IBGSW Chapter 125
The Mark of Sound
"The tapping came from Yu Weide's body?"
Zhao Fusheng found this case more and more strange.
This time the ghost seemed to kill differently from before. Its true form had not appeared, but it seemed to mark people through the spread of the hammering sound.
Magistrate Pang, Yu Weide and the others had all heard the sound, and even their families had shown symptoms, yet none of them seemed to have looked closely at where the sound came from.
For one thing, there hadn't been time. This ghost case had spread very fast, and fear had badly damaged their judgment.
For another, they may have been unwilling, at first, to suspect their loved ones.
Whether it was Madam Pang or Yu Weide's son, these were their nearest kin. So after the incidents the crowd, alarmed and worried, never thought of looking for clues in these people.
The people of Wan'an County regarded Zhao Fusheng as their lifeline. When it came to handling ghost cases, they instinctively recoiled; a malignant ghost's menace made it hard for them to be any help in her pursuit of ghost cases.
But everyone had their own role.
The gentry could not handle ghost cases, but they could contribute large sums of money. Magistrate Pang and the other officials could help keep Wan'an running.
Zhao Fusheng was very clear on this. She looked at Yu Weide and ordered:
"Open his clothes."
At her words, no one moved.
The crowd looked at one another, hesitating, none daring to act.
Anyone with sense knew Yu Weide was probably bound by a ghost now. Who would be reckless enough to touch his body?
Since Zhao Fusheng hadn't named anyone, the others shrank back quietly. Even Zhang Chuanshi, who had been so eager these two days, hunched his head and shoulders and kept shuffling back on his knees.
"Brother Fan, you open Yu Weide's clothes."
Zhao Fusheng's eyes fell on Fan Bisi.
He was tense at first at being named, but then he thought that on this Baozhi County trip he and his brother had held the ghost door plank, a great malevolent object, and had faced the ghosts of the Zhao couple while holding it. They had lived through such ultimate fear, and Zhao Fusheng had even saved their lives from the double ghosts. What was undressing Yu Weide next to that?
"Fine!"
Fan Bisi steadied himself, then handed his lantern to the man beside him:
"Hold this."
Strangely, the lantern that had burned with a normal flame in his hand, once it passed into another's hand, hissed and dimmed considerably.
Fan Bisi was not particularly brave, but he excelled at following orders.
Anything Zhao Fusheng told him to do, he could nearly always do.
He strode over to Yu Weide. The old gentleman's body was tightly curled. When he squatted and turned him over, Fan Bisi felt as though the old man's body were bound by invisible threads.
Yu Weide's limbs were tucked in like a sleeping infant's. When Fan Bisi flipped him, he lay face up with all four limbs in the air, guarding his chest tightly.
Fan Bisi took a deep breath and plopped down on the floor. He braced one leg to force the old man's legs apart and pin them, then pulled the upper body into his arms, gripped the old man's two dried, thin arms tightly, and heaved them out—
With that, Yu Weide's curled limbs were forced open.
Fan Bisi stretched the old man's body out, but then had no spare hands to undo his clothes.
From the corner of his eye he saw a figure cowering to one side. He grinned with a hint of malice:
"Old Zhang, come help."
Zhang Chuanshi felt like hitting him.
"You—"
The blood rushed to his head in rage and he grumbled:
"Lord Zhao hasn't even given me an order, and you've started ordering me about—"
"Old Zhang, go help him."
Zhao Fusheng gave the order.
"..."
Zhang Chuanshi, looking miserable, glared viciously at Fan Bisi and dawdled without moving.
"How about—"
Seeing this, Magistrate Pang, wanting to take a load off Zhao Fusheng, glanced fearfully at the old gentleman forcibly pinned by Fan Bisi and hesitantly spoke up: "How about I—" The moment he opened his mouth, his secretary, afraid he would do something rash, urged:
"My lord, you mustn't!"
The magistrate then said: "Let my secretary do it—"
"My lord—"
The secretary's eyes bulged in alarm, but Zhao Fusheng said:
"No need."
She shook her head, then gave Zhang Chuanshi a warning look:
"Catching ghosts and handling ghost cases is the bureau's duty. Our bureau has order envoys on hand."
"Wuu—Lord Zhao—"
Her words moved the secretary almost to tears, and the crowd's eyes showed emotion too.
Hearing this, Zhang Chuanshi knew there was no escape.
