Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Niu Family Massacre

Gu Shi Yi said, “His mother is a notorious shrew in this town. If I provoke her and she comes after me, I’ll never shake her off!”

And then what? She’d insist her precious son had been kicked so hard he suffered internal injuries, and she’d scam a few taels out of Gu Shi Yi. That would be a complete loss.

Master had warned her again and again not to cause trouble outside. Now that the old man was gone—and she was traveling with Yan Er—she needed to be even more careful.

“I was going to stay in town tonight and leave tomorrow, but I can’t now. I’d better go while I can.”

Gu Shi Yi had rested enough. She hoisted her bundle, hugged the broken jar, and set off again. She looked up at the sky.

“The next town is thirty li ahead. That’s another half day’s walk. If I hurry, I should make it before dark…”

And if she couldn’t, she’d sleep in the wild. She’d followed the old Daoist priest through wind, frost, and hunger—what hardship hadn’t she eaten?

The thought still stabbed her chest anyway. The old Daoist priest was gone. There was only her now.

“Let’s go.”

She tightened her hold on the battered jar and strode forward.

Gu Shi Yi didn’t know she had Niu Da to thank for leaving early. She also didn’t know that the very next day, a group of five men arrived in that small town.

They dressed differently, but each face was dark, each gaze heavy. A coldness sat between their brows that made people instinctively tense up, as if the air itself had sharp edges.

By sheer coincidence, after entering town they went straight to one of the only two taverns: the Niu family tavern. Niu Da’s father hurried over to greet them.

“Honored guests, please come in!”

The five sat down. One man flicked his wrist and tossed a silver ingot onto the table.

“Bring your best wine and food.”

A customer like this didn’t haggle.

Niu Da’s father saw the silver, and his old face bloomed like a chrysanthemum. He yelled toward the back, voice loud enough to shake the rafters.

“Old Boss! Quit lying in bed and moaning. Get out here and serve the customers!”

Niu Da limped out, still grumbling. He handled the cooking; the two brothers ran errands; Niu Da’s father was the shopkeeper; and Niu Da’s mother helped in the kitchen.

When she saw her son hobble out, her heart twisted so hard it turned into pure venom.

“That damned little slut!” she hissed. “My heart must’ve been rotten to let her take advantage of us for so long. Her and that beggar Daoist priest of a master have eaten and drunk from our shop for years. Now the old Daoist priest is dead, and my son didn’t even mind taking her in—but she wouldn’t have it! Fine! But she even dared to kick my son and injure him. If I catch her, I’ll claw her face to ribbons!”

Niu Da forced a bitter smile. “Mom, stop. I just hit my knee on a rock.”

“Bah!” she spat. “Look at you and you’re still covering for her. I’m telling you, a woman like that will ruin a household. If you dare bring her through this door, I’ll beat you too!”

She kept cursing, sharp and endless.

In the kitchen, mother and son thought they were just blowing off steam. They didn’t realize every word carried into the front hall, clear as a bell.

The five men exchanged a look.

One of them—medium height, thick neck, face full of hard meat—beckoned Niu Da’s father over with two fingers.

“Shopkeeper. Who was talking in the back courtyard?”

Niu Da’s father assumed the noise had bothered them. He hurried over with a smile that nearly split his cheeks.

“Just my wife and my boy. We’re country folk with no manners. If we’ve disturbed the customers, please forgive us.”

The man waved a hand as if brushing away dust. “Call them out. I have questions.”

Niu Da’s father hesitated.

The man flipped his palm. Another silver ingot clinked onto the table.

Niu Da’s father’s eyes lit up so brightly they might as well have been polished coins. He turned and shouted toward the back.

“Da Lang! Da Lang’s mom! Come out!”

Mother and son came out, confused. Niu Da frowned.

“Dad, are the customers rushing us? The dishes are only chopped. They’re not even in the pan yet.”

Niu Da’s father cleared his throat. “Come over. This customer wants to ask you something.”

They stepped forward. The thick-faced man looked Niu Da up and down.

“I heard you mention an old Daoist priest. There’s a Daoist priest here?”

Niu Da and his mother exchanged a glance, then nodded.

“There’s an old Daoist priest living on the mountain behind our town,” Niu Da said. “He has a female apprentice with him. They’ve been here four or five years. They come down sometimes, and often buy meat and wine at our shop.”

The five traded another look.

“What do they look like?” the man asked. “The old Daoist priest, and the apprentice.”

