“We are all going to die!”

“Right in the center, oh why did this misfortune befall us?”

“The magistrate is here! Magistrate Nikola, what are we to do now?”

Nikola stared at the crowd surrounding a beautiful bird. It had yellow feathers on it’s head, red on it’s neck and green ones on the rest of it’s body. Nikola couldn’t understand why everyone was afraid. The bird even had a single leg, just how much trouble could it bring?

“What is this bird?” He asked and granny Nuo Nuying broke from the crowd to hit him with a ladle.

“You should read a book on the beasts that live in our country! This is a Bifang Niao. It predicts where fires will happen. And if it’s in the center of the village then the entire village will burn.”

Nikola stared at the bird. Did it really? Well, then this was a warning, not a threat. He could prepare.

“I need people willing to become firefighters.” He said and he received uncertain looks around him.

“But magistrate, we all already have a job.” Said a man and he stepped back to hide into the crowd. Nikola sighed. Back in Atlantis a lot of people had two jobs, even three. It was high time he brought the practice to Gangcho.

“A fire hazard is upon us.” Said Nikola, looking at the people around him. “I need volunteers. I will pay you five golden coins a month…”

“He is going to raise taxes!” Snapped someone in an almost panicked way. “Darn bird is going to turn us in poor mice again!”

“I am not going to raise taxes.” Said Nikola, annoyed that people had so little faith in him even after all that he has done. “But I will not let the village burn down, either.” Said Nikola. A man stepped forward, he was tall and strong. Perfect for the job.

“I need at least twenty of you so that there could be two shifts of ten people for both the night and the day. And we need more bells, ones especially for a fire hazard.”

Women began to push their men forward. Nikola picked nineteen more. The bird shifted and Nikola stared at it. It screeched to the west. The scent of smoke rouse in the air.

“The firefighters go and put out the fire. Everyone else stay here!” Commanded Nikola and he rushed with the new firefighters to see the source of the fire. It had started in the former slums, now abandoned as the villagers were better off and they had begun to expand the village towards the house of the Wu family.

Nikola placed a barrier around the slums. The abandoned mud houses with their hay roofs were alight like kindling. But Nikola couldn’t just let the fire go on. While the barrier would keep it at bay the smoke would spread and those in the village with weaker lungs will suffer. He had wondered what to do with the old slum but now he guessed he could just build greenhouses and call the matter closed.

By the third day the fire was put out. The slum didn’t have any canalization, as by the time the workers reached it everyone has already moved out of it, so getting water to put out the fire had been hard. Once the fire was gone Nikola had the remains of the houses demolished in order for the greenhouses to be build. Everyone agreed that this time no one got hurt, but the bird still needed to go.

The bird had moved around the village in search of the perfect nest. When it nested on top of the school the entire village was up in arms since they still remembered the raised taxes that had went towards the repairs of the school. So, Nikola climbed the roof of the school and he bagged the bird.

The villagers wanted to eat it. Nikola wanted to use it as a fire hazard warning system. He placed it in the newly build fire station and hired a woman to watch it and point the firefighters in the direction of potential fires. For a couple of days, no new fires happened, then the bird pointed the fire fighters to the Wu residence. Flew right to the house and it screeched until the doors were broken and the smoke was let out.

As it turns out Ariel had attempted to cook. She hadn’t burned the house down, but the meal was beyond salvation. The bird had eaten it and Nikola had to pay for the damages. The bird seemed to figure out that it’s survival hanged on whatever or not it could prevent fires, rather than simply announce them and it upped it’s game.

The firefighters now patrolled with the bird in a cage and people shuddered when it looked their way. Many still wanted to cook it, despite it now preventing fires. And just as Nikola was relaxing the Chi Mei Wang Liang came from the mountains. They…pranked. They simply pranked the entire village. They’d turn into the Bifang Niao and nested on buildings, causing panic. They would invade the Ghost Liar grottos. They played with Nikola’s messages to the other magistrates. Nikola was just about to exorcize them all, and to hell with the risk, when an idea came to him.

What if he put these tricksters to work? They could turn into anything and Nikola was short of wagons and horses to pull them. He cackled as he drew an array with a rooster’s blood around the village’s market. People gave him a wide berth, thinking he was a mountain spirit, and when he finally captured all the mountain spirits he forced them to take the shapes of various animals and wagons. Then Nikola shamelessly sold these new slaves, whose will he locked, to the Wu family. Madam Wu took out a whip and threatened the rowdiest of the mountain spirits. Nikola couldn’t imagine a worse fate and a better task master for these pests.

