Chapter 1: The Dao is Merciless
2264 Words
Chapter 1: The Dao is Merciless
The cold wind cuts like a blade as heavy snowflakes fall.
Lu Sheng opens his eyes to find himself sitting in a yellowish-gray carriage, swaying slightly as a young girl's delicate voice chatters beside him.
Outside the carriage are the noisy, clamoring voices of people. There are peddlers calling out, people shouting, cheers, and children's laughter.
Lu Sheng heaves a deep sigh. He knows there's no going back - from being a mediocre office worker just waiting out his days to ending up in this world after a drunken night, already five days have passed.
He sniffs the air, smelling wine, fried pancakes, and fried fruit.
"Oh my, the white osmanthus wine at Guifah Fang is more fragrant than ever," the attendant girl pipes in her soft, girly voice.
Xiao Qiao is only twelve this year. With her baby face and petite stature, she looks no different from a ten year old. Her chubby cheeks are rosy white and she wears a little green cotton skirt, busily rubbing hair ties for Lu Sheng to put up his hair when they disembark.
These ties are made from the bark of a rare crossing tree, naturally emitting a light fragrance, but tend to harden in the cold and need to be warmed by hand.
Lu Sheng smiles but says nothing.
The carriage soon stops. He lifts the curtain and steps out onto the greyish-white stone streets, the large paving bricks about the size of washbasins.
Carriages and riders on horseback come and go along the street. Unabashed girls and noblewomen walk about, throwing flirtatious glances and giggles.
Lu Sheng looks up at the winery in front of him. A white sign hangs in the shape of a long rectangle, the three bold characters Guifah Fang written fancily in the center.
"Master Lu is here! Please come in, the best room has been reserved for you!" A shop boy smiles ingratiatingly and welcomes him.
Lu Sheng nods with the airs of a rich young master. He takes a white paper fan with silver edges from Xiao Qiao, flicks his wrist lightly to unfurl it. On the fan is painted a landscape of misty mountains and waters, with a refined poem written on it.
He walks familiarly into the winery with the boy.
The winery is two floors; the first floor hall sits many people listening to a girl singing. A green-clad young beauty stands in the open space, her voice clear and melodious, accompanied by a middle-aged woman plucking a pipa.
The song is about the poignant love between a departing general and a fox spirit. But most of the vulgar patrons pay them no mind, only a few refined gentlemen appreciating the song. Rewards are few.
Lu Sheng stops in his tracks upon seeing the liveliness. He decides to take a seat on the first floor.
"Who requested this song?" he casually asks the shop boy. His status here is different - if the Guifah Fang is like an elite private club on Earth, then he is the ultimate VIP, spending at least tens of thousands of silver annually.
For a small northern town like Jiu Lian Cheng, he is top level spending power.
"It was Master Zhou, Zhou Que, Young Master Zhou," the boy quietly replies.
Lu Sheng does not make things difficult for him and dismisses him with a wave of his hand. His eyes sweep over the first floor crowd and soon lands on a sickly pale, frail-looking young master dressed in white, holding a gaudy gold-bordered folding fan, swaying it gently.
"He's probably making eyes at the singing girl again," Lu Sheng shakes his head.
"The Young Master warned him last time, what a lecher!" Xiao Qiao frowns disapprovingly beside him.
Lu Sheng just smiles without commenting further. He starts listening to the song intently.
Soon the dark red wooden table fills up with all kinds of dishes and wine. Lu Sheng picks up some stir-fried bamboo shoots and pork slices with his chopsticks and pops them into his mouth. He takes a sip of the Bai Gui wine, as sweet and mild as fruit juice. The light floral fragrance perfectly complements the food.
"The lap of luxury, without a care in the world, plus a pretty attendant warming my bed, this kind of life is simply too decadent." Sometimes Lu Sheng thinks about just spending the rest of his life like this, as the kind of boring, stable life he had pursued in his past one.
With each bite of food and sip of wine, Xiao Qiao also picks up a shelled salty ice shrimp to feed him.
These icy shrimps are a special delicacy of this northern snowy city; just dipping a net into the thick ice cellars will easily haul up large quantities of the translucent critters. And they are supremely delicious - the sweet plump shrimp flesh melts in your mouth.
Of course the price is also extremely high. Common folk might get to eat them only once a month as a luxury, while he gets to enjoy them every day.
While Lu Sheng eats the fine cuisine and drinks vintage wine, listening to the songs, his mind drifts to other matters. He's been in this ancient China-esque world for a number of days already, but through his observations, there are many peculiar things about this place.
At first he thought he had gone back in time, but later realized this is not so. The customs, festivals, climate here differ greatly from any historical period or region he knows.
Just as Lu Sheng is lost in thought, the winery doors open again. A group of burly men in casual northern clothing stride in and sit down heavily at a table in the corner.
One look and you know they are not locals. Their clothing and bearings are more akin to people from the central plains, unlike the more unpolished northerners here.
"Ah..." The bald, thick-faced leader among them sighs, "Life is becoming unbearable."
"Big brother, don't worry. If we can't get through Li Village, we can take the second path, going around through Zhang Village," another man suggests with a frown.
"You know nothing. I came up to meet you guys from Zhang Village. Things are about the same there, lots of people have died too," the bald man's fleshy face quivers as his expression grows more worried.
"What on earth happened? Tell us brothers so we can gain some insight," one man urges.
The bald burly man sighs again. "I don't know the specifics, only that several fishing villages near Suiyang Lake had things happen, like some water ghosts causing trouble."
"Water ghosts! No way!"
Lu Sheng's table isn't too far away so he can hear clearly their unrestrained chat. He was only listening absently for entertainment, but didn't expect them to be discussing such supernatural matters.
