Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Midnight Carriage

Several men who had meant no good broke out in a cold sweat, hurriedly tossed down their money, and fled one after another, not even daring to finish the soup that remained in their bowls.

Once they were gone, the old woman let out a long breath. Then she turned to Zhao Fusheng and said seriously, “Many thanks for your mercy, my lady.”

Running a stall here was no easy matter. If trouble arose, the others would not dare make a fuss with Zhao Fusheng, but from then on, who would still dare come to her stall for soup?

Zhao Fusheng shook her head and looked at the bowls of soup before her.

“It was your soup that helped me remember.”

She had believed herself clearheaded and beyond the control of ghosts, thinking herself wiser than she was. Fortunately, the instant murderous rage began to rise in her, the hot steam and fragrance of the soup struck her full in the face, and she came to her senses at once.

The old woman froze. Zhao Fusheng then asked, “Do you make your living from this stall alone?”

The woman nodded.

The men had left in such haste that they had knocked over the stools as they went. She righted them one by one, then gathered the money from the tabletop.

Seeing the unfinished soup in the bowl, she showed a look of regret, poured the remaining soup into a single bowl, and packed away the rest, placing everything into a basin to soak.

Since no customers were coming anyway, and with Zhao Fusheng sitting here, likely no one else would dare approach for the time being. So she simply pulled up a stool and sat before Zhao Fusheng, chatting with her as if among old friends.

“I live off this stall alone. I sell a bit of food each day, and it is enough for my keep.”

“Have you ever thought of moving to another place to set up?”

Zhao Fusheng lifted the bowl. Steam immediately veiled her face, and her gaze turned obscure and unreadable.

“The shops on that street by the Demon Suppression Office now belong to me. I’ve had people refurbish them. When the work is done, the shops will be vacant.”

“…”

The old woman stared, flustered and at a loss.

Zhao Fusheng took a sip of soup and spoke kindly. “We are fated to meet. In my most wretched days, you once said you would treat me to soup. I would like to repay that kindness. If you are willing, you may choose first from the shops on that street. What do you think?”

“No, no.” At the first hint of this, the old woman waved her hands in panic.

At first she feared her refusal might seem ungrateful, but when she saw Zhao Fusheng smiling at her, she sighed in defeat.

“My lady, please do not tease me like this.”

Uneasily, she wiped her hands and said, “If you have something to ask, just ask it directly.”

Zhao Fusheng’s gaze fell upon her hands. They were broad and rough, with obvious cracked calluses at the knuckles, dirt trapped in the fissures that no washing could fully remove. These were the marks left by years of toil.

She wore coarse cloth garments faded white by repeated washing, and an apron patched again and again, yet clean enough to show no trace of grime.

Running a food stall every day was no easy labor.

According to Liu Yizhen, she had come here ten years ago in search of relatives, and after that, for reasons unknown, she simply stayed and never left. Ten years passed in a single place.

Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng said, “Two days ago, I took up a case in Dog Head Village.”

“…”

The old woman had thought Zhao Fusheng meant to ask her something. She had even prepared herself for a thorough interrogation, but to her surprise the conversation veered suddenly to a case from the Demon Suppression Office.

The Demon Suppression Office was no ordinary place; ordinary cases would never reach the commandant. If Zhao Fusheng mentioned one, it was naturally a ghost case.

But she was only an ordinary woman, and her relationship with Zhao Fusheng was nowhere near close enough for such matters. The old woman felt anxious and uneasy, yet did not interrupt. Instead, she clenched her apron tightly with both hands and listened intently.

“The fiend in that case is somewhat unusual,” Zhao Fusheng said after a pause, taking another sip of soup before continuing. “But what is most unusual is its origin.”

The old woman grew even more tense, gripping her apron so hard her fingers went white, unable to understand why Zhao Fusheng would tell her all this.

