IBGSW Chapter 122
Trouble at the Ghost Mausoleum
Meanwhile, Fan Bisi, suppressing his unease, said:
"It probably isn't that big a matter." He steadied himself, remembering the soldier at the gate. "There was still a living man at the city gate. Even if there's a ghost, the calamity must only just be getting started."
"Wan'an County is wrapped in ghost fog now, so ghost cases already break out more often here than in other counties—"
Saying this, he stole a glance at Zhao Fusheng, and thought he saw, faintly, a look of excitement on her face at his words.
Excitement?
Fan Bisi rubbed his eyes. He must have seen wrong.
"My lord—"
"Hurry back to the bureau and ask Magistrate Pang. Then we'll know what happened," Zhao Fusheng said, suddenly alert.
"Yes!"
Before Fan Bisi could relay the order, the coachman outside, hearing her, answered.
He lashed the horses and they broke into a gallop. The streets were empty anyway, so there was no fear of crashing into anyone. About an hour later, the carriage stopped before the gates of the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
As on every previous return from a case, the officials and gentry, headed by Magistrate Pang, were already standing at the bureau's gates to welcome Zhao Fusheng back.
This time the Wan'an officials had turned out in particularly full force. Every official of any rank in the county was there.
They stood in a great crowd, completely blocking the bureau's gates.
Magistrate Pang's heart was uneasy.
In truth this was not the first time he had welcomed Zhao Fusheng back, but he felt every bit as anxious as ever.
I wonder how Lord Zhao's case in Baozhi County went, he thought. I hope she didn't meet a ghost and has kept her strength.
Everyone had their own calculations. Before long they heard the sound of a carriage heading toward the bureau, and moments later a carriage racing around a corner swung into the lane so fast that the wheels on one side lifted clear off the ground and it nearly overturned.
The carriage bounced in midair, then the two airborne wheels came down with a clang and it charged on toward the gates.
Seeing the bureau's sign on the carriage, the crowd felt relief and tension in the same instant.
About ten zhang1 away the coachman hauled on the reins, the horses slowed their hooves, and at last the carriage stopped before the gates.
Magistrate Pang's heart was in a panic. The crowd surged forward like a swarm.
The Fan brothers climbed down, their faces sickly green.
Seeing them appear, the crowd first felt relief, then, when Zhao Fusheng did not appear, a sinking dread:
"Lord Zhao, she—"
Magistrate Pang was so flustered that he could barely stand, and was held up only by the officials beside him.
"Urp—"
Zhao Fusheng retched, then dragged herself out of the carriage, looking miserable:
"...Besides repairing the bureau offices, we need to fix the roads first—"
Fan Bisi's usually dark face had gone a little pale, and at her words the worry he had carried all the way into the city weakened somewhat. Exasperated yet relieved, he answered:
"...Yes."
Zhao Fusheng had only eaten some dry rations on the way back, and now, after the jolting ride, her stomach was churning. With her bad night's sleep on top, her face looked wretched.
Seeing her return safe, Magistrate Pang and the others felt the stones that had hung over their hearts drop.
"Oh, my lord!"
The old man lost all dignity and wailed aloud: "Thank heavens you're back—"
Zhang Chuanshi, who had hidden himself away somewhere, popped out too and cried:
"My lord, you're finally back! A bit longer and our Wan'an County would have been turned upside down."
"Old Zhang, let Lord Zhao catch her breath."
Fan Wujiu scolded him.
Zhang Chuanshi glared:
"Saving a life is like putting out a fire—"
"It can't be that urgent right this second," said Fan Wujiu.
"It's already desperately urgent." Zhang Chuanshi refused to back down and cut him off.
"Enough." Zhao Fusheng's head ached from their bickering. She glanced over the crowd. Everyone of standing in Wan'an County was here. She waved a hand:
"If there's business, let's go into the yamen and talk."
At her word the two, who a moment ago had been like fighting cocks, shut their mouths.
As she spoke, Zhao Fusheng looked up without thinking at the top of the bureau's gate. The plaque hanging outside seemed to be covered by a faint layer of dust.
The three characters "Demon-Suppression Bureau," which had already become visible, now looked as though a layer of haze had dimmed them, and she couldn't make them out clearly.
She frowned, then pretended not to have seen it and looked away again.
The crowd escorted her inside. The Fan brothers stayed outside to direct the menials in unloading the other carriage of gold.
...
They entered the main hall of the bureau.
The Wan'an bureau's yamen was not small. It could hold at least a hundred people, which showed how splendid Wan'an County had been at its height.
