Chapter 35 It’s me. You and your mother are not good at lying.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to forget you."
Inside the room, Shunian sat angrily on a stool, his back to Chang Xile to show his displeasure. Chang Xile clasped his hands together, feeling deeply apologetic. He explained, "I thought you could just draw a door-opening talisman and leave. I didn't expect to keep you locked up for so long."
It wasn't until dinnertime, when Shu Nian was nowhere to be seen—the child was usually most active during meals—that people finally looked for him. It was then that Chang Xile realized she might have locked him in the room.
This explanation was worse than nothing. Shunian felt even more dejected when she realized that after years of painstaking practice, her talisman-drawing skills weren't as good as someone making them for the first time. She opened her mouth to howl, but Chang Xile found a way to slip a jujube paste cake into her mouth. She gave a guilty smile, "You didn't eat dinner, so you're starving, right? Any dessert?"
Shunian gave her a sullen look, chewed a little, and found the jujube paste cake quite sweet. He felt hungry again, so he chewed it again, sighing, "Life has tempered me a thousand times, making me even softer, more sticky, and more delicious."
"Shunian, how come you surf the Internet more frequently than I do?" Chang Xile was ashamed.
At this moment, a voice came from outside the door: "If I were you, I would hurry up and practice. You must know that God rewards hard work."
When Shunian heard the voice, he stood up somewhat stiffly and called out, "Master."
It was Tang You who entered the room. She stood with her hands behind her back and said to Chang Xile, "Guisi is awake. Go check on her."
Chang Xile's eyes lit up. She patted Shunian's head one last time and comforted him, "Don't be angry! I'll come to play with you later." Then she hurried out.
Shunian's mood, initially smoothed by the jujube cake, was immediately upset again. He and this nun had only met a few times, so even talking to her was awkward. Tang You's words, "God rewards hard work," were not wrong, but Shunian chewed them over in his mind several times, and suddenly felt uncomfortable.
"Why are you crying? There are always people better than you. If you cry when you meet someone more powerful than you, the whole world will be flooded." Tang You taught him a lesson without any emotion.
Shunian's eyes became even redder, and he couldn't help but ask, "Master, you said that hard work pays off, so why am I, after practicing for so long, still not as good as Sister Xile, a beginner?"
Even she was taught by a half-baked man like him.
Tang You's expression grew even colder. "Why would you want to compete with her? Just look at what your master taught you. What is talisman drawing, after all?"
Shunian was frightened by this and held back the tears that were about to burst out. He whispered, "Take advantage of the situation."
"Leveraging power has nothing to do with what you say or do. It doesn't even matter if you're a human being. It just depends on whether the other party is willing to lend it." Tang You repeated this cliché and asked him, "Chang Xile borrowed it, and he's still more powerful than you. How can that be justified?"
Shunian couldn't understand. He blinked hard and asked, "If someone is born with a connection to gods and Buddhas, and can achieve in just one day what ordinary people would spend their entire lives trying to achieve, then what are ordinary people like me struggling for all day long?"
"So I'm saying, compare yourself." Tang You gestured at her waist and said, "When you came to the temple, you were only this tall and didn't even know what a talisman was. But now you can use it to your advantage. You'll be even more powerful in the future."
Shunian fell silent, deep in thought. After a moment, he quickly took another jujube paste cake and stuffed it into his mouth, ready to start practicing talismans.
When Chang Xile arrived at the gate of the courtyard where Yang Guisi was resting, he heard someone shouting, "Who are you? What have you done to me?"
Renxin backed out the door with a gloomy face, while Chang Xile, confused, tried to go in. She moved too quickly, and Renxin wanted to stop her, but failed.
As she opened the door, a wooden bowl came hurtling towards her, hitting the doorframe at an angle and narrowly missing her. However, some of the medicine inside still splashed onto Chang Xile's shoes and socks.
Chang Xile looked up in shock. Yang Guisi was sitting on the bed, blocked by the hanging gauze curtain, making it difficult for Chang Xile to see her expression. He only felt that Yang Guisi's face was particularly pale.
"The demon has been exorcised, but your friend seems to be very hostile to us, so you'd better be careful." Renxin stood behind and explained the situation, ready to pull Chang Xile out if anything went wrong.
Chang Xile took another step forward and whispered to the person on the bed, "Guisi, it's me, Chang Xile."
"...Xi Le?" Yang Guisi repeated the name and finally realized what was happening. He pulled back the curtain and said word by word, "Close the door."
Chang Xile turned slightly, nodded to Renxin, and then closed the door.
When she sat on the bed, Yang Guisi immediately took her hand. Neither of them spoke for a while. Chang Xile could only feel the hand holding hers trembling, as if it was afraid of something. So she placed her other hand on the back of Yang Guisi's hand and pressed it down to show that she was there.
When Yang Guisi finally calmed down, she asked, "Where is this? What did they do to me?"
"It's the Changleguan Temple we were planning to visit. You were possessed by an evil spirit after you got lost in the mountains, and they performed an exorcism ceremony for you." Chang Xile answered truthfully.
"Exorcise ghosts?" Yang Guisi repeated the two words and asked in disbelief, "Why? Who allowed it?" She lowered her head and felt something carefully.
