I saw the message and fell into silence. What exactly did old Zhang think?However, no matter what he was thinking, I must rush to the hospital as soon as possible.
Soon arrived at the hospital, in the hallway of Zhou Yan"s ward, it had become a mess. Zhen Chen was enraged by several doctors, even so, it looked like he was going to hit someone.
And old man Zhang was behind Zhou Yan protected by her opening arms. There was a big b.u.mp on his forehead, which indicating he have been hit.
The ground was full of rice, vermilion, and yellow paper which had been trampled so heavily that I couldn"t see its original form. Several policemen was educating old man Zhang while maintaining order. He turned his head around showing that he was indifferent to the police.
I couldn"t help to pat my forehead. How could he come to the hospital to perform a religious rite, even his client didn"t want to do so, the idea of this old man was really fresh and unique.
I didn"t dare to go closer, I told Zhou Yan that I was together with old Zhang yesterday, once I stepped closer, my lie could be exposed. Moreover, in case I was identified as a confederate, I would be arrested by police which was wronged.
It was better to be a bystander watching outside.
Because hospital was a public place, the police saw old Zhang didn"t want to leave so they borrowed a meeting room from hospital, asked everyone to get in and had a meeting, in order to maintain running of hospital.
To be honest, if it weren"t for old Zhang"s age, plus Zhou Yan quarreled with her husband again, the police would rather arrest them.
A group of people entered the meeting room, because there was so many people watching, the meeting room"s door was closed, I took a look at the crowd of people who were still discussing excitedly and then sat down at a corner ,the possibility that old Zhang was arrested was very low, when he come out, I would found a chance to talk to him.
The meeting didn"t last long, it seemed that Zhou Yan had a fight with Zheng Chen, so her face was a little red and ran out crying into the ward. After a while, Zhen Chen was pushed out of the meeting room by police while he was still scolding. His face was full of scratches, he looked a lot more miserable than Zhou Yan.
He was pushed aisle, Zheng Chen was still scolding, but his target was not Zhou Yan but old Zhang.
The last one to come out was old Zhang, his face was as red as before, instead of messy hair and halting steps, he looked ten years older and walked dully.
The police still wanted to educate him, but seeing old Zhang"s status, police left some ordinary words. It looked like that he would go back to suicide himself.
Old Zhang walked out the gate of hospital, but he didn"t leave, he sat down in a little pavilion, leaned against a pillar and remained silent. And I didn"t know what He was thinking.
In the lobby of the inpatient department, there were some people still pointing fingers at old Zhang, I didn"t walk to him at once, it was not until the crowd had dispersed that I went to the pavilion.
Old Zhang didn"t react to my arrival, I sat on the other side of him, looked at him for a long time and said: “do you think you could drive away the evil spirit of Zheng Chen by performing a religious rite? Well, Zheng Chen is the father of that children.”
Old Zhang raised his head and looked at me in surprise.
I continued, “do you know what that evil thing was and what was it looked like?”
Old Zhang shook his head unconsciously.
I laughed “your old man, are really...really...”
I couldn"t find a word to describe him, and there was a pause before I continued, “lovely, Ha ha, come to hospital to perform a religious rite, interesting. But how could you find out that Zheng Chen was feeding evil spirit?”
Old Zhang"s eyes lit up and said: “fate, his fate is doom to be without fortune, but now he has, it could only be evil fortune, excepted feeding evil G.o.ds, it could only because of criminal offense. But in the case of the child, I am sure that he was feeding evil spirit.”
I nodded and suddenly curious about fortune telling, “It"s so accurate. Is everything predetermined for a person?”
Old man Zhang shook his head, “fate and luck, fate is nature, but luck is nurture”
“Well, that was not bad, at least make your word sound plausible, it slightly stimulates people to strive.”
Old man Zhang listen to me and frown slightly, he was going to say something but interrupted by me.
“How did you come up with performing a religious rite today?”
Old man Zhang heard, his face suddenly turned dark again: " the child is innocent, I also know that I"m not skillful enough to save him, but no matter success or not, I have to try. Besides, I heard that the child woke up for a long time yesterday, maybe the child was struggling? Survival is human instinct.”
Didn"t tell old man Zhang the reason why children awake last night, I suddenly felt that this old man was quite lovely, of course, it was combined with silly.
Old man Zhang looked at me and said, “who are you? How do you know Zheng, that Zheng guy, the child"s father is feeding evil spirit?”
I laughed, " Zheng Chen, as for how I know, hey, I saw it, I was also very curious, but it seems that he doesn"t know he is feeding evil spirit.”
“He doesn"t know it. " old man Zhang surprised, then he denied:" impossible, if he is not feeding evil spirit, Evil spirit wouldn"t entangle in him.”
“I"m also very confused about this.”
Old man Zhang suddenly paused, and then stared at me for a while which made me frighten, I looked at himself up and down, it seemed nothing wrong on my body.
Old man Zhang pointed at me, said in a startled way: " you, you said you saw it?”
I nodded curiously: "yes, a toad, on Zheng Chen"s shoulder, but I don"t know where this toad come from.”
" Are you a monk? " old man Zhang looked very excited; his face was bloodshot.
I didn"t understand what"s going on, just nodded, " probably.”
Old man Zhang cried out unexpectedly, and then he stood up suddenly, just when I thought he was going to hit me, old man Zhang suddenly knelt down in front of me.
s.h.i.+t, what"s this?
Pavilion was not far outside the inpatient building, people walked past started to look at us.
I hurried to help old man Zhang get up: " what are you doing?”
Old man Zhang was still kneeling on the ground: " I started to follow my father to learn fortune-telling at the age of 16, until now it has been 60 years, but I still can"t learn even the most basic skill. Please accept me as your apprentice for the sake of my old age, my master.”
I was totally stunned, opening my mouth for a long time but could not speak anything, then I replied: " you are 76, but I"m younger than 30?”
Old Zhang shook his head and said, " everyone who has wisdom is master. Please accept me.”
Someone was walking to us, I quickly advised old man Zhang: " ok, you get up quickly.”
Old man Zhang pushed away my hands, I thought he was going to stand up, as a result, old man Zhang knocked his head on ground three times seriously, respectfully called me “master”, then he stood up slowly and called me " master” respectfully again.
I completely ignored old man Zhang, looking at curious faces from surrounding onlookers, I made a gesture pointing to my head with finger, smiled embarra.s.singly, and then the crowd suddenly realized, they looked at old man Zhang sympathetically, then they left.
I sat on the bench speechless, old man Zhang was standing beside me respectfully, I looked at him and said, " that, old man.”
Old man Zhang replied seriously: " master, call me Xiao Zhang.”