The cold wind cut like a knife as heavy snowflakes swirled.

Lu Sheng opened his eyes to find himself sitting in a yellow-gray carriage, swaying slightly. Beside him was the delicate voice of a young girl speaking softly.

Outside the carriage were the noisy sounds of bustling crowds - hawkers crying wares, calls urging people to buy, cheers and applause. There was also the laughter of children at play.

Lu Sheng heaved a deep sigh.

He knew there was no going back - from an old oil who idled away at a state company, he had gotten drunk one night and upon waking found himself in this strange new world where he had now spent five days.

He sniffed at the air, detecting the scents of wine, baked pancakes and fried fruits and nuts.

“Ah, the white osmanthus wine from Guihua Square smells better than ever,” the attendant girl beside him commented in a tiny, milk-sweet voice.

Xiao Qiao was only twelve this year. With her baby face and petite stature, she looked no different from a ten year old. Her chubby cheeks were touched pink like flower petals, dressed in a little green cotton skirt. In her small hands she held a hair tie made of expensive cassia bark, rubbing it to soften it for tying Lu Sheng’s hair when they alighted from the carriage.

The cassia bark tie would naturally emit a light fragrance, but its one flaw was that it would harden and need to be warmed by hand in the cold weather.

Lu Sheng smiled but said nothing.

Soon the carriage rolled to a stop. He lifted the curtain and stepped out onto the grey cobblestone path, the stones about the size of washbasins. Carriages and pedestrians on horseback filled the streets. Unabashedly flirtatious laughs rang out from passing girls and ladies who let their hair down.

Lu Sheng lifted his gaze to the winery in front of him. A long rectangular white sign bore three elaborately carved characters: Guihua Square.

“Master Lu is here! Please come in, the best room has been reserved for you!” A shop assistant already wearing an eager smile rushed to welcome them.

Lu Sheng nodded, affecting the airs of a rich young master as he took a paper fan with silver edges from Xiao Qiao’s hands, gently snapping it open to reveal an intricate landscape painting of lakes and mountains, done in light and shadow. An elegant quatrain was inscribed at the top in fine calligraphy.

Familiar with the place, he followed the assistant into the winery.

Guihua Square had two levels. On the first floor main hall a number of people were already listening to a song performance. A young woman in green stood crisp and clear in an open space, her voice lingering sweetly. Beside her a middle-aged woman accompanied on a pipa.

The song was a tragic love ballad between an embarking general and a fox spirit. But the majority boorish patrons paid the singing women no heed, only a few cultured young masters seeming to appreciate the song. Tips were few.

Lu Sheng halted his steps, seeing the first floor so lively he decided to take a seat down there.

“Who ordered this San Hui Chuan ballad?” he casually asked the shop assistant. His status here was not ordinary - Guihua Square was like an elite private club on Earth, and he was their supreme, platinum-class VIP guest. He easily spent tens of thousands here a year.

For little North City, that kind of spending already put him in the top tier of clients.

“It was Master Zhou, Zhou Que,” the shop assistant whispered back deferentially.

Lu Sheng did not make things difficult for him and waved him away. Taking Xiao Qiao he sat at a table and scanned the first floor crowd, quickly spotting a sickly pale youth dressed in white, languidly fanning himself with an ornate gilded fan.

“He’s got his eye on that singing girl again, I bet,” Lu Sheng murmured with a shake of his head.

Xiao Qiao pouted. “You already warned him last time, Young Master, that guy is just no good!”

Lu Sheng just laughed without replying, beginning to quietly listen to the song.

Soon a table full of wine and snacks arrived, the red wood surface quickly covered in plates. Lu Sheng picked up some fried pork slivers with asparagus, savoring the taste together with the lightly sweet floral wine that was consumed more like a fruit juice.

“This kind of lavish lifestyle without a care in the world, beautiful attendant girls warming my bed...I could get used to decaying like this,” Lu Sheng mused. Sometimes he wondered if he should just spend his whole life here, since this kind of privileged existence had been what he pursued in his past life anyway.

Just as he alternated between nibbling the fine food and sipping the smooth wine, Xiao Qiao would pop the occasional perfectly peeled salted shrimp into his mouth. The river shrimp were a specialty of this northern snow city, easily netted by the bucketload from the thick ice cellars burrowed along the banks. The half-translucent pink bodies were what made them “ice shrimp”. No larger than half the size of regular shrimp, their sweet fresh taste was sublime, the tender meat dissolving on the tongue.

Naturally they commanded steep prices. Ordinary people might be able to afford them once a month as a luxury; only the rich could enjoy them every day like he did.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While Lu Sheng ate extravagantly and drank the best wine, listening to melodious tunes, his thoughts roamed elsewhere. He had already spent many days in this ancient China-like world, yet from his observations this place had many bizarre abnormalities.

At first he assumed he had time-traveled to ancient times, but later realized this was not so. The customs, festivals, climate here were all vastly different from any historical dynasty or region he knew of.

Just as Lu Sheng ruminated deeply, the large doors of the winery opened again. A group of brawny men in rough green outfits strode in, finding a corner table and heavily sitting themselves down. One glance and anyone could tell they weren’t locals. Their clothing resembled those from the central plains, more refined compared to the cruder northern style.

The burly man who took the lead seat was bald, with copper earrings in his ears and fatty jowls lining his face. Yet now he sighed, “Life’s become unlivable!”

“Brother, no need to worry. If we can’t pass through Li Village, we can circle around to Zhang Village. There’s always another path,” one of his companions suggested with a frown.

The bald headed man's jowls quivered. “You know nothing! I got here by first passing through Zhang Village. Situation’s about the same there, lots of deaths too.” His already gloomy expression darkened further.

