Mt.Fulong was not far from this town. After the meal, Su Bai walked to that mountain holding the horse"s rein in his hand. When he arrived at the foot of the mountain and saw the twisting mountain paths, he left the horse there and started climbing up on foot.
Unlike modern times when people could get up a hill on cable cars, he could only climb up on foot. And the mountain paths weren"t designed well; from time to time, he had to climb over.
But it was not a problem for Su Bai. The only thing Su Bai was concerned was that the old man might not be staying in the mountain. What if he took the kid to travel around the world? Then there would be nothing he could do. But considering that Dreadful Radio would issue an impossible task, it wouldn"t allow that old Taoist to escape into such a huge world, leaving those audiences completely helpless.
Halfway up the mountain, Su Bai found a wooden pavilion. It was shaky, but the view was great. Su Bai walked in to take a break.
In the meantime, Su Bai needed some time to think something over. For example, how would he take away the kid even if he found where the old man lived.
Before MT 2, Su Bai thought it was a good choice to leave the kid with the old man. But after MT 2 was issued, he had to find them and get the kid back, or even… bring him back to the nest, which was as good as pus.h.i.+ng him back to h.e.l.l.
But he had no choice. If it were to cost only 300 Story Points, Su Bai would have given it up, but 3000… the Dreadful Radio had left him no choice.
After a while, when Su Bai was about to continue climbing, an old woman came from below. She was holding a basket with joss sticks, candles and joss paper.
The old woman stopped by the pavilion and went in, looking tired. She sat across Su Bai, took out a zongzi[1] from her basket, unwrapped it and started eating.
As if Su Bai wasn"t there at all.
Su Bai was about to leave when he suddenly noticed a detail and changed his mind. Even Su Bai couldn"t avoid a little heavy breathing, but the old woman wasn"t sweating at all. It was cool here in the mountains, but no one could avoid getting sweaty after such a long hike upwards.
What was even weirder, the old woman"s shoes were extremely clean with no trace of dirt, as if they were newly made and had not touched the ground.
But that was impossible. There was no cable cars, and in some parts of the mountain there was even no stairs. Anyone come from that direction would have his or her clothes stained with dirt, let alone the bottom of the shoes.
The old woman seemed to have noticed Su Bai"s look and was a little surprised.
"Young man, are you hungry? I have a zongzi with meat. You can have it."
"No, thanks." Su Bai refused.
The old woman nodded, ate up the zongzi and then started off.
Su Bai followed her, about tens of meters away.
The old woman was not slow. She could even be said to be too fast for her age. Often, after a turning, Su Bai would find himself far behind that old woman. After several times, Su Bai realized that the old woman was trying to get rid of him.
And even in some muddy places, Su Bai had not seen a single footprint of that old woman. Was she a human or a ghost?
Su Bai wondered whether she would show herself if he turned into a zombie and forced her with his evil energy. But this place belonged to Taoists, unlike that county which only had one Lam Chin-Ying. He was concerned that he might draw too much attention if he became a zombie and would be hunted by a dozen Taoists.
He couldn"t take the risk.
He followed the woman until it was almost his destination. In front of them, there was a stone tomb with some characters that Su Bai didn"t know. The old woman knelt before the tomb, lit up candles and started to burn joss paper.
Su Bai pursed his lips. He didn"t know what the old woman was doing here, instead of going uphill to wors.h.i.+p Taoist G.o.ds.
When Su Bai walked past her, the old woman suddenly spoke.
"Young man, maybe you shouldn"t keep going. It not a place for people like us."
Su Bai was confused. The old woman was implying something.
"Why?" He asked.
"You know why."
The woman kept burning joss paper. Those paper were thrown into the air and burnt into ashes, looking so sad and lonely.
"I have to find someone there." Su Bai asked.
"If you have to." The old woman bent over and started kowtow.
"Who are you wors.h.i.+ping?" Su Bai asked.
"A dead man." The old woman put her palm together and started chanting.
"I know it"s a dead man… I mean, was he your family?"
The old woman looked at Su Bai in surprise and smiled. "Young man, I"m burning the joss paper for you, so you won"t worry about food or clothes when you"re heading to h.e.l.l."
