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墨書 Inktalez
In folklore, people from the north regard the fox, snake, hedgehog, rat, and weasel as the five deities of wealth. They do not dare to offend these five creatures, which is why there are temples dedicated to the Five Wealth Gods. Among them, the weasel known as the Great Sage is the most famous. What Xing Ruyi did not expect was that all the various encounters of Wang Fu and Wang Shu were actually caused by this Great Sage.
In the coffin shop, a chilling wind blew as Gu Anniang searched for a while before finding a half-burned candle. She lit it, and the candlelight illuminated dust-covered coffins.
"More than twenty years have passed, and I can't believe it's still the same here," Gu Anniang said as she approached a coffin and gently stroked it, as if caressing her own child. Her expression was strange, a mix of sourness and a hint of happiness. If it weren't for her face being half obscured, Xing Ruyi might have comforted her with a few kind words.
"To be honest, Gu Anniang is very curious. Ruyi, what was your upbringing like? Gu Anniang grew up in this coffin shop. Back then, both my father and mother were very busy; my father had to select wood and make coffins while also attracting customers, and my mother was responsible for making paper offerings, which she did better than Gu Anniang. Since I can remember, I was often placed inside these coffins; it was both my playground and my sleeping place. I would often wake up to the sound of my father sawing wood and look up to see my mother making paper offerings by candlelight. Those paper figures were so lifelike that I always felt they would speak to me."
"As they say, you live off what you have around you. Your family is in the coffin business; it's not surprising that you grew up in such an environment. But does this have anything to do with Wang Fu, Wang Shu, and Purple Jade?" Xing Ruyi loved listening to stories, but at this time it was nearly dawn, and soon it would be bright outside. She neither had the time nor the leisure to listen to Gu Anniang's tales.
The ghosts placed down the mahogany coffins and stood orderly outside the door. Xing Ruyi recited a few incantations (which were actually prearranged signals with the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced spirits) and summoned a Ghost Messenger to command him to take the ghosts back to the Underworld and settle them properly. The ghosts expressed their gratitude profusely before following the Ghost Messenger and disappearing from in front of the coffin shop just before dawn.
Watching the Ghost Messenger and the ghosts leave, Xing Ruyi turned back to Gu Anniang: "I don't have much time left; you should keep your words brief. We aren't very familiar with each other, so there's no need for nostalgia or sentimentality. I'm interested in your past, but that doesn't mean I want to hear about it now."
"Ruyi's words are quite cold; they make one feel a chill in their heart."
"Is that so? I actually find it colder to recall how Purple Jade was hung alone on the Black Locust tree at Wang Family's entrance. And Wang Fu's eldest son—who was only six or seven years old at that time—if it weren't for your suggestion to Wang Shu, how could he have met his end? Gu Anniang, while I sympathize with your situation, upon reflection, your current state is merely retribution for your wrongdoings. The reason I'm here in this coffin shop is simply to understand what he wants from me. So don't try to play any sympathy card; you're no kind-hearted person. My heart may soften towards certain individuals, but let's get straight to business; I have other matters to attend to."
"Since Ruyi has made things clear now, what can Gu Anniang do? I won't deny that everything that happened back then was my doing; all I wanted was to save my husband. Human nature is inherently selfish; thus, Gu Anniang does not believe she has done anything wrong." Gu Anniang said as her eyes subtly shifted towards a man on the other side. The hands of the woman intertwined with those of the man created an odd yet intriguing scene.
"My family has been in the coffin business for generations. Coffins can only be used by the dead; over time, we ended up dealing mostly with people from that circle. My husband’s surname is Yu; he deals in selling corpses—what people call grave robbing or tomb raiding.
Originally, selling coffins and tomb raiding were two different trades; selling coffins is considered accumulating good karma while tomb raiding is seen as losing it. They seem similar but are actually worlds apart. The connection between them arises from coffins themselves. Some wealthy families have high demands for coffins—for instance, requiring fine rosewood or agarwood among others. These materials are not only expensive but also hard to find. However, there is one place where they can be found abundantly: gravesites. Thus, my parents occasionally offered prices for tomb raiders to help retrieve some quality wood from graves. That’s how my husband and I met."
He may not be good with words and has a somewhat fierce appearance, but he is extremely kind to me. One year, he found some food and plant seeds in a grave, which likely dates back to the Shang Dynasty or Western Zhou period. Although it was ancient, the items were remarkably well-preserved. I discovered several Lotus Seeds among them and casually tossed them into the water tank in the courtyard, and surprisingly, they grew.
"I have heard of such things," Xing Ruyi recalled from when she wrote in later years. She had read about Lotus Seeds in the book "Record of the Northern Journey" by Ming Ren, which mentioned that there were stone Lotus Seeds buried in Zhaozhou, Ningjin County. The age was unknown, but they often yielded several measures, resembling iron stones, with fragrant flesh that did not wither; when thrown into water, they would sprout into lotus plants.
