The golden skeletons said, “Too late, too late. The City Lord has specified that the Highness seated in the palanquin is His Lordship’s esteemed guest, who must not be offended in any way. Now that His Highness’ trip has been delayed, you tell me what we should do here.”
Hearing the wretched cries and howls of ghosts from all around, Xie Lian, unable to bear it any more, spoke up, “Well, forget it. Since we are in a hurry, let’s not worry about it.”
The golden skeletons said, “Since His Highness has said so, we’ll let them go. You lot have got off easy.”
Xie Lian added, “However, you must not block the road and harm travelers.”
The wild ghosts said happily, “No, no, we promise we’ve never done it! Thank you, Your Highness!”
The skeletons bellowed, “Off we go!”
As they passed by, Xie Lian faintly heard the curious murmurs of female ghosts from under the ground, “Hey, you guys, which Highness is it in the palanquin? I’ve never heard of City Lord Hua’s golden palanquin carrying anyone else.”
“It would’ve been understandable if it were a woman. But it happened to be a man, how strange.”
Xie Lian thought, “What’s so strange about that?”
The next moment, he heard those female ghosts say, “Indeed. I’ve always said that this palanquin must be meant for the City Lord’s lady!”
Xie Lian sprang up all at once. The golden skeletons asked, “What’s wrong, Your Highness?”
“…” Thinking that the female ghosts must be merely jesting, he sat back down reservedly. “Nothing… … where is your City Lord?”
The skeleton said, “Not far now. Please take a rest first, Your Highness. He will be here shortly!”
After running around for days, Xie Lian did feel a little sleepy while sitting in the palanquin. He intended to rest for a moment with his hand propped against his forehead, but perhaps because of an inexplicable sense of security, he unwittingly slid further and further down, until he was entirely nestled in the red satin. Time passed unnoticed before the palanquin came to a halt. In a haze, Xie Lian mumbled, “…What happened?”
He thought they had come across some other wild ghosts blocking the way. Just as he finished speaking, the palanquin dipped slightly, and it was someone coming up; lifting the gauze curtain, he called out softly, “Gege?”
Struggling to sit up, Xie Lian rubbed his eyes and peered outside, “San Lang?”
The newcomer was, of course, Hua Cheng. Upon seeing Xie Lian in such a half-awake, muddled state, he was mildly stunned. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Xie Lian straightened up and said, “I accidentally fell asleep.”
Right away, Hua Cheng smiled and came up, too. “Gege is too tired. May I squeeze in?”
Xie Lian nodded and made an effort to scoot to the right, trying to give Hua Cheng a little more space. However, Hua Cheng reached an arm around his right shoulder, pulling him back. “No need. There’s enough room.”
In truth, it wasn’t enough. This palanquin was rather peculiar, too wide for one person, but a little cramped for two; unless one person sat in the other’s lap, then it’s just right. The golden skeletons resumed running. Oddly enough, although they had very much been running smoothly all this way, now the palanquin began to sway. Xie Lian lost his balance all of a sudden and crashed heavily into Hua Cheng’s arms. The two of them toppled over together, and he was jolted awake, “I’m sorry!”
Hua Cheng whispered, “What’s there…”
Xie Lian hastily sat up and blurted out, “Oh, right! San Lang, they said you had something to tell me. What is it?”
Hua Cheng still had his arm around him, as if holding him in an embrace. Inadvertently, their eyes met. Outside the red curtain, one could only see two overlapping figures behind the gauze, inseparable. Inside the red curtain, Hua Cheng smiled.
He said, “Gege, wanna get married?”
Xie Lian said blankly, “…Ah?”
Such a gaze, such words, close quarters, nowhere to hide.
Xie Lian repeated, “Ah?”
His view was filled with a riot of colors, his mind turned blank, and his entire body froze. Seeing him in such a state, Hua Cheng withdrew his arm and chuckled, “Just kidding. Did I scare gege?”
Xie Lian finally gathered back all the pieces of his soul.
He said with difficulty, “… You, you, you…”
It was a long while before he managed to say, “… How, can you, joke, about something… like this?”
It was more than just a scare. He was so frightened that his heart nearly stopped!
Hua Cheng smiled, “My fault.”
The silver chains on his boots clanged against one another, clinking crisply. In the past, Xie Lian would have found this sound very clear and sweet, cute and mischievous. Now, however, for reasons unknown, the sound left him restless, his heart pounding uncontrollably, and he repeated with difficulty, “… How can you joke about something like this…”
Noticing the change in his expression, Hua Cheng sat bolt upright, “Your Highness! I apologize, I was wrong just now. I will never make such a joke again.”
