Chapter Nine: Becoming a Dutiful Son

As soon as the Taoist Exorcist spoke, every one of us turned toward the mirror.

And the mirror in his hands, which had been whole and intact just moments before, after reflecting the old squad leader’s face... shattered!

In the broken glass, countless sullen versions of myself flickered back at me. I stared at those many reflections, and the scene just now came flooding back to mind.

I did not know why the mirror broke. But from what I remembered and judged, it was probably because Gui Yuxiu, in the struggle to snatch it from me, had swung too wildly and accidentally struck the lid of the coffin. Or perhaps it happened when I kicked the exorcist in the rear with too much force and sent him flying.

In any case, the mirror was ruined. To me, it was nothing more than an ordinary accident, easily understood amid the chaos of the moment.

But in the exorcist’s mouth, it was altogether another matter.

At that moment, staring at the shattered mirror as though he had sighted a lifeline, he insisted that my old squad leader, after becoming a vengeful ghost, had blasted the mirror apart with his baleful aura.

Afraid we might not believe him, he went on to explain that the reason was that the bride the Zhao family had arranged for my squad leader was not pretty enough, and the money they had spent was not sufficient either. That was why my squad leader had grown resentful, turned into a terrifying baleful specter, and come seeking everyone’s life.

Ah! All liars in this world are the same. However many words they speak, they never stray far from money.

His nonsense made Zhao Hong and the rest of us so furious our veins bulged. We wanted nothing more than to tear every bone from that skeleton of a body.

But there was nothing to be done. We were not the Zhao family. And in truth, the wretch was not speaking to us at all. So long as Zhao Haikun and my sister-in-law Gui Yuxiu believed him... even if we tried to stop it, we could not.

I have to admit, just on the matter of choosing his targets, he really did possess a bit of that so-called craft.

Under the exorcist’s stream of nonsense, my sister-in-law Gui Yuxiu soon “threw herself onto the tracks.” Her expression was wildly exaggerated as she looked at the exorcist’s “masterful scheme,” her face full of terror and lingering fear. In the end, with a thud, she actually dropped to her knees before that bag of bones and respectfully offered him another thousand yuan.

“Exorcist! You must subdue that demon, the second son of the family! You absolutely cannot let him bring ruin upon the Zhao family...”

Crying, Gui Yuxiu trembled with her heavy chin as she kowtowed again and again to the fraudulent exorcist. The sight of it filled me with sorrow.

Superstition kills people.

With Gui Yuxiu on her knees begging for salvation, the exorcist quickly regained his confidence. He shot me another glare before carefully pocketing her money, then grinned and helped her up.

Once they were standing, he said cheerfully to my sister-in-law and my uncle, “As the saying goes, ‘Take a man’s money and banish his disaster.’ Rest easy. I still have my trump card and haven’t used it yet. Once I bring it out, I guarantee Zhao Haipeng will vanish without a trace!”

With that, the exorcist ran down from the mourning hall and, under our silent gaze, began chanting an incantation.

“Step the heavenly patterns and tread the stars, two tigers, two chickens! Rat, ox, tiger, and hare, give birth to a monkey; one chicken, one monkey, until the hair turns white...”

This nursery rhyme had been twisted into some matchmaker’s routine.

Watching the exorcist’s madness and Gui Yuxiu’s frenzied kowtowing, I suddenly felt an urge to tear down the whole stage.

How had my old squad leader’s solemn funeral turned into such a ridiculous farce? It was maddening.

To keep myself from collapsing, I turned around and looked at the nearest person to me, Xian Hongye.

Helplessly, I said, “Why don’t we leave? I can’t bear to watch this anymore. I’m exhausted.”

But Hongye shook her head. Looking grave, she came over and whispered, “Wait a little longer... this exorcist has a serious problem!”

I gave a bitter smile and was utterly speechless.

Such a blatant swindler definitely had a serious problem. If the country road leading to Stone Man Gully hadn’t been blocked by a landslide, I would have reported him directly and had the police arrest him.

Still, since Hongye had spoken, I could not very well object. And if she was unwilling to leave, I certainly would not feel at ease leaving her here alone.

So I could only grit my teeth and keep watching that clumsy performance that made my skin crawl.

As expected, just like before, after chanting a string of spells, the exorcist once again crawled beneath his incense table with no trace of originality and fussed about under there for a good while.

When he emerged from under the table, he had brought out the white rooster he had come with, along with a pair of gleaming scissors in his hand.

The moment I saw the scissors and the rooster bobbing its head and flapping about, I immediately realized what he meant to do: he was going to draw the rooster’s blood.

This trick really could ward off evil; my old squad leader had used it before to deal with the “Egg-Eater Finger.” But the real question was... was it not a bit too cruel?

Looking at the tailless rooster, stripped bare of feathers, I could not help feeling a sincere pity for its miserable fate.

Ah, what had this chicken done to deserve it? First its feathers were plucked, and now it was to be bled before so many of us. It was too painful to watch.

At that moment, the exorcist was far more excited than the chicken. Cradling it in both hands, he boasted without restraint, “This chicken is a rooster with a red comb and white tail, raised for ten years. Its head is poisonous as arsenic! It is the most yang treasure in the world. With it, I will surely bring Zhao Haipeng, this evil ghost, to heel.”

