IBGSW Chapter 169
Small Talk
Kuai Changshun’s attempt to change the subject was too obvious.
It wasn’t only Zhao Fusheng who noticed. Even the slow-witted Fan Wujiu and Wu Shaochun sensed a problem.
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s life had been a hard one, but she wasn’t actually that old. A great-nephew living next door, about her age... Zhao Fusheng’s eyes flickered, and she asked again:
“Changshun, is Kuai Huaide married?”
“Your Honor—”
Kuai Changshun’s face took on a pleading look. Zhao Fusheng was not as easygoing as earlier. She said firmly:
“Just answer this one question and I won’t press you again.”
“My grandfather will beat me to death—” Kuai Changshun shook his head, a timid look on his young face.
In truth his reaction already said a great deal. Zhao Fusheng hadn’t thought of it before, but it was possible that Kuai Huaide, who had reported Fourth Madam Zhuang’s affair, might share some unspeakable secret with Fourth Madam Zhuang.
“If you don’t say, and I don’t say, who would know?” Zhao Fusheng’s voice was gentle as she coaxed him in a low tone: “Now that Kuailiang Village has had a ghost case, the village has gone without sunlight and been surrounded by darkness all this time. Don’t you want to solve the case sooner, so that once the village is calm again it can pass into your father’s hands, and then on to yours?”
Then she added casually:
“I’m only asking about Kuai Huaide’s circumstances. He’s the one who reported Fourth Madam Zhuang, after all.”
Hearing this, Kuai Changshun’s eyes lit up: right! Her Honor was only asking about Kuai Huaide’s circumstances, nothing else. What harm was there in saying whether Kuai Huaide was married?
Thinking this, he took a deep breath and nodded to Zhao Fusheng:
“Your Honor is right. Huaide isn’t married—”
His answer was about what Zhao Fusheng had guessed.
Kuai Changshun needed only an opening, and once his guard was down, he went on:
“Huaide’s father died early and only his widowed mother is left. In the old days, when my Fourth Grandfather (Kuai Jumin) was alive, he pitied the orphan and widow and looked after them a lot, so after my Fourth Grandfather died Huaide was grateful for his Fourth Great-Granduncle’s kindness.”
He said:
“Huaide knew that what my Fourth Grandfather worried about most before he died was Kuai Wu’s marriage, so after Kuai Wu married, he often helped them out.”
As they talked and walked, Kuai Changshun said:
“Kuai Wu is a good-for-nothing, and only Fifth Aunt held the household up. She was truly capable, carrying loads on her shoulders, no worse than a man, working the house and the fields. But she was a woman after all, and there were jobs she couldn’t do. Huaide lived close by and often helped her fetch water and chop firewood, do odd jobs—”
When he finished, he realized he’d said too much.
He had let everything out in a rush, both what should and shouldn’t be said.
This Demon-Suppression Bureau official had a strange kind of magic that made him feel close to her, and when she asked, Kuai Changshun couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
His heart went cold, afraid Zhao Fusheng would ask about Kuai Huaide and Fourth Madam Zhuang’s relationship. But while he trembled, Zhao Fusheng, to his surprise, didn’t ask more, and instead smiled at him:
“Thank you. These clues are very useful to me.”
She had actually kept her word: she’d said only one question and she really didn’t ask more.
Kuai Changshun had braced himself to tell her about the village gossip if she asked again, but Zhao Fusheng’s quitting while ahead left him at a loss.
After a while, he said softly:
“Thank you, Your Honor.”
Fan Wujiu and Wu Shaochun were also surprised, but Fan Wujiu said nothing, while Wu Shaochun showed a thoughtful look.
“Your Honor, Kuai Wu’s house is near, look, that’s it.”
He raised the brass lamp in his hand and pointed into the distance with one hand.
The party followed his finger and saw a winding path through the fields leading to several houses in the distance, in the faint pool of light.
The houses were laid out in the shape of the character 品1, built around a sizable yard, and in front of the yard was a small pond filled with withered lotus leaves.
The houses were old and dilapidated.
In some places the bamboo lattice had fallen away from the fence and was patched only with mud-mixed straw.
“My Fourth Grandfather had five sons, but Kuai Si died of illness early. Now Kuai Da, Kuai Er, Kuai San, and Kuai Wu all live here,” Kuai Changshun said, pointing at the shabby houses and introducing them to Zhao Fusheng:
“Those connected houses over there are where my Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle live. The one off to the south side is Third Uncle’s. Third Uncle is a butcher, so his family is the best off. There, on the west side at the back, those houses are Kuai Wu’s, and the one that backs onto his is Huaide’s.”
