Chapter 4
“Xuan paper from the House of Pines and Bamboos, well that’s gonna be pricey. Dozens of processes just to make a single sheet of paper. A hundred sheets, at least twenty Liangs of silver I guess, almost half a year of my allowance. The magenta ink slab is also quality product, the texture is very smooth and exquisite, radiating warmth that keeps the ink from freezing even in the winter. The musky ink is made of the best kind of pine tree smoke mixed with shattered gold and musk, mixed for days to make. The nice aroma can even stimulate the brain as people work late night. This whole set is definitely worth hundreds of Liangs of silver. This junior duke surely deserve his reputation for being generous to talents. However, he might have alternate expectations though……”
Hong Yi is on his way out of the city to the west hill on foot, carrying his package.
He is preparing for his examination. He does not need to take the att.i.tude. Moving to the west hill, he can look after his mother’s grave. Two birds with one stone.
Hong Yi’s mother rests alone at the west hill, just this single one. With his mother’s status, this is the only treatment she deserves. She was not allowed in the Hong family grave.
The west hill is a mountain just outside of the Jade capital, with hundreds of miles of radius. Although it would not be considered majestic, but there are plenty forests, bushes, and complicated geography, and waterfalls as well as bare stones and such.
There are a lot of wild animals up on the mountain. Every year in winter, aristocrats enter this region for their winter hunting tour.
As Hong Yi walks, he was pondering about the gifts that he just turned down.
The sky finally becomes dark, and Hong Yi arrives at the foot of the hill, swipes his mother’s tomb, burns some incense, and temporarily sets up a temporary residence at the shady little temple from afar called the Temple of Autumn Moon.
The temple is pretty tumbledown. There is only one old monk maintaining this place. Hong Yi comes here to live for a while every year, to remember his mother, and find some peace from the disturbing businesses going on at the manor.
He gives the old monk some money for the incense, has a bow of vegan mushroom noodle, and rests at the remote room at the side. He lights up some candles and prepares to do some late night reading.
The wind is blowing loudly, the four walls of this old house keep making a terrifying squeaky sound.
“The temple is getting worse and worse after all. The Great Qian dynasty does not value Buddhist temples, but prefers Taoist ones. So that is understandable.” Hong Yi looks at this miserable ruined old garden. A lot of feeling comes up in his mind and then goes away, but at least for him, it is still much better than the manor. Feels good at the inside.
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p; “Mother, if you can hear me up in the heaven, please wish me good luck in my upcoming exam, so I can put a t.i.tle on you.”
He looks down at the bean sized dust ball hanging down the oil lamp, and prays.
Bing!
The dust ball pops to the shape of a tiny blossom.
Woo…Woooo….Wooooo
From the mountain far far away, some strange sound has reached Hong Yi’s ear, like a wolf, a fox, mixed with the crying of the night wind, it is really hard to tell.
Mountain, old temple, whispering wind and the crying of wolves. All of these combines to make a scene of horror movie.
However, Hong Yi is not a bit afraid. For one he does not think that he has done anything that he feels bad about; he has also read a fair amount of supernatural fantasy novels, which state that as long as the scholar keeps his thoughts straight and have no fear, no ghosts or demons will be able to approach him.
Hong Yi clenches his coat and opens the door. He walks into the tiny garden to see what it is all about.
“Wow, what is that?”
The minute he steps foot into the garden, he notices the fist-sized green fire floating somewhere in the valley a few miles away, looking really freaky.
“These so called ghost fire are just remains of human bones, very common in a ma.s.sive graveyard, not really supernatural of any kind.” Hong Yi says to himself.
Suddenly, a sharp screaming voice comes from the heart of the mountain, a pile of black shadow arises from the ghost fire, and immediately reaches up in the sky, reminding people of some old demon praying for food at night, like a human heart. Normal person would have their hair sticking out of all of their follicles by now.
But judging from the distinct sound, Hong Yi knows it is night owes in the mountain.
He suddenly feels a bit artistic at the moment, really feeling some poetry coming out of his mouth. So he raises his voice and sings: “Hundred year old owe becomes the spirits around the trees, cries and ghost fire expose themselves from the nests.”
“Young man, you are only twenty years old, but have remarkably elegant tastes. That is a nice sentence.”
Out of a sudden, a crisp sweet voice pops out from the back of Hong Yi.
