Xiao Ning stuck all the talismans he"d taken off me onto the inside of the yellow robe, then handed me the peach wood sword. With a serious expression, he said, "I"m afraid Duan Youlian has gone mad. Even Teacher Liu, a ghost with such deep magic, was taken by her. We can"t underestimate her. That sword will be more effective in your hands than mine, so I"m leaving it to you. If necessary, bite through the tip of your tongue and spray a mouthful of blood into her face. It"ll be enough to save your life."
He took out a bunch of little flags from his satchel, which looked to me like party decorations. He recited, reading out each flag. I counted: eight by eight, sixty-four flags.
"This is an Eight Trigram Yin Yang array, an implement that can transform Yin into Yang and trap ghosts in its array. In the past, the ancestors of the Maoshan Sect used it to deal with a powerful yaksa. It"s a pity that with my skill, I can"t give full play to the power of the array. " Xiao Ning looked like he was ready to go out and stake his life. His lips were even turning white.
I was quite speechless. "It"s only... a student skipping cla.s.s... Skipping cla.s.s is normal, I skipped cla.s.s when I was in my first year of undergrad. The teacher called roll that day and took ten points off my final exam. I didn"t dare to skip again after that."
"Don"t worry," said Xiao Ning solemnly. "Even if I"m destroyed, I won"t let any harm come to you."
I really was speechless to the point of tears. Why did looking for a truant student have to be such a production?
Xiao Ning said Duan Youlian was a water ghoul. The most likely possibility was that she had returned to the place where she died, which was the river outside of H City.
H City had been established beside the river, and in the past the river really was outside the city. By now it had been fully brought into the bounds of H City. The river banks were covered with upscale residential estates, which you couldn"t get into however much you wanted. We looked for a long time before we left the range of the villas. Then there were guardrails around the river, with signs saying: "Danger: deep water; swimmers will be fined 500 yuan."
"Duan Youlian may be at the bottom of the river." Xiao Ning narrowed his eyes. "If we want to find her, it may be necessary to dive in."
Then he was going to take off his clothes and jump into the river. I grabbed him and said, "No, no, don"t, don"t you see the sign? There"s a fine. And there have been security cameras along the river for the last five years, they"ve basically achieved full coverage. I think the possibility of disposing of a body here is very small. How about you take your compa.s.s... compa.s.s of evil and search with it."
In recent years, in order to maintain a beautiful environment for the villa estates, and to strengthen sewage treatment, H City had sent people to salvage garbage from the river every day. To be honest, ten years ago it would have been possible to sink a body in the river, but ten years after... it would be pretty hard. The cleaning squad would come along and scoop it up...
In the past, it had also been common for swimmers to drown in the river. In recent years strict measures had been taken. Security guards patrolled the river every two hours. Rather than being caught and fined, it was better to go to the swimming pool.
I finally persuaded Xiao Ning not to jump into the river. He took out his compa.s.s of evil and searched all over with it. I was afraid he would only pay attention to the compa.s.s, lose his footing, and slip into the river, so I took his arm. We walked slowly along the river, blown by a gentle breeze.
After we"d walked for about half an hour, several security guards came up to us and said, "You two, we"ve been watching you on the security camera footage for ages. What are you doing? Swimming is forbidden here!"
"Just taking a walk." Holding Xiao Ning"s arm, I said, "We haven"t been into the estate. Isn"t taking a walk by the river allowed?"
"A man and a woman, fine, but two guys..." The security captain looked at us, his gaze full of suspicion.
"What, do you discriminate against minority groups?" I said, holding my head high. "What"s wrong with two guys?"
Disbelief was written all over the security captain"s face, but Xiao Ning and I hadn"t done anything. We"d just been walking along the river. This was a public place, an open scenic spot.
I was stubbornly answering the security captain"s gaze when Xiao Ning turned his head, gently kissed my lips, and said, "Do you think we"d make such a sacrifice just for the sake of swimming in the river? He and I suffer a lot of societal pressure from being together. During the day there are straight couples walking here, or pairs of girls. How could two men dare to be close in broad daylight? What"s wrong with us taking advantage of the night to relieve some of the pressure?"
The security captain was frightened by Xiao Ning"s boldness. He opened his mouth to the size of an egg as if planning on drinking the river, then said, "You guys... take care. You can take a walk, but absolutely no outdoor s.e.x by the river. The cameras are running."
Then he led the others away, fleeing like refugees from a calamity. I watched him go, patted Xiao Ning"s arm, and said, "Nicely done!"
Xiao Ning took a deep breath. "Teacher Shen, do you actually..."
"Actually what?" I waited for a long time for him to go on, raising my eyes to look at him under the light of the street lamps.
In the night Xiao Ning was truly handsome. I only then belatedly realized that he had just kissed me.
Not counting when my parents and relatives had kissed me when I"d been an especially cute baby, this was more or less my first kiss.
The cool, damp breeze off the river blew on my face, and I realized that I was blushing, red and hot.
Xiao Ning looked at me for a while, picked up the compa.s.s and said, "You"re right. It"s very clean here. In recent years, the city"s sewage treatment has been very good. There"s no Yin energy here. Let"s go to Benevolence Middle School."
He had changed the topic, and I couldn"t say anything more about it. Maybe Xiao Ning had just been trying to put off the security guard. After all, he hadn"t been the one to touch me that day in the elevator. I had misunderstood.
I followed him to the car. The whole time, the air inside the car was silent and oppressive, full of an atmosphere I had never experienced before.
There were few cars at night, and we soon got to Benevolence Middle School. After getting out, my face finally stopped burning so much, gradually resuming its normal temperature.
