Chapter 55 The Door Opens, Madam Squeezes In

The lady retrieved three portions, closed the door, and placed them on the wooden coffee table, one for each...

We opened them to take a look; they weren't as good as what Moli Ping wanted, but we bought the cheapest ones...

Niu Zhenqing was entirely different. He hurriedly popped open the lid, grabbed blindly inside with his hand, and shoved the food into his mouth—oblivious to the pain of his stitched, rotting lips, he ate in a most unsightly manner...

I had barely eaten a bite when his hand reached in, grabbed a handful, and shoved it into his mouth... I was extremely depressed! I had no choice but to push the disposable meal box toward him, yet he ate with utter wretchedness...

The lady had anticipated this long ago. Carrying her own bowl, she went to eat in the large room. After finishing what was in his box, Niu Zhenqing stretched out his long tongue to lick it clean, then ran over to the large room for more. The lady hadn't finished yet, but she gave him all of it.

Since we hadn't eaten at noon, I felt terribly guilty, but I couldn't buy any more, so I simply endured it and retreated into my small room. Catching sight of the schoolbag on my desk, my mind drifted to current affairs and politics. Closing the door tightly, I walked over, sat down, and was just about to do my homework when the mobile phone hanging around my neck lit up and rang...

I picked it up, took a glance, brought it to my ear, and was about to speak when Wei Jinglan's voice came through: "Zhengtai, is that you?"

I found it very strange. How did she get my mobile phone number? I had no choice but to ask, "Is something the matter?"

Her voice suddenly relaxed, and she sighed, saying, "I got your mobile phone number from Jiang Meili. I really want to ask you to teach me martial arts. A soft person is bullied; a gentle horse is ridden. Look at how great you are, growing more and more famous by the day. Even the top students are shaking in their boots—who dares to come out and challenge you?"

I knew that kung fu cannot be mastered overnight; it requires persistent perseverance, the confidence to endure hardship, and much more... Besides, starting to learn now seemed a bit late, and I didn't have the time. Yet, wanting to avoid offending her, I said, "I'll teach you one movement first. Once you've practiced that well, I'll teach you the second."

Upon hearing this, she became extremely excited, and her voice pitched higher on the transmission: "Zhengtai, you're truly amazing! I love you!"

Hearing that made me very uncomfortable! It gave rise to a misconception: "Could she be a lesbian, too?" However, I couldn't ask her that directly, so I just played along: "I love you too!"

Sounds of giggling and laughter drifted over. Just how excited could she be?

I casually asked, "Do you know whether Mini Ni is a boy or a girl?"

"Why would you ask something so strange? The class monitor has always been a girl; she couldn't possibly turn into a man."

"Then why, when she saw that piece of junk belonging to Jiang Meili, did she immediately..."

"Don't you even understand that? It shows she's a virgin, which is why she reacted that way."

"Listening to you talk like that, does it mean Jiang Meili is no longer a virgin?"

"You should be asking yourself that question instead of me. Aren't you much clearer on it than I am?"

With her putting it that way, I was left completely speechless. I hesitated for a long time without saying a word.

She rambled on: "Zhengtai, we all love you! Even Mini Ni said so."

I was thoroughly confused. Not knowing whether they were lesbians or fans, I couldn't help asking, "What does that mean?"

Before the phone could transmit for long, another girl's voice came through: "Jiang Meili is doing her homework at my house; you should know what that means."

Could the class monitor also be Jiang Meili's lesbian partner? A huge question mark formed in my head, but since I couldn't ask, I simply said, "I'm doing my homework too, and I don't have time to recite current affairs and politics."

The lady's voice came from outside the door: "Zhengtai, I'm taking Dad to the bathroom to wash up. Since you're in the small room reading and writing, don't waste your time on the phone."

I let out a dismissive hum and spoke into the phone, only to find she had already hung up. Opening the picture sent by Jiang Meili, I realized I didn't need to copy it; reading and reciting it at the same time would be enough.

All this material was completely new, and every single character was inverted. The moment I started reciting, my mind would wander—thinking of this and that, utterly unable to calm down.

Zhengtai's voice transmitted from within my body: "Qu Shilai, please don't hold a Taoist ritual, okay? What if it hurts me?"

She was still repeating those words, and I was utterly annoyed. Hadn't I already told her: "Holding the ritual was Scarface's idea, and the lady bought into it. What can I do? Weren't you going to go scare him? Why haven't you gone yet?" Actually, I didn't believe in superstition, and the phone call the temple made to the lady was very fishy; the nuns' lifestyle had long since deviated from the past, turning into a full-fledged commercial enterprise. I looked inward with my mind's eye and said to Zhengtai, "Don't be afraid! They can't hurt you! I know martial arts, and the lady has already paid. We have to go through with it!"

