Wei Hu’s fluorescent-green hair swayed gently as the old tree spirit spoke. Out of the corner of his eye, Ji Yi caught sight of an old tree not far off, its leaves lush and green in the moonlight, and couldn’t help remarking, “We sprang from the same root, so why be in such a rush to burn each other? [1]a classic line about kin turning on kin jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2931954_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2931954_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });”
The tree spirit said, “?”
He didn’t understand this line Ji Yi had suddenly tossed out, but he could tell Ji Yi was being snide, so he pressed on stubbornly. “Today I mean to have this settled. This has nothing to do with you, so why stick your nose in?”
Urine could technically count as fertilizer, and for ordinary leaves it was no big deal. But to an old tree spirit that had gained consciousness and pride, being wronged again and again was an insult.
Seeing how set he was, and figuring the old tree spirit hadn’t gotten angry for no reason, Ji Yi backed off a step. “How about this, you let him off for now, and tomorrow during the day I’ll have him buy some things to offer up to you.”
For most of the netherworld’s beings, the ones without a burning grievance, offerings and worship made a fine bargaining chip. They were generally happy to accept.
This was a small matter to begin with, and by now Ji Yi had made his sincerity plenty clear.
But the old tree spirit was obstinate. “It isn’t offerings I want. It’s justice.”
“How is this supposed to be made just? You want to pee on him twice too? Can you even pee?”
Snide, confirmed a second time. Borrowing Wei Hu’s body, the old tree spirit fixed resentful eyes on Ji Yi. “I certainly cannot, but he still has to be punished. Let him—”
He hesitated a moment, then declared with iron finality, “, not pee for two days!”
Ji Yi had never been so at a loss for words.
A living man can’t be killed by holding it in, but a man possessed by a netherworld being was another story entirely. To keep Wei Hu from becoming the first person in history to die from a full bladder, Ji Yi’s expression turned a few degrees more serious. “So you’re saying there’s no room to negotiate?”
“Two days without peeing, not a minute less, starting from right now.”
The soft approach had failed, which left only the hard one.
Ji Yi’s leg was still braced in front of Wei Hu, and he had no intention of moving it. He looked toward the old tree beyond the door. “It hasn’t rained in Nanling for almost half a month, has it?”
The old tree spirit was pushing at Ji Yi’s leg with his hands, but Ji Yi’s stance was too solid to budge. “That’s right.”
This afternoon there had looked to be a chance of rain, but the sky had only stayed overcast for half a day, not a single drop had fallen.
Then the old tree spirit grew suspicious, not knowing why Ji Yi had suddenly brought this up. “What are you getting at?”
Ji Yi’s hand felt around Wei Hu’s waist and fished a half-worn lighter out of his pocket. He gave the wheel a flick, cranked the flame to its highest setting, and with a snap the lighter shot up a flame four or five centimeters tall, nearly singeing a few strands of Wei Hu’s green hair.
Beings born of trees are inherently afraid of fire, and he promptly took a big step back, watching Ji Yi warily.
Ji Yi turned the lighter over in his hand, playing with it, and mused, “I was just wondering, if a spark were to fall at your feet, would you go up in flames?”
No matter the season, there was always some dead brush and fallen leaves beneath an old tree.
The old tree spirit’s face filled with reluctance, but he had genuinely been cowed by Ji Yi. He hovered there, torn, his eyes lowering, the very picture of dejection and grudging submission.
Ji Yi put the lighter away, casually tucking it into his pocket. On the surface he looked perfectly relaxed, but in truth he was tracking the tree spirit’s every expression and movement.
There were only two ways to handle a netherworld being: coax it into submission, or beat it into submission. Sometimes a mix of both was unavoidable.
Sure enough, when Wei Hu raised his eyes again, they were brimming with viciousness. “You forced me to this.”
As he spoke, his already sallow skin suddenly took on the marks of dryness and wrinkles, its color darkening to near ashen-black. Wei Hu’s hands lunged to seize Ji Yi by the arms, but Ji Yi, already braced for it, dodged.
Two vines whipped out from behind Wei Hu, coiling for Ji Yi’s neck like pythons, only for Ji Yi to grab them first. Working both hands together, he twisted the two vines into one, gripped them tight, and drove forward hard with his legs, pinning Wei Hu’s back flat against the wall.
Every one of his moves was forceful and clean, catching the old tree spirit completely off guard.
The old tree spirit knew he was no match for Ji Yi, and, afraid Ji Yi might really set him on fire, began crying out wildly. “Help! Ahh!”
Ji Yi found it funny, watching him beg for mercy, but then that strange, drawn-out birdcall reached his ears again, ringing out through the wooded mountains.
