IBGSW Chapter 98
The Baozhi Ghost Calamity
In the case-records room, Zhao Fusheng listened as the man recounted Baozhi County's ghost case, and before the doctor arrived she finally had the whole story straight.
Half a month earlier, someone in a place called Changgui Ward, under Baozhi County's jurisdiction, had reported that a temple outside the county had suffered a ghost calamity. Together with the monks and the lodging pilgrims inside, twenty-seven people had died!
The scene was horrific, but because the temple was remote, about ten li from Baozhi County, no one had noticed at the time whether it had been covered by a ghost domain.
Only days later, when a devout pilgrim climbed the mountain to worship, was the slaughter discovered, and he nearly went mad on the spot.
The case caused a huge uproar.
Baozhi County had always been peaceful.
The one holding down the county's Demon-Suppression Bureau was a very experienced ghost-controller. Zheng He had controlled a ghost for nearly three years and had handled three ghost cases in the two years since coming to Baozhi County, for which he'd received commendation from the court and become famous among the prefectural counties.
Under his rule Baozhi County had always been tranquil. In two years there had hardly been a ghost case in the city center, and everyone said: Deputy Commander Zheng's baleful aura is so heavy, he's like a living King Yama1; even malignant ghosts go out of their way to avoid him.
In Baozhi County, Deputy Commander Zheng held extraordinary standing; rich merchants and gentry offered tribute one after another and kept him rolling in wealth.
So when rumors of a haunted temple spread, the county's calm surface was shattered.
After all, that temple wasn't far from the county seat's center; ten li or so was, to a malignant ghost, like popping next door for a visit.
The wealthy gentry who'd thought themselves perfectly safe were scared out of their wits on the spot, wishing they could move their whole families into the bureau and beg for Deputy Commander Zheng's protection.
But Deputy Commander Zheng knew his own condition.
After two years he was already an old hand in this trade, on the brink of his ghost reviving; if he handled one more ghost case, he'd surely die.
So the moment the case reached the bureau, he settled it on the spot: he didn't classify it as a ghost case, but declared it an act of revenge, saying someone had wiped out the temple in a fit of rage.
Since no ghost domain had been seen and nobody had witnessed a malignant ghost killing, he publicly ruled it a human crime and dumped it on the county government.
The county government naturally knew the temple massacre was very likely tied to ghosts, but Deputy Commander Zheng was a ghost-controller, the local emperor of Baozhi County, and his word was heaven. Who dared contradict him?
The county yamen’s people took the blame and, trembling, began investigating the temple massacre.
Having been a place where a malignant ghost had lingered, it was somewhere the yamen runners didn't dare go; they just pretended, making a show of asking around the county.
Anyway, those who'd died were just a few monks, and the lodging pilgrims were not wealthy families. The county's people had cooperated with Zheng He before, and both sides knew the drill.
As long as the public didn't petition and officials didn't pursue, they could grab someone at random to take the fall, say it was the work of river-and-lake bandits who'd plundered the temple, and close the case.
Both sides wanted this ghost case swept under the rug, but the temple massacre turned out to be a beginning, not an end.
A few days later, a household surnamed Cao in Baozhi County was wiped out overnight, all seven members dead!
The case went up to the county Demon-Suppression Bureau, and Zheng He still wanted to classify it as a private revenge killing.
But the temple and the Caos had only been the prelude. After that, the malignant ghost began striking frequently, and the county yamen scrambled to cover it up.
At first they could still fool the people, until a wealthy family surnamed Sun in the county, seventy or eighty members in all, died horribly at a malignant ghost's hands in a single night!
Blood ran in rivers through the Sun mansion, every victim died in grotesque agony, the bodies bore the malignant ghost's baleful aura, and the family was wealthy and had long been one of Zheng He’s staunchest patrons.
The Sun family's extermination shocked Baozhi County. All the gentry and wealthy households couldn't sit still.
Investigation showed the Sun house was full of gold, and no treasures or jewels had been taken.
Now the "river-and-lake bandits" story could no longer shut the merchants' and magnates' mouths. They gathered at the Demon-Suppression Bureau and pressed Deputy Commander Zheng to act.
Zheng He finally couldn't sit still. Panic in his heart, he could only make a show of ordering an investigation into the ghost's origin.
But a ghost kills with no trace and leaves without a shadow. In just half a month the malignant ghost had killed so many people, yet no one had learned a thing about where it came from.
On the contrary, Zheng He, tallying afterward, found that over those days more than a dozen cases had been reported.
Almost every victim was a whole family. Together with the Sun household, the ghost had killed over three hundred people in half a month!
The figure frightened even Zheng He, who was by then half mad.