The back door was closed this time, so we had to jump over the wall. Fortunately, Xiao Ning"s skills were good. He flew onto the wall, then pulled me up.
I found that though Xiao Ning was taller than me, had longer legs and larger hands, it still seemed that in terms of strength... I was stronger.
"If a student skipping cla.s.s runs away to her own school, can that still be called skipping?" I asked while we searched the school.
"The Yin energy is very strong here." Xiao Ning held up the compa.s.s of evil with its rapidly spinning hand and said, "Stay close to me. We can"t split up."
There was something I really didn"t understand. "Didn"t you and Sect Leader Ning say I was protected by righteous energy, impervious to ghosts and G.o.ds? Even if Duan Youlian really is a living corpse, I cut her nails once before. Couldn"t I cut them again now?"
"Your faith has been shaken now," Xiao Ning said, pursing his lips. "Before you were fearless because you firmly believed in science. You thought that they were human, a group of disobedient students, so you had no fear in your heart. But now that you"ve been shaken, your righteous energy may be contained in your chest with no way to flow out. You may not be equal to Duan Youlian, now that she"s gone mad. I"m worried about you."
The last sentence made me blush again.
I followed Xiao Ning"s compa.s.s around the whole cla.s.sroom building, but we didn"t find Duan Youlian. The Yin energy was very heavy in the Fourth Cla.s.s, Third Year cla.s.sroom, though. Xiao Ning said that my students might all be there, but when I went in I didn"t see anyone. The temperature in the Fourth Cla.s.s, Third Year cla.s.sroom was just a little colder than in the corridor.
"Fierce ghosts are the only ones that can materialize in front of people. Ordinary ghosts, like those in the elevator and on the school bus, can"t materialize. They can make ordinary people hallucinate, but Teacher Shen... You would probably only feel a little cold," Ning Tiance explained. "And fierce ghosts can choose not to show themselves if they don"t want to be seen by humans. Although they"re in the cla.s.sroom, they aren"t willing to let you see them."
"Why?" I said to the Fourth Cla.s.s, Third Year cla.s.sroom. "Don"t you like me?"
The chalk on the lectern flew up and wrote "don"t like" on the blackboard.
I was so hurt that I didn"t care about the chalk flying on its own with no wind. I continued calling out to empty s.p.a.ce. "Why don"t you like me? Aren"t I nice to you!"
The word "test" appeared on the blackboard.
All right. I also didn"t like tests when I was in school.
"Where is Duan Youlian?" I asked.
The chalk wrote on the blackboard: "the old dormitory building."
"Good," I said to the air. "You"re all obedient, earnest students. I"m going to bring Xiao Duan back, and we"ll all have cla.s.s together."
I said to Xiao Ning, "They said she"s in the old dormitory building. Let"s go have a look."
Xiao Ning stared at me and asked, "Aren"t you afraid? You saw the chalk writing by itself with your own eyes. You must just about believe me now. Why don"t you seem afraid at all?"
I didn"t know myself. Probably it was because the students were so well-behaved. I couldn"t see them as something different from me.
Xiao Ning and I ran to the old dormitory. Benevolence Middle School had encouraged its students to live in. Duan Youlian had lived in the girls" dormitory building. Xiao Ning said the Yin energy was very strong there and told me to be careful. We went in back to back.
On the fourth floor of the dormitory, we heard the faint sound of crying.
We followed the sound. The door of dorm room 404 was ajar. A girl was crouching on the floor, crying quietly.
There was a notebook floating beside her. Xiao Ning tapped each of my eyes and ears, and before my eyes the notebook became Teacher Liu, sitting on the bed frame.
"Ah, don"t cry," Teacher Liu counseled her earnestly. "Look, you cried all the way from the school to the Farther Sh.o.r.e Estate, made me help you steal the test papers, saw the test papers weren"t to be stolen, then cried again. You got the floor of my room all wet with your tears."
"I don"t care. If there"s no test paper, we don"t have to take the test," wailed Duan Youlian. "I"m dead, why do I still have to study law?"
"It"s not that I didn"t want to help you steal it, it"s Teacher Shen"s computer… Before, when your cla.s.smate Xiao w.a.n.g hid in the e-mail to scare him, he dug out the battery. Xiao w.a.n.g was holding on tightly, and he still got the battery out. Xiao w.a.n.g"s shoulders were both dislocated and haven"t healed yet, and he still had to write in the answers. If I"d tried to steal the test papers, I... I really..." While he spoke, Teacher Liu wiped away his tears, seeming despondent. "I was afraid you would take it too much to heart. Do you think it"s easy for a notebook to float around following you? You didn"t even carry me."
Listening to their conversation, Xiao Ning silently put the 64 flags in his hand back into his satchel, and I handed the peach wood sword back to him.
At this point, as a teacher, I had to show my face.
I knocked on the door of the dormitory a few times and then came in. I said to Duan Youlian, "Xiao Duan, I didn"t know you were ghosts before and used the real world"s laws to test you. It was wrong of me. I made a mistake. I won"t do it again."
Seeing me come in, Duan Youlian"s face displayed horror, but after hearing what I said, she stood up excitedly and said with a surprised smile, "Teacher, you"re really nice!"
"But you still have to learn the law. The living have the laws of the living, and the dead also have rules for the dead. Xiao Ning, does your Maoshan Sect know if there are rules in ghost circles?"
"There are." Xiao Ning nodded. "There are records in ancient books at Maoshan."
"Very good. Wait for me to study Maoshan"s ancient books. Then we"ll update the curriculum. After we"ve studied ghost law, we"ll have another test, OK?"
Having heard this, Xiao Duan fell over backwards.