His hearing snagged on it for just an instant, and in that moment both his hands went numb, as though a colossal weight had come crashing down on them. His grip loosened. The old tree spirit hurriedly scrambled back several steps, watching Ji Yi with lingering fear.
Right after that came a gust of wind slicing past his neck. A pair of eyes bright as stars appeared out of the darkness, and in a flash their owner sprang forward, revealing his true form right in front of Ji Yi. The motion was so fast that Ji Yi barely had time to throw an arm up to guard his neck before the man caught him by the forearm and had him easily under control.
The owner of those eyes was a man with clean, handsome features, his hair bound up, dressed in black, if he weren’t so close now, he would have all but melted into the mountain night.
The mountain behind Red Leaf Village was not truly nameless.
A thousand years ago it had already had a name: Dai Mountain. But few humans knew it. Dai Mountain’s lands and waters were rich, and it had nurtured countless living things. Only now it stood silent, as if deliberately hidden away from human life. It scrutinized closely every living person who lingered there.
Ji Yi felt, in that instant, the man’s gaze see straight through him as though reading his heart, and a strange feeling stirred in him.
Lin Zhao looked Ji Yi over carefully and found in him neither malice nor anything familiar.
Even though this process had repeated itself in countless forms across the years, Lin Zhao’s heart still felt a pang of disappointment.
Ji Yi had first assumed the man was reinforcements the tree spirit had called in, and that he might be in for another fight, but then the black-clad man let go of his arm.
“Why the disturbance here?” Lin Zhao asked, addressing both Ji Yi and the old tree spirit. He didn’t speak like a modern man.
Taking in his appearance, Ji Yi guessed he was probably a ghost, dead who knew how many years.
Ji Yi didn’t know who Lin Zhao was, but the old tree spirit dropped to his hands and knees in fearful reverence. “My lord, I, I did not mean to disturb you.”
The old tree spirit was himself a spirit of this mountain, how could he not recognize Lin Zhao, guardian of the whole mountain? Even though Lin Zhao had stepped in to help him, the tree spirit understood the man wouldn’t simply take his side, and he didn’t dare hide anything, so he laid out the whole affair.
The old tree spirit stressed twice that Wei Hu had peed on him. “That’s how it is.”
He was still kneeling, and when he finished he cringed low, not daring to lift his head to look at Lin Zhao.
Ji Yi shook out his sore, numb arm. Seeing that Lin Zhao was clearly someone formidable, he stated his own view. “I think this doesn’t warrant death, and the offense was unintentional. If it can be settled peacefully, let’s settle it.”
Lin Zhao saw that Ji Yi’s expression was still calm, very different from how all the living people he’d encountered before had behaved, and, recalling that Ji Yi had just now threatened arson, privately thought the young man was rather bold, a rare sort of character.
“You said before that you’d burn me,” the old tree spirit mumbled, not forgetting to tattle.
Ji Yi put on an innocent face. “How could I? Set a mountain ablaze and you rot in a cell for life.”
The old tree spirit wanted to rail at how fast Ji Yi could change his face, but didn’t dare act out in front of Lin Zhao, and he didn’t want to miss this way out either. “Then do those offerings you mentioned still stand?”
“They stand,” Ji Yi said. “I’ll get them for you tomorrow.”
“In that case, let this be the end of it,” Lin Zhao said. He gave Ji Yi one more glance, then turned, and within two steps had vanished from Ji Yi’s sight.
The old tree spirit lay sprawled on the ground for a good while before finally relaxing. He still didn’t understand how so trivial a matter could have disturbed Lin Zhao.
The old tree spirit wheezed out a couple of heavy breaths, then climbed up from the ground and came over to Ji Yi. “You’d better really buy them tomorrow, or I’ll go report you to Lord Lin Zhao. He’s already witnessed it for me.”
The moment Lin Zhao was gone, he dared to treat the man as his backer again.
Ji Yi caught the key word and realized the black-clad man just now was called Lin Zhao.
The instant the old tree spirit finished speaking, Wei Hu’s body went limp, the tree spirit had left him. Ji Yi quickly caught Wei Hu to keep him from crashing to the ground.
Wei Hu only felt his head swimming and his legs weak, and, more importantly, a stinging pain coming from the zipper of his pants.
Clutching his little rooster in agony, Wei Hu straightened up with one hand braced on Ji Yi’s arm and asked, bewildered, “Brother Ji, what happened?”
In his daze he’d forgotten a great deal, he couldn’t even recall coming out to pee. As he spoke, his eyelids drooped heavily, and he looked exhausted, on the verge of falling asleep.
