Chapter 195: A Sinister Presence

After removing the Golden Boy mask several streets away, Ding Songyan made a detour to the Flame Capital branches of the Hongxin Trading Company and Tianyang Hall. He sent off the letters he had written earlier, making certain he had not mixed them up.

Even after making that entire circuit, the sky remained bright when he returned to the vicinity of Prince Kang’s estate. It was only a little past four in the afternoon.

Rather than enter the estate, he turned into Tiger Tail Alley. Just as he was about to step into the Cheap Wine Shop, he saw Twelfth Madam Luo sitting on a wooden stool in the shadow on the far side of the wine banner. She had brought it out at some point and now leaned back against the wall, languidly watching the passersby while crunching into a greenish crabapple.

"Taking it easy, Shopkeeper?" Ding Songyan changed how he addressed her, his voice mildly teasing.

Crabapple was the Mountains-and-Seas Realm’s term for an apple.

Dressed in a short cyan jacket and dark-red pleated skirt, Twelfth Madam Luo replied with a smile,

"Business has been much quieter these past two days. I finally have time to sit here and watch the neighborhood."

"Have you seen anything?" Ding Songyan casually asked.

Twelfth Madam Luo took another bite of the crabapple and pointed beyond the alley, speaking indistinctly around the mouthful.

"There was a pickpocket just now. He wore brocade and pretended to bump into someone so he could rob them."

"Did he succeed?" Ding Songyan joined her in the wine banner’s shade and studied the people passing by.

Twelfth Madam Luo laughed.

"I saw him, so of course he failed.

"He stepped on a pebble and slipped. Not only did he miss his mark, he took a fall that left him seeing stars."

The shopkeeper gestured with her rounded chin toward the opposite side of the street.

Two old women sat outside a shop there, basking in the sun and whispering to each other.

"They’ve been gossiping for quite a while. I wonder whose family they’re talking about. I would love to go over and listen." Regret filled Twelfth Madam Luo’s face.

They were more than 35 meters away.

Twelfth Madam Luo bit into the greenish crabapple again and looked toward the street nearer the estate. A courtyard gate there stood half open, with figures faintly visible beyond it.

"A pair of brothers live there. They both serve as guards in Prince Kang’s estate and bought the courtyard together, each taking half. They get along remarkably well.

"They’re off duty today and are giving their children piggyback rides while playing at cavalry battles...

"The winter jujubes at that house have ripened. Some branches stretch beyond the courtyard wall, so the neighbors knocked down quite a few with a pole. The two families started arguing and only stopped when the street patrol arrived..."

The woman recounted one small neighborhood incident after another in a calm voice, slowly and in great detail, plainly enjoying herself.

Ding Songyan also found it rather entertaining. He began observing the neighbors and passersby with her, and felt much more peaceful in both mind and body.

After a while, he entered the Cheap Wine Shop and found Shi Wuyan resting at a square table. The two boys who waited tables and did odd jobs had gathered around the young bookkeeper to chat, while the plump cook sat on a long bench against the wall, his head bobbing as he dozed.

Amid this easy atmosphere, Ding Songyan approached Chef Shi and lowered his voice.

"Tell your junior brother that I’ve settled his problem, but he should still be careful. I cannot guarantee the other party will keep his word."

"Thank you for your generous aid, young hero." Shi Wuyan seemed to know what he meant.

Ding Songyan thought it over and said, "Please ask your junior brother to keep my identity secret and mention it to no one."

"Of course." Shi Wuyan spoke with complete sincerity.

Ding Songyan nodded, left the wine shop, and waved farewell to Twelfth Madam Luo, who still sat beside the street like an old woman, before returning to the estate.

After putting the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden masks into his traveling bag, he saw no one nearby, drew Frostshade, and took up a stance in the courtyard to practice his swordplay.

The martial arts and sequences he had seen in Martial Star Ward appeared before his eyes. He repeatedly reconstructed, dismantled, subdivided, and recombined them, seeking to grasp the innate Way and acquired Virtue contained within.

When the setting sun had turned blood-red, Li Baima returned from outside the courtyard. He stopped to watch for a while, then blurted in astonishment, "Brother Ding, what sort of sword art are you practicing?"

Why does it look so utterly bizarre?

No move truly resembled a move, and no form followed any fixed method. At times, Ding Songyan flailed like a child; at others, he swayed as though drunk.

Ding Songyan put away Frostshade and said with a smile, "I’m trying to incorporate cursive calligraphy into my swordplay."

"The Brightnight Sect has such a sword art?" Li Baima was quite astonished.

"No." Ding Songyan smiled. "I simply believe every art contains the Way and can be incorporated into the sword. Since I often practice both calligraphy and swordsmanship, I’ve always sensed a hidden connection between them."

Li Baima only half understood and remained doubtful.

"No wonder Eunuch Zhang Quan called you a martial prodigy..."

Ding Songyan changed the subject.

"Where are Second Wu and Fourth Fan?"

"They can’t leave the estate for amusement yet, so they can only visit the other courtyards to spar or chat," Li Baima answered as he walked toward the main room. "If no one else gets struck on the head by a pebble before their next day off, they’ll be allowed to go blow off steam at Hengbo River."

Ding Songyan sat on a stone stool in the courtyard. Stories he had read and heard in his previous life flashed through his mind as he considered which ones he could write for Ou Luwen in exchange for a discussion of the Mirage Dragon True Transformation Art.

Once Ou Luwen had finished reading them, he could sell the stories to a literary society and have storytellers spread them throughout the realm.

