Futile Devices Scans

The Demon-Seeking Talisman guided Yue Jingming northwest. At some point the sun disappeared behind the clouds, leaving the sky dark and oppressive. The reeds along the way grew denser until they rose above their heads, while the path beneath their feet became increasingly muddy.

Xiao Chunhe caught up from behind. “If we keep going, we’ll end up in the river.”

Yue Jingming stopped and looked ahead.

The faint sound of a suona drifted from deep within the reeds. The two exchanged a glance, slowed their pace, and continued toward the sound. The muddy path beneath them soon vanished entirely, forcing them to push apart the lush green reeds and continue through the stifling heat.

After roughly a quarter of an hour, a shrill blast of the suona pierced the sky. A violent gust swept through the marsh, sending the reeds rustling wildly. The vivid green reeds of summer suddenly turned dry and yellow, their burst seed heads whitening as great swaths were carried toward the sky on the cool wind.

The oppressive heat around them vanished.

Xiao Chunhe pointed ahead. “There’s a road!”

Yue Jingming looked where he pointed. A broad road, nearly three zhang wide, had suddenly appeared before them. The drifting white reed fluff became multicolored flower petals. The sounds of suona, gongs, and drums grew clearer, while children ran past holding white paper pinwheels, singing back and forth to one another:

“True groom, false groom, the groom enters the bridal chamber on a crutch.”

“The bride cries, the bride laughs, the bride paints her brows while her face-skin calls.”

A child carrying a pinwheel ran straight toward Xiao Chunhe. With one leg injured, Xiao Chunhe could not dodge in time and was just about to reach out and stop the child when Yue Jingming seized his arm and pulled him aside. The child shouted as he brushed past.

“Don’t touch them carelessly.” Yue Jingming’s expression was grave. “Something is wrong with this place.”

The instant he finished speaking, the empty street suddenly became crowded. Pedestrians carrying fish baskets bustled back and forth, the baskets filled with live fish thrashing violently. Vendors shouted from behind their stalls, where all manner of gutted fish had been neatly arranged on wooden boards, their gray-white eyes staring fixedly and uniformly at the two men.

A powerful fishy stench spread through the street.

Xiao Chunhe covered his nose, looking miserable. “What is that smell?”

“Fish.” Yue Jingming could still tolerate it and was somewhat surprised when Xiao Chunhe staggered to one side, braced himself against a wall, and began vomiting.

“My… five senses… are sharper than ordinary people’s.” Xiao Chunhe waved a hand. “I’ll be fine in a moment.”

Yue Jingming handed him a handkerchief. “Use this.”

Xiao Chunhe held it beneath his nose and sniffed. Sure enough, it carried the same crisp pine fragrance he had smelled on Yue Jingming before. Pressing the handkerchief over his mouth and nose, he felt almost as though he had buried himself in the Daoist’s embrace and said muffledly, “Thank you.”

Music erupted all around them, and the crowd suddenly became lively. A magnificent red sedan chair was carried past while the wedding matron sang in a piercing voice. Maidservants scattered wedding sweets everywhere, drawing the children into a scrambling mob.

A tall horse stopped in the middle of the road. The groom was nowhere to be seen, and the red sedan chair was empty.

The wedding matron sang as her eyes rolled about, then fixed on Xiao Chunhe. “Groom, mount the horse.”

The maidservants and children cried in unison, “Groom, mount the horse!”

Still covering his nose and mouth with the handkerchief, Xiao Chunhe looked around wildly but saw no groom anywhere. He whispered to Yue Jingming, “Where’s the groom?”

“Groom, mount the horse!” the wedding matron shouted.

“Groom, mount the horse!” The maidservants and children all reached toward Xiao Chunhe.

Xiao Chunhe was horrified. Yue Jingming caught him by the arm and rushed out of the crowd with him, but the pedestrians and vendors on the street all turned to stare at them. Their movements were stiff yet unnaturally swift as they stepped into the road and blocked the way.

