Poisonous Creature Garden 3
The day after we rounded up the Chinese hamsters.
Grandfather was busy day after day, meeting guests and laying plans against the Blood Cult. They had shown themselves so brazenly—and even attacked us—that we had no choice but to treat it as the start of their open return to the Central Plains.
After their fall thirty years ago they had supposedly gone to ground and kept silent. For them to strike a great house like the Tang Clan out in the open could only mean they were confident of something. On top of that, it had come out that the reason they had slipped into the Tang estate in the first place was the Bloodwater Poison Codex. So the talk kept circling around how to guard the thing and how, if possible, to use it as bait to draw them out.
“What if we entrust the Bloodwater Poison Codex to the Alliance for safekeeping?”
“Is there any guarantee the Alliance is safer than our Tang Clan? Too many people come and go there.”
“True enough. Then let us wait for the Alliance’s strategist to arrive. He’s of the Zhuge Family—he’s bound to have a good idea. After all, he is a Zhuge.”
The original was already locked away in the vault for secret manuals inside the Hall of Myriad Poisons, so that was no worry. Grandfather himself kept the copy, but because the Blood Cult might strike again the Tang gates were under ironclad guard. Sichuan’s martial world was in an uproar over the rumor that the Tang Clan had been attacked. I thought they were the greatest assassin clan in the Central Plains… yet they’ve been swindled, robbed, and assaulted. Maybe the Tang Clan is surprisingly soft?
Grandfather was also run off his feet preparing for the people who would soon arrive to lend support. There were no inns around the Tang estate; when guests came, the clan itself had to house them and feed them. Because of all that, catching even a glimpse of Grandfather’s face in a single day had become nearly impossible. I hope Grandfather’s all right… He had held the position of family head before Father-in-law, so I wasn’t truly worried—yet he was still an old man. With such a crisis at home I kept feeling Father-in-law ought to hurry back. Several of the clan’s fastest light-foot warriors had already been sent after him, so he would probably return soon enough.
“Master So-ryong, the dried oak bark is ready. And the carpenters prepared the sawdust as you asked. Ah—we also brought a cartload of wood shavings. What shall we do with those?”
I had been lost in thought inside the Poisonous Creature Garden when a warrior’s question pulled me back.
“Ah, dry everything thoroughly and store it in sacks.”
“Understood, Master So-ryong.”
“And the shavings planed off with the drawknife—we’ll need those for the rats’ bedding, so dry them today and have them ready at once.”
“Yes, Master So-ryong!”
Like Grandfather, I and the Poisonous Creature Squad were hard at work setting up the Poisonous Creature Garden. We had to finish the setup quickly so we could bring the lakeside vipers in. I needed poison samples ready for the strategist coming from the Murim Alliance, and for that the pinkie-rearing facilities the lakeside vipers would feed on were essential.
“Master So-ryong, the clean sand we washed and roasted has cooled and arrived. Where should we put it?”
“Hmm. Over that way.”
Today I split the Poisonous Creature Squad in two: ten men working on the interior setup, ten men out catching Chinese hamsters. Looking back, we really should have finished the facilities for raising them before we started catching the rats. While one team rounded up Chinese hamsters, the rest of us rushed to expand the hamster-rearing setup. I got so excited I mixed up the order. Great.
The two things you need most when raising hamster-type rodents are bedding—the floor material you lay down for them—and individual housing. Bedding we could replace with wood shavings, so that was prepared. For housing we did the same as on Hainan Island and got jars ready. You couldn’t find glass aquariums or proper rearing boxes here. Wooden boxes would have been easiest to make, but I was afraid the rats would gnaw through and escape, so jars it was.
“Once we’ve finished clearing the parasites from the ones we caught yesterday, we’ll lay shavings in today’s new jars and put them in. One animal per jar—no exceptions.”
“Yes, Master So-ryong.”
These Chinese hamster brats have rotten temperaments; they have to be kept alone. Otherwise the females will bite the males to death. I drilled that into everyone and headed for the temporary holding area where the captured Chinese hamsters were kept. Quarantine was under way right now.