The New Year passed and Nikola took his children fishing. Wei Caihong and Penemue were both teaching at the school alongside the new teacher. Then he saw it. A school of mermaids just out of reach of his barrier. They began to shout something at him but he was too far away to hear. His babies, to whose cribs he had tied fishing rods, were close enough to start crying though. Nikola sighed, pulled all the fishing rods out of the water, checked if there were any fishermen out and about, and forced a whirlpool to appear underneath the mermaids. As the ocean began to turn red Nikola began to whistle. He really hated mermaids.

That was the start of the Great Merfolk War, as the people of Gangcho liked to call it. Fishermen were forced to stay ashore as their magistrate hunted merfolk in great numbers. Only Ariel raised her voice in defense of her brethren. But when one of them tried to drown her child even she began to root for Nikola.

The merfolk summoned a leviathan, a great beast with tentacles and a snake head. Nikola boiled it alive and had a feast in his children’s honor with the flesh.

The merfolk tried to fail their crops with salty rain. Nikola redirected the clouds as soon as he found out something was wrong with them, turning the salty water into acid and watching as it fell outside of the barrier.

Finally, both the fishermen and the merfolk sued for peace, as this war was killing off their supply of fish. Nikola accepted a golden trident from the merfolk and their complete capitulation. He was going to tax his new citizens, he decided as their papers were written on stone slabs which would be stored in underwater caves. And he was going to build aquafarms with the money. Let the darn half-fishes scream slavery as he builds a hatchery after a hatchery and the villagers only needed to place down their nets to take out fish.

Many a mermaid fled the shores of Gangcho, trying to find better prey south. But many remained. And they, rather than to remain as a second class citizens, demanded that they be turned into humans. Nikola obliged, using some of the mountain spirits, bought back from Madam Wu at double their original price.

The merfolk were beautiful and exotic, so many of the villagers wanted to have them as spouses. The few merfolk that have remained as they were in the shores of Gangcho banded together with the Ghost Liars. They didn’t want to pay taxes and gave only so much that they couldn’t be captured for tax evasion. Nikola had them picking clams from the ocean’s floor. Soon Gangcho became an exporter of fish and clams and seaweed. The treasury was full to the bursting and the taxes were at an all-time low.

On the next New Year Nikola made a promise to build a home for the elderly. And also to give everyone some land in the forest for a common owned paper factory. Wei Caihong nurtured talents in the school and many inventions were made during that year. A way to copy writings faster, a more efficient aquafarm and many more. And then one day the emperor came to their village. He looked horrible, even with most of his face hidden behind a fan. He demanded a private meeting with the Wei family adults and was received in their home.

“I know you lot use magic.” Said the emperor, then he bowed. “Cure me.”

“Cure you?” Said Wei Caihong, amusement dripping from his voice. He had long since turned back into a man. A baby’s cry was heard and Penemue excused herself to go see to her newest sons, her twins by Wei Caihong.

“Please, cousin. You have walked in fortune ever since our meeting. And I have wallowed in despair.”

“I suppose we can help. Can’t we, husband?” Asked Wei Caihong Nikola who nodded. The emperor had paid for the slight towards his family and all the things he suffered from were minor, at best.

“I don’t see why not…” A boy ran in, grinning with Wei Lihua in his arms. The girl was hugging a rag doll and looking angrily at the boy.

“Father, I found my bride!” The boy said, addressing the emperor.

“I am not marrying you, you called me adorable!” Screamed Wei Lihua and she hit the boy, the first prince of the empire, over the head.

“But you are, my fairy!” Exclaimed the prince. Both Wei Caihong and Nikola looked at the emperor.

“Well, if the girl is unwilling you let her go right now!”

“I’d marry him if he says one good thing about me that has nothing to do with my looks!” Said Wei Lihua and the prince blushed.

“Your poetry is not of this era. Can I call you princess yet, fairy?”

Everyone looked to the emperor, he sighed.

“Just cure me. At least I don’t have any more children to marry Wei family members.” The boy carried Wei Lihua out and Nikola let Wei Caihong heal his cousin. If only to rub salt into the injury.

The emperor got them back for the marriage by demanding a bride price. He had expected that Nikola was going to take it out of the treasury but he simply got it out of his savings. Five thousand golden coins changed hands and the prince Han Guo remained in Gangcho so that he was closer to Wei Lihua. Nikola now had a house with fourteen children. Wei Zhaohui now helped in the store and he haggled with the best of them. Gone were the days when everyone could get what they wanted.

Well, not quite. When Wei Zhaohui was at school Nikola still manned the store and people still got things on the cheaper side. Just as the Wei family thought they would have many happy years the annoyances appeared. The reborn angels of Samjin, together with their families, demanding they lived in Gangcho under the magistrate responsible for their births. Not that they ever uttered the last part, but the threat of doing so was clear. And so Gangcho grew. Again.