Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Chen Xue, who had just stepped down from the podium, also noticed Wang Dachun’s violent change in expression. He hurriedly asked, “What’s–”
Before he could finish, another barrage sounded.
Pfft-pfft-pfft, splatter-crackle!
These muffled noises had liquid mixed into them.
Wang Dachun’s deskmate and follower, Zeng Jin, cried out again. “Ah! Brother Chun, you’ve got diarrhea! It’s all in your pants!”
“Pfft!”
I could not hold back and laughed aloud.
Zeng Jin was the perfect unwitting accomplice. If I had not known better, I would have thought he was on my side.
Every time he opened his mouth, he embarrassed Wang Dachun further and hastened his public humiliation!
Yao Nan went pale with fright and pressed hard toward me.
I hurriedly leaned away, afraid she might touch me. Boys and girls were supposed to keep a proper distance, after all!
Chen Xue, who had just left the podium, promptly returned to it and pointed at Zeng Jin. “Ahem. Zeng Jin, you’re Wang Dachun’s deskmate. Help him to the infirmary. I have to supervise evening study, so I can’t go.”
I nearly laughed again.
He clearly found Wang Dachun disgusting now that the boy had soiled himself and did not want to escort him!
“Mr. Chen is quite a character. But I never knew the Fart Talisman caused diarrhea as well as flatulence.”
Amused, I watched a miserable Zeng Jin endure the stench and help the weakened Wang Dachun out of the classroom.
When they passed my row, I whispered, “Hey, don’t forget our meeting on the roof after school. Whoever doesn’t show is a dog! Plenty of classmates heard us.”
Clutching his stomach, Wang Dachun looked ready to cry. He gritted his teeth and answered, “I have diarrhea! Of course I can’t go. It’s not deliberate. Can we do it another day?”
“Heh.”
I sneered and looked away.
Zeng Jin helped him toward the door while he continued farting and leaking along the way…
As they reached the doorway, I heard Zeng Jin say, “Brother Chun, can you stop? Hold it in! Your pants can’t contain any more. Ah! It’s really leaking out.”
“Damn you! Will you shut your filthy mouth?”
His furious roar sent the class into laughter again.
…
For the rest of evening study, I quietly concentrated on studying ahead.
The thought of Master’s strict requirements made my head ache.
Yao Nan nudged me gently.
I stopped writing and looked at her.
“What?”
“Did you do something to Wang Dachun? I don’t know how, but I feel like you were behind it.”
A woman’s intuition really was formidable.
But I could never admit it.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t make baseless accusations, young lady. Wang Dachun ate something bad. What’s that got to do with me? He’s already gone to see a doctor.”
Then I ignored her and resumed studying.
I was a good student!
Hmph!
Yao Nan pouted and stopped talking to me. Her family was probably wealthy, and she was pretty enough that everyone always clustered around her. She was not used to someone as unmoved as me…
I would not indulge her!
We would be deskmates for three years. I could not let her start bossing me around from day one.
The girl was indeed attractive, but beside Master she was nothing.
As expected, there was no chance Wang Dachun would return from the infirmary to fight me on the roof.
After evening study, I went straight back to the coffin shop at the eastern end of town.
Walking from the school in the west toward the eastern outskirts, I saw fewer and fewer people, while the lights grew dimmer.
The eastern end had no densely populated place like the school. In a small town in the late 1990s, few pedestrians remained out after dark.
A dim yellow streetlamp every few dozen meters was already quite good.
Before long, I had covered most of the distance.
An intersection lay ahead.
At one corner stood several porcelain bowls, fruit, and steamed buns. Someone had drawn a circle on the ground with chalk, and inside it lay the ashes of burned spirit money.
Clearly, someone had made an offering there.
That was normal, since intersections were boundaries between yin and yang.
Their roads led in every direction. The ancients believed that no matter where a soul went after death, an intersection could reach it.
By day, crossroads served the living. At night, they also became roads to the underworld. People commemorating the dead therefore set out offerings and burned spirit money at intersections…
After more than two months under Master, I knew that when burning spirit money for a deceased relative, one should choose the western side of the intersection. That made it easy for a ghost to collect the money, or for ghost constables traveling east and west to deliver it quickly to the soul in the underworld.
Simple offerings for wandering local spirits belonged on the eastern side. This signaled that humans and ghosts should follow separate roads and not trouble the person burning paper, while preventing other resentful ghosts from harassing them.
There was even a verse about burning paper at crossroads: Four ways meet where the crossroads lie; roads lead freely beneath every sky. Every dead soul passes this place, collecting spirit money with ease. Offend no person while you’re alive; honor travelers from every side. Pay respects east, south, west, and north, and calamity will pass you by.
The metaphysical traditions of China were truly vast and profound.
Even burning paper at one intersection involved countless rules.
Someone with only my shallow knowledge could still talk about it at length.
Precisely because I knew those things, I crossed intersections quickly at night and never lingered! I also avoided the roads on the eastern and western sides.
With no cars around, I simply walked through the center.
I looked back one last time and saw the ashes on the eastern side. Some town resident had probably burned them for wandering local spirits to accumulate karmic merit.
A whirlwind suddenly rose. Even on a summer night, it felt chilly against my skin.
My heart tightened, and I hurried away.
The coffin shop’s door was still open when I returned, dim yellow light spilling from within. As I stepped over the foot-high threshold, I heard a soft thump behind me.
I turned, but nothing was there.
Had I imagined it?
“Master Cao, I’m back from school!”
At my shout, he emerged smiling from the darkness with his hands behind his back and asked whether I wanted a late-night snack.
I shook my head and asked if he needed help with anything.
“Good. There’s something to handle tonight. It shouldn’t be difficult. Xiao Wu, first you should… Wait. What’s on both your shoulders?”
His smile vanished as his gaze fixed on my shoulders.
“What do you mean?”
I turned my head in confusion. My scalp prickled, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
On each shoulder, near the outer edge of my shoulder blade, was a black five-fingered handprint!
I could even make out each thumb hooked over the end of my collarbone, with the other four fingers extending toward my back.
It was as though something had rested both hands on my shoulders and followed me through the darkness all the way to the coffin shop…
I remembered the thump at the threshold and whirled around!