A malignant ghost doesn't stay the same.
Having killed so many and piled up so much sin, a ghost advances in rank. Even if this ghost had begun as a mere Evil Spirit-tier ghost of no account, after being baptized in human blood for half a month, it would have grown to at least Baleful-tier or above!
That was only Zheng He's rough estimate.
And from the current situation, even beyond Baleful-tier was possible.
Never mind that he was now unable to do anything; even in his prime he wouldn't have dared make a move.
The ghost he controlled was only Baleful-tier. If the ghost haunting Baozhi County had gone beyond Baleful-tier, any move he made would only add one more notch to that malignant ghost’s tally.
Zheng He could already imagine what people would say after he died: the famous Deputy Commander Zheng of Baozhi County, incompetent in governing the county, defeated and killed by a malignant ghost!
At that thought, he naturally resolved to hole up in the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
But since the case involved the gentry, and with public outrage boiling, he couldn't do nothing at all, or someone would very likely report him to the court.
Zheng He didn't dare ask the court for help!
He was nearing his ghost's revival. If he asked the court for help, the people it sent would take his life before tidying up.
To keep up appearances, Zheng He placated the crowd on one hand and began a genuine investigation on the other.
Having run Baozhi County for years, he looked closely, and although he found nothing on where the ghost went, he did uncover some other clues.
At this point the man kept sneaking peeks at Zhao Fusheng and dared not say the rest.
"What did Zheng He find?"
Zhao Fusheng asked with a smile.
She looked very easygoing now, mild and reserved, with no sign of the woman who'd nearly killed a man over a disagreement.
"Deputy Commander Zheng found—"
The wounds on the man's cheeks looked horrifying, blood soaking his collar. He'd barely opened his mouth when he saw Zhao Fusheng smiling at him, and, shuddering, hastily corrected himself:
"No, no, no. Zheng He found that people from Wan'an County, Wan'an County, had been there."
Zheng He had held Baozhi County for years and filled it with his eyes and ears. He knew that although the cause of a malignant ghost's revival can never be found, signs of disaster always show beforehand.
So he'd ordered a thorough check into everything that had happened in Baozhi County in the past two months, to be reported in every detail.
The check turned up a good deal, and one thing caught his attention.
Someone had reported that neighboring Wan'an County had carried two coffins over in the night, secretly burying them at the border between the two counties, led by a pair of twin brothers who looked about twenty.
If it had merely been a funeral, fine, but they'd buried them at night, and it was two brothers leading.
Twins weren't common in this age, and at that distance, that age, from Wan'an County—Zheng He immediately thought of the Fan brothers of the Wan'an County Demon-Suppression Bureau.
On guard, he sent men to dig up the coffins at the spot the informant described.
When the grave was opened, the coffins were empty. By then, how could Zheng He not know what had happened!
Wan'an County had sent him a ghost calamity!
Worse, misfortunes never come singly: judging by the number of coffins, the ghosts came in a pair. Two ghosts!
The two had not suppressed each other into sleep together; instead they'd revived together.
The moment he guessed the truth, Zheng He went numb.
Experienced as he was, he knew in his heart this was truly very bad.
In his memory, in the past hundred years there'd been no precedent in the Great Han of two ghosts reviving at once and committing crimes together, and now unlucky Wan'an County had run into one.
—No, not Wan'an County. Wan'an County had delivered the ghost calamity into his hands.
At this thought, Zheng He could neither eat nor sleep, and he spent nights cursing the Fan brothers.
Never mind that he was now on the edge of crisis; even in his prime he'd have been a coward before one ghost, and against two he'd have had to flee at once. His only recourse would be to beg the court.
But he knew the consequences of reaching out to the court.
Ghost-controllers are selfish and self-serving; none would sacrifice themselves for the safety of a county's people.
After turning it over, Zheng He concluded that whoever tied the bell should untie it2.
Since the ghost calamity had come from Wan'an County, Wan'an County should resolve it.
But he also understood that in the last two years Wan'an County had suffered frequent ghost outbreaks, and even the court, helpless, had long since abandoned it.
Months earlier, refugees from Wan'an County had trickled out, saying that Zhao Qiming of the Wan'an County bureau had had his ghost revive, the ghost had wreaked havoc on the bureau, and more than half the bureau had died.
He didn't know how the Fan brothers had survived, but with Wan'an County in such a state, hardly able to look after itself, it certainly couldn't come to Baozhi County to clean up.
But what Zheng He wanted wasn't really to get it resolved. He just wanted an excuse to placate the county's gentry.
Anyway, if he dragged things out for a while and the ghost killed enough and left, other prefectures could have the headache.
