Chapter 5

As dawn broke, thick fog rose over Qingya. Madame Chen’s screams drifted faintly through it.

I took a handful of beans and grain and slowly fed a little lamb.

Magistrate Shen had sent it as a wedding gift. It should have been slaughtered that day, but I had kept it and raised it in the back courtyard.

It had grown a great deal, plump, round, and endearing.

When I was little, I had found a lamb up in the mountains.

A trap had broken its leg. It lay dying among the dead leaves, the smell of blood drawing howls from wolves and jackals all around.

It too was an orphan abandoned by its parents. I carried it about, hiding from the predators, until I lost my way.

Late that night, Master found me and took us both back to the bamboo cottage.

I gathered herbs for its wounds, carried it into the sunshine each day, and rolled with it in the soft grass.

But before long, its parents came and took it away.

Bleating happily, it followed them without so much as looking back at me.

I sat at the cottage door, feeling as though I had accidentally bitten a sour apricot. The sourness spread from my tongue to every organ in my body.

Master watched my back and sighed.

He took my hand and taught me the immortal art of paper-cutting.

I practiced until dark without managing to cut out a single lamb. In a sulk, I threw the scissors aside.

He gently patted my back.

“The lamb is gone, but I’m still here. I’ll always be with you.”

Now Master was gone, and I had another little lamb.

Like a walking corpse, Fang Liang crossed the cold, damp fog, dragging a bloody severed leg behind him.

His expression was dazed. He kept muttering,

“I can’t die yet. Don’t blame me…”

I scattered the rest of the grain before the lamb, dusted my hands, and took the leg from him.

Flesh gaped at the severed end. It still twitched as blood seeped out. It had been cut off while its owner was alive.

I smiled, tossed it to the ground, and covered my nose, unable to hide my disgust.

He staggered after it, hugged it to his chest, and crawled to my feet.

“Immortal lady, please save my life!”

At last I stopped pretending to be gentle and shook my head with venomous satisfaction.

“Too late, Fang Liang. The sores have spread all over your body. Look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Alarmed, he pulled open his clothes. His chest was smooth, without a single sore.

Just as he was about to sigh with relief, I held up two fingers and lightly touched his chest.

The taut flesh wrinkled. When he touched it, it turned into sheets of white paper and peeled away.

Beneath that paper lay Fang Liang’s real body.

Sores covered it. Maggots writhed in a frenzy through rotting flesh, pus, and blood. They had eaten so deeply that white bone showed through.

Terrified, he instinctively clawed at himself.

His fingers sank in with a wet sound. He pulled a bloody clump of organs from his own body, and it splattered onto the ground like mud.

“Ah!”

He screamed, staring at me as if I were a murderous ghost, then glared furiously.

“Witch! Who are you?”

I took Master’s scale from him and cleaned it patiently, little by little.

Once Fang Liang’s stink was gone, the faint cool fragrance that had accompanied me for thirteen years finally emerged.

Arrogant mortals. They had dared torture my god to death!

The sight of Master’s body haunted me. I wanted to tear apart and devour everyone who had touched him, to drink their blood and eat their flesh.

But not yet. And it would not be enough.

Death would free them. Living in agony was their punishment.

I hauled Fang Liang up by his hair and dragged him before the lamb.

“Your body’s rotten through. Look at the new one I’ve chosen for you. Fat and tender—just what gourmets like. Do you like it too?”

By the time Madame Chen arrived, Fang Liang wore the lamb’s skin. He charged me like a mad creature.

He roared and cursed, but all that came out were bleats that made people laugh.

Madame Chen now had only one leg. The young man beside her had stayed devotedly at her side, bandaged her wound, and dressed her in clean clothes. She still looked wealthy and respectable.

Pale-faced and weak in his arms, she asked,

“Where’s Fang Liang?”

I kicked the lamb toward her.

It rolled several times, got up bleating, and burst into tears at the sight of her.

She did not understand.

Unable to speak, Fang Liang bent his forelegs as a lamb kneels to suckle and let out a muffled, mournful cry.

I sneered.

“Look. This is the fine son you raised. Fang Liang chose between you and his life. Now it’s your turn.”

Pointing at the lamb crouched at her feet, I asked,

“Do you want him, or all the wealth before you?”

It was Fang Liang who had harmed Master. Originally, his mother had had nothing to do with it.

But she owed her life to Master, and yet she had allowed her son to betray his benefactor.

Mother and son were the same breed. Both ungrateful.

Great tears rolled from the lamb’s eyes. Its mournful cries did not stop.

Understanding brought despair to Madame Chen. She suddenly became agitated.

“I don’t believe you! You’re lying! Where’s my son? What have you done to him?”

I scoffed.

“He cut off your leg, and you still worry about him. So you’ve decided to choose him?”

Nothing was colder than the human heart. My own father had abandoned me for a tiger pelt.

If Madame Chen could give up this dazzling wealth for her child, I might still feel a little pity for her.

But she hesitated.

She clutched the young man, unwilling to let him go.

Then she looked at the lamb still kneeling on the ground. Her gaze shifted painfully between them.

I laughed. They really were the same breed.

Love pulled one way, greed the other. She could not make up her mind.

“Since you can’t choose, I’ll help. People say a mother’s love runs deep. Surely you wouldn’t abandon your own flesh and blood?”

I raised my hand. In an instant, all her silks and jewels became white paper and scattered across the ground.

Her face drained of color. Trembling, she struggled out of the young man’s arms, fell, and crawled about gathering crumpled scraps.

Mother and son alike needed to be driven into a corner before they could choose.

As wealth vanished like smoke, she screamed hoarsely,

“No! No! Don’t! I want the wealth!”

The lamb suddenly lifted its head, gave a long cry, and bit savagely at the stump of her leg.

The wound tore open. Shaking and screaming, she flung it to the ground.

“Away! Get away! You’re the source of all this misery!”

She smiled ingratiatingly and begged me,

“Immortal lady, I’ve chosen. I want a lifetime of riches.”

Looking down at her, I raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“Too late.”

She still did not understand. I had come for revenge. Why would I kindly offer her a choice?

The truly kind god had been skinned and stripped of his bones, murdered in the dark mountain woods.

If Heaven was unjust, I would reward the good and punish the wicked.

I savored their misery. Wherever I pointed, the grand house, rare flowers, throngs of servants, and chests of jewels fell apart, fluttering down like snow.

Even the young man beside Madame Chen became a paper cutout and drifted lightly down before her.

She screamed hysterically and lunged after him, clutching the thin scrap so tightly she would not let go.

Greed born of deprivation truly could not be cured.

I leaned close to her ear and whispered temptingly,

“You have nothing now. But if you sold this lamb to a butcher, you could still get a few taels of silver…”