As he spoke, the exorcist suddenly clamped his scissors around the rooster’s neck!

Then, a scene that stunned me unfolded.

The chicken did not even manage a cry before, in an instant, its head and body were severed. Blood burst forth at once from the severed neck, splashing everywhere, and the sight turned my face ashen.

The scene was too bloody. No one could bear to look. Even Xian Hongye grabbed my arm and used my back to cover her eyes, unwilling to glance again.

But unlike our shock, the exorcist’s face was lit with excitement.

With a smug wave, he tossed aside the rooster’s body, then tightly seized the still-dripping head in his right hand and once more walked toward my old squad leader’s mourning hall.

By then, I was truly beginning to fear this fellow.

The reed-thin exorcist was now utterly unlike the comic figure he had seemed before. Blood stained his entire body, and the rooster’s head in his left hand was a mangled, bloody mess. The scissors in his right hand gleamed with a chilling crimson sheen beneath the noon sun.

In this field spattered with blood, I admitted that I was no match for his ruthlessness. At least when it came to killing a chicken, I was nowhere near as deft as he was.

And so, facing this exorcist with bloodshot eyes and slaughter in his face, I became especially obedient. This time he had truly staked everything in blood. If I did not behave, it seemed he would be ready to fight me with those scissors!

As he spoke, the exorcist had already climbed onto my old squad leader’s coffin for the third time. Then he snorted at me and pointed at my nose to curse me, saying, “I gave you a chance to show yourself, and you still dared call me a swindler! Then I’ll let you see what this exorcist is capable of!”

As he talked, he wiped the scissors stained with rooster blood on his trouser leg, then stretched out his hand and let the blood from that rooster’s head drip all over the blades.

With red eyes fixed on my old squad leader’s face, he said, “You forced me to this! If I don’t stab you a few times today, you’ll only become a spirit later and bring harm to people...”

Hearing this, my face stiffened at once.

Stab a corpse? Did I hear that right?

“What are you going to do?” I took a step back, suddenly feeling a prickle of unease. “You’re not really planning to stab the body, are you?”

In the face of my challenge, the exorcist shamelessly admitted it. “Exactly! I’m going to stab Zhao Haipeng once in the neck and once at the shoulder, extinguish his three fires, and make sure this evil ghost can never rise again! But...”

His words made my rage flare once more. Pouring chicken blood over my old squad leader had already been the limit of my endurance, but I never expected this fellow to go even further and stab the corpse directly.

Was there no law left in this world?

I shouted, “But your grandfather! You’re the evil ghost! Your whole family are ghosts!”

Stabbing a dead man in the throat and shoulders—what kind of idea was that? My old squad leader had already died such a tragic death by his own hand; how could his body be desecrated further?

And don’t think I could not hear the rest of his sentence. The fellow had not even dared use a mirror to reflect the coffin before. How could he dare stab the dead body with scissors now? He was surely going to finish his “but” by finding someone else to serve as a scapegoat.

Using other people as his blade, tricking money out of them with psychological warfare—I felt sick just thinking about it.

By now I had seen through the exorcist’s true face. It was exactly as Hongye had said: he had serious problems. A complete liar, a rogue, a lecher, cowardly and timid to boot.

With such a spineless wretch, I could no longer bear it. The heart that had already grown tired was once again thoroughly enraged.

Some things can be endured; others cannot.

I did not care how the Zhao family dealt with him. I could no longer restrain myself from dealing with him.

Just as the exorcist was barking at me and faltering slightly, I launched a sudden attack.

With a military boxing strike, I flew at him with a kick, driving straight for the fraudulent exorcist’s chest.

The kick was far too sudden, and the exorcist was truly no match for it. Though he had some finger tricks, his ability to withstand a blow was pitifully poor. With a body like that skeleton of his, he probably weighed only a little more than a kite.

After my kick, I sent him tumbling off my old squad leader’s coffin. He sprawled on the ground and rolled three or four meters before coming to a stop, filthy and dazed, unable to get up for a long while.

My move left everyone completely stunned, not because I was violent, but because the fraudulent exorcist turned out to be so unexpectedly frail.

Righteously indignant, I faced everyone and said, word by word, “My old squad leader’s affair is my affair, Tian Buer’s affair! From this moment until the seventh day after the squad leader’s death, I, Tian Buer, will don mourning hemp for him and wear mourning clothes! I will break the funeral bowl for him and send him off on his final journey! If anyone dares to make trouble again, don’t blame me for being rude!”

Gui Yuxiu, seeing my furious behavior, was completely dumbfounded. It took her and Zhao Haikun a long while to recover. The two of them trembled as they pointed at me and said, “You’re going to be the second son’s... chief mourner?”

I said firmly, “I am! My old squad leader was my master, and I alone was his disciple! There is nothing wrong with me serving as his chief mourner. If he turns into an evil ghost later, I’ll carry him myself. As long as I’m here, let me see who dares touch that old man.”

My words left everyone staring in stunned silence.

They seemed unable to understand why I would serve as chief mourner for someone with no blood relation to me.