Zhao Fusheng remained unhurried. “This ghost’s birth was not something that could be spoken of openly. Its father was a loafing idler in the village. At an age when he should have been married, he gave rise to wicked intentions out of poverty and abducted a young woman to bring home.”

At these words, the old woman’s face changed at once.

All the while Zhao Fusheng had been watching her. Seeing the shift in her expression, she knew her words had struck a hidden wound in the old woman’s heart.

The woman became nearly unable to sit still. She clearly wished to rise and leave, but forced herself to remain where she was.

Her dim yellow eyes, rimmed with red, filled with moisture, and she held back tears with all her strength.

“After making inquiries, I learned that the girl abducted by that village idler had been taken from Beggar Alley.”

Zhao Fusheng set down her bowl and fixed the old woman with a steady look.

“I heard from Liu Yizhen at the Temple of the Sage that you came here ten years ago, originally in search of family.”

The old woman was on the verge of tears. Zhao Fusheng went on, “The last time we spoke, you said you were originally from Changzhou, married into Wuli County in Tongzhou, and had a child at home.”

Her memory was astonishing; even casual remarks made in conversation with the old woman had been firmly remembered.

“Afterward, I looked into it. Tongzhou is not near here at all. We belong to Xuzhou under Wan’an County, and from Wuli County to here, even with changes of carriage and road, it would take seven or eight days, would it not?”

The old woman gave a soft sob, lowered her head, and used the corner of her apron to dab at her eyes before whispering, “It took more than two months.”

When Zhao Fusheng heard this, she paused. Then her expression softened slightly.

“Beggar Alley used to be a chaotic place, full of all sorts of people. According to the villagers of Dog Head Village, women and children trafficked within Wan’an County were almost always hidden in Beggar Alley, waiting to be sold on.”

At this, the old woman lowered her head and cried even more softly.

Zhao Fusheng sighed. Seeing her like this, there was no need to ask many things; she already understood.

“You traveled for more than two months to reach Wan’an County and ended up staying here. Was it because you learned that your daughter had once appeared here?”

Those words struck the deepest sorrow she had hidden for years. The old woman could no longer hold herself together and burst into heartrending sobs.

“Yes.”

Zhao Fusheng gently set the soup bowl on the table.

Warm steam, carrying the fragrance of grain, rose in wisps. The old woman tried desperately to restrain herself, but still could not stop sobbing.

After a long while, she barely controlled her emotions and forced out a faint smile.

“Forgive my shame, my lady. Whenever I speak of my daughter, I always—”

Zhao Fusheng shook her head and sighed. “Parents love their children by nature. It is only human for them to weep when a child goes missing. What is there to be laughed at?”

Her tone was calm, and those words made the old woman’s eyes glisten again. She stared blankly for a moment.

“Yes,” she said.

After this brief exchange, it seemed they had drawn a little closer. The old woman wiped her eyes and steadied herself.

“I was born in Su County, Changzhou. My father was a scholar who failed the imperial examinations time and again. In his youth, he had a close friend from the academy, and early on they arranged a betrothal for me.”

The old woman did not know why Zhao Fusheng was interested in her background, but after dealing with her twice, she found herself inexplicably quite fond of this commandant of the Demon Suppression Office.

She had been in Wan’an County for ten years, entirely alone.

All these years she had kept a stall here, seen many passing customers, and asked after her missing daughter from anyone willing to listen. Yet few cared about her affairs.

Along the way she had encountered people who tried to exploit her daughter to cheat her out of money, as well as ruffians and loafers who made sport of her loss. In time, she stopped speaking of it so much, though the words piled up in her heart until they nearly suffocated her.

“I lost my mother early. After she died, she left behind a younger brother and sister, and I almost single-handedly raised them.”

Her tone remained calm as she spoke of the past.

“I married into the Shen family at nineteen—”

“The Shen family?”

Zhao Fusheng interrupted her.

