Xu Muchan’s expression was far too sorrowful. Wei Xilou cupped his face, gently wiping away the glistening moisture at the corner of his eyes with his fingertip. Instead, he smiled and asked, “A-Chan, did you and Brother live well together afterward?”
Xu Muchan’s heart clenched. He widened his eyes and stared straight at him.
Wei Xilou met his gaze without avoiding the truth he had already guessed.
“Looks like you didn’t have a very good life.”
Xu Muchan shook his head and said, word by word, “I… lived very well. My biological parents didn’t want me, and my adoptive parents didn’t like me either. Later… Brother took me in. Whenever someone bullied me, he would help me get revenge.”
As he spoke of those past events, the young man’s eyelashes trembled lightly, and some color seemed to return to his pale face. Wei Xilou seemed to sigh and smile at the same time. He supported the back of the young man’s head with one hand, leaned down, and lightly kissed the tear-dampened lashes.
“That’s good. A-Chan, don’t be afraid. You’ll be able to go back very soon.”
The light kiss lasted only an instant before Wei Xilou pulled away. He drew the blanket up to the young man’s chin and gently patted him.
“Don’t think too much. Get some good sleep.”
His palm gently patted the blanket, carrying a strong sense of reassurance. Xu Muchan’s chaotic mind seemed to be overcome by drowsiness, and before long, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Seeing that the young man had fallen into a deep sleep, Wei Xilou did not leave either. He remained seated beside the bed for a long time, so long that he had counted every one of the young man’s eyelashes. Only then did he rise and slowly walk toward the door.
The Wei family members had already respectfully gathered outside the courtyard, waiting.
Wei Xilou stepped out of the main room. He looked somewhat irritated at the people gathered outside, then glanced back behind him and gave a soft sigh.
“What a pity…”
If A-Chan were a member of the Wei family, if A-Chan could stay…
After everything he had endured, he would have been willing to accept it.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t.
Over the next few days, Wei Xilou’s courtyard became unusually lively.
Wei Xilou remained as he had been before, gentle and patient whenever he was with Xu Muchan, truly behaving like an older brother who would give him whatever he wanted.
But whenever members of the Wei family came, he would put away that rarely seen gentleness and deal with them perfunctorily, looking listless and bored.
During this period, Xu Muchan was forbidden from going outside. He could only remain by Wei Xilou’s side, watching him engage in polite pretense with the Wei family.
He also watched the fear that occasionally slipped through beneath the Wei family’s false sincerity.
This included Wei Xilou’s biological parents and younger siblings.
Madam Wei was a dignified and elegant woman. She appeared to have been born into a wealthy family, with striking features and graceful movements that were pleasing to the eye. Xu Muchan had also met Master Wei, and privately felt that most of Wei Xilou’s handsome appearance must have been inherited from her.
This noblewoman still carried the strong aura of the feudal era. Toward her eldest son, she was more respectful than affectionate.
Seeing the slightly stiff smile on her face, Xu Muchan instinctively looked at Wei Xilou’s expression.
There was nothing to be discerned from Wei Xilou’s face. He treated his mother no differently from the other members of the Wei family, looking listless as he replied absentmindedly, “I’m doing well. Thank you for your concern, Mother.”
Madam Wei smiled politely, then pushed the three children hiding behind her forward, seemingly trying her hardest to make Wei Xilou grow closer to them.
“Your younger brothers and sister have been worried about you too. But it rained that day, and they stood outside with everyone for the whole day. After they went back, your second brother developed a bit of a fever and only barely recovered today. That’s why Mother only came to see you today. Look, as soon as they heard they were coming to see their eldest brother, they all insisted on coming along.”
The Second Young Master, whom Madam Wei had pushed to the very front, did indeed have the pale complexion of someone who had not yet fully recovered from a serious illness.
But saying that he had insisted on coming to see his eldest brother was pure nonsense.
Children could not hide things, nor could they put on an act. Even though the adults had repeatedly instructed and warned them, when faced with Wei Xilou, the child still could not conceal the fear in his heart.
The Second Young Master’s legs were trembling slightly, and his eyes were filled with tears, almost on the verge of crying.
Perhaps realizing that this was not a good look, Madam Wei sighed and handed him over to the accompanying wet nurse. She looked at Wei Xilou as though she wanted to say something but hesitated.
“Xilou, after all these years… do you resent Mother?”
