The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 33

Old cities were built according to careful principles, lest their prosperous qi escape.

Even an ordinary neighborhood like Xingping Ward followed the rule that the eastern gate should sit slightly north, the western gate should run straight, and the two gates should never face one another.

Both ward gates also possessed either a bell tower or a drum tower to stabilize royal qi and suppress every evil.

According to the children, the three Jingning Guard agents had entered an abandoned residence beneath the drum tower at the western gate.

The house had brick walls and a tiled roof, solidly constructed. Though deserted for years, it had not collapsed.

The rotten wooden door lay crooked to one side. Wild grass had grown everywhere and had been trampled flat by the searchers who arrived over the past two days.

“We nearly scraped three inches off every patch of ground inside. We truly couldn’t find them.”

The speaker was a Hundred-Household Commander surnamed Ma, his face miserable.

“No men alive, no bodies dead. I don’t even know what to tell those three bastards’ mothers and children.”

Commander Ma led Zhao Li and the others around the courtyard.

Large scorch marks covered the walls. Years of wind and rain had not erased them.

“Was there once a fire here?” Zhao Li asked.

The ward head answered, “The Zhang family suffered a fire eight years ago.”

“A child died as well.”

“A child?” Zhao Li stopped.

“Yes. Only five years old. He was the Zhang family’s only son. He was playing hide-and-seek with several other children and hid in the water vat in the kitchen.”

“Then the fire started, and he couldn’t climb out.” The ward head sucked air through his teeth. “They say that when they found him, he had been cooked through.”

Cooked?

Zhao Li imagined it and felt her stomach churn.

The others frowned in discomfort as well.

“What happened afterward?” Shen Yan asked in a deep voice.

The sight of the red Flying Fish Robe on Shen Yan made the ward head nervous. He swallowed.

“My lord, the Zhang family’s old madam died from the shock on the spot.”

“The boy’s mother could not bear the blow either and lost her mind.”

The ward head looked back at the overgrown courtyard, as though he could still see the Zhang family as they had been.

“After that, children often disappeared from Xingping Ward. They were all among the ones who played hide-and-seek with the Zhang boy that day.”

“People said the Zhang child was looking for playmates.”

At that point, the ward head abruptly remembered that the laws of Great Jing forbade discussion of ghosts and other unnatural matters.

Terrified, he closed his mouth.

He had no idea his words had made Zhao Li and the others exchange glances.

The Zhang grandmother had died. The mother had gone mad…

But one crucial member of the family was missing from the story.

“What about the child’s father?” Zhao Li asked, one eyebrow rising.

The ward head stared before answering, “The father’s name was Zhang Jun. Not long after the incident, he resigned his post and took his mad wife far away, leaving this place of sorrow behind.”

“You said children disappeared. How many? Had all of them played hide-and-seek with the Zhang boy?” Shen Yan asked with a frown.

Shen Yan’s dark expression clearly put the ward head under enormous pressure. The man lowered his head involuntarily.

“Three disappeared. All were close to the Zhang boy, and all had played hide-and-seek with him that day.”

Zhao Li almost sighed.

She looked up and saw the same strange expression on Shen Yan, Lu Zhao, and Commander Ma.

They had all reached the same suspicion.

“Did no one report the missing children?” Lu Zhao could not help asking.

“They did. Officers from the Five Cities Military Patrol Office searched at the time, but found nothing.”

“Those worthless bastards at the Five Cities Military Patrol Office!” Commander Ma cursed. “Did they never investigate the Zhang family? Never investigate that Zhang Jun?”

The ward head stared.

At first, he did not understand why they should have investigated Zhang Jun. Then he thought more carefully, and his face changed.

Some matters became terrifying only once a person looked beneath the surface. The instant that last veil was torn away, countless inconsistencies appeared.

“B-But Zhang Jun himself worked for the Five Cities Military Patrol Office at the time!” The ward head’s face went white, and his lips trembled.

Zhao Li considered the matter.

It would be too hasty to reach a conclusion immediately. She decided to obtain the children’s Eight Characters of Birth and perform a divination first.

“Can you find the Eight Characters of Birth for the three missing children?”

The ward head remained lost in his earlier thoughts and reacted slowly.

“Yes! Yes, I can!”

He saluted, excused himself, and walked away in a daze, leaving the others outside the Zhang residence.

Zhao Li looked at the sun.

It was exactly noon.

Commander Ma was perceptive. He had already sent a subordinate to order a banquet from a restaurant and have it delivered to the ward head’s home.

Shen Yan had intended to refuse. Then he looked at Zhao Li and said nothing.

The table seated four. Six dishes and three soups were served.

None were extravagant, but every portion was generous.

They were on duty, so there was no wine.

Lu Zhao and Commander Ma were both too constrained to relax.

Only Zhao Li remained cheerful.

“Commander Zhao, now that’s composure!”

Commander Ma raised his tea in admiration.

The terrifying Commander-in-Chief of the Jingning Guard sat beside them. He and Lu Zhao had taken a token bite or two, while this young woman was genuinely focused on eating the banquet.

She truly did not have a care in the world.

They had only just finished when the ward head returned carrying several pieces of red paper.

The papers passed through Shen Yan’s hands and were given to Zhao Li.

She was unfamiliar with the Great Jing calendar, so she asked the ward head to find an old almanac and used it to arrange the Four Pillars.

She quickly determined that the Four Pillars of all three missing children suffered clashes and punishment and fell into Emptiness.

Every chart indicated a violent death.

All three had died in the fourth month of the sixth year of Longqing.

Zhao Li frowned.

Before coming, she had assumed this was an ordinary case of a ghost hiding people. She had not expected such a secret beneath it.

That also meant she might have to confront four troublesome child ghosts.

There was a saying in the profession:

*Better to see the white-robed ghost weep than hear the red-robed ghost laugh.*

The most common white-robed supernatural anomalies sobbed endlessly, yet were less dangerous than the vicious red-robed ones with their sinister laughter.

But besides those two kinds, there were child ghosts, which were exceptionally difficult to handle.

Their temperaments were unstable, the source of their resentment often impossible to trace. They tormented and killed without pattern, acting entirely on impulse.

In Zhao Li’s previous life, a child ghost killed in a traffic accident had tormented most of its own relatives to death.

In the end, its lingering obsession had been nothing more than a lollipop.

The incident had become a classic case in the textbooks.

And Zhao Li, still practically unequipped and on a sliver of health, might need to face four at once!

Her head began to ache.

“What is it?” Shen Yan asked when he heard her sigh. “Is there danger?”

Zhao Li shook her head and explained what she had discovered to the three men.

Shen Yan frowned as well. “What if we find their bodies?”

“If we can find the bodies, it should be manageable…”

Lu Jianxing hurried in before she could finish.

“My lords, Commander Zhao, something has happened.”

“One of our brothers has been possessed.”

Zhao Li jolted.

Possessed at noon?

She and the others hurried after Lu Jianxing.

From far away, they saw a group of Jingning Guard agents clinging to a man who walked stiffly forward like a log.

His heels did not touch the ground. His eyes had rolled back, and he continued marching despite their efforts.

Several men could barely restrain him.

Zhao Li hurried closer.

The man’s eyes remained white as he muttered in a shrill, childlike voice.

“Almost found you. Almost found you.”