The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 35

Zhao Li and Shen Yan crouched on the ceiling beam.

It was narrow and cramped, forcing Shen Yan to brace himself with half his body suspended above Zhao Li.

No matter how gentlemanly he tried to be, some contact between them was unavoidable.

Zhao Li did not react much.

Shen Yan, however, caught the faint medicinal fragrance clinging to her and felt the tips of his ears turn red.

They waited a long time. Only after confirming that the little ghost had gone far away did Shen Yan drop lightly to the floor.

He opened his arms to guard Zhao Li as she descended, and then the two wasted no more time there.

After recalling the kitchen’s location, they decided against taking the long way around. They opened the window and climbed directly over the sill.

A small garden lay outside.

The Zhang family had not been a great household of ranked officials and dared not exceed the sumptuary regulations, so the garden was not large.

They passed through the festooned gate into the rear courtyard, where Zhao Li’s steps abruptly stopped.

Large quantities of dismembered human remains lay scattered beside the latrine.

The stench of blood and exposed entrails permeated the air.

The scraps of cloth wrapped around the body parts came from the black Flying Fish Robes of the Jingning Guard.

Three bloody heads had been stacked in a triangle on the ground.

Their expressions were frozen in agony and terror, yet the heads had been arranged with dolls made from scraps of cloth as if they were all children’s toys.

Their mouths bulged, both cheeks swollen with the small stones stuffed inside.

They had plainly been used as playthings.

Zhao Li set her jaw.

Shen Yan’s eyes darkened. “Let’s go. We will return later to collect their remains.”

The corner of the kitchen roof was already visible not far away.

In front of the Zhang family’s livestock shed stood a stone mill as broad as a well.

Two small vegetable plots had been opened beside it, planted with cabbages, scallions, and garlic. Strips of eggplant and green beans dried on a nearby rack.

The clothes of all four members of the family hung over a bamboo frame.

Time had been frozen in place within this ghost domain.

When Zhao Li and Shen Yan were only a few steps from the kitchen, they both heard a child crying.

“Is anyone outside? I can’t get out.”

“Father! Mother! Grandmother!”

The child’s cries grew increasingly shrill. “Lin An, why haven’t you come to find me?”

At that moment, both Zhao Li and Shen Yan heard the patter of footsteps approaching from the distance.

They exchanged a glance and hurried to the kitchen.

Shen Yan pushed open the door.

The child’s crying stopped abruptly.

Zhao Li swept her gaze around and saw a large earthenware vat that rose above an adult’s waist.

A wooden lid rested loosely over it, and a small wooden stool had toppled beside it.

Zhao Li was about to approach when Shen Yan caught her and pulled her behind him.

Under her surprised gaze, he raised the wooden lid.

The vat was empty, apart from a ring of pale-yellow grease around the bottom.

Realizing what it might be, Zhao Li’s face instantly soured.

She swallowed to suppress her nausea.

The child’s cries began again, drifting through the room with no discernible source.

Meanwhile, the distant footsteps pattered across the vegetable plots toward them.

Zhao Li looked at Shen Yan with a pained expression and could not help sighing.

Shen Yan stepped into the water vat first, swinging one long leg over its rim.

Bracing both hands on the edge, Zhao Li climbed in after him.

Shengjing’s well water was mostly salty and bitter, so residents relied on drinking water transported from outside the city.

Every household therefore kept a deep, capacious water vat.

Tall and long-legged, Shen Yan had great difficulty crouching inside. Fortunately, Zhao Li was small. With her body tucked into a ball and the two of them pressed closely together, the vat could just barely hold them both.

Once they had crouched down, Shen Yan replaced the lid.

Darkness swallowed them.

Tap. Tap.

The footsteps drew near and stopped outside the kitchen door. They did not enter, but began circling the building.

“Lin An, Lin An, hurry and save me,” the child pleaded through his sobs.

“Hee-hee.”

“Hee-hee-hee-hee.”

Laughter sounded from the direction of the kitchen window.

“Can’t find you, can’t find you.”

“Coward Zhang Hui is crying again!”

At some point, the voices outside had multiplied into three.

Three children laughed and clamored beyond the window.

“If we can’t find him, coward Zhang Hui will have to keep hiding forever.”

Zhao Li heard the boy named Lin An laughing and clapping his hands.

Both her stomach and her mind recoiled. She pressed her lips tightly together.

Shen Yan could not see her in the dark, but seemed to sense something. He lifted a hand and held it just behind her back, ready to support her.

The voices outside continued.

“We’re leaving! Time to go home and eat!”

“Don’t go! Look for me! Save me!”

The only answer to the child’s desperate screams was the sound of his playmates walking away.

Their voices gradually faded. Acrid smoke seeped through the cracks around the vat’s lid.

Billowing black smoke stung their noses as the temperature around them rose.

“Father, save me—”

This time, Zhao Li heard it clearly. The child’s heart-rending cries came from inside the water vat itself.

As if in answer, an anxious adult man spoke outside. “Lin An, have you seen my Hui’er?”

“No,” the boy named Lin An replied.

“Zhang Hui was playing hide-and-seek with us. I don’t know where he hid.”

“We went home a long time ago. We don’t know where Zhang Hui is.”

Three children. Three voices telling lies.

Zhao Li and Shen Yan both felt their hearts lurch. An uncontrollable chill crawled through them at the same instant.

They waited for a long time.

An elderly woman suddenly wailed, “Hui’er!”

Her lament cut off at its highest pitch.

An uproar followed.

After a while, the sounds outside changed again.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t know where my Hui’er was?”

The man’s accusation was edged with madness.

“Uncle Zhang, I was wrong.” This time, it was the boy named Lin An who begged through his tears. “I’ll never lie again.”

But his pleas received no answer either.

The sound of the stone mill turning rose outside, and his screams sharpened until they set one’s teeth on edge.

Then they stopped.

Only the stone mill continued to creak as it turned.

Zhao Li slowly breathed out. Scalding air flooded her lungs and made her chest ache.

Shen Yan raised a hand and pushed the wooden lid aside.

They stood up and looked down at their feet together.

“Zhang Hui,” Zhao Li called. “Stop hiding. I know you’re in the water vat. I found you.”

At her declaration, the corpse of a five- or six-year-old child gradually appeared at the bottom of the vat. His entire body was bleached white, and he lay curled up with his arms around his knees.

Shen Yan pointed outside the vat, signaling for Zhao Li to climb out first.

He then removed his outer robe, bent down, and wrapped the softened, decaying little corpse in it. Lifting the body into his arms, he stepped out of the vat.

“Zhang Hui,” Zhao Li called again. “You’re out now.”

At some point, the raging flames had gone out.

The child’s corpse in Shen Yan’s arms suddenly twitched, then opened its eyes to reveal clouded orbs.

The corners of its mouth pulled upward as if in a smile.

Then the body slowly dissolved into countless motes of light that scattered from Shen Yan’s arms.

The scenery around them peeled and faded. It gradually turned decrepit once more, blackened by the traces of fire.

True sunlight from the world of the living streamed through the ruined window.

Shen Yan crumpled the outer robe in his hands. Rare relief softened his features.

He curved his lips and looked toward Zhao Li just as she turned to him.

Their eyes met, and they smiled.

Only then did Zhao Li discover that when her superior’s brow softened, his smile was remarkably handsome.