Otherworldly Merchant

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Every time the door banged, my heart throbbed. The Sirius Whip was useless now, and I wasn’t sure if the Yin and Yang Umbrella could deal with those zombies. Even if it worked, it couldn’t protect the three of us. Furthermore, the despicable couple was waiting for us outside. 

At this moment, I heard Senior Shu’s voice. “Grandson, you’re about to die again?” 

“Can’t you see what time is it? You still have the mood to tease me!” I answered instinctively. However, I soon understood that Senior Shu was here. We were saved! 

Excitedly, I looked around the room and saw a big, grey rat in one corner. It was Senior Shu’s life-bound rat. 

It seemed the despicable old man was around. 

“Brother rat, please tell the old man that I can’t hold them back anymore.” In this dangerous situation, I wasn’t in the right mind to care about my words. It was also the first time I thought this fat, old rat looked so cute. 

The rat squeaked twice and crawled into a rat hole. Then, I saw a small silver bell on its tail. 

If Senior Shu had used his life-bound rat to send me this bell, the item would definitely help me. I carefully removed the bell from the rat’s tail and observed it. Even if this little treasure was powerful, I didn’t want to be caught unprepared. 

Fortunately, I had spent a lot of time learning about otherworldly items with my grandpa when I was young. Soon, I recognized that this bell was the Illusory Mind Bell. 

The Illusory Mind Bell could control people’s minds. A person with a dark heart would feel a head-splitting pain while listening to the bell, while the ones with a clear conscience would feel strangely comfortable. Moreover, it could expel evil spirits and invite good fortune. 

With this thought, I sat down cross-legged and started to read the Sacred Text of Daoism. I needed to calm my mind. 

Then, with a loud bang, the door sprang open. The zombie had succeeded in coming in. Li Mazi and Zhang Henshui were blocking them with sticks. I knew we couldn’t wait any longer. I got up and slowly jingled the bell. 

Ding ding ding!

When the zombies heard the bell jingle, they halted. They looked bewildered. Then, they dropped their arms and started looking like paper dolls again. 

“Follow closely behind me,” I shouted. “When we get to the yard, Li Mazi, take Brother Zhang and flee!”

Then, I ran out of the house.  

The Illusory Mind Bell probably wouldn’t work on that man since he had earned his living with magic illusion. 

Indeed, when I got out of the house, the zombies were standing still. The woman wearing the black silk veil had slumped on the ground, but she still held the cotton yarn net tightly. 

However, the migrant worker was nowhere to be seen! 

It seemed the Illusory Mind Bell was ineffective against him. I decided to ignore him and asked Li Mazi to pick up the cotton yarn net. 

“If I wasn’t a nice person, I would have slapped you a hundred times!” Li Mazi scolded the woman, who was sitting helplessly on the ground. He picked up the net and tried to break it. However, after a long time, the net was still intact. Meanwhile, Li Mazi had to gasp for his breath. 

“It’s impossible to tear it, you idiot!” I had started to doubt Li Mazi’s intelligent quotient. I gave him the Illusory Mind Bell, then received the net to check it. 

This net was ancient. From the symbols carved on the handle, it was possibly the bird seal from the State of Chu. 

If it was a genuine item that dated back from the Chu era, it would be priceless even though it was just a broken net. However, because it could control those zombies, I had to grit my teeth and destroy it. I took out the lighter to burn the net into ashes! 

While I was burning the net, the veiled woman started to struggle angrily. She wanted to stop me. Li Mazi immediately jingled the bell, which gave her no chance to move. 

Indeed, after the net was burned, the zombies suddenly ignited and burned. From the popping sounds emitting from them, I found something strange. I came to check and found that all the zombies were paper dolls. 

It turned out that our original guess was correct. I then concluded that those drowned ghosts had possessed the dolls. 

When the net was completely burned down, the veiled woman’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as she lost consciousness. I hurriedly attached a spirit talisman to her body to save her, then asked Zhang Henshui and Li Mazi to tie her up. 

After those paper dolls were burned, I was afraid that the man would cast his magic illusion on me again. However, he didn’t return. 

When we reached the village and passed by the old locust tree, someone suddenly blindfolded me. I was startled at first. Then, I became excited. “You damn old man, where have you been lately?” 

“Kiddo, watch your mouth! Call me grandpa!” Senior Shu let go of me and kicked my butt. 

I sniggered and rubbed my hands. “Grandpa, thank you so much.” 

“You’re finally speaking the human language!” Senior Shu stroked his mustache. “When I passed by this village, I felt something was wrong, so I sent my life-bound rat to scout around. It happened to see you guys trapped by the paper dolls. As such, I asked it to give you the Illusory Mind Bell.” 

