Today"s cla.s.s time had been slightly delayed, so I didn"t take a break in the middle and lectured until two o"clock. The students were very well-behaved. None of them asked to go to the toilet. They listened through the whole lecture.

After recommending the books, I announced the end of cla.s.s, so that the students could leave and get some rest.

There was something strange here. Clearly we had a school bus, but the driver never picked up the students. He only took me. I didn"t know why.

So I asked Mu Huaitong, who was sitting closest to me in the front row. "Student Mu, how do you get to school every day? Aren"t you scared of being out so late?"

If I had a car, I would definitely have added the sentence, Would you like me to drive you home?

"I just fly..." Mu Huaitong paused and chuckled. "I drive myself."

Ning Tiance laughed at that.

Mu Huaitong at once became ferocious and gave Ning Tiance an unpleasant look.

I only then remembered that these two were enemies. The first time I"d met Mu Huaitong, she had pretended to be a ghost to frighten me, stuck out a long red tongue and wrapped it around my neck and got it yanked out by me. Watching this scene, because of his superst.i.tions, Xiao Ning had taken this nice girl for a ghost and tried to stab her with his wooden sword, and he"d also... also torn up my clothes…

I quickly stood between the two of them to avoid another fight. Since that time Xiao Ning had gotten off the train in the middle of the night and come back, he had softened a great deal. He didn"t raise a hand against Mu Huaitong but instead turned his head to one side, closing his eyes and not looking at her.

Mu Huaitong was really beautiful, especially with her black hair in a braid. The long braid made her look like a love interest in a school story. Such a good-looking person, and Ning Tiance actually wasn"t even interested in looking at her. Didn"t that mean Xiao Ning"s orientation was...

Hehehe. I had a good feeling.

"Teacher Shen doesn"t need to worry about the school bus," said Mu Huaitong. "We don"t need to make do with it."

Was she suggesting that my students were wealthy?

Then it was no wonder that Princ.i.p.al Zhang could arrange her cla.s.ses so casually and pay me such a good salary, and could even pay for Tan Xiaoming"s psychological treatment. It was all because we had rich students at our school!

At last I could relax and not worry so much about Princ.i.p.al Zhang"s financial situation.

Today I"d used the projector in the cla.s.sroom to teach, so after cla.s.s I had to retrieve my computer. My old laptop was very slow to shut down. The little chrysanthemum just spun around and around without shutting down. By the time I"d put it away, Xiao Ning and I were the only ones left in the cla.s.sroom. Even my roommate Teacher Liu hadn"t waited for me.

"Doesn"t that feel unpleasant?" Ning Tiance reached out and touched my sticky hair.

"Of course it does." The sugar in the c.o.ke had made me very uncomfortable. "But as soon as I started lecturing I couldn"t feel it anymore. I"d forgotten about it until you reminded me."

"You teach very well," Ning Tiance said. "I even took notes. And I"m going to buy The Wisdom of Life."

"Really!" I was very happy.

My course was aimed at students with mental disorders. I had brought Xiao Ning here out of selfish motives. It was a real surprise that he had been listening. It would be great if I could get a Celestial Master to believe in materialism.

"Really," Ning Tiance said. "This world is full of wonders. The old customs have been lagging behind. When I take over the Maoshan Sect in the future, I"ll have to take in some disciples with a basis in modern culture."

"If you think that, that"s great," I said, taking his hand enthusiastically. "Even if we believe in different things, it doesn"t prevent us from understanding each other, does it?"

"Of course not." Ning Tiance squeezed my sticky hand and frowned slightly. "Right, why don"t you go over to my place tonight?"

"Oh? So soon?" My thoughts were galloping like a herd of wild horses, already conjuring images of Ning Tiance and me romping around in the presidential suite of a five-star hotel.

"What"s soon?" He looked bewildered. "You"re wet. You need to take a nice bath. And you were attacked by Yin energy today. Although you"ve already dispelled it with your upright and honest heart, we had still better perform a rite. I have all the necessary equipment in my room. It"s more convenient to go there."

