IBGSW Chapter 163
Tracing the Past
Every face showed panic, shame, and fear. They seemed to want to run away, yet there was also a vicious look beneath, the kind of ferocity people show when their private shame has been pried open and they mean to cover up a scandal.
Sixth Uncle’s expression went from white to green to red, and finally he forced himself to stay calm:
“Your Honor, could you have come on account of Madam Kuai-Zhuang1?”
Zhao Fusheng had announced herself as coming from the Demon-Suppression Bureau. The Bureau of the Great Han held a lofty position, and it was not something a mere precinct chief of Wulidian could order about. The Bureau handled ghost cases, and Zhao Fusheng’s purpose here was clear. She had also specifically brought up Zhuang Laoqi, which proved that she already knew the scandal that had happened in Kuailiang Village before she came.
“Madam Kuai-Zhuang?” Zhao Fusheng said with a smile, then her gaze turned and landed on Sixth Aunt. She asked what she already knew: “Which Madam Kuai-Zhuang does Sixth Uncle mean?”
Her counter-question enraged several of Sixth Uncle’s sons. They couldn’t hold their tempers and sprang to their feet, pointing at Zhao Fusheng and roaring:
“Watch your mouth!”
Fan Wujiu’s hot temper could not stand anyone pointing at the Bureau’s people. He stood up as well:
“So what if she said it? Her Honor asks you a question and you won’t answer? You want a fight?”
Wu Shaochun, too, unfolded the hot cloth in his hand and twisted it into a rope, taking up a defensive stance.
Sixth Uncle suddenly sighed:
“Everyone, say less.”
He first called off his sons, then signaled the angry villagers with his eyes, and finally turned to Zhao Fusheng:
“Since Your Honor has come, you must already know what happened in our village. If there’s something to say, let’s say it properly. Why wound people with such words?”
Zhao Fusheng sneered:
“You people caused a ghost calamity and got innocents killed. A matter of human lives, and you feel no remorse, yet you complain that I speak harshly? How strange.”
“...” Her words made guilt cross Sixth Uncle’s face, and Sixth Aunt, holding her grandson, finally burst into sobs after a long while:
“Sinful karma, what sinful karma.”
The other people of Kuailiang Village wore different expressions. Zhao Fusheng looked at each in turn, and they avoided her eyes and made no sound.
After a while, Sixth Uncle knit his brows tightly and broke the silence:
“Your Honor, by rights this matter should never have spread to other villages. How did Zhuang Laoqi—I mean Zhuang Shouqiang—find out?”
He had dragged over a low stool to sit on, knees slightly apart, with both trouble and bafflement in his eyes.
But since he had spoken up first, he must be willing to talk about this ghost case. Zhao Fusheng had dealt with Zhuang Laoqi and knew that matters touching on women’s reputation made these people clam up. Now that Sixth Uncle had come around on his own, that was a good thing.
Weighing what Sixth Uncle intended, Zhao Fusheng said:
“When Zhuang Laoqi was joking with his cousin, the two fell out—”
She glossed over the commotion Zhuang Laoqi and Gou Laosi had kicked up, then asked straight out:
“He said Kuailiang Village had a ghost case, and that it started from a private punishment in your village. Is that true?”
At this question, the villagers looked at each other and went mute for a long time.
Sixth Uncle knit his brows and said nothing.
He was the leader in the village, and everyone was sneaking glances at his face.
To get clues on the ghost case, she would have to pry open Sixth Uncle’s mouth first.
Zhao Fusheng did not fear dealing with the living, but Kuailiang Village was uncanny. She worried that everyone in the village might already be dead, and that the villagers in front of her might not be real at all but illusions produced by the influence of the ghost domain.
With this in mind, her gaze fell on Sixth Uncle too:
“I won’t hide it from you. The ghost case is getting worse by the day, and a great many people are going to die!”
Zhao Fusheng’s tone was stern.
At the words “a great many people are going to die,” Sixth Uncle’s lips twitched and his face changed slightly.
Zhao Fusheng saw his expression and added:
“Zhuang Family Village, across the river from Kuailiang Village, has already met with disaster.”
