Chapter 66 The First Sentence I Heard Stunned Me

The Madam muttered, "I wonder whose wish is being fulfilled?"

Her voice was too low. He seemed not to have heard and asked, "What are you saying?"

"Enough! I'm hanging up!" The call was disconnected by the Madam, who felt heavy-hearted and muttered, "Without understanding the situation, trying to talk to him is like playing the lute to a cow. No matter how I explain, he will never understand."

The phone rang again. The Madam glanced at it—it was still him. Unwilling to bother, she handed the phone to me, held it to my ear, and asked, "What is it?"

He stumbled awkwardly for a long time before saying, "Zhengtai, give it some time and see how it goes! If all else fails, let's do it again. Won't the problem be solved then?"

Hearing this, I flew into a rage and asked, "You still want to stir up trouble? Are your brains stuffed with bean curd? This is sheer superstition!" Anyway, nobody ever listened to whatever I said: "Alright, stop doing it! Will you?"

He found it impossible to communicate with me. After a long pause, he said, "Alright then! Give the phone to your mother!"

I detested this Scarface to the core; he would never stop until he had stirred up some trouble. I handed the phone over to the Madam, and after he uttered some more exasperating nonsense, she finally hung up.

I finished my meal in awkward tension, feeling deeply oppressed and unable to shake off the gloom...

The Madam went into the main room and, after a long while, emerged wearing a gorgeous new dress. After applying makeup, she looked like a seductive goblin, eager to attract the eyes of every man.

I assumed the Madam dressed up to attract Scarface, unaware that the raging fire in her heart was burning intensely, making her unable to be apart from a man even for a minute. Who knew what kind of nonsense Scarface had instilled in her mind?

"Zhengtai, Mom won't be coming back tonight. You must study hard, practice your writing, and stop running around everywhere." The Madam bustled about like a young woman, clutching her handbag. The "clack, clack, clack" of her high heels violently struck the floor, the sound echoing from near to far until it faded away completely.

I cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, washed them in the kitchen, and retreated into my small room to take out the homework assigned by the teacher—which was merely copying phonetic symbols. To be honest, I had a terrible headache regarding English. No matter how long I read it after the teacher, I never understood what it meant.

Zhengtai sent a message from within my body, and I reacted immediately. She said, "This ritual scared me to death! I felt uncomfortable all over, my hands and feet freezing cold. Fortunately, my energy was powerful enough to let the halo on the jade bracelet fly into the old abbot's mind and completely resolve the issue."

"Ah? What are you talking about? Was that beam of light emitted by you?" I was extremely astonished, never expecting that in broad daylight, such a thing was actually done by the Zhengtai inside my body. I rolled my eyes inward for introspection, but couldn't see a trace of Zhengtai, and asked, "Where are you?"

Zhengtai's voice came from within my body: "Your soul and my body are closely connected, yet I feel like I might drift away at any moment. This body doesn't belong to me, but I have nowhere to go. What should I do?"

I had heard these words too many times and didn't care to dwell on them. I asked, "Where on earth did the old abbot go?" This was what I cared about most. I had thought that since the light was taken away, he might come back, but I never expected...

"Why are you asking? Can't you figure out such a simple question? He went to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss!"

"Then what about that beam of light? Did it go with him to the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss as well?" I furrowed my brow tightly, still unable to figure it out.

"Why don't you take a look at the bracelet on your left hand?"

I stretched out my left hand and pulled back my cuff, revealing the jadeite bracelet. It appeared dim and dull, having returned to its previous state. Just as I was about to speak, a beam of light shot out from between my brows, flashed, and drilled back into it. A moment later, the halo emerged from within, a hundred times brighter than before. I never imagined this light was emitted by the Zhengtai in my head; her soul arts were actually so powerful that she could effortlessly destroy the old abbot...

I turned my inner vision back and, through the light of the bracelet, I could vaguely see Zhengtai transformed into a tiny figure, hiding inside and rolling along with the light... At this moment, a saying popped into my mind: "When a person dies, their ghostly soul disperses. Why is she like this? Could her ghostly soul be right inside?"

Zhengtai's thought process surpassed my imagination, and she whispered softly, "I am not dead. My body and soul are still here, so how could they disperse? It's just that my original body no longer recognizes me."

"Then why are you hiding in the light of the jadeite bracelet?"

"I won't tell you for now. You will understand later."

"How bizarre! Some phenomena simply cannot be explained by scientific reasoning. Since that is the case, you need to get along well with Qu Shilai so that your life can be peaceful and happy."

We chatted about many things, and my understanding of Zhengtai grew clearer. Yet there was still one matter pent-up in my heart, and I took this opportunity to ask quietly, "Zhengtai, are you a boy or a girl?"

When this question was raised, she hesitated for a long time before replying, "Just like you, I don't know anything either."

"Then didn't the Madam ever tell you? I've seen your childhood photographs; you should have been a little boy."

"Are you still asking this question? Don't you even know whether you are male or female?"

This left me completely speechless. If I wanted to thoroughly figure this out, I would have to ask the Madam.

We chatted about many restless topics until finally, hearing Zhengtai's voice no longer, I went back to copying phonetic symbols.

My phone rang out with a tender melody. I glanced at it, and a wave of irritation washed over me. Pressing it to my ear, my tone was sharp: "What is it now?"

A very sweet voice immediately came through the receiver: "Darling, I miss you!"

"I am sick to death of this! Look at the attitude of your parents; my classmates' hearts are completely broken! What more is there to say?" I initially wanted to curse her out fiercely, but hearing her voice, I held back.

