"Tattered shoes, tattered hat, the monk's robes on my back are tattered;
you laugh at me, he laughs at me, a tattered fan in my hand..."
Xue Liangliang reached over and turned up the volume.
The next instant, everyone in the truck except Li Zhuiyuan joined in and sang in unison:
"Namo Amitabha, Namo Amitabha..."
The television series *Ji Gong*, starring You Benchang, had aired several years ago, but it remained wildly popular to this day.
When the song ended, quiet finally returned to the cab.
Yin Meng asked, "How much longer until Jinling?"
"About an hour or so, and we'll be there," Xue Liangliang said.
"Then it's quite close for you all to go to the provincial capital."
"Close?" Xue Liangliang smiled. "Jinling might be the provincial capital of Jiangsu, but for most cities in the province, getting there isn't actually that quick. In fact, it's more convenient from my home province of Anhui."
"That still doesn't count as close?"
"Does that really count as..." Xue Liangliang remembered that Yin Meng was from Fengdu, and her provincial capital was Rongcheng. "Well, compared to your parts, it really is a lot closer. Still, people from your area usually wouldn't go to Rongcheng anyway—going to Shancheng is more convenient, right?"
"Passing through on the way back with you last time was the first time in my life I'd ever set foot in Shancheng."
Tan Wenbin slapped his forehead with regret. "You should've spoken up sooner! If we'd known, we'd have stayed in Shancheng a couple more days to show you around."
Yin Meng said a little mournfully, "I originally thought Nantong would be more fun."
She had lived at Li Sanjiang's house for quite a while now. In the beginning, she had visited the downtown area and seen the local sights, but she found none of it interesting.
Especially right around the Spring Festival, when Li Sanjiang was going to Langshan to burn incense and Yin Meng accompanied him. As it turned out, before she had even properly warmed up while climbing the mountain, they were already at the summit.
So later on, whenever she had free time and no work on her hands, she preferred to stay home, watch television, and practice her exercises rather than bother going out.
Yin Meng asked again, "Is Jinling fun?"
Xue Liangliang answered, "Don't set your expectations too high for natural scenery—it certainly can't compare to your hometown. But there are lots of historical and cultural sights. Oh, right—last time Xiaoyuan came to Jinling, he went straight home after his exam without doing any sightseeing. This time there'll be plenty of time to explore. Let him take you around—he can serve as your tour guide and explainer."
Li Zhuiyuan gave a soft reply: "Mm."
Tan Wenbin popped open a bottle of soda, took a gulp, and said, "Sights or no sights are beside the point. The main thing is whether there are any dead-flippers. Now that we've finally left our old stomping grounds, we have to haul up our fill! Liangliang-ge, do you know where there are a lot of dead-flippers near our school?"
Xue Liangliang asked, "What kind of question is that? If I knew where to find things like that, do you think I'd have lived long enough to meet you lot?"
Tan Wenbin turned to Li Zhuiyuan and asked, "Xiaoyuan-ge, can you find a good fishing spot?"
Li Zhuiyuan pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, from the perspective of feng shui and personal fortune, when a group like ours gathers together, we're naturally prone to running into unclean things."
"Huh?" Tan Wenbin scratched his head. "Why does that sound like a math problem?"
"More or less. There are four corpse retrievers right here among us." Li Zhuiyuan cast a glance at Xue Liangliang behind the wheel. "Plus one matrilocal son-in-law of the Bai family."
Xue Liangliang said, "Did you really have to tack on the 'matrilocal' part?"
Li Zhuiyuan spread his hands. "When you put five steel-wool scourers together, the immediate surroundings become too clean. Naturally, they'll draw over some grime to even things out."
Tan Wenbin caught his drift and said, "Meaning that as long as we're together, under normal circumstances, our chances of running into unclean things are far higher than normal people's?"
"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan nodded. "If you actively go out of your way to look for them, the odds will be higher still."
Tan Wenbin clapped his hands. "That's great! From now on, I'll switch my morning jog to an evening run along the river."
Xue Liangliang shook his head and sighed. "Binbin, you really are starving for it."
Tan Wenbin shot Xue Liangliang a sideways glance. "Liang-ge, that's just a well-fed man having no idea what it's like to starve."
"Xiaoyuan, just take it easy and relax in the time before classes start. Once the semester begins, you can experience regular college life for a bit too. When the teacher wraps up the work on his plate, he'll be launching a new project and will draw personnel from the university. You're definitely on the list."
"Okay."
Tan Wenbin asked, "What about me?"
