Corpse Retriever

“Breakfast is ready!”

At Taigong’s house, dawn always seemed to be called into being by Aunt Liu.

Li Sanjiang picked up his bowl, shoveled down a few mouthfuls of porridge with some pickled vegetables, then swept his gaze over Tan Wenbin, Lu Runsheng, Lin Shuyou, and the others, silently nodding to himself.

The mules that had been wandering off these past few days had all come back to the stable today.

He counted them. Good. Not a single one was missing.

After breakfast, by custom, Little Yuanhou ought to have accompanied him on a walk to help him digest.

But today, Li Sanjiang specifically called on Lu Runsheng instead and said:

“Marquis of Runsheng, come on, take me to Sian Town.”

Lu Runsheng froze for a moment. He had originally planned to go back to his old home in Xiting Town today and bring his grandfather another round of rice, flour, grain, and cooking oil.

After all, it had already been quite a long time since the last wave passed. By rights, it was almost time to catch the next river wave.

He needed to settle his grandfather properly before heading out, or the old man really might starve to death.

Back when his grandfather was younger, his body could still endure it. Going hungry now and then was manageable. But now that he was old, he truly could not stand hunger anymore.

Still, since Li Daye had spoken, Lu Runsheng simply nodded and went to wheel out the family tricycle.

Tan Wenbin yawned with his hands on his hips and said to Lu Runsheng, “I’ll make the trip for you.”

“Mm.” Lu Runsheng answered, then pedaled the tricycle down the embankment with Li Daye riding behind him.

A while back, Li Sanjiang had planned to go to Shigang Town to try his luck in the prize draw, but the matter with the Wu family had delayed him for several days, and he missed the chance.

These prize-draw crews usually set up for only a short while before moving on. A place only had so much spending power, after all. After two or three days, they had to move somewhere else to make a living.

Now they had just relocated to Sian Town. From Siyuan Village, it was neither especially far nor especially near.

Li Sanjiang was embarrassed to let the younger ones know he was going there for a prize draw. He was afraid of setting a bad example. After thinking it over, Lu Runsheng was the most suitable one to bring along.

Once they reached Sian, he would have Lu Runsheng wait far away, smoking incense, while he sneaked off to buy a ticket. If he won, he would collect the prize and come right back.

Yes, Li Sanjiang had another dream last night. In it, he won the prize draw again. He had no idea how many times he had dreamed this in recent days.

At this point, no matter what, even if it was just to put the dream to rest, he had to go buy a ticket.

Tan Wenbin lit a cigarette and said, “Then I’ll head over to Xiting.”

Yin Meng said, “I’ll go with you.”

“I can handle it myself. I’m just buying some food and drink.”

“I’ve got experience. If you buy too much, he’ll just sell it and take the money to the gambling table. That’ll make it even easier for him to starve.”

“All right, then let’s go together.”

So Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng went off to Xiting together.

Late in the morning, Grandpa Shan was sitting in the courtyard drinking his breakfast liquor.

He did not have much in the way of proper snacks to go with it. There was a plate of pickled dried radish, a small dish of vinegar, a small dish of soy sauce, and two little pebbles that had already been sucked smooth.

As for the liquor, it was cooking wine from the kitchen.

There was no helping it. These were the only seasonings Grandpa Shan had in any abundance at the moment.

“Well now, Grandpa Shan, having a drink?”

Tan Wenbin entered the courtyard so quickly that Grandpa Shan did not even have time to hide his drinking snacks.

The old man looked a little embarrassed. Having a junior see him in such a sorry state really did sting his pride.

“Mengmeng, find me a clean little stone. I’ll have a couple drinks with Grandpa Shan.”

“You brat.” Grandpa Shan glared at Tan Wenbin and asked, “Where’s Runsheng?”

“Runsheng has something to do and couldn’t come today. I’m here in his place.”

As Tan Wenbin spoke, he pulled some money from his pocket and handed it over. “Runsheng asked me to give this to you.”

“Oh, good, good.”

Grandpa Shan took the money like a soldier trapped on a long-besieged front finally receiving supplies. His fighting spirit instantly returned.

