring Lu Zigan to the Dumb House.
Seeing that Hu Hai refused to elaborate, Lu Zigan sensed there was probably something improper about this. He remembered that when he had initially pieced the two halves of the Wordless Stele together, his soul had traveled back to the prosperous Tang period, possessing the bodies of several people whom Wu Zetian had personally killed. At first, he could only observe but not speak, but when he finally possessed Xue Huaiyi’s body, he was able to converse with Wu Zetian across more than a thousand years of time and space. What if there were further consequences…
With this train of thought, Lu Zigan became restless. Although he had traded that half of the Wordless Stele for the铻 knife he really liked, he couldn’t cause trouble for the shopkeeper at the Dumb House. He steadied himself and decided to use this opportunity to first see how this Young Master Hu would restore the damaged “Qiantang Scenery” scroll before him, then discuss other matters.
Hu Hai smiled slightly and withdrew a white-handled brush from his chest. The brush handle was made from some unknown material—it looked like ivory, but the color wasn’t quite right. It was whiter than ivory, with a finer texture and gentle luster. There were no carvings on the handle, simple and elegant. The brush head was also white. At first glance, one might think it was a new brush, but Lu Zigan felt this brush was probably very ancient.
“This brush handle is made from the metacarpal bone of the divine beast White Marsh, and the brush head is made from White Marsh’s tail hair,” Hu Hai approached and kindly answered Lu Zigan’s unspoken question.
“White Marsh?” Lu Zigan was rather speechless, thinking Hu Hai was joking with him. He naturally knew about White Marsh—it was a legendary divine beast from Mount Kunlun, pure white all over, capable of human speech, understanding the emotions of all things, and rarely appearing. Legend had it that when the Yellow Emperor toured eastward, he encountered White Marsh by the Eastern Sea. White Marsh was learned and knowledgeable, and at the Yellow Emperor’s request, created an illustrated guide to ghosts and spirits containing 11,520 varieties. It was said that White Marsh’s entire body was treasure, with the power to bring the dead back to life. In any case, it was a legendary divine beast from ancient times, and quite impressive at that. But no matter how impressive, it was still just legend!
Hu Hai looked at the pure white brush in his hand, his expression showing not the slightest ripple. His pale eyelashes fluttered a few times as he said calmly, “Precisely because White Marsh’s entire body was treasure—guilty of possessing a jade—it quickly disappeared from this world, leaving only legends. They say it knew astronomy above and geography below, understood the past and future, so how could it not foresee its own tragic end?”
Lu Zigan heard the hidden loneliness in his words and couldn’t help sighing, “Perhaps it knew all along…”
Hu Hai glanced at Lu Zigan sideways with his crimson eyes, not continuing this topic: “This brush, made from the metacarpal bone and hair of the divine beast White Marsh, possesses the ability to alter or restore any calligraphy or painting.”
“Huh?” Lu Zigan’s face was full of question marks, complete disbelief.
Hu Hai smiled slightly and said with some nostalgia, “Back then, when Zhao Gao altered my father emperor’s posthumous edict, he used this very brush. Otherwise, do you think all those court ministers and generals were blind?”
Lu Zigan was stunned, then thought to himself that this Young Master Hu must have been playing too much cosplay. It was one thing for him to call himself Hu Hai, but now Zhao Gao and Qin Shihuang were appearing too? However, he kept his complaints to himself, wisely not voicing them aloud, treating it as listening to a joke.
Hu Hai said nothing more. He gestured for Lu Zigan to move aside, then picked up an unopened bottle of mineral water from the table, poured it into a glass cup, reached for the White Marsh brush to dip it slightly, and before Lu Zigan could react, began painting directly on the scroll.
Lu Zigan cried out in alarm. He hadn’t expected Hu Hai to move so quickly. The moment the White Marsh brush touched the painting, Lu Zigan’s heart nearly shattered. Even if it was a damaged Tang Yin scroll, it was still worth a fortune! If auctioned outside, it would definitely fetch eight figures! Could he please not be so calm and casual about this?! He really couldn’t handle it!
Lu Zigan had never known he could transform into a raging emperor, but just as he came to his senses and was about to push aside this reckless Young Master Hu regardless of consequences, his peripheral vision caught sight of the painting on the table, and he froze as if someone had pressed his acupuncture points, unable to move.
He saw the damaged scroll come back to life like resurrection from death. The horses’ manes in the painting became minutely visible, seeming to move without wind. The plants by the Qiantang River recovered their verdant green, as if spring had returned to earth. The missing characters in the seven-character quatrain revealed all their text, the blurred seals became clear, and most miraculously, even the yellowed silk cloth returned to a fresh light yellow color like new.
Lu Zigan stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Beside him, Hu Hai was concentrating intently on painting, his profile as beautiful as an elf from a painting. His brushwork flowed smoothly, every gesture filled with ancient elegance and nobility. In a trance, it seemed like seeing a noble young master in ceremonial cap and wide belt, painting in pavilions and towers.
Lu Zigan blinked hard, and when he reopened his eyes, he found he was still in his familiar laboratory, but what lay before him was indeed a brand-new “Qiantang Scenery.”
It was truly brand-new, exactly like a newly painted work, with even the ink not yet fully dry. If not for this happening in the blink of an eye, he would almost suspect that Hu Hai had replaced the ancient painting with a forgery…
Lu Zigan was about to go crazy. Was this what restoration meant? This was no different from destroying the painting!
