Chapter 18: CH 17

"I––" Jiang Shining hesitantly began to speak as he hurried away from the inn under Xue Xian’s orders. "––I just don't feel that this is right."

"What isn't right?" demanded Xue Xian, stroking his marble.

"Slipping away like this... Leaving dashi behind all alone," Jiang Shining replied.

Xue Xian glared at him. "Bookworm, are you sleepwalking? He hunts demons. [a] We’re the ones being hunted! Have you ever heard of felons escaping prison and taking the warden along with them?"

"No," Jiang Shining admitted. Although Xue Xian seemed to be making sense, Jiang Shining was still puzzled. "But––"

"There is no but."

"Yet––"

"There is no yet."

Defeated, Jiang Shining hung his head. 

Xue Xian patted his marble, self-satisfied. "That's how I roll." [b]

Jiang Shining: “...”

Curfew had already begun in Ningyang Xian Cheng, and roadblocks and barriers had been set up at all the major thoroughfares. Patrolling yamen officers stood idly by, warming themselves with pouches of hot wine. [c] The four gates of the city walls were tightly shut –– if a common citizen wanted to go in or out at this time, they’d have to sprout wings.

But these two were not human, so it was easy work. 

The advantage of Jiang Shining's paper body was clear. All he had to do was make himself paper-thin and slip through the gaps. 

"Go east."

"Go into the alley at the end of this lane."

"Go straight, then west."

Xue Xian had vision sharper than a dog’s. Even from afar, he could immediately spot the yamen’s patrols before they emerged from the shadows. When he gave Jiang Shining directions he did so in a straightforward and authoritative manner, without any hint of uncertainty. [d] Jiang Shining had a mild personality and was used to being ordered around by Xue Xian already. Whenever Xue Xian spoke, Jiang Shining would obey without asking questions.

This was how Jiang Shining allowed himself to be fooled. [e] But after some time, he finally stopped in his tracks and anxiously said, "Zuzong, haven't you had enough? Please stop talking."

Xue Xian glared at him. "Why? We're doing a great job of avoiding the patrols."

"Yes, we've avoided them, but I swear we've already passed this textile workshop three times,” Jiang Shining said indignantly. “If I keep following your nonsense directions, we'll be stuck here all night."

Xue Xian hugged his marble tightly and hissed. "It's too dark. We need to find somewhere to rest."

Jiang Shining: “...” The balls on this one! [f]

Without Xue Xian's misleading [g] nattering, Jiang Shining was able to navigate the streets much faster. Soon, they left the area with the textile workshop and found their way back to the correct route.

"This building looks familiar." Xue Xian looked around, and felt that the whole street looked familiar.

“Mn,” Jiang Shining said. “You really are awful with directions. We were just here this morning. How could you already forget?"

Now that Jian Shining had said it, Xue Xian remembered. Just a little farther ahead and to the east was Liu-shiye’s compound. Right now, the night was deathly still –– any small noise could be heard loud and clear. As they scuttled past Liu-shiye’s street, they stole a glance at that familiar set of front doors and thought they could hear fragments of voices –– perhaps a quarrel, perhaps something else, but definitely some kind of conflict.

Jiang Shining's footsteps came to a halt.

Xue Xian looked back at the Liu compound. "What is it? Do you want to see if he got what he deserved?"

"That's Liu-shiye’s business, not mine." Jiang Shining shook his head and, without delaying further, began walking toward the city gate.

Maybe it was because he came from a medical family, but Jiang Shining simply couldn't bear to watch others suffer. Indeed, that was the difference between him and someone like Liu-shiye.

Ningyang Xian Cheng was surrounded by thick forest, but the scenery was gentle and beautiful, without much real danger.

Because the current Guoshi was a Buddhist monk, there was a time when all sorts of temples had popped up on hilltops and mountainsides across the land, spreading the strong smell of incense everywhere. However, in recent years, for some strange reason, winter began to arrive increasingly early. Even the south came to be blanketed by snow for months on end. Folk usually say that blizzards are good omens for the new year, but at the same time, the rainfall had not been good recently, and the people were feeling the effects of several years of bad harvests. They had their own things to worry about, and no money to light incense in temples.

Thus, over a short period of time, the rural temples became completely deserted, visited only by travellers for temporary shelter.

