IBGSW Chapter 16
Half True, Half False
The brothers' account was grim. Zhao Fusheng held her own deep dread of malignant ghosts, but she had no intention of backing down.
After all, with a malignant ghost bound to her, sitting idle with her head buried in the sand would only lead to an early grave anyway.
Besides, she had inexplicably obtained the Investiture of the Gods. Unsure of its origins though she was, it remained her sole slim hope of survival.
That was a lifeline she wouldn't let go of for anything.
"Fusheng, think it over carefully." The corner of Fan Bisi's mouth twitched. "These three cases are just the ones the bureau took in over the past six months; don't even think about the older ones. Even so, not a single one of them is easy to deal with."
He pressed further, "You survived by pure luck, and good fortune doesn't strike twice. Take my advice: find a quiet place to lay low and behave yourself. Why throw your life away meddling in these affairs?"
Zhao Fusheng simply smiled without giving an answer.
Instead, she asked, "Brother Fan, can a suitable burial plot still be found these days? Keep the funeral arrangements of my parents as simple as possible, but it has to be handled quickly. I may have to trouble you two with it."
She was deeply wary of Fan Bisi, but it wasn't yet time to tear off the mask.
Seeing that she couldn't be dissuaded, Fan Bisi grew noticeably impatient.
The former Zhao Fusheng had been soft and indecisive, wrapped firmly around his finger. Now, the roles were reversed.
After a prolonged silence, he swallowed his resentment and relented.
"Fine. We were in the wrong first, so we'll take care of your parents' affairs."
He was young but scheming, and able to endure. Zhao Fusheng grew even warier of him.
Fan Bisi added, "That said, think over what I told you. The deal I offered remains on the table. The moment you come to your senses and retrieve our life souls for us, the two of us will be indebted to you forever."
"I'll think about it carefully."
Zhao Fusheng nodded. Seeing his expression relax a bit, she asked, "Are the three cases you mentioned written down anywhere? I'd like to read the records."
At first, Fan Bisi thought she had finally come around. Seeing her steer the conversation right back to the three cases, a surge of anger rushed through him.
"There aren't any." He shook his head, speaking stiffly as he struggled to hold back his irritation. "Things have been chaotic lately, so no one bothered to write down case files for these three."
"What about the earlier cases? There must be records." Zhao Fusheng wasn't discouraged by his refusal and pressed on.
"There are old records, all in the left side-wing chamber, but it's been a long time and I don't know whether they can still be found."
"Which side-wing?" she asked.
His patience wearing thin, Fan Bisi pointed with his finger.
"The second one over there. If you're not afraid, go take a look yourself." He frowned.
"If there's nothing else, Wujiu and I have a funeral to arrange for your parents."
With that, he gave his brother a look, and the two left the main hall and went straight out of the bureau.
Zhao Fusheng watched their backs as they left, and after a while tugged the corner of her mouth.
She didn't waste too much thought on the Fan brothers. A feud stood between them, and this polite facade was purely temporary. They simply weren't worth her time.
What drew her attention was the bureau's three cases that Fan Bisi had mentioned.
She didn't fully trust Fan Bisi, knowing full well that his words were likely laced with falsehoods. Still, the fate of the original Zhao Fusheng had already served as a stark warning of just how terrifying malignant ghosts could be.
Of the three cases, the first two were eerie and unpredictable, with no leads at all. In her current weak state, without a thorough understanding of ghost entities, going rashly would be going to her death.
Compared with the carriage case and the massacre of the seven-member family, Zhao Fusheng was inclined to try her luck at Beggars' Alley.
First, it was in Wan'an County, not far away.
Second, it was right beside the Confucian temple, and the temple had suffered a ghost calamity too. Her instinct told her the two ghost calamities were connected, perhaps even the work of the same malignant ghost.
It wasn't a wild guess. Fan Bisi had said that a month ago someone from the temple had come asking for help, mentioning an "agreement" from forty years ago, which indirectly supported it.
Forty years ago, the bureau had dealt with the Liu family's calamity, and there might well be records left behind.
If she could find those records, that would be better than groping in the dark.
Most important, from Fan Bisi's words she'd caught a few clues.
He'd urged her again and again not to take cases, to sit and wait for death, but in mentioning Beggars' Alley he'd let slip, without meaning to, that he and his brother had gone there.
A month ago the bureau could barely protect itself, and a man like Fan Bisi, who never rose early without profit, had nonetheless made time to go to Beggars' Alley. That wasn't normal.
Fan Bisi had said that most of the time the court looked the other way when local bureaus were lax about cases. But Zhao Fusheng was no fool. She didn't believe the court, with the Soul-Life Register as a sanction, would indulge local bureaus without limit.
She'd thought earlier that the two sides must be wary of each other, and must hold certain checks on each other.
The Fan brothers' eagerness to leave Wan'an County wasn't normal either.
By his account, Wan'an County was being affected by ghost fog and was being abandoned by the court. But if they could simply take no cases and wait to die, why would the brothers need to leave and go elsewhere?
As he himself had said, going elsewhere wouldn't make them live longer, only raise their chance of survival slightly.
And after the ghost case broke out at Beggars' Alley, he and Fan Wujiu had gone to scout it, which made it stranger still.
He was a shrewd man who feared death. Unless forced, why would he waste effort gathering news?
All of this showed that what he said was half true and half false.
Zhao Fusheng reasoned that the court couldn't wholly control the local bureaus, since ghost-controllers were reclusive and eccentric, and even with Jia Yi, speaker of the ghost language, controlling malignant ghosts, those people's power was not to be underestimated.
Likewise the local bureaus must be both afraid of and wary of the court, yet unable to break away.
The two sides kept up a surface peace. That meant that when a ghost case arose, local bureaus were entitled to weigh pros and cons themselves, and if the risk was too high, the people there would adopt Fan Bisi's method: ignore it, and in serious cases report to the court.
And the court presumably imposed some restraint on local bureaus. It wouldn't demand that every major case be handled, but every year, or every few months, a certain number of ghost cases had to be completed.
Only then could the two sides reach that delicate balance. That could also explain the Fan brothers' motive for going to Beggars' Alley.
The Wan'an County bureau had been in trouble for a long time. After Zhao Qiming's death, the court had given up on rescuing the place for good and sent no more promising ghost-controlling commanding officers to take charge, leaving it to fend for itself.
The Fan brothers' life souls were tied to the Wan'an bureau. As the deadline drew near, if they hadn't completed any cases, they would likely suffer a backlash from the ghost language talisman on the Soul-Life Register. That was why, in desperation, the two had gone to Beggars' Alley.
When they found they couldn't resolve the ghost case, the brothers decided to leave Wan'an County and dump the mess on Zhao Fusheng, who'd come back from the dead by luck.
