IBGSW Chapter 86
Meeting Meng Po Again
On a whim, Zhao Fusheng had decided to go to Beggars’ Alley.
Beggars’ Alley was extremely important. Within were two malignant ghosts suppressing each other that hadn’t yet revived, and the Beggar Ghost, now missing an arm, would sooner or later need her to resolve it.
Best of all would be to wait until she’d handled another ghost case, saved up 1,000 merit, and opened the second level of Hell.
Once she subdued the Beggar Ghost, the Confucian temple would be left with two great ghosts restraining each other, and then even Paperman Zhang, hidden in the dark, wouldn’t dare break the balance for the time being.
Wan’an County’s crisis would ease for a while, letting her focus on solving ghost cases and raising her strength.
She thought of this but showed nothing on her face.
The menial worker, hearing her order, answered quickly and hurried off to harness the horse and ready the carriage.
Other attendants in the Office brought her a chair to wait in, and within a quarter of an hour someone came in to report that the carriage was ready.
Zhao Fusheng rose and went out.
The sun was out in Wan’an County today, but whether it was Zhao Fusheng’s imagination or not, the eighth-month sunlight wasn’t bright and fierce; shining on every part of the county, it had a hazy gray feel.
On the long street outside the bureau, the fallen leaves had been swept, but many of the dilapidated shops along both sides hadn’t been repaired and looked rundown.
She glanced at the shuttered shops, and the driver, noticing her gaze, seemed to guess her thoughts and offered, “Don’t mind how quiet it is now, my lord. Last night Master Fan already gave orders, and today people will be found to repair these shops.”
When she was seated, he hurriedly flicked the reins. “Once the shops are repaired and your name has spread far and wide, my lord, shopfronts here will be worth their weight in gold, and the place will be packed with people!”
Zhao Fusheng looked out. “Did you see this place when it was busy?”
“I did.”
The driver nodded. “When I was little I came here with my father, and it was so lively then. Everyone wanted to come this way. Even peddlers who wandered the lanes selling goods had to pay to enter.”
He seemed to relive the glory days.
Zhao Fusheng asked with a smile, “Are you from Wan’an County?”
“Yes. My family has lived for generations in Zhangjiakou Lane1 in the east of the city. My grandfather was once a menial worker at the County Government.”
From what he said, Zhao Fusheng saw that Fan Bisi was fairly particular in choosing people, not just finding anyone to deal with her. He must have asked Magistrate Pang to investigate, and all those hired were of clean background and easy to control.
She nodded and chatted idly with the driver. His grandfather had served in the county, so he had some knowledge, wasn’t timid, spoke with tact, and wasn’t dull company. And having lived in Wan’an County for generations, he knew a lot about the county. He was trying to please her, and the road didn’t feel tedious.
Soon the carriage reached the south of the city, and before entering Beggars’ Alley, Zhao Fusheng, on an odd impulse, looked out toward the intersection in the distance.
Meng Po’s stall was still there.
After the Beggars’ Alley case was resolved, a bit of human warmth had returned here, and two people sat drinking soup at the stall.
Hearing the carriage, the people there turned together to look this way.
Zhao Fusheng’s heart stirred.
“Do you want to go say hello, my lord?”
The driver sharply sensed that her gaze had lingered at that moment, and asked.
After finishing the Beggars’ Alley case she had drunk two bowls of soup at Meng Po’s stall, and the news had spread through Wan’an County.
Now everyone in the county knew that this old woman was friends with the new chief commanding officer of the bureau. As the situation in the county gradually settled, many people with a bit of leisure were willing to run over and sit there.
“Not for now.”
She shook her head. “Go straight into Beggars’ Alley and let me down at the Confucian temple gate.”
“Right.”
The driver answered, and the carriage didn’t stop but went straight into Beggars’ Alley.
It was her second time in Beggars’ Alley.
With no ghost fog shrouding it, the place looked much brighter.
Magistrate Pang knew she valued it, and had sent people to scrub and tidy it.
But many collapsed buildings hadn’t been repaired yet and still bore traces of the malignant ghosts’ rampage.
Yamen men patrolled the street, and on seeing the carriage, perhaps recognizing the bureau’s mark, they hurried up to greet her.
The carriage stopped before the Confucian temple. As soon as Zhao Fusheng stepped down, she saw Liu Yizhen standing at the temple gate.
She froze for a moment, then turned to the driver. “You go back first and come pick me up after evening.”
The driver answered, then drove off.
Zhao Fusheng watched the carriage leave, then turned to Liu Yizhen and looked him over for some time before laughing. “Looks like you knew I was coming.”
There was more in her words than appeared.
Liu Yizhen caught it and shook his head. “The one who tipped me off wasn’t human.”
At this, her heart stirred. “A ghost?”
Liu Yizhen nodded slightly.
His gesture startled her. “Is the Beggar Ghost showing signs of reviving?”
“Not yet,” Liu Yizhen shook his head.
Perhaps from keeping company with ghosts for years, he seemed somewhat cold. “It’s only because you dismembered it and took its arm.”
