Before Li YunXin fell to the ground due to exhaustion, he had ran for six hours in the dense forest non-stop. n.o.body knows how did the 14-year-old boy did this.

The sky had became clear, and the daylight of dawn shines to the east.

Hearing the sound of a fast-flowing stream, he knew that there was a river nearby.

After a short break, he stood up and started to walk towards the sound, while leaning on the trees at times in case falling down again.

Finally he made it to the riverside, and he saw the turbid river flowing with broken twigs and shattered leaves in it – it must be the result of the heavy rain last night. The river was not so wide, but the raging water took his encouragement to go across the river.

On the other side of the river, he saw some houses with blue-gray roof tiles and white walls – it must be a town. Li YunXin really wanted to get himself something to eat or drink in the town, but he couldn’t.

It was not all bad news, he thought. If the monster was chasing him, he would think that he ran to the nearby town. Owing to this, it would be better for him to go further along the river .

Under normal circ.u.mstances, no one could survive so long in the forest with no supply, but Li YunXin couldn’t convince himself to give up  and discard his treasure – the treasure which the priests told him to hand over.

He told a lie to them. He said that he had hidden the treasure somewhere, so they tried to catch him instead of killing him at once. He was actually really confused: why would those priests in seclusion ever tried to rob him?

He did have the treasure hidden somewhere – in his shoe under his foot. Last time when they caught him, they searched his body, but they didn’t check his shoes. Maybe they had never thought that one would ever hide the precious "Illuminated Jade Slips"in his shoe – That would be a blasphemy.

The Illuminated Jade Slips was actually a transparent rectangular piece of jade, which had the size of a hand. Following the clues left by his parents, he dug it out from the ground on a hill beside his village, and he was frustrated about it, because it showed nothing special but its high transparency.

He just got more information about the Illuminated Jade Slips and his parents when those two disguised priests found him.

However, it was not a good time to be nostalgic. Li YunXin must keep going to escape from the mouth of the monster. He still wanted to live.

It was his first time to see a monster in real life. His mind was filled with the fear of death, so he didn’t had a chance to be surprised, but now as he calmed down, the shock and fear grew: they do exist in our world, and one of them might be staring at him now behind him.

He walked for two more days when fear the desire for life activated his potential strength.

At the noon of the third day, he saw a stone bridge over the river, on whose piers grew molds. The river is now clear and shallow.

An old man was fishing on the other side of the river. Aquatic plants waved in the stream, fished and shrimps swam between them. In the distance, was a town where cooking smoke rose from the chimneys.

Suddenly relaxed, Li YunXin almost fell down again, but he struggled to stepped on the bridge with the sword in his hand, and walked towards the town.

The old man lifted his head and looked at him. Li YunXin knew that he looked pretty strange: he was dirty, and had a wound on his arm. The cloth which was wrapped around his arm was dyed dark brown by his blood. Instead of painful or itchy the wound felt numb, and that was not a good sign. His clothes was ragged, but in his hand he had a fine steel sword, which couldn’t be afforded by most ordinary people.

He bowed down and sped up. After a short period of staggering, he saw the arch at the entrance of the town. On the arch, he saw the name of this town: Qing River Town*.

Next to the arch, two constables in black frowned at him with eyebrow staffs* in their hands. When he got close, they stopped him, and gazed at his sword with alert. "Where are you going?"they asked.

After making his way through the wilderness, he felt all his muscles released when he finally saw human beings again. He tried to stay awake and said: "I was attacked by bandits on my way…"

He lost his last remaining strength after saying this. His sight went black and was about to fall on his face. Subconsciously he tried to hold his sword to support his body, but it slipped away and went towards one of the constables.

The last sentences he heard before he lose his consciousness were:

"Aah!"
"Get him!"

Li YunXin found his situation not good when he woke up. The room was cold, damp, dark and filled with a musty smell. He looked around and found himself locked in the room by a wooden fence which was locked by a rusty chain. Out of the cell was a dim corridor whose floor was made of bluestones. An oil lamp was placed in a notch on the wall.

He touched his shoe, and confirmed that the jade slips was still there.

