Chapter 6

The fog slowly cleared. A commotion rose nearby.

By the time Magistrate Shen hurried over with his men, nothing could be undone.

Madame Chen had gone mad. Holding the struggling lamb, she grabbed anyone she could and asked,

“A fat, tender lamb. Only ten taels of silver. Will you buy it, sir?”

Now Fang Liang was meat on the chopping block. At last he knew what it meant to be entirely at someone else’s mercy.

Every cry he made cursed me to a wretched death.

I held Master’s scale in my palm. Its cool fragrance dazed me, making me imagine he was still beside me.

I lowered my eyes to Fang Liang. Each word was wrung from my heart.

“He was the gentlest, kindest immortal. Greedy creatures like you called him a demon and tortured him to death.

“I’m not even afraid to become a demon myself. Why should I fear a wretched death?”

Shaken by the scene, Magistrate Shen waited a long time before sighing.

“Miss Bai Zhi, why go this far…”

“It isn’t far enough!”

Not only Fang Liang. The Jade Bone Sect, too. And the person who had taken the medicine.

Everyone stained with Master’s blood would pay a hundredfold!

Hatred blazed inside me. At that moment, I was even more deranged than Madame Chen.

The constables held their weapons, but none dared take a step forward.

Only that rigid young magistrate had courage enough to disregard his own life and try to persuade me.

“Miss Bai Zhi, turn back. You can still reach the shore.”

I looked at him with blood-red eyes. White paper on the ground swirled up and formed thousands upon thousands of arrows behind me, all aimed at him.

He did not retreat a step. He met my gaze firmly.

“Too much killing corrupts the heart. Your cultivation was hard-won, Miss Bai. Turn back.”

Among the crowd stood Auntie Su, who had once spoken up for Master. Her fists were clenched with anxiety, fear flickering in her eyes.

I thought she feared the monster I had become. Instead, she suddenly shouted,

“Miss Bai, run!”

At her cry, the people of Qingya surged forward together, placing their bodies between me and the constables’ blades.

They kept shouting,

“Miss Bai, go! You saved us from the locusts! We’re grateful!”

I froze, suddenly remembering what Master had said.

“It isn’t the human heart that’s wicked. It’s greed.”

An unfamiliar ache rose in my chest. My heart softened, and the arrows slackened and broke apart, falling to the ground.

But Madame Chen would not accept it. She seized a knife and lunged at my chest.

“Die!”

Auntie Su rushed over with a cry, trying to stop the madwoman, but it was too late.

Alarm flashed over Magistrate Shen’s face. He pushed through the crowd and rushed recklessly toward me.

The instant the blade touched me, my body became a paper cutout and floated into the air.

A sharp pair of scissors and a sheet of white paper could bring anything in the world to life.

Including me.

The paper figure rode the wind over Qingya County, carefully carrying Master’s scale back to the green mountains where I had grown up.

I opened my eyes in the bamboo cottage and picked up the scale it had brought back.

A warm scent of jasmine reached my nose. Master was boiling water for tea.

Bubbles rolled and gurgled in the pot. His back was to me, his figure hazy in the steam. The chilly cottage became warm at once.

When I was small, I always thought he felt cold. He would brew a pot of tea to drive away the chill.

“Master…”

Holding the scale, I spoke softly, afraid to break the stillness.

But he was not Master. He was only a paper figure I had cut.

I could bring anything in the world to life. Only Master’s paper likeness would not look at me or answer me.

It stayed quietly in the cottage, repeating the things he had done in the past.

Making tea. Reading. Planting flowers. Dozing.

This was what Master had warned against: losing myself.

I sighed, walked to his side, and buried my face against his shoulder.

“Master, this time I’m really leaving the mountain. You know I’ll avenge you. Not even you could stop me.”

The paper figure had no soul. Mechanically, it ground ink and lifted a brush. As when he had taught me to write as a child, it traced four Chinese characters, stroke by stroke: Turn back toward the shore.

My heart stirred at once. Hopeful, I looked up at him.

His eyes were still empty and lifeless, like those of a cold god looking down on all creation.

Only, he no longer looked at me.