Zhengtai pondered for a long time, then fretted in a flustered tone: "I'm scared. This body was originally mine; my soul flew away after I was crushed by a heavy object, and I thought I'd never return. But my allotted lifespan isn't up yet, and I never expected you to be inside, actually intertwined with my bloodline while I've become an outsider. A ritual might not affect you, but for me..."

I was caught in a dilemma. If I didn't believe in superstition, how could I explain the presence of Zhengtai inside my body? The two of us bantered back and forth for a long time, and I ended up neither reciting nor copying my current affairs and politics.

"Wooo-wooo-wooo!" A mournful, ghostly wail burst forth from my body, and I witnessed with my own eyes a shadow drift out through the gap in the window, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

I hadn't expected Zhengtai to actually leave. Would she manage to scare Scarface's soul right out of him? I could only wait and see...

It was late at night; the phone displayed 0:22. I packed my books into my schoolbag and was just about to go to sleep...

Suddenly, there came a soft knock at the door. It couldn't possibly be Niu Zhenqing. Then who could it be?

I walked over and opened the door. The lady squeezed in, shut the door tightly, and said, "Dad was just coaxed to sleep. I can't stay with him, so I had to come over here!"

I never imagined that a fool could bring so much trouble. Although the lady was still married to Niu Zhenqing, she could no longer fulfill her marital duties. The consequences of living with a fool went without saying.

"Sleep is sleep, then!" I casually mentioned, "Mom, this bed is too short. My head often hangs off the edge, and it's extremely uncomfortable!"

The lady stood in front of me to measure herself against me; the top of her head didn't even reach my shoulder. Looking up at my face, she said, "You've grown quite a bit more. I'll figure something out for you!"

I took off my school uniform, slipped under the covers in just my vest and underwear, and the lady did the same. On her freshly washed back, there were still distinct welts. I couldn't help asking, "Mom, does he beat you with a leather whip?"

The lady knew I was referring to Scarface. She shook her head and said, "Not a whip, a different tool! Oh, that's right! Mom is planning to have a child with him. I wanted to hear your opinion."

To be honest, I didn't care for Scarface. With Niu Zhenqing in his state, my mother's personal affairs weren't my place to meddle in, so I could only offer my own perspective: "At your age, can you still have children?"

The lady didn't like hearing that. Suppressing her displeasure, she said, "How old am I anyway? Thirty-five. Who says I can't have children? Some women can still have them at forty-five."

"That's true! I've heard of that too. People even say that since the lady is four years younger than me, she should somehow have been able to give birth to me—completely forgetting that she's still capable of having children." Yet, a huge question mark remained in my mind: "Since she can have children, why didn't she want any when she was with Dad?"

This question didn't stump the lady, but she found it strange herself: "Who knows why with your father? It just never happened, that's all!"

Though I looked my age, while outwardly ignorant, I actually understood everything. If a couple has no children, they must have taken certain measures, yet the lady claimed it wasn't because of that...

Suddenly, I recalled what that village woman had said during our previous trip to the temple: "I went to the hospital, but nothing worked, so I came here as a last resort, willing to try anything. And sure enough, the very next year, I really was blessed with a baby boy." Weren't I full of skepticism back then? The soul of the Child-Bringing Guanyin attached itself to a monk through a ritual, performing the child-delivery in a small dark room. There were far too many suspicious points to this. I hadn't expected the lady's problem to be identical to that village woman's, except she didn't have that specific plan in mind yet.

The lady had many secrets she couldn't share with me, but on this matter, she genuinely wanted my opinion.

My mind raced, and I unexpectedly brought up family planning, saying, "If you have another one, the authorities might not approve."

The lady had already prepared for this and replied, "Second children are permitted now. You're almost sixteen, which fits the criteria."

A problem arose here: "Whose child would a newborn be considered? Would it call Niu Zhenqing father, or Scarface?"

The lady had already thought it through! "Niu Zhenqing is demented, so it doesn't need to call anyone father. Scarface doesn't live here, so whether it calls him father or not, no one will know."

I felt thoroughly depressed and found the whole thing awkward, asking, "Why must you have a child? We don't even have enough to eat, what's the point of raising another kid?"

That was the crucial point. The lady had beaten around the bush for so long precisely to make me understand: "You don't understand! The purpose of having a child is to anchor a man's heart! Just think, shouldn't Scarface provide living expenses for his child and me? If there's no child, once he takes up with another woman, will he still care about you?"

From the current perspective, the lady's reasoning might be correct. Still, it came down to that old saying: "Heaven wants to rain, and a mother wants to remarry—what can I do about it? Especially when she's planning for the future?"

The lady and I talked heart-to-heart for a long time. Eventually, we grew tired and unconsciously drifted off to sleep...

"Wooo-wooo-wooo!" A mournful, ghostly wind drifted in from outside the window and burrowed into my body. Suddenly, Zhengtai's crying voice rang out: "Qu Shilai, where does Scarface live? I've been looking for a long time and couldn't find it. I can't even scare him if I wanted to!"