Might be hearing him, a man waled up to him with a gloomy face, while putting his hand on his sword all the time. He unlocked the door.

Li YunXin gazed at him silently. He found him different from the guards at the entrance of the town. There was a green peac.o.c.k feather on his black hat. The feather was rough, but was still a sign of a senior officer.

His name was Xing Li*. He was in a fix , so he was angry all the time.

Last month, the son of the county magistrate went hunting in the forest on the other side of Qing River. Three days later, one of his servant, the old hunter Xin* return alone from the forest.

The old man was covered in blood, he told everyone he met on his way, that the county magistrate’s son and his other two servants were caught and eaten by a monster. When Officer Xing and his fellow constables came to him, the old man had already gone crazy, and couldn’t give any valuable information.

They had heard about monsters, for example, it was said that someone was seriously ill for 3 years, and then became super intelligent and had unbelievable good memory. However, no one had thought that this kind of things would ever happen around them.

If every time someone is murdered, the reason could be "eaten by monsters", what do we need rules and laws for?

The county magistrate was enraged. He put Xin the hunter in jail and told Officer Xing to arrest the murderer in a limited time.

Officer Xing stared at Li YunXin’s arm. "That wound was cut by a sword."He said.

Then he looked into Li YunXin’s eyes, and continued: "You have murdered someone. The sword in your hand hurt you, so it can’t be yours."

Li YunXin waved his head. "I didn’t murder anyone, I just tried to protect myself – I was attacked by a monster."

Officer Xing now became more sure about his guess.

This young man was too calm. Even an adult would be scared when he finds himself in a prison after a coma. However, this young man was not panic at all, instead, he looked calm, even relaxed.

It’s now three days after Li YunXin pa.s.sed out. During these days, horrible news happened in Gai County* in the upper river courses of Qing River – Broken bodies of 2 priests were found in a abandoned temple. It seemed that they were killed, roasted and eaten. A broken fine steel sword was also found there, and the sword looked the same as the one carried by the young man.

They had also found more unusual belongings with him: paper talismans, blank papers, brushes and other weird stuffs.

Officer Xing visited Gai County, and the case soon became clear in his mind: the young man may be a painter, a crazed painter, who eats human. It seemed that the case is solved perfectly. There was one last thing to do: to prove his ability of killing and eating people.

It was the last day of the limit given by the county magistrate.

"You are a painter and you know some evil spells."Officer Xing said,"We have found some interesting belongings of you. It seems that you murdered and ate people in Gai county, and before that, you killed the son of the county magistrate."

Li YunXin sighed in the dim light. He was starving, but relaxed – at least it was way more better than his situation before in the wilderness: Lord Nine is not trying to eat him, and no one is chasing him.

"I have lived in a mountain village in Ding Province* since I was born. My parents told me a few tricks. You said I was a painter, that could be true, but I have never killed or eaten anyone…"He sighed, and paused.

He thought for a while, lifted his head and said: "I know all my excuses are useless. I guess you just need a scapegoat. I don’t care how are you going to deal with this case, since the execution would be in the latter autumn. Now it’s just spring. I need medical care and food. You won’t be able to finish your job if I die."

Xing Li frowned more strongly. He gazed at Li YunXin for quite a while, turned around and walked out of the cell. After locking it up, he asked: "Is everything you said true?"

Li YunXin turned his hands up. Xing Li didn’t understand his gesture, but he could see his helplessness.

"What about the monster?"

"You won’t believe it."Li YunXin said.

Xing Li Walked out. A constable in black walked up to him and asked: "Sir Xing, how was it?"

"He was a young man of great capability."Xing Li said, "What a pity."

"Post notices that say that there are bandits around and tell people in town not to go into the mountains."

"Yes, sir."

It was in Qing River Town last month, and in Gai County 3 days ago, Xing Li thought, it looks that it is going away along the river…and not coming back, hopefully.

Footnotes:

Qing: Clear

Xing: A Chinese family name

Li: To stand

Gai: A lid of a container.

Ding: Peace.

Please leave your comments and suggestions!

Translator: