TLDP: Ch.30. Money Will Make the Devil Turn The Millstones [1]
“Really?” w.a.n.g Shan asked while sobbing.
“Well, tell me, when does this old grandma usually come to scare you?”
“She comes every night, sometime during the day too.”
I nodded: “You stay here during the day, and I’ll go to your ward at night. If that grandma comes, I will talk with her, OK?”
Around 5:30 PM, Xu Xiaoling came with a lunch box. I had dinner and chatted with her for a while, then told her to go back home earlier. Because if it was too late, I would worry about her safety.
Besides, tonight I had to do something. If I could compromise with the ghost, it would be better. After all, at present, with the severe injuries on my body, it was inconvenient to act.
I called my father: “Dad, you don’t need to accompany me tonight, elder sister Xiaoling has sent me a dinner. I’m okay by myself here.”
“Is that really alright?”
“Absolutely!”
I talked about some other things with Dad and then hung up the phone. Somehow, I secretly felt anxious. Although I didn’t want to act in the night, if the ghost didn’t want to compromise, a fight would be inevitable! Besides, I only had a few props right now. There was only the Shadowbane sword, three Moon Charms, and three Heart Mind Purifying Charms. The other props were taken home by Miss Daiyu. The Sun Charms had already been used up in the tomb, and I didn’t have the time to draw this time.
I couldn’t fully use my right arm. It was affected due to my fractured right ribs, but my left arm was okay.
I inserted the Shadowbane sword into my waist and the six charms into my pocket before I headed straight for w.a.n.g Shan’s ward.
She was being accompanied by her parents and was very happy when I came, as she then introduced me to her parents. Her father worked at the family register section, as her mother was a high school language teacher.
w.a.n.g Shan’s father heard about my registered name in the family register and promised to help on this matter. However, even without his help, I could’ve also ask Chen Jianmin to help. Besides, I have been quite disturbed by this problem for as long as I can remember.
Tonight, w.a.n.g Shan’s father would stay to accompany and attend to her. It seemed that I couldn’t negotiate with the ghost in the usual way with him around, so I had to find another way to do so.
After a while, w.a.n.g Shan’s mother had to go home and her father sent her off to go back home. I quickly took this opportunity and took out a Moon Charm as I then ignited it to extinguish my shoulders’ Yang fire.
I gave a hand signal to w.a.n.g Shan whose small mouth had formed an ‘O’ in amazement. I quickly whispered to her: “Qianqian, you must keep this a secret, you cannot tell a soul, understand?”
w.a.n.g Shan nodded: “Relax, I won’t talk about this thing, or they will say that I’m schizophrenic.”
“You wait here, I will go out now, but I’ll be back soon.” Then I went out from her room and headed straight downstairs.
Why would I go downstairs? Because I must go out to find a ghost to confuse w.a.n.g Shan’s father and make him sleep until tomorrow morning. This genius idea could of course only come out from this patriarch!
I was walking from the fifth floor as I trotted downstairs to the fourth floor. I suddenly found a woman standing on the stairway. She wore a patient suit and had her head lowered. Her stomach was severely bleeding. I walked over to her: “Big Sister? … h.e.l.lo! Big sister, your stomach is bleeding!”
This bleeding sister raised her head and exposed her pale-deathly face as she said, expressionlessly: “Yang energy is weak. I want your body…”
“Stop!” I stretched my hand out to stop her: “Do you really want my body? Before you want to possess me, do you want to know something? You won’t be able to do that! To tell you the truth, I’m a Daoist priest, I want to ask you a favor. After that, I can promise you a favor. But of course, it has to be within my abilities and it must be lawful, I cannot kill people!”
“What do you want me to do ~~!” The bleeding sister grimly asked.
“It’s very simple, help me confuse a person, and let him sleep until tomorrow morning.”
This bleeding sister’s stomach was still bleeding, but she didn’t care about it. She nodded, and gloomily replied: “I want some money ~~!”
“Offering paper money? OK! Tomorrow, I will burn billions of it for you!” I quickly replied back.
Unexpectedly, the bleeding sister’s voice became more somber, said: “I want the Renminbi ~~~!”
I was paralyzed on the spot. Holy sh*t!, What the h.e.l.l would RMB be useful for right now? To buy a precious hemostatic drug to stop the bleeding? But I didn’t think about it now, as I continued asking: “How much do you want?”
“2,000 ~~”
What a huge appet.i.te! Well, then, 2,000. I presume that this sister’s skill was sufficient to confuse someone. If it was an ordinary ghost, it wouldn’t be capable of confusing people. So I quickly nodded, said: “Deal, now follow me. I will take you into a room and you are responsible for making a certain man faint in that ward.”
I returned back to the ward and saw that w.a.n.g Shan was being fed rice porridge by her father. He had gone back when I was out. The bleeding sister rushed in lightning fast without delay! Even if I wanted to prevent her, I was too late in doing so. The bleeding sister pa.s.sed through w.a.n.g Shan father’s body as his eyes shut, and he fell backward.
I hurriedly rushed forward and held his body, of which was about to fall. But the movement made pained my ribs. I grinned in agony before snappily shouting at the ghost: “Sister, look at the situation first before you start! And why are you gawking? Quick, help me move this man to the next bed!”
Each VIP ward had two beds, of which were usually used by the waiting family members.
I quickly said to w.a.n.g Shan: “Don’t be too worry. Your father only fainted, he will wake up in the morning.”
w.a.n.g Shan casually nodded as she gazed at her father’s body which was floating onto another bed. She suddenly turned her head and looked at me: “Big brother Xiaolong, who were you talking with just now?!”