At the mention of Zhuang Family Village, Sixth Aunt could no longer sit still.
“Zhuang, Zhuang Family Village had trouble?” She held the child tightly, treating her young grandson as her emotional support, and asked, helpless: “What about my brothers and sisters back at my parents’ home?”
“They’re gone.”
Zhao Fusheng realized Sixth Aunt might be a breakthrough and simply turned to look at her:
“We went to Zhuang Family Village first when we arrived. It’s an abandoned empty village now. There’s not a single living person in it.”
The other villagers who had followed them to Sixth Uncle’s house erupted. Panic crossed Sixth Aunt’s face.
The crowd murmured, and Sixth Uncle’s thighs tensed. His backside half-lifted from the stool as he asked:
“Where did the people of Zhuang Family Village go?”
“I don’t know where they are. But in my experience, anyone who gets caught up in a ghost case has met with misfortune eight or nine times out of ten,” Zhao Fusheng said bluntly.
“How can that be?” the others said, unconvinced, whispering to each other, and Kuai Mancai poked his head in from outside:
“Zhuang Family Village has over a hundred people. How could they all be dead?”
“I won’t hide it from you, Your Honor. Strange things have indeed happened in our village, but this isn’t right.” Hearing that Zhuang Family Village was in trouble and over a hundred people were dead, Sixth Uncle couldn’t sit still:
“Ever since the trouble began, our village has been sealed off. How did word get out? Is Your Honor deceiving us?”
Zhao Fusheng shook her head:
“There’s nothing to gain from deceiving you.”
She could see that her news had shaken the villagers badly, so she said directly:
“Zhuang Laoqi gave an account of what happened in Kuailiang Village. He said you privately punished his cousin and put her to death, that she died with a grievance she couldn’t let go, and that a malignant ghost then revived. Is that right?”
This was a scandal.
At the mention of Fourth Madam Zhuang’s death, the others fell silent again.
Sixth Aunt wept softly. Trouble at her parents’ home was clearly making it hard for her to stay calm.
His old wife’s weeping jabbed at Sixth Uncle’s nerves. He gritted his teeth and suddenly admitted:
“Yes.”
When he spoke, the others grew anxious:
“Sixth Uncle—”
“Not another word!”
Sixth Uncle roared:
“Zhuang Family Village is in trouble. Are our little embarrassments worth as much as all those lives? Right now Zhuang Family Village has only met with trouble, and it’s not certain they’re dead.”
In a pinch he could still keep order. At his words, those who had been about to speak wilted and dared not make a sound.
“Alive, we find the person; dead, we find the body. We haven’t found the bodies of the Zhuang Family Village people, so they may still be alive. What’s there to hide at a time like this? As long as they’re alive, what does losing face matter? We can earn our face back later. If the people of Zhuang Family Village are dead, then even when I die I’ll have no face to meet our ancestors!”
Sixth Uncle spoke with ringing force.
After rebuking the villagers, he turned back to Zhao Fusheng:
“But Your Honor, how did he know? Word never got out.”
“That brings me to something strange.”
Zhao Fusheng turned to look outside, and her eyes fell on Kuai Mancai, who had poked his head in.
“Mancai?”
Sixth Uncle saw where she looked, then called out:
“Mancai, come in.”
He remembered that when the two sides first met, Zhao Fusheng’s party had been very pointed about Kuai Mancai’s name, and Fan Wujiu had even said Kuai Mancai was dead, which had almost sparked a clash. Back then Sixth Uncle had thought the party was deliberately picking a fight. Now that a ghost case was involved, he realized the problem might not be as simple as he had imagined.
The room was packed with people.
By generation, Kuai Mancai had no right to enter, but the situation was special now, and as soon as Sixth Uncle called him he came in at once.
“Manyin, go fetch your second uncle, your third aunt, and your fifth uncle,” Sixth Uncle told another youth standing outside the door, once he had called Kuai Mancai in.
The youth looked only fifteen or sixteen and was a quiet type. On hearing Sixth Uncle’s orders, he nodded and dashed off.