Wei Xilou tilted his head slightly, as though he had heard something amusing. He asked in return, “What did Mother do that would make me resent you?”
Madam Wei was rendered speechless. She could not answer at all, and there was no way to continue playing the emotional card. In the end, she could only hurriedly exchange a few polite words before fleeing with her three children.
Xu Muchan watched her retreating figure, then looked back at Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou was flipping through an ancient book recording stories of mountain spirits and wild creatures. Apparently finding something interesting, he beckoned Xu Muchan over to look. There was not the slightest trace of concern on his face.
Xu Muchan leaned over and cooperatively read the story written on that page, asking no further questions.
Not long after Madam Wei left, the Third Branch came.
The Third Branch’s Madam was surnamed Wang and had only one son, whom she had brought along this time as well.
“This is your younger brother, Wei Ting. He went away to study before, so it’s been quite a few years since you brothers last saw each other, hasn’t it? We only called him back this time because something major happened in the family.”
As Madam Wang spoke, she discreetly nudged Wei Ting, signaling for him to greet his brother.
Wei Ting stepped forward, lowered his head, and called out respectfully enough, “Big Brother.”
Wei Xilou still wore that same perfunctory expression, but Xu Muchan suddenly raised his head and stared at Wei Ting in astonishment.
Was Wei Ting actually the son of the Third Branch?
He had always thought that Wei Ting was one of Wei Xilou’s two younger brothers. He had never imagined that he was actually from the Third Branch.
Xu Muchan carefully sized up Wei Ting and discovered that there was a very obvious difference between him and the other members of the Wei family.
During this period in the early years of the Republic of China, society was in the midst of a transition between the old and the new. The Wei family was clearly thoroughly conservative. Apart from the men having all cut their hair short, everything from their clothing and speech to the way they usually instructed the servants was filled with the rules and propriety of a wealthy household from the feudal era.
The main gate of the Wei residence had never been opened. Xu Muchan had never had the opportunity to see what it looked like outside, but based on the history he had studied, he knew that the Wei family of the present was completely cut off from the times.
The Wei Ting before him, however, looked to be in his early twenties. He wore a modern three-piece suit and glasses, and his entire person was filled with the fashionable air of an advanced intellectual.
Most importantly, when he looked at Wei Xilou, there was respect in his eyes, but none of the fear hidden beneath the outward reverence that the other members of the Wei family displayed.
Xu Muchan studied the young man in front of him, wondering how he had managed to escape the calamity.
Perhaps Xu Muchan had been staring for too long, because even Wei Ting noticed and cast a puzzled look over.
Wei Xilou also put down the book in his hands. He glanced at Wei Ting, then looked sideways at Xu Muchan and tapped his finger against the page.
“What is A-Chan looking at?”
Xu Muchan hesitated before casually making up an excuse.
“I was looking at Young Master Wei Ting. It seems that what he is wearing is different from ours.”
Madam Wang knew that Xu Muchan had recently become Wei Xilou’s favorite person. She was not annoyed when he interrupted. Instead, she said proudly, “Of course it’s different. This is a Western suit. A-Ting is currently studying at St. John’s University. In another two years, perhaps he will even go abroad to study in the foreigners’ lands.”
Xu Muchan cooperatively put on an expression of astonishment.
After Madam Wang and Wei Ting had been sent away, Wei Xilou rested his head against one hand and asked Xu Muchan, “Has A-Chan attended university?”
Xu Muchan said, “I’m not old enough to attend university yet.”
Wei Xilou nodded thoughtfully.
“That is true. A-Chan is still so young.”
Then he smiled again, pulled Xu Muchan’s hand over, and played with it.
“But in my opinion, you have more promise than Wei Ting.”
Xu Muchan lowered his eyes to look at him. He still had a stomach full of questions, but seeing the expression on Wei Xilou’s face, he swallowed them back down.
After the members of the Wei family came one after another to visit the West Courtyard, the West Courtyard once again became quiet.
However, when Xu Muchan was permitted to go outside, he discovered that the festive atmosphere throughout the entire Wei residence had grown even more intense, almost reaching its peak.
Every member of the Wei family had a smile on their face. Their smiles were so exaggerated that they made Xu Muchan’s skin crawl.
A few more days passed like this before guests unexpectedly came to the West Courtyard again.
It was actually the Old Master of the Wei family, who had never shown himself before.
