Otherworldly Merchant

A few nights ago, Zhang Henshui had some stomach irritation. He made his way to the toilet under the moonlight. While sitting on the toilet, he thought he heard someone crying. 

The voice was intermittent, so Zhang Henshui thought it was just the wind. He didn’t keep it in mind. After emptying his bowel, he went back to his home. However, this time, he heard footsteps behind him, just as if someone was following him. 

Zhang Henshui thought that a thief was visiting him. He walked a couple more steps, then suddenly turned around. He saw no one.

But when he was about to enter his house, he saw a shadow following him from the corner of his eye! 

When he came to this part, he gulped his saliva then said, “When I took a careful look, that shadow was no longer there. I thought my eyes had tricked me. But from that night onward, every night, I have dreamed about a man wearing a long robe. I have never seen his face, but I can hear him crying.” 

After talking, he smacked his tongue. “Could he be the person who instigated me to jump into the river?” 

I nodded. “It could be. Take me to your house to see.” 

When Zhang Henshui saw the yellow fabric bag on my shoulder, he knew what Li Mazi and I did for a living. He got up and led us to his house. 

When we got to the village entrance, I saw a beefy man enjoying the shade. He looked relaxed. 

When Zhang Henshui saw the man, his face changed drastically. He rushed to the man and shook his arm. The man didn’t react, just as though he was a wooden dummy. 

“Not good!” Zhang Henshui patted his thigh. He rushed back to the row of willow trees at the riverbank and broke a twig. He came back and whipped the man hard. 

After three hits, the beefy man opened his eyes. He looked puzzled. When he saw Zhang Henshui, he shouted, “Why are you hitting me?!” 

“I’m saving your life.” Zhang Henshui exhaled in relief when the man woke up. He then turned and explained to us. 

There was a rule that was kept through the generations in this village: People were not allowed to linger at the village entrance at noon or in the evening. 

In the past, not many people believed in this superstition, especially in the sixties. The Red Guards had come and persistently asked the villagers to take down the big locust trees at the back of the village. Unfortunately, the farmers who joined the task of chopping down the trees all drowned in the next few days. 

After that, some kids went to play by the chopped locust trees and went missing. The villagers had to spread out and look for them everywhere. In the end, they found them at the riverbank with wet shoes… 

While talking, Zhang Henshui rubbed the willow twig in his hand. “This is a method imparted by our ancestors. If someone sits there and loses consciousness, we should break a willow twig and hit them three times. It’s how we can save them.” 

This man had settled down in this village from another place, so he didn’t know about the taboo. When he heard the story, his face changed. He quickly left the place after thanking us. After he was gone, I couldn’t help but observe the big locust tree. 

A willow tree had a pure Yin attribute but it could expel evil spirits. According to legend, after the willow spirit was subdued by Guanyin Bodhisattva, it was put in her Jade Water Jar to be cleaned. That was why willow branches had some spiritual energy. 

Whether the story Zhang Henshui told me was real or not, if he had successfully helped the man wake up with the willow twig, it was true that the man had encountered something evil while sitting under the shade of that big locust tree. 

I thought I knew the key information. A thick layer of black mist hovered around the locust tree, which became thicker and thicker down the tree trunk toward the root. However, the locust tree looked lushly green, and it didn’t appear to be claimed by something foul. To me, it looked like a corpse-born tree. 

When the decomposed remains of people or animals nourished the seeds underground and the trees grew from it, they became corpse-born trees. These kinds of trees had thick Yin energy, and they were not very tall. 

In many places, lightning strikes would hit some trees during the rain. The tree barks would turn as dark as ink. Those trees were the corpse-born trees that were about to gain intelligence. However, they couldn’t resist the heavenly tribulation. 

Anyway, it was easy to deal with corpse-born trees. We just needed to dig them up and cut them. “Zhang Henshui, why hasn’t your village done anything to this tree?” 