Jiang Mei'li couldn't help but admit her own shame, saying, "My mom and dad's attitude doesn't represent me. Because of this matter, I called the class monitor and the others."

"What's the use of calling? Things have already come to this! Calling or not calling makes no difference." My temper was never good to begin with; what people said to me had been weighing heavily on my heart, and I couldn't shake it off for the longest time. I only held my tongue because of you. However, let me make one thing clear: "No matter how wonderful your family is, I will never go there again! Looking at your mother's demeanor, I don't even know how to describe it."

Jiang Mei'li didn't see it that way and defended herself, "We are both women; you should understand..."

"Forget it, I can't reason with you. How old are you anyway? Learning from your old lady—that's mental abuse!" I really wanted to give her a thorough scolding, and only held back for the sake of our friendship.

This phone call broke up on bad terms. The phone displayed 11:12 PM. I was sleepy too, so I crawled under the covers and let my thoughts wander into chaos. Especially concerning Niu Zhenqing—it baffled me completely. Where on earth could he have gone? In such a small place, I searched with wide-open eyes yet couldn't find him anywhere. And then there was the matter with Mo Liping... Although I had various misgivings, in the end, I had consented. Sometimes even I couldn't figure it out; I wasn't that kind of person, yet I had done that kind of thing... Thinking this and that, I grew tired and drifted off to sleep unconsciously...

When I woke up and checked the time, I was startled out of my wits—there were only twenty minutes left before class started, and this damned alarm clock hadn't gone off! In a panic, I threw on my increasingly short school uniform, shouldered my schoolbag, and rushed to the bus stop. The more anxious I was, the fewer buses came. After waiting for ten minutes, a bus finally arrived, and I squeezed in desperately. After getting off, I ran with all my might. Even so, I was still late when I walked into the classroom. The classmates were staring nervously at the teacher, wondering what had just been said.

After roll call, Teacher Wang said nothing, just nodded and motioned for me to return to my seat. The first sentence I heard struck me dumbfounded: "Classmates, from now on, I am no longer your head teacher. Failing to manage Class 3 of Grade 2 properly is my responsibility. All the students sleeping in the classroom directly affects the academic performance of the entire class. In view of this situation, the school has made other arrangements..."

Several unfamiliar teachers were standing by the podium, both men and women. One of them, with a large frog-like face, stood at the very front and said, "Those whose names are called, come with me." He looked around and shouted, "Jiang Mei'li, please come up!"

Filled with curiosity, I looked at the podium and then at her. The classmates were just as nervous as I was, looking around anxiously.

Jiang Mei'li's body was twisted, her movements thoroughly reluctant. With no other choice, she walked up to the stage, stood to one side, and gazed at the students in the classroom. A trembling heart was evident on her face.

The unfamiliar male teacher checked the name list again and called out the second person: "Mai Huatang."

"Here!" Her movements were very restrained, walking timidly to stand beside Jiang Mei'li. Trembling all over, her heart felt utterly chilled.

The unfamiliar male teacher called out fifteen students in succession, who all followed him and left.

Another unfamiliar female teacher looked at me, carefully scanned the name ledger, and then called out, "Xin Zhengtai."

For some reason, just like the others before me, I walked up and stood by the podium, my mind a complete blank. My gaze was dull and lifeless; I merely glanced casually at this female teacher—she was around forty-five years old, dressed in a middle-aged teacher's uniform, without makeup, and nothing about her stood out except for a gaze sharper than most and an ordinary appearance. By now, a large crowd of students had gathered around me, boys and girls alike, numbering about twenty. We followed closely behind her along the second-floor corridor, passing by several classroom windows, and stopped at the doorway of Class 6 of Grade 2. A teacher was lecturing inside, and seeing us arrive, they stepped aside...

Most of the students had already been assigned, and only I was assigned to the very last row, sitting next to an unfamiliar male classmate. He nodded and smiled at me, but I remained expressionless.

The class bell rang. The male and female classmates from Class 3 of Grade 2 who had come over with me gathered around, eager to know how I felt, and chorused, "Zhengtai, how is it?"

What could I say? Class assignment wasn't something I could control. Since the school arranged it this way, shouldn't we just follow orders? While I said this on the surface, inwardly I felt disgruntled. For example: "Things were fine, why did we have to be reclassified?"

One male classmate had his own theory and spoke up in front of everyone: "It's probably because you got into a fight, and because everyone collectively fell asleep in class!"

I detested hearing such remarks the most. Glaring with wide eyes, I yelled, "So what if I got into a fight? If your fists aren't hard, people will just step all over your head whenever they feel like it!"

This male classmate was wearing a school uniform, not very tall, and I had seen him every day in Class 3 of Grade 2, yet I couldn't recall his name, prompting me to demand, "State your name!" Fearing I might beat him up, he tried to slip away, but I grabbed him back by the scruff, staring right into his round eyes and demanding, "Are you going to report your name or not?" Shrinking his body backward and trembling all over, he stammered, "We've been in the same class for so long, don't you even know my name?"

"If you dare babble another word, see if I don't beat you up!" I grabbed his collar, preparing to lift him right off his feet.

Panicking, he pulled backward with all his weight, gritting his teeth and refusing to speak.

My fiery temper flared up; class assignment or not, if someone needed a beating, they were going to get one.

Another female classmate, whose name I also couldn't remember, immediately spoke up on his behalf: "His name is Gong Zhu? How could you not know?"