Grumbling and cursing, he edged up to Yu Weide and gingerly reached to touch his clothes.
The old gentleman's clothes had no nails in them, and Zhang Chuanshi felt relieved. He took hold of his lapel—Clang!
At that moment everyone, including Zhang Chuanshi and Fan Bisi, clearly heard the tapping.
All eyes fell on Yu Weide. Whether from the dim light or from extreme terror causing illusions, they seemed to see a small mound an inch high rising on Yu Weide's chest, like a little grave sprung up from level ground.
"Aaaaah!!!"
Zhang Chuanshi, his hands shaking, let go of the clothes he had just grabbed and crawled all over the floor in fright, no longer daring to touch Yu Weide's body.
Fan Bisi was badly frightened too.
He held Yu Weide's already stiffening body in his arms.
When the clang of the tapping sounded, he could clearly feel the old man's body jerk violently with the strike, as if someone had really taken a nail and driven it into him, making his body shake under the great force.
Then came Yu Weide's agonized trembling, and these sensations passed to Fan Bisi's heart through their contact.
But Fan Bisi's nerve was good, far better than Zhang Chuanshi's.
Even with his scalp numb with fright, he remembered what Zhao Fusheng had said and kept holding Yu Weide tight.
"My lord—"
He looked at Zhao Fusheng for help, his heart pounding: I kept my life through the double ghosts in Baozhi County. Could I really be about to trip up here today?
Zhao Fusheng ignored him and glared furiously at Zhang Chuanshi:
"Useless!"
"I'm useless! I'm useless!"
Zhang Chuanshi didn't mind being scolded. He crawled on his knees back behind the chairs as fast as he could, no longer conspicuous, afraid of being caught again by Zhao Fusheng:
"I'll get out of the way right now, so as not to offend your eyes."
Like a big gray rat he scurried behind the chairs, showing only half his head.
Seeing Zhao Fusheng glaring at him, he gave an awkward "heh heh" and quickly pulled his face back.
"..."
If the situation hadn't been so urgent, Zhao Fusheng would have liked to hit him.
This was no time to quarrel with that cowardly old man.
She steadied herself and rose to walk toward Yu Weide.
Zhang Chuanshi, who had hidden his head behind a chair, heard Zhao Fusheng get up and move away and hastily poked it out again.
Seeing her act, he knew he was out of danger, and no longer afraid, he looked at Fan Bisi and spat softly:
"Hmph! Lackey." Then he called urgently:
"My lord, be careful!"
No one in the room paid him any attention.
With the crowd watching, Zhao Fusheng took hold of Yu Weide's clothes and tore them open.
It was summer and the clothes were thin.
When they tore, they revealed the old gentleman's pale, thin chest.
With age, the skin had slackened. Yu Weide's skin wrapped his bones, and the shape of his ribs was clearly visible.
But that was not what horrified people.
In the very middle of his chest was a goose-egg-sized patch of black shadow, like a mold spot growing on food, glaring on his pale chest.
As the crowd, startled, took it in, the tapping sounded again:
Clang!
This time everyone heard it distinctly. It truly came from inside Yu Weide's body.
As soon as it rang, Yu Weide's body leapt and twitched heavily like a fish on a chopping board.
"Ah—"
A faint, agonized groan came from his mouth, but the lingering ring of the tapping covered it.
Before everyone's eyes, the flesh of his chest swelled high, as if a nail were hidden in his chest cavity and an invisible hand at the other end were driving it outward with a single blow.
The nail pushed the flesh up, and the black patch quickly spread.
The shadow spread out, several threads of black qi unfurling like sprouting branches and creeping across his chest.
"Wh-what is this?"
Magistrate Pang, standing not far off, saw it clearly, and goosebumps rose all over him.
"It looks as if someone drove something into his organs," Zhao Fusheng said calmly.
"Hiss!"
At her words the crowd shuddered together, and instinctively covered their own chests, as if they could feel the old gentleman's suffering.
"But don't worry."
Zhao Fusheng smiled:
"Of course no one is really driving a nail into him. It must be a ghost—"
"..."
At this the crowd grew more afraid. They all shook.
Fan Bisi was afraid too and called out:
"My lord—"
"It seems this ghost kills differently from the malignant ghosts before."
She thought for a moment and turned to look around.
Everyone she looked at shook all over, as if a ghost would appear wherever her gaze fell.