Seeing him apologize so solemnly, Xie Lian was surprised, and felt embarrassed about himself. He reflected, “What’s wrong with me? Why am I being so petty? It was simply him being childish and making a joke, what’s the big deal? Besides, San Lang only said ‘wanna get married’, he didn’t say to whom, so where did your mind even wander off to? Snap out of it! Immediately! Right now!”
After mentally slapping himself a few times, Xie Lian regained his composure and said with a smile, “Uh… Why are you apologizing? You haven’t done anything wrong. Please don’t misunderstand, I was just thinking about the situation with the Wind Master, so I might have looked a bit serious. You see, three heavenly officials came down just now. Luckily, you had already left, otherwise it would have been challenging to explain everything.”
Still studying his expression, Hua Cheng said, “Your Highness, I really didn’t mean it.”
“…” Looking at him, Xie Lian actually had the illusion that he was somewhat wary, and increasingly felt himself to be blowing things out of proportion, getting angry for no reason, simply being too much, so he hurriedly said, “Why are you still so formally calling me Your Highness? That, um, San Lang, I keep feeling that this matter hasn’t been resolved yet. Or, rather… I feel that this is just the beginning.”
Shi Qingxuan had always adored his older brother, yet having just escaped from danger, he reacted like this upon seeing his face, which led him to a terrible thought – The person who coaxed Shi Qingxuan to open the door, could it have been Shi Wudu?
He was about to continue telling Hua Cheng some of his doubts and speculations, but Hua Cheng said, “No. This matter is over.”
His tone was firm, and Xie Lian was taken aback in spite of himself, “San Lang?”
Hua Cheng gazed at him, “Gege, do you trust me?”
Xie Lian also gazed at him, “I do.”
Hua Cheng said slowly, “Then, believe me, and this is what I’ve wanted to tell you: the Wind Master and the Water Master, the further away you stay from them, the better.”
All the rest of the way, Xie Lian was weighed down by a heaviness in his heart, and not sure exactly why.
Nevertheless, something good had finally happened recently: Puqi Shrine had received a large number of prayers!
Puqi Shrine had never received so many prayers before, and he didn’t think it’s the result of the wealthy merchant helping him promote his reputation – Yes, the wealthy merchant in town had finally fulfilled his promise and visited.
However, although he did visit, he didn’t notice Xie Lian’s prominently displayed sign, or perhaps he deliberately turned a blind eye. He also fell short of his promise to donate a significant amount of incense. The main purpose of his visit was to deliver a pennant, which he handed over to Xie Lian enthusiastically in front of the residents of Puqi Village. After a quick glance upon opening it unsuspectingly, Xie Lian immediately closed it up; nevertheless, the huge words on the pennant were still etched deeply into his mind – “brilliant hands restore the pregnancy”.
Xie Lian, “???”
After sending off the wealthy merchant, he let out a sigh, thinking about his daily worries about the house collapsing, and wondering when it could be repaired. Hua Cheng, leaning against the door, seemed to have deciphered the reason for his sigh and said, “I’ve been meaning to say it for a long time. If gege feels uneasy living in this house, then may as well move somewhere else.”
Xie Lian shook his head, “Easy to say, San Lang, but where can I move?”
Hua Cheng smiled, “Or, just move to my place?”
Glancing at him, Xie Lian hesitated to respond. Hua Cheng asked, “What is it?”
Xie Lian quickly turned around, “Nothing, nothing.”
He knew Hua Cheng wasn’t just talking the talk, but ever since that night’s “joke”, an inexplicable shadow had settled in his heart. Now, whenever Hua Cheng said anything with that “joking” expression, he was wary of responding casually.
As for the prayers he received, although they were all such things as someone’s old ox had injured its legs so couldn’t work in the fields and there was a shortage of manpower, they were still prayers! Believers’ prayers should be treated with equal respect. Two days later, in response to the prayers, Xie Lian headed to the village to help plant rice.
Hua Cheng stayed here, so naturally, he tagged along for fun. Because it was manual labor, Xie Lian was quite reluctant to have him along, but couldn’t dissuade him, so they both changed into coarse clothes, rolled up their sleeves and trouser legs, and made their way down to the rice paddies.
Both of them were fair-skinned, with pretty arms, and long, straight calves. They were quite a sight in the midst of a large swath of green rice paddies; the village girls couldn’t help peeking at them, and the seedlings they planted drifted into an arc as they worked along, turning them into laughing stocks.
While both were fair-skinned, Hua Cheng’s fairness was almost devoid of color, whereas Xie Lian’s fairness was tinged with a rosiness; in addition, due to his natural constitution, the more he sweated, the more luminously pale and jade-like his skin appeared. As the sun blazed overhead, after being exposed for a while, he turned intensely white with a sheen of pink, and wiped constantly at the beads of sweat rolling down in the unbearable heat. But given that ghosts generally disliked the sun, Hua Cheng would undoubtedly be faring even worse. He turned his head to look; sure enough, Hua Cheng had also stood up languidly and, shielding his eyes from the sun with a hand, in the shadow cast over his brow, fixed his gaze intently in this direction.