“Oh, there’s something wondrous in our fates, grandpa!” While flattering him, I discreetly put the Illusory Mind Bell into my pocket. This old man had so many treasures; it was good if I could take some from him for free. 

He spotted me. Then, he and I started pulling back and forth like two kids competing for a toy. In the end, with Li Mazi’s support, I successfully subdued Senior Shu. 

“You rascals! Had I known earlier, I would have ignored you. I would have let that guy drown both of you!” 

I later learned that the migrant worker was forced to let us go. Since Senior Shu was watching his moves, he was scared and ran away. 

Senior Shu had planned to depart after I was saved. However, when he learned that the spirit we had encountered was the famous Qu Yuan, he decided to stay and help this great patriot. 

The woman in the black veil woke up the next day. Her eyes no longer showed her grudge. It was replaced by worry. It was rare for Senior Shu to use his senior tone of voice to teach someone. “Little girl, tell me what’s going on. Perhaps I can help him.” 

Of course, Senior Shu was talking about Qu Yuan.

After the veiled woman listened to him, she pondered for a while then said, “I used to have a happy marriage. That migrant worker is my husband. One day, we went to a park. When we came home, we both had a strange dream of a man wearing a long robe. However, he only had half of his head left. The other half was made of gold. It sparkled dazzlingly. We dreamed about him all the time. Each time, he would cry and tell us how aggrieved he was, how unwilling he was. That’s how I discovered that the person we were dreaming about was Qu Yuan.” 

It turned out that after Qu Yuan jumped into the river with the rock, the fellows around tried to save him. To protect his body from the fish and shrimps, they even threw cooked rice into the river. 

However, they retrieved his body only after three days. By that time, half of his head was gnawed by the fish. Qu Yuan’s daughter spent the rest of her life making the other half of his head out of gold. People admired his filial daughter. They praised her with the saying, “Nine sons couldn’t bury their father, but one daughter could make him a golden head.” 

When King Chu Xiang heard about this story, he was embarrassed. His embarrassment then turned into anger. He wanted to unearth Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan’s daughter was afraid that her father would be troubled while resting. She went to a high mountain and used a sieve mesh gauze to shake the sand and dust to create a few mounds. 

While she wearily dozed off, she dreamed of an old man getting out from the ground. The old man then knocked his staff on the ground eleven times. Afterward, eleven mounds that looked exactly like Qu Yuan’s grave mound appeared. When King Chu Xiang sent his men to unearth Qu Yuan, they couldn’t figure out which was the real tomb… 

“In another world, you didn’t know that you are Qu Yuan’s descendant. Did Qu Yuan appear in your dream to ask you to take revenge for him?” I caught the keyword. 

The woman shook her head. “No, he didn’t ask us to take revenge for him. He just wanted his body to be relocated to the public cemetery of the State of Chu.” 

It was the couple that wanted to take revenge for their ancestors, so they took the initiative to harm Zhang Yi’s descendant, which happened to be Zhang Henshui. 

“If you repay a grudge with a grudge, when will it end? Why do you and your husband have to live in difficulty like this?” 

Senior Shu sighed. I shook my head, but there was still another question on my mind. Why did Qu Yuan request to have his remains buried at the State of Chu’s public cemetery?  

“Later on, King Huai of Chu’s grandson gave justice back to Qu Yuan. He built a cenotaph. It’s where Qu Yuan’s old clothes and relics are buried. It’s in the park in the suburbs,” explained the woman. 

I got the clue now. “Is the big locust tree where Qu Yuan was buried?” 

“Yes, that’s correct.” She nodded. 

I sighed emotionally. Although Qu Yuan was exiled by King Huai of Chu, even after he died, he still didn’t give up on his courtier’s responsibility. He was worthy of receiving people’s admiration.  

In the end, Senior Shu and I spent five million renminbi to invite the best construction team to unearth Qu Yuan’s remains from underneath the old locust tree. We then buried him in the Chu State’s cemetery with the black rock he had carried with him to the river. Moreover, we decorated the plain-looking park and gave it a better look. 

After the relocating ceremony was done, I thought, When Qu Yuan’s spirit faces the black rock, he won’t feel resentful or reluctant, right? He will feel infinitely proud.

That rock was the witness of his loyalty. It hadn’t worn out even after several thousand years. 

After this case was done, Li Mazi and I didn’t accept any other cases for a while. We traveled across the country, from North to South, trying to find a modern version of Qu Yuan. 

This person must be loyal and patriotic. 

This person must be principled and incorruptible. This person must be honest and tell no lies.  

However, in the end, we didn’t find anyone. I asked Senior Shu, “Why couldn't we find such one person?” 

He pondered for a long time then asked, “These days, do people still have the concept of ‘country’ in their heads?”  

I suddenly felt like crying!