Xue Liangliang teased, "Aren't you going for your night runs?"
"Liang-geee~ I was wrong, okay?"
"Xiaoyuan hasn't even matriculated, yet he's already completed who knows how many graduation design sets."
"I was busy preparing for the Gaokao before! Is it too late for me to catch up on specialized coursework now? But then again, I don't have a brain like Xiaoyuan-ge's."
"Don't worry, I was just scaring you. Xiaoyuan or I will just mention it to the teacher. Every project team has an allocation for manual labor, with only two requirements: you have to be in the school's major, and you have to have all four limbs intact. What a coincidence—you meet the criteria."
"As long as I can get in! Uh, once I'm on the team, does that mean like when we went to Wanzhou last time—we won't have to stay on campus for classes?"
"Right."
"Tsk, the gap in freedom between university and high school is truly massive."
"It's the gap between bosses that's massive."
Once the truck entered Jinling's urban district, it drove straight to the university's north gate, where it was flagged down by the security guard.
Xue Liangliang leaned out the window, called out a few friendly greetings of "Uncle," and the guard smiled and swung the gate open, skipping the visitor log entirely.
Just past the north gate was the living quarters, where the dining halls and dormitories were located. Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin were rooming together at the far corner of the third floor in Building 9, Area B.
This dorm room was quiet, and unlike the standard six-person rooms, it held only two beds.
"Whoa, this is fantastic!" Tan Wenbin marveled as he set down his luggage.
"Preferential housing was part of Xiaoyuan's early-admission terms to begin with. I just slipped you in to be his roommate."
"The teacher is so good to us!"
"Don't thank the wrong person. How could the teacher bother with something like this? I pulled strings to get you in."
"Liang-ge, does your word carry that much weight around campus?"
"I run a few small businesses at the school and know some people."
Pitching in together, they quickly swept and dusted the room, made the beds, and arranged their daily necessities before heading back out.
Xue Liangliang led everyone to a two-story building. To the left of the main entrance hung a sign reading "Student Activity Center," and to the right hung another reading "Discount Store."
The store was fairly spacious, stocked with a comprehensive variety of goods.
Because it was still summer vacation, there were few students around. Behind the counter sat a fair-skinned young man reading a book, while off to the side, an older woman sat cracking melon seeds.
Seeing Xue Liangliang arrive, the two put down their book and seeds and came over to greet him.
"Senior, you're here!"
"Mm, Zhihua." Xue Liangliang patted the young man's shoulder with his right hand while reaching into his pocket with his left to pull out two supply invoices, handing them over.
The moment the young man took the invoices, his eyes went wide.
"Senior, let me explain, I..."
"Do you realize that if I report this to the university, you definitely won't graduate?"
"Senior, I was wrong! I'm sorry, I'll pay back the money..."
"No need to pay it back. Tidy up the ledgers and records, and then you can go. I'll treat it as if this never happened."
"Thank you, Senior! Thank you!"
The young man placed the account ledgers and keys on the counter, grabbed his book, and fled as if making an escape.
Xue Liangliang picked up the keys and handed them to Yin Meng. "Here. You'll run this shop."
Yin Meng waved her hands frantically. "How could I know how to run a shop...?"
"Didn't you say you ran a storefront before?"
"I did, but it was practically driven into bankruptcy."
"It's fine. I just renewed the contract with the university at the beginning of the year—there are still three years left, and it's the exclusive shop for Area B. All you need to do is sit behind the counter and collect the cash."
"Well... alright then."
"It's summer vacation right now, so not many people are around. Once the term begins, we'll pick seven or eight low-income students from the university's roster to help with odd jobs and haul stock."
Runsheng said, "I can haul the goods. No need to hire anyone."
Xue Liangliang waved his hand. "That won't do. Providing work-study positions is a political requirement. Do you think an exclusive campus contract is easy to sign?"
"Then I'll stay and help out too." Runsheng felt that working here would keep him closer to Xiaoyuan.
"No problem with that." Xue Liangliang pointed toward the floor below. "Upstairs is a rehearsal hall where rehearsals for student activities take place. Downstairs is a half-basement that I've been using as a warehouse, but I partitioned off a few small rooms down there with running water, electricity, and a bathroom. The natural light isn't great, and Auntie Sun usually lives down there too."
The woman who had been cracking melon seeds smiled and said, "Yes, that's right, I live down there."
Xue Liangliang went on, "What I mean is, the two of you can go check out the conditions down below. If you think it's suitable, you can stay there for now. Here are the key and address to an apartment I rented off campus as well. Mainly, living off campus is farther away, and getting in and out of the university gates is a hassle."
