COPPER COINS

Chapter 46: Da-shanren (I)

Jiang Shining stared in shock at the slammed door for a while, then suddenly realised what had happened.
In the moment that it occurred to him, his facial expression became complex: there was some disappointment, but there was a bit more exasperation [b] as well.
   
Xue Xian glanced at Jiang Shining and noticed his ambivalence, then pointed at Stone Zhang and said, "Old man, [c] weren't you afraid of ghosts before? Now that you've seen such an idiotic ghost, are you still afraid? Don't you think all the trembling you did was quite embarrassing?"
Old man...
Stone Zhang touched his face and gloomily thought, I may not be young anymore, but I'm not old either. I can walk, I can run, I can carry things. Isn't 'old man' a bit much?
But he didn't dare protest, lest he piss off the zuzong.
   
Jiang Shining had just been feeling a bit better, but this zuzong’s mockery turned his face dark again. He rolled his eyes and snapped, "Even if I am dumb, it's because I've just been spending too much time with you." [d]
Then Jiang Shining picked up his robe and stood aside, sweeping an inviting arm toward the door: "I shouldn’t haunt this place in the middle of the day. One of you should come knock.”
   
Everyone looked at Stone Zhang.
"Me... me?" Confused, Stone Zhang pointed at himself. He’d spent the whole journey so far being jostled along with nothing to do, since he was weak and not of much use –– this was the first time anyone had called on him to do something.
   
Xue Xian pointed at Lu Nianqi and said, "Fortune-teller."
Then he pointed at himself: "Cripple." [e]
Then he pointed at Xuanmin: "Alms beggar."
He spread his hands and shrugged. "Which one of us is normal?"
   
Tragically, there was only one normal person in the whole group.
Stone Zhang had no choice but to shuffle to the door and knock again.
   
There was another scream –– the girl from before was becoming even more frightened.   
Stone Zhang looked back at the group helplessly. "Those who are bitten by a snake spend the next ten years terrified of ropes," he said. "Not my fault."

Then he injected a casual tone into his voice and said, "Little girl, open the door! I'm not a ghost. I'm a good person, ah!"
Everyone: “...”
   
Xue Xian glared at Stone Zhang, then finally reached out and yanked him back. "Stop being so creepy. If you keep going like this, Zhong Kui [f] is going to come and chase you away."*
   
"Xingzi, what are you yelling for?" came the voice of an old woman. "Don't frighten the patients out front."
The little girl's trembling voice rose in response –– she seemed about to cry. "Chen-sao, [g] there's a ghost!"
   
"Nonsense, how could there be a ghost?" Chen-sao laughed. "In our compound we only save people. We've never harmed anyone. Why would a ghost want to haunt us?"
"It's true. I just saw Jiang-shaoye, right there behind the door," Xingzi said.
"Jiang… shaoye?" Chen-sao said, shocked. "You don't mean..."
"Yes!” Xingzi replied. “Just now... just now I heard a knock on the door, and when I opened it, he was there. He smiled at me and called me by my name! Who else could it be?"
The girl was sobbing now, scared to her wit's end.
   
"Knocking on the door?" Chen-sao asked.
"Yes, and there was another knock just now. I was too scared to listen..."
   
At this point, Xue Xian decided to knock again.
Du du du...
Now both the old woman and the young girl screamed and began to cry.
Speechless, Xuanmin pried the dragon's claw away from the door.
Jiang Shining: “...”
   
Finally, after what felt like hours, the door opened again. The person behind it was a grey-haired, kindly-looking old man.
Peeking out from behind the old man were two others: one was Xingzi, and the other, a short old woman, would be Chen-sao.
   
In order not to scare them again, Jiang Shining had turned back into a small paper man and tucked himself into Xue Xian's pocket. But he couldn't help but stick his head out again to observe what was happening –– after all, he'd gotten them into this mess.
Seeing the grey-haired old man, he muttered, "Chen-shu..." [h]
   
Jiang Shining knew everyone at Fang's Pharmacy, and could even say he knew some of them quite well. The Fang and Jiang families had always been very close: one side were doctors, and the other were pharmacists, so after having coincidentally met once, they'd developed a good relationship.
Ever since he was small, Jiang Shining would often be brought along to call upon the Fang family; and later, his sister had ended up marrying into the Fangs.
When he’d been young, Chen-shu and Chen-sao had even made him sweet buns.
   
Now, old friends were reunited, but they were as distant as yin and yang. Even greeting each other face to face and calling each other by old names was difficult.
   
Chen-shu's ears weren't as good as they used to be, so he didn't hear Jiang Shining call him.
He squinted his slightly cloudy eyes and took in the ragtag ‘demons, ghosts, and monsters of all shades’ [i] gathered by the door. He said, "Do you... need anything?"

Behind him, Chen-sao glared at Xingzi. "Didn't you say you saw Jiang-xiao-shaoye? [j] Where? These people are alive and well," she said in a loud whisper.
Confused, Xingzi shook her head. She didn't know what was going on either.
   
Again, it was Stone Zhang that the group shoved forward to explain things.
"Thank you for having us," Stone Zhang said. Indeed, he was used to speaking to wealthy patrons, so, although he was always paralysed by terror when with Xue Xian and the others, he did in fact know how to be polite in the right situations.
He put his hands together in greeting and added, "We come from Ningyang, Huizhou. We are here to look for––"
   
Suddenly, Stone Zhang stopped and frowned back at Xue Xian. "Who are we looking for?"
Before Xue Xian could reply, Chen-sao instinctively said, "Looking for... Shao-furen?" [k]
   
"Yes," Jiang Shining said in a low voice.
"Yes!" Stone Zhang repeated, nodding.
   