Another brawny fellow urged, “What exactly happened? Tell us brothers too so we can get wise.”

The bald man heaved yet another long sigh. “The details I also don’t know clearly. Just that something happened by Lake Suiyang, several fishing villages got in trouble, it seems some water ghosts are causing havoc.”

“Water ghosts! Really?”

Lu Sheng sat not far from them, able to overhear their candid conversation. Initially he was just entertained listening in, not expecting them to discuss supernatural affairs.

In this life, his Lu family was wealthy beyond measure in North City, easily one of the top households. In Earth terms, their family assets would be over a billion. After several days frequenting the wine house, he'd heard all sorts of gossip about monsters and ghosts, mostly dismissed as rumors and tall tales. But this was the first eyewitness account he’d come across.

Lu Sheng pricked up his ears and listened intently. Thankfully the men made no attempt to hide their discussion, continuing to loudly chat about the strange fishermen village happenings.

The bald headed Brother Huang suddenly slammed the table, face a volcanic red. “You take me for a bullshitter? See this--this is a bone fragment that water ghost dropped! I secretly picked it up afterwards!”

With immense care he slowly drew out a green stone resembling carved jade, heavily clunking it on the table surface.

“That’s just worthless gravel rock,” one man laughed.

“Worthless rock my *ss!” Brother Huang sputtered indignantly, features twisted.

"Brother, may I take a look at that object?”

A gentle voice politely interrupted them just then. Lu Sheng stood at their table sporting a faint smile, his gaze falling onto the green stone.

“You dare to want this stuff? This is something the water ghosts left behind,” bald headed Brother Huang reacted in surprise. He only took it out now to show off, intending to toss it soon anyway. After all it wasn’t normal human detritus. But if it really attracted vengeful water spirits, the gains wouldn’t be worth the losses.

“It’s no problem, I simply want to look,” Lu Sheng stated calmly. He placed no faith in such superstitious water ghost stories. His only interest lay in how the mineral seemed no commonplace gravel, contrary to its shabby appearance. After all, worthless gravel could be picked up anywhere along a roadside for coppers, extremely cheap. Yet something about this particular chunk gave him a strange feeling.

Brother Huang looked Lu Sheng up and down, taking in his refined bearing and dress - the dark cloud patterned boots with silver thread embroidery, the diamond-patterned blue kingfisher feathered official hat crowning his head, the snow fox fur draped across his shoulders over green robes. Judging from attire alone Lu Sheng had spent a small fortune that would easily last common folk households months if not an entire year.

"Young Master wants it, I suppose...one or two silvers is fine!" Brother Huang ventured cautiously.

"That's settled then." Lu Sheng prompted Xiao Qiao to retrieve a couple broken silver pieces from her pouch, placing them on the table.

"It's yours now!" Brother Huang briskly snatched up the green stone and practically shoved it into Lu Sheng's hands. Exchanging looks with each other, the group of men promptly got up and left.

Lu Sheng said nothing, merely watching them go before peering down to inspect the stone in his palm. Squeezing it in his right hand, to his shock the previously unyielding mineral abruptly...melted, within seconds turning into a gob of dark green viscous glue. A miserable wail faintly emanated amidst the slime.

Splat!

The glob suddenly exploded, transforming into a burst of green fumes that slowly dispersed before Lu Sheng's astonished face. Blinking in confusion, he gawked down at his hands - the original rock somehow still rested in his palm, only now the green interior had soundlessly vanished without a trace.

"What was that, just now..." Lu Sheng dazedly remained fixed in place, desperately trying to recall the bizarre event that happened moments prior.

"Young Master, Young Master!" Xiao Qiao called out worriedly by his side.

Jolting back to himself, Lu Sheng scrutinized the stone in his grasp - it was nothing but an ordinary goose egg-sized pebble now, not even qualified to be called a mineral.

A slight chill ran down his spine, yet he vaguely grasped at the implication behind the queer episode. "Let's go, back to the manor!"

Blinking quizzically, Xiao Qiao reacted a beat slower. "Oh..."

The two boarded the carriage, the whip cracking over the shaggy black horses who slowly started trotting, pulling them away.

Seated inside, Lu Sheng silently examined the nondescript pebble while Xiao Qiao also noticed the changed appearance.

"Swindled again!" she secretly lamented to herself. At least the Young Master got off lightly this time compared to previous incidents. The worst scam made him blow over a thousand silvers on a supposed antique vase, nearly giving their Master a heart attack from anger.

One or two silvers was spare change to the indulged Young Lord, not even the cost of a casual lunch usually.

As the carriage slowly made its way back through the prosperous City streets, when they passed the city gates Lu Sheng overheard a loud discussion ongoing outside between who he guessed to be guards.

"I heard earlier that water ghost got vanquished! Some wandering Taoist easily resolved the fishing village crisis!"

"The imperial court sent someone?"

"They sent people ages ago I heard. Even the city magistrate's head catcher almost got dragged into danger. Luckily he encountered a passing wanderer Taoist master. They say with one flash of golden light from that Taoist, the water ghosts let out a wretched scream as they transformed into green sticky fluid before exploding into thick smoke."

"So it wasn't someone powerful from the imperial court?"

"Of course not!"

Lu Sheng listened in on the idle speculation between the gate guards, as he often deliberately passed by here. The soldiers and guards stationed at the gates tended to gather the most updated and exotic news, enjoying discussion and wild boasting.

"What a coincidence..." Lu Sheng murmured to himself, expression betraying nothing. His thoughts turned back to the strange melted mineral episode that transpired at the winery, unease slowly pooling in his heart.

Soon the carriage turned unhurriedly onto Avenue Ku Rong, the most flourishing street in the inner city.