Xue Liangliang handed a key along with a slip of paper bearing the address to Runsheng.
Runsheng didn't take them, but pointed below instead. "Then we'll just live down there."
"Take the keys to the apartment outside anyway—I've got spares."
"Alright."
"Let's unload the belongings first, and then we'll go eat. Most of the campus cafeterias are shut down right now with only a couple of small windows open, and there's really nothing good to eat. Just outside the north gate, there's a Sichuan restaurant that serves very authentic dishes."
The drawback of semi-basement rooms was poor natural light, plus a tendency toward dampness. But to Runsheng and Yin Meng, that wasn't an issue in the slightest; who ever heard of a corpse retriever afraid of a little damp?
Tan Wenbin was exceptionally pleased with the rooms. If not for having to accompany Xiaoyuan in the dorm, he would have loved to sleep down here as well; after all, he had grown accustomed to sleeping inside coffins over the past year.
In truth, if not for Yin Meng being a woman, someone like Runsheng could have simply moved straight into the dorm room with them. At most, it would take a little greasing of the dorm matron's palms; as for the student council room inspectors, who cared about them?
The little black dog the family kept had grown bigger, too, though it still spent all day eating and sleeping, entering pure retirement life even earlier than Li Sanjiang.
Runsheng hauled it, crate and all, down from the truck and moved it into his room in the basement.
Exiting through the north gate, they reached the Sichuan restaurant. The large signboard read "Old Sichuan," while a smaller sign beside it read "Wanzhou Grilled Fish."
Even though it was the holidays, several tables inside were occupied—an astonishing feat for a restaurant next to a campus.
Most of the other shops along the street were shuttered, waiting to reopen when the students returned.
When Xue Liangliang walked in, the owner, his wife, daughter, and son-in-law all came out to greet him with overflowing warmth.
Hearing her native dialect, Yin Meng was delighted, so Xue Liangliang sent her to the kitchen to pick out the dishes in person.
After all, it was the off-season, so the kitchen didn't prep vast quantities of ingredients; one couldn't just order blindly off the wall menu.
Tan Wenbin picked up the teapot from the table and poured water for everyone, then asked Xue Liangliang, "Liang-ge, looks like you're quite the regular here!"
Li Zhuiyuan picked up his teacup and said, "Liangliang-ge owns this place."
Tan Wenbin blinked hard. "Liang-ge, really?"
Xue Liangliang nodded. "After getting back from Wanzhou last time, I invested in this shop. I invited the boss and his family to run it, but they hold shares too—they're not just working for me."
"Liang-ge, you're amazing! Why don't you go into business full-time? I bet you'd make a fortune!"
"Why didn't you go peddle the *Zhuiyuan Secret Papers*?"
"I..."
"How could making money ever compare to the joy of building massive dams?"
Li Zhuiyuan took a sip of the tea, then quietly set down the cup.
Having grown used to Liu Yumei's tea leaves, his palate had grown picky.
The dishes arrived quickly, among them a tray of grilled fish.
"Hey," Xue Liangliang said, lifting his chopsticks to take a piece of fish meat. "The main reason I invested in this restaurant was so I'd have a convenient place to eat."
Runsheng said, "Then you should have opened it along the banks of the Yangtze. That would be even more convenient."
Xue Liangliang turned back toward the kitchen and hollered, "Cook another tub of rice! We've got a big eater here, and if there isn't enough rice, we won't be able to stuff his mouth shut!"
After finishing their meal, Xue Liangliang drove the truck away; he needed to report back to Engineer Luo.
Runsheng and Yin Meng headed to the store to quickly get up to speed while it was still the off-season.
Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin returned to the dorm. Hanging their clothes up from their luggage bags, Tan Wenbin remarked:
"Xiaoyuan, do you think Liang-ge deliberately got rid of that student who was minding the store?"
"Mm."
"I even suspect Liang-ge purposely had someone tempt him into pocketing kickbacks just so he'd have an excuse to fire him. But why do it like that? If his hands weren't clean, why not fire him sooner?"
"Liangliang-ge doesn't have the energy to manage campus business anymore. If he brought in someone else, they'd probably embezzle too; that guy actually skimmed less."
"Tsk, Liang-ge really is generous. The moment we get here, he hands over a whole store. In the future, whatever we want to eat or drink, we can just grab it straight from Runsheng! Hahaha!"