Upon learning that the Old Master was waiting outside the door, Wei Xilou first had Xu Muchan hide in the inner room. Only then did he instruct the servants to pass on the message and invite the Old Master inside.
Xu Muchan secretly peeked from behind the screen.
The Old Master was supposedly already over ninety years old, but he looked only to be in his seventies. His hair was jet black, and he leaned on a dragon-headed cane. He was vigorous and walked with a brisk stride.
He seemed far less apprehensive of Wei Xilou than the other members of the Wei family. After entering, he carefully looked Wei Xilou over before sitting down and lifting his teacup to get straight to the point.
“The time I calculated so carefully has arrived. It will be within the next day or two. I have already had the coffin placed in the courtyard. Are you prepared?”
There was a moment of silence in the room.
Then Wei Xilou’s淡淡 voice sounded.
“I am prepared.”
The Old Master nodded.
“The Wei family has flourished for many years. Now disaster is upon us. Whether we succeed or fail rests entirely upon you alone. I hope you will not disappoint the expectations of the entire family all these years.”
Wei Xilou said, “Grandfather, rest assured.”
The Old Master seemed to have received a satisfactory answer. Leaning on his cane, he stood up. Before leaving, he confirmed once more, “Then shall I have them begin the preparations?”
Wei Xilou said, “All right.”
After the man left, Xu Muchan emerged from behind the screen and looked at Wei Xilou solemnly.
“Are they trying to make you ascend to immortality? What exactly does ‘ascending to immortality’ mean?”
Wei Xilou shook his head.
“Where did you hear such nonsense? How can a person ascend to immortality? Absurd.”
“Then what does the Old Master want you to—”
Before Xu Muchan could finish speaking, his body went limp and fell downward.
Wei Xilou caught him, rubbed the reddened back of the young man’s neck, and said helplessly, “You really don’t know how to behave.”
He picked the boy up horizontally, placed him on the bed, covered him with the quilt, and lowered the bed curtains.
After taking one last look at the sleeping boy, Wei Xilou bent down and lightly touched his thin eyelids with his lips before turning and walking out.
The door of the main room slowly closed.
Wei Xilou turned around and looked toward the solemn-looking servants in the courtyard, as well as the golden-threaded nanmu coffin beside them.
He stepped forward and lay down inside the coffin, crossing his hands over his abdomen.
“Let’s go.”
The carefully selected servants lifted the heavy coffin lid and slowly closed it.
In unison, they cried:
“Big Young Master is ascending to immortality—!”
The deep, prolonged voices echoed through the empty courtyard, reaching the ears of everyone outside.
Those people hurriedly knelt down as well and followed in chanting:
“Big Young Master is ascending to immortality—!”
Eight servants lifted the heavy coffin and passed through the crowd kneeling all over the ground. With every step leaving a mark, they headed toward the Ascension Tower to the west…
In his daze, Xu Muchan opened his eyes.
He only felt that whatever was beneath him seemed to be swaying. Beside his ears came wave after wave of surging sounds, and in his hazy state, he even thought that he was drifting on the surface of a river.
After overcoming the dizziness and sitting up, Xu Muchan discovered that the surroundings were extraordinarily dark and extraordinarily quiet.
He lifted the bed curtains, fumbled around, and lit the oil lamp. Only then did he realize that it was already completely dark outside, while Wei Xilou was nowhere to be seen.
He carried the oil lamp outside and discovered that the moon tonight seemed especially round and especially large.
It was so large that he had the illusion that the moon was about to fall from the sky to the ground.
The cold, clear moonlight poured down, yet it did nothing to dispel the darkness around him.
It was as though the Wei residence, submerged in the night, and that unusually enormous moon each belonged to separate worlds.
The entire residence was eerily quiet.
Xu Muchan carried the oil lamp along the small path in front of the courtyard. Before he had gone very far, he saw a brilliant patch of lamplight appearing in the bamboo grove not far away.
Against the darkness all around it, the light looked somewhat eerie, as though all the lights in the entire Wei family residence tonight had been concentrated in that one courtyard.
Xu Muchan blew out his oil lamp and placed it beside the road. Then, moving quietly, he approached the courtyard.
He saw that the courtyard gate stood wide open, while the courtyard itself was filled with a mass of people kneeling densely together.
The people at the very front appeared to be members of the Wei family. Behind the Wei family were the servants. Those with higher positions were at the front, while the less important ones were relegated to the back.
