Chapter 9:
The Old Clinic
MOUNTAINS AND FORESTS stood thick around the capital of Ningyang County, though most of them were gentle and picturesque. Steep, treacherous areas were rare.
The current state preceptor was a monk, which had led to the emergence of mountain temples in various provinces some years ago, and they’d flourished for a time. Recently, winter had been arriving earlier and earlier for some reason—even the south saw endless heavy snowfall. It was often said that a snowy year signaled a bountiful harvest; however, recent years had also been plagued by poor rainfall, resulting in low yields and forcing the commonfolk to adopt more frugal lifestyles. When even making ends meet was difficult, no one spared money for temples. As a result, the number of abandoned temples in the mountains increased, and they were transformed into temporary shelters for travelers instead.
By the time Jiang Shining and Xue Xian stopped to rest in a run-down temple on Mount Jiguan, snow had begun to drift down outside. As soon as they stepped inside, Xue Xian snagged the best spot for himself. He grabbed some dry straw from the ground, spread it out beneath the statue of Buddha, and settled in without a moment’s hesitation.
Now that they weren’t traveling, he didn’t have to maintain his paper-doll form and reverted back to his human appearance. He sat back languidly, clad in his black robes as he propped his elbows on the statue’s platform. One hand supported his chin while the other continued to fiddle with his golden marble.
Jiang Shining rubbed his forehead. Just looking at Xue Xian made his head throb. “Even if it’s an abandoned temple, you ought to show some decorum. You can’t just sit on a Buddha statue like that!”
Xue Xian casually patted the statue’s leg. “Hey you, lend me this space. Tell me if you object.” He solemnly pretended to wait, then jerked his chin at Jiang Shining. “See? Nothing.”
“You know what? Do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
Jiang Shining blew the dust from the candle in front of the Buddha, then asked Xue Xian for a fire starter. The wick was damp and a struggle to light—and he had to worry about accidentally setting himself on fire!
Xue Xian handed one over. When Jiang Shining was done with the candle, he extinguished the fire starter’s flame. “Where did you get that?”
“Swiped it from the bald donkey’s bag before we left,” Xue Xian said without batting an eye.
“This is the first time I’ve encountered someone bold enough to steal from the warden during a prison break,” Jiang Shining said, just about at the end of his rope.
“He won’t miss it.”
Whenever the topic of Xuanmin came up, Jiang Shining felt a twinge of guilt. “Do you dislike him that much? Just because he captured us?”
Xue Xian shook his head.
“Then, why were you so desperate to escape him?” Jiang Shining pointed to himself and to Xue Xian. “To be honest, neither of us can do much. If we run into trouble along the way, things could get rough. I only have a medical bell on me, which isn’t worth stealing, but your golden marble is a different story. If someone sets their sights on it…”
Xue Xian held the golden marble in front of the firelight, rolling it between his fingers. His reason for fleeing in the middle of the night lay in this golden marble, which also contained his dragon body. At present, his body had not fully recovered, and his connection to the golden marble was quite tenuous. Although it rested in his hand, he felt little to no sensation from it, as if he were merely holding an ordinary marble.
But that wasn’t the case with Xuanmin. Xue Xian had a sense of something beneath the skin at Xuanmin’s hip—something deeply strange. If he had detected it only once, Xue Xian might have dismissed it, but after a second time, it was impossible to ignore. Xue Xian had yet to see Xuanmin do anything remarkable, but he was still certain that the monk was hiding a secret.
He couldn’t feel anything from the marble, but perhaps Xuanmin could. The longer he and the golden marble stayed with Xuanmin, the more susceptible the marble became to the monk’s influence. If anything went wrong with the marble, Xue Xian could forget about restoring his dragon form.
“Besides, we have no idea where he’s from or what his motives are,” he said to Jiang Shining. “He doesn’t seem like a rogue sorcerer scraping by for a living, nor does he act like those real monks who go around helping others out of compassion. During a couple of very brief moments, I could even sense a chilling ferociousness from him.”