He gestured at his own right arm. “So when you get near, it reacts the most.”
His task, staying in the Confucian temple, was to guard the three malignant ghosts that had temporarily fallen into slumber, so he knew every change in each ghost clearly.
When he first sensed the ghost aura in the temple changing, Liu Yizhen had been startled, then guessed that Zhao Fusheng’s arrival had provoked the ghosts’ change.
“When I came out to look, sure enough, it was you.”
He went on, “But after all, it wasn’t a full expulsion, nor a complete seal, only a temporary calm because of the dismemberment. Moreover, someone is watching covetously...”
As he said this, he looked up at Zhao Fusheng.
Their eyes met, and both understood that Paperman Zhang’s existence was a huge hidden danger.
That man coveted the ghost coffin and would surely strike again sooner or later. If this tumor wasn’t removed, Wan’an County would sooner or later suffer a great disaster again.
Zhao Fusheng nodded. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
Her extraordinary methods in the Beggars’ Alley calamity gave her words great persuasive power, and Liu Yizhen’s tight face eased into a smile.
He was about to speak when Zhao Fusheng said, “In a while, I’ll move the Beggar Ghost out first.”
Liu Yizhen finally let out a real sigh of relief.
Though he looked calm now, living in one house with three ghosts, one of them unstable, with Paperman Zhang’s threat outside, the danger was plain.
If Zhao Fusheng could move one ghost away, nothing could be better.
“Where do you plan to send the ghost?”
Relieved, he asked offhandedly, even offering a suggestion. “Why not send it to Baozhi County...”
A sincere look crossed Liu Yizhen’s face. “Baozhi County’s bureau is strong, but the Deputy Commander Zheng who controls a Baleful-tier ghost probably doesn’t have long. When he dies, a Baleful-tier ghost’s loss of control is no joke.” He said, “If you send a Baleful-tier malignant ghost there at that moment, even if Deputy Commander Zheng’s ghost revives and he dies, two ghosts countering each other would strike a balance, and the court might even reward you, and the people would be grateful.”
“...”
His speech left Zhao Fusheng speechless.
“I’ll consider it later.”
She thought and shook her head anyway. “But not the Beggar Ghost.”
Her rejection of his proposal surprised Liu Yizhen. “If not Baozhi County, where do you intend to move the ghost?”
Wan’an County’s situation was critical, and the surrounding counties were mostly weak. If the ghost flowed into another county, who knew how many more it would kill.
When she’d resolved the Beggars’ Alley calamity that day, Zhao Fusheng’s temperament had been completely different from his previous impression of ghost-controllers, and he’d thought she disliked innocents dying and would try to avoid ghost calamities.
“I plan to move the ghost into the bureau.”
“...” Now it was Liu Yizhen who was dumbfounded.
After a long while he blurted, “You plan to take the ghost away?”
“Yes.”
She nodded and didn’t dwell on the question. “Has anything unusual happened in the temple lately?”
Liu Yizhen’s mind was full of doubts.
The Beggar Ghost’s corpse was incomplete, with one arm in Zhao Fusheng’s hands. Once it revived, the ghost itself would first come for her to retrieve its arm.
Everyone else was anxious to send ghosts away, yet she was instead inviting calamity home.
What was she thinking, to take the ghost away of her own accord?
The dismembered ghost corpse was right beside her, and sooner or later the ghost would revive.
Liu Yizhen could guess she had other plans, but their acquaintance was shallow, and even if she had a secret, she wouldn’t tell him.
Zhao Fusheng didn’t want to discuss it further, and Liu Yizhen suppressed his questions and said instead, “So far so good.”
Though he said that, his brow was tightly furrowed, plainly with something he couldn’t say.
Zhao Fusheng’s heart stirred. “For now? Is there some trouble not yet resolved?”
Liu Yizhen hesitated, then shook his head. “There is a bit of trouble, but not a big problem.”
He lived in one room with three ghosts, so his steadiness of mind was evident.
If Liu Yizhen called it “trouble,” it couldn’t be small.
But he chose not to say, and for the moment Zhao Fusheng didn’t press.
She had a pile of troubles herself, and some things she could only turn a blind eye to for now.
Still, worried that delay would invite trouble2, she resolved to handle another ghost case early and haul away the Beggar Ghost’s corpse first.
“By the way, I heard you took on another ghost case the day before yesterday...”
Liu Yizhen also took the initiative to change the subject, and Zhao Fusheng nodded along. “I did. Come to think of it, that case has a bit of a connection to your Liu family.”
The two instinctively avoided topics touching their own secrets and turned to ghost cases, and had quite a pleasant chat.
Zhao Fusheng told him about the Goutou Village case and spent most of the day in Beggars’ Alley, taking her leave of Liu Yizhen only toward evening.
Liu Yizhen was going to see her out, but Zhao Fusheng said with a smile, “In Wan’an County now, there’s probably no short-sighted ruffian who’d dare provoke me.”