Sadly, after Zhao Qiming, it had declined step by step, and in less than half a year the whole yamen had gone to ruin: tiles had fallen from many places, and the beams and pillars were rotting beyond repair.
Now, as everyone entered, they packed the shabby old hall tight.
Many of low standing had no seat, so they found spots to stand as close to Zhao Fusheng as possible, as if only that could give them some sense of safety.
Magistrate Pang noticed this and was startled.
He had worried at first that Zhao Fusheng, having used a ghost's power on this trip to Baozhi County, might come back teetering on the edge of losing control even if she could handle the case.
But she had returned looking as she always did, with none of the chilling malice about her.
From the way people unconsciously crowded toward her, one could tell she gave off a reassuring sense of safety.
"Your trip to Baozhi County—"
Once everyone was seated, Magistrate Pang wanted to start with Wan'an's trouble, but something Fan Wujiu had said earlier reminded him that however urgent things were, Zhao Fusheng must first be allowed to catch her breath.
Thinking of this, he suppressed his anxiety and asked first about her trip.
"Did you come back empty-handed?" Zhang Chuanshi, leaning on how ghastly his injuries looked, had squeezed up beside Zhao Fusheng.
He still held the Soul-Life Register in his arms, and the wounds he had suffered in Goutou Village had begun to scab over.
Though the register restrained him, it also shared a measure of the ghost's power with him, and he recovered far faster than an ordinary person.
After speaking, he smiled at Zhao Fusheng to curry favor.
Zhao Fusheng ignored him and said:
"The Baozhi County problem has been resolved."
The instant she said it, Magistrate Pang blurted:
"Even if you didn't meet a ghost—" He stopped halfway, realizing something, and his face filled with shock:
"You mean the ghost calamity in Baozhi County has been resolved?"
"Mm."
Zhao Fusheng nodded.
The hall went dead silent. People looked at one another, too stunned to speak.
Zhang Chuanshi clutched the register, his eyeballs, lidless now, nearly popping out. He could hardly believe his ears.
Zhao Fusheng had resolved another ghost case!
And the Fan brothers, who had gone with her, had come back unharmed. It was simply unbelievable.
"This—" Magistrate Pang didn't know what to say, but Zhao Fusheng called:
"Yu Weide."
She called the name of the gentry elder Yu Weide, but the old man seemed to have drifted off and didn't answer.
Only when she called again did someone jolt him hard, sending him stumbling. He came to and hurried to answer:
"I'm here, I'm here, Lord Zhao."
"You did very well earlier. I met Xu Yachen. He said he got your letter, and after this ghost calamity he has agreed to move the Xu family into Wan'an County gradually over the coming period."
Having said this, Zhao Fusheng gave him an encouraging look.
The words stunned the crowd once more.
Baozhi County was not like Wan'an County. It had the famous Deputy Commander Zheng presiding over it!
Now Zhao Fusheng was saying that Xu Yachen was willing to give up Zheng He's protection and move his whole family into dangerous Wan'an County.
What manner of ghost case had Zhao Fusheng and her party solved in Baozhi County? What strength had this commanding officer, who had held the Wan'an bureau for barely a month, shown, to make Xu Yachen willing to move?
If her having handled a ghost case had shocked them before, the news that Xu Yachen was relocating shocked them even more.
Zhang Chuanshi stood stiff for a long time. His fingers on the register trembled twice, and finally he gripped the jade book tight.
"Besides him, several other wealthy households will move in too. That sets a very good example for our Wan'an County. I've decided to have the shops outside the bureau repaired. After that, Yu Weide can pick a suitable shop first," Zhao Fusheng said, then paused for a moment before steeling herself to add:
"—and I'll give you a discount on the rent."
"Many thanks, my lord!"
Excitement spread across Yu Weide's old face.
Zhao Fusheng had not boasted of her strength, nor described the case in vivid detail. But her mention of gentry and wealthy merchants willing to move to Wan'an County was the best display possible, proof that her trip had made a great splash and won over a whole group of people.
Nothing could reassure them more than such words.
The crowd's earlier panic settled.
Zhao Fusheng's gaze moved across the faces of Magistrate Pang, Yu Weide, Zhang Chuanshi and the rest.
It was gloomy outside the hall.
Since everyone had come in, the air outside seemed to float with dense particles like dust haze.
It looked like both rain and thick misty beads, and had turned the sky suddenly dark.
It was only afternoon, yet there was an oppressive sense of nightfall, making people uneasy.
When Zhao Fusheng leaned out to look, Magistrate Pang and the others, who had been wearing smiling faces, turned to look outside too.