Xiao Chunhe cried, “It’s over, it’s over! The monsters are going to eat us!”

With so many people around and no way of knowing who was living and who was dead, Yue Jingming feared harming an innocent person and could not act rashly. “Get on the horse first.”

Xiao Chunhe immediately clutched his sleeve. “My good fellow Daoist! You can’t abandon me!”

Yue Jingming lowered his voice. “This may be an illusion the demon placed near its lair. We need to find the flaw before we can enter.”

Xiao Chunhe tightly grasped his hand. “No. I’m terrified. I’ll definitely die.”

He had already suffered terribly from the poison, then been tormented nearly to death by the demon-gu, and had just vomited violently because of the fish smell. At this point he looked so feeble that he seemed close to death. His striking face was white as paper, and his usually seductive foxlike eyes shimmered with tears, making him look extraordinarily pitiful.

Yue Jingming could only compromise. “I’ll go with you.”

Thus the two mounted the horse one behind the other.

Before long, the wedding procession arrived before a residence.

The estate stood beside a broad river. A brand-new plaque over the gate read “Li Residence,” and both the gate and courtyard walls were extravagantly decorated. People crowded the entrance while gongs and drums rang in celebration, but Xiao Chunhe felt a chill run down his spine.

This was clearly the same abandoned estate where the two of them had sheltered from the rain.

Yue Jingming had noticed it too. “Let’s observe first.”

“Forget observing,” Xiao Chunhe ground out through clenched teeth. “This is obviously a haunted residence! Kill all these ghosts and that demon will naturally show itself.”

“These people do not appear to be ghosts. Acting rashly might injure the living.” Yue Jingming paused. “And even if they are ghosts, they have committed no evil at present. I cannot simply kill them.”

“Huh?” Xiao Chunhe stared at him in disbelief. “You really are a saint.”

The wedding matron called for the groom to dismount. Yue Jingming swung down first and held out a hand to help Xiao Chunhe. With his injured leg, Xiao Chunhe did not refuse. He grasped Yue Jingming’s hand and jumped down, only for someone to immediately fasten an enormous red silk flower to his chest.

The crowd herded them into the residence. Xiao Chunhe’s face turned green as he glared at Yue Jingming. “I do not want to marry a ghost bride!”

Yue Jingming thought for a moment. “The bride inside might be a man in disguise. Would that make you feel better?”

Xiao Chunhe gritted his teeth. “No. I’m not that indiscriminate. If the bride were you, though, I’d marry you without another word.”

Yue Jingming: “…”

Only after seeing Yue Jingming’s expression, as though he had swallowed a fly, did Xiao Chunhe feel that some of his resentment had finally dissipated.

The crowd pushed them through the main gate. On the spirit screen stood a lifelike image of something half human and half fish, with nine jiaoren pearls embedded in it and demonic qi hanging heavily around the painting.

Yue Jingming stopped. The image was identical to the one on the spirit screen at Li Si’s residence in Jiarong County.

“Move! Move!” the crowd urged.

Someone shouted, “The groom is lame! He walks too slowly!”

The children cried, “Bring a crutch! Bring a crutch! Let the groom walk faster!”

A crutch was inexplicably shoved into Xiao Chunhe’s hands. His left leg already hurt badly, so it was actually convenient. With his free hand he clutched Yue Jingming firmly. “Stop looking at irrelevant things, Brother Su. You had better keep your eyes on me instead!”

The crowd pushed Xiao Chunhe onward, and because Xiao Chunhe refused to release him, Yue Jingming was forced to follow.

The previous night, they had slept only in the front hall and had never ventured farther inside. Now the crowd drove them through three successive courtyards until they reached the bride’s chamber. Numerous men and women stood outside laughing and blocking the door, insisting that the groom answer several questions before he could enter.

“First question.” A woman holding a round fan smiled. “Is the groom living or dead?”