Jiang Shining and Xue Xian found an abandoned temple atop Mount Jiguan and slipped inside. Outside, the snow had already begun to fall. 

As soon as they entered the temple, Xue Xian spotted the perfect resting place. That niezhang had the audacity to pick up a pile of hay from the ground, bring it to where the Buddha's statue was seated, and shamelessly lean against the statue! Since they were no longer in a rush, he naturally shook himself out of his paper man form and reverted to his normal appearance.

Xue Xian flopped back as though he had no skeleton beneath those black robes. He rested his elbow on the Buddha's lotus leaf seat and casually propped his chin up on his hand. His other hand still held his precious golden marble.

Jiang Shining scowled. Just looking at this zuzong made his head hurt. "This may be an abandoned temple, but you should still maintain some propriety. You can't just sit on the Buddha!"

Xue Xian reached out and slapped the Buddha's thigh. "Hey, let me sit here. If you don’t want me to, say something now."

He pretended to wait, then jutted his chin out defiantly at Jiang Shining. "See? Nothing."

"…Do what you want. I don't care."

Jiang Shining went to the altar and blew away some of the ash and dust on its surface. Xue Xian handed him a match and, with some effort, Jiang Shining was able to light the damp candle on the altar, cringing away from the flame all the while.

"Where did you find this match?" asked Jiang Shining as he idly shook it until the flame died.    

"Shimmied it out of the bald donkey's pouch," Xue Xian replied with a straight face. 

"I've never heard of a felon escaping prison and stealing from it at the same time," Jiang Shining said, exasperated.

"He won't miss it."

On the topic of Xuanmin, Jiang Shining started to feel guilty again. He couldn't help but ask Xue Xian, "Why do you hate that dashi so much? Because he captured us?"

Xue Xian shook his head.

"Then why were you so eager to lose him? If I may..." Jiang Shining pointed at himself, then at Xue Xian. "There's not much we can do by ourselves. We can barely even carry anything. If we get into trouble, we're helpless. All I have on me is a medical bell, which isn't worth very much, but if someone got their eye on your golden marble..."

Xue Xian idly rolled the marble back and forth between his fingers, then held it up to the light.

Of course he had a reason for escaping in the night. The reason was the marble, which contained his dragon body: because he hadn't healed enough yet, he felt no spiritual connection to the marble. Even holding it in his bare hands elicited no reaction at all. It was as though he were holding any old marble off the street.

But there was something about Xuanmin. There had been something embedded in the flesh of his hip. One strike could be mistaken for a coincidence, but twice? Xue Xian couldn't ignore it.

Although Xue Xian hadn't observed much of Xuanmin's real skill, he was certain that Xuanmin was hiding something.

Xue Xian knew that he couldn’t do anything with the marble at the moment, but Xuanmin might be able to affect it in the same way he’d affected Xue Xian’s paper body. If Xue Xian stayed by Xuanmin's side too long with his marble, Xuanmin might have some adverse impact on the marble, and then Xue Xian might not be able to return to his original dragon form anymore.

Besides...

Xue Xian said to Jiang Shining, "We don't know where he comes from, nor what he wants. He doesn't look like a professional geomancer you’d see on the jianghu, nor does he come across as one of those charitable monks who goes around saving vulnerable people. He only touched me a couple times, but I got the feeling that he carries a coldness to him."

Confused, Jiang Shining asked, "What coldness? That makes no sense."

Xue Xian scoffed with disdain. "Basically, he's just different from other monks. Before, I wasn't sure what made him different. But now that I think of it, I think it has to do with his complete lack of warmth –– it’s weird. Don't you think that, if it came down to it, he would be willing to commit murder?" 

“...” Jiang Shining pondered this, but he wasn't convinced. He shook his head. "I don't think so. But –– and this is embarrassing –– I'm scared of him."

"There you go," Xue Xian snapped. "Same meaning."

Recalling that Xue Xian had said We don’t know where he comes from, Jiang Shining had a sudden thought. "By the way, did you smell medicine back at the inn?"

"Yeah,” Xue Xian said. “I was confused. The bald donkey takes medication?"

"I grew up around the smell of medicine, so I'm quite sensitive to it." Jiang Shining thought for a bit, then added, "That smell was quite familiar. It reminded me of a neighbor that my parents treated long-term." 

