Chapter 9: The Ghost-Faced Human-Skin Drum

Having taken the Nightwardens’s three-piece set — the clothes, the token, the blue book — Li Chaosheng and the old temple keeper left the storeroom. Once outside, a group of men in black spotted the badge on Li Chaosheng’s waist and immediately bowed, saying, “Greetings, Esteemed Nightwatcher.”

“Esteemed?”

Li Chaosheng looked slightly surprised. Weren’t these men in black supposed to be Nightwatchers or Huntmasters?

The old temple keeper glanced at Li Chaosheng and smiled, “Don’t be surprised. These men in black are auxiliary guards of the Nightwardens, recruited from the county soldiers for their strength. They get generous treatment but aren’t official members of the organization and don’t receive its full benefits. Oh, I forgot to tell you, you can come here on the fifth of each month to collect a portion of the Nightwardens’s pay.”

“Oh, how much silver is that?”

Li Chaosheng’s interest was piqued, but the old temple keeper shook his head, “Not a single coin. The Nightwardens never hands out silver or gold. The Huntmasters eat the meals provided by the organization, while the Nightwatchers must earn their keep by the cover jobs they take. Each month the organization issues one pill called the Strengthening Pill, which aids in Body-Refinement Techniques training and is a great tonic. It’s far more valuable than silver.”

“Oh, I see.”

Li Chaosheng looked enlightened. The old temple keeper chuckled, “If you need money, these Strengthening Pills fetch a tidy sum — fifty taels apiece. Give them to me and I’ll sell them for you, hehe~”

The old man’s snickering instantly sobered Li Chaosheng. Anyone who said “fifty taels” and took no cut had to be a scam. The real price would surely be higher than fifty, it was a matter of how much more the old man would take home.

Li Chaosheng laughed it off and refused to haggle further. As the keeper escorted him out, a man in black suddenly hurried from the inner chamber, reached the keeper, and handed over a bamboo tube.

“Sir, a report from the field.”

“Oh.”

The keeper picked up the bamboo tube, turned it three times forward, four times backward, then once forward. With a click, a latch released. He withdrew the intelligence inside and told Li Chaosheng behind him, “These message tubes are special, they’re sealed with lamp oil inside. When opening you must align the mechanism. Our Yanggu County’s code is three forward, four backward, once forward.”

The keeper scanned the note from top to bottom, then quietly tucked it into his robe and asked Li Chaosheng, “Anything planned for tonight?”

Li Chaosheng shook his head, “Nothing.”

“Good. Since you’re free, I’ll take you to see some excitement — these corpse-drivers are getting more and more outrageous.”

“Corpse-drivers?”

…

The night was hazy, the full moon hung high. Two figures in black melded with the darkness like still stone statues. Everything was eerily quiet.

Pfft~

In the hush, a strange sound suddenly intruded. A black-clad man carrying a sword turned silently to look at the man in black who’d made the noise.

“Ahem… getting old, stomach’s not so good. Excuse me, excuse me,” the man in black said this awkwardly.

The sword-bearing man shook his head, “Don’t let secret sorrows grow; silence now speaks louder than sound!”

“Great verse, Brother Li! Such poetic talent! But to use such a fine line to describe my fart… it’s a bit over the top!”

Li Chaosheng was speechless.

“Brother Zhu, we’ve been here half an hour. Do you think that criminal corpse-driver will show up?”

“Relax, relax. The Nightwardens’s intel rarely errs. This time shouldn’t be wrong. Wait a bit more…”

Before he could finish that second ‘wait,’ the sound of light, scattered footsteps came from afar.

Tap tap tap…

“Silence, they’re here.”

The old temple keeper made a silent gesture. Li Chaosheng glanced at him. The keeper nodded slightly and nodded toward a nearby street.

Li Chaosheng shut his mouth, hid his figure, held his breath, and watched the street ahead. For some reason, hidden in the dark, Li Chaosheng felt a thrill, like the excitement of catching lovers in the act.

Tap tap tap…

The footsteps drew nearer, and three figures walked in from a distance. When they got close, Li Chaosheng saw that it was one man and two women. The man wore a gray jacket with a short collar, a cloth pouch tied at his waist, bindings on his legs, and black cloth shoes: the standard garb of a wandering cultivator.

A straw hat shaded his face so it couldn’t be seen clearly, though a scar tracing from the corner of his mouth was faintly visible.

Behind him were two girls: one about sixteen or seventeen with an oval face and conventional beauty, wearing a pink jacket. The other in her twenties, likely married, tall and shapely, graceful and alluring. The places that should be full were full, and the places that should be small… well, also ample.

In short, both were promising beauties, but their expressions were unnaturally dull. Their eyes were half-open with the whites showing, neither fully asleep nor awake, like sleepwalkers, just stupidly following the straw-hatted man forward.

“What are they doing?”

Li Chaosheng turned to the keeper, who frowned, “It’s a corpse-driver, but this time they’re driving living people, not dead ones. That’s outrageous.”

The keeper was incensed. Li Chaosheng said nothing and continued to watch the three. They stopped suddenly in front of a courtyard gate not far from the two.

The straw-hatted man looked up at the tall gate and nodded. This was the place. In the moonlight, Li Chaosheng could see his face: about forty years old, a vicious scar running from his left eye down across his nose to his mouth. He’d be frightening to see in daylight.

The man stared at the courtyard, then pulled a red drum painted with a ghostly face from his pocket. Seeing the old temple keeper, he warned, “Plug your ears. The ghost-faced human-skin drum is something that hypnotizes the mind. Beware!”

Hearing that, Li Chaosheng didn’t take chances and covered his ears. The man began shaking the ghost-faced human-skin drum at the gate.

Ka-thonk! Ka-thonk! Ka-thonk~

A muffled drum sounded at the gate. After a few minutes, someone shuffled out from inside. With a squeak the gate opened, and an old man stepped out, his expression vacant, eyes unfocused, dazed and stupefied.

The man glanced at the old man and ignored him, striding into the yard. Li Chaosheng and the keeper exchanged a look and moved outside the courtyard wall. The keeper hopped and was atop the wall in a flash. Li Chaosheng took two steps back, made a run, and also scaled the wall.

Crouched on the wall, Li Chaosheng saw the straw-hatted man standing in the courtyard, take out the ghost-faced human-skin drum, and shake it toward the deep interior of the yard.

Ka-thonk! Ka-thonk! Ka-thonk~