By the fifth knock, Grandma Wang's ghost was already pounding on the door, slamming her whole palm against it until the wooden frame creaked.
From inside came Sun Qi's voice: "Get out! She's looking for you—get out!" Her voice was tearful, the rising volume impossible to suppress.
A splintering crack rang out as the sixth strike smashed the latch open. Sun Qi was shoved out from inside toward the ghost grandma, who seized her by the neck with both hands without the slightest hesitation.
Blind Zhao muttered in bewilderment, "Strange. Why attack this girl? Could it be because she has Zhao Liu's scent on her?"
Seeing that Sun Qi was about to die, the window beside the door flew open, and Zhao Liu vaulted over the sill, bolting south toward the classroom building. The ghost grandma flung Sun Qi aside. Sun Qi flew nearly ten meters, slamming into the cafeteria wall like a cannonball.
Blind Zhao immediately went after the ghost grandma. Ding Shi hesitated, fidgeting on the spot for a second, but still ran over to the unconscious Sun Qi. He checked her breath, felt for a pulse—damn it! Still alive. What was he supposed to do now? Curse his damned soft heart.
Ding Shi scooped up Sun Qi, ran to the village chief's house, knocked three times on the door, shouted, "Help!" and set her down.
Without the villagers' help, Ding Shi had no idea how to save her anyway.
The school was close to the chief's house, so in a quick sprint, Ding Shi rushed right back. With a smooth one-handed vault over the perimeter wall, he landed steadily, only to see a bell flying straight at him. In a flash of inspiration and sheer reflex, Ding Shi thrust out his left hand and caught the bell in his palm.
Then he saw the ghost grandma hoist Blind Zhao up and hurl him away.
If the Olympics didn't have Grandma Wang's ghost, he wasn't watching.
Ding Shi threw the bell. It struck the ground with a chime, drawing the ghost grandma's attention. Blind Zhao spat up blood as he scrambled to his feet, staggering a dozen steps before collapsing over Zhao Liu, who lay sprawled on the ground. "What does she want from you?" he asked. "Or did she ask you something?"
Zhao Liu had a gaping hole in his chest, blood welling unstoppably from his mouth and nose. His left hand gripped Blind Zhao's ankle, desperately trying to speak.
Blind Zhao pressed urgently, "Say it!"
"She's coming!" Ding Shi called out urgently.
The ghost grandma had closed within five meters of Blind Zhao. At the sound of Ding Shi's voice, she wheeled around and drifted toward him. Ding Shi pulled out his own bell, gripped it tightly, and turned on his heel to run.
Blind Zhao wore a face full of confusion. "This isn't right. Something's off." Why was she attacking everyone in sight? Could her lingering obsession be killing a bunch of people? That made no sense.
A sudden light dawned on Blind Zhao, and he yelled, "Take off your clothes!"
Ding Shi hurled his bell toward Blind Zhao.
Blind Zhao was startled. He dove sideways like a goalkeeper to catch the bell, but missed. The bell struck the ground, ringing as it skidded into the grass. The ghost grandma instantly spun around and lunged toward the sound. Injured and unable to run fast, Blind Zhao could only grope around in the grass for the bell.
Seeing her draw nearer and nearer, Blind Zhao gritted his teeth and dashed away, stripping off his clothes as he ran. The ghost grandma pounced at the patch of grass, paused for a few seconds, and then turned to look at Blind Zhao, who was closest to her.
Glancing back, Blind Zhao saw that she wasn't swayed by the clothes at all and was drifting straight for him, so he decisively began pulling off his pants. But pants were tricky to shed in a hurry; his foot caught on a pant leg, and he tumbled to the ground. Seeing that Blind Zhao was about to be done for, Ding Shi found Blind Zhao's bell and hurled it off to the side, the chime luring the ghost grandma away.
Seeing Ding Shi approaching, Blind Zhao warned, "Stay back! Her obsession must have something to do with clothing."
With that, Blind Zhao stripped himself buck naked, scattering his shirt and pants in all directions, and waited for the ghost grandma to strike.
True to form, he was still the closest living human to her, so she came charging right at him.
"This is wrong!" Blind Zhao turned and ran. Why was she still coming after a person? Could her obsession be strong, virile men? But then why attack Sun Qi?
Ding Shi clapped his hands and shouted, "Shoes!"
Blind Zhao flopped onto the ground, kicked off his shoes, and tossed them aside. Sure enough, the ghost grandma halted immediately, drifted over to the shoes, and bent down to peer inside them.
Now Blind Zhao understood everything. "Her lingering obsession is multi-layered cloth soles! In a few days it'll be her son's zodiac year birthday. According to local custom, a mother stitches a pair of multi-layered cloth shoe insoles." But then another question arose: why hadn't she found the insoles at home? Who would steal shoe insoles, of all things?