"What kind of illness was that?" Xue Xian asked.

Jiang Shining hesitated. Finally, he said, "Loss of soul."

People who had lost their souls were usually insomniacs, and were easily frightened. In some cases, they constantly woke up having forgotten what had occurred to them previously, struggled with amnesia, and were constantly confused. It was as though their souls had left their bodies –– thus they were labelled as suffering from ‘loss of soul disease’. 

"Loss of soul? That bald donkey?" Xue Xian scoffed, and gestured dismissively. "He doesn't look at all like those confused, anxious wrecks. Not possible!"

******

"Indeed he doesn't seem like someone missing chunks of their memories, but ––" Jiang Shining thought for a while, then said, "From what I've seen, some people who have lost their souls are really obvious about it because of their amnesia and disorientation. When you speak to them, they seem distracted and generally behave strangely, with no energy about them. But others are different, perhaps because they're well-prepared for it: they'll behave strangely normally, speak as little as possible so as not to reveal their illness, and try to cure themselves in secret. They'll only speak of what they know, and conceal what they don’t know. If you’re not close to them, it's impossible to tell there's anything wrong with them."

Hearing this, Xue Xian shrugged. "Even in the latter case where they're well-prepared, they would hardly go running around. If they didn't want to raise suspicion, they would stay in their comfort zone and avoid running into people who might detect anything. What kind of amnesiac would set off travelling on their own, bothering people and getting into trouble with demons? [a] That's not memory loss: that's loss of sanity!"

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Jiang Shining nodded. "True."

"But you’re right: even if it's not loss of soul, there's definitely something up with that bald donkey." Xue Xian thought back to when Xuanmin had suddenly gripped the table and frozen, and added, "What are his origins? What are his motives? Surely he isn’t walking around aimlessly. He definitely came to Ningyang County for a reason.But today, he did two things that were absolutely none of his business –– he captured us, and took down the array at the Liu compound."

Jiang Shining couldn't help but add, "He also did the rites for Liu-lao-tai-tai, and saved my family's medical bell, and helped you extract your golden marble, and ––"

Suddenly, he stopped. All together, Xuanmin's actions made even less sense. It wasn’t as though he’d done small favors on the side: the incident at the Liu compound had taken all morning, and had been time-consuming and difficult. Why had he helped? What was in it for him? 

"Based on what he'd been saying, it sounded like he wanted to finish the job and take you and the medical bell to your sister," Xue Xian said, still fiddling with the marble. "I've actually been to Anqing. It's not impossibly far from Ningyang, but you still have to cross the river. If it was really out of the goodness of his heart, that would be way too friendly. That bald donkey has the coldest, most chilling face I've ever seen. Do you think anyone thinks ‘friendly’ when they see that face?" 

Xue Xian couldn’t help but try to imagine how that bald donkey might look when he was being friendly. 

Soon, a chill passed from the top of the niezhang’s head all the way down to his toes. He said, "Help me. I’m scared to death." 

Jiang Shining: “...”

Although this zuzong didn’t look trustworthy or reliable at all, the things he was saying did make some sense. But on the topic of helping people for no apparent reason... Jiang Shining looked at Xue Xian. "When you first arrived at Ningyang County, you also did nothing except make me a paper body..."

"That's not the same," Xue Xian shot back.

"To be honest, I still don't understand. There are so many houses in Ningyang County. Why did you come to my ruined place?" Jiang Shining shook his head. "It's so cold and dark. You have really interesting tastes –– why would you go to such an unwelcoming place?"

*I wanted to. You can’t stop me!" Xue Xian snapped.

Not only was this zuzong rude and unreasonable, but when he argued with Jiang Shining, he didn’t even bother looking at him. He was still gazing admiringly at his precious marble.

The warm glow of the candlelight seemed to give some life to Xue Xian's pallor. Although he was annoying as hell and seemed to be begging to get beat up every time he opened his mouth, he did have quite a good complexion. The flame cast a shadow beneath his half-open eyelids, and the dark pools of his eyes seemed to reflect the shine of that marble and the white haze of the blizzard outside.

