Chapter 2024 - Seeking the True Baldies

"I see." Li Suiqiu nodded. Inwardly, he thought: these Australians possess no shortage of tricks.

The collective wedding had already received extensive coverage—a full newspaper page. He rarely read articles where the hair-thieves praised themselves, but he understood the general outline: the Australians were playing "official matchmaker," pairing a cohort of "chaste widows" and reformed prostitutes with husbands.

"Widow remarriage" had sparked debate throughout Guangzhou's scholarly circles, drawing both approval and condemnation. Li Suiqiu remained indifferent. Maintaining chastity had never been easy since ancient times. Those wishing to remarry simply lacked the fortitude to preserve it. Better to let nature take its course.

He knew the Australians loved capitalizing on major social events to glorify themselves. This collective wedding doubtless served the same purpose. That the Zhang family stepped forward to sponsor this ritual merely represented joining the festivities—well within reason.

Yet to participate and offer donations at a ritual, one normally required friendship or kinship with the host family. Zhang's establishment had been merely a small shop in years past, sharing no connection whatsoever with his household, much less friendship. Why would they suddenly extend invitations for his family to "participate"?

Qing Jing evidently perceived his puzzlement and smiled. "This isn't Master Zhang's initiative. Our Abbot Cui dispatched this humble Daoist. This constitutes a joyous occasion for all the world to celebrate; we invite everyone to participate, to share in the blessing..."

The meaning had grown unmistakable. This represented the Australians' idea; they simply refrained from stating it openly.

Li Suiqiu cursed inwardly: truly skilled at amassing wealth! The calculation stood transparent—given current circumstances, how many wealthy households throughout the city hungered for any opportunity to forge even the slightest connection with the hair-thieves? Qing Jing maintained wide social circles, acquainted with every gentry household and wealthy family in the city. By the time he completed one circuit of visits, forget mere hundreds of taels—even ten thousand could be readily collected.

Thinking thus, he chuckled coldly. "It seems this Daoist Cui proves quite adept at accumulating wealth. Since you've called at my residence, surely you haven't departed empty-handed?"

Qing Jing detected the unfriendly implication and hurriedly bowed with apologies. "What does Master Li suggest! Participation in rituals follows fate; the amount represents karmic connection. This humble Daoist would absolutely never presume to haggle."

Qing Jing dared not continue his evasions and hurriedly excused himself, rushing out.

Li Suiqiu felt troubled within. After visiting his mother, he returned to the outer study where his personal servant already awaited him.

Since returning to the city, Li Suiqiu had largely maintained a "secluded" existence, venturing out only for small gatherings with teachers and friends or social obligations with relatives. He rarely lingered on the streets. Yet he cared deeply about street news; each day designated servants went forth to purchase newspapers, copy proclamations, and gather various market rumors and privately circulated "flyers."

Today the servant brought the usual abundance. Li Suiqiu first perused Sheep City Express—nothing particularly novel. Local news continued reporting on matchmaking and the collective wedding. Beyond that: "Our valiant Fubo Army achieved great victory at such-and-such location, eliminating XXX bandits..."

The domestic news section proved more intriguing. From this newspaper, the Australians appeared to know Ming affairs like the backs of their hands. Not merely court matters in granular detail, but large and small events throughout the realm with remarkable precision. They could even quote verbatim from official communiqués, court gazettes, memorials, and various documents. This most perplexed Li Suiqiu and his circle—even granting the Australians possessed numerous spies in Beijing and "telegraph" capabilities for instantaneous transmission, how could they maintain informants throughout both capitals and all thirteen provincial administrations? Particularly regarding bandit activity, their intelligence often exceeded the court's own knowledge.

Though Li Suiqiu possessed no means of verifying every detail's accuracy, he instinctively sensed the hair-thieves' information mastery approached formidable levels. Major national news reached them within a mere three to five days.

After reading several domestic items, he could stomach no more—the entire page consisted of calamity. Floods, droughts, locusts, plagues, bandits swarming in every direction.

He had never imagined the national situation had deteriorated to such extent. Li Suiqiu sighed inwardly. Previously, without access to Australian newspapers, he had maintained only vague impressions of the broader picture. He had traveled to the capital and many locations, witnessing conditions along the way, understanding that national strength declined. Yet he had never grasped how widespread and severe the Ming's crisis had grown. Now, with newspapers publishing disaster reports from all quarters—not merely detailed descriptions but woodcut illustrations depicting misery with vivid immediacy—the daily accumulation of such images left him increasingly uncertain about the Ming's future.

What fate awaited the Ming Dynasty?

No answer existed. Li Suiqiu vaguely sensed he had already glimpsed the future, yet deep within his heart he utterly rejected that answer.

In this melancholic mood, he set aside the newspaper and retrieved a pile of miscellaneous paper fragments. These comprised various "tabloids" sold privately on the streets—not Australian productions, but vendors' work using clay movable type and soot-water on coarse paper to reprint court gazettes. The tabloids published mostly crudely written, vulgar vernacular novels and story collections. Li Suiqiu had previously observed servants reading such tales during leisure hours and paid them no mind. Recently, however, he had discovered these crude productions actually contained a different universe.

