Chapter Ninety: The Red Wall Incident

The master had only just begun his story when he glanced around at the people listening so intently and said, “Do you know how it ended?”

Everyone shook their heads, and I did too. The master smiled and went on, “In the end, that young imperial prince actually fell for a young palace maid. When he came of age at sixteen, he insisted on marrying her, and the emperor could not withstand his beloved son’s stubbornness, so the two of them ended up together. The maid rose overnight and became a consort. Tell me, wasn’t her fate a fine one?”

The people around us all nodded in agreement. Sitting beside him, I asked in confusion, “Then, Master, what was the story you were telling us?”

He froze for a moment, then said, “Ah, right. I got so carried away I nearly forgot the point. Do you know what happened along this red-walled corridor?”

Once again he asked the crowd. The tourists shook their heads too and crouched down beside us, urging him, “Come on then, tell us. What happened here before? Don’t tell me it was another story about princes and concubines.”

The master waved a hand and said, “Don’t let this red-walled corridor fool you. It may look full of history now, but in the last century something strange happened here. It is said that in 1992, there were many people visiting the Forbidden City just as we are now. But that day, while the tourists were strolling through the palace, the entire Forbidden City had already been swallowed by thunderclouds. It looked as though a torrential downpour was about to break. In the midst of flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder, the Palace Maid Incident, also known as the Red Wall Haunting, occurred right then and there. Many visitors saw that beside the Forbidden City’s red walls there were actually palace maids walking in formation, chatting and laughing as they went. In a place like the imperial inner court, where so many had died wrongfully and with grievances, an odd occurrence or two would not be surprising. But after the maid incident, many tourists were scared witless, and through all kinds of later retellings the matter became even more eerie.”

By then, everyone’s expressions around us had gradually grown solemn. Some of the more timid people even looked over their shoulders, though it was broad daylight and the sun was shining. Just then, I heard a tourist beside me nod to the others and say, “I’ve heard of this too. It caused quite a stir at the time and even alarmed a lot of experts.”

The master nodded as well and echoed, “That’s right, it caused no small commotion. Many scientific experts and architectural experts came to investigate. But now, looking back on it, there is another explanation. They say the palace walls were red because they contained magnetite, and since palace maids used to pass by there, and it happened to be during thunder and lightning, the electric current was conducted through the magnetite. In that case, the red wall was like a modern videotape recorder, storing the maid’s path on the wall itself as if it were an image. Years later, if lightning struck again, the recorder would switch on and automatically play back the footage of the maid walking, which is why the ghostly maid incident appeared. But...”

He stopped there. The people around us were listening with great excitement and urged him onward once more. The master nodded and said, “But this explanation was also widely questioned in the end, because the red wall has been repainted many times. Even if it once contained magnetite, it would have been covered long ago. So how could it possibly work like a video recorder? That explanation, too, deserves a closer look.”

“Then, Master, do you think there’s any reasonable explanation for this?”

I could not help asking in confusion. The master looked at me, then glanced at the people around us. I could tell from his eyes that he was holding something back. He did not tell the truth; he merely shook his head and brushed it aside. “What reasonable explanation could I possibly have? This is not our concern. Let the experts study it. We common folk are better off living our own lives.”

After speaking, he stood up and stretched. Checking his watch, he said, “All right, it’s getting late, and it’ll soon be time to clear the place. Come on, I’ll take you to Wangfujing Snack Street.”

Then he cupped his hands to the others and said, “Thank you all for listening. As for what happens next, you’ll have to wait for the next installment.”

At that moment, everyone felt that the master was actually a rather likable fellow. Some smiled and answered with a cheerful “All right,” while others copied him, cupping their hands and saying, “Sir, take care.”

The master laughed heartily, waved them off, and said, “Hope you all have a good time.”

Then he led me out of the Forbidden City. On the way, I kept glancing at him, and he caught the corner of my eye and turned to look at me too. “What are you staring at, boy?”

I grinned. “Master, you still haven’t answered my question from earlier.”

“Question? What question? Ah, you mean that maid incident.”

“Yes.”

The master thought for a moment, then said to me, “For people in our line of work, we’re always skeptical of these strange things. But I, for one, believe it really happened. It wasn’t some magnetite nonsense.”

I nodded, agreeing with him. I had doubted before whether corpse-driving and such things even existed. But three years ago, after going to western Hunan, I really did encounter the corpse-driving tradition, and even met a great shaman. After that experience, I came to believe in other supernatural matters as well. After all, there is that old saying sitting right there. As for which saying, you can figure it out yourselves. Heh heh.

When we arrived at the East Gate Station of the Forbidden City, the master, clearly familiar with the route, took me aboard the Sightseeing Line Two. After three more stops, we got off at Wangfujing North Station and walked a little over a hundred meters before finally reaching Wangfujing Snack Street. Even before going in, I could already feel the lively, bustling atmosphere drifting out from inside, and most of all, the smell of food. After all, I am a bona fide glutton.

The master led me inside. I looked left and right, and at one stall I even saw skewers of silkworm pupae and scorpions for sale. Seeing that spread made me shiver all over. The server on the other side even lifted a scorpion skewer right up in front of me and said warmly, “Come on, little brother, give it a try. I guarantee it tastes good.”

I froze, took a step back, and hurriedly waved it off, saying no. The master also came over, took the scorpion skewer straight from the server, and bit into it with a snap. I was stunned. Damn, even that kind of thing he could eat? Looks like I should just hand over the title of glutton to the master.

He put a scorpion into his mouth and chewed for a moment, then said, “Hmm, not bad at all. Mate, give me two more skewers.”

He even slipped into a Chongqing dialect, and the server laughed. “Sure thing. Just a moment.”

A little later, the server packed up two freshly grilled scorpion skewers and handed them to the master, saying, “Here you go. Please hold on to them. They’re twenty-five yuan each. I’ll count the one you just had as a freebie, so fifty in total is fine.”

The master bit down on the skewer, pulled out a card from his pocket, and handed it over. “No cash. Card only. No PIN.”

The server blinked, looked at the bank card in his hand, and put it into the card reader. Smiling, he said to the master, “You sure are generous. You must be some big boss, right? Come on, take a look. Fifty yuan from you, exactly right. Not a cent more, not a cent less. Here’s your card back. Keep it safe, and welcome again anytime!”

He showed the amount on the machine to the master. The master nodded, took back the card, and pulled out the second scorpion skewer from the bag and started eating it too. Then he held it toward me and said, “Boy, this actually tastes pretty good. You’re sure you don’t want to try it?”

I froze, then awkwardly waved my hand and said, “You go ahead and eat it.”

The master nodded, took the skewer back, and ate it one bite at a time while I wandered off with him to browse the other stalls. I have to say, the tourists on Wangfujing Snack Street were simply endless, so crowded it was almost hard to move. I even saw someone nearby dressed in a long robe from ancient times, wearing a little round cap and a small pair of sunglasses, his face smeared with heavy black makeup, holding a folding fan that bore five large characters. I pushed and squeezed my way through the crowd, and whenever I saw a snack shop, I would hurry over. The master followed behind, gnawing on his scorpion skewer, while from far away I caught a foul smell drifting over. I looked around, and suddenly saw a sign swaying ahead, with the words stinky tofu written on it.