“The old Daoist priest is dry and skinny,” Niu Da’s mother cut in quickly, eager to be useful. “The girl isn’t young anymore, either. Her looks are just… so-so.”

“Mom,” Niu Da blurted, as if the words jumped out of him on their own. “Shi Yi has big eyes and a straight nose. She’s pretty.”

His mother shot him a murderous glare. “Bah! Pretty my foot. She’s a little slut—”

“Enough,” the man said, voice flat.

The kitchen fire seemed to crackle louder in the pause.

“Did they ever say where they’re from?” he asked. “How they make a living?”

Niu Da’s mother shook her head. Niu Da thought for a moment.

“Shi Yi said she’s from the northwest,” he said. “She’s followed the old Daoist priest since she was little, catching ghosts and driving off demons.”

“Oh?” the man said. “Have they ever caught a ghost in town?”

“Yes!” Niu Da’s mother jumped in. “Our place was haunted once, and Shi Yi dealt with it.”

“Oh…”

Another glance passed between the five, quick and silent.

“Tell me how she did it,” the man said.

He placed yet another silver ingot on the table.

That did it. Every pair of eyes in the tavern sharpened. Even Niu Er and Niu San—who had been wiping tables and sweeping like obedient little bees—crowded in.

Niu San puffed out his chest. “Honored guest, let me tell it. I was the closest that day.”

He launched into a flailing reenactment, hands carving invisible shapes in the air as he described Gu Shi Yi catching the ghost. The five men listened without expression, like statues watching a puppet show.

When Niu San finished, the thick-faced man narrowed his eyes.

“You said she drew talismans?”

The Niu family nodded in unison.

“Do you still have any? Bring them.”

Niu Er wasn’t as quick with words as Niu San, but his feet were faster than all his brothers’. He sprinted inside and tore down the talisman pasted on the inner courtyard door, then ran back out and thrust it forward.

“Honored guest, please look!”

The man glanced at it. A cold smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“So it really is here.”

He lifted his eyes. “Where, exactly, are the two of them on the back mountain?”

The Niu family looked at each other. They could only say it was somewhere in the nameless mountain behind town. No one could point to a path, a ridge, a landmark—nothing.

The five exchanged looks again. In the end, the thick-faced man waved his hand.

“Take the silver. Go.”

Niu Da’s mother snatched it up and left happily. Her three sons trailed behind her at once, calling “Mom, Mom, Mom,” like hungry sparrows, all hoping a coin or two would slip through her fingers.

Only Niu Da’s father remained, smiling bitterly as he served wine and dishes to the five men.

Gu Shi Yi, meanwhile, knew none of this.

She was already in another nameless town thirty li away, and she’d spent ten copper coins for a room in the only little inn.

“Why is this place so small and dark?” Great King complained from inside the broken jar on the table, wriggling as if even his dignity had splinters. “Can’t you pick somewhere bigger?”

Gu Shi Yi pulled the clay doll out of her cloth pouch and set it beside the jar.

“I don’t have much silver,” she snapped. “And I still have a long road ahead. I need to save.”

Most of their money had been given away by the old Daoist priest to Widow Zhang. And this place was still over a thousand li from the Huang Capital. What little she carried wouldn’t even cover the travel costs. Of course she had to pinch every coin until it squeaked.

She wasn’t worried, though. She planned to earn money as she went. Tomorrow, she would buy a cart here and drive toward the Huang Capital. If she missed an inn on the road, she could sleep in the cart.

Great King still wasn’t satisfied. It twisted around, inspecting the room like a picky landlord.

“At least get a room with a window, so we can sneak out at midnight and absorb spiritual qi.”

“It’s fine,” Gu Shi Yi said. “I’ll open the door at midnight and you can slip into the courtyard. Just don’t get seen.”

As she spoke, someone knocked.

Li Yan Er, who had been moving around on the tabletop, immediately scurried behind the jar. Great King straightened, turning still as a stake.

Gu Shi Yi opened the door. It was the shop assistant delivering water. She took the copper basin, thanked the waiter, and washed her face and feet.

At midnight, when the inn fell quiet and the customers were all asleep, Gu Shi Yi quietly opened the door and let Li Yan Er and Great King out. They wandered around the courtyard, absorbing moonlight essence, while she sat cross-legged on the bed and circulated her qi. The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, she went to the town’s only cart-and-horse shop.

The place was remote; there were no fine horses to speak of. And she was still trying to save money. In the end, she chose a battered old cart and paired it with a skinny old horse, more bones than flesh. She paid, then led them back to the inn.

“Waiter,” she called, “could you feed it some fodder?”