Without exception, everyone was quietly kneeling.
The entire courtyard was packed with people, yet strangely, there was not a single sound.
Xu Muchan held his breath and listened carefully.
It seemed that he could not even hear them breathing.
He tiptoed forward carefully.
Even though he had not made the slightest sound, one of the people kneeling at the back suddenly turned his head. His dull eyes rolled around as he searched in all directions.
Xu Muchan stood perfectly still.
Only after a long while did he quietly let out a breath.
When the other person turned his head back, Xu Muchan hesitated briefly before taking off the Mountain God tablet from around his neck.
He wound the red cord around his wrist and tightly clenched the Mountain God tablet in his palm.
He tentatively took another two steps forward.
This time, the people in the courtyard indeed showed no reaction.
Xu Muchan quietly circled around to the wall behind the wooden tower and, as nimble as a cat, climbed over it.
Taking advantage of the wooden tower’s cover, he carefully observed the people in the courtyard.
He discovered that all of them had lowered their bodies, pressing their foreheads against the ground in an attitude that was both extremely devout and extremely fearful. Not a single one moved.
Xu Muchan even saw Wei Xilou’s two younger brothers and younger sister among them.
They, too, obediently pressed their heads against the ground, remaining completely silent and lifeless.
However, Xu Muchan soon learned the reason.
He saw that strange, nonhuman features had appeared on the lowered faces of these people.
Some had grown the downy feathers of roosters.
Some had grown the scales of snakes.
Others had grown thick fur that he could not tell belonged to a dog, a horse, or a monkey.
At least they still retained a human shape.
But the Old Master Wei, kneeling at the very front, had already changed from the neck upward into the appearance of a monkey.
Brown, needle-like fur protruded from beneath his mandarin jacket. He had already completely lost his human form.
The scene was absurd and eerie, yet everyone present seemed completely unaware of it.
Xu Muchan tightened his grip around the Mountain God tablet and carefully stepped through the shadows of the wooden tower, quickly slipping inside.
Only after entering did he discover that the space inside the wooden tower seemed to have become larger.
There was still nothing on the lotus platform in the center.
Beneath the lotus platform, positioned in the middle, was a golden-threaded nanmu coffin. No one knew what was inside it.
And on the walls surrounding the coffin, several painted murals had appeared at some unknown point.
The deformed animals depicted in those paintings looked very similar to the picture Wei Xilou had once drawn.
A person with a rooster’s head;
a yellow dog imitating humans by walking upright;
snakes twisted together as though they were conjoined;
and a monkey covered in stiff bristles and draped in horsehide.
Every one of these deformed monsters had eyes filled with an eerie wickedness.
The moment Xu Muchan stepped into the wooden tower, they rolled their scarlet eyes and turned to look at him.
Being watched by several gazes, Xu Muchan would normally have been unable to control his racing heartbeat.
But now that he had removed the Mountain God tablet, not only had his breathing and heartbeat slowed, it seemed that even his fear had faded.
He stared at the painted murals on the walls and used self-talk to stir his somewhat sluggish thoughts.
“Rooster, yellow dog, snake, horse, monkey…”
These animals somehow gave him a strange sense of familiarity.
Xu Muchan desperately racked his brain, and finally remembered.
“So they’re the Five Plague Gods.”
The god worshipped by the Wei family was actually the Five Plague Gods.
There were many different explanations of the Five Plague Gods among the common people. Even the names used differed somewhat depending on the region and period.
Some called them the “Five Plague Gods,” while others called them the “Five Tong Gods” or the “Five Sage Gods.”
Some say that the Five Plague Gods originated when the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, after first establishing the realm and conferring titles upon meritorious officials, dreamed that fallen soldiers asked for compensation. Thus, in order to appease the fallen warriors, he grouped them in fives and provided blood sacrifices everywhere. He also ordered families in Jiangnan to establish small temples measuring one chi and five cun, which later became commonly known as Five Sage Halls.
Others say that the Five Plague Gods are the spirits of five animals—the horse, monkey, dog, rooster, and snake. Ordinary people worshipped them and asked them to protect their homes and residences.
Aside from these, there were many other explanations, too numerous to list. But the one thing they essentially had in common was that regardless of whether they were the ghosts of soldiers or the spirits of animals, as beliefs evolved through later generations, the Five Plague Gods gradually became a kind of unconventional God of Wealth.
It was said that worshipping the Five Plague Gods could make a person suddenly wealthy.
