"Your father should be bringing a message back today. Just wait patiently. If you have nothing to do, you can walk around during the day and stretch your legs. Just remember to hurry back when the bell rings," his mother continued.
"Okay... I get it..." Lin Hui's thoughts were jumbled, so he could only nod.
He'd been hit with a massive influx of memories over the past two days. Right now, he had no concrete plans for himself or his future. He could only take things one step at a time.
He watched as his mother, Yao Shan, quickly tidied her hair, fastened it with a bean pod jade hairpin, and hurried out the door.
Lin Hui followed her into the courtyard and stood at the gate, looking out.
Outside was a wide yellow mud road, its sides dotted with sparse green grass. The road's surface was uneven, with puddles in some spots—it had clearly rained recently.
Houses lined the yellow mud road, stretching into the distance like tiny specks on a winding path.
The houses varied in size, from simple earthen huts to homes with stone courtyards, but they all had one thing in common: high surrounding walls.
The road was already bustling with people and vehicles. There were pushcarts laden with goods, slow-moving oxcarts, and horse-drawn carriages carrying passengers. Children herded chickens and ducks out to forage, but the majority of the crowd consisted of people heading from their homes toward the town center for work.
Lin Hui stepped out. He took in the damp, earthy scent of the yellow mud as he headed down the road toward town.
Between the houses on either side of the road were large plots of farmland and vegetable patches, and some people were already out in the fields, beginning their labor.
He hadn't gone far when an old, white-bearded man pulling weeds by the roadside looked up and called out, "Xiaohui! You not resting well or something? How come your face is so pale?"
His name was Li Quanzhong, and he lived just to the right of the Lin Family Mansion, making him a neighbor of many years. He had one son who worked as a barber in town.
"Yeah, I haven't been sleeping well... been getting some headaches," Lin Hui said, making up an excuse.
"You should take care of yourself, then. Go home, drink some hot water. If that doesn't work, go get some Wanfu Meat. You'll feel better in no time," Li Quanzhong said with a cheerful laugh.
'Wanfu Meat...'
Lin Hui's mind stirred.
The population of the Tuyue City District was enormous, composed mostly of people from the outer towns. Logically, in an era with such primitive production, it should have been incredibly difficult to sustain a city this large. But that was precisely the mystery.
The Government Office in the city would periodically distribute something called Wanfu Meat.
It was a type of meat with a fragrant smell and delicious taste. No one knew what kind of creature it was carved from, but every person could claim a large slab—over ten pounds—each month.
But that wasn't even the most important part. Besides sating hunger, this Wanfu Meat could supposedly cure any ailment!
No matter the sickness, eating just a small piece would supposedly lead to a swift recovery, making doctors unnecessary.
Lin Hui snapped out of his thoughts, exchanged a few more pleasantries with Uncle Li, and then continued down the yellow mud road.
Before long, he saw a crowd of townspeople gathered outside a small courtyard up ahead.
A few of his younger cousins from other branches of the Lin Family were also there, watching the commotion. When they saw him approaching from a distance, the kids scattered, but not before pulling faces at him. One of the bolder ones even spat in his direction from afar.
Lin Hui feigned a charge, sending the kids scrambling away.
His branch of the family was just an ordinary part of the greater Lin Family. The kids despised him because, before his 'awakening,' he'd been a total failure. Lacking skills and looks, Lin Hui was seen as nothing more than a good-for-nothing loafer compared to his peers, lounging at home all day and doing nothing.
In an age where everyone, adults and children alike, had to work to make a living, lying around at home and living off one's elders was something people looked down on.
After shooing the kids away, Lin Hui approached the crowd, standing at its edge and craning his neck to see what was going on.
As he peered, he could vaguely hear a few people to his right muttering amongst themselves, catching words like "Mountain Spirit," "Peach Tree Spirit," and "revenge."
To his left, several older women were silently moving their lips, chanting some sort of prayer in unison.
Closer to the center, two towering, blade-wielding Officials in black formal clothing stood like a pair of walls, holding back the curious townspeople.
The two chatted in low voices, oblivious to the crowd, speaking in some dialect he couldn't understand.
Lin Hui peered deeper, past the officials. He could vaguely see that the courtyard gate was wide open, with faint traces of blood on the ground inside.
A human leg, mangled and gnawed down to the white bone, was clearly visible just inside the doorway.
"Still looking!" A mother grabbed her bare-bottomed, peeking child by the ear from behind and forcefully dragged him away from the crowd.
"Did you see that? That's what happens when the Jade Talisman isn't replaced in time! This'll teach you to mess with them again!"
"Let go! Ow! It hurts! I won't do it again, I promise!" the child shrieked as he was pulled away.
Lin Hui watched the mother and son leave. Dressed in a gray tunic, he blended seamlessly into the similarly attired crowd.
"This has nothing to do with the Jade Talisman," a low female voice suddenly said nearby.
Lin Hui turned to see a tall woman in a gray tunic and black leather pants who had, at some point, walked up behind him.
Her face bore a slight resemblance to his. Her hair was tied into two simple buns, and she was holding a soy sauce jug, apparently on her way back from the store.
"Let's go. Stop looking," the woman said. "This was a Gate-Breaking Ghost, and in broad daylight." Her name was Lin Hongzhen, the eldest daughter of the Lin Family's main branch and Lin Hui's cousin, one year his senior.
"Gate-Breaking Ghost..."
Lin Hui repeated the name, his expression darkening. It was a catch-all term for any monster or beast that attacked people in broad daylight; it didn't literally refer to a ghost.