“Well then, Binhou, you all sit at home for now. Stay for lunch. I’ll go buy some vegetables for you.”

“Sure, Grandpa Shan, go on.”

Tan Wenbin of course knew exactly what the old man was in such a hurry to do, but he did not stop him.

Once Grandpa Shan ran out of the courtyard in high spirits, Yin Meng looked at Tan Wenbin with some helplessness. “You shouldn’t have given him cash directly.”

“As long as the old man’s happy. Right, you go buy the rice, flour, grain, and oil.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Go watch my Grandpa Shan slaughter the table.”

With that, Tan Wenbin ran out, caught up with Grandpa Shan, and went with him to the gambling den.

Yin Meng went out to buy the staples, which was a technical job in itself. You had to measure the amount just right.

By the time Yin Meng finished buying everything and put it away, Grandpa Shan had already come back with his head hanging low.

Even Yin Meng was surprised.

He lost that fast?

Behind Grandpa Shan, Tan Wenbin wore a faint smile.

Yin Meng said, “Grandpa Shan, everything’s ready.”

Grandpa Shan forced a smile at Yin Meng, clearly embarrassed, then ducked into the house.

Yin Meng walked over to Tan Wenbin and asked, “Did he lose it all?”

Tan Wenbin said, “Yep. Every last bit.”

Yin Meng said, “I knew he always loses, but I didn’t expect this kind of efficiency.”

Tan Wenbin said, “It’s not like he plays recklessly. He folds small hands, never bluffs, but every single time he gets a big hand, someone else somehow gets one just slightly bigger. It’s downright bizarre.”

“Slightly bigger?”

“I mean at the table someone always happens to have a hand just a little stronger than his. It’s practically cursed.”

“He really ought to quit gambling.”

“He can’t. Honestly, it’s fine for him to play cards and lose some money. If one day Grandpa Shan suddenly comes back cheering that he won, that’s when it would really be scary.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hard to explain.”

Tan Wenbin had spent so long around Little Yuanhou that he had never stopped reading and learning. Through constant exposure, he had picked up a thing or two about fate structure and feng shui.

Naturally, it was nowhere near enough in front of Little Yuanhou. But out in the world, if he wanted to fool some nouveau riche bosses, he would have more than enough skill.

If nothing else, looking back now, just the fact that someone like Lu Runsheng was on the family register and Grandpa Shan was still healthy enough to be alive at this age was already no easy thing.

“If you know he’s bound to lose, then why give him money at all? Better to use it to buy clothes for him and Runsheng.”

Tan Wenbin pulled out another thick wad of cash and handed it to Yin Meng. “Here. Go buy clothes for Runsheng.”

“How much cash did you bring out with you today?”

“The same money I gave Grandpa Shan earlier. I sat down at the table with him. Most of what he lost, I won back.”

…

On the second-floor terrace, Li Zhuiyuan was reading while Ah Li sat beside him.

The boy felt that he had once been too prejudiced against these health-preservation books. Reading them carefully, there really was plenty of subtle wisdom to be found.

The ideas advocated by proper health-preservation texts all differed in method, but in the broadest sense, they all treated the human body as a great circulation to be adjusted and harmonized.

In other words, they treated the body itself as a feng shui formation or a ritual array.

In that sense, it had something in common with The Qin Family’s Guide to Viewing Flood Dragons as a body-tempering art. The sixteen Qi Gates on Lu Runsheng’s body were not unlike sixteen feng shui nodes.

Li Zhuiyuan closed the book and fell into thought.

Whatever book he read, he always had the habit of digesting it thoroughly. In the past, he had also been used to working out and extrapolating other cultivation methods.

It was the same with books on health preservation.

But one problem remained unavoidable: physical development.

Whether health cultivation, body tempering, or martial arts, all were forms of further developing the human body.

Which meant that before adulthood, before the body had fully matured, any such further development was essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Liu Yumei and Uncle Qin had already made that clear long ago. Even in the past, the younger members of the Qin and Liu clans spent their adolescent years constantly laying foundations. They would never do anything as foolish as drawing in advance on what had not yet ripened.