"Don't frighten me, my lord—"
Magistrate Pang, mopping sweat, finally couldn't bear it and begged:
"Could it, could it be that the ghost—"
"No."
Zhao Fusheng shook her head.
At that, everyone let out a breath without meaning to.
Magistrate Pang stopped wiping his sweat, and his tight shoulders and neck loosened somewhat.
"I suspect this ghost case spreads mainly through sound."
One sentence, and the stone they had just set down was lifted into the air again.
Zhang Chuanshi instinctively clapped his hands over his ears.
But a thought struck him: if he covered his ears he might not be able to hear Zhao Fusheng, and if he missed something important it would be terrible.
He lowered his hands, wearing a tearful face.
Zhao Fusheng said:
"I suspect everyone who hears the sound is marked by the ghost, and once marked, there is a chance that at some moment they will be chosen by the ghost."
But time was short, the case had broken out suddenly, and Zhao Fusheng lacked information, so she didn't know whether the ghost chose by any rule.
At the moment, though, one thing was certain: the ghost seemed to have a way of killing through sound.
"..."
The crowd was silent. They looked at one another, and gradually despair crept into their eyes.
"Like Madam Pang, and Yu Weide's son, and Yu Weide himself."
At this, Zhao Fusheng drew the old gentleman's torn clothes shut again.
Hearing that his wife had been marked by the ghost, Magistrate Pang grew frantic:
"My lord, I beg you to save my wife's life."
As an imperial official, Magistrate Pang knew better than anyone how terrifying malignant ghosts were.
Once marked by a ghost, eight or nine times in ten one died by its hand.
At this thought, anxiety ravaged him, the blood drained from his face, and he collapsed into a chair as if every bone had been pulled from his body.
The others were somewhat alarmed too.
Everyone in Wan'an County had heard the sound. Did that mean everyone would die?
Some regretted bitterly:
"I should have left back then—"
"I don't want to die."
...
Wailing filled the hall of the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
Just then Zhao Fusheng said coldly:
"What are you howling for? It's not yet time to go and eat at Yu Weide's banquet.1"
Pfft!
Amid the crowd's frightened weeping, as her words ended, a laugh rang out at the wrong moment.
The crowd froze and turned to see Zhang Chuanshi looking mortified.
He had been so scared and flustered that the sudden laugh had made a snot bubble pop out.
"...Lord Zhao is truly witty."
Seeing everyone look at him, he quickly forced a smile and pulled his head back.
The distinguished folk of Wan'an County hated him and were furious with him. They turned quickly to Zhao Fusheng:
"My lord, you must save our lives."
"I say, to untie the bell you need whoever tied it—the ghost.2"
The ghost killed unseen, with methods vicious and terrifying.
She had no way to forcibly stop the ghost from killing Yu Weide, but she could forcibly subdue the ghost, and then naturally the ghost calamity in Wan'an County would vanish.
Thinking so, Zhao Fusheng looked at Magistrate Pang:
"Magistrate Pang, are you any clearer in the head?"
Magistrate Pang was still wrapped in terror at the thought of losing his wife.
The two had married young and been together ever since. His wife had accompanied him to his post, and during the time Wan'an County was without protection, the only reason he had held steady until Zhao Fusheng appeared was the gentle, soft-spoken comfort she had given him from behind.
Now, hearing that Madam Pang had been marked by the ghost and might die, he was in utter disarray and did not know what to do.
Zhao Fusheng demanded:
"If you want to save your wife, then besides finding the ghost's killing rule, you must at least find where the ghost hides."
In fact, though this ghost case was eerie, to Zhao Fusheng it wasn't hard to resolve.
To end the calamity, besides understanding the ghost's killing rule, one also had to make the ghost manifest.
Though she hadn't fully worked out the ghost's specific rule, grasping the outline gave her a sense of the case.
As for where the ghost hid, Magistrate Pang had been very clear from the start: the West City Ghost Mausoleum.
The court had laid its last imprint in the middle of the eighth month last year. It was now the beginning of the eighth month, and by the calendar the timing was about right.
But a ghost case could not be handled on conjecture alone.
Zhao Fusheng asked:
"Are you certain it's the West City Ghost Mausoleum?"
"Certain!" Hearing she would save his wife, Magistrate Pang quickly roused himself, pressed his chest, sat upright and nodded hard at Zhao Fusheng:
"Lord Zhao must save my wife—"