Confirming these weren't her insoles, the ghost grandma headed for Ding Shi, the living person who still had insoles. Ding Shi was already prepared; holding an insole in each hand, he tossed one to the left and one to the right, then swaggered right past her. As expected, she paid him no heed and drifted toward the insoles. Once she confirmed that none of the living people here had what she was looking for, she began wandering aimlessly through the village.
Ding Shi gathered Blind Zhao's clothes and pants. While Blind Zhao was getting dressed, Ding Shi asked, "Uncle Zhao, isn't it time to settle our account?"
Blind Zhao said languidly, "Don't be in such a rush. We haven't found the insoles yet. Come with me to her house."
Ding Shi rested a hand on Blind Zhao's shoulder and chuckled. "Uncle Zhao, we people of the jianghu despise nothing more than oath-breakers."
Blind Zhao offered an appeasing smile. "Little Ding, don't be so impatient, young man. Let me tell you: San Niang really is sealed inside a coffin, but it's not beneath San Niang Temple—it's inside the temple itself. San Niang Temple was built against the mountain, and her coffin rests inside it."
Ding Shi said, "Uncle Zhao, I didn't get much schooling. You wouldn't be pulling my leg, would you?"
Blind Zhao raised two fingers. "If I'm lying to you, may I be cast into the animal realm for all eternity."
Ding Shi pondered for a moment, let go of Blind Zhao's shoulder, and said, "Time for each of us to go home to our own mothers."
Blind Zhao said, "Wait! When you ferry a Buddha, ferry him all the way to the West. If she flies into a rage again, it's safer to have someone watching my back."
Ding Shi asked, "What's in it for me?"
Blind Zhao replied, "I'll split half the karmic merit with you."
Ding Shi wasn't buying empty promises. "What else?"
Blind Zhao thought for a long while before saying, "I'll pass on a technique to you."
Ding Shi asked curiously, "What technique?"
Blind Zhao said, "I don't know either."
Seeing Ding Shi's look of disdain, Blind Zhao explained, "To thank my father for helping him build Baiyun Temple, the expert who suppressed San Niang passed down a book on feng shui to him. On the final page was a talisman diagram. You said it yourself: a talisman must be drawn in a single stroke, but neither my father nor I had the skill for that."
As Blind Zhao spoke, he took an object from his bag—a talisman diagram pressed between two panes of glass. Ding Shi studied it for a long while without understanding a thing; he couldn't even tell where the brushstrokes began or ended. Taken as a whole, it looked like four ditches converging into a single river. The four ditches had different shapes; the only thing he could make out was that the cluster of ditches in the upper left vaguely resembled the oracle bone character for fire.
Ding Shi asked, "Why is there only one page?"
Blind Zhao sighed. "Word got out, didn't it? Someone reported me for peddling feudal superstition. Fortunately, my family has been poor peasants for three generations. My old man tore out the last page, hid it away, burned the book in front of everyone, and cursed Daoist Baiyun up and down. That was the only way we dodged disaster."
Ding Shi stowed the glass-encased talisman and said, "Let's go. Let's get this settled quickly."
Things rarely went as wished, however. As they passed the village chief's house, the chief grabbed Ding Shi. "Little Ding, come here for a moment."
Ding Shi signaled Blind Zhao to wait, jogged into the chief's courtyard, and said, "Chief, I've still got things to take care of."
The village chief acted as if he hadn't heard. Shrugging into a coat, he glanced at Sun Qi lying on the floor and told Ding Shi, "This girl isn't going to make it. You need to get her to Dr. Qian's place as fast as you can." Dr. Qian was Taoyuan Village's barefoot doctor, a fifty-year-old woman living one li away.
New Quest: Deliver Sun Qi to Dr. Qian's home within 10 minutes.
Fine! Ding Shi hoisted Sun Qi onto his shoulder, stepped out, and told Blind Zhao, "Wait for me a bit. I'm going to save a life first."
Blind Zhao tried to stop him. "How could saving a person be more important than helping that thing? Help her once, and you're effectively saving countless lives!"
Ding Shi shoved Blind Zhao aside. "I'll go build my seven-story pagoda first, then come back to split the karmic merit with you. Wait for me." He wasn't particularly interested in karmic merit itself, but he was interested in information about it. As long as Blind Zhao collected the karmic merit alone, he'd have to tell Ding Shi what it actually was.
Sure enough, watching Ding Shi sprint off into the distance, Blind Zhao hesitated for a moment, stamped his foot, and headed toward the ghost grandma's house alone.
Chapter 15