Everyone stared uniformly at them and asked together, “Living? Dead?”

Xiao Chunhe swallowed and turned toward Yue Jingming.

Yue Jingming wrote the character for “living” in his palm.

Xiao Chunhe answered dryly, “Living.”

“The groom is alive!” Everyone burst into laughter. “Living is good, living is wonderful! Only the living can enter the bridal chamber! The bride likes living people best!”

The woman with the fan asked again, “Second question. Does the groom prefer fish or vegetables?”

The crowd echoed, “Fish? Vegetables?”

The fish smell remained nauseatingly strong. Xiao Chunhe answered, “Vegetables.”

Everyone laughed again.

“Final question.” The woman asked, “Is the groom the true groom or the false groom?”

“True groom? False groom?”

All the noise around them abruptly disappeared. Even the drifting reed flowers froze in midair.

Xiao Chunhe did not answer. Yue Jingming closed his hand around his sword hilt. The woman holding the fan slowly turned her rigid neck, revealing a strange smile. “There are two grooms.”

The children with the white pinwheels laughed and sang, “True groom, false groom, the groom enters the bridal chamber on a crutch!”

The reed flowers began flying again, transforming into paper money that fluttered throughout the courtyard. Yue Jingming and Xiao Chunhe were shoved into the room together, and the noise outside receded like the tide.

The windows had all been covered with red paper, leaving the room dim. Red gauze stirred without wind around the intricately carved bed. A woman in bright-red wedding clothes sat upright before the dressing table, combing her long hair stroke by stroke while humming a broken little tune.

Xiao Chunhe shuddered, untied the enormous red flower from his chest, and tossed it to Yue Jingming.

Yue Jingming turned toward him. “?”

Xiao Chunhe vigorously rubbed his arms, hid behind Yue Jingming, then poked him in the lower back. “Go see whether she’s human or a ghost.”

Yue Jingming placed the red flower on the table, walked behind the bride, and cupped his hands politely. “Miss, the two of us became lost and arrived here unintentionally. We mean no offense. May I ask where this is?”

Xiao Chunhe winced. “If she answers a question like that, then there really is a ghost.”

Without turning away from the mirror, the bride answered softly, “My name is Lan Shi. This is the Li family residence in Rongjia County. The master of the Li family and my father were good friends, and I was betrothed to the Li family’s eldest son when we were children. My family recently suffered disaster and both my parents died, so I brought my dowry here to seek refuge with his family. We are to be married today.”

Yue Jingming said, “But doesn’t the Li family have only one daughter named Li Yi?”

The bride turned around, revealing the face of Li Yi’s mother, Lan Shi, only much younger. Her eyes were bright and beautiful, and she appeared no older than eighteen or nineteen. More startling still was the enormous swell beneath her wedding robes. Judging by the size of her belly, she seemed close to giving birth.

The young Lan Shi said, “Young Master must have remembered incorrectly. The Li family has only one son, Li Si.”

Xiao Chunhe poked his head out from behind Yue Jingming. “So this is a marriage because you got pregnant?”

Embarrassment flickered across Lan Shi’s face. She bit her lip. “This child… is not the Li family’s eldest son’s. But he promised to treat the child as his own. Otherwise, I would never have brought such a large dowry to marry him.”

“I see.” Xiao Chunhe said, “You wanted to find a father for your child, while the Li family wanted your dowry, so the two sides hit it off and decided to marry.”

Lan Shi lowered her head in humiliation and embarrassment, tears striking the backs of her hands one after another. “Young Master is correct.”

“Correct, my foot. You actually believe a man who tells you that?” Xiao Chunhe said. “The Li family obviously wants your money. For all you know, they plan to kill both you and the baby and keep every coin.”

“That is exactly what I fear.” Lan Shi covered her face and burst into tears, ruining her delicate makeup.

Yue Jingming turned to Xiao Chunhe. Xiao Chunhe raised an eyebrow. “What? Am I wrong?”