Wow that is a big startle for Hong Yi. His whole body starts to sweat. He turns around with all his strength and sees, under the dim light of candles, there stands a fair madden, well dressed in a set of pink imperial palace dress, standing gracefully erect, slender like a piece of willow tree, so stunningly beautiful, just breathtaking at the first sight.
Beauty standing under the dim light. It is a very nice picture.
Hong Yi is in absolutely no mood to appreciate this sight. If you think about it, suddenly appearing at the broken temple in the middle of the night in a desolate mountain is a really pretty lady whose beauty words shall not describe, she is either a ghost or a demon.
“Are you a ghost or a demon?” Couldn’t help by asking.
Hong Yi pinches his finger tip, tries to calm himself down.
“Oh? How do you know I am either ghost or demon?”
The woman smiles at Hong Yi like an old friend.
“It is easy. You are wearing very think cloth while it is freezing cold outside. Normal people cannot handle it with their full cloths on. Second, there are no households within tens of miles of radius around here. You appear to be a single lady, what are the odds a single young weak woman just magically shows up here, out of nowhere?” Hong Yi lays out his reasoning, and feels a bit numb on his toes.
“You are right. I am a ghost.” Lividity quick appears on the woman’s face. Her tone immediately becomes icy cold, as if she is about to attack any minute.
“I have done nothing immoral in my entire life and no amount of soul searching is going to reveal any shady secret. I come to this dilapidated temple to keep my mother’s tomb. Why are you looking for me? If you are a s.l.u.tty lady ghost and are looking for some one night kind of thing I am telling you, you are barking on the wrong tree. I, Hong Yi, have been studying the cla.s.sics of saints since I was young. I might be far away from really wise or completely guileless, but I know what I should stand for. Please leave right now.”
Hong Yi pinches his fingertips, and summons all his courage in his eyes to stare at her.
“I do not have the weird magic of those ghost chasing warlocks, or any physical strength, nor do I know any martial arts, cannot even tie up a chicken. Meeting a ghost, is all, about courage. I will not show weakness, I will not show weakness. Tell it to myself till I believe it.”
As Hong Yi tries to be as daunting as possible when he stares, he is trying to boost his own morale as well and tries to stay keep up with his believes.
That is the key to facing ghosts and demons.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you are one interesting young man.”
The young lady suddenly bursts out in laughter, and waves her hand: “I was merely just teasing you. I am not a ghost. Hey, check out my shadow under the light. Ghosts do not have shadows. If you come closer, you can definitely feel the Qi of blood flowing in my body. That is the vitality of a living person radiating, where would you find a ghost like this. If a ghost is capable of simulating that, he is not a ghost anymore, but more like, immortals in heaven, and Yang Shen.”
“Really?”
Hearing her, Hong Yi looks into the room. She was right. She does have a shadow under the candle.
Hong Yi hesitates for just a second, and decides to come into the room anyway.
As expected, he can smell the nice aroma coming from her body as she speaks. She is definitely a real human.
“Well, you are definitely not a ghost. Ghosts are concretized intangible thoughts. The ghost can be so powerful that it can manifest itself, but it would still have to be a pile of cold lifeless ma.s.s. It will never give out the texture of a real human. You are not a ghost, but you cannot be a normal person, can you? It’s late night, really cold, you must be some kind of hermit swordsman, right?” Hong Yi points between his eyebrows.
“It seems like you have a working understanding of ghosts and demons. Gentlemen do not speak of strange things, physical strength chaos or G.o.ds. You, my dear is not a regular scholar.” The lady looks at Hong Yi with a little disapproval.
“Those are just scholars that reek of pedantries. Scholars like me, we understand the grand values of kindness and how the world should operate. We learn the world of ghosts and demons, therefore achieving a better understanding of heaven and G.o.ds. That is true physics. The study of things.” Knowing that the lady isn’t a ghost, Hong Yi calms himself down and starts articulating his points.
“I was just visiting my relatives in the west hill, and you, are an delightful surprise.” The lady in the pink dress murmured to herself. “Scholar, not bad not bad. As so it happens, I have some neighboring kids that need some private coaching in reading and I was thinking about having you as there tutor. I will pay ten Liangs of pink gold every month. I hope you will come.”