With that, he promptly called in a trusted subordinate and told him to make a big show of storming over to Wan'an County to make trouble, the bigger the display the better, just enough to prove he cared deeply about the matter.
Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng finally understood why Baozhi County's people had been so arrogant at first.
She glanced at the nervous envoy who'd just finished explaining, then at Fan Wujiu: "Was it really as discreet as you claimed?"
Fan Wujiu's face reddened at once.
"I—"
After the job was done, Fan Bisi had boasted to her that it had been done very discreetly, with no one noticing their movements.
Only now, with the bubble burst, did she learn that the party's movements had been seen all along.
"Never mind."
Zhao Fusheng waved a hand and said:
"A group like that going to Baozhi County, it'd be impossible not to cause some stir. If they saw, they saw."
Anyway the job had been done at the time, and the Fans had really bought her some time.
"……" The Baozhi County order envoy, listening, felt his scalp go numb.
By now people in both counties knew the two ghosts had been sent from Wan'an County, but wasn't this Wan'an County commanding officer being a bit too brazen in admitting it?
And two ghosts were ravaging the place!
Even Deputy Commander Zheng of Baozhi County was scared mad, yet this Wan'an County commanding officer spoke of ghosts so calmly, as if she were in no hurry at all.
He thought to himself: could it be that because the calamity isn't on her territory, she's so calm?
At this thought, he was pulled back by the pain in his face.
The previous Wan’an County commanding officer had clearly had his ghost revive, and the court had abandoned the place; it couldn't have assigned someone new. So where had this Wan'an County commanding officer come from?
And this person even had a terrifying ghost hand—
The thought of the ghost hand plunged him back into the shadow of having his life controlled by a malignant ghost, and he began to worry about his own safety.
He'd thought this trip would be to throw his weight around and squeeze some benefits out of the Fan brothers; instead no benefits had been had, and he'd fallen into a ghost-controller's hands.
He only hoped this commanding officer would observe martial virtue: since ancient times, when two camps clash, envoys aren't killed3, so she'd spare his life to carry word back to Deputy Commander Zheng…
While he was lost in thoughts of how to beg for mercy, Zhao Fusheng spoke first:
"Second Brother Fan, when Big Brother Fan returns, you two pack your things and come with me to Baozhi County."
"What?" Fan Wujiu cried out.
"What!"
The man clutching his face, silently sucking in air against the pain, also jolted.
They stared at Zhao Fusheng in disbelief, unable to trust their ears.
"I'll rest half a day and leave in the afternoon."
Then Zhao Fusheng turned to the envoy:
"You said the ghost cases in Baozhi County all happen in the middle of the night, right?"
"……Yes, yes, but……"
The man was dizzy from her question and hadn't caught on yet.
"Yes is enough."
Zhao Fusheng said:
"We'll set out in the afternoon and should reach Baozhi County by evening. I hope we can stop tonight's calamity."
"……"
"……"
The two in the room stood frozen, staring at each other, trembling, not daring to make a sound.
Just then Fan Bisi came back, his errand done. Seeing his brother's pleading look, he didn't understand, and first said to Zhao Fusheng:
"The doctor's here."
"Take him out for treatment. You two come with me this afternoon," Zhao Fusheng said calmly.
The case had started with the three of them: the Fan brothers had done the wrong, and she had sent the ghost calamity.
Though cases like this weren't unusual in this world, now that Zhao Fusheng had the Investiture of the Gods to give her backbone, she still meant to clean up the mess she'd made.
"……"
Fan Bisi hadn't expected to hear this. He froze and looked at Zhao Fusheng.
Before, he'd gone out on her orders without hearing the full story of the Baozhi County calamity, but from Fan Wujiu's frightened expression, it was clearly no ordinary ghost calamity.
Yet after hearing it, Zhao Fusheng still insisted on going. Was she truly unafraid of death, or did she have the confidence to handle the case?
She'd suppressed one ghost calamity, handled two cases, escaped the Ghost Carriage above Calamity-tier. By that count she'd now been through four ghost calamities, and she was going to take on another case so soon. What was she relying on?
Should he go with her to Baozhi County? If he went, might Zhao Fusheng settle old scores and let the brothers die in this calamity?
If he didn't go—
The thought barely formed before Fan Bisi cut it off.
Zhang Chuanshi's precedent was before his eyes. Zhao Fusheng was forceful, and once she'd decided there was no room for compromise.
But Zhang Chuanshi's example also proved that traveling with her was not necessarily a dead end.
Fan Bisi's mind warred with itself, though it lasted only a moment.
He glanced at Zhao Fusheng and nodded:
"All right."
