Officer Zhang woke up from his unconsciousness, throwing his head around in his confusion to find out where he was. With a loud crash, he fell from his chair. I lighted a smoke and offered another one to him. With a casual tone, I said, “It has been days since we last met, Officer Zhang!” His hands trembled and the cigarette shook in his mouth. I reached over with a lighter and set his cigarette alight. “Your woman has confessed,” I said, matter-of-factly, “Ah, yes! You’d do well to remember that we are now aligned with the horse bandits. There’s a lack of awareness for the rule of law here, so I’d advise that you cooperate to spare yourself from any pain!”

Still, my words seemed to have failed to make any impression to the man. Seeing that he was not bound by ropes, Officer Zhang sprang to his feet and bolted for the door! I merely smiled and made no attempt to stop him, still remaining crouched on the ground. Officer Zhang was gleeful at being able to reach the door. But he had barely touched the knob when something dropped down before him from the ceiling that made him leap with horror as he screamed, “Oh my God! A ghost!”

It was Xiao Si, one of the Sisters who had hanged herself to death, who had possessed Officer Zhang and led him to our car earlier. Her haunting of him allowed him to be able to physically see her for at least seven days. To prevent Zhang from escaping, Xiao Si lowered herself from the ceiling and frightened him with the hideous appearance when she was found dead—her long tongue sticking out and her eyes blood-shot, while residues of blood oozed from the orifices of her face—and barred him from leaving. This mischevious Xiao Si, I mused. “She has this penchant of deriving fun even during the business,” I thought, as her long and slick tongue grazed on Officer Zhang’s cheek, terrifying the man even further! She waved to him and greeted him, saying benignly, “Hello there, Officer.” Officer Zhang turned up the whites of his eyes, and fainted right away. Xiao Si was trying to be cute, only to have almost startled the man to his death! I grimaced at her handiwork. “Do try not to shock the man to death. I do not appreciate the prospect of having to explain his demise to Deputy Director Zhao!” Even though Officer Zhang might be more amenable to my interrogation if he was dead, I could not afford to have a murder charge hung on me.

I retrieved my Spirit Gourd and took a mouthful of water from it into my mouth and I spit the water into Officer Zhang’s face, rousing him awake. “It’s best that you remain truthful, lest I offer you to her,” I said to him, pointing at Xiao Si who was hovering behind him, “I think she likes you, you being a public servant and all that…” “I’ll confess! I’ll tell you the truth! Just don’t kill me!” Officer Zhang cried, begging desperately in his feeble attempts to catch hold of the final straws of hope and redemption…

A year ago, Officer Zhang revealed, he was part of a raid to apprehend illegal gamblers. After arresting the gamblers and confiscating their winnings, the gamblers were questioned one by one. But, to prevent from being sentenced harshly, none of the gamblers would dare admit to large figures! All of them lied in their statements, each trying to misrepresent the amount of money they had. The gamblers were sent for a re-education stint, and were given back the amount based on their statements. This resulted in a large pool of money unclaimed, numbering close to tens of thousands, which the policemen involved in the raid divided amongst themselves.

This experience gave rise to an insatiable thirst for money, that Officer Zhang began volunteering himself whenever a raid on illegal gambling was conducted! Eventually, his corrupt dishonesty was discovered; a middle-aged man, as he confessed, caught him pocketing the remainder of the illegal gamblers’ pool of winnings and threatened to report this to the police. Such a complain would see him arrested, demoted, sacked, or worst, in bars! With no other options in mind, he surrendered himself to the man who began to blackmail him. But nothing of the deeds that he was charged to do by the man seemed wrong to him, hence Officer Zhang had quietly relented and did as he was told until now. It was only the recent orders he had received, that he was bidden to lure us to Inner Mongolia! Everything he did was in accordance with the demands of this man, his blackmailer! When our baggage was taken by Aunt Ulan’s henchwomen, he went, as he was bidden to, immediately to Aunt Ulan’s fields where he met with his lover. But they had just rendezvoused when they saw a sight that horrified them: not only Yuan Chongxi was not thwarted or killed, instead, he had defeated the women he pursued, and he had coerced them into submission, forcing them to carry him on a makeshift litter. Realizing that their plans had backfired, the abominable duo understood that we were beyond the abilities of Aunt Ulan’s band of robbers to handle.

In his panic, he made touch with his overseer and reported of his failure before he and his lover made a forlorn attempt to escape… What was his name, I asked Officer Zhang and he said he was merely identified as Zheng; a man named Zheng who was allegedly the ringleader of another band of brigands that camped at a stronghold called the Black Dragon Keep which was hundreds of kilometers to the east from where we were. Officer Zhang professed earnestly that that was all he knew. So even the wide and clear steppes of Inner Mongolia could be shrouded by such a pall of conspiracy, that even horse bandits feared neither law nor order!

