The Daoist priests of the Celestial Master’s Residence led Jiang Ruochu to the Exquisite Pagoda.
Threads of rain slanted through the air. The solemn ancient pagoda towered upright. If seen from high above, the tall pagoda would look like a needle pinning down the peak of Mount Longhu.
The Daoist priest opened the main doors and led Jiang Ruochu inside.
They climbed the stairs. On every floor of the ancient pagoda, a Daoist priest sat in command, standing atop Eight Trigrams floor tiles and respectfully bowing to Jiang Ruochu.
When Jiang Ruochu reached the highest floor, the first thing she saw was two black iron chains as thick as arms lying on the ground. The chains stretched behind a screen painted with Eight Treasures motifs, and through it, the graceful outline of a person could faintly be seen.
The Daoist priest pointed to the meditation cushion in front of the screen.
Jiang Ruochu sat cross-legged.
The Daoist priests moved the screen aside, and the young man named Jin Feize appeared before her.
The straight-latticed window was open, and daylight poured in from outside like a tide. The young man sat beneath the light, wearing a plain Daoist robe, his long black hair falling straight down to the wooden floor.
The brilliant white daylight set off skin like ice and snow. His calm brows and eyes were lowered, as if he possessed an immortal’s compassion.
Beside him, those young Daoist priests looked instead like crude clay figures unfit to be displayed. He was clearly a prisoner everyone feared, yet he seemed like an immortal deity descended from the heavens.
Jiang Ruochu said, “You look like Rapunzel.”
“Rapunzel?” He turned his head, wearing a faint smile.
Even his smile was that beautiful. Because of him, this ancient pagoda, old enough to be cliché, gained color.
Jiang Ruochu explained, “An old witch stole away the daughter of a king and queen and imprisoned her in a high tower. She had beautiful long hair, just like you.”
“They said you can take me away.” Jin Feize asked, “Who are you?”
“My surname is Jiang. I used to do archaeology. Now I’m unemployed.” Jiang Ruochu took out her phone, pulled up a photo, and handed it to him. “This boy is called Jiang Ye. He and his mother… cough, which is to say me, don’t have a very good relationship. He likes playing games, he’s a shut-in, and his personality is rather rebellious. I’m usually quite harsh with him, and we often argue. Probably because of my influence, this child is sensitive, stubborn, and difficult to get along with. If you want to approach him in the future, you can start with the games he plays.”
Jin Feize lowered his head and studied the boy in the photo.
He looked about the same age as him. He was leaning by a railing, looking out at the sea, wearing headphones, his expression indifferent.
Jin Feize seemed to smile without quite smiling. “Your wording is very strange. Are you really the ‘me’ you just mentioned?” He smiled faintly. “You’re not the real Jiang Ruochu, are you?”
“You’re a clever child.” Jiang Ruochu’s gaze deepened. “For now, treat me as her representative. What I say is what she says. One year from now, we are going somewhere. After we leave, many strange things will come looking. Jiang Ye is different from you. He cannot deal with those things on his own. We need your help.”
“All right. He looks very cute.” Jin Feize smiled gently. “I like him very much.”
“Is that so?” There was no pleased look on Jiang Ruochu’s face. “Do you mean you’ll help us protect him?”
“Of course.” Jin Feize’s expression was flawless. “Why wouldn’t I? Taking joy in helping others is a virtue. I like helping people.”
Jiang Ruochu shook her head. “Stop pretending. You’re not that kind of person. Last month, a young Daoist priest hanged himself under the ginkgo tree in front of this pagoda. To help you leave the Exquisite Pagoda, he did not hesitate to injure his master and poison his fellow disciples guarding the other floors. In the end, he was expelled from Mount Longhu. He came back as a tourist and hanged himself under the ginkgo tree, just so you would look at him once.”
“Oh? What does that have to do with me? I never even spoke to him.”
“On the surface, it does seem to have nothing to do with you. But during the eight years you’ve spent inside this pagoda, thirty Daoist priests have hanged themselves under that ginkgo tree, seventeen nuns who came here for exchange and study fought each other below the pagoda, and nine tourists strapped explosives to themselves and charged the pagoda to rescue you before the police dragged them away.” Jiang Ruochu took a drag from her cigarette and said, “You like playing with people’s hearts, watching them go mad and end up miserable. You find it very interesting, don’t you? I’m guessing that the moment you saw Jiang Ye’s photo just now, you were already imagining how to toy with him.”
“You misunderstand me.” Jin Feize’s smile did not change. “I’m a kind person.”
“Whatever.” Jiang Ruochu crushed out her cigarette and stood, both hands tucked into the pockets of her coat. “I only need you to know this: I can get you out, and I can bring you back. If I hear news of Jiang Ye’s death, I swear I will nail you to a wall.”
“Can you really do that?” Jin Feize expressed his doubt politely. “You don’t look very strong. You are someone who sits in an office researching documents, not a woman capable of nailing a man twenty-three centimeters taller than you and weighing seventy-five kilograms to a wall.”
“Is that so?”
“My judgment is rarely wrong.”
Jiang Ruochu moved.
Jin Feize instinctively blocked, but this woman’s skill was far sharper than he had imagined. She struck like lightning. Before he could react, her knee hit him in the chin. Then, as if by magic, she produced a military folding knife and nailed his left hand to the floor.
Jin Feize’s judgment was completely wrong.
Blood flowed all over the floor.
