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A Prophet - Chapter 9 (Part 3)

Chapter 3 - Setting up the Altar Solely as a Blind

One hour later, the Patriarch wearily pushed open the room door and said, "Fifth Master, you may come in."

Fifth Master Huang hurriedly ran inside.

"Patriarch, your health is unharmed, I trust?"

While waving his hand, the Patriarch coughed weakly, "No major harm, no major harm. Quickly have these two bowls of plain water sent to the newlyweds to drink—hurry, hurry!"

Fifth Master Huang hastily had the servants carry the plain water and send it to his daughter and son-in-law.

The Patriarch stated, "Within three days, your daughter and son-in-law's condition will definitely improve."

Fifth Master Huang expressed boundless gratitude, "Patriarch, how can this immense grace and virtue ever be repaid! Men..."

The Patriarch waved a hand, "Fifth Master is too courteous. I ask that Fifth Master quickly dispatch someone to escort me back to my residence; my vital energy is severely damaged, and I am in urgent need of recuperation! Other matters can be discussed another day!"

The Patriarch understood that if he collected money at this moment, Fifth Master Huang would certainly feel uneasy in his heart because the treatment had not yet shown effects. Once the effects were seen, Fifth Master Huang would naturally come knocking on his door to express gratitude.

Two days later, Fifth Master Huang came to visit the Patriarch. Naturally, the Patriarch was covered in a quilt, lying in bed in a very feeble state, with the Second Bandit Chief guarding the bedside in an attitude of attentive care.

Fifth Master Huang asked with concern, "Is the Patriarch's health entirely well? My little daughter and beloved son-in-law's conditions have vastly improved."

The Patriarch smiled benevolently, "As long as they've improved, that's fine. As long as they've improved, that's fine."

Fifth Master Huang subsequently had a servant carry up a chest, and grasping the Patriarch's hand, he said, "Please graciously accept this meager token of appreciation, Patriarch. To save my beloved daughter, you harmed your body and shortened your lifespan; this boundless grace and virtue will never be forgotten in this lifetime!"

The Patriarch smiled and said, "Fifth Master exaggerates! Those of us who eat from this bowl are destined to be this way; Fifth Master need not take it too to heart."

After Fifth Master Huang departed, the Second Bandit Chief opened the chest: fifty silver dollars and five gold bars. The Second Bandit Chief was overjoyed, and the Patriarch was likewise delighted. That evening, the faction's bandit chiefs gathered together at the Patriarch's residence, drinking merrily and toasting to their hearts' content.

Stroking Zhang Zizan's head, the Patriarch said to everyone, "Being able to pull off this scheme relied entirely on Brother Zizan."

As it turned out, back on that day when the Second Bandit Chief was pretending to help out at Fifth Master Huang's residence, taking advantage of a moment when nobody was paying attention, he slipped something into the wine on the newlyweds' serving tray. This substance would not take a person's life, but once consumed, it would fiercely stimulate the bladder, making them constantly want to urinate!

This prank method originated from Yanzhao. Since ancient times, Yanzhao had the old custom of making a ruckus in the bridal chamber. On the wedding day, villagers could think up every possible means to torment the newlyweds: blocking the bride from entering the room, lying across the bed to flirt with the bride, crouching under the bed to eavesdrop on the groom and bride performing their marital duties, and so on.

These methods of teasing were renewed every single year, but the villagers still felt it wasn't stimulating enough. Eventually, someone finally invented an unprecedented and un-surpassable torment method.

This method severely damaged karmic virtue, as it could expose the bride in all manner of unseemly ways. The specific practice was to prepare a kind of medicinal powder. During the bridal chamber teasing, this powder was secretly sprinkled into the bride's wine cup or tea cup, and she was then urged to drink it. Within half an hour, the bride would exhibit symptoms of frequent urination. On the day a young maiden was married, she was bashful and timid; unless she was pushed to the absolute limit, she would try her utmost to avoid using the outhouse so as not to make a spectacle of herself. However, once she drank this medicinal powder, she was in for serious trouble: her whole body would grow cold, the urge to urinate would be overwhelming, and the more she tried to hold it in, the less she could control it. She would run to the outhouse endlessly, making a complete fool of herself!

This was actually a case of acute urinary tract infection. Even after emptying all the urine from her body, she would still feel the urge to urinate, uncontrollably squatting down and straining to force it out.

The raw material for making this medicinal powder was very simple—toads. Toads, whose scientific name is bufo, possess toxins within their bodies, and some are extremely toxic. Experienced traditional Chinese medicine practitioners would know by looking which toads could be used in medicine and which could not. Modern medicine has proven that the toxins inside a toad's body indeed have diuretic properties.

The villagers in the town had listened to a wicked idea from a wild quack doctor, digging up toads all over the mountains during the depths of winter. They dragged the large hibernating toads out of the soil layers, smashed them to death, placed them on stones to dry in the sun, and then ground the shriveled toad corpses into a powder. During the bridal chamber ruckus, taking advantage of when the bride wasn't paying attention, they added a small amount to her wine and quietly watched the bride challenge her physiological limits.

Later on, because a certain bride ingested too much toad powder and happened to be excessively bashful, stubbornly refusing to go to the outhouse, right while the crowd was continuously frolicking and making a commotion around the bride, with a loud pop, the bride's bladder burst, and she died suddenly in the bridal chamber. Enraged and humiliated, the groom stabbed the person who dropped the powder to death with a single blade, and from then on, no one ever dared to use this method again.

Zhang Zizan had been interested in such matters since he was a child. He looked up relevant information on toads from pharmacopeias, found the pathogenic mechanism of the toxins in their bodies, and later, based on Western pharmacological analysis, found the antidote.

When the Patriarch wanted to execute a scheme this time, he needed precisely this kind of poison: one that caused illness without causing death, and which could be cured afterward without damaging the body. At the time, the faction possessed everything from lethal poisons to knockout drugs and soul-confusing powders, but a poison that was so well-balanced and measured truly did not exist among them.

Consequently, Zhang Zizan brought up this method. Zhang Zizan did have a condition, however: it had to be done in the "service of heaven's justice."

The Patriarch told him that this Fifth Master Huang was a thorough underworld boss who had oppressed the common people for years. During the "April 12" Incident, he had even directed his subordinates disguised as workers to attack the "Workers' Picket Corps," murdering many revolutionary martyrs.

Only then did Zhang Zizan give his consent.

At the celebration party, the Patriarch happily praised him without reservation, "Zizan, this is a monumental achievement!"

Zhang Zizan smiled sheepishly, "I still feel somewhat... somewhat uneasy inside..."

The Patriarch understood that those who had just entered the trade lacked sufficient ruthlessness in their hearts and harshness in their hands; their consciences had not yet been blinded by money. The Patriarch said, "Acting on behalf of heaven's justice—there's nothing to feel bad about. A portion of this money will very soon be used to relieve the poor. Recently, a cold wind has been raging fiercely; tomorrow you personally go to the pharmacy, get some herbs, and distribute them to the poor people in the surrounding area."

Only then did Zhang Zizan smile knowingly.

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