Chapter 117
Chapter 117
On the night of the Ghost Festival, all of Yunlan City was wreathed in smoke.
As more and more people burned paper money, the offerings inside paper effigies and packets for the dead curled and blackened in the flames, finally turning to ash and scattering on the wind.
Smoke mingled with drizzle and pale mist, creating a strange spectacle no one had seen in previous years.
Anyone more than five steps away was reduced to a vague outline.
Qin Ying’s eyes had been smoked red as she walked through the ashen haze.
She noticed that there were far more patrols on the streets, and several fire trucks had been parked nearby as well.
Clearly, they still hadn’t found Huodou. The higher-ups were wary, afraid a real fire might break out.
Qin Ying slipped a hand into the little pouch hanging in front of her chest and rubbed Huodou’s dog head. “Behave.”
Huodou loved fire. It had been born a Disaster Beast.
Ever since it sensed the flames burning in thousands of homes, it had been restless.
Hearing Qin Ying’s warning, it shifted irritably, bit down on its own tail, and forcibly suppressed its instincts.
Amid the smoke and heat, Qin Ying passed by a group of children holding sticks of incense.
As the saying went, on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, Ghost Gate Pass opened wide and a hundred ghosts roamed the night.
In other places, people were not allowed to wander the streets.
Only the Old City District of Yunlan City insisted on being different.
Here, during the Ghost Festival, children could carry lit incense and play hide-and-seek in the smoke.
They called it warding off evil.
According to the elders, Ghost Gate Pass opened and ghosts walked the earth that night, but judges and underworld bailiffs would also be roaming the mortal world.
So those who felt they were plagued by bad luck, or who had encountered something unclean, could light incense and walk the streets tonight.
By playing hide-and-seek in the alleys, they could shake off the evil spirits and karmic creditors clinging to them.
Then those wicked things would be caught and taken away by the underworld bailiffs.
There were also people who had suffered terrible injustice in the world of the living and had nowhere to appeal. On this night, they would go to the City God Temple to burn written petitions and lodge a complaint in the underworld.
When one thought about it, the logic was rather like stopping an imperial envoy in an old opera to cry out one’s grievances.
This special folk custom had created the Old City District of Yunlan City’s unique night of ghost stories.
Several children holding incense ran wildly through the street. The adults at home called after them, “When the incense burns out, remember to borrow a flame and light a new stick.”
In the smoke filling the streets, the children’s giggles took on an eerie, ghostly edge.
Qin Ying brushed past them and headed toward the City God Temple in the southeast of the city.
Of course, she had no grievances to air. She was going because there was a door in the rear hall of the City God Temple, and rumor had it that the door led to the Yellow Springs Underworld.
But Qin Ying knew the door connected to a karst cave.
The groundwater channels beneath the entire city were interconnected, and the cave behind the City God Temple was not too far from the water park.
The park had strict surveillance and inspections in place, so there was no way through from that side.
Qin Ying wanted to take advantage of the heavy smoke and see if she could bring Han Lie and Fuzhu home from here.
Even if she couldn’t, she could at least bring them some food and tell them to wait patiently.
So they wouldn’t think they had been abandoned.
She moved through the smoke, and by the time her eyes could hardly bear it anymore, she had arrived beside the courtyard wall of the City God Temple.
According to old custom, the main gate of the City God Temple was left wide open tonight, and the temple keeper stayed away.
The power and surveillance cameras were shut off to avoid offending the underworld deity.
Qin Ying did not go in through the main gate. Instead, she circled around to the side.
Using a nearby tree as a foothold, she climbed onto the courtyard wall and looked inside.
Beyond the ash drifting through the smoke-filled air, the Shadowy Figure of a century-old tree loomed heavily in the middle courtyard of the City God Temple.
The doors and windows of the front hall where the City God statue was enshrined stood wide open. It was deathly silent.
Hanging from the top of the wall, Qin Ying felt her skin crawl.
But fear was fear. What had to be done still had to be done.
She flipped over the courtyard wall and landed with a dull thud, then hugged the base of the wall and scurried like a rat toward the rear hall of the City God Temple.
This City God Temple did not see much incense worship, and the rear hall was clearly far more dilapidated.
