The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 110

Any ordinary person who saw a face like that old raccoon dog’s would surely have been terrified.

Yet in the dream, the fur merchant’s mother seemed not to notice anything strange.

She nodded happily. “All right. Winter is just beginning. I can buy everyone in the family a set of clothes.”

The raccoon-dog-faced peddler woman greeted her warmly and invited her to browse, just as though conducting an ordinary sale.

When she opened the baskets on her shoulder pole, they were packed with garments made from blue and blue-green cloth, all patterned with the character for longevity.

The merchant’s mother sensed nothing amiss. She happily made her selections, lifting garments and holding them against herself.

“This one is for my son.” She chose a black garment for him.

“And this is for my daughter-in-law.”

The good mother-in-law selected a blue-green one for her son’s wife.

Once she had chosen for the adults, the raccoon-dog-faced peddler said, “Choose some for the children too.”

The merchant’s mother thought that made sense.

She chose one garment each for her three grandsons and two granddaughters.

She even selected clothes for the household slaves and servants.

Each garment cost one copper.

The merchant’s mother took exactly fourteen coppers from her purse and handed them to the raccoon-dog-faced woman.

The peddler accepted the money cheerfully, shouldered her baskets, and walked out.

The moment one foot crossed the threshold, the merchant’s mother jolted awake from her dream.

It was the latter half of the night, and the room was pitch-dark.

The old woman lay on the heated bed, which burned hot beneath her. Yet when she remembered the dream, it was as if someone had doused her in cold water. The chill ran from her toes to the crown of her head.

“Can you guess what she bought from that raccoon-dog-faced peddler in her dream?” Auntie Li lowered her voice as she asked.

Han Yin, listening with cold spreading over her whole body, clutched A-Bi’s hand. “B-burial clothes?”

Blue and blue-green cloth, patterned with the character for longevity—Han Yin could think of nothing else.

“Exactly!” Auntie Li suddenly slapped the table, making Han Yin jump. “When the old lady told me the next day, I guessed it at once too.”

It seemed that after she bought the burial clothes, all manner of strange things began happening in the merchant’s home.

The midnight disturbances were only one of them. Every night, evenly ordered footsteps could be heard entering through the courtyard gate, crossing the main hall, and continuing into the rear courtyard before vanishing.

Zhao Li’s heart gave a jolt. “Evenly ordered footsteps?”

The abrupt question made Auntie Li pause. “Yes. Evenly ordered footsteps. Sometimes they were so loud that we could hear them from our house—the footsteps and the clatter of metal plates, like…”

“Like an army marching?” Zhao Li supplied.

“Yes, yes! Exactly like an army marching.” Auntie Li nodded, failing to notice the shadow that crossed Zhao Li’s face.

“Besides that, every member of the merchant’s family encountered uncanny things.”

The oldest child was eight. The youngest had only just learned to walk.

Children were the most sensitive. The older ones understood enough to point outside the window and insist someone was crouching there watching them.

The younger children could not explain themselves and cried through entire nights.

Their shrill wailing echoed throughout the lane every night.

The adults fared no better.

The fur merchant’s concubine had been bought in the Zhushi Quarter. She was a vibrant beauty, with a round full-moon face, slender waist, and ample hips.

Night after night, she dreamed of a dark shadow lying upon her and coupling with her.

The moment she closed her eyes, the shameful dreams began and tormented her all night long.

Within days, dark shadows ringed the concubine’s eyes and exhaustion covered her face.

The merchant’s principal wife was in her thirties and in the prime of life. She too dreamed every night.

But compared with the concubine’s erotic dreams, hers were far more horrifying.

Every night, she dreamed of a huge, blue-faced, fanged ghost seizing her and weighing her on an enormous scale.

Once she was weighed, it muttered, “Foul tongue, black heart, rotten lungs, venomous bowels…”

Then it tore open her clothes and cut into her chest with rusty scissors.

After slicing through skin and flesh, it snapped her ribs and removed her tongue, heart, liver, stomach, and intestines one by one, arranging them all upon the scale.

Even in a dream, the agony of having her organs torn out made the merchant’s wife scream and plead, yet she could not wake no matter how she tried.

Not even the household servants escaped. They suffered all kinds of grotesque nightmares.

The neighbors urged the family to move away as soon as possible.

But the fur merchant was away on business, and his mother had remained unwell ever since that nightmare.

His wife did not dare decide to move without him. On someone’s recommendation, she found a monk at Qinglong Temple.

The monk claimed the merchant was suffering retribution for years of selling raccoon-dog pelts. He performed several rituals in the courtyard and chanted scriptures for days.

Even from far away, people could see columns of smoke circling above the residence.

When the rites were complete, the monk declared that the old raccoon dog’s resentful bane had been dispelled.

The merchant’s wife returned to the residence with his sickly mother.

Perhaps the rites truly worked, for they lived in peace for a time after moving back.

Before New Year’s Day, the fur merchant returned home and planned a reunion meal.

The family bought half a fat pig and lit a wood fire in the courtyard to smoke the meat.

“The day before it happened, the old lady even brought me a porcelain bowl filled with smoked pork.” Auntie Li looked saddened. “I was planning to give her two smoked fish a relative had sent me.”

“I never imagined that the next day, that would happen to their family.”

“So, young lady, listen to your auntie. No matter how cheap that house is, you mustn’t buy it.”

Zhao Li had listened silently throughout. Only now did she say, “Thank you for your concern, Auntie.”

She had been about to say they were not afraid, when she remembered that they intended to sell the house after cleaning it up.

If they wanted to rid it of its haunted reputation, these longtime neighborhood women would be the best publicity.

So she smiled. “To tell you the truth, Auntie, we specialize in buying and selling haunted houses.”

Adopting a mysterious air, she briefly displayed the wooden token Daoist Xuanxu had given her. “We have connections inside the Imperial Astronomical Bureau!”

Seeing her confidence, Auntie Li believed her somewhat. In the capital, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau carried far more authority than Qinglong Temple or the like.

Zhao Li put away the little peachwood token and asked, “Auntie, was there anything unusual on the night of the deaths?”

Auntie Li thought carefully. “Does it count if it was especially quiet?”

“They had many children, and one of the little ones often cried at night. The old lady had not fully recovered either, so we often heard her coughing.”

“But that night was exceptionally quiet.”

After she finished, Zhao Li asked, “What about the family who died later?”

Auntie Li frowned and shook her head. “I didn’t know them. I only heard they were relatives.”

Besides, they died the very night they moved in and had barely interacted with their neighbors.

“Was it just as quiet when the second family died?” Zhao Li asked intently.

Auntie Li considered, then nodded with certainty. “Yes!”