The Fox Lantern Shines on Bones - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ah Heng did not like people calling her by her name, especially a man who had just crawled out of a lantern and was either a demon or a ghost. Yet, strangely, his tone when he said “Ah Heng” was soft, as if he had been calling her that for many years.

“Do you know me?” she asked.

“I knew you once.” The man looked down at her, the corners of his lips curving slightly. “Now, consider this a reunion.”

Ah Heng hated this kind of cryptic talk more than anything. She picked up the cold tea on the table and splashed it toward the Fox Lantern. Before the tea could touch the flame, it was deflected by an invisible force, splashing all over the desk.

Resting his head on his hand, the man sighed. “Your temper is much worse than it used to be.”

“Don’t try to act familiar with me.” Ah Heng held her peach wood staff horizontally in front of her. “Explain yourself. What exactly is that thing in Han Su’e’s leg?”

This time, the man stopped teasing her. “Bone Flowers. Someone is using the ‘bone-qi’ of the living to nourish flowers. Once the flowers bloom, the person’s bones will be hollowed out. White Water Village did such things in the past. Now that the seal on the sacrificial Well has loosened, the old debts are naturally being repaid one by one.”

“Who did it?”

“The entire village.”

Inside the room, the firelight flickered, casting the man’s shadow very faintly. Ah Heng fell silent for a moment. She suddenly remembered Granny Liu mentioning once, while half-drunk and half-awake, that White Water Village wasn’t originally called White Water Village; it was called White Bone Village.

It was only after several major floods washed away the old ancestral halls and monuments that the name was never mentioned again.

An inexplicable chill ran through her chest, but her expression remained steady. “You make it sound real. Then why are you locked in a lantern?”

“Because I tried to stop them.”

“You’re a fox. Why do you care about the affairs of the human world?”

The man tilted his head to look at her, that hint of a smile appearing at the corners of his eyes again, though it was much thinner than before. “Who says a fox can’t care?”

He reached out, his slender finger lightly tapping the flame. The green fire immediately spread out into a faint shadow, rippling through the air like waves on water.

Ah Heng saw a very deep well. The rim was covered in white vines, and the vines were laden with small flowers that were so white they looked bluish. A group of blurred figures stood by the well, throwing something inside.

Looking closer, she realized they were segments of blood-stained bone.

The image flashed and vanished. A cold sweat broke out on Ah Heng’s back. “What place is that?”

“The White Bone Well,” the man said softly. “It’s still there, right beneath the old temple on the mountain behind your village.”

Ah Heng gripped her peach wood staff. Many questions surged in her mind, but her intuition told her these were not lies. Especially after seeing that vision-she could almost smell the damp, sickly sweet fragrance by the well, exactly like the scent when the Bone Flowers sprouted from Han Su’e’s leg.

“What is your name?” she asked suddenly.

“Rong Yu,” the man replied.

Ah Heng froze. This wasn’t the first time she had heard that name.

On the last page of the partial medical journal Granny Liu had left behind, there was a cryptic sentence written without context: *When the Bone Flowers reappear, if you meet Rong Yu, trust him thirty percent, but never fully.*

She looked up at the man by the desk, her expression finally turning serious. “Granny Liu knew you?”

Rong Yu’s expression faded slightly. “She saw me once when she was young.”

“Why did she say I should only trust you thirty percent?”

“Because foxes are naturally good at deceiving.” He looked at her quite candidly. “Besides, I am indeed hiding things from you.”

Ah Heng was momentarily speechless. Growing up, she was used to seeing people hide the truth within a web of lies, but this was the first time she had met someone who said “I will lie to you” with such righteous confidence.

Ironically, this honesty made it even harder for her to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Suddenly, urgent knocking came from outside. Ah Heng took her lantern and went to open the door. She found the Han Family’s servant covered in snow, his face deathly pale. “Miss Ah Heng, please come quickly! My young mistress’s wound has torn open again, and… and a second flower has grown out of the bone!”

