Chapter Eighty-Nine: Paying Respects to the Matriarch of the Li Family, Part Three

Chapter 89: Paying Respects to the Eldest Lady of the Li Family, Part 3

Zheng Ji’s face went deathly pale. “I do not want to see her even once more, but the Second Master of the Li family says the Eldest Lady takes delight in looking at me. She has already given her orders: after the betrothal gifts are delivered, I must go and pay my respects to the Eldest Lady alone again on the day before the wedding!”

After thinking it over carefully, Zhang Sanlu lowered his voice and said, “Zheng Ji, tonight pretend you have fallen and injured your face. Wrap it in cloth so the servants the Li family sends with you will not recognize you. Three days from now, after the betrothal gifts are delivered, I will go in your place to see that Eldest Lady at night. If nothing happens, you may afterward rest easy and be a proper bridegroom in comfort to this great Li household.”

When Zheng Ji heard this, he was both uneasy and deeply grateful. “Daoist sir, how could that do? Would that not only put you in danger again?”

Zhang Sanlu smiled with a touch of ease. “We have known each other so long. Do you still not know what I am capable of? Even if there is danger, I can at least run. Tomorrow night, neither of you should sleep. If anything seems wrong, run. The farther, the better. We will meet again at Black Pine Inn.”

Zheng Ji considered it, then nodded in gratitude. After a moment, his eyes even reddened. “Daoist sir, I have caused you trouble.”

Zhang Sanlu patted Zheng Ji’s shoulder. “Wrap it up tonight. If anyone asks, say you slipped and hurt your face. I know a little medicine, and to avoid leaving a scar, I have already treated you and applied special medicine. It will not delay the wedding.”

Zheng Ji nodded. Thus, as Zhang Sanlu instructed, he found cloth bandages and strongly scented herbs, carefully wrapped his face, and left only his eyes and mouth uncovered for breathing.

The next day, Zheng Ji explained the matter of his injury to the Li family, and Zhang Sanlu naturally gave his own account as well. That day, the Li household’s food and hospitality were even more meticulous than before, and there was no need to speak of them at length.

For three days, Zhang Sanlu worked hard at drawing usable talismans, though most were ruined and only a few proved fit to use. The three days passed in the blink of an eye.

By the time night fell, the Li residence was still ablaze with lantern light, all festivity and cheer, one could not tell how much lamp oil had been spent.

And by then Zheng Ji was already lying in Zhang Sanlu’s bed, wrapped in the quilt and pretending to sleep, refusing to receive visitors.

Lying on the bed, Zheng Ji was filled with mixed emotions. He worried about Zhang Sanlu’s safety, yet also longed for the day he might truly become the Li family’s fine son-in-law and live a steady life from then on.

Through the window lattice, Zhang Sanlu glanced at Zheng Ji on the bed, smiled faintly, and shook his head. “So long as nothing happens tonight, you will have no more reason to worry.” Then he returned to his room, changed into Zheng Ji’s clothes, wrapped his face, and prepared to take his place in meeting the Eldest Lady of the Li family.

The small courtyard lay as black as ink in the deep night, and there was no movement in the first half of the evening.

Around the third watch, Zhang Sanlu, feigning sleep in bed, heard footsteps approaching from far away, tap, tap, tap. Zhang Sanlu thought, Here they come.

Thunk, thunk, thunk—the faint sound of knocking drifted in from outside the courtyard gate.

After a pause, it sounded again, thunk, thunk, thunk, as though the caller were in great haste.

The knocking did not cease. From beyond the gate came the eerie cry of an old woman: “Young Master Zheng—”

“Young Master Zheng—we know you are in there. Madam Li has sent this old servant to receive you.”

“Understood, I am coming at once. Please wait a moment!” Zhang Sanlu replied. He put on the front-fastened jacket, picked up a lantern at the door, and pushed the door open to step outside.

Zhang Sanlu thought that the shadow of the Eldest Lady of the Li family lurked deep in the underworld chambers, concealed ever more subtly, restraining even her own limbs and claws. In this vast residence that had stood for a hundred years, the old monster still coiled there, spreading her roots ever farther. And the wealth and glory of the Li mansion only mounted with each passing day—so what of the darkness within?

From Zheng Ji’s account, Zhang Sanlu already knew that this was not only true for Zheng Ji, but for the Li family, and indeed for all of Sunshine County: the grotesque and ominous visage of the Eldest Lady inspired a fear beyond words. Perhaps everyone feared even to mention her to others who had no part in the matter, and naturally none would dare reveal anything carelessly.

Lantern in hand, Zhang Sanlu stepped out of the courtyard and saw the back of a woman waiting at the mouth of the alley with her back to the gate.

Sensing that Zhang Sanlu was following, the woman did not turn around. Instead, she walked straight into the lane. The lantern she carried grew dimmer and smaller, until at the turn in the road it plunged headlong into darkness. Following behind that old woman, Zhang Sanlu felt as though he were walking alone through the alley.

He trailed her from a distance as the two of them wound east and west through layer after layer of lanes until they reached the compound Zheng Ji had described. The ugly pagoda tree Zheng Ji remembered so clearly was still there, yet now it seemed drained of all vitality, as though its essence had been sucked dry.

Its countless twisted branches bore sparse leaves, and beneath them the knotted roots, coiled and bulging like earthworms and pythons, already looked withered in places and split apart. A desolate yellow had seeped into every crevice of the trunk, as if it were turning toward a dead, ashen pallor, and the dry bark itself showed signs of peeling away, revealing the dark-red core beneath. Even the tree knots seemed somewhat shriveled. In just a few days, how had this tree fallen into such ruin?

While Zhang Sanlu was still looking at the tree, the woman had already pushed open a door to an inner room. There he saw the downward stairway Zheng Ji had described. As they came along, a sense of unease gradually spread, as though one careless step might be swallowed by the darkness.

Passing through the corridor and arriving before the carved door, the woman knocked softly, thunk, thunk. Once someone inside answered, she hastily pushed the door open.

Inside, though the room was dim, the lavish decorations filled every corner of the hall. Thinking of the starving refugees along the road, Zhang Sanlu found the extravagance almost nauseating.

Straight ahead stood a long altar table lacquered in vermilion, nearly twelve feet in length. Upon it sat a golden toad ornament and an exquisite bronze incense burner, while the scent of burning incense filled the hall. Yet even that could not conceal the putrid stench of decay buried to the very roots of the place.

Zhang Sanlu turned to look. On the right, a rosewood stand held a coral bonsai, a white jade platter, and a pair of very large meiping vases placed to either side. Looking farther back beyond the altar, candles of varying heights stood either in gilded candlesticks or directly upon the three-tiered steps before the shrine, spilling hot yellow-white wax. Their pale light brought no warmth at all; instead, it made the room feel all the more eerie and ghastly.

Ahead, Zhang Sanlu saw a massive shrine, and above it hung a plaque bearing four blood-red characters, proclaiming blessing, rank, longevity, and joy.

Inside the shrine were no statues of gods or Buddhas, only the bloated Eldest Lady of the Li family herself, as though she had made that place her dwelling. Great masses of flesh sagged and dripped from the armchair down onto the steps; the enormous chair, a throne of such magnificence, could still not bear the weight of that vast, obese body. At first glance, she looked like a thick, swollen toad lying atop a stone.

Seeing Zhang Sanlu, the Eldest Lady’s head extended forward in a somewhat unnatural way. Though her face tried to wear a languid expression, all that showed on her body was urgency and impatience.