Even Li Zhuiyuan could not break through that limitation, because in the end he was still a human being.

No matter how mature your mind was, no matter how much you surpassed your peers, your body still needed time to grow.

But it was not as though he had gained nothing. In fact, the gains were immense.

By combining the essential insights and key methods from all these books, the boy could tailor a personal plan to regulate his own physique.

He needed no miraculous pills, no heavenly treasures, not even medicinal baths, because with a wave of his hand he could change the feng shui around himself, and at most design a suitable formation for himself each day while practicing his breathing techniques.

That way, he could regulate his own qi and blood and guide his meridians with his own hand.

Step by step, he could push himself toward becoming the seedling of a martial prodigy.

No one knew his own body better than he did. And he was in the very midst of adolescence, the golden stage for adjustment and shaping.

The great families often had experienced elders to guide and train their younger members. Li Zhuiyuan guiding himself like this was likely many times more efficient and effective than that.

He was an anomaly.

Because those who possessed such abilities were usually already very old. Not merely in late age either. Many had become something not entirely human nor ghost. Even if they were full of ideas and insight, they could never return to youth and put them into practice.

After realizing this, Li Zhuiyuan even found himself understanding the Heavenly Dao a little.

The boy lifted a hand and lightly tapped his forehead.

Why should I understand it?

Feeling sympathy for the Heavenly Dao was far less useful than picking out an undeveloped auspicious burial site for himself as early as possible.

At that moment, a familiar figure appeared, pushing a wooden cart toward the house. It was Wu Yougen, the second son and sole surviving one of Old Wu’s sons.

He had probably come to see Taigong. Since Taigong was not home, and Binbin was not around either, it could only be Li Zhuiyuan who went downstairs to receive him.

Wu Yougen had come to repay money.

Back when he and his elder brother were handling matters, they had hardly had any money on hand. A great many funeral expenses had been put off unpaid.

Now the family had split apart, the property had been divided clearly, and it was time to settle the debt.

Perhaps because he had seen so much scheming, stinginess, and calculation among his own relatives, Wu Yougen and his sister-in-law were incomparably grateful to Li Sanjiang for being willing to help them in their hour of need.

Li Sanjiang’s several days of sitting vigil fees, along with the stools, bowls, paper effigies, and the rest for the funeral, had all been given on credit. If Li Sanjiang had not stepped in like that, the funeral might not even have been possible.

Holding a sheet of paper, Wu Yougen calculated the expenses item by item, and handed the money to Li Zhuiyuan one amount at a time.

Once the debt was cleared, Wu Yougen took the gifts he had brought from the wooden cart. Cigarettes and liquor, all bought from a store. In the countryside, they counted as mid-range or better, not the sort of thing ordinary villagers consumed every day.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “There’s no need for these. Take them back and return them.”

The boy knew that they had only just split the family apart, and had even used part of that divided money to buy those two tiled rooms from the wives of the third and fourth brothers. In truth, they really did not have much cash left.

Most of it had gone into the house, and rural housing plots were not easy to sell, making them a true kind of illiquid property.

Wu Yougen shook his head vigorously. “I’ve got money now. From now on, whatever I earn is for me and my sister-in-law to spend. There’s money.”

Before, Wu Yougen had parents and an elder brother above him. Every day he simply did whatever they told him to do. Either he followed his elder brother to do odd jobs, or he worked the fields. As long as he had food to eat and clothes to wear, he never thought much about anything else.

In truth, he was excellent at farming, and he was also a capable mason. If what he earned and grew had not all been turned over to support those two younger brothers’ households, he could have lived quite comfortably and prosperously in the village.

Before, he had never experienced any other way of living. Only now, when he realized that what he earned actually stayed in his own hands, did he understand that life could be this comfortable.

“My Taigong isn’t home, but even if he were, he definitely wouldn’t want me accepting these. He helped you not for this.”

Wu Yougen looked troubled. “But my sister-in-law specifically told me these had to be delivered.”

