Considered from a scientific and rational perspective, I was facing a pair of con artists.
Considered from the point of view of faith and emotion, I was even more certain that there was no such thing as ghosts.
But against all odds a small branch of my emotions broke off, betraying my faith. Privately, I didn"t think Xiao Ning was a liar. I still remembered the time he"d gotten off the train in the middle of the night and rushed back to H City, and the travel-worn way he had looked the next morning.
Before deciding whether to believe them or not, there was something I wanted to make certain of.
I said to Ning Tiance, "Were you the one who touched my chest in the elevator?"
Xiao Ning blushed, shook his head, and said, "No, it was the ghost possessing the elevator."
"A statement isn"t reliable. You have to try touching it again." I tried my best to look at this matter from an objective and academic point of view. "I still remember how it felt then. I can tell whether it was you by comparing. If it really wasn"t you, then I"ll believe that there was a third party in the elevator that day."
"What is this?" Sect Leader Ning looked at Xiao Ning in utter confusion.
Ning Tiance then had to briefly tell Sect Leader Ning what had happened in the elevator at the mall. Of course, his version was different from mine. In his version I used the wooden sword to hack to death a ghost that had stuck its head out of the elevator, while in my version he did a sword dance in as cramped a place as the elevator. What a pity that it had been too dark at the time and I hadn"t seen it clearly; he must have looked very good.
Sect Leader Ning touched his beard and nodded. "I see. In that case, in order to prove that my Maoshan Sect hasn"t made its name by deceiving the public, Tiance, go ahead and touch him. Let Mr. Shen see the truth."
The flush on Xiao Ning"s face hadn"t gone down. He looked at me and said, "Really? Here?"
"Yes!" Sect Leader Ning said seriously. "A true man owns up to what he"s done and hasn"t done. How can we let the stain of a sneak attack in the shadows remain? Clearly it was that evil creature trying to do harm under the cover of darkness."
Xiao Ning slowly approached me, rubbed my chest briefly, then let go.
"That"s wrong," I recalled seriously, "the gesture and the force were different. Let me demonstrate."
Xiao Ning was wearing a shirt, while I"d been wearing a pullover with a wider neckline. "That day, someone put his hand in my neckline, then lightly stroked, like a caress. I still remember the fingers were a little cold."
I put my hand into Xiao Ning"s shirt and demonstrated the gesture.
"Oh, so that"s how it was," said Sect Leader Ning with a cold snort. "That evil creature touched the place where your heart"s blood was hottest. It had seen your Yang energy and wanted to absorb it."
I didn"t quite understand that and addressed an academic question to Sect Leader Ning. "Didn"t you say before the Yang energy would cause harm to Yin-heavy ghosts and monsters? So why would they want to absorb Yang energy?"
"Mr. Shen"s Yang energy is to ghosts what the sun is to humans. If you get too close, you"ll be burned to death, but humans still need light and heat," said Sect Leader Ning.
I accepted the metaphor, but I was still dubious.
"Did you get the gesture and the force?" I patted my chest at Xiao Ning. "Come on, we"ll see whether you can persuade me with one move."
Xiao Ning"s expression was very complicated. He hesitated for a long time, until Sect Leader Ning couldn"t resist saying angrily, "Don"t be such an old woman. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Go on and display the manner of my Maoshan disciples! "
Only then did Xiao Ning imitate the gesture. When I felt his touch my heart went cold.
It really hadn"t been Xiao Ning. Xiao Ning always carried a sword. There were calluses on his fingers and on the webbing between them, unlike the fingers that day. Then... I had practically only felt a chill. There had been no calluses on that hand.
"There really was a third party in the elevator..." I thought deeply. "But only Xiao Ning and I entered the elevator that day. You could see the whole elevator at a glance. There were no magic tricks, nowhere for a person to hide. Was it really a ghost?"
"Mr. Shen finally believes." Sect Leader Ning touched his beard with relief.
Xiao Ning was staring at his hand, motionless. I didn"t know what he was thinking.
"I can"t believe it completely." I shook my head. "I still want to confirm it with Princ.i.p.al Zhang. And even if there are ghosts, it doesn"t mean that my lovable students are ghosts. I won"t believe it until I see their bodies!"
After that, I called Princ.i.p.al Zhang. The embarra.s.sing thing was, her phone was out of range as usual.
"There"ll probably be a signal tonight." I remembered that all of my contact to date with Princ.i.p.al Zhang had been at night. "She"s aboard, it"s always like this."
"Abroad?" said Sect Leader Ning, frowning. "Actually, we at the Maoshan Sect have thought all along that this commissioner was strange. Princ.i.p.al Zhang can trap a couple dozen fierce ghosts in the school, so she must have great power. How could she be unable to transcend them? Our sect"s elders have discussed this. We"ve suspected all along that she may be a ghost herself..."
"Impossible!" I stood up and excitedly interrupted Sect Leader Ning. "I have evidence!"
I found the record of the transfers Princ.i.p.al Zhang had made to me. "Tell me, could a ghost pay my salary?"
Sect Leader Ning read through the transfer record. "There seems to be no precedent for this. If there was a ghost strong enough to invade the national banking system, I"m afraid the whole world would be turned upside down."
"Exactly!" I said with satisfaction. "I"ll hold onto my reservations for now. We"ll talk again when I"ve contacted Princ.i.p.al Zhang tonight."
"That"s only fair," said Sect Leader Ning. "I"ll go back to my room and meditate. We"ll speak again tonight."
Then he gave me a look. I understood that he wanted me to help him up, then made a production of going over and taking Sect Leader Ning"s hand, saying, "Just in time. I was just going to the bathroom."
