Chapter 9
Chapter 9
After bringing back the Shed Skin, Eighth Master Chang thoroughly enjoyed the respectful look Deaf Granny was giving him.
“Ahem. About this immortal, uh, backing off at the critical moment tonight…”
Deaf Granny smiled and smoothly took over.
“When did Eighth Master Chang ever back off?”
“You were just trying to borrow Hemp-clad Grandmother’s power to go out and bring back reinforcements.”
Eighth Master Chang was thoroughly pleased with that answer.
With a smug little chuckle, he returned to his own shrine hall in the side room together with the Beheaded Ghost.
Old Li asked, “Deaf Granny, now that we’ve got the skin, what else do we need?”
While dusting the Shed Skin with incense ash, Deaf Granny replied, “Pine resin.”
“Regular pine resin won’t work. It has to come from that old pine on East Mountain Peak.”
Wang San couldn’t help asking, “Mother, you had me run to that old pine on East Mountain last night. Is it an Immortal Spirit too?”
Deaf Granny lightly rapped him on the head.
“Kids shouldn’t ask what they shouldn’t ask.”
Seeing the exhaustion written all over her face, Old Li couldn’t bear it.
“You rest at home. I’ll go up to East Mountain Peak and get the pine resin.”
He threw on his fur-lined coat and started out.
Deaf Granny hurriedly grabbed him.
“Old Li, you can’t just go by yourself and expect to get pine resin. Wait a bit-we’ll go together.”
Wang San’s Wife was kind-hearted and deft with her hands. By daybreak she’d already stitched a small quilt out of silly roe deer skin.
When the hide wasn’t enough, she even ripped up one of her own coarse cotton jackets.
In the countryside in the 1980s-especially in a bitter, frozen place deep in the snow mountains-cloth was more precious than animal hide.
Anyone who hadn’t lived through those hard years wouldn’t understand.
Deaf Granny wrapped the baby snugly in the little quilt, packed a few offerings, and went out with Old Li.
Worried they might run into a blind bear in the mountains, Old Li brought his hunting rifle.
Bears might hibernate, but the ones that came out to forage in this season were even more vicious.
The cold never let up. Every breath they took puffed into white mist. Their boots squeaked and crunched on the thick snow.
Village people slept early and rose early too. As they shoveled snow, they greeted the two elders warmly.
“Uncle, Auntie, heading out this early?”
“Did a wolf pup get into the village last night? It was howling for half the night!”
Deaf Granny laughed to herself.
What wolf? That had been ghosts screaming.
But she wasn’t about to say that out loud and stir up panic.
East Mountain wasn’t exactly far, but it wasn’t close either. The two elders didn’t make it to the summit until noon.
From a distance, a lone Green Pine stood proudly in the snow. Now and then, a cold gust swept by with a faint whistling hiss.
Deaf Granny knew Old Li didn’t like anything too spooky, so she said, “Old Li, you wait here. I’ll take the child over.”
Only after she carefully set out the offerings and lit three sticks of incense did Deaf Granny speak.
“Elder Pine, this little girl has come to visit you.”
A wind brushed through, and the Green Pine’s boughs trembled as if answering her.
Farther away, Old Li couldn’t help laughing under his breath at her calling herself a “little girl.”
Then he thought about it again-she wasn’t wrong. In front of a Ten-thousand-year Pine, Deaf Granny really was just a little girl.
Unaware of Old Li’s thoughts, Deaf Granny sat cross-legged before the Green Pine.
“Elder Pine, the first time I came to pay my respects was forty years ago.”
“If you hadn’t stepped in back then, I’d have been done in by filthy things.”
“Time goes by so fast.”
“In the blink of an eye, I’m old… and you’re still the same-haven’t changed a bit.”
Like she was chatting with an elder, Deaf Granny talked as she brushed the snow off the tree.
“In a few more years, even if I want to come see you, I’m afraid I won’t have the strength to climb up here.”
“I came this time to beg you for some pine resin-to save this poor child.”
As soon as she finished, a gust rose.
The wind swept the snow clean from the ground, leaving behind a single word: Ominous.
Deaf Granny wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“Indeed. Ominous-and viciously so!”
She recounted last night’s events from beginning to end.
“If the Snow Corpse hadn’t shown up out of nowhere, you wouldn’t be seeing me again!”
After that, Deaf Granny stopped talking and simply focused on clearing every last bit of snow from around the base of the Green Pine.
Another gust blew past. A section of branch snapped loose and fell, and a few drops of golden pine oil seeped out.
In an instant, fragrance filled the entire mountaintop.
One drop drifted on the wind and landed right in the baby’s mouth.
The little one, who’d been a bit hungry, immediately looked content and fell into a deep sleep.
Deaf Granny froze in shock-then her face lit up with joy. She quickly collected the pine oil into a porcelain bottle.
Then she hugged the fallen branch to her chest.
“You really do cherish this little girl!”
“With this Ten-thousand-year Pine Branch you’ve given me, those wandering ghosts won’t dare bully me again!”
Deaf Granny talked with the tree for a long while, until the sun sank low.
The sunset’s glow filtered through the pine, casting a huge word into the snow: Return.
Deaf Granny’s smile looked downright blissful.
“Ah, you’re worried about me-telling me to head back early.”
“Alright, alright. This little girl is leaving now.”
“I’ll come see you again after some time.”
“And if, in a few years, I can’t make the climb anymore, I’ll have my Sanwa-Wang San-and this child come and show you their respect.”
On the way back, Old Li asked curiously, “Deaf Granny, didn’t you say the filthy things would come looking for the Doll after dark?”
“Then why weren’t you in any hurry to get down the mountain just now?”