“Ten Liangs of pink gold, for just a month?” Hong Yi is thoroughly surprised. In the Great Qian, gold to silver is one to fifteen. So ten Liangs of pink gold is like a hundred and fifty Liangs of silver. That is a huge amount. He only receives four Liang from the manor of the marquis a month. Four Liangs of silver seems pet.i.te, but even just one Liang of silver to enough to sustain a four people family for a month.
Generous behavior like those of Jing Yu Xing, throwing out hundreds of Liangs like nothing, surprises even a “thousand gold” (expression for daughters of wealthy families) like Hong Xuejiao.
“You don’t believe me? How about these for deposit.” The lady smiled, her hands sway and gently wipe across the table. Ding Dong, one line of little gold crackers appears on the table.
Hong Yi immediately recognizes the these. Those are all officially made Qian dynasty gold crackers, looks like a crackers, so that is called among the commoners. They are called gold coins officially. One piece weighs one Liang.
“Wow that is some nice color for gold. I would guess only the royal palace will have coins like these.” Hong Yi is truly surprised as inspects the coins closer. They are a beautiful pink, which is an indication of extreme purity. Seventy percent purity gold is turquoise, eighty percent purity is yellow, ninety percent purity is purple, and only a hundred percent of purity is pink.
You know what people say, “Every gold cannot be all pink, every bean has its black. There shouldn’t even be purely pink gold existing in the world, well, naturally.
However, warlocks focusing on making medicines and weapons can create that. These pure pink colored gold is often times used by warlocks as a medicine, hence the name “medical gold”.
These kind of gold made into coins, only available in the imperial palace.
Typically, these coils circulate as gifts from the emperor to his closest minions, or his concubines.
“However mysterious this woman might seem, she truly lacks a bit of subtlety in conducting her behavior, easily exposing her ident.i.ty like that. She comes from the imperial palace, and she does not look like a royal maid. What is she doing at this time of day at the west hill?” Hong Yi has so many questions flashing in his mind, and he says: “Gentlemen love money, but we acquire it in a respectful fashion. You want to spend ten Liangs of gold each month, just to hire a tutor, I am guessing that these students cannot be easy to teach. Just put your money away, how about we take a look, some other more convenient time, and I will decide later.”
Although he really wants the money, but this has been a really weird evening, he thinks it might be better to proceed cautiously. “As long as I withhold my l.u.s.t for admiration and money, no demons of any kind can hurt me.”
“That’s for sure. Let’s go. Right now is a perfect time. It is hard to find a tutor these days. A scholar who is not afraid of ghost is truly rare. You are a bit young for my taste, but I will try to make the best of it, after all you are not afraid of ghosts, or demons.” The lady stands up as she says.
“Like, now?” Hong Yi is not expecting this.
“Of course.” The lady smiles at him again. “It’s about sixty miles away, with your physical strength you wouldn’t make it to that place even if you keep walking till tomorrow. How about I carry you.”
“Boys and girls should not be in such compromising situation. Not to mention it is really late. Why don’t you come back tomorrow morning?” Hong Yi is obviously trying to postpone it. Late night at a old temple, following a mystery woman to go out, seems ominous.
“Tomorrow morning I will be at home. Besides what compromising situation, there is no one here.” The lady takes a look at the sky, unquestionable augustness appears on her face. Without any warning, she grasps Hong Yi by his arm, makes one jump and they are already at the outside of the temple.
The jump was like twenty steps for normal people. It’s like she just shrunk all the distance to an inch. Hong Yi feels like he is mounting the clouds and riding the mist.
“Magic?”
“Not really. It’s just martial arts. A gait simulating the apes.”
Wind blows through his ears, along with the voice of the lady in pink. Hong Yi can only see the giant trees backing off, and he himself is floating in the air like a kite. Wind fills his ears, eyes nose and mouth. He cannot even speak anything.
“This woman runs faster than horses!” Hong Yi had to close his eyes.
For only about two three incenses of time, Hong Yi feels a sudden stop. He opens his eyes, it is a super dark valley. At the middle of the valley, he can roughly see some light. That is probably bonfire.
“What the heck is that!”
Hong Yi just saw this unforgettable image, ever.
There is a huge bonfire at the valley, and next to the bonfire, there are dozens of silver fox surrounding the bonfire.
These foxes, sitting or squatting, just like human, especially with the books they are holding on their hands, making some strange noise that sort of resembles reading, doing what the kids in the private schools are doing.
A bunch of foxes, reading like human!