Xie Lian walked over and placed the bamboo hat on his head, “Put it on.”
Hua Cheng was surprised at first, then quickly squinted his eyes and said with a smile, “Okay.”
Even though Hua Cheng had claimed that he came down to the paddies for fun, before long, as Xie Lian straightened up and rubbed his waist, Hua Cheng came over to help him. Xie Lian glanced over and saw that he had actually quietly taken care of a large area. The rows of vibrantly green rice seedlings stood neatly aligned, looking lovely. He marveled, “You are truly impressive…” He didn’t appear anything like a novice.
“What’s so impressive about that?” Hua Cheng had at some point woven a set of messy horns out of weeds picked up from the rice paddies, put them on an ox, and said, “Gege, look, a monster.”
Xie Lian laughed so hard that he nearly planted himself into the paddy like a seedling.
The two stepped aside to rest and drink some water. Having watched them for quite some time from the sidelines, the village chief now approached and asked, “Tao Master Xie, whose house is this young man from? He’s so diligent and impressive!”
Xie Lian burst out laughing and said to Hua Cheng, “Just you wait, pretty soon someone will come and ask you if you’re… married.”
Hua Cheng arched an eyebrow. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before several people came over and asked, “Tao Master Xie, where is this young man from? Is he married? Surely not, he looks so young!”
Xie Lian said, “He is very young indeed. That’s why he hasn’t considered it yet.”
These people said, “That won’t do! Being young is precisely the reason to hurry up and settle down. A man starts to mature only after he gets married!”
Just as Xie Lian contemplated how to tactfully quash the eager villagers’ intention of matchmaking for the Ghost King, Hua Cheng walked over with a bamboo tube in hand and interjected, “I’m married. There is already a wife at home.”
Upon hearing this, these people were deeply disappointed; yet, unwilling to give up, they asked, “Whose girl did you marry?”
Hua Cheng said in a measured way, “My wife is an esteemed person from a line of gold and jade, beautiful and virtuous, someone I have liked since I was a child, for many years, and was finally able to win over after tremendous efforts.”
He spoke with such earnestness, showing no sign of deceit. Sensing no further prospects, these people dispersed with immense regrets. Xie Lian was lost in thought as he heard this. Hua Cheng handed him the water, “Gege?”
Xie Lian took a few random sips and handed it back. Taking back the bamboo tube, Hua Cheng took a sip himself, his Adam’s apple rolling up and down.
Ultimately unable to suppress it any longer, Xie Lian asked, “… Is it true?”
Hua Cheng turned his head, “Hmm? What?”
Xie Lian raised his sleeve to block the overly hot sun that made him dizzy and his cheeks burning, “… Your, wife? An esteemed person from a line of gold and jade, beautiful and virtuous, whom you have liked since you were a child, for many years, and finally able to win over after tremendous efforts?”
Hua Cheng said, “Oh, it’s not.”
Xie Lian lightly let out a breath.
Who knew, Hua Cheng added, “However, it’s not entirely false. I just haven’t succeeded yet.”
Hua Cheng waved his hand in front of him, “Gege?”
Xie Lian snapped back to his senses and hastily said, “Uh! Get to work! Get to work. You can rest; there’s not much left, I can handle it myself!”
He practically charged into the paddies. But despite trying hard to stay motivated, he somehow kept feeling a little depressed. Shortly, he realized that he had mindlessly planted a small row askew, and hurriedly collected his wits.
After finishing their work, Hua Cheng went to help the village chief repair his plow, while Xie Lian returned to Puqi Shrine. As soon as he entered, he noticed something off about the merit box. It was unexpectedly heavy, as if rooted to the ground. Bewildered, Xie Lian opened the lid, and was immediately dazzled blind by the bright golden light.
Inside the merit box, astonishingly, were densely packed gold bars, enough to convert into at least tens of millions of merits!
Xie Lian slammed the lid shut.
After a while, he reopened it, and picked up a slip of snow paper lying atop the gold bars, with a line of fine script written on it, “In gratitude for your assistance, a modest token of my appreciation.” A pattern of three flowing water streaks was stamped at the bottom, which was the seal of the Water Master.
Why had the Water Master sent him so many gold bars? Hush money? Xie Lian found it baffling no matter how he thought about it. True to his reputation as the God of Wealth. But a box this large simply had to be returned. Coincidentally, he had already planned on taking a trip to the Upper Court to see the Wind Master, so he left a note for Hua Cheng, hoisted the crushingly heavy merit box onto his back and set off.