Seeing Lu Zigan’s twisted expression, Hu Hai smiled with interest: “Don’t worry, I just painted with mineral water. When it dries, it will return to its original state. This is just showing you a preview. If you want to restore it to whatever period you desire, that’s also possible, but that would require higher-quality ink—preferably Tinggui ink would be best. However, Tinggui ink rarely survives to the present. Later Hui ink would barely suffice. We can research this after retrieving that half of the Wordless Stele.”
Lu Zigan supported himself against the table, feeling all his strength drained away.
Jokes shouldn’t be played like this! Damn it!
Since the next day was the weekend, after Lu Zigan confirmed that “Qiantang Scenery” had indeed returned to its original state, he carefully stored it back in the sterile container, planning to go home to get his luggage and then head straight to the airport with Hu Hai.
But Hu Hai shook his finger: “No need for such trouble.”
Lu Zigan felt puzzled and hadn’t had time to ask when he saw Hu Hai pull a yellow cloth from his pocket and hand him one corner, indicating he should grab it. Lu Zigan followed the instruction in bewilderment, but the moment his hand touched the cloth, he suddenly felt the world spinning. This lasted only a second or two. When he regained consciousness and reopened his eyes, he discovered that he and Hu Hai were no longer in the laboratory but standing in a dim alley. The surrounding buildings were absolutely Jiangnan style, and he could even hear people bargaining in authentic Jiangzhe dialect from the nearby commercial street.
Lu Zigan opened his mouth but said nothing because he felt this was too absurd. Even his attempts at speculation were immediately overturned by himself—this simply wasn’t reasonable.
“We’ve arrived,” Hu Hai announced naturally, destroying Lu Zigan’s self-deception. Knowing Lu Zigan would surely ask questions, he explained while putting away the cloth: “This is the yellow headband of Zhang Jue, leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. As the founder of the Way of Supreme Peace, he indeed possessed some magical powers.” Hu Hai paused, noticing Lu Zigan opening his mouth again, and felt somewhat displeased. He thought his explanation was clear enough, though it was only one sentence.
“Any other questions?” Hu Hai narrowed his crimson eyes, looking dangerously at Lu Zigan.
“I just remembered I haven’t clocked out from work…”
“…” Young Master Hu immediately turned and walked away.
“Um… actually, after getting back that half of the Wordless Stele, you could consider sending me back—that would save on travel expenses…” Lu Zigan wisely hurried to catch up. As a member of the Beijing drifter community with a meager salary, every saving counted!
As soon as the two emerged from the alley, Lu Zigan saw the Dumb House across the street, just like when he had visited before—the small seal script signboard and the antique carved door.
Hu Hai strode over with large steps and pushed the carved door with one hand, but it didn’t open as Lu Zigan expected. Instead, it remained completely motionless.
Lu Zigan made a light sound of surprise: “Could it be closed? But that doesn’t seem right.” Generally, when shops closed, didn’t they lock up or put down metal gates? Lu Zigan knocked on the door and got no response, so he walked to a nearby window to look inside. He remembered this window was clearly transparent glass, but now it was all fogged up. Probably due to the cold winter weather, a layer of moisture had formed, and nothing could be seen clearly. He could only see the dim glow from the Changxin Palace Lamp inside flickering. Unwilling to give up, he pressed against the crack of the carved door, but found it sealed tight—nothing could be seen.
Hu Hai showed no surprise at this; instead, he smiled. No one being there suited his purposes perfectly. This carved door was indeed peculiar, as he well knew. This should be an inner door from the underground palace that the person had moved from the Qin Emperor’s mausoleum. Only the master could enter; others couldn’t push the door open without the master’s permission. In the underground palace, the master had naturally passed away, so when the craftsmen finally sealed the door, no one should ever be able to enter the underground palace again. Back then, he had ordered that person to be buried alive, not knowing he had once tasted the elixir of immortality, hadn’t died, and instead crawled out from the tomb, thus breaking the door’s prohibition. Now it had been brought here as a shop door—as long as that person wasn’t present, no one could freely enter the Dumb House. It was truly more effective than any security door.
However, he had a method.
There were small puddles on the ground remaining from yesterday’s rain. Hu Hai withdrew the White Marsh brush from his chest, bent down to dip it in some rainwater, and simply drew a door on the carved door. Then, under Lu Zigan’s dumbfounded gaze, he gently pushed, and that “door” creaked open.
Hu Hai leisurely walked in, turned back to see Lu Zigan standing there like a wooden post, and frowned: “Aren’t you coming in? It will lose effectiveness soon.”
Lu Zigan knew there was definitely something wrong with Hu Hai doing this. Entering when the shopkeeper wasn’t there clearly indicated ulterior motives, definitely not just to retrieve that half of the Wordless Stele. But at this moment, he absolutely couldn’t let Hu Hai go in alone. By following him, he could at least try to stop him, right? Lu Zigan looked around furtively like a thief and quickly slipped inside. Only after entering did he realize that the White Marsh brush in Hu Hai’s hand was truly formidable—it could even be used like the Magic Brush Ma Liang! If this brush drew a gun, could it be used as a gun too? Then if he threatened him to be an accomplice, should he comply? Or comply? Or comply?