The Embroidery Maiden

“Well now. This hexagram…” Li Huowang frowned at the fissures on the skull, then flipped through the talisman manual to cross-reference.

“Heaven above, Heaven below—Heaven’s Purity. Heaven and Wind—Retreat. Heaven and Mountain—Escape.” That was what Li Huowang’s oracle had produced.

But oddly enough, the manual didn’t record how to interpret the hexagrams. It only said to re-burn the talisman paper into ash and swallow it down.

He glanced at Magistrate Lou, who was waiting nearby. After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang pulled a fire-striker from his bosom and scraped it hard against a corner of the yellow talisman.

When the talisman ignited in eerie green flames, Li Huowang tilted his neck with an involuntary shiver.

Then he heard a very thin, reedy voice speaking. But when he strained to listen, he caught nothing at all.

The talisman burned. The ash that remained did not scatter. Instead it slowly writhed, twisting into a wrinkled black shape that looked like a newborn baby made of soot.

Li Huowang stared at the object in his palm, hesitated, then dropped it into the tea beside him. He raised the cup and drank it all in one gulp.

Then he stood there waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

Just then, a rooster crowed outside. Li Huowang and Magistrate Lou stood in the room, staring at each other.

“Does this talisman manual even work?” Doubt began to creep into Li Huowang’s mind. “It said divination. Where’s the divination?”

Seeing Li Huowang stymied, Magistrate Lou immediately offered a gracious way out. “Excellency, you’ve been at it all day. Perhaps you’d like to rest first?”

Li Huowang, still caught up in his momentum, had no intention of resting. Frowning, he kept flipping through the talisman manual.

But just then, a delicate young girl came out from the doorway, tugging at Magistrate Lou’s robe and gently shaking it. “Father… why aren’t you asleep again?”

Faced with his daughter, Magistrate Lou could hardly be stern. He softened his expression and coaxed her. “Ah, my good girl. Go eat your morning meal with your mother. I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Hmm, I won’t. You said the same thing yesterday.” The girl was affectionately wheedling her father when a sharp shout made both of them flinch.

When they saw Li Huowang walking toward them, Magistrate Lou’s face turned white. He hurriedly pushed his daughter behind him.

“E-Excellency, this is my daughter.”

Li Huowang shoved him aside, rushed up to the girl, and—under her shocked gaze—plucked a small green cloth pouch from her waist.

He stared at the pattern on the pouch. “Who made this?”

Part of the embroidery matched the hexagram he had drawn.

The girl was clearly frightened by the fierce-looking man. She glanced at her father first, and when she saw that he wouldn’t protect her, her voice trembled. “M-My embroidery maiden made it for me. It’s a sachet.”

“Embroidery maiden? Bring her here!” There was no way such a coincidence happened in this world by chance. Maybe the talisman really had worked. Maybe this was the interpretation Li Huowang was looking for.

Soon the so-called embroidery maiden was dragged before Li Huowang, escorted by constables. She looked a bit older than the magistrate’s daughter, but she had a fragile, soft appearance—light as if a breath of wind could knock her over.

“Did you make this sachet?” Li Huowang held the object up and demanded.

“Yes…” The woman answered meekly, eyes downcast, not daring to look up.

“Why are these birds in this pattern?”

“They’re mandarin ducks…”

“I’m asking why you embroidered this pattern!” Li Huowang’s roar startled everyone in the room.

The embroidery maiden looked on the verge of tears, droplets swirling in her eyes. “M-Mandarin ducks… this is how you always… embroider them…”

Li Huowang stood and walked toward her. With each step came the sound of a sword rasping against its scabbard.

When he drew the Purple-Tasseled Sword, Li Huowang, exuding murderous intent, seemed utterly terrifying to everyone in the room.

He stopped before the embroidery maiden. The almost tangible pressure radiating from him broke her composure entirely.

“I don’t know! My grandmother taught me this embroidery! Mandarin ducks have always been embroidered this way!” The maiden crouched on the ground, weeping, her tears falling like rain.

But then the room fell silent. Whether it was the constable gripping his sword handle or the clerk stroking his beard, everyone’s eyes went wide as they stared at the embroidery maiden.

The first half of her voice was normal. But the second half—it came out as a man’s voice.

The constable rushed down first. He grabbed a handful of the woman’s chest, then turned to Magistrate Lou with utter shock on his face. “Excellency! This woman has a dick!”

Magistrate Lou’s face went pale. His first reaction was to look at his daughter.

Li Huowang seized the cross-dressing embroidery maiden by the neck and slowly lifted her up. “Magistrate Lou, it looks like we’ve found the man who violated the women!”

“In-in the dungeon! Interrogate him! Interrogate him harshly!” Magistrate Lou’s voice had gone shrill with rage, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

Having finally caught a lead, Li Huowang had no intention of letting go. He followed the escorting constables as they dragged the falsely dressed man toward the prison.

Within moments, the prison of Cangshui County echoed with the man’s agonized screams.

“Talk! Who are your accomplices? Where are they hiding now? Why did you steal the infants?!”

Li Huowang frowned as he watched the red-hot branding iron sizzle against skin and heard the whips soaking in brine.

“Alright. Everyone out,” he said, standing and walking toward the man whose face was now unrecognizable.

Ignoring the jailer’s proffered branding iron, Li Huowang stopped before the prisoner and removed his own bamboo hat.

His wounds had healed quickly. Much of the skin on his face had already knitted back together. But that only made him look even more grotesque.

The man, worn out by torture, seemed to find new strength at the sight of Li Huowang’s face. He strained backward, as if terrified that Li Huowang might devour him.

With a clatter of metal, Li Huowang’s kit of torture implements slowly unfurled at his side. “Talk.”

“I really don’t know! I’m the one who raped the women! I admit it! But I’m not the one who stole the infants!” The man had wet himself in terror, but his words didn’t waver.

“Is that so?” Li Huowang picked out a small saw, pressed the man’s head against the wall, and placed the blade against it, sawing left and right.

If the man’s screams had been human before, they devolved into something inhuman soon enough.

Half a shichen later, Li Huowang began reciting the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, healing the critically wounded man.

“Strange. Why?” Li Huowang felt certain the man was telling the truth. After that round of treatment, Li Huowang himself wasn’t sure he would have held up.

“Could it be… that the ones who raped the women and the ones who stole the infants are two separate groups? Just because they happened at the same time, everyone assumed they were connected?”

The thought left Li Huowang feeling extremely sour. The lead was gone.

For the first time, he found himself stymied. It didn’t matter how strong the opponent was. What was maddening was that they simply refused to show themselves.

He realized now that the work of the Supervisory Heavenly Office was nothing like he had imagined.

Just then, his stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten for three meals. If he didn’t eat soon, he’d collapse.

He took one last look at the mutilated man, then turned and walked out of the prison.

The jailer, who had been watching slack-jawed, snapped out of it. He didn’t see Li Huowang off himself. Instead, he kicked one of the guards in the backside.

The terrified guard had no choice. Forcing a smile, he scrambled to see Li Huowang out.

“Go slowly, Excellency! Please visit us again whenever you’re free! Excellency, your handiwork is truly remarkable!”