She remembered that in Dog Head Village, when people spoke of the woman abducted by Wu Datong, some said her surname was Zhang, others said it was Shen—

“My father’s classmate had the surname Shen. His family was considered one of some standing in the area,” the old woman explained. Then she asked, “Does my lady have any clue?”

As she spoke, her eyes brightened with sudden hope.

“I’m not certain.” Zhao Fusheng shook her head and did not hide it from her. “When I was in Dog Head Village, I heard villagers mention that the woman abducted by Wu Datong was surnamed Zhang; others said Shen.”

After all, forty-odd years had passed. The people who had known the truth back then had nearly all been wiped out by the fiend. Zhao Fusheng sighed.

“It cannot be confirmed.”

“Dog Head Village?” The old woman became restless again. Her hands kept worrying at the apron, fingers loosening and tightening over and over as she bit her lip. “Why did I not learn of this sooner—Zhang, Zhang—Shen—”

“My lady, that little girl from Dog Head Village…”

She wanted to ask something urgently, but the words faltered at her lips. As she spoke, tears spilled down in streams.

“My lady…”

Though Zhao Fusheng could not be sure whether the ghost domain around the beggar ghost had stopped there by coincidence or for some hidden reason, there was no question that the old woman was human.

She lived in Wan’an County and was one of the people under Zhao Fusheng’s jurisdiction. She had remained here to search for her missing daughter. If there were clues to be given, and they did not involve any secret matter, Zhao Fusheng was willing to tell her.

“I do not know the details, but I recruited someone from the village into the Demon Suppression Office as an envoy. He was injured for the moment and has stayed in Wuan Town. Once he reports to the county, I’ll have him come by your stall and you can ask him yourself.”

As soon as she said this, gratitude shone in the old woman’s eyes.

“I…”

Emotion made her brush back a swath of gray-white hair. Then, remembering something, she hurriedly reached for the money in her pocket.

“Let me treat my lady to soup.”

“No need.” Zhao Fusheng shook her head, then mentioned another clue. “According to the people of Dog Head Village, in the second year after the girl was abducted, her family came to the village looking for her.”

When she finished, the old woman’s expression froze. Her hand stopped midway as she reached for the money. After a long while, she let out a bitter smile.

“Then, then it may not be—”

Seeing Zhao Fusheng’s puzzled look, she forced herself to explain. “My lady may not know this, but my husband’s family had some standing in Wuli County.”

She sighed.

“Every family has its own unspeakable hardships.”

The details she did not say aloud, but from the sorrow in her eyes, Zhao Fusheng could guess that after her daughter disappeared, there must have been a great conflict between the old woman and her family. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to remain here alone for ten years.

“In any case, thank you, my lady.”

She sounded somewhat disappointed, but perhaps after so many years of searching for her daughter, she had grown used to disappointment. Thus even when the trail was broken once more, she could still thank Zhao Fusheng with composure.

“I haven’t really helped you much yet, so there is no need to thank me now,” Zhao Fusheng said. “Still, I will have Magistrate Pang keep an eye out as well. Tell me everything you know about your daughter—”

At this, the old woman’s face lit up.

“Thank you, my lady!”

Only then did she continue.

“My daughter’s name was Shen Yishu. Forty-three years ago, she—”

From the old woman’s age, even if she had a daughter, that daughter should already be well grown. Yet Zhao Fusheng had assumed the girl had gone missing only a dozen or so years ago, and never expected her to speak of events from forty-three years prior.

Forty-odd years ago was a peculiar time, because forty-two years ago Wu Datong from Dog Head Village had abducted a woman, who, a year later, died and gave birth to a ghostly child—

And forty-one years ago, Wu Datong used that ghost child to steal the lid of a coffin.

In ways unseen, many things became linked together in sequence, as though an invisible hand had been manipulating everything from behind the curtain.

With her daughter’s whereabouts at stake, the old woman poured out everything she knew and all the clues gathered over the years.

“That year, my husband was transferred to Wuli County for office. In the ninth month of that same year, on the first day, a friend from his student days came to visit him in Wuli County.”