Therefore, many people among the common folk who wished to seek wealth would worship the Five Plague Gods.
Thinking back to how the Wei family had endured for hundreds of years, remaining prosperous and flourishing despite the changing times, everything suddenly seemed to have an answer.
But the Wei family had already obtained wealth. Why, then, did they still want Wei Xilou to ascend to immortality?
Xu Muchan’s sluggish gaze slowly turned toward the coffin placed in the center.
This wooden tower was hexagonal in structure. The main entrance occupied one side, while the remaining five walls depicted the Five Plague Gods. At the central point where all six sides converged, that golden-threaded nanmu coffin had been placed.
Xu Muchan felt that his mind was becoming increasingly sluggish, as though it could no longer turn properly. He did not dare delay any longer. Placing both hands on the coffin lid, he suddenly exerted force and lifted it open—
Looking inside the coffin, Xu Muchan’s face went blank for a moment.
The coffin was empty.
There was nothing inside.
Wei Xilou was not here.
Xu Muchan stood there blankly, leaning against the coffin. At some point, his long hair had fallen over his chest. His lips moved slightly as he repeatedly murmured, “The Mountain God tablet… Brother…”
I need to put the Mountain God tablet back on quickly.
That was what Xu Muchan thought, but his movements were not fast at all. His arm rose as if in slow motion, yet he could not undo the red cord wrapped around his wrist no matter how hard he tried.
Xu Muchan became so anxious that fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Yet his face remained expressionless.
Then, suddenly, a pair of hands reached out from behind him.
They undid the tangled red cord and placed the Mountain God tablet back around his neck.
Those hands were snow-white and slender, flawless like a work of art.
Xu Muchan’s rusted brain finally began to function again. He tried to turn around, but those hands pressed down on his shoulders, preventing him from moving. He could only tilt his face to the side and confirm:
“Wei Xilou? Brother? Is that you?”
“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
The person behind him did not answer.
Xu Muchan felt a tall, icy-cold body pressed against his back. At the same time, a light, cool stream of air brushed along the side of his neck, as though the person behind him was pressing close to his skin and sniffing him.
Goosebumps rose wherever he was touched.
Xu Muchan tried to struggle, but he could not shake the strength exerted by those hands. He could only stand stiffly and allow the other party to thoroughly sniff him from head to toe.
As though it had finally confirmed his scent, the person behind Xu Muchan turned him around.
And Xu Muchan finally got a clear look at him.
It was Wei Xilou, yet it was not.
The person before him could hardly still be called human. His skin was gray-white without the slightest trace of color, like a sculpture in an art museum. His entire body possessed the lifeless gray-white hue of something that did not belong among the living.
Five deformed arms extended from his shoulder blades, each one holding a different object at its end.
Xu Muchan recognized them as the heads or skins of the Five Plague Gods.
Those blood-covered limbs were clenched tightly in his hands. Fresh blood flowed down along the arms, staining Wei Xilou’s colorless skin crimson.
Only then did Xu Muchan notice that, at some unknown point, the painted images of the Five Plague Gods on the wooden tower’s walls had disappeared.
And Wei Xilou at this moment was far too tall compared with him. Xu Muchan tilted his head back before finally seeing his face.
On that perfectly proportioned face, beautiful as a sculpture, the eyes that had originally belonged to a human had been replaced by a single vertical slit pupil.
At this moment, that slit pupil was packed with scarlet eyeballs, one pressed against another, desperately squeezing outward like peas inside a pod.
Below the vertical eye, his tall nose constantly twitched like that of a beast, still sniffing and capturing Xu Muchan’s scent.
A drifting, ever-changing voice sounded beside Xu Muchan’s ears. The voice seemed unfamiliar with speaking and called out to him:
“A-Chan…”
Xu Muchan’s expression became dazed.
When he came back to his senses, the monster before him had somehow once again transformed into the appearance of Wei Xilou, as though everything he had seen before had merely been an illusion.
Wei Xilou pulled him into the coffin and lay down with him.
The golden-threaded nanmu coffin was not large. Xu Muchan’s body was pressed tightly against his, and his fingers inevitably touched the smooth, icy skin that felt like jade.
His entire body immediately trembled.
Looking at that familiar yet unfamiliar face, Xu Muchan asked in a trembling voice:
“Are you Wei Xilou right now, or are you the Five Plague Gods?”