Being possessed did leave one very tired. Ji Yi glanced down at the spot Wei Hu was cradling and, as one man to another, couldn’t help giving his shoulder a sympathetic pat. “It’s nothing. You were sleepwalking. Go on back in and sleep.”
Even if you’d been through something like this, it was best forgotten if you could forget it. After all, ordinary people mostly never ran into such things, and remembering might just disrupt their lives. Ji Yi decided that if Wei Hu didn’t remember, he simply wouldn’t tell him, he’d just buy a few things and settle the matter himself.
Ji Yi helped Wei Hu into the tent. Even with a thousand little question marks in his head, Wei Hu couldn’t hold out against the wave of exhaustion, and he was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The next morning, the instant Ji Yi opened his eyes, he saw Wei Hu, hair a wild green mess, staring at him with a face full of terror.
The stare gave Ji Yi the creeps. “What’s with that look?”
He sat up, and Wei Hu grabbed hold of him at once. “Brother Ji, I think I ran into something unclean last night.”
Hearing that, Ji Yi assumed Wei Hu had retained a little memory of being possessed.
Wei Hu went on, “Last night I felt so tired, and after I fell asleep I had a dream, dreamed the tree by the door kept telling me to go buy incense, candles, and offerings, and scolded me for peeing on it. Just now I stepped outside to look, and under that tree by the door, someone’s spelled out the words ‘offerings’ with twigs.”
Ji Yi said, “…”
He honestly didn’t expect this from the old tree spirit. Just how uneasy did the thing have to be?
Wei Hu really didn’t remember what had happened the night before. Afraid Ji Yi wouldn’t believe him, he dragged him to the door to see for himself.
Ji Yi stepped outside, and sure enough, on the steps of the old house were the words “offerings” laid out large in twigs.
“I swear it’s not a prank,” Wei Hu said, his face clouded with worry. “What do I do?”
He’d never met with anything like this, and right now he had nothing to steady himself.
Ji Yi didn’t say whether he believed it or not. “Didn’t you say he told you to go buy offerings? Just buy them and it’s fine.”
Thinking it over, Wei Hu realized that was true, hadn’t the old tree already handed him the solution in the dream?
Wei Hu nodded, then sighed. “Ugh, it’s terrifying. I never knew running into something like this for real would be so scary.” He stared blankly at the word “offerings” on the ground.
Seeing this, Ji Yi asked, “If you’re scared, want me to clear it away for you?” As he spoke, he lifted a foot, meaning to scatter the twigs.
But Wei Hu said, “Wait!”
He turned and ran back inside to grab his phone, then came back out and photographed the twigs from every angle. Suddenly his worried frown blossomed into a grin. “This is fantastic material for a video. I’m gonna go viral.”
Wei Hu gazed off into his future, his face full of dreamy longing.
Fear, in the end, was no match for the lure of going viral.
Ji Yi turned and went back inside, at a loss for words.
It was half past six in the morning, still early, and the two of them set off together toward town. When they turned from the side path onto the main road, they occasionally passed people on tricycles or on foot.
Most folks around here were elderly, apart from tourists, young people were scarce.
Arriving in town this early was a whole different scene from yesterday afternoon. The old town in the morning was bustling, people eating breakfast, drinking tea, selling vegetables, packing the narrow streets shoulder to shoulder.
Wei Hu went home for a bit first, while Ji Yi drank congee alone at a breakfast shop. Directly across from it was the teahouse Ji Yi had visited yesterday. Through the steam rising off his congee, his gaze caught a furtive figure shrinking back into a corner of the teahouse.
Although the figure had its back to him and there was a road between them, the two shops were actually less than five meters apart, and Ji Yi easily spotted that the hem of the figure’s clothes was missing a small patch of fabric.
He pulled his gaze back and went on drinking his congee. Before long he saw Wei Hu come over, now in a change of clothes and wearing a hat.
“Ugh, the second I got home my grandpa chewed me out. Brother Ji, let’s add each other on WeChat.” Wei Hu pulled out his phone and showed Ji Yi a QR code.
Ji Yi added him. “Aren’t you going to go buy those things in a bit?”
Wei Hu knew exactly which “things” he meant, and nodded.
“Is it far?” Ji Yi asked.
Wei Hu pointed up the road they were on. “There’s a shop just ahead.”
Ji Yi looked that way and, sure enough, saw a funeral-supplies store.
Wei Hu said goodbye and went off to buy his things first. After Ji Yi finished breakfast and settled the bill, he didn’t leave right away, instead he too headed for the funeral-supplies store. Wei Hu was long gone by then, but Ji Yi wasn’t there to find him.
There wasn’t much in the shop, but fortunately it had what Ji Yi wanted. He picked out a set of paper clothes for an elderly person and tucked it casually into his bag.
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