"Indeed!" Xingzi said. "I knew it couldn't be a coincidence. I just saw Jiang-shaoye, and now people from Ningyang have arrived! So did I really see what I saw? And… and... Jiang-shaoye..."
Chen-shu shushed her, then turned back to Stone Zhang and returned the salute. "Sir, if I may ask, do you have some kind of token?"
   
Panicked, Stone Zhang looked back at the group again and mouthed, To –– ken?
Xue Xian was about to say they didn't, but suddenly remembered and slapped his knee. "Of course!"
Then, without any sense of hesitation nor shame, he reached into Xuanmin's pouch and began to dig.
   
“...” Xuanmin grasped Xue Xian’s wrist. "What are you ––"
"Found it!" Xue Xian wiggled his arm. "Let go."
   
Xuanmin did so, and Xue Xian triumphantly took out his claw, which clutched that silver medical bell.
When Jiang Shining hadn't been able to carry it, Xue Xian had tossed it into the pouch for him –– and now he was taking it back out, as though it was his own pocket.
   
"Can this medical bell count as a token?" Xue Xian asked, showing Chen-shu the bell.
He was still sitting on the statue by the door, half-hidden by Stone Zhang, so it was only upon hearing his voice that Chen-shu and the others looked over at him.
Xingzi looked Xue XIan up and down, then suddenly flushed red and shyly hid behind Chen-shu again.
   
Chen-shu took the bell into his hands. He only needed to glance at it before he said, "I've seen this. Jiang-daifu always had one on him."
He flipped the bell over and saw that it had Jiang etched onto the side, then handed it back to Xue Xian.
   
But Jiang-daifu had not died of old age –– his family had been victims of arson, and now there was a complete stranger showing up with a family heirloom. Anyone would be suspicious.
"And you are the Jiang family's..." Chen-shu muttered nervously.
"Close neighbors," Stone Zhang offered. He couldn't say ‘distant family’, so he had to go for the next best option. "The xiao-gongzi [l] of the Jiang family, Jiang Shining, requested us to bring the medical bell that has been in his family for generations to his sister. There are also unresolved things concerning his parents that he needs us to discuss with her."
   
"So that's why..." Xingzi said. "But shao-furen isn't in at the moment. Would you like to come in for tea?"
Her attitude was so completely different from her earlier fright that Chen-sao and Chen-shu stared at her, surprised.
Wasn't she supposed to be even more terrified now?
But Xingzi didn't notice the strange looks. Her gaze still rested on Xue Xian.
   
"Thank you," Stone Zhang said, without even trying to decline out of politeness. After all, in the past few days he'd both flown in the air and dived into the water. All he wanted was to sit down for a while and have some hot tea. He was overjoyed.

Seeing as Xingzi had already invited them, and Stone Zhang had accepted, Chen-shu had to ignore the doubts he still held and let the group in.
Chen-shu and Chen-sao went ahead to show them the way, and Xingzi silently held the door open ––
Stone Zhang entered first, then Lu Nianqi, who was able to step over the threshold but who did so slowly and while feeling around the doorframe. Chen-shu noticed this.
"This xiao-shaoye..." Chen-shu asked.
"Half-blind," Lu Nianqi replied coldly.
Chen-shu: “...”
   
Xingzi waited for Lu Nianqi to enter, then stepped out, planning to guide Xue Xian, who continued to sit on the stone statue.
But she raised her head and watched as Xuanmin picked Xue Xian up in his arms.
Xingzi: “...”
   
Chen-shu saw this surreal scene, too, and couldn't help but ask, "And this gongzi..."
"Half-paralysed," Xue Xian replied, equally coldly.
Chen-shu: “...” What kind of people are these...
   
One half-blind person, one half-paralysed person, one short and fat middle-aged man, one aloof monk...   
Although, to be fair, none of them seemed capable of any violence.
So Chen-shu put his suspicions away and decided to greet the group with genuine kindness.
   
"What time will your shao-furen be back?" Xue Xian asked Xingzi. He had seen the little girl blush, and found her funny, so had decided to casually ask her a question.
When the niezhang wasn't actively looking to make trouble, he actually knew how to use his charisma on people and speak with politeness. Yet his tone retained that sense of laziness, which made him appear absent-minded and nonchalant.
   
Struck that Xue Xian had spoken to her, Xingzi blushed even redder. Warmly, she said, "Shao-furen went to feel Zhao-laoye's wife's pulse, and shaoye went along. They left before the wu geng, and will probably be back in a shichen or so."
"Feel her pulse?"
"Our shao-furen is extremely skilled!" Xingzi said. "All the wives in the county who don't feel well ask shao-furen to check on them. Her pulse study is always accurate, and the medication she recommends always successfully treats the illness. But it's hard work..."
   
Jiang Shining's sister really is worthy of her upbringing in a medical family, the group thought. But they also began to feel worried –– the plague seemed to be wreaking havoc across Qingping County, and it was too easy for doctors to become infected...
   
The group settled into a back courtyard and sipped tea. They had expected to wait a very long time, but before they'd even finished their first cups, a boy around the age of ten burst in, panicked, and shouted, "Help! Help! Help! Something's happened to shaoye and shao-furen!"