Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Have you heard? The General’s Mansion has been anything but peaceful lately. Several servants have died. They say evil spirits are causing trouble.”

“My second great-aunt’s grandfather’s neighbor’s little nephew’s eldest cousin worked at the General’s Mansion, serving the eldest young lady’s dog. She’s dead now. When she died, the flesh on her body was all rotted. Scary stuff, I tell you.”

“They’ve even posted a notice at the gate. They’re looking for a Taoist priest with profound powers to catch the ghost, and the reward is generous!”

I sat in the restaurant across from the General’s Mansion, taking small bites of a steamed bun.

The chatter around me drifted into my ears from every direction.

Someone tugged at my sleeve. A deliberately lowered voice sounded close to my ear, carrying a trace of excitement.

“Girl, this is one fat sheep. Once we finish this job, we’ll have enough coffin money for both of us.”

I kept eating my bun, unmoved. “Old Swindler, that’s the General’s Mansion. I don’t think you’re trying to earn coffin money. I think you’re trying to get straight into one.”

“Hey.”

My ear was pinched and twisted.

“You wretched girl. Fortune favors the bold, understand? You can doubt my character, but you cannot doubt my skills in trickery and my talent for playing at gods and ghosts!”

“Besides, don’t you want your eyes cured? You’ve been wandering around the capital for three months. Wasn’t it all to scrape together money for treatment?”

My lashes trembled slightly. I set down the bun in my hand, pressed my lips together, and said nothing.

I was blind. Ever since I was little, I had never been able to see this dazzling world. I relied entirely on my ears and hands to sense my surroundings.

Someone had told me there was an old miracle doctor at Shengde Hall in the capital who could cure all the world’s rare and difficult illnesses.

I had come to the capital three months ago, but I couldn’t even get through Shengde Hall’s doors.

I had no money.

Old Swindler was someone I ran into by chance.

At the time, the medicine boy guarding Shengde Hall’s entrance had bundled me up and thrown me out. I landed right on Old Swindler, who happened to be passing by, and knocked him unconscious.

I told Old Swindler I had come to have my eyes treated.

He believed me.

He tossed me a dry, shriveled steamed bun, thumped his chest, and told me to follow him and make a living at his side. Three days, nine meals.

So I followed him.

In the end, he dragged me around pretending to be a Taoist priest, exploiting the superstitions of wealthy households so we could go in and cheat them out of food and drink.

Over these three months, we had pretended to be a Maoshan Taoist and a Laoshan Immortal Child. The most dangerous time was at an old residence belonging to a county magistrate. He made me pretend to have an epileptic fit, then insisted it was a lingering aftereffect of inviting a deity into my body. We swindled another twenty taels of silver out of them.

That day, I left the residence with a dark expression. Once we were outside, I gritted my teeth and said, “Try accumulating a little virtue, will you?”

Old Swindler was completely unconcerned. “This is all the people’s wealth squeezed from them in the first place. What’s wrong with cheating a little of it back? He should be thanking us.”

And from far behind us came the steward’s distant shout. “Thank you, Immortal Master!”

Old Swindler stroked his beard smugly. “See?”

Me: “…”