This man had come with his family, so naturally the old woman and her husband had to host and entertain them.

“They also had a daughter, about the same age as our Yishu. The two children took to each other at once.”

“That day we were entertaining guests at the Vice Magistrate’s Tower. Halfway through the meal, I discovered my daughter was gone.”

The other family’s daughter was missing too, and at first neither side thought much of it, assuming the two children had gone off somewhere to whisper together.

But after searching the entire tavern and still not finding them, both families panicked.

They rushed out into the street and asked around nearby. The shopkeepers and serving boys had not noticed anything, but later the old woman, in her panic, kept asking people near the tavern. From an old woman who sold handkerchiefs from a stall, she learned that a short, thin old man in a black robe seemed to have spoken with two girls.

After that, both sides tried to find the short, thin old man in black described by the handkerchief seller, but in a county as vast as Wuli, how many such old men could there be?

In the end, the Shen family found no one, and the two children left no trace.

“All these years, I have kept looking for the child, wandering from place to place. Now more than forty years have passed, and I am slowly finding less and less strength to keep searching—”

The old woman sighed.

“I do not know where the child is now, or whether she—” Her voice broke there. At last she drew a deep breath, lifted her brows, lowered her eyelids, and hid the tears in her eyes.

“Whether she hates me.”

...

Zhao Fusheng sat at the old woman’s stall for more than an hour. By the time she finished chatting and stood to leave, dusk had already fallen.

She looked around. In the distance, the lights of the Temple of the Sage in Beggar Alley flickered faintly, their glow drifting across the long street.

Behind her, the old woman was busy clearing away the bowls and chopsticks. Wan’an County was sparsely populated and desolate now; it was not safe to be out on the streets too late. She was eager to pack up quickly and return to her temporary shelter.

Zhao Fusheng felt a little puzzled. She had arranged with the Demon Suppression Office coachman that he would send her to the Temple of the Sage in the morning and return by carriage to fetch her in the evening. Yet now it was already dark, and still there was no sign of the Demon Suppression Office carriage. Had something delayed it on the road?

She had been to Beggar Alley twice already, and had a rough idea of the route back to the Demon Suppression Office. So she simply began walking in the direction of her return journey, hoping perhaps to meet the carriage on the way.

Having made up her mind, Zhao Fusheng set off.

Behind her, the old woman, still tidying the stall and seeing her go alone, felt a sudden twitch in her brow for reasons she could not explain and called out, “My lady, why not sit a little longer and wait until the people from the Demon Suppression Office come to take you back?”

“No need.”

Zhao Fusheng did not turn around, only raised a hand in farewell.

“Finish packing quickly and go home early. Wan’an County is not very safe these days.”

After nightfall, a thin, nearly invisible mist settled over the streets. In the distance, the Temple of the Sage gave off a hazy light. Zhao Fusheng’s figure, caught in that play of light and shadow, seemed to merge into the fog.

A nameless unease rose in the old woman’s heart. She called out again, “My lady—”

This time, Zhao Fusheng did not answer.

It was as though she had not heard the woman’s voice at all.

In truth, after Zhao Fusheng spoke, everything around them had fallen into silence.

Beggar Alley had not recovered much vitality since the ghost incident; after dark it was already eerily quiet, but this silence now was far too strange.

Having handled two ghost cases in a row, Zhao Fusheng’s vigilance was unusually sharp. The moment she had spoken, she sensed something was wrong.

Thump, thump.

Her heart pounded twice in her chest. Just as unease surged through her, she suddenly heard a faint jingling near her ear.

It sounded like the clash of bells. Then came the clip-clop of hoofbeats, along with the rumble of wheels rolling over the ground.

Zhao Fusheng’s expression sharpened. Truly, as though drowsiness had brought her a pillow.

Just when she had been worrying about how to get home without any means of transport, it seemed a carriage was coming toward her.