Only after he left did Sixth Uncle speak:
“That’s Kuai Da’s boy—”
Fearing that Zhao Fusheng wouldn’t know who Kuai Da was, he explained:
“Kuai Da is the eldest brother-in-law on Fourth Madam’s husband’s side, the one you mentioned.”
He thought for a moment, then explained:
“Kuai Da is the son of Kuai Jumin, and Kuai Jumin is my cousin, not yet outside the five degrees of mourning2.”
The kinship relations in Kuailiang Village were tangled and complicated. Sixth Uncle was distraught just then and had no leisure to explain how all the relatives were related, so he gave only the outline.
Zhao Fusheng nodded in understanding.
He went on:
“My cousin had a hard life. He had five sons and three daughters. The daughters married out early, but the sons cost money once they were grown. He took many knocks in his early years arranging for his five sons to take wives.”
When Sixth Uncle spoke of this cousin, there was a note of feeling in his voice:
“Your Honor already knows our village is rich in white perilla. But besides white perilla, every year our village also goes down to the river to net fish.”
If you live by the mountain, you eat from the mountain; if you live by the water, you eat from the water.
The river that ran along Kuailiang Village nourished the people on both its banks. Every autumn and winter the villagers waded into the river to net fish. With luck and a big catch, they sold most of it, then each household divided the rest, and by the New Year every family’s life was easier.
“My cousin worked hard. He and his wife gathered the most white perilla every year, and the two of them toiled and saved, and their first four sons all found wives in turn.”
By now Zhao Fusheng had pinned down the ghost’s identity, so she naturally wanted to understand Fourth Madam Zhuang’s life and from it deduce the ghost’s killing rules. Yet for some reason Sixth Uncle had begun with Kuai Jumin. She didn’t interrupt. She thought for a moment and followed his lead, asking:
“What kind of people were the four daughters-in-law they found?”
Given Zhao Fusheng’s intelligence, she could guess that this Kuai Jumin must be Fourth Madam Zhuang’s father-in-law.
This was also the environment Fourth Madam Zhuang had lived in, and perhaps the dynamic among the sisters-in-law was the reason her ghost had revived after death.
Hearing her question, Sixth Uncle answered without hesitation:
“All four daughters-in-law were good. Hardworking and able to bear hardship, they lived in harmony and were filial to their in-laws. They never once quarreled or fell out, and they were very considerate.”
The answer surprised Zhao Fusheng.
She eyed Sixth Uncle with suspicion, plainly not trusting his words.
Zhang Chuanshi didn’t believe it either. He tucked his hands into his sleeves and said with an incredulous look:
“How could anything be that good?”
“It’s true!” Sixth Uncle raised his voice.
“It’s true,” Sixth Aunt chimed in, holding her grandson, and said through tears:
“Although we’re still within the five degrees of mourning, we’re not first cousins by blood, so what would we gain by telling lies?”
She sniffed and wiped her eyes:
“My cousin’s wife really was good. It’s just that her luck was bad.”
Sixth Uncle was silent for a moment, then continued:
“After the first four sons were married, only Kuai Wu was left unmarried, and the couple began to worry about their youngest son’s marriage.”
Kuai Wu was much younger than his brothers, a late-in-life son. By the time he came of age, Kuai Jumin and his wife were already advanced in years.
“Ten years ago, one evening when I came home from farming, I met my cousin digging earth in the field. We chatted a few words, and he told me that once his fifth son was married, he and his wife could set down the stone in their hearts and live their own lives properly.”
The couple were hardworking and capable, and were extremely thrifty every year.
“My cousin wasn’t even sixty then, yet his hair was white and he looked far older than men of seventy or eighty. All his teeth had fallen out.” Sixth Uncle sighed. “He said children are all debt collectors3.”
Luckily, of five sons only one remained, and if the couple made one more push, the bitter days would soon be over.
“My old lady is from Zhuang Family Village, as Your Honor knows.”
Sixth Uncle’s words took an abrupt turn to Sixth Aunt.
Zhao Fusheng nodded slightly:
“Zhuang Laoqi mentioned it. He said his aunt on his father’s side, after marrying into Kuailiang Village, introduced her natal family’s niece as a match for Kuai Wu.”