Confused, Jiang Shining said, “What do you mean, ‘chilling ferociousness’? Can’t you explain it in a way that makes sense?”
Xue Xian clicked his tongue. “To put it bluntly, he’s not like the average monk. At first, I couldn’t figure out what made him different, but thinking about it now, monks have a warmth about them borne from their strict adherence to their precepts. He had none of that. Didn’t you feel it too? That he might be willing to take lives?”
Jiang Shining considered this for a moment, then shook his head. “Not really. But, to be honest, I was a little scared of him.”
“There you have it,” snapped Xue Xian. “It’s the same thing.”
Now that he’d mentioned not knowing where Xuanmin was from, Jiang Shining remembered something. “By the way, did you smell medicine in the room earlier?”
“I did. I was also a bit confused. Was he taking something?”
“I grew up smelling medicine, so I’m quite sensitive to it.” Jiang Shining thought some more, then added, “I’m somewhat familiar with that exact smell—we had a neighbor who used to come to the clinic for treatment. That’s what it reminded me of.”
“What was it used to treat?”
Jiang Shining hesitated for a moment. “Dissociation.”
People with dissociation often suffered from insomnia and experienced nightmares. Sometimes they’d wake up forgetting what happened, their memories fragmented, almost as if their souls had left their bodies entirely. Hence the alternative name: soul loss syndrome.
“Dissociation? That bald donkey?” Xue Xian scoffed and waved dismissively. “He didn’t at all seem like someone plagued by nightmares, nor was his mind unclear. Impossible.”
“True, he didn’t seem to be suffering from amnesia, but… Sometimes the dissociation symptoms are obvious—as their memories are missing or scrambled, the patient will hesitate when recounting events, and they’ll act listless. That’s not the case for everyone. Maybe because certain individuals are naturally more guarded, they’ll be cautious around strangers and watch their words. By only talking about what they know, they disguise the gaps in their memories. Unless you know them well, it’s difficult to tell anything’s wrong.”
Xue Xian shrugged. “But those guarded types you speak of wouldn’t recklessly wander around, right? Since they don’t want anyone to notice anything amiss, they’d be extra cautious and avoid contact with others. That way they can avoid slipping up. What amnesiac would travel alone and run around meddling with the affairs of people and ghosts? That’s not soul loss syndrome anymore. It’d be sanity loss syndrome.”
“True,” Jiang Shining said.
“Still, even if he’s not suffering from dissociation, he has some other problems.” Xue Xian thought of how Xuanmin had stopped in mid-sentence and clutched at the table. “Someone with murky origins and unclear motives wouldn’t wander for no reason, so he must need something in Ningyang County. Yet, today, he only did two things, neither of which were his business. First, he captured us, and second, he dismantled the Liu family’s feng shui array.”
Jiang Shining couldn’t help adding, “He also laid Old Lady Liu’s spirit to rest, helped me find the medical bell, retrieved your golden marble, and—”
He hesitated. Upon review, the motives behind Xuanmin’s actions became even murkier. It’d be one thing if they’d been simple tasks, but the matters had kept him in the Liu residence for the entire morning, costing him much time and effort. Just what had been his goal?
“Earlier, he hinted that he wanted to finish the job and bring the bell to your sister.” Xue Xian fiddled with his marble. “As it happens, I’ve been to Anqing. It’s not far from Ningyang, just across a river. Don’t you think that’s a bit too familiar, too friendly for someone lending a helping hand with no ulterior motives? That bald donkey’s face is practically carved from ice. Is there anything friendly about it at all?”
Picturing what a friendly bald donkey might look like, Xue Xian felt a chill shoot from his head all the way down his back.
“Help me,” he said flatly. “It’s too scary.”
Jiang Shining decided to keep his mouth shut. Xue Xian didn’t look trustworthy in the slightest himself, but his words did make sense. Although, speaking of helping others without motive…