Quarantine meant checking wild-caught animals for ticks, fleas, bedbugs, and the like, then delousing them. If disease or parasites got into the main facility, you could lose the whole colony at once. And the reptiles that would eat these creatures could catch whatever they carried, too. We didn’t have modern disinfectants or dewormers like in my previous life, but the Tang Clan grew pyrethrum—chrysanthemums with insecticidal properties—so we were using that for external parasites.
I left the hall and went to where yesterday’s hamsters were gathered. Right then Commander Gu Pae came in carrying a fresh catch. The moment he saw me his face lit up.
“Master So-ryong, we took about thirty today. A few of them look pregnant as well.”
“Oh! Excellent. Keep those separate from yesterday’s batch. And don’t forget the pyrethrum powder.”
“Understood, Master So-ryong.”
Setup of the Poisonous Creature Garden and pinkie production were both running at full tilt.
I was forced to reassess the Tang Clan’s warriors.
No—I was forced to reassess martial artists in general.
In three days the entire setup was finished. In my previous life I had heard that fitting out a shop could take nearly a month; here it was done in three days. I hadn’t realized it, but martial artists are specialists in hard labor. With tireless stamina and raw strength they were geniuses at grunt work. In my old life’s army they would have been the first sergeants’ pets. Digging, hauling heavy loads—what soldiers used to call “the bear’s share”—they handled every bit of it without breaking a sweat.
I looked over the completed Poisonous Creature Garden and nodded.
“Everyone, well done.”
“Not at all. This is simply our duty.”
“From now on these rats get only clean feed, and whenever the shavings get dirty you change them properly.”
“Understood, Master So-ryong. Ah—some of them have already given birth.”
“Is that so? Don’t check the mothers too often. They might eat their young.”
“Understood. I’ll pass the word.”
Preparations were finished; tomorrow we could go to the snake den and bring back the lakeside vipers. We still needed to increase the Chinese hamster numbers, so we couldn’t feed those to them yet, but for the lakeside vipers we could use something else in the meantime.
“You’ve all worked hard. Tomorrow we head to the snake den for the lakeside vipers. And I’ve already spoken to Mother-in-law—have a drink each tonight.”
“D-drinks, you say!?”
The moment alcohol was mentioned, Uncle Gu Pae nearly jumped out of his skin. Wondering if he might actually dislike liquor, I asked carefully.
“You don’t care for wine?”
“Not at all! I love it. Thank you, Master So-ryong!”
“Thank you!”
“Good. I’ve already told the kitchen attached to the reception hall—just go collect it. Truly, all of you did splendidly.”
In my previous life I would have sat among them, nursing a cup and trading war stories about how hard we’d worked. But this body was only fifteen. Not old enough to drink, so I simply made the arrangements and headed off to find my sister-in-law.
I sought her out because I needed to check on Cho, Hyang, and Bin. Ever since I had collapsed she had been looking after the three of them. The reason she still had them after so long was simple: all three clung to her body and refused to leave.
“Is the Young Lady in?”
It was my first visit to her private quarters. Even though it was broad daylight the interior was dim; her voice answered from deeper inside at once.
“Come in, So-ryong.”
The door opened with her words. The moment I stepped through I found a black cloth hanging right in front of me. The reason her rooms were draped in black cloth was, of course, Cho, Hyang, and Bin. Ever since I collapsed they had refused to leave her side. Until now they had simply clung to her outer robes; now, strangely, they kept trying to crawl under her clothes. So she kept the surroundings dark to stop them from slipping inside. Centipedes prefer dark places and are nocturnal by nature.
I thought nothing of them crawling under clothing, but she still found the feel of them on bare skin hard to bear.
“How are they today?”
Inside, a tiny-wicked lantern burned on the table where she sat. The three azure-spotted centipedes were plastered to her shoulders and back.
“They seem to do nothing but sleep today as well.”
“They must be exhausted.”
“I never knew. After venomous creatures use their poison, they grow tired.”
The reason Cho, Hyang, and Bin clung to her was not that they had switched masters. It was all about food. People often assume a venomous creature’s poison is just saliva or some bodily fluid produced as naturally as spit. That is only half the truth. Venom is a separate substance entirely. And it has a particular trait: once a creature has spent its venom, it burns far more energy than usual. Venom is a crystal of countless enzymes and proteins. Rebuilding it costs a surprising amount of energy.