Suddenly, big beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She couldn't help but grab Chang Xile's clothes and asked her, "What about the ghost in me? Where did it go?"
Chang Xile opened her mouth, not quite understanding why Yang Guisi reacted so strongly. Logically speaking, Yang Guisi was a fellow practitioner in the same line of work, and she should know better than Chang Xile what the consequences would be when a ghost possessing a person was caught.
As expected, Yang Guisi quickly calmed down. She released Chang Xile's hand, lowered her head, took a deep breath, and said through gritted teeth, "Forget it... Don't tell me. Who performed the ritual for me? Call her over."
Even if Chang Xile didn't understand, she could tell how much Yang Guisi cared about the ghost in her body. She might even be aware of the ghost's existence.
Before Chang Xile could speak, a voice came from outside the door: "It's me."
The wooden door creaked open, and a tall, thin woman walked in. With a calm gaze, she looked down at Yang Guisi, who was kneeling on the bed, and said, "I performed the ritual for you. What do you want to talk to me about?"
It was Tang You who was called by Renxin to save the situation.
Yang Guisi, who had been so emotional just now, stared at Tang You's face, speechless for a moment. Clearly, these two people were people she was very familiar with, but watching their silent confrontation made Xile feel even more nervous, her eyes shifting back and forth between the two, not daring to interrupt.
After a while, Yang Guisi suddenly shed tears, but did not ask any more questions, as if he already knew the answer.
Tang You and Chang Xile watched her cry quietly for a while, then Yang Guisi wiped away her tears, tugged at Chang Xile's sleeve, and said, "Xile, I want to go down the mountain."
"Now?" Chang Xile was surprised. She understood Yang Guisi's eagerness to go home. "But you just woke up and you're not well yet." Yang Guisi's expression was determined. It would be difficult to change the decision she had made.
Chang Xile was still thinking about how to persuade her when Tang You spoke again: "It's dark now, and the mountain is thick with fog. Don't bother the people in the temple looking for you again."
After Tang You said this, Yang Guisi fell silent. She nodded, turned over and lay back on the bed, facing away from them.
Chang Xile covered her with a blanket and comforted her, "Have a good rest. I'll go down the mountain with you tomorrow."
After closing the door from the outside, Chang Xile and Tang You looked at each other and walked out together.
Neither of them spoke for a moment. Chang Xile was still reflecting on Yang Guisi's attitude. She felt that there was still much she didn't understand about this roommate she had only just met.
In the end, it was Tang You who spoke first. She glanced at Chang Xile and asked her, "Did you take the treasure bag I gave you with you?"
"Ah, yes." Chang Xile was caught off guard by the question and subconsciously touched his pocket to take it out. Fortunately, he remembered Dai Shanyan attached to the brocade bag, pressed his pocket again, and forced a smile, "Auntie, why are you asking this suddenly?"
Tang You raised an eyebrow and said, "But I didn't feel the talisman I drew, which means it's ineffective."
She stretched out her hand to Chang Xile and said, "Let me see it."
Chang Xile clutched his pockets tighter. Dai Shanyan was also a ghost, but she wasn't a bad ghost. Chang Xile wasn't sure what Tang You would do to her, so he stammered, "Well, actually, I don't have it with me."
Tang You looked at her expressionlessly for a moment and commented, "You're just as bad at lying as your mother."
But she didn't insist. She just continued walking forward with Chang Xile and said, "Xile, do you remember your childhood?"
Chang Xile was a little confused: "What's going on? Mom said if I don't go to bed, she'll ask Auntie to come and catch me."
Tang You paused, turned around, and said in disbelief, "Is that how your mother describes me?"
Her expression showed a rare hint of anger: "I said there was a period of time when you were very afraid of me when you were a child." It took a long time to coax her back to her senses.
Chang Xile hurriedly stroked her fur and changed the subject, asking, "What happened in your childhood? Auntie, tell me about it."
Tang You snorted in annoyance and continued what she was about to say: "When you were little, you were very easily frightened. You would have a high fever every few days, and the doctor would only give you an IV drip."
"That's because children are more sensitive, and their eyes can easily see things that ordinary people can't see." Tang You looked at Chang Xile's eyes gently and said, "You have a light body, so you are extra sensitive."
"Then I went home and saw your mother crying anxiously. She said that giving you medicine was useless and that if the fever continued, you would become stupid." Tang You looked up and recalled, "Let me tell you, these were all dreams. What you saw was not real."
Speaking of this, Chang Xile suddenly had an impression.
On a snowy night, Chang Xile looked at the strange ghosts gathered outside the window. She cried until her voice became hoarse and she could only keep shedding tears.
Her temperature was high, and her aunt, who had just rushed home in the night, still had snowflakes on her coat. She held Chang Xile's small hand, bringing a little coolness.
Tang You hugged Chang Xile, touched her eyes, told her to close them, and sang a nursery rhyme for her softly: "Don't be afraid, your aunt is here."
"These are all dreams. When you wake up, they will all be gone."
Tang You quietly covered Chang Xile's ears. Where she couldn't see, countless ghosts were screaming and being dispersed by some force.
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