Zhou Zishu mused before asking, “Did the man with the mark of a hand on his face whom you met that day ask you about whether you had come across a man with a finger missing?”

Zhang Chengling nodded. Zhou Zishu asked again. “So have you met him?”

Zhang Chengling shook his head. “Shifu, who is that man?”

Not giving the younger an answer, Zhou Zishu crossed his legs, index finger lightly tapping his one of his knees. Xue Fang the Hanged Ghost was rumored to have lost a finger, that was why he knew the man in black who Gu Xiang killed in the abandoned shrine was not him.

But what was the intention of the red-clothed Delighted Mourning Ghost?

After a while, he spoke slowly with unusual seriousness. “Try to remember it more clearly, kiddo, did you see anything out of the ordinary that night?”

By “that night”, he meant the night the entire Zhang family was murdered. Zhang Chengling’s breath quickened, and Zhou Zishu softened his voice even further. “Don’t rush things, just think it over carefully. I’m afraid that memory might be very important.”

Zhang Chengling paled. After a good while, he shook his head while replying in a choked voice, “Shifu, you ask me whether there was something unusual, but wasn’t that entire night an unusual event?”

Zhou Zishu’s brows furrow and he no longer pushed him further. After a bout of grave silence, he said. “I’m going to teach you a mnemonic rhyme; you have to try to comprehend it yourself and utilize it to further your cultivation. You can come to me if there is any confusion.”

Zhang Chengling was dumbfounded.

Zhou Zishu added. “You shouldn’t leave Sir Zhao’s side during the coming days, and must not act on your own or leave the Gao’s manor, do you understand?”

Zhang Chengling’s eyes widened. “Shifu… Thank you, shifu!”

Zhou Zishu awkwardly coughed and scolded him, “Stop speaking nonsense and remember what I’m going to say, I will not repeat it for a second time.”

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Footnotes.

The volume title is from a line in the poem 好了歌注/Notes On the Song “Hao Liao”, by Cao Xueqin.

¹ The original phrase literally translates to “peach blossom eyes.” In physiognomy, this eye shape indicates that a person is often more alluring but also more scandalous.

² He has mixed up several poems. The first and last line are from The Song of Osprey, and the second line is from Reeds; both poems are from Confucius’s Book of Odes. The third line is from Ode to A Beauty, by Li Yannian.

Chapter 27. Slaughter

[Warning for graphic description of violence (more so than the usual)]