Chapter 186: The Last Day Before the New Year

The man who held her close, a little younger than his own eldest daughter, spoke in a soft and cajoling voice. One hand circled her waist, the other pinched her delicate cheek as he said with lewd relish, “Tonight you stay with me until dawn. If you can give me a son by then, I’ll leave the ladies’ shop to the two of you.”

After the extermination of a fiend at the home of Master Zhang, another day had quietly slipped by. By now, there was only one day left before the New Year.

That day, Yin Mao rose at daybreak. After washing and dressing and finishing breakfast with Jiu Jin and the others, he began the year-end thorough cleaning.

In this world, families had the custom of sweeping and cleansing their homes from top to bottom before the year turned, so after breakfast Yin Mao led Jiu Jin and two other boys in cleaning the residence.

Meanwhile, the other two girls were occupied as well: one was sewing Yin Mao a new set of New Year clothes, while the other prepared dishes in the rear kitchen for the holiday.

With everyone assigned their task, all proceeded in orderly fashion. By nightfall, everything that should have been cleaned and prepared in the Yin household before the New Year had been done.

After a full day of labor, the six people in the household ate supper together, then each returned to their own rooms to rest.

Carrying a crimson robe back to his chamber, Yin Mao put it on and stood before a large bronze mirror, studying himself from a few angles. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.

After trying on his new clothes, he lay down and slept. That sleep, however, brought trouble.

The next morning, Jiu Jin knocked on Yin Mao’s door. “Master, it’s time to rise and paste up the new spring talismans.”

He knocked for a long while, but there was no answer from inside. A servant outside muttered softly, “Our master really does sleep a lot. It’s already high in the sky, and he’s still in dreamland.”

After Jiu Jin left, about half an hour passed before another servant came to Yin Mao’s door and called out again. Still, there was not the slightest response from within.

The sight filled the servants outside with unease. It was true that Yin Mao often liked to sleep late, but even then he had never been like this, silent as a dead pig.

Sensing that something was wrong, the servant called over several others, and together they forced the door open. Only then did they discover Yin Mao lying on the bed, breathing faintly, his face alarmingly pale.

One maid, thinking he had come down with a fever, reached out to feel his forehead.

The moment her hand touched him, she drew it back at once, for an unbearably cold chill radiated from his skin. When her fingers met his brow, it was as if she had touched a block of ten-thousand-year ice.

“Oh no, oh no—our master seems to have been struck by something unclean. He’s icy cold.”

“What nonsense are you spouting? Who in this whole county doesn’t know our master’s abilities? With his skills, how could he possibly be possessed? What a fool you are.”

“Enough, stop arguing. The most urgent thing now is to fetch a physician for the master.”

After the servants exchanged a flurry of words in the room, one of them sat by the bed, felt for the pulse in Yin Mao’s neck, and then sent a male servant to summon a physician.

Soon, the most renowned old physician in the city was brought to the Yin household.

“Ah. In all my forty-odd years of medicine, I have never encountered an illness like this on Master Yin. I cannot cure it. You would do better not to look any further for a miracle worker.”

After examining him, the old doctor said this with considerable helplessness, then departed from the Yin residence with a sigh and his medicine case.

“What are we supposed to do now?” one servant asked anxiously upon hearing that the doctor could not treat him.

“I’ll go to the east side of the city and fetch Doctor Ouyang. Perhaps he can cure the master.”

After saying this, another servant ran off. Not long after, he returned with a gray-haired old physician carrying a medicine case, and brought him into the Yin residence.

Like the doctor before him, Doctor Ouyang examined Yin Mao for some time, yet could not determine the cause. In the end, he left behind a judgment he thought likely and then took his leave.

“Master Yin’s illness is truly something I have never heard of or seen. In my opinion, this may not be an illness at all, but harm wrought by some evil spirit.”

Those words left the servants at a loss.

If it were merely an ordinary sickness, then after summoning two of the city’s most famous physicians, there should at least have been some diagnosis. But if, as Doctor Ouyang said, their master had truly been harmed by some sinister being, then what were they to do next?

In this county, apart from Yin Mao, there were no other Daoists or exorcists left.

A day that should have been spent joyfully sweeping away the old and welcoming the new had instead been overshadowed by Yin Mao’s sudden mysterious illness, leaving the servants of the Yin household heartbroken. If not for Yin Mao’s taking them in, how could they have had such happy lives today?

In the end, after some discussion, two of the male servants decided to travel to a neighboring county to seek out a cultivator.

Within the Yin household, Jiu Jin and the two maids were left to keep watch over Yin Mao.

Once the arrangements had been made, the two servants who were to seek help in the neighboring county gathered their things and set out.

More than a hundred li east of Cuttlefish County lay the small county of Ding'an. It was said that there lived in Ding'an a mage of rather high cultivation, so the two servants planned to go there in search of a master.

But the distance was over a hundred li, and the roads were blocked by heavy snow, so they had no choice but to make the journey on foot.

Trudging through the thick snow, each step a struggle, the two servants nonetheless pressed on as hard as they could, determined to save Yin Mao’s life.

“Ji’an, do you think the mage in Ding’an can actually cure our master?”

“What are you talking about, Changshou? Are you hoping something bad happens? Are you saying you want our master to just give up and die?”

“Bah! Our master isn’t an ordinary man. How could he just give up and die like that?”

The two servants from the Yin household, named Ji'an and Changshou, were speaking when their words clashed. After only a few remarks, they fell silent, sulking at one another as they continued onward through the deep snow.