Chapter 107

Chapter 107

On the last school day before a holiday, classes generally ended early at three in the afternoon.

The moment the bell rang, cheers echoed throughout the entire school.

Our seven-day National Day holiday had begun.

“Oh yeah! Vacation! This is awesome!”

Wang Dachun planted one foot on his chair. From the look of him, he intended to go even further–jump onto the desk and shake his rear.

But my furious glare made him lose his nerve.

He obediently stepped down, scratched his head in embarrassment, and gave me an ingratiating smile. “Come on, Brother Wu. Vacation just started, so I got excited. If you don’t like me making a scene, I’ll stop.”

Zeng Jin snickered beside him. Before meeting me, he had probably never seen Wang Dachun so timid or so afraid of anyone.

“Wang Dachun, you really are asking for a beating. I’m happy about the National Day holiday too. I’m going into the city to visit the zoo and amusement park. Wu Zhong, where are you going for the holiday?”

Yao Nan blinked her bright eyes at me.

I shrugged. “Where can a country boy like me go? I’ll stay home, behave myself, and help my parents with some farmwork.”

My answer seemed to make Yao Nan realize that her question might have been insensitive. She looked embarrassed. “I… I didn’t mean anything by it…”

I smiled. “It’s fine. I’m not sensitive or ashamed of where I come from. City people have their way of life, and country people have ours.”

Wang Dachun hurriedly declared, “Brother Wu may have been born in the countryside, but he’ll definitely be more successful than any of us. He placed first in the grade! He’ll get into a top high school, attend a famous university, and become rich.”

“Mm-hmm, exactly. Wang Dachun finally said something sensible.”

Yao Nan gave me a sweet smile, gently patted my shoulder, and stuck out her tongue. She looked adorable.

After school, the students gradually left campus.

I returned to the coffin shop with my backpack.

Old Cao was still working on his huanghuali-wood coffin. He had been preparing it for quite some time, and I suspected something momentous would happen when it was finally used.

“Old Cao, did you get the copy of the Fubei County Gazetteer you asked Boss Duan for?”

He stopped working and answered, “Boss Duan is an honorable man. As soon as I told him what we needed, he had his driver take both of us to the county seat. He called a deputy section chief at the archives and asked to photocopy the gazetteer. But the man said it had been sent to the city a few days ago.”

“Sent to the city?”

I froze.

I had not expected complications in a matter like this. Archival records such as county gazetteers usually remained untouched for years.

Old Cao continued, “The municipal government recently decided to organize all the county gazetteers and gather the originals at the central municipal archives. Didn’t our city become a directly administered municipality two years ago? It’s now at the same administrative level as a province, so many things need to be reorganized under uniform standards.”

“Your classmate probably saw the gazetteer only because that archives employee had taken it home to perform some necessary sorting before it was transferred.”

“It takes nearly a full day to drive from the Fubei County seat to the city, so there wasn’t enough time today. Boss Duan promised to use his connections and have a complete copy of the Fubei County Gazetteer delivered to the coffin shop within four days.”

So that was what had happened!

Once Old Cao finished explaining, I understood.

It also made me marvel at how convenient connections could make everything.

Come to think of it, building a name for oneself in the esoteric world was not a bad life.

No matter how powerful or important someone became, they would eventually need help with moving into a new home, weddings, or funerals, wouldn’t they?

That was when they needed us!

People in the esoteric world therefore possessed considerable influence behind the scenes. Ordinary people simply disliked dealing with us most of the time.

After thinking, I asked Old Cao, “By my count, Boss Duan will deliver the Fubei County Gazetteer on October fourth?”

“That’s right!”

“In that case, I’ll stay home for three or four days and return to Lianghe Town on the afternoon of the fourth.”

“You won’t spend the entire holiday with your parents and the Immortal Lady, Xiao Wu?”

“I don’t have a choice. Too many complicated things have happened lately. I promised Zhou Min I would discover the truth about her death and retrieve her body from the Chuan River. I can’t delay too long. I have a feeling that once we resolve the living corpse problem in Xiaowan Village, the other incidents may not solve themselves, but we’ll at least uncover a fairly clear lead.”

I truly felt helpless.

I wanted to spend all seven days of the National Day holiday at home with my parents and Master.

But I was already entangled in many strange supernatural incidents around Lianghe Town. I could not simply abandon them. I had to resolve each one in turn.

Old Cao understood. He sighed and nodded.

“All right. Spend these next few days with your parents and the Immortal Lady. It doesn’t matter if you return late on the fourth. Even if Boss Duan delivers the copy and we find useful information inside, we’ll probably need to wait until night before taking action.”

I packed my things and said goodbye to Wang Hu.

Then I set out for home.

On a holiday afternoon, many middle school students from the surrounding villages were also heading home.

Even after my bus left town and dropped me at the dirt-road turnoff toward my village, plenty of people remained around me…

After all, Lianghe District Middle School was not Lianghe Town’s only middle school. It also had Lianghe Town Middle School and Lianghe No. 2 Middle School.