Understanding everything finally, we ended the interrogation. I went to Aunt Ulan and spoke to her. “Do you know of the Black Dragon Keep, Aunt?” I asked her and she said, “We would not have become horse bandits ourselves if it was not for them. For many years, they have plundered and pillaged our lands and livestock. They have as good as forced us to a wall when we had decided to fight against them, steel versus steel! For years, we have been in constant strife with them!” “Have you ever thought of leveling their stronghold?” “They are strong. Not only they have great experience and wisdom, but their stronghold is also strong and sturdy. We lack the means to bring down its walls!” “I have a way!” I said confidently, to which Aunt Ulan leaped to her feet with a disbelieving “Ah!?”. “In my interrogation of the police officer, he mentioned that he had made contact with his blackmailer when he saw Chongxi’s triumph in subduing your girls before he fled. That was all that he saw, and it is something we can exploit to the fullest since his master had failed to glean more information of what had transpired here. You can begin leaking news, saying that we’re poisoned and drugged, and are in captivity here…”

Aunt Ulan’s fist hammered hard on the table as she exclaimed, “Good!” Her outburst startled me that I nearly leaped in my chair. The fact that she remained a bandit had nearly slipped my mind! What a fiery temperament!

Finally, we had our belated respite. We expected no further movements at least for the next two days. I looked at my watch and decided to make a call to Zheng Shuang for an update, since the hour was still early. I told him of our present developments and reassured him that we would ensure a satisfactory conclusion. The matter had escalated to one of a personal feud which I would personally make secure that all loose ends would be tied up. Zheng Shuang understood the gist of my message; the matter was beyond any conventional methods to manage now, and it could only be resolved internally—by us, purveyors of arcane skills and sorcery. He would report to his superiors that the task force had been in touch with the police force of Inner Mongolia and would do all he could to provide as much support as possible if anything arises on my end. A massive cross-district operation would be launched expeditiously at my green light if the need was arisen.

I retrieved my Spirit Gourd and took a mouthful of water from it into my mouth and I spit the water into Officer Zhang’s face, rousing him awake. “It’s best that you remain truthful, lest I offer you to her,” I said to him, pointing at Xiao Si who was hovering behind him, “I think she likes you, you being a public servant and all that…” “I’ll confess! I’ll tell you the truth! Just don’t kill me!” Officer Zhang cried, begging desperately in his feeble attempts to catch hold of the final straws of hope and redemption…

“How many, you say? I can’t remember… but mostly your mother was with me, honestly…” he muttered. I could almost see him blushing with his face burning scarlet red but that did little to dispel the question marks that loomed over me. “Mother was with you all the time? Why didn’t Aunt Ulan say anything about this?” I asked, only to have Father steering away from the subject, “So, how fares your endeavor there?” This could mean that Mother must have some form of enchantment on Father in order to keep tabs on him, I mused. “Don’t stray away from the topic, Father,” I snapped, “Tell me, how should I deal with Aunt Ulan? I’m still depending on her and things are at a very delicate stage! It is embarrassing enough without bringing up the matter of your dalliance with her!” There was a pause on the phone before Father’s voice came again. “Well… since that’s how she views things… you can just call her ‘godmother’… You’d be able to spare yourself of any awkwardness! Moreover, it is also a good thing, since you mentioned that Ulan has no child of her own!” That was immensely convenient for you, old man, I thought sourly. How would I be able to broach this subject, I wondered. But I would later find out that it was merely my own supposition, for I later found that calling Aunt Ulan as ‘godmother’ was not as bad as I thought it would be, instead, it was a notion that was welcomed by everyone at her camp.

With that, our call came to an ambiguous end. I rolled on my bed and something caught my eye: the sky was dark outside! Had we talked for so long on the phone, I reflected. Just then, a hand reached through the drapes of curtains of my door and pushed it aside. It was Edelweiss. She had changed her clothing and had her hair tied up, exuding the womanliness never before seen when we met before. She was hardly as muscular and stout as I thought she was; it was her clothing and getup that had given me that impression especially when she was on a horse. Rather, I found that Edelweiss did in fact retained charms of her own as a girl with fresh and pretty looks aside to her appealing physique; an exoticness never to be found in delicate and spoiled city girls who require extensive mollycoddling. Edelweiss suddenly realized my stares, and her face flushed with bright pink patches on her cheeks as she blurted, “The chief has asked me to call you out for dinner! You must enjoy yourself tonight, she said!” I nodded blankly at her and she quickly slipped out the door.

Xiao Qi’s ghost appeared suddenly, lolling on my head as she said dreamily, “You’re in love with Edelweiss!” My head spun to look at Xiao San for help, who instead nodded to me intently, her eyes large and bright with certainty! I shook my head off-handedly as Xiao Qi patted my shoulder. “Then again,” she said, “There’s no way a girl would be interested in a boy as frail and feeble as you! You’re nothing but a bag of bones!” I tried to smack at her ghost as how I would smack at a pesky mosquito. “What are you?” I yelled, “An amorous ghost or a drowned ghost! What indecencies!” Xiao Qi made no attempt to answer me, merely grinning at me. “Be that as it may, I am a young man twenty-plus years old of age! It is normal for me to recognize the charms of a girl! Does that mean I’m in love with her? Things are not as gross as you meant! The same could be said too if I were to stare at Xiao San, is it not?!” Xiao San turned her head away with an irate “Hmph!”, as Xiao Qi peered gleefully at her…

We left our room and found a huge pyramid of fire burned at the courtyard of the encampment. Everyone was seated around the fire and there was a wide range of food too…