Volume One: The Eight Coffin Corpse Field, Chapter 88: The Five-Emperor Bronze Coins

It was impossible for him to be wrong. By then, Third Uncle was flushed with excitement as well, and he reasoned, “My guess is that while this old monk, Pure Wisdom, was in seclusion facing the wall, he read a great many scriptures. Somewhere in those texts, he may have come across an account of the Five Emperors Buddhist Lamp. With an itch in his hands, the old monk carved one himself. Who would have thought it would end up benefiting the two of us? The notes in that book say that for the Five Emperors Buddhist ritual, the Buddha head is usually made from dragon-subduing wood, which fears neither water nor fire. But this one also incorporates the relics of a revered monk and was made by the wooden figure craftsman Yang, so its power can only be greater. It should be an upgraded version of the Five Emperors Lamp.”

“You mean this lamp can repair the Yang Fire Lamp I extinguished?”

“Exactly. The Yang Fire Lamp you put out, and the thread of remnant soul that went astray, can be recreated with this Five Emperors Buddhist Lamp. Once your Yang Fire is lit again, that stray remnant soul will return to your body on its own.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Hurry up. What do we do?”

As for my having extinguished a Yang Fire lamp, Third Uncle had always kept me in the dark, mentioning it only in passing and in the lightest of terms. But I knew he was sparing me the pressure, because the danger was far from being as simple as he made it sound. That was why he had become so excited after obtaining this Five Emperors Lamp. So I was anxious too.

Third Uncle picked up the lamp and traced the patterns on its surface with his fingers, then shook his head. “If it were that simple, would I still be sitting here? Do you remember what the monk Dharma Zen said when he gave us this lamp?”

I had a very vivid memory of that scene. After thinking it over carefully, I said, “He seemed to say that the five coins on this Five Emperors Buddhist Lamp must not be ordinary copper coins, but something called imperial Five Emperors coins. Only when the five emperors are gathered together can the lamp work its true wonder. What does that mean?”

Third Uncle ran his hand over the impressions of the five copper coins on the lamp and explained, “Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing, the five emperors of the Great Qing in its golden age. Their coins are collectively known as the Five Emperors coins: Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, and Jiaqing Tongbao. In folk belief, these coins ward off evil and protect the household, so many homes hang them up to safeguard peace within the family. Ordinary Five Emperors coins are still common in the world; you might stumble across them anywhere. But imperial Five Emperors coins are different...”

“Imperial Five Emperors coins? What kind of coins are those?” I could not help asking.

“Each emperor, once enthroned, had to issue his own currency. Copper coins like these represent the common people at the foundation of society, so emperors valued them highly. Thus, when minting coins, an emperor would often personally take the very first coin from the furnace. He would then wear it on his person, and when he died, it would be buried with him. Because that coin had long been carried by the emperor and had acquired imperial aura, it was called an imperial Five Emperors coin. There are only five such coins in the world, so they are naturally priceless. It is said that after they were buried with the emperor, all five were stolen from the grave and dispersed among the people. Their whereabouts are unknown even now.”

After hearing him out, the hope that had just begun to rise in me burst at once like a soap bubble.

I grimaced. “Third Uncle, there are only five imperial coins in the whole world. You mean we have to gather all five before the lamp can work and my Yang Fire can be lit again, right?”

Third Uncle said that was exactly right.

I gave a bitter laugh. “Third Uncle, may I ask—how is finding all five imperial coins any different from fishing a needle out of the ocean?”

Third Uncle answered with perfect seriousness, “Of course there’s a difference.”

“What difference?”

“Needles are easier.”

The moment I heard that, I went limp. “Third Uncle, it’s the middle of the night. Can we stop kidding around?”

Third Uncle drained his coffee and said, “Who’s kidding? If something is difficult, then it also means there is hope. The main purpose of these imperial coins is still to guard the home. If they’ve ended up in private hands, they were probably used for that very purpose. And what do we do for a living? We break cursed houses. It all has to do with houses, so maybe we’ll find a clue in some house or another. We still need to keep the faith.”

I shook my head. “All right. If I gain it, I’m lucky; if I lose it, it was my fate.”

Seeing me discouraged, Third Uncle went on to comfort me. “Isn’t there a saying in some advertisement? Anything is possible. Nephew, think about it: when we signed that contract with that girl Liang Yue, didn’t we have to make two hundred thousand yuan within a month? Weren’t we just as desperate then? And yet before the deadline even arrived, we’d already exceeded the target. Doesn’t that prove that man proposes, but heaven disposes? In the end, what matters is that we do our best. Don’t you dare lose heart.”

He was uncharacteristically patient and earnest with me, and I knew he was afraid I might lose my fighting spirit.

I nodded. “Don’t worry, Third Uncle. No matter what happens, I’ll do my utmost.”

Satisfied, Third Uncle patted my shoulder. “That’s my nephew. With your Third Uncle Li Dongbin here, nothing is a big deal.”

“So what do we do next?”

“Tomorrow we cleanse the house, then notify the client, collect our money, and leave.”

We talked by the window until nearly dawn, and only then did we each yawn and grow sleepy.

We lay down for a brief rest, then went out at a little after ten in the morning to buy the things needed for the cleansing ritual. After that, following the same method as before, we prepared to thoroughly clean the inside and outside of the attic house.

In the room on the second floor where the dressing table stood, shattered mirror fragments were strewn across the floor, and without the glass the dressing table no longer looked so eerie.

Third Uncle told me to take all the bedding out into the courtyard to air it in the sun. When I lifted the quilts, I found the black cat pelt again.

Third Uncle picked it up and said, “This black cat was a spirit cat too. When all this is over, bury the pelt.”

I nodded. Then, suddenly, a cat’s cry came from outside the window.

We turned sharply and saw a black cat arched outside.

“That black cat! It has white fur on its tail,” I shouted, pointing outside.

It was the stray cat adopted by Fei Yao, and also the reincarnated cat of the one buried beneath the lilac tree.

“Don’t be afraid. This cat is thanking us,” Third Uncle said.

And sure enough, the cat bent its body and nodded toward us.

After three nods, it gave a plaintive cry, sprang away, and vanished beyond the window.

Third Uncle sighed. “It seems this cat’s reincarnation has long wanted to fulfill Wang Qing’s wish, and has been living around this attic house all along, waiting until Wang Qing’s reincarnation, Fei Yao, came back.”

I nodded, quietly marveling at the wonders of this world.

At Third Uncle’s request, I cleaned everything inside and out.

When I reached the first floor, Third Uncle suddenly fixed his gaze on the calligraphy-and-painting hanging in the main hall, lost in thought.

Finding that strange, I went over to look at it with him.

This painting-and-calligraphy work had hung in the main hall on the first floor of the attic ever since we first came here, and we had seen it then. But that night, since we had arrived after dark, we had not taken a proper look at it. Presumably, now that matters here had been settled, Third Uncle finally had the leisure and mood to appreciate it carefully. I did not know what had so transfixed him, or what he had discovered.

The end of this chapter.