When she said this, Sixth Uncle’s last trace of suspicion was dispelled.
“Yes,” Sixth Uncle answered.
The conversation had finally come around to Fourth Madam Zhuang, and Sixth Aunt swallowed her grief and spoke:
“My niece had a hard life too. Her grandfather and my father were born of the same mother. Her father had a bad temper, and the couple beat her often. From childhood to adulthood, she never wore a single new garment.”
Fourth Madam Zhuang had grown up in suffering, gentle and decent by nature, and her reputation spread far.
“That year, I brought Changshun back to my parents’ home and ran into this child,” Sixth Aunt said, wiping away a tear.
“Changshun is my eldest grandson.” She pointed at a young man standing at the door, who nodded shyly.
“She was leading a little one by the hand, her elder brother’s son. When we met, we walked back together, and as we passed her home, her elder brother’s wife came out fiercely and, as soon as she reached us, slapped her across the face.”
Back on the road to Kuailiang Village, when Zhuang Laoqi told her about Fourth Madam Zhuang’s life, Zhao Fusheng already knew that she hadn’t been favored at home before her marriage and had lived a hard life.
But now, hearing Sixth Aunt recount this, and learning that even her sister-in-law could slap her at will in front of outsiders, Zhao Fusheng’s brow twitched, and she asked:
“How old was she then?”
“Already a big girl of sixteen or seventeen. At that age she was grown, with her own pride and dignity. How could anyone still slap her in the face? Don’t you agree, Your Honor?”
Sixth Aunt sighed heavily again as she recalled that old matter:
“I was startled when I saw her hit her, so I shielded Fourth Madam behind me and asked her sister-in-law why she hit people. Her sister-in-law said the girl had been sneaking food and had eaten one of her eggs.”
“Just one egg, and still no excuse to hit a person?” Wu Shaochun chimed in.
“Their family was poor. Never mind eggs, even the wild greens brought home were rationed,” Sixth Aunt said with another sigh.
“At the time Fourth Madam Zhuang covered her face and cried softly, saying she hadn’t stolen it. She’d just come back from outside with her nephew and hadn’t even gone inside, so how could she have stolen anything?”
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s sister-in-law took it for excuse-making and chased her to hit her, and even pulled her hair.
She beat her own husband’s sister to tears in front of her own son.
Sixth Aunt quickly shielded her. By then she was married, and to Sixth Uncle no less, a man of standing in prosperous Kuailiang Village, so she carried real weight even at her parents’ home, and with her stepping in, Fourth Madam Zhuang’s sister-in-law stopped at once.
The two sides squabbled over one egg and ended up in front of the village chief.
“I testified for Fourth Madam. We had met at the river and walked back together, so she shouldn’t have had time to steal an egg.”
But Fourth Madam Zhuang’s sister-in-law insisted that a speckled hen at home had laid an egg half an hour earlier, and that the egg was gone. If it wasn’t Fourth Madam who took it, then who?
The two sides argued without end.
After the village chief mediated and questioned Fourth Madam Zhuang’s family, he established that she had taken her nephew out to pick mulberry leaves about an hour earlier and hadn’t been home when the hen laid the egg.
The timing didn’t fit, but the egg really was missing. The sister-in-law rolled on the ground, demanding the Zhuang family give her an explanation.
It was not the slack farming season, and everyone had work that morning. Each person’s movements could be accounted for. After looking into it, they found that in that window only Fourth Madam Zhuang’s younger brother had been at home.
He was eleven or twelve then, running wild with a few village boys his own age, shirking honest work and acting like a street hooligan, teasing cats and baiting dogs. He was thoroughly disliked in the village.
In the end Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents called him over, and he admitted he’d taken an egg, tossed it into the stove, and roasted it to eat.
The missing egg was finally accounted for, and the sister-in-law wailed and cried out for her in-laws to compensate her.
Her in-laws felt humiliated by so petty a matter. They couldn’t stand up to their fierce, shrewish eldest daughter-in-law, and feared that the egg theft would ruin their youngest son’s reputation. So in the end they blamed Fourth Madam Zhuang for being unruly, claiming that her refusal to take the blame had dragged her brother into it.