"Perhaps it is not unusual for thousand-year-old stone lotuses to bloom and bear seeds, but my mistake was thinking of it as an auspicious sign and using those lotus flowers and leaves to prepare a meal for my husband." Gu Anniang said, squeezing the man's hand. "That day, I had originally gone out to relieve my boredom and accidentally overheard someone saying that lotus leaves could also be used for cooking and that the method was quite simple. I grew up in a Coffin Shop; my parents were busy with business and did not teach me any culinary skills. Most of the time, our meals were just makeshift. After marrying my husband, I rarely cooked since he was involved in dealing with the deceased and often ate out. Perhaps I was intrigued by hearing about the lotus or thought my husband would be home soon; maybe I wanted to take this opportunity to show off my abilities as a wife or simply wanted to prove that I could be a virtuous Wife like other women. In any case, I eavesdropped on how to make lotus leaf fried rice and then went home to take the freshest parts of the lotus leaves and prepared the dish as best as I could."
"Those two people you overheard must have been Wang Fu and Purple Jade, right?" Xing Ruyi asked.
Gu Anniang nodded. "But at that time, I didn't know them."
Wang Fu had known Purple Jade for quite some time, although it was unclear how long exactly. Looking back now, it was possible that their acquaintance predated Gu Anniang's meeting with Wang Shu.
"What happened next? Did your husband eat the lotus leaf fried rice you made and then something went wrong?"
"Yes! That very night after I finished making the lotus leaf fried rice, my husband returned. He was very pleased with his harvest from that trip and drank a few extra cups of wine that night, but hardly touched the food. In the middle of the night, he woke up hungry. Remembering the fried rice I made, I served him a bowl. To my surprise, by late night he started running a fever; his whole body felt hot as if he had just been pulled from a pile of embers. I panicked and hurried outside to find a doctor. Just as I stepped out, I ran into a pair of eyes."
"A pair of eyes?"
"Yes! A pair of eyes." Gu Anniang shivered slightly; her partner's body tensed up as well. "They were like wolf's eyes, glowing green in the dark. Growing up in a Coffin Shop gave me more courage than ordinary women; so I lifted my lantern to take a look. That’s when I realized it was a Weasel, which is not commonly seen in town; it's also known as Wong Tai Sin among locals."
"And then? What did you do?"
"I did nothing! At that time, Gu Anniang was just an ordinary Coffin Shop owner’s wife. Perhaps I had a bit more courage than usual but no other skills. First, I offered an apology to Wong Tai Sin because my Husband was ill and I hoped it wouldn’t hold anything against me. It stared at me for a moment before disappearing."
I immediately breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way with the lantern in hand. The person I was looking for, Ruyi, you may have heard of him, is Liu Zhanggui from Jishengtang. At that time, he was still young, but his medical skills were already quite remarkable in Luoyang City. Originally, it wouldn't have taken much effort to take a shortcut from the Coffin Shop to Jishengtang, but unfortunately, I had been walking for nearly two hours on that road without being able to get out.
Just when I was about to lose hope, a figure appeared before me—an old man dressed in yellow with white hair and a white beard. He told me that my husband was not sick but possessed by an evil spirit, and that ordinary doctors could not treat him. The one I had just encountered was the Ghost Wall. At that moment, he had already captured the troublesome evil entity and urged me to hurry home.
As they say, concern leads to chaos. Hearing such words at that time felt like a drowning person seeing a log floating in the river. I immediately begged him to come back with me to save my husband.
"You first encountered a Wong Tai Sin and then coincidentally met an old man in yellow clothes. If I'm not mistaken, that old man is most likely the transformed Wong Tai Sin."
"Ruyi knows about this too?"
"Weasel, Weasel—clever like a rat yet vicious like a wolf. I've never had a good impression of it. Moreover, I once encountered a Weasel that had achieved cultivation; what it did deserved ten times the condemnation." Xing Ruyi referred to the Yellow Weasel that stole children and was ultimately tricked into the river by her, becoming a water ghost in place of the drowned souls—a form of punishment.
"Ruyi is right; unfortunately, at that time Gu Anniang lacked the insight and couldn't distinguish whether the figure before her was a benevolent immortal or a malevolent yellow spirit." Gu Anniang shook her head: "In my haste, I brought him back to the Coffin Shop. At that time, my husband lay on the bed with an expression of agony, and his face began to shed layers of skin; even his bones started to change. In the end, his face resembled that of a Weasel, and he seemed completely lost, unable to hear anything I said.
Seeing this, the old man instructed me to prepare because my husband was possessed by Evil Spirits; if we delayed any longer, his life would be taken by those Evil Spirits. Naturally, I dared not hesitate and followed his instructions to set up what he called the Nine Stars Soul Summoning Array in the Coffin Shop."
Gu Anniang turned the candle in her hand: "It seems this half-used candle was left over from when we set up the array. Look at this wick; it's different from others—it's mixed with human blood."
Xing Ruyi took a glance and indeed saw that the center of the candle was pitch black. It was unclear whether it had changed color over the years as Gu Anniang mentioned or if it had always been black.
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