Because custom dictated that the doors be left open, Qin Ying was able to march straight in.
Holding up her phone flashlight, she passed between all kinds of statues of gods, ghosts, and judges, then stopped in front of a shrine.
Carved on the shrine was a scene of trial in the underworld bureaucracy. On either side stood the black-and-white ghost envoys, Ox-Head, and Horse-Face.
The brass chains on the copper door in the middle had been deliberately undone, leaving the door open by a narrow crack.
“City God, I mean no offense. I won’t go in for free. I’ll pay to repair your rear hall later.”
Operating on the principle that it was better to believe than not, Qin Ying promised to spend money to avert disaster before pushing the door open.
Perhaps because she had offered her toll, her nerves settled.
She pressed both hands against the cold copper door and pushed inward.
A damp, chilly draft blew out from behind it.
Qin Ying slipped through the golden gate that was said to lead to the Yellow Springs.
Beyond the door was a long flight of steps leading downward.
The stairs were slick with moisture, so Qin Ying walked very carefully.
Only after she reached the bottom did she pull Huodou out of the pouch at her chest.
“Transform and light the way.”
Huodou hated damp places heavy with moisture. It tucked up its paws, refusing to let its claws touch the ground.
Qin Ying had no choice but to coax it. “Come on. I’ll buy you some canned food.”
Huodou’s ears perked up.
The little country bumpkin of a dog had no idea what canned food was, but it figured it had to be something tasty, like those hard snacks it liked to gnaw on.
Only then did it deign to put down its precious paws.
As sulfurous flames rose around it, the pitch-black underground instantly brightened.
After transforming, Huodou was about the size of a macaque, and its presence made her feel immensely secure.
Qin Ying’s confidence surged.
With Huodou at her side, she followed the underground river for half an hour.
Droplets falling from the stalactites overhead landed on Huodou with a sizzling sound.
Every so often, Huodou would stop, lift its head, and sniff, leading Qin Ying through the complicated underground caverns as it searched for the scents of Han Lie and Fuzhu.
After they rounded a bend, the space ahead suddenly opened up.
In the center of a natural cavern three or four stories high lay a pool of water as green as jelly.
Huodou’s flames reflected on the surface, and the refracted light painted the entire cavern in a warm red glow.
They should be very close to where Han Lie and the others were.
Qin Ying crouched by the water, pondering how to contact Han Lie.
At the bottom of the glass-clear pool, a Shadowy Figure swam closer.
On its thick, lion-like tail, silver-blue mane hair spread through the water.
The Shadowy Figure broke the surface right in front of Qin Ying.
Qin Ying’s heart jolted twice in fright. She was just about to curse when she found herself staring straight into a pair of gray, teardrop-shaped eyes.
It turned out Han Lie had swum over on his own before she could even call him.
Qin Ying wiped the water from her face and swallowed the scolding back down.
Still half-submerged, Han Lie took four ice-blue vials from the trench coat he was holding against his chest.
He gestured to Qin Ying that he had protected the things she had asked him to hold very well.
Seeing this, Qin Ying hesitated, then lightly patted him on the forehead.
Han Lie’s tail began wagging wildly in the water, and a silly grin spread across his face.
Only then did Qin Ying notice that the scorched marks on his face had almost completely healed. There was only a thumb-sized patch left on one cheek.
On the top of his head, which had been burned completely bare, short silver-blue… well, she wasn’t sure whether to call it mane or hair… had grown in.
In any case, it could be combed straight back into a slicked-back style.
It looked like he was healing, too.
Qin Ying patted his forehead again and said, “Come up.”
At her words, Han Lie braced one hand on the bank and climbed out of the water.
Water droplets slid down over the black scales covering him and across the still clearly defined eight-pack of his abdomen.
Once ashore, he crouched by the edge and shook the water off himself like a dog.
Qin Ying, however, was still looking into the water. “Where’s Fuzhu?”
Could there have been a narrow stretch of the waterway that Fuzhu couldn’t get through?
Just as she was thinking this, a tiny thing hopped off Han Lie like a flea.
It came pattering toward Qin Ying and bounced around in front of her.
Qin Ying let out a long breath and picked it up.
It was Fuzhu-the shrunken Fuzhu.