In this life, his Lu family is one of the top households of wealth and influence in this northern town. Compared to Earth terms, their family assets are worth at least 10 million RMB.
Spending his days out drinking these past few days, he has heard quite a few rumors and legends about monsters and ghosts, but most were mythical tales. This is his first time hearing eyewitness accounts.
So Lu Sheng pricks up his ears and listens intently. Fortunately the men make no attempt to keep their voices down. They continue talking loudly about the strange occurrences at the fishing village.
"That water ghost, I saw it with my own eyes. Over ten feet tall, green faced with vicious fangs. Its whole body covered with aquatic weeds. Aiya, if it weren't for your Big Brother here running fast, you wouldn't get to see me again!" The bald head still shudders at the memory.
"Big bro, there's really such things as water ghosts?" one man asks skeptically.
"What if Big Bro is making up stories?" another man snickers.
Hearing this, Lu Sheng also feels amused. Probably just some country bumpkin bragging as usual. He's seen plenty of those types these days.
After eating, he motions for the server boy to bring over the song booklet and casually flips through, looking to replace the current number with something more upbeat.
Pa! But just then, the bald headed man slams the table angrily, his face flushed.
"You think Ol' Bold just shoots the breeze!? Look, look at this! It's a piece of bone left behind by that water ghost! I secretly picked it up afterwards!" He carefully retrieves a jade-like green stone from his clothes and slaps it onto the table.
"It's just a common mottled jade!" one man laughs.
"Mottled jade? This is freakin mottled jade!?" The bald brother's face turns even more red.
"Brother, would you let me take a look at that item?" Suddenly a mild voice cuts in from the side.
Lu Sheng stands by their table sporting a faint smile, his eyes shifting to the green stone on the tabletop.
"You dare to want this? It's a water ghost's belonging," the bald man says in surprise. He only brought it out to show off, planning to toss it afterwards. These aren't things left behind by mere mortals after all. If it really attracts water ghosts to come make trouble, it wouldn't be worth it.
"It's fine, I just want to take a look," Lu Sheng doesn't believe in any water ghosts. He only sees the stone looking to be a decent piece of jade, not ordinary mottled material. After all, regular mottled jade can be easily found in marketplace stalls at very cheap prices. But somehow, he feels something seems off about this piece at first glance.
Seeing Lu Sheng's extraordinary bearing and outfit, Brother Baldy thinks things over then tentatively quotes, "Uh...one or two silver coins will do!"
"Fine," Lu Sheng has Xiao Qiao take out some silver fragments and place them on the table.
"It's yours then." Baldy promptly grabs the stone and dumps it into Lu Sheng's hand. The group exchanges looks and promptly takes their leave.
Lu Sheng silently watches them depart. Looking down at the jade stone in his palm, he examines it closely.
"One or two silver coins, with modern day Chinese purchasing power, is like 1000 RMB. As profligate as I could be in this lifetime."
He shakes his head. One or two silver coins is negligible to him. Based on this body's memories, his minimum monthly spending is upwards of 100 silver coins, occasionally running into the thousands when he splurges more. We're talking millions here! At this thought, he reprimands himself for being wasteful.
Clutching the stone, he heads out of the winery with Xiao Qiao in tow, walking towards their waiting carriage without caring about the observing patrons.
But before making it halfway, he suddenly stops short. Bringing the stone up to his palm, it starts melting right in his hand!
The previously hard stone substance liquifies within seconds into a dark green viscous fluid. A faint wail emits from within the ooze.
Sploosh! The ooze abruptly detonates into a burst of green smoke, slowly dissipating in front of Lu Sheng.
He stands there dumbfounded. Blinking his eyes, the jade stone is still in his hand, only now the interior green color has disappeared without him noticing.
"What was that just now...?" He remains in a daze, continuously replaying the earlier scene in his mind.
"Young Master, Young Master!!" Xiao Qiao calls out worriedly beside him.
Coming to his senses, Lu Sheng looks again at the jade stone in his grasp. It has reverted to a common pebble, not even jade anymore.
A chill runs down his spine, but he vaguely understands something.
"Let's go, back home!"
Xiao Qiao blinks bewilderedly, still processing things. "Oh..."
The two board the carriage. The driver snaps his whip sharply in the air. The two long-haired black steeds start trotting slowly forward.
In the compartment, Lu Sheng says nothing, just staring at the goose egg sized stone in his hand. Xiao Qiao also notices something off with the stone this time.
"Duped again, huh," she thinks to herself, but doesn't say anything more. At least the Young Master got off easy this time compared to previous incidents. The biggest one was over thousand silver coins blown on an allegedly antique wine urn, nearly pissing off the Old Master to death.
One or two silver coins is nothing. The Young Master spends more than that on a single meal.
As the carriage makes its way home, passing the city gates Lu Sheng overhears people shouting outside.
"I heard earlier that water ghost has been vanquished! Some wandering Daoist took care of the danger plaguing the fishing village!"
"Did people from the imperial court come?"
"They came a while ago already. I heard even the Catcher Head of the Prefectural Magistracy, Ouyang almost got dragged down. Luckily a passing Daoist made his move. Just a flash of golden light, then a wretched scream from that water ghost as it turned into some green ooze and exploded into thick smoke dispersing everywhere."
"It wasn't someone powerful from the court then?"
"Of course not!"
Lu Sheng knows it's the officers at the city gate chatting idly. He often deliberately passes by here since the garrison troops like to gossip about odd events.
"What a coincidence..." Lu Sheng's expression remains unchanged but his heart sinks. His thoughts return to the earlier piece of jade stone.
The carriage slowly heads towards Kui Rong Street, the most prosperous avenue in the city.
- Writer