Grateful to Zhao Fusheng for having kept her word, he described each household’s house in great detail.
“My Third Uncle is sick. I wonder if he’s gotten better,” he suddenly sighed.
“Sick?” Zhao Fusheng started, and before she could ask, Kuai Changshun glanced left and right:
“It started the day my Fifth Aunt died.”
He seemed about to say more but hesitated, so clearly there was a secret in it.
Zhao Fusheng’s mind stirred, and she looked at Kuai Changshun.
But she was a woman of her word. She had said her question about whether Kuai Huaide was married would be the last, and so even though she realized there was something strange about Kuai San’s illness, she didn’t say anything.
The young man in front of her thought well of her, and she understood people’s hearts.
She quit while she was ahead. Kuai Changshun, relieved, must feel a strange sense of indebtedness to her, and that’s human nature at work.
Kuai Changshun would want to repay her, and then she wouldn’t need to ask. He would bring up Kuai San’s illness himself.
If he said it of his own free will, he wouldn’t lie.
Having worked this out, Zhao Fusheng said calmly:
“Changshun, if it’s inconvenient to say, forget it. I promised I’d ask only one last question, and you’ve answered it. I don’t want to put you in a difficult position.”
Her words dispelled Kuai Changshun’s last scruple, and he said solemnly:
“Your Honor is so considerate that I can’t let you go into danger blind.”
He stood where he was, holding the lamp, and said:
“On the day my Fifth Aunt died, strange things happened. You heard my grandfather mention them at our house, so I won’t repeat them.”
“But my grandfather didn’t tell it in detail. After my Fifth Aunt died, her body wouldn’t sink. Everyone was scared at the time, and it was Third Uncle, together with Pengju and Pengcheng, who went and dragged her body ashore.”
Afterward, when Fourth Madam Zhuang’s body, once burned, turned into blood-water and mysteriously vanished, the villagers were frightened and returned to the village.
“After that, when we found that day would never break again, life still had to go on, so my grandfather told everyone to go home. Not long after, Third Aunt came to tell my grandfather that Third Uncle was sick.”
Kuai Changshun’s meaning was plain, so Zhao Fusheng said:
“So Kuai San’s ‘illness’ has to do with Fourth Madam Zhuang.”
“Yes.”
Kuai Changshun nodded, but said gravely:
“But it may not be a sickness. It might be a haunting!”
“A haunting?”
Hearing “haunting,” Fan Wujiu, who had been listening to them, shuddered.
Against people he was all fists and ferocity; against ghosts he was meek and timid.
“Our whole business is ghost cases. A ghost here wouldn’t be strange,” Wu Shaochun comforted him.
“...”
Fan Wujiu’s face went slightly pale. He unconsciously touched his back, thought of the Door God imprint on Zhang Chuanshi’s back, and looked at Zhao Fusheng again with a hopeful gleam, hoping she might give him an imprint too.
“Yes, it’s haunted!”
Kuai Changshun nodded:
“Your Honor, my Third Aunt said she seemed to see my Fifth Aunt’s shadow in the pond in front of their house.”
His words made Fan and Wu tremble slightly, and Zhao Fusheng’s mind stirred. She nodded:
“Then was the family harmed by the ghost?”
“No, not at all.”
Kuai Changshun shook his head:
“It’s just that my Third Uncle was caught by the ghost and has been bedridden.”
This was clearly wrong.
Once a malignant ghost appears, anyone within the ghost domain who triggers its killing rules cannot survive.
That Kuai San had dealt with a ghost yet only fallen ill and not died was plainly wrong.
But Zhao Fusheng didn’t say more.
After Kuai Changshun said this, he went on a few more steps holding the lamp, and the light fell on the small yard ahead. Seeing the lights outside, two doors facing the yard opened and several heads popped out. Kuai Changshun, sharp-eyed, called out at once:
“Third Aunt, Eldest Aunt, it’s me, Changshun. My grandfather sent me to bring Her Honor to find Kuai Wu.”
As soon as he announced himself, the several heads that had poked out broke into smiles.
The doors creaked open, and the farmyard, which had been deathly silent a moment before, became a little livelier.
“It’s Changshun from Sixth Uncle’s house.”
“Manyin said earlier that a Demon-Suppression Bureau official had come to the village, and these must be them.”
“Please come in, Your Honor.”
As they spoke, a light flared inside the house, illuminating the dark rooms.
Several people came out in succession, and when Zhao Fusheng’s party of four crossed the field ridge into the yard, they were immediately surrounded by the Kuai family.
“Is Your Honor hungry? We can light the fire and cook, you can eat your fill before you start work.”
They spoke over one another, warm and respectful.