Ah Heng grabbed her medicine chest and bolted out the door. Rong Yu’s voice drifted from behind her, calm and unhurried. “Remember, do not let her smell the fragrance. If she catches its scent herself, not even the gods can save her.”

The Han Family residence was ablaze with lights, and the sound of weeping could not be suppressed. When Ah Heng entered the room, Han Su’e was already rolling across the bed in agony. The previously incised wound had peeled back, and upon the stark white leg bone, another flower bud had indeed arched out. It was larger and whiter than the last, its edges even tinged with a faint pink, as if it were about to bloom.

The room was filled with that cold, sweet fragrance. Ah Heng didn’t have time to overthink; she immediately ordered people to boil vinegar and burn mugwort, then used a cloth soaked in medicine to tightly cover Han Su’e’s mouth and nose.

As she worked with her blade, she asked Madam Han, “Where has she been these past few days? What has she touched?”

Madam Han was weeping so hard she could barely stand. “She hasn’t gone anywhere! She only went to the Back Mountain Temple a few days ago to pray to the Flower God for a good marriage and safety…”

“Hasn’t the back mountain been abandoned for a long time?”

“The village elders all say that although the temple is in ruins, the Flower God is still there. If an unwed girl goes to pay her respects, she can secure a good marriage.”

Ah Heng’s hand faltered, her blade nearly cutting too deep. She pried out the larger Bone Flower and had just dropped it into a medicinal bowl when Han Su’e suddenly snapped her eyes open and gripped Ah Heng’s wrist with a death grip. “Sister Ah Heng… someone in the Well is calling me.”

“Who?”

“A girl in red,” Han Su’e said, her whole body trembling as tears rolled down her cheeks. “She said… it’s my turn to go down and repay the debt.”

The room fell silent instantly, the weeping cut short as if strangled. Ah Heng felt her palms go cold.

She sealed Han Su’e’s acupoints and left a prescription. As she turned to leave the house, she ran straight into an old woman standing at the courtyard gate, draped in a straw raincoat.

One of the old woman’s eyes was cloudy, while the other was a shiny, piercing black. This was Granny Lu, the one in the village who calculated auspicious times for weddings.

Granny Lu stared at Ah Heng and gave a sinister smile. “The girl raised by Granny Liu wants to manage the accounts of White Water Village? Some Wells should not be looked into; some lamps, once picked up, cannot be put down.”

Ah Heng felt extremely uncomfortable under her gaze. Before she could speak, Granny Lu leaned on her staff and slowly walked away. The crunching sound of her soles stepping through the snow was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

On the way back to the medicine hut, Ah Heng remained silent. Rong Yu was already standing under the porch waiting for her, his shoulders covered in snow as if he truly had been standing outside for a long time.

“Granny Lu is still alive,” he said tonelessly.

“You know her?”

“When she was young, she was the ritual keeper of that temple.”

Ah Heng whipped her head toward him. “You knew all along that Han Su’e had gone to the Back Mountain Temple?”

“I knew.”

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Rong Yu smiled, though the expression held a hint of weariness. “If I had said it, would you have believed me?”

Ah Heng opened her mouth but found no answer.

Rong Yu looked down at the red marks on her hand where Han Su’e had grabbed her, then suddenly reached out and touched them gently. His fingertips were as cold as snow, yet Ah Heng did not pull away.

She heard him say very softly, “Ah Heng, don’t go to the back mountain alone this time.”

The words “this time” pricked her heart like a needle. She frowned, about to press him for an explanation, when Rong Yu’s form suddenly swayed. A faint trail of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his entire being became a few degrees more transparent than before.

Ah Heng’s expression changed. “What’s wrong with you?”

Rong Yu casually wiped the blood from his lips and smiled with downcast eyes. “Borrowing the lamp to come out and see you is inherently life-consuming. If you were willing to hold the lamp a little closer, I might be able to hold on for another couple of days.”

Ah Heng instinctively wanted to scold him, but she still walked over and moved the Fox Lantern on the table closer.

In that moment, she saw Rong Yu’s gaze fall upon her hand. It was as if he had finally found something he had lost-a look so tender it was startling.