Snakes can take from two weeks to a full month to replenish their venom after emptying the glands. Scorpions need so much energy after stinging that mothers raising young will sometimes devour their own offspring. I had thought the azure-spotted centipedes’ venom had grown stronger than on Hainan Island when I watched the Blood Cult warrior melt, but that wasn’t it. They had simply squeezed themselves dry to the absolute limit. The fact that the lakeside viper’s corpse had not melted when Bin bit it in the pit confirmed it—smaller snake though it was, it had kept its shape intact.
Most venomous snakes and insects are cunning enough to meter their venom according to the prey—more for large game, less for small. But the centipedes had been under my clothes; the moment they felt killing intent they had burst out and bitten wildly, failing to regulate the dose. So now Cho, Hyang, and Bin were pressed against my sister-in-law’s body, greedily drinking the residual energy of their mother Azure-Spotted Centipede that still clung to her, trying to recover their strength.
“Most people wouldn’t know. Incidentally… so this is the Young Lady’s private chambers.”
“Yes. First time you’ve been inside, isn’t it? Ordinarily no man may enter the unmarried young ladies’ quarters deeper in the courtyard compound whenever he pleases. Ah…”
Come to think of it—this was a woman’s room. A pleasant fragrance seemed to linger in the air.
“Ahem…”
And here I was alone with her in the half-dark. She seemed to realize it at the same moment; her voice grew flustered in the dim light.
“Th-that is… I mean… So-ryong is… my…”
Just as she was floundering—
“Young Lady, Commander Gu is outside. He says he is looking for Master So-ryong.”
“Commander Gu?”
A maid’s voice: Gu Pae, commander of our Poisonous Creature Squad, had come calling. My sister-in-law draped the black cloth over the centipedes once more.
“So-ryong, let’s go out.”
“Yes.”
I didn’t often get to see her embarrassed face, so the timing felt almost too perfect as I headed for the courtyard entrance. There stood Commander Gu Pae—looking oddly detestable right then—and four of our Poisonous Creature Garden warriors, all with grave faces and bowed heads. I had just arranged drinks for their celebration, after all.
“Gu Pae?”
“Master So-ryong…”
The moment he saw me he hung his head in pure apology.
“I am truly sorry, Master So-ryong. The men have made a grave mistake…”
“A mistake?”
I tilted my head, wondering what accident they could have caused. Commander Gu shot a glare at the warriors behind him. One of them, with something that looked like ketchup smeared around his mouth, flinched. What now?
Then words I could scarcely believe tumbled from Uncle Gu Pae’s mouth.
“I am sorry, Master So-ryong. Half of the newborn rat pups this time…”
The apology began as a report that the baby rats had died. Well, when a mother rat is stressed she will turn cannibal; that much is only natural. They must have grown noisy while drinking inside the Poisonous Creature Garden—my fault for not warning them. I was about to say it was fine, when—
“It’s all right. Rats are high-strung creatures; if you make a racket—”
“No, sir. While the men were drinking… they used them as side dishes…”
“?”
At first I thought I had misheard.
“Side dishes of what?”
Commander Gu bowed again and answered.
“The truth is, two of our Poisonous Creature Squad are from Guangzhou… While I stepped away for a moment they said the rat pups made them homesick, so they meant to eat only a few as sanzi’er… but they tasted so good they kept going until half were gone…”
“Sanzi’er?”
I blinked at the unfamiliar word. My sister-in-law looked at the warriors with a thoroughly pitying expression and explained.
“It’s a dish of baby rats dipped in soy sauce. When you pick them up with chopsticks, when you dip them in the sauce, and when you put them in your mouth and chew—they squeak three times. That’s why it’s called sanzi’er, the three-squeak.”
“What!? They… they ate the rats?”
“Yes. Alive.”
The very first thought that hit me was not that our own people had eaten rats instead of venomous creatures. Does the Tang Clan not feed its people properly? What kind of lunatics dip baby rats in soy sauce and eat them? Adapting to the Tang Clan was truly not easy. Or was it the Central Plains in general?
And for a second I wondered whether I ought to start packing proper rations for the warriors as well. Why in the world would anyone eat that!?