The moment they saw the fog, terror and dread flooded their faces.
"It seems that in the two days I was gone, Wan'an County has fallen into trouble again."
Zhao Fusheng laughed, breaking the silence.
With her voice, the chill in the room vanished at once, and the crowd involuntarily let out long breaths and felt a steadiness settle over them.
Zhao Fusheng was so calm!
She was the mainstay of Wan'an County. If she hadn't panicked, then things could still be put right.
"What happened?" she asked.
Zhang Chuanshi spoke up eagerly:
"My lord—"
"My lord, it was—" Even as Zhang Chuanshi spoke, Magistrate Pang began too, and Yu Weide called out as well.
Everyone was anxious to report, so the room was noisy and quarrelsome, and Zhao Fusheng didn't know whom to listen to.
"Enough." She raised her voice.
Those who had been fighting to speak shut up at once.
"Magistrate Pang, you speak." Zhao Fusheng pointed at the one who had spoken.
Zhang Chuanshi was unhappy and muttered:
"I can talk too."
Zhao Fusheng ignored his grumbling and nodded to Magistrate Pang to begin.
Magistrate Pang steadied himself and said:
"My lord, it's the Ghost Mausoleum in West City that has had trouble."
He was every inch a scholar-official: concise, and wise enough to state the important result first and fill in the rest afterward.
He had worried at first that Zhao Fusheng might not know of the "West City Ghost Mausoleum," and after speaking he glanced at her, but Zhao Fusheng nodded:
"I know it. Over a hundred years ago the court built a cemetery west of Wan'an's city, specially to bury bureau personnel who died in ghost calamities."
After Zhao Fusheng's rebirth, the Fan brothers, wary of her, had considered burying the Zhao couple's bodies in the cemetery.
But plans had not kept pace with events.
The Zhao couple's ghosts had revived, and the Ghost Mausoleum had itself been an unstable factor for Wan'an County at the time.
"By the rules, the court must send someone every year to lay the imprint," Zhao Fusheng said.
But because Wan'an County had effectively been exiled by the court, no one had laid an imprint since the court's last visit in the middle of the eighth month last year, nearly a year ago.
The cemetery in West City was called the "Ghost Mausoleum" precisely because the people buried there had died in ghost calamities. In other words, the dead interred there were more likely than ordinary corpses to revive as malignant ghosts.
In the past that had been fine, because a court general took charge of laying the imprint.
A general-rank ghost-controller would lay down an aura to suppress the not-yet-revived ghosts, indirectly containing the danger.
But once the imprints stopped, the Ghost Mausoleum could well begin to stir.
It was exactly this consideration that had led the Fan brothers to abandon the plan to bury the Zhao couple there, for fear that once the Zhao couple were interred, the power of the existing imprint could not hold, and when the ghost case broke out, all of Wan'an County would die with it.
"Whew—"
Hearing her say this, Magistrate Pang let out a long breath:
"If you already know about this, it will be much easier."
The heavy burden on his shoulders seemed to fall away by more than half at her words.
His taut face quivered at the sudden relief, and for a moment his hands shook and his mouth shook so badly that he could not get out a clear sentence.
Contempt flashed in Zhang Chuanshi's eyes, and he hurried forward to claim credit:
"My lord, let me tell it."
"Go on, then."
Zhao Fusheng saw that Magistrate Pang had let out his breath so suddenly that, for the moment, he couldn't get his strength back, so she let Zhang Chuanshi speak.
In fact, by this point she already had the measure of the situation.
A little over a month ago Fan Bisi had mentioned that the imprint on the Ghost Mausoleum had been laid in the middle of the eighth month last year.
Now it was early in the eighth month, so by the calendar the imprint's failure was a matter of these two days.
Wan'an County was covered in ghost fog, so the chance of a malignant ghost reviving here was already higher than in other counties.
Before going to Baozhi County, Zhao Fusheng might have been at a loss. But the trip had given her a life-buying coin, and she had successfully invested the Zhao couple as gods and gained a portion of the Door Gods' abilities. So when she heard that the Ghost Mausoleum was out of control, she felt more confidence and backing.
In fact, as soon as she heard "trouble at the Ghost Mausoleum," a plan for resolving it had already formed in her mind.
When Zhang Chuanshi heard Zhao Fusheng allow him to speak, he raised his eyebrows and looked back triumphantly at Magistrate Pang, slumped in his chair.
The wounds on his face had only just scabbed over, and the eyebrow on one side was gone, so his expression made that face both frightening and bizarre, though it didn't stop anyone from seeing his smugness.