Li Zhuiyuan sat down at the study desk, but didn't immediately open the book before him. Instead, he turned his head to look at the trees outside the window.
He still remembered the very first time he met Liangliang-ge, on the river embankment during the village's canal-dredging labor.
Back then, although Liangliang-ge had already displayed an air distinctly different from the others, an aura of youthful innocence and shyness had still clung to him.
Over the past year, following Engineer Luo across the country, he had grown much more mature and capable.
True enough, everyone was changing.
Take, for instance, Tan Wenbin, who had finished hanging the clothes and changed into an athletic tank top and running shorts.
"Binbin-ge, you're really going for a night run?"
"Of course."
"Then why did you take a shower just now?"
"I was worried you'd be too shy to shower alone."
"Oh."
"I'm off, Yuanzi-ge!"
"Be careful."
"Look at what you're saying! How could I run into unclean things on our very first day at the university before the term even starts?"
"Don't jinx it."
"Heh, I did it on purpose!"
Tan Wenbin went downstairs. Seeing the dorm matron carrying heavy items, he stepped in to help, after which she invited him into her office for a cup of water and a brief chat.
By the time he ran out of the dorm building, it was already ten o'clock at night. In the distance, the discount store was still lit.
Tan Wenbin started running in the opposite direction, planning that once he circled back, if Runsheng and the others were still there, he would stop by for a bottle of soda.
The places he had seen by daylight took on an entirely different guise at night. Coupled with the summer vacation, the campus felt vast and quiet.
Tan Wenbin jogged to the edge of a small artificial lake. It was called a lake, but was really just an oversized pond.
Not long after he began running along the water's edge, matching footsteps sounded behind him.
What was more, the person behind him called out proactively: "Hey, fellow student, hello!"
Tan Wenbin instantly accelerated, switching from a gentle jog to a flat-out sprint.
"Hey, fellow student, what are you running for?"
Only after running a considerable distance did Tan Wenbin gradually slow to a halt. When he looked back, there was no one in sight.
"Yeah, what am I running for?"
He had clearly come out to test his luck, yet the moment he might have actually encountered something, his first instinct had been to flee.
"I must've lived in comfort for too long and haven't gotten into the zone yet. Yeah, it's definitely not like Lord Ye's professed love of dragons!"
Back in the dorm room, Li Zhuiyuan sat under the desk lamp, reading a book.
A new environment provided an excellent backdrop for reading.
*Click-clack... click-clack... click-clack...*
Out in the corridor, footsteps approached from afar.
Li Zhuiyuan lifted his head. It wasn't Tan Wenbin returning—Binbin wouldn't go running in high heels.
*Click-clack... click-clack... click-clack...*
The sounds drew nearer and nearer, finally stopping at the very end of the hallway on this floor.
Immediately following was a soft scuffing sound.
That was a turn, facing the dorm room door.
*Thud... thud... thud...*
Knocks sounded on the door, each blow dull and heavy, echoing through the chilly, empty hallway.
"Binbin-ge, you didn't even need to go for a night run."
Li Zhuiyuan closed the book, opened the desk drawer, and withdrew a purple whip.
A total of four Demon-Subduing Whips had been crafted; the others were black, and only Li Zhuiyuan's was purple.
That was because Ah Li had planed off all the outer lacquer from the remaining ancestral memorial tablets and wrapped it on, bit by bit.
Gripping the whip, he rose to his feet.
*Snap!*
Li Zhuiyuan switched off the desk lamp. The light in the room dropped sharply; a lamp that shone too bright would easily ruin the atmosphere.
The knocking at the door paused for an instant.
Li Zhuiyuan walked toward the door, casually switching off the ceiling light on his way. The dorm room was plunged into utter darkness—this was the proper backdrop tone.
The knocking outside grew sluggish.
Standing before the door, the boy said, "The door isn't locked."
The knocking jammed to a halt.
The boy reached out and seized the doorknob. Without hesitation, with a creak, he swung the door wide open.
Outside, there was not a soul.
Gripping the whip, Li Zhuiyuan stepped out of the dorm room, deliberately pulling the door shut behind him.
*Bang!*
From the far end of the corridor came the sharp *click-clack... click-clack...* of high heels, yet no figure could be seen.
Li Zhuiyuan walked toward it on his own initiative. Seeing that the distance wasn't closing, the boy broke into a run.
*Click-clack! Click-clack! Click-clack!*
The heels moved faster and faster, fleeing farther and farther away, until at last they faded completely into nothingness.
Li Zhuiyuan halted his steps.
It had run away.
Chapter 75