This would give the "past" evoked by Ding Songyan’s Dream Sword greater variety and make it more familiar and engrossing.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t encountered any martial art rooted in numerology. All my hopes now rest with Senior Sister. I have collected a few martial arts focused on healing, but they remain worlds away from what I need to save someone on the brink of death... Ding Songyan sighed inwardly, drew the newly purchased bamboo flute from his waist, raised it to his lips, and began to play.

He intended to make full use of the musical talent he had inherited from Dijiang, while determining which melodies from his previous life could be adapted to accompany the stories he planned to write.

His playing was smoother and more beautiful than before. Li Baima emerged from the main room, first surprised, then moved, and finally somewhat entranced.

After playing several melodies, Ding Songyan ended his practice and wiped down the bamboo flute.

"Brother Ding, you’re skilled in music too?" Li Baima looked Ding Songyan’s handsome, open features up and down.

Ding Songyan smiled modestly.

"I know a little."

"I’ve never witnessed the phoenixes’ songs and dances, but your music already sounds wonderful to me. You’re even better than the songstresses on Hengbo River," Li Baima praised sincerely.

How can you compare us? They rely on hard work and a little talent. Mine is pure Dijiang talent, without the slightest impurity... While grumbling inwardly, Ding Songyan offered Li Baima a word of advice.

"That’s not a very flattering comparison, is it?"

If you ever take a liking to some heroine and compliment her that way, you’ll have no chance of anything more.

Li Baima considered this for a moment and gradually understood. He slapped his own cheek in embarrassment.

"Ah, this mouth of mine. I’m always saying the wrong thing."

He promptly changed the subject.

"I heard that in years past, a single piece by Feng Yining could leave people indifferent to the taste of meat for 3 months. I wonder whether that’s true."

Ding Songyan followed the new topic and discussed it with him until Wu Mo and Fan Chunlin returned and the servants delivered their food boxes.

......

The third watch.

Ding Songyan, Li Baima, and the others once again patrolled their assigned route, dressed in the guards’ dark-red uniforms trimmed with cyan.

The route did not pass through the estate’s core. They mainly went back and forth between a side garden and the servants’ quarters.

"The night is dry. Take care with fire..."

The night watchman’s call faded into the distance. Breathing in the cool breeze scented with flowers and fruit, Ding Songyan followed Wu Mo and the others through a covered walkway and arrived before rows of servants’ quarters sleeping beneath the cold night.

......

In one room, a servant named Fang Nuo was showing a jade pendant to his companion.

The pendant was stained a sinister green, neither lustrous nor translucent. A dark shadow seemed to writhe within it.

"Can you believe it? This cost only 1 qian of silver!" Fang Nuo said, his face full of pride.

His companion had spent many years at the estate and knew a thing or two.

"Isn’t that... a burial object?"

"Of course it is." Fang Nuo laughed. "Perhaps some heretic looted the tomb of a prince from the previous dynasty, and this eventually found its way onto the market. Yin qi may have eroded it, but the jade itself is of exceptional quality. That blind fool of a vendor sold it for only 1 qian of silver. Once I’ve restored it, I can sell it for at least 5 taels!"

"Where did you get it?" his companion asked curiously, taking the pendant and examining it closely.

Fang Nuo replied with great satisfaction, "The night market on Pingnan Street."

His companion was full of envy and proposed that they visit the market together on their next day off.

He still had work to do, so he set down the pendant, left the servants’ quarters, and headed straight for a nearby kitchen.

Fang Nuo reached for the pendant, intending to admire it again by candlelight.

Yet the moment he picked it up, an icy chill met his touch, as though he were holding a block of ice.

Fang Nuo instinctively flung out his hand. The sinister-green pendant flew away and struck the floor.

Pa!

It shattered into several pieces.

Fang Nuo’s eyes widened. The loss pained him so badly that he forgot to breathe.

Just then, he saw black vapor so faint it was nearly invisible rise from the broken pendant and form a barely perceptible, translucent apparition.

Fang Nuo’s body instantly stiffened, and the bitter cold seemed to freeze even his thoughts.

Terror rose instinctively within him, but his body refused to move, as though he had fallen into a nightmare from which there was no escape.

All at once, the barely visible apparition stopped in place.

It abruptly went berserk and flew toward the rear of the servants’ quarters.

It rapidly faded and vanished completely in the blink of an eye, leaving only the faint echo of a terrified wail.

Warmth swiftly returned to Fang Nuo’s body, and his frozen thoughts began moving once more.

He looked around in fear and confusion, only to see a candleflame that was no larger than a bean and fragments of jade littered the floor. Nothing else seemed amiss.

"What just happened?

"Did I encounter something unclean?

"Were the black vapor and strange apparition just my imagination?"

Fang Nuo could make no sense of it. He felt as though he truly had dreamed of encountering a malevolent entity, only to awaken and find everything as usual.

The night outside remained as peaceful as before.

......

As they passed the servants’ quarters, Ding Songyan suddenly turned aside. Candleflames and starlight appeared in his eyes as he gazed toward a particular spot.

When Li Baima, Wu Mo, and Fan Chunlin looked over in confusion, he said gravely, "I saw an evil spirit there, but it seemed very weak. Our blood vitality suppressed it, and it quickly dissipated.

"Fourth Fan, please inform the steward in charge of this area tonight and have him send someone to question the servant in that room. It likely isn’t serious, but we cannot afford to overlook it."

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