This different universe commenced with a serialized novel titled Tales of Australian Heroes appearing in one tabloid. Days earlier he had accidentally glimpsed the opening passage while his servant read; though characters proved blurry and language crude, the content immediately captured his attention.

This Tales of Australian Heroes, though clearly alluding to the hair-thieves through "false history," imitated Water Margin's prologue in fabricating the Australians' origins—quite thought-provoking.

At the Southern Song's conclusion, loyal ministers and righteous warriors defended Song against Yuan. When all efforts failed, they cast themselves into the sea to demonstrate their resolve.

Immortals, moved by compassion, opened the celestial gates, dispatched iron ships for rescue, bore them to the Earthly Immortal Realm, and placed them within the Great Ao of the Eastern Sea.

There they taught immortal arts. After nine generations, over five hundred descendants emerged, all versed in immortal techniques.

One day the immortals proclaimed:

"You are originally mortals, rescued by our great iron ship during one apocalypse. Now another apocalypse approaches. Without completing karma, you cannot approach the Great Dao. You should depart again aboard the great iron ship to rescue the people, complete this karmic debt, and attain the Great Dao."

Thus they reopened the celestial gates, and five hundred souls departed aboard the great iron ship.

The poem praised: Loyal ministers and righteous warriors repay sovereign grace; when heaven's gates open, the Song house endures. Five hundred exiled immortals rescue from great tribulation; wherever iron ships arrive, sun and moon renew.

As a Confucian disciple, Li Suiqiu naturally rejected any notion that Australians constituted "immortals." Yet he grasped the story's underlying meaning—they were painting their usurpation of rivers and mountains with cosmetics of "divine mandate" and "heavenly destiny."

He recalled prophecies his servant had recently conveyed from the streets.

A purple cloud rises from the South Sea; the First Emperor frequently excavates at Ma'an Mountain. The dragon energy of a thousand ages cannot be dug to death; the Great Song opens again in Southern Guangdong.

Exceedingly transparent, this had circulated for years—doubtless secretly fabricated and disseminated by the hair-thieves.

Solar eclipse—heaven collapses; lunar eclipse—earth cracks; eclipse of both sun and moon—extinction.

This passage carried greater weight. Since Chongzhen's first year, celestial phenomena had been shifting ominously. A solar eclipse during Chongzhen's inaugural year, followed by eclipses in the second, fourth, and fifth years. By the seventh year of Chongzhen, continuous solar eclipses occurred in the third, seventh, and tenth months. Though Li Suiqiu lacked astronomical expertise, he believed firmly in "correspondence between heaven and man." These continuous "abnormal phenomena" had long stirred unease within him.

He recalled a gathering at the Tian

qi era's conclusion, when someone mysteriously mentioned an astronomical occurrence from Tianqi's fourth year, seventh month: "Five Planets in Conjunction; the Emperor Star lost position; a guest star transited the sun; the Imperial Star dimmed."

Previously they had interpreted this solely as portending Emperor Xizong's brief reign—which subsequent events confirmed. But recent street talk reframed it as heralding the Ming's imminent collapse and dynastic change.

Even as a disciple of the sage's teachings, facing such prophecies, Li Suiqiu could not prevent inner wavering. Was the Ming truly destined to fall?

He painfully bowed his head, unable to continue reading these distressing papers. He possessed broad historical knowledge—from the Founding Ancestor to the present spanned over two hundred sixty years. Since the First Emperor unified the realm, only the glorious Han and Tang, and the Great Song surviving on half its territory, had endured so long. Like a person entering old age, the dynasty exhibited every symptom of decline.

"When a nation approaches its end, there must be monsters"—the phrase flashed suddenly through his mind. Indeed! Were not these Australians arriving aboard iron ships precisely the "monsters"? Even the Eastern Barbarians possessed traceable origins. Only these hair-thieves, beyond claiming Song lineage and possessing human appearance, resembled Chinese in no particular. Even their origins remained concealed, never clarified.

You may deceive ignorant commoners, but you cannot deceive me!

Thinking thus, Li Suiqiu suddenly felt filled with fighting spirit. He would properly contend with these hair-thieves falsely claiming Song descent!

Yet this excitement quickly gave way to emptiness: how to contend? Li Suiqiu was no feeble scholar. He had mastered the "Six Arts" and possessed considerable sword skill—a cultured and martial Confucian. In the old timeline's history, he would lead troops to rescue Ganzhou and perish fighting there. But at this moment, his thoughts turned not toward martial combat or assassination, but toward understanding the Australians' inner workings and discovering corresponding countermeasures.

The Yuyuan Society operated by Young Master Liang specialized in researching "Baldy Studies." Li Suiqiu possessed some knowledge of it. Yet he maintained minimal contact with the Liang household. Since the Sorcery Case had implicated the Liang family and they suffered punishment during the tax rectification, the Yuyuan Society had scattered. Though the Liang mansion escaped confiscation, it had become a deserted estate with few callers. This naturally represented somewhere he could not visit.

Moreover, the method of merely collecting materials and hearing others recount experiences felt like scratching an itch through one's boot.

If only he could interact directly with Australians! At minimum he might obtain first-hand intelligence from them.

Yet though numerous true baldies occupied Guangzhou, he shared connections with none. Li Suiqiu wracked his brain at length without identifying anyone capable of providing introduction.