Yue Jingming lowered his voice. “Say less.”

“Well, aren’t you tender toward fragrant flowers and precious jade.” Xiao Chunhe seemed to have recovered his courage and stepped out from behind him. “Miss Lan Shi, you are so beautiful and kindhearted. Could you perhaps tell us how to get out?”

Lan Shi looked up with tears in her eyes. “I want to leave too, but so many years have passed, and no matter what I do, I cannot get out.”

She wept so mournfully that anyone would have felt compassion. Xiao Chunhe stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “Good lady, you’re crying so pitifully that a person’s heart could melt… Ah!”

Xiao Chunhe suddenly jumped backward and collided directly with Yue Jingming. Yue Jingming steadied him and looked at Lan Shi.

Half of the face belonging to the delicately made-up young woman had melted away. One half of the painted skin hung from her shoulder, scraps of flesh still connected to tendons and bone. Yet she continued crying as she tried to hang the skin back over her face. “Go quickly! They’re coming!”

Yue Jingming frowned. “Who?”

“My husband.” Lan Shi hurriedly pasted the skin back into place and began redrawing her brows. The result left half her face crying and half smiling as she said in a strangely cheerful tone, “They’re all false. They’re all going to die. Nobody can escape… True or false, all must die…”

A piercing scream sounded outside the bridal chamber. “Terrible news! Eldest Young Master jumped into the river!”

“My son!” A man and woman wailed. “Save him!”

“Eldest Young Master is alive again!” a servant shouted.

“The wedding is more important!” a middle-aged man said.

“A shameless whore without even a face to show! Carrying a bastard in her belly and daring to enter my Li family! Even if my son accepts her, I cannot afford such disgrace!” a woman cursed furiously.

“The family business still needs her dowry to keep operating,” the middle-aged man persuaded.

“His leg is injured… You are not my son!” the woman screamed in terror.

“It’s a monster! A monster from the river!”

Screams erupted one after another.

Shadows crowded across the red-papered windows like a bizarre and bustling shadow-puppet play. Outside came human screams and barking dogs, while blood continually splattered against the window paper. Inside, Lan Shi cried as she repeatedly pasted the skin onto her face, drew her brows, painted her eyes, and started over again. Under her breath she sang, “A shameless bride with no face of her own, I mourn my parents lost while I was young. My body drifts like duckweed, worthless as grass; ten thousand deaths cannot repay a faithless heart…”

A violent gust suddenly blew open the sealed doors and windows. A blood-red moon rose overhead, and the drifting reed flowers transformed into paper money. Corpses hung by their necks outside every door and window, swaying in the wind like reeds.

While Yue Jingming and Xiao Chunhe looked outside, Lan Shi kicked away the stool beneath her. Dressed in brilliant-red wedding robes, she hanged herself from a white silk sash looped over the beam and went still.

Yue Jingming immediately swung his sword and cut through the sash, catching her by the legs and lowering her to the floor.

“Don’t bother saving her! She is obviously a ghost!” Xiao Chunhe said in horror. “The real Madam Li’s daughter is already grown!”

Yue Jingming ignored him and checked the woman’s breathing. Sure enough, she had been dead for a long time.

“Brother Su… Brother Su, Brother Su, we really are finished this time.” Xiao Chunhe stared toward the doorway and retreated two steps.

Yue Jingming raised his head. The corpses hanging from the eaves had all turned into desiccated bodies. They snapped their ropes, twisted their necks, and began crawling into the room on all fours. The wedding matron, maidservants, and children from the courtyard approached as well, their eyes vacant and their movements rigid.

Xiao Chunhe grabbed Yue Jingming’s arm and hid behind him. “Brother Su, hurry up and use whatever ultimate skill you’ve been hiding, or the two of us really will become a pair of doomed mandarin ducks here!”

Yue Jingming shook off his hand and drew his sword in one fluid motion.