Out of all the places to seek shelter from the harsh weather in Ningyang County, why had Xue Xian chosen the Jiang compound, and why had he bothered to spend all of that first day making a paper body for the scholar?

Even Xue Xian couldn't remember the real reason –– he had lived so long that if he could remember every little detail of his past, then his head would have exploded long ago.

He only knew that, one winter, he had travelled north for some reason, and on his way home he had passed through Ningyang County. 

It had probably been the evening. There had been a snowstorm as violent as the one today. The streets had been empty, and even the restaurants and food stalls had long been packed away, so that the place had been blanketed with a deathly stillness.

At the time, Xue Xian had not yet been maimed, and could use his legs. Naturally, as a mighty dragon, he hadn’t been afraid of the cold: to him, wind and snow were nothing but the ornaments of winter. Thus, that day, he’d worn a thin black robe as he’d ambled through the blizzard. Just as he’d passed the mouth of an alley, someone had tugged at his arm.

Xue Xian was an independent spirit. He hated interacting with others, and definitely did not ever appreciate being touched by a stranger.

Scowling, he’d swivelled around to see a middle-aged man wearing a grey overcoat. The man had been holding a wax-paper umbrella and carrying a cloth-covered rectangular case. Based on the footprints, it seemed that he had just come out of the alley.

Xue Xian could no longer remember what the middle-aged man looked like: only that he’d had a mustache, and had seemed genial and kind.

Tugging at Xue Xian’s sleeve, the man had gestured at the back of Xue Xian's hand. "You're gravely injured. If you don't treat it now, the cold is going to destroy your flesh. In this weather, if you get frostbite even for just two days, you'll feel it every winter for the rest of your life –– and then you'll be sorry."

That middle-aged man had been talkative, and had not been at all shy about accosting some younger person on the street to lecture him. Xue Xian had stared at him, confused, then looked down at his own hand. 

The hand that the middle-aged man had been pointing at had indeed been injured: from a thunder-related accident some days ago. To Xue Xian, such an injury had been akin to scratching his skin against a passing tree branch. He had forgotten about it as soon as he'd gotten it, knowing that it would soon disappear. But to ordinary people, the injury had indeed looked horrifying –– the whole back of his hand had been deeply slashed, and fresh blood had coagulated by the wound. The muscles had split away and even some bone was visible.

Without another word, the middle-aged man had led the stunned Xue Xian back down the alley until they’d come upon a set of red doors.

It had been clear that this was the man’s home. He’d pushed open the doors and called out a name, then added, "Bring me the portable heater that's on the counter."

Then, he’d lifted the lid on his box and had begun to apply medication to Xue Xian's wound without delay.

Someone had soon rushed out of the house and had stood by the doorway, holding a small copper heater.

Xue Xian had glanced over: it had been a middle-aged woman who’d seemed as gentle as the man. Behind her had been a shy little boy who’d looked about seven or eight years old. When he’d caught Xue Xian's eye, he’d smiled sweetly. Eagerly, he’d pointed at Xue Xian's hand and announced, "Don't wash it for two days –– especially not cold water."

"Go, go study!" the woman had gently scolded the child. Then, she’d turned to Xue Xian: "Indeed, you shouldn't let water touch it. You need to be careful with injuries in this weather, or else you'll plant the roots of pain and it'll come back year after year." 

Just as the man had said.

"Are you in a hurry? Do you want to come inside and warm yourself up a bit?" the middle-aged man had asked as he’d wrapped Xue Xian's hand with a cotton rag and carefully tied a knot. 

"No need. I have things to do," Xue Xian had replied. Then, awkwardly, he’d added, "Thank you very much."

"Then take this heater with you. You need it to take care of this wound." The middle-aged man had pushed the small heater into Xue Xian's hands. 

Although Xue Xian was never afraid of the cold, he also wasn't completely indifferent to it. That day, as he’d pressed the pleasantly warm heater to himself, he’d raised his head to look at the compound doors, above which had been a sign that said –– Jiang Medical Clinic. 

Some years later, Xue Xian happened to pass through Ningyang again. He’d waited until no one was around and had marched into the Jiang compound, placing the copper heater and a small pouch of golden pearls onto a stone table in the courtyard before leisurely walking back out.