“Umm, little sister, it was just a ghost that I invited. She helped me make your father faint. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to negotiate with that grandma ghost this night.”
“Ghost?!”, w.a.n.g Shang quickly curled up on her bed, looking panicked.
I hurriedly comforted her: “Qianqian, relax. I’m the one who invited this ghost. She will not harm you, besides you cannot see her. Under normal situations, people can’t see ghosts unless they play the Fairy Pen game like you did. And if you made that ghost angry, it will haunt you.”
The bleeding sister stood in the corner. Her bleeding stomach was really dreadful as one could see the bloodstream flowing. I asked her why she didn’t leave, she spookily replied: “When you give me my money, I’ll leave ~ ~ !.”
No way, I had no money right now; I could only wait until tomorrow to get some. Fortunately, this bleeding sister didn’t talk much as she always stood in the corner and lowered her head. She was now taking care of her bleeding, which of course was only an illusion, not real…
I sat on the chair near the bedside and chatted with w.a.n.g Shan. When it was past 9:00 PM, Xu Xiaoling called me: “Cousin, are you asleep?”
“I’ve slept but was awakened by your call.”
“Learnt how to lie to others? As soon as I heard your voice, I knew that you haven’t slept, why? It’s so late and you haven’t gone to sleep yet?”
“I am still chatting in another patient’s ward, I’ll go back immediately to sleep. Sister Xiaoling, you just go sleep first and have a good rest.”
“Well, OK. Then go back to your chat there, I won’t disturb you. Remember that you must quickly go to sleep, goodnight.”
“OK, OK, goodnight.”
I hung up the phone and said to w.a.n.g Shan: “Qianqian, you sleep now. Relax, I’m here, I will not leave.”
She nodded and soon fell asleep. She was restless and fearful these days and hadn’t had a good night’s rest. And since I was here, she felt relieved and quickly went to sleep.
Because I got bored, I took out my Sanlu cell phone and played Plants Vs Zombies. When I got immersed in playing games, I suddenly felt a chilling wind approach. I quickly got up and looked up! I saw a very pale looking old woman ghost floating in. It saw the bleeding sister stand motionlessly with her head bowed down. She drifted down toward w.a.n.g Shan’s bed as I then shouted in a deep tone: “Stop!”
“Can you see me?” The granny ghost asked grimly.
I raised my leg onto my other one and replied: “Yes, I’ve come here especially for you. Are you the Pen Fairy invited by this child? I want to ask you why you did that. Why are you haunting this child? Isn’t it evil? Today just give face to this patriarch and let her go, OK?”
“No! A country has its laws, and a family has its own rules. When playing a game, one must abide by the rules! Without rules, people would kill each other because there were no rules. Wouldn’t the world then fall into chaos?”
d.a.m.n! Why the h.e.l.l would she pull it so far? This ghost clearly won’t give me any face, then I would also do the same!
My anger surged up and I pounded on the table. I quickly moved my hand to my waist to take out the Shadowbane sword and slashed the granny ghost! Who would have thought that this granny’s speed was much quicker than mine! I was turned upside down with my chair because of her kick.
c.r.a.p! The pain was killing this father! My ribs emitted a cracking sound. It was needless to say that it was broken again! I laid on the floor as cold sweat streamed down from my body. Only a slight movement and it affected my ribs? The acute pain made my tears run down. I was paralyzed, a country had its laws and a family had its own rules? Why didn’t this granny play the card according to the repertoire? This patriarch hadn’t stood up yet, yet it began to attack again?
I was so d.a.m.n ashamed and lost my face today! Just when we met face to face, I quickly got kicked and turned upside down because of some family rules?
This granny was really unforgiving. She rushed toward the already miserable me and quickly kicked me with her unworldly ferocity! d.a.m.n, was this granny a member of a neighborhood committee before her death? [2]
My several small broken ribs were very pitiful, it was broken again after getting kicked! I finally took out my Shadowbane sword with great difficulty, activated it and swept away the granny! This granny was dreaded by the Yang energy that was emitted from the Shadowbane sword as she suddenly stopped rushing. But since I had extinguished my Yang fire, my Yang energy was dropping and the flame on my Shadowbane sword could only last for several minutes before it vanished! The granny walked forward to probe and found that I couldn’t activate the Shadowbane sword again. She then quickly rushed toward me and seized my neck fiercely!
Would this patriarch lose his life today because of this?! I pinched my eyes and turned my sight as I suddenly noticed that the bleeding sister was still standing in the corner. Still bowing her head and taking care of her bleeding. My voice intermittently shouted:”Big, Big sister… Help me, handle this granny out…”
“I want money ~~” the bleeding sister gloomily replied.
“How, how much?” I was really going to suffocate.
“Added with the 2,000 RMB from last time, give me a total of 5,000 ~~” said the bleeding sister somberly.
“No, let alone five thousand, ten thousand!” My face had become crimson red, as I barely spat out those few words.
“Good, its 10,000 RMB then ~~”
At this time, this d.a.m.n, s.h.i.t, f.u.c.k me truly wanted to slap my own face twice! Why the h.e.l.l was my mouth so lame? She said that she wanted 5,000 RMB, and you had to give her 10,000 RMB? My pitiful 10,000 Yuan! So much money, gone just like that!
~~~~~~~~~~end of ch.30~~~~~~~~~~
[1] Its an idiom. With money, you can do anything you like.
[2] The neighborhood committee’s ladies are usually stern, suspicious, senile, easy to ignite, etc … the organization is something uniquely Chinese. The committee itself is a gra.s.s root ma.s.s organization in China. In Chinese residential areas both in cities and towns, there were these neighborhood committees.