The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

66

The night was dark and everything was shrouded in the curtain of inky blackness.

The window was opened with a small sliver. In fact, a great bundle of dead leaves were piled on the frame. As the cold wind blew in, the dead leaves rustled and the muslin canopy billowed.

Madam Shi, who was lying on her side, opened her eyes. Her face was as pale as a ghost and her forehead was beaded with a thick layer of sweat.

She slowly gasped for breath and every breath she made produced a sound akin to sandpaper grinding away at wood. Her chest rose and fell fiercely and her full bosom threatened to escape from the low-hanging collar line covering it.

Her two long, slender hands that were akin to pieces of art, reached out to grope around. She reached the head of the bed and struggled to rise up, then she carelessly stuffed on some footwear.

The curtain of night outside the window was cold yet clear. The single candle within the room became ever more gloomy because of it.

She supported her forehead while she felt like the world was spinning. She started walking in a very shaky manner, stumbling back and forth like a drunk person would stumble their way down a street.

"Hah.... hah...... " As she walked, she gasped terribly for breath. Her face was ash white and her eyes, the ones that were just too far apart, seemed to bulge out, covered with lines and wisps of blood.

She slowly circumvented the embroidered green bamboo screen. There was a small bed behind the screen and there were several small stuffed toys and a rattle-drum painted in red placed at the head of the bed.
There was no one on the bed.

Her headache only increased and she suddenly supported herself against the screen, before letting herself crumble down. Her body leaned against the screen and it creaked in protest as it moved a few meters to the right.

"Wet nurse...." She leaned on the screen, raising her hand with difficulty, as if trying to shout, "Ah Zhun..

She tried to yell yet couldn't make a sound.
Naturally, no one heard her nor replied to her.

Li Zhun and the wet nurse were both absent. This empty room was specially prepared to trap her within.

Her eyes rigidly stared at the small bed in the empty room for a very long time. Her gaze finally moved downwards, falling upon the wall face beside the bed. Turning around, she looked again at the tightly closed door.

The dry leaves on the windowsill crackled and rustled as the wind ruffled them up. One of the corners of the light yellow talismans stuck to the door flapped lightly in the wind.

The incense factory was brightly lit and from afar, the many little points of light from red lanterns resembled a roaming snake, wriggling its way into the distance.

Miaomiao was somewhat shocked, "Didn't Li Zhun say that the incense factory would only operate in the daytime?"

Liu Fuyi's face was full of alarm as his eyes peered into the distance at the lanterns. His finger was plastered to his lips as he silently indicated for all of them to be quiet.

The little girl in his arms slept sweetly.

The main leads lightened their steps and approached the incense factory, following the path of paved stones through the underbrush.

The night's wind blew the small lanterns hanging from the wooden houses. The lanterns themselves let out a small amount of red light, a countless number of people busying themselves beneath. As such, an innumerable amount of shadows intertwined on the ground.