Suddenly, Su Bai felt the mountain was shaking like an earthquake. Subconsciously, he crouched down and tried to hold the ground with his hands. But there was nothing beneath his feet, as if he was floating in the air. Next, he fell.
"Puff…"
Su Bai suddenly opened his eyes, only to find himself sitting in the pavilion, all wet in cold sweat.
There was no old woman or zongzi in the pavilion.
It was just a dream?
Su Bai couldn"t believe it. There was no such thing as coincidence.
Whether it implied anything or not, Su Bai would never quit. The dream said he was going to die, and if the tasked failed, he would also die. It was no different.
Su Bai got up and hit the road. He felt strange that the way uphill was different from that in his dream, and when he found that tomb, he was able to read the characters on it:
"Fulong Temple".
It was common to name a temple after the mountain it was located in.
Su Bai took a deep breath and walked past that tomb. However, suddenly a piece of paper ash fell down onto Su Bai"s boot.
Su Bai crouched down and flicked it away.
"Fine, I"ll leave."
Su Bai turned around and started walking downwards. He left just as suddenly as he came.
A carriage drove into the small town beneath Mt.Fulong with a fat guy driving.
Fatty asked the two monks inside whether they should spend a night here to have some decent food and a good sleep, but Seven turned him down immediately.
Having no choice, Fatty had to buy some solid food for their future journey. While moving along, they swallowed the tasteless food with some water.
The carriage went on and on, until they arrived at a teahouse at the foot of the mountain.
They had to prepare some necessities; after all, it was a long way up the mountain.
Fatty hurried off to ask if the teahouse could provide some better food like cooked beef. Traveling with two monks, he was craving for meat.
Luckily, although there was no cooked beef, preserved meat[2] or sausages were available. Fatty asked the owner to cook some dishes for them and sat by a table.
Gyatso and Seven went back after fetching some water. They were planing to go up the mountain during the night without wasting anytime, but Fatty was already waiting. They looked at each other, smiled and had to sit down next to Fatty.
Soon, a simple dish was served. Fatty was enjoying it. After a long time of tasteless food, he was determined to feast himself before the tiring journey up the mountain began.
Seven and Gyatso also had some. Seven had also asked the owner to prepare some solid food for them, and the owner immediately went to get them.
"Look, we haven"t met Bai all this way here, maybe he hasn"t found his way here?"
Gyatso shook his head. "He"s nuts, not stupid."
"Amitabh. He should be at least one day ahead of us. Maybe he"s already up in the mountain."
"That fast? But why does the fox feel that the kid is still up there?" Fatty was confused. "So… Bai went up the hill but did nothing? Just wasted his time till now?"
"If only it were that simple." Gyatso had clearly been feeling much better. Though his injuries were not fully healed, he was almost alright.
"After the meal, let"s go up during this night." Seven put his chopsticks down to show he was full.
"Why such a hurry?" Fatty wasn"t happy about that. It was only a short time after the 30-day task had begun.
But Gyatso also put down his chopsticks and finished his meal.
Fatty had to pay for the meal and pick up his package. The three of them headed off towards the hilltop in the night.
The teahouse owner took the money, but then he immediately left his teahouse and ran all the way to an unmarked cemetery.
A young man was standing in front of an isolated tomb.
"Mister! The people you told me to keep an eye on, they are here! Now they"re heading to the hilltop in a hurry." The owner said to that young man.
The young man nodded and threw some ingots of silver[3] to him.
The owner picked them up excitedly and bit one of them to test if they were real. Seeing the young man waving his hand, he realized it was his cue to leave.
The isolated tomb in front of Su Bai was dug open. There was a female body wrapped in straw mat. She was bad decayed, but there was a basket which was kept well. And there were two zongzies in it. The lotus leaves outside were withered and had turned yellow, but when Su Bai unwrapped them he found that they were meat zongzies.
"If there is indeed anything unusual, you can come into my dream and make a request when I"m back. I"ll see what I can do about your unfinished business. "
Then Su Bai held up a handful of dirt and spread it onto that isolated tomb.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Zongzi: Also known as traditional Chinese Rice-pudding.
[2] Preserved meat: meat dried and preserved with salt for long-term storage.
[3] Silver ingots: In ancient China, ingots of silver and gold were used as currency, along with copper cash, bills and so on.