“It’s not that easy!” Zhang Henshui gawked and shook his head repeatedly like a rattle drum. 

“As long as we don’t come close to this tree, it won’t harm people. Moreover, during the years of natural disasters, the people in the other villages would have starved, but many animals happened to appear under this locust tree. That’s why generations of our village have been worshipping this tree. We are afraid of it, but we also respect it.”  

I understood his idea. It was similar to worshiping the Fox Immortal. People knew that if they offended the fox spirits, they would be punished. Even so, people still wanted to worship them. 

It was the villagers’ choice and a cultural feature of the place. I had nothing else to comment, so I asked Zhang Henshui to lead the way. 

Soon, we arrived at his house. His wife greeted us and gave us a warm welcome when she heard that Li Mazi and I had come to help her husband. 

Zhang Henshui had a little daughter around three years old. The girl was sitting on the threshold and playing with a cloth doll. It seemed Li Mazi missed his little Nianchu, so he lingered and played with the girl. 

I wasn’t as free as Li Mazi because I felt confused as soon as I entered the house. As it was noon, there was no Yin energy in the house. I checked with my compass and found nothing. I decided to wait for nightfall. 

We stayed in his house that afternoon. Li Mazi was so happy playing with the little girl. As for me, I found a cool room to take a nap. 

At around twilight, Zhang Henshui’s wife cooked a table of delicious foods and invited us out for dinner. I woke up and washed my face. When I went to the table, I saw that Li Mazi was sitting and eating already. However, I didn’t see Zhang Henshui. 

“Madam, brother Zhang isn’t home?” I asked. 

Zhang Henshui’s wife waved her hand. “Brothers, you should eat first. Old Zhang went out to pick some watermelons for you. It’s good to have watermelon to cool down during the summer days.” 

When she turned around, she mumbled to herself, “Old Zhang has become strange, though. He has gone out for quite a long time just to pick a watermelon!” 

When I heard that, I felt something was wrong. Something had forced him to jump into the river at noon and now, it was twilight! Moreover, from what his wife just said, he had been out for quite a long time! 

With that thought, I pulled Li Mazi, who was eating to his heart’s content. Li Mazi was surprised, but he got it quickly. 

“Brother, if Zhang Henshui already rode a crane to paradise, should we bring him justice for his wife’s and daughter’s sake?” 

“Shut up! You are the one who’s going to ride a crane to paradise!” I cursed him since I was anxious. We ran to the riverbank where Zhang Henshui had jumped this morning. 

No matter if it was the man wearing the long robe in Zhang Henshui’s dream or the old locust tree at the village entrance, they had something to do with this small river. If the poor villager was in danger, he must be around the river! 

When we arrived, the water looked calm. There was no ripple. 

Li Mazi was panting. “Are we late?” 

I didn’t talk and scurried around the river bank to look for him. Eventually, I saw some water stains and Zhang Henshui’s clothes by a pile of soil.

His garments were torn and deformed. It seemed he had struggled before he fell into the water. Li Mazi didn’t talk nonsense. He took off his shirt then jumped into the water. 

I felt a little cheered up and thought that Li Mazi still had his morals. He had eaten meals with that family, and now he was showing responsibility! 

I sat down cross-legged and read the “Sacred Text of Daoism.” As the sky was getting darker and the water was getting colder, only heaven knew what was in that river. Reading the sacred text could help scare them. I had to seize more time for Li Mazi. 

After around five minutes, nothing came out of the water. I didn’t have a calm mind to read the sacred text anymore. I got up and went to the riverbank and screamed. “Mazi, where are you? If you can’t find him, get up here now!” 

After a few calls, no one answered me. I was worried that Li Mazi had drowned. However, I couldn’t swim well, so I could only stand anxiously on the riverbank. 

Several minutes had passed. I looked at the calm water. My eyes reddened. In the back of my head, I thought that Li Mazi was already gone!