As soon as Sect Leader Ning got through the door, he grimaced in pain and lay on the bed. I helped him find a comfortable position before returning to the living room.
That day I"d stayed up late again and then waited in line at the hospital on top of it. Now I remembered that I had only slept three hours last night. I was wiped out. I fell onto the sofa, ready to fall into heavy sleep.
Xiao Ning patted me. "Teacher Shen, the sofa"s too hard. Go back to the room to sleep."
I said murkily, "Sleepy... can"t get up... the sofa"s magnetic, and I"m iron..."
Xiao Ning"s deep and magnetic laughter sounded in my ear. "Teacher Shen certainly has an iron will."
He blew into my ear when he spoke, making my ear itch. I automatically raised my hand to scratch it but accidentally touched something soft.
I really was too sleepy. I put my hand down and went to sleep. I dimly sensed someone lifting my head and putting a pillow under it. In my dream I thought, Who"s that? They"re really nice.
Before going to sleep, I"d sent a message to Princ.i.p.al Zhang and was waiting for her reply. In the middle of the night, I was woken up by the alert on my phone. I looked and saw that it was Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s message, but she wasn"t answering my question. Instead she said: Due to not wanting to take tests, Duan Youlian has run away from school.
"What!" I immediately sat up. When I moved I found that there was someone else lying beside me and used my phone"s flashlight to have a look. It was Xiao Ning.
Xiao Ning"s legs were still in an upright seated position, but his upper body had fallen onto my legs. He was sleeping soundly, only vaguely opening his eyes when the light hit him.
I got off the sofa and turned on the light. I said to Xiao Ning, "How come you were sleeping here? Why didn"t you go back to the room?"
"At first I was sitting on the sofa and thinking. Then I fell asleep without noticing," Xiao Ning said. "What did you just say?"
"Bad news! Duan Youlian ran away from school." I showed him my phone. "That child had just come back to attend cla.s.ses, and now she"s run away again. Can she still integrate into society?"
Sect Leader Ning heard my voice from the master bedroom. He shouted, "This fierce ghost"s powers are so strong that it can even escape confinement! Tiance, I"m afraid it will be hard to deal with. Take the peach wood sword. I"ll go, too!"
I went into Sect Leader Ning"s room and said to him, "You just rest, let your back recover. I"ll go with Xiao Ning."
"No!" Sect Leader Ning was so excited it sent his beard flying.
Xiao Ning also came in and said, "Shifu, Duan Youlian met with Teacher Shen on the ghost bus and tried to use her nails to attack him. Teacher Shen cut off her blood red nails with nail clippers."
Sect Leader Ning was speechless.
"She really has the heaviest Yin energy of any ghost I"ve ever seen. The corpse water from her body dripped onto Teacher Shen, invading him with Yin energy and making him feel cold. I wanted to help Teacher Shen dispel the Yin energy, but he dispelled it without knowing how himself, and even filled up my talismans with Yang."
"Corpse water? So it wasn"t rain?" I asked.
"No," said Xiao Ning. "The water on her body stinks, but ordinary people can"t smell it. In that cla.s.s, she"s probably the only one even I can"t get close to. Actually, she should be on a par with Mu Huaitong, but you pulled out Mu Huaitong"s tongue on your first meeting..."
"That wasn"t a store-bought prop?" I wondered, then immediately pulled back my train of thought. "That"s not the point. The point is we can"t let Xiao Duan keep drifting. We have to find her."
I had just asked Princ.i.p.al Zhang where Duan Youlian might go. Princ.i.p.al Zhang replied to me with three locations: Duan Youlian"s original address, every corner of Benevolence Middle School, and the river outside of H City.
Princ.i.p.al Zhang also said: I hope you will be able to find her tonight. Otherwise, the consequences don"t bear thinking about.
I thought, then sent a message to Princ.i.p.al Zhang: The professional you found to take of Mr. Saw, Ning Tiance, says Xiao Duan is a ghost. Is that true?
Princ.i.p.al Zhang said: Wait until you"ve brought her back, then come see me.
She didn"t give me the address, but I trusted that she would tell me when Xiao Duan came back.
"Shifu, Teacher Shen and I will go together," said Xiao Ning. "I"ll take all the exorcism talismans he filled up with Yang energy last time, as well as the ceremonial clothes and the precious sword. Nothing will happen."
"You... Ah," Sect Leader Ning sighed, "you must be careful. If it really is corpse water on Duan Youlian"s raincoat, I suspect she isn"t a ghost, but a living corpse! If she turns out to be too much to handle, leave at once. We"ll send word to the sect. I"ll have the elders come to the city as soon as possible to perform an exorcism."
After delivering these orders to Xiao Ning, Sect Leader Ning finally let him go. During the day, a driver had already brought the car back from Benevolence Middle School. Xiao Ning drove me to Duan Youlian"s home. It was the Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate, Building 4, Unit 4, Apartment 404.
"Isn"t… isn"t this my house?" I looked at the address, dazed. "Xiao Duan used to live here?"
"Before I went to 404 to deal with Mr. Saw, I checked up on that apartment. The first owner who came to grief was surnamed Duan." Xiao Ning pursed his lips and looked very serious. "After he died in a car accident, his family sold the house. I couldn"t find out where the Duan family moved after that."
So it really was Xiao Duan"s home. Would she have come back home?
The car soon reached 404. There was no one in the room, not even Teacher Liu.
"She came and took Teacher Liu." Xiao Ning pointed at the floor of Teacher Liu"s room.
I looked over. There was a puddle there, as if someone dripping wet had stood there for a very long time.