Zhao Fusheng looked at them and saw that all the people surrounding her were women with their children. Several were grown, but they were young and didn’t look like Kuai Wu’s brothers.
She smiled:
“No need to cook. Let’s just sit a while and catch our breath.” With that, she signaled Fan Wujiu and Wu Shaochun with a glance to stay and keep Kuai Changshun company, while she was surrounded by the women and went into the house.
“Your Honor—”
Seeing she was going into the house with the women, Wu Shaochun grew alarmed. After all, Kuai Changshun had said before that this place was haunted, and he was afraid something would happen if Zhao Fusheng carelessly went in with these women.
“Don’t worry,” Zhao Fusheng shook her head, signaling him to rest easy.
Wu Shaochun, rattled by concern, forgot that she was by far the strongest of them against ghosts.
If the place really was haunted, her going in was the safest course.
The women surrounded her as she entered the house. Looking at the children around her, she saw two younger ones about five or six, barefoot, filthy.
Since the trouble in Kuailiang Village there had been no day or night, and these children’s routines were thrown off and they hadn’t gone to sleep.
“We’re going to talk, so let the children go out and play.” Zhao Fusheng had no patience for dealing with children. She wanted to get information from the women, so she sent the children away first.
The three farm wives turned their eyes to an older woman, who nodded and called:
“Manyin, come in and take your brothers and sisters out.”
Soon the half-grown boy Zhao Fusheng had seen at Sixth Uncle’s house came in and led the children out, turning back shyly to look at Zhao Fusheng on his way out, curiosity and fear both in his eyes.
The women were rather constrained. After entering the house, Zhao Fusheng felt completely at home. She pulled up a long bench and sat down, and gestured to them:
“Sit down, all of you. We’re just having a chat.”
“Yes, yes.”
The women agreed, and seeing how amiable she was, they gradually stopped being as afraid as before.
Once everyone was seated, Zhao Fusheng looked around and saw four women in the room.
Counting the five Kuai brothers, the four women besides Fourth Madam Zhuang, who had been drowned, were presumably the other daughters-in-law of the Kuai family.
The four Kuai wives were of different ages. The eldest had gray at both temples and looked at least sixty, while the youngest was in her forties, but each of them had a dark complexion and an anxious, careworn face.
Two nasolabial lines like two furrows were etched on each woman’s face.
Their hair was unkempt, dry and lackluster, hastily bunched up in buns at the backs of their heads, and they looked weary, with a weathered, toil-worn air.
All four wore gray or blue cloth clothes covered in patches, the collars worn to a fuzz, and the skin joining the collars was rough and blackened, clearly from years of friction with ragged clothing.
Zhao Fusheng’s gaze fell on the eldest. She seemed uneasy under the gaze, her two rough hands clasping each other, and on the index finger of her left hand was a blackish-red scar that nearly cut across half the finger.
Because she was gripping her fingers so tightly, yellowish fluid seeped out of the scar, clearly because she had hurt it not long ago and had had no chance to care for the wound properly.
Zhao Fusheng noticed that besides this fresh injury, her palms bore several old scars with deep marks, showing a lifetime of labor.
Her somewhat sharp gaze gradually softened.
“Are you Kuai Da’s wife?”
Zhao Fusheng studied her for some time, until she was fidgeting in her seat, and then asked.
When the woman heard her speak, she tensed and wanted to stand up. Zhao Fusheng pushed down with a hand, signaling her to stay seated, and asked again:
“Are you Kuai Da’s wife?”
“Y-Your Honor, my surname is Lin—”
The woman sitting beside her tugged her clothes and said softly:
“Eldest sister-in-law, Her Honor is asking if you’re Kuai Da’s wife.”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
The old woman came to her senses and nodded quickly:
“Yes, yes, I’m Kuai Da’s wife. People call me ‘Kuai Da’s missus.’”
“Your surname is Lin? Which village were you originally from?”
Zhao Fusheng could see she was very nervous and was answering beside the point, so she simply made small talk to lower her guard.
Mrs. Lin had originally heard that the Demon-Suppression Bureau had come and thought Zhao Fusheng was there because of Fourth Madam Zhuang. She was very afraid of being asked about Fourth Madam Zhuang. But now Zhao Fusheng was asking about her own origins, which struck her as odd, yet the tight string in her heart slowly loosened, and she answered obediently:
“Your Honor, I’m from nearby Fengmen Village.”
“Fengmen Village?” Zhao Fusheng had a good memory, and hearing this, she smiled:
“Before I came here, I heard from Zhuang Laoqi of Zhuang Family Village that he had a great-aunt whose daughter married into Fengmen Village years ago.”