"Oh, I see…" I lowered my head in dejection, not just because I was embarra.s.sed about misunderstanding, but even more so because Xiao Ning still believed in ghosts.

But then I thought about Ning Tiance listening to my lectures and trying to understand my world. So I really should repay him by understanding his background.

"All right, thank you very much." I suddenly thought of a question. "How much does performing a rite cost?"

"How could I take your money?" Xiao Ning"s smile was very warm. "Teacher Shen is my spiritual guide."

I was dazzled by his smile, just as if I had been hypnotized. I got into Xiao Ning"s car in a daze and went back to the hotel with him.

It wasn"t until I got inside the five-star hotel and sat down on the luxurious sofa in the presidential suite that the glitter of the hotel called me back to myself.

By this time Xiao Ning was sticking talismans onto me. There were strips of paper stuck all over my face, as if I"d lost a poker game in university.

"Oh no!" I sprang to my feet.

"What"s the matter?" Xiao Ning asked as he picked up a fallen talisman.

"I forgot to tell the driver that he doesn"t have to wait for me." My watch said three o"clock. Was there still time to contact Princ.i.p.al Zhang?

"No need," Xiao Ning said. "I had Teacher Liu help pa.s.s on the word."

"Huh? Since when did you have such a good relationship with Teacher Liu?" Recalling everything that had happened today. Teacher Liu had acted very nice towards Xiao Ning the whole time.

"We only met once in pa.s.sing before. Besides, in addition to exorcism, at the Maoshan Sect our technique for controlling ghosts is also good. I let him know when we left. It was only a matter of a single talisman."

"Oh? Huh? You mean you used a talisman to contact Teacher Liu?" I was bewildered.

Ning Tiance looked at me for a while, shook his head with am expression that said, "What am I going to do with you?" and sighed. "I have Teacher Liu"s contact information."

"Oh, on the phone." I nodded. "What was that about controlling ghosts?"

"My sect"s secret technique. It can"t be spread outside."

I wisely shut up and stopped discussing this issue with Xiao Ning. Anyway, even if he"d explained it, I still wouldn"t have believed him.

"Don"t worry about it. Let"s continue," Xiao Ning said.

"All right." I obediently sat still and let Xiao Ning stick papers all over me.

When he was finished, I sat down on the floor in the middle of the living room at Xiao Ning"s direction. It was painted all over with patterns I couldn"t understand. In his yellow robe, Xiao Ning burned incense, picked up his sword, and began to do a sword dance in front of me.

He really was handsome, every one of his gestures beautiful. Ning Tiance"s skill at sword dancing was good enough to take part in the New Year"s Gala. I stared stupidly at him in wonderment.

This time his robe was belted. It was a white belt hanging slightly down, twisting as he moved. The belt flashed in front of my eyes.

What a narrow waist...

At the end he leapt up and quietly recited something, pointed at the center of my brow with his sword, and firmly said, "Burn!"

There was no reaction. The scene became very awkward.

After a while, Xiao Ning spoke again: "Burn! Burn, burn, burn!"

I couldn"t help asking, "Burnburn? Who"s that?"

Xiao Ning glares at me angrily. He lifted off the talisman on my brow with the tip of his sword and looked at the drawing on it. His face was full of disbelief.

He took three steps back, knocked over his incense burner, shook his head and spoke as though his whole world had collapsed: "Why? It can"t be?"

I was frightened by his appearance and didn"t dare to move. I could only sit in the middle of the array and ask, "What"s the matter?"

He took the talisman and said to me, "This is a cleansing talisman painted with cinnabar and c.o.c.kerel"s blood. It"s full of Yang energy. When encountering Yin energy, it will ignite without fire. Yin and Yang will harmonize, and the Yin energy will be neutralized. Normally, no matter how strong a ghost