Li Zhuiyuan suggested, “Then send them in batches. On holidays and festivals, come around like family and bring a little each time. Then Taigong will be too embarrassed not to accept them.”

“All right.”

Wu Yougen thought it was a very good idea and immediately agreed. Then he unloaded a square table from the wooden cart.

“This one’s for Li Daye. We agreed on it. He liked it.”

Li Zhuiyuan remembered the table.

When Taigong had sat vigil for the Wu family, this was the table he had sat behind while chanting.

Taigong had probably felt that the height suited him just right. Resting his elbow on the tabletop and cupping the side of his face with his palm made it perfect for dozing.

While eating the funeral meal, Taigong had laughingly mentioned the matter, and Wu Yougen and his sister-in-law had remembered it.

Li Zhuiyuan glanced at the table. It was fairly old, probably from the Qing dynasty. It had been painted several times, and the legs had also been repaired more than once.

Not every old object was an antique. Unless it had some special historical story attached to it, most valuable antiques were things once used by the aristocracy of their era. Objects used by commoners, no matter how long they survived, were not worth much.

“Then I’ll accept the table.”

“All right. Shall I carry it inside for you?”

“No need. Just leave it here in the yard for now.”

“Okay.”

The money had been paid, and the table delivered, yet Wu Yougen still did not seem ready to leave. He hesitated, as if wanting to speak.

“Something else?”

“Yes. I had wanted to ask Li Daye to calculate some birth characters for me.”

Wu Yougen pulled another sheet of paper from his pocket. Inside it were two banknotes.

He had already planned this before coming, even preparing the fortune-telling fee.

Li Zhuiyuan took both the paper and the money. Two sets of birth characters were written on it.

“Yours and your sister-in-law’s?”

“That’s right.”

“You want to see whether you’re compatible?”

“I want you to say we are.” Wu Yougen’s tone was very firm.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. He understood. The man wanted a forged result.

Wu Yougen continued, “I asked my sister-in-law. She wouldn’t agree. She said she didn’t want to become my burden, and she was afraid of holding me back.”

The marriage market had always been ruthlessly realistic. Everyone in it carried a corresponding price tag. Sometimes it was even more precise than a produce market.

Wu Yougen was not young anymore, but he was healthy, honest, skilled with his hands, and every member of his family above him had died cleanly away. No parents-in-law to deal with, no elders above.

With those conditions, finding an unmarried young maiden was impossible, but a pretty widow or a divorced woman with a child? He was actually in demand.

As soon as the funeral was over, matchmakers had already come asking what he thought.

But Wu Yougen only had his sister-in-law in his heart.

On the day the funeral ended, he had heard the villagers’ urging and taken it to heart.

He had not harbored any crooked thoughts toward his sister-in-law before, and he still did not now. But he did not want to see her left alone, lonely and without anyone to rely on.

Now that the house had finally become peaceful, if he married some other woman and brought her into the home, he feared life would return to that old state of intrigue and mutual scheming.

So he had spoken to his sister-in-law plainly. But she had refused.

Calculating birth characters was the simplest of tasks for Li Zhuiyuan. These two did not clash.

As for some rare perfect alignment of birth characters, that was always an extremely unlikely thing anyway. As long as the two did not conflict, there was no problem. Life was lived by people, not by birth characters.

“Then go back and say my Taigong calculated it and said you’re a very good match. I’ll tell him about it.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Satisfied, Wu Yougen pushed his wooden cart away.

In the yard, Liu Yumei had been sitting there all along, drinking tea, and had heard the entire exchange.

She found it rather strange. When had this child suddenly become so patient? Lately, too, he always seemed to be helping people deal with matters between couples and prospective partners.

In the past, that would have been unimaginable. The moment Liu Yumei first met Li Zhuiyuan, she had known he was precocious. But the more precocious a person was, the thinner their emotions often ran.

Li Zhuiyuan stretched out one hand, lifted the square table, and carried it inside.

Just then, Uncle Qin came back carrying a hoe and happened to see it.

As a martial artist, he was especially sensitive to matters of strength. He could not help glancing at Liu Yumei.