Even if some criminal did, her strength had grown greatly after controlling a ghost, and an ordinary sallow, emaciated person was no match for her.
Even if she met a burly man, with the ghost arm she could handle him.
“I told the bureau to come pick me up at dusk. For now I’m going to sit outside for a while.”
“Outside?” Liu Yizhen asked curiously.
“There’s a soup stall outside Beggars’ Alley run by an old woman, surnamed Meng,” she explained.
Hearing this, Liu Yizhen understood. “Meng Po.”
“Right.” She nodded and asked curiously, “You know her too?”
“I heard my grandfather mention her,” Liu Yizhen answered. “She came here ten years ago, said at first she was looking for family, and after that there was no news. Perhaps she couldn’t go home, so she set up a stall selling soup for a living.”
Zhao Fusheng said thoughtfully, “I see.”
Liu Yizhen looked down at her. “Do you think there’s something odd about her?”
He hadn’t known Zhao Fusheng long, but clever people share a certain tacit understanding.
Zhao Fusheng was sharp and suspicious. She wouldn’t befriend an old woman she’d never met for no reason, so she must have her reasons.
“No.” Zhao Fusheng smiled at him. “I just think Meng Po is lucky.”
When the Beggars’ Alley case broke out, the ghost domain had enveloped all of Beggars’ Alley and stopped exactly at the crossing where Meng Po’s stall stood.
And after the case, she’d kept setting up her stall there every day and never come to harm, which was truly strange.
“Do you suspect she has a problem?” Liu Yizhen, hearing the implication, frowned.
“She’s not a ghost.”
Zhao Fusheng said, “I know she’s not a ghost.”
Ghosts have no reason or memory, harming people by instinct and rule. She had talked and exchanged words with Meng Po, so of course she knew Meng Po wasn’t a ghost.
“I’m just going over to sit.”
Liu Yizhen nodded. “As you like, but you’ve handled two ghost cases. Though you didn’t use the ghost’s power in Goutou Village, you still have to watch out for it reviving.”
He pointed at the shadow at Zhao Fusheng’s feet, reminding her.
Zhao Fusheng answered with a smile. “I know. I’m off.”
She left Beggars’ Alley and headed for Meng Po’s stall.
At that moment, a few people were still at the stall. When she came alone, several men who had been holding bowls of soup glanced at her, and before they could say anything, Meng Po stood up and came to meet her.
“My l—”
Zhao Fusheng waved a hand. “I haven’t been by in a while. I’m free today and thought I’d sit for a bit.”
Hearing this, Meng Po knew she didn’t want to be too conspicuous and reveal her identity, and she wiped her hands anxiously on her apron and nodded, a bit awkward.
“Let me treat you to soup,” Meng Po said, standing a while and then turning to ladle it, but Zhao Fusheng said, “No need to treat me. I brought money!”
She took a string of copper coins from her robe and jingled them twice.
The coins clinked crisply, and the men drinking soup raised their heads in unison, saw the coins in her hand, and covetousness showed in their eyes.
But Beggars’ Alley had been under strict control lately.
Who knew what had gotten into Magistrate Pang, but every day he’d added many yamen runners near here, and though the men itched at the sight of money, they didn’t dare make any moves and instead, in tacit agreement, sipped their soup in small mouthfuls, each sitting still.
Seeing this, Zhao Fusheng sneered inwardly.
These men had shifty eyes and fierce looks at the sight of money.
With so many runners in Beggars’ Alley and still daring to have evil thoughts, these were people who, even if they didn’t commit crimes today, might well commit them another day.
Rather than have others be victims in the future, better they fall into her hands so she could deal with them all at once.
Killing intent surged in her.
At that moment, Meng Po set a bowl of soup before her.
The soup’s steam rose into her face, and the killing intent in her heart froze.
Smelling the aroma, Zhao Fusheng realized she had nearly lost control of her emotions.
She wasn’t truly a person of the Great Han, and the moral stamp had long been branded in her heart.
But in that moment, thinking of killing, she hadn’t hesitated at all.
It seemed that possession by a malignant ghost still affected her. The Investiture of the Gods could only dispel some of the ghost’s interference with her emotions, and part of her views had been quietly changed, so that she herself hadn’t noticed the change.
She took a deep breath. “It smells wonderful.”
Then she slapped the money onto the table, and as she picked up the bowl said, “How’s business lately? Has any ruffian dared make trouble or run amok at your stall?”
Meng Po, seeing her take out money, had been uneasy at first, afraid trouble was about to come to her stall.
Then, hearing this, she wondered whether the lord of the bureau was deliberately making her identity clear to drive away these unrelated people.
She steadied herself and answered tentatively, “Thanks to your blessing, my lord, ever since you handled the Beggars’ Alley ghost case and sat here for a while, things at my stall have been much more peaceful these past half month and more...”
As she spoke, Meng Po carefully watched Zhao Fusheng’s face, saw she didn’t object, and felt relieved.
And as soon as she said this, the faces of the other soup drinkers changed drastically.
Even the stupidest of them realized who Zhao Fusheng was.