When I attended middle school, the overall birthrate was still fairly high. We belonged to the tail end of a baby boom, so there were many children my age.

Lianghe Town was also the largest and most prosperous town under Fubei County, so having three middle schools was perfectly reasonable.

Things are different today. I heard the three schools have merged into one as the number of young people rapidly declines.
But that is beside the point.

Back to the story.

After I followed the dirt road and turned onto a country path, the crowd thinned.

The path was only about three feet wide, and waist-high weeds grew on both sides.

Beyond them stretched fields of rice, corn, and fruit trees.

The weather was gloomy that day, with no sun in sight.

It was not yet six in the evening, but the sky had already grown quite dark.

Dense layers of storm clouds packed the heavens. Not a ray of sunlight pierced them, and not a breath of wind stirred.

It looked as though a violent rainstorm would arrive that night!

In the past, walking alone on a rural path in such weather would certainly have made me uneasy.

Now I felt no fear at all. I strolled with both hands behind my head, a stalk of grass between my lips, and an indistinct Hong Kong pop song on my tongue.

“He says, what is this little pain amid wind and rain? Dry your tears, don’t be afraid–at least we still have our dreams…”

A young music teacher newly assigned from the city had taught us the song at Lianghe District Middle School.

It was called “Sailor,” and I liked it very much.

I hummed as I walked.

I even hoped some blind evil being or ghost would leap out and cause me trouble.

Then I could use the opportunity for more practical training.

Otherwise, my skills might grow rusty before I returned in a few days to handle Xiaowan Village’s living corpse problem with Old Cao and Li Miao–though that was almost impossible.

Master would certainly make me train diligently.

The thought of Master brought a faint smile to my lips.

She truly was perfect!

She treated me wonderfully, possessed tremendous arcane power and world-toppling beauty, and was so friendly and approachable… Oh, wait. I got that last part wrong. Her temper did not seem especially good.

But who cared? She treated me well!

And my parents must miss me terribly too.

This time, I decided to cook several dishes for them myself.

I was planning the next few days when the tall weeds ahead suddenly began to shake violently.

Hmm?!

“Did some suicidal ghostly thing really show up?”

I sneered inwardly.

I stopped walking and humming. At a thought, my dantian grew hot, and the qi inside me prepared to boil into action.

Rustle, rustle…

The grass parted, revealing a boy of seven or eight.

He was quite adorable, with a round face and round eyes. His clothes were neat and clean, while beads of sweat covered his face. He looked nervous and panicked.

Oh?

It was only a child.

Standing before the weeds a short distance away, he regarded me timidly, as though he wanted to speak but did not dare.

I studied him for a moment and smiled.

“Kid, what are you doing all alone in the middle of nowhere?”

“I… I…”

The boy’s voice was clear and surprisingly pleasant.

I continued, “Do you live nearby? You should hurry home before your family starts worrying.”

I prepared to continue on my way and leave him behind.

But the boy stammered, “B-big brother… my sister… she fell and broke her leg. She’s lost a lot of blood and is about to die. I… I came out to find someone to save her.”

His speech was halting at first, but quickly became smoother.

I frowned slightly and stared at him in silence.

My prolonged scrutiny seemed to frighten the boy. He instinctively retreated one step into the grass, then gritted his teeth and held his ground.

His large eyes glistened as he pleaded, “Big brother, please save my sister. She’s good and has never done anything bad. I don’t want her to die. Boo-hoo-hoo…”

He actually began to cry.

I hesitated with a frown before finally answering, “All right, I’ll try. But understand this first: I don’t know medicine. I can only disinfect the wound, wrap it in gauze, and stop the bleeding.”

In that era, people were easily injured while hospitals and antibiotics remained relatively scarce. Many carried iodine swabs, gauze, and similar supplies for basic disinfection and bandaging.

The boy brightened the moment I agreed and nodded hard.

“Thank you, big brother! If you help my sister, she’ll definitely repay you properly.”

“All right. Lead the way.”

“Yes, big brother.”

“By the way, what’s your name?”

“My name is Huihui.”

The boy answered happily and turned into the weeds.

I looked up at the cloud-packed sky and muttered, “I hope this damned soft heart of mine doesn’t make me capsize in a ditch or leave me walking home after dark in a downpour. It should be fine, right? If something’s wrong, I’ll just retreat immediately.”

As I spoke to myself, I slipped an insect-repelling talisman inside my jacket against my skin. It could keep ordinary venomous creatures such as snakes, insects, rats, and ants away in the wilderness.

Then I picked up a thick branch, used it to press the tall weeds aside, and followed the boy into the hills, leaving the country path behind.

The farther we went, the denser the weeds grew and the quieter the surroundings became.

“Big brother, can you keep up?”

The boy stopped occasionally to wait for me.

I nodded. “I can keep up.”

“Good.”

He smiled and prepared to continue leading the way, but I called him back.

“Hey, wait.”

“What is it, big brother?”

“Huihui, you don’t need to maintain the glamour spell any longer. It must be tiring.”