She brought the cart in through the back gate and removed the old horse’s harness. The shop assistant took one look at the animal and made a face like he’d bitten into something sour.

“Sister, why’d you buy such an old horse? It’s so thin. I’m telling you, it won’t even make it fifty li before it collapses!”

It wasn’t his business what a customer bought, but if the horse died on the inn’s property, the mess would become the shopkeeper’s problem. And nobody wanted to pay compensation for a horse they didn’t even sell.

Gu Shi Yi had wandered the jianghu for years. She saw the worry sitting plainly on his face and smiled.

“No need to trouble you. Just tell me where the fodder is. I’ll feed it myself.”

The shop assistant looked relieved enough to float. He quickly pointed.

“Fodder is there. Water is there. Help yourself.”

Gu Shi Yi nodded. She picked through the fodder, pulled out stones and weeds, drew fresh well water, and even found a brush to groom the old horse until its dull coat looked a little less miserable. Then she patted its long neck.

“I’m counting on you for the road ahead.”

The horse flicked an ear, as if offended by the weight of responsibility.

Because the old horse was so thin, Gu Shi Yi truly worried it would fold on the road. She decided to stay in town a couple more days to feed it up.

On the fourth day, news drifted in from the neighboring town.

“Hey, did you hear? The Niu family in the next town—five people, all dead!”

“The Niu family? Which Niu family?”

“The one on Back Street that sells wine!”

“Oh, that Niu family… I bought wine there once. A jin of wine mixed with half a jin of water. Is it them?”

“That’s them!”

“Good! Serves them right. With a heart that black, if they didn’t die, heaven would be blind. So—how’d they die?”

“Listen, listen…”

The inn’s main hall filled fast. A crowd gathered, hungry for horror.

Gu Shi Yi, now dressed in men’s clothes with her hair tied up high and her sleeves and pant legs rolled, slipped into the group and listened as a man from the neighboring town talked with spit flying.

“The whole Niu family is dead. All of them. And it was brutal.”

“Dead how? What do you mean brutal?”

The man lowered his voice dramatically, savoring the moment.

“Their tavern opens every day. But it didn’t open for two days straight. The neighbors got suspicious and went to knock. They knocked and knocked, but the door wouldn’t open. Finally someone climbed in from the back courtyard… and do you know what they saw?”

The crowd leaned in, half afraid, half thrilled.

“What? Hurry up!”

The man shook his head and clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, tsk… it was too brutal. The whole family, young and old, got chopped into pieces. Heads, arms, legs—everything cut off. The bodies cut into chunks and piled together. The man who went in threw up right there.”

Gasps rippled through the room. Fear, curiosity, and a thin thread of gloating all mixed together.

Gu Shi Yi’s face changed. A cold unease crawled up her spine.

The storyteller continued, emboldened by the crowd.

“They reported it right away. The government office coroner came. It took two hours just to sort the pieces and put them together enough to tell who was who…”

Someone asked, “Did the government office find out who did it? Did the Niu family offend someone, or did bandits break in? Did anything get stolen?”

The man’s expression turned strange. He glanced left and right, then shook his head.

“After the coroner came out, the yamen runners sealed the doors and posted guards. They said they had to wait for the Clear Spirit Guard to come…”

“The Clear Spirit Guard!”

Someone cried out. The hall went silent.

In the crowd, Gu Shi Yi’s expression turned even darker.

People looked at each other, suddenly cautious. Only the inn’s shopkeeper let out a long sigh.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere. Nothing like this has happened in years. Who would’ve thought old Niu’s family would be the ones to suffer it?”

If the Clear Spirit Guard was involved, then this wasn’t ordinary murder. It meant monsters, ghosts, or something worse.

The crowd’s faces tightened with unease.

The man from the neighboring town pressed on. “When I left, the Clear Spirit Guard official hadn’t arrived yet. They should be here today. Once their officials are on the scene, even if something evil is stirring, it won’t dare cause bigger trouble.”

“Right, right!”

The crowd nodded quickly, as if agreement could ward off misfortune.

Gu Shi Yi’s brows knotted. She rose without a sound and slipped away while no one was paying attention.

Back in the room, Li Yan Er and Great King were whispering on the table.

“Shi Yi, you’re back!” Li Yan Er said.

They both paused when they saw her face.

“Shi Yi,” Li Yan Er asked carefully, “what’s wrong?”

Gu Shi Yi began packing at once, hands moving fast and sure.

“We can’t stay here,” she said. “We leave now.”