They faced each other, eye to eye. Jiang Ruochu’s eyes held cold mockery.
“I heard the old Celestial Master Zhang treated you very well and taught you many things. It seems you didn’t learn them properly.”
After suffering such a serious wound, Jin Feize did not even blink.
He only stared at her and said, “Old Auntie, you really are a terrifying mother.”
Jiang Ruochu took a second folding knife from her coat pocket. “Sorry, what did you just say?”
Jin Feize revealed a brilliant smile. “Pretty Sister, whatever else you require, I agree to all of it.”
“Jin Feize.” She looked into his eyes and said, “I knew your mother. She was a very great mother. I bear responsibility for you becoming what you are today. I am letting you come down the mountain to correct the mistake I once made, and also for your mother’s sake. I hope you do not make me regret it.”
“Is that so?” Jin Feize smiled, not moved in the slightest by her words.
The Daoist priests helped bandage Jin Feize’s left hand and unlocked the shackles on his feet.
The long-haired young man stepped into wooden clogs and followed Jiang Ruochu down from the pagoda.
This was the first time in seven years that he had left this ancient cage.
He stood beneath the daylight before the pagoda and lifted his gaze toward the vast sky. Birds flapped their wings over the distant mountains. Fine rain fell through the mountain, densely stitching the bluestone steps like needlework. Damp mist shrouded the mountain’s endless green.
No one held an umbrella for him.
He walked through the rain, listening closely to the silent growth of all things.
“How does it feel to be out?” Jiang Ruochu lit another cigarette.
Jin Feize narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, then said, “A little cold.”
When he appeared before Upper Clarity Temple, everyone turned to look at him.
Some sighed that a monstrous being had emerged, and that chaos would soon descend upon the world. Some closed their eyes and recited Buddhist invocations.
Old Master Jin’s eyes filled with tears. He went to meet him. “It’s good that you’re out. Good that you’re out. Grandpa will take you home!”
The old master saw his bandaged left hand and asked, “A-Ze, what happened to your hand…?”
Jiang Ruochu feigned surprise from the side and asked, “Yes, what happened to your hand?”
“…” Jin Feize said, “I accidentally touched a nail.”
Old Master Jin said, “Come, come. Let’s go home and bandage it properly again.”
“Wait. Before you leave,” Jiang Ruochu said to Jin Feize, “kowtow to the old Celestial Master Zhang.”
Jin Feize only glanced once at the coffin ahead before judging the situation inside.
He said, “He seems to have already turned into a monster. Why should I kowtow to him?”
“What did he teach you?”
“The Thirteen Daoist Classics, methods of purity and stillness, tai chi, bone-shrinking techniques.” He sighed with emotion. “He said the Exquisite Pagoda could not imprison me, and that someday I would have to go to the place I came from, so I should at least learn a few things to keep myself alive. But aside from the last few, which were somewhat interesting, the earlier ones were all very boring.”
“Kneel.”
He was puzzled, and somewhat displeased. “Why?”
Old Master Jin said, “Forget it, forget it. If he doesn’t want to, then let it be. Let’s go home first.”
Jiang Ruochu took out that folding knife again. Blood was still on it.
Jin Feize stared fixedly at her for a long while. Then he turned and walked to the coffin. Listening to the unceasing scratching sounds from within, he lifted the hem of his robe, knelt on the cushion, and knocked his head to the floor three times.
Jin Ruohai frowned tightly. “He lacks emotion. Even if he kowtows, there’s no sincerity in it.”
Jiang Ruochu glanced at this cold, stern man and said, “I made him kowtow because, if one day in the future he finally understands what emotion means, he will not regret failing to properly bid farewell to the old Celestial Master today.”
She turned to the old master. “Old Master, the people you promised me—can you give them to me now?”
Old Master Jin said, “Come with me.”
They descended the mountain. A square formation of men in black suits was already waiting before the mountain gate.
Every one of them was expressionless and tall. Rain struck their faces, but they did not even blink.
“They are all skilled. Fifty people in total. I have prepared them for you, along with equipment,” Old Master Jin said.
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone roared in unison, “Greetings, Professor Jiang!”
“I’ve already been dismissed by South China University. Call me Sister Jiang.”
“Greetings, Sister Jiang!”
“Good.” Jiang Ruochu shouted, “We set out!”
A man in a suit opened the car door for her, and she got in.
The motorcade started moving. One black sedan after another drove out of the parking lot. Her car stopped before Old Master Jin, and Jiang Ruochu rolled down the window.
“Old Master, thank you.”
“Ruochu.” Jin Ruohai gazed at her. “You’ve changed a great deal. Are you really still you?”
“Didn’t those colleagues of yours who followed me all these years and investigated my psychotherapy records tell you the answer? I should probably thank you for not coming to save me in 2005, Old Jin. Everyone who comes back from a place like that either dies without a burial place or becomes a little monster like your son, neither human nor ghost. I count as lucky, don’t I?”
She smiled faintly, her gaze falling past the crowd to the young man standing behind them, head tilted up as he quietly watched the rain.
“Rapunzel, won’t you say goodbye to me?”
Jin Feize turned his face toward her.
“Goodbye, Pretty Sister.”
Jiang Ruochu rolled up the window.
The pitch-black glass hid her cold, beautiful profile.
The sedan drove into the mountain fog, as if entering a mysterious unknown world. Its shape vanished. Its sound, too, sank into silence.
Soon, it could no longer be seen.