Chapter 3

But Zhou Decai said, “Xiaoyu, I know you’re a sensible girl. The villagers fear you both, but they respect you too. Hiding forever won’t solve anything. Come out, spend some time with everyone. Put them at ease. It’ll be better for you two as well.”

He had found my weak spot.

Shen Shuyan and I couldn’t hide in this house for the rest of our lives.

I looked at him beside me, absorbed in molding the mud. Gritting my teeth, I agreed.

That evening, I dressed him in clean clothes and led him to the ancestral hall.

It was brightly lit. Three or four tables had been laid, and almost every man in the village was there.

They all stood as we entered, smiling with a mixture of fear and flattery.

“Shuyan’s here!”

“And Xiaoyu! Sit down, sit down!”

Zhou Decai warmly ushered us to the main table, piled high with meat and fish.

Shen Shuyan’s eyes lit up at the food. He immediately picked up a chicken drumstick and began gnawing it.

The others watched him wolf it down. Their smiles grew strained.

After several rounds of drinks, Zhou Decai rose with his cup.

“I invited everyone here to discuss something.” He cleared his throat. “These past few years, harvests in Qingshui Village have been poor. Now we have ghosts on top of it. Life grows harder. But heaven hasn’t abandoned us. The mountain god has sent us a blessing!”

He pointed at Shen Shuyan.

“Shuyan has great powers. He can subdue ghosts and banish evil. He’s a blessing to the whole village!”

Voices immediately chimed in.

“The village head’s right!”

“We’ll do as you say!”

A bad feeling rose inside me.

Sure enough, Zhou Decai changed his tone.

“A blessing shouldn’t go to waste. I think we should build a mountain-god temple and enshrine Shuyan. People from all the surrounding villages could come to pray and burn incense. Wouldn’t that make life better for us?”

I sprang up. My chopsticks hit the floor.

“No!”

Turn a living person into an idol to be worshipped?

How could he even suggest it?

Zhou Decai’s smile faded.

“What do you mean, Xiaoyu? I’m doing this for everyone.”

“He’s my husband, not a tool for you to make money!”

I was shaking with anger.

“Husband?” Zhou gave a cold laugh. “A fool deserves to be your husband? Jiang Yu, don’t push your luck. Calling him a living god is doing him a favor. You really think we’re afraid? However strong he is, can he fight all of us?”

Every man in the hall rose.

At some point, hoes and knives had appeared in their hands. They stared at us, eyes vicious.

The banquet was a trap.

They hadn’t come to thank us.

They had come to force us.

Shen Shuyan was still eating his drumstick, his mouth greasy. He looked blankly at the charged room, then at me.

He seemed to sense my fear. Setting down the food, he came over and took my hand in his greasy one.

“Wife. Don’t be scared.”

I looked into his clear eyes and felt despair.

He could fight ghosts. How could he face dozens of villagers driven wild by greed?

“Zhou Decai, this is against the law!” I shouted.

“The law?” He sounded amused. “In Qingshui Village, I am the law! Jiang Yu, one last chance. Do you agree?”

Several burly men closed in behind him, their knives gleaming as they pointed them at Shen Shuyan.

He pushed me behind him and bared his teeth like an angry little animal.

To the villagers, it was merely a fool’s performance.

“So you’d rather do this the hard way!” Zhou snapped. “Get them! Cripple the man and lock him up. As for the woman... she’s yours to enjoy!”

The men roared with laughter and advanced with their weapons.

I was trapped in a corner. There was nowhere left to go.

Looking at the man who still stubbornly shielded me, I felt a courage I had never known.

Even if I died, I wanted to die with him.

I picked up a broken shard of porcelain and gripped it.

Just as a hoe was about to strike Shen Shuyan’s head, an immense force smashed open the ancestral hall’s heavy wooden doors.

An icy wind surged inside, extinguishing every candle.

Darkness swallowed the room.

Then came the villagers’ terrified screams.

And a wet chewing sound that made my skin crawl.

6

I could see nothing.

I could only smell blood and decay.

The villagers screamed one after another. Between their cries came strange cracking sounds, like bones being chewed to pieces.

I froze, too frightened to move.

A warm, dry hand took mine.

Shen Shuyan.

He pulled me behind him, shielding me completely.

In the dark, his body felt hot, like a little stove, driving the chill out of me.

“Don’t be afraid.”

His voice was low, strangely clear, carrying a reassurance I could not resist.

I don’t know how long passed before the screams faded.

A deathly silence settled over the hall.

In the weak moonlight spilling through the doorway, I saw bodies strewn across the floor.

No...

Not people.

Ghosts. All manner of grotesque things.

Blue faces, yellow fangs, missing limbs, bellies split open... They lay piled like torn dolls, motionless.

The villagers had been frightened senseless. They sat limp on the ground, soiling themselves, unable even to cry.

Zhou Decai lay less than three paces away, eyes rolled back, foam at his mouth. I couldn’t tell whether he was alive.

A tall figure stood in the center of the hall.

It wore tattered ancient armor and held a rusty saber. Resentment and murderous intent poured from it.

The icy wind had come with it.

This was the true focus of the night.

Slowly, the armored ghost turned its head. Its empty eye sockets faced us.

Even my soul seemed to tremble.

It was more terrifying than any ghost I had ever seen.

Its gaze passed over Shen Shuyan and settled on me.

“At last... I’ve found you...”

Its voice was hoarse and grating.

My mind went blank.

What was it saying?

Did it know me?

Shen Shuyan drew me farther behind him and looked up at the ghost.

His expression remained guileless and harmless.

“You... ugly. Don’t... scare my wife.”

The ghost burst into shrill laughter.

“A witless watchdog dares stand before this general?”

It raised its saber and pointed at him.

“Get out of my way. Hand her over, and I’ll spare your life.”

Instead of retreating, Shen Shuyan stepped forward and spread his arms, shielding me more firmly.

He shook his head. His words came with startling clarity.

“No. She is mine.”

It was the first complete sentence I had ever heard him speak.

And it held such fierce possessiveness.

The ghost seemed to lose patience.

“Then die!”

It roared and swung at him.

The blade cut through the air, trailing icy gusts.

I screamed.

But Shen Shuyan only tilted his head, as though watching a scene in slow motion.

An instant before the blade reached him, his hand flashed out.

With two fingers, he lightly caught the saber, heavy with a century’s resentment.

Time seemed to stop.

The ghost’s contempt froze on its face.

The villagers on the floor stared, eyes nearly falling out.

Holding the blade between his fingers, Shen Shuyan looked at it and asked innocently, “Can... eat this?”