After hesitating for a long while, he came over and quietly asked, “Madam, have you taught Little Yuan martial arts?”

Liu Yumei set down her teacup, picked up a piece of pastry, and bit into it. “I certainly have not.”

“Then Little Yuan…”

“That child only ever practiced the breathing techniques and basic exercises you taught him every day. It was only in the last few days that he started doing a set of improvised loose boxing in the mornings to loosen his muscles and regulate his qi and blood.”

“But that strength…”

Liu Yumei said indifferently, “A Li, there are differences between people.”

Uncle Qin: “…”

Liu Yumei smiled. For some reason, she felt a little pleased.

The old lady stood up and stopped drinking tea. A new batch of memorial tablets had just been placed in the east room, and she wanted to go in and chat with them a little more.

Yes, while all the ancestors were still gathered there together.

Uncle Qin went into the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cooled tea.

Aunt Liu was cracking melon seeds. She glanced at him and said, “So you’ve learned how to flatter people now too?”

“Huh?”

“Forget it. You haven’t learned that part.” Aunt Liu sighed. “I was overthinking.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing. Just make sure you mention Little Yuan more often in front of Madam. Take the initiative to compare yourself with him from time to time. You’re used to it anyway. Might as well use it to make Madam happy.”

“I understand. I will. Madam really is liking Little Yuan more and more.”

“A child like Little Yuan—anyone who isn’t blind to goodness would like him.”

Aunt Liu took the medicinal soup off the stove and carried it to the east room.

Inside, Liu Yumei’s voice could be heard chatting with the memorial tablets:

“The more I look at that child Little Yuan, the more I like him.”

Aunt Liu deliberately pinched her voice and said, “Oh my, if you bring in a son-in-law, it has to be the honest sort. You absolutely can’t bring in some river dragon, or the whole family fortune will end up benefiting an outsider.”

Liu Yumei turned her head, face stern, and looked at Aunt Liu. Then she broke first and laughed.

“Your skin’s itching again. Slap your mouth.”

Aunt Liu set down the medicine. “Drink your soup first. I’ll slap my mouth afterward to help take the bitter taste away.”

Liu Yumei lifted the bowl and drank while looking at the new memorial tablets above. “Is all the lacquer the same color?”

“Yes, but the materials are different.”

“Did you tell Ah Li? You should explain to her what materials each of these ancestors’ tablets is made from.”

“That won’t be necessary. Ah Li understands this sort of thing better than we do.”

“That really is strange to me. When she was little, I taught her qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, and the rest. But forging implements isn’t something I’m skilled in, and neither are any of you, so who exactly taught her?”

“That child Little Yuan reads a lot, and Ah Li reads along beside him. She probably absorbed quite a bit from that too.”

In Strange Tales of the Rivers and Lakes, the kinds of talisman paper and ritual implements Wei Zhengdao introduced were numerous. Naturally, the book could not go into exhaustive detail, and much of it was only touched on lightly. But for clever people, a diagram or even a single line of introduction was enough to point the way and solve the greatest difficulty.

Liu Yumei drank half the bowl in one go and sighed with feeling.

“If Ah Li hadn’t lost the protection of her ancestral memorial tablet and suffered what she did, she would have been an exceptionally brilliant child too. And as for Little Yuan, there’s no need to say more. Tell me, when the two of them grow up, get married, and have children, what kind of children do you think they’ll have?”

Aunt Liu looked as though she wanted to say something but held it back.

Then Liu Yumei suddenly sighed again. “But it seems neither of them likes children at all.”

Aunt Liu comforted her, saying, “In the end, they’re not their own children yet.”

“True enough.” Liu Yumei smiled again, drank the rest of the medicinal soup in one gulp, then picked up the sugar cube that was meant to be taken with the medicine and handed it to Aunt Liu. “You’ve got such a sweet mouth. This is your reward.”

Aunt Liu opened her mouth and took it, savoring the sugar as she said, “That’s why you need to take even better care of your health. If the two of them really don’t like children, and even after having them still don’t like them, then you’ll be the one who has to help raise them.”

“Quite right. Bring me another bowl.”