And when he’d arrived in Ningyang County this time around, he had planned to go check in on the family. But he’d found the house in ruins. That red-painted set of doors and the medicinal herb garden set up in the courtyard had all vanished –– all he’d found had been the lonely ghost Jiang Shining. 

So he’d helped Jiang Shining. It hadn’t been hard.

After all, not everyone in the world was as evil as Liu-shiye. Some people only know how to hold grudges. Others acknowledge kindness and pay it back.

Xue Xian leaned back against the Buddha statue and stared at the blizzard raging outside the temple.

Suddenly, Jiang Shining asked, "Before we left, when you asked me to wait by the door, what did you put on dashi’s table?"

Xue Xian idly said, "Nothing much. Just thanks for his help with my marble."

What he had left for Xuanmin was none other than a dragon’s scale. Having come from a real dragon’s body, the item wasn’t necessarily an immortality pill, but it was definitely more effective and more precious than any medicinal herb. That bald donkey was ill. It wasn't clear what he was ill with, but if he made medicine using the scale, it would definitely help.

Ordinary people did not have the eye to recognise a dragon’s scale. It resembled a thin, circular flake, and was about the size of a coin, with a dim blue-black shimmer. But it had a subtly humid smell to it, like rain on stone, as well as something... fishy... reminiscent of a freshly-peeled shrimp. 

Xue Xian's eyes fluttered open. His face showed no emotion. "I'm hungry," he said.    

In the room at Guiyun Hall, Xuanmin was still sitting unmoving by the table, maintaining the posture he'd held when Xue Xian had made his escape. 

On the table was a yellow sheet of paper, on top of which was the dragon’s scale that Xue Xian had left behind. That peculiar smell rose from the scale and slowly wormed its way into Xuanmin's nostrils. 

Xuanmin's expression wrinkled, and he suddenly opened his eyes. The spider-shaped mole on his neck receded back to its original, innocuous appearance.

He looked down at the table and saw that the yellow paper was covered in someone's heinous, scrawling handwriting: "Miracle medicine. It can cure anything. Believe it or not."

Xuanmin picked up the strange black flake and peered at it. Then, as though suddenly remembering something, he patted his chest pocket and took out a folded piece of paper.

He spread the paper out on the table. On it, someone had written: Find this person.

Beside those words was a drawing of a black circular flake, which looked exactly like the one on the table.

Find this person...

Xuanmin frowned as he compared the diagram with what was on the table. Then he folded the paper back up. Still holding that flake in one hand, he sat in the candlelight, deep in thought.

Outside, the howling wind brought light eddies of snow tapping against the walls of the inn.

From the dirt paths in the mountains to the city streets, an inky blackness unfurled and submerged the world.

---

The author has something to say: 

I had class this morning, so last night I didn’t want to sleep too late. This chapter is now all done~ This act is complete =3= 

Don’t worry, in the next act Xue Xian will see Xuanmin again. Just lighting a candle for what’s ahead (x

Oh, and, the paper form will not last the whole novel. In the next act we’re going back to human form~

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[a] Musuli used 鬼 (gui3) here, which generally means “ghost”. But it can also be taken to broadly mean any kind of potentially malicious magical being, as Xue Xian is employing it here. 

[b] The literal translation of what he says here is “I am indeed a very reasonable person”, but I couldn’t resist how well “That’s how I roll” works in English. Get it, because of the marble… 

[c] Musuli uses 酒 (jiu3), meaning broadly “alcohol”, throughout Copper Coins. I had originally translated this pretty consistently as “alcohol”, but in English it’s a lot less common simply to refer to alcohol as that, rather than being more specific about what kind of alcohol. Thus, in this version I will mostly be using the word “wine”, although of course this would not be referring to grape wine but rather to rice- and other grain-based wines traditional to China.

[d] Musuli uses the chengyu 斩钉截铁 (zhan3 ding1 jie2 tie3), literally “cut the nail, slice iron”, which means “decisive” or “without hesitation”. 

[e] Musuli phrases this as “Jiang Shining believed Xue Xian’s 邪”, where 邪 (xie2) means “evil” or “heretical”.

[f] The literal translation here is “this hooligan who would die rather than lose face!” but, again, you know… balls… marble… 

[g] The Chinese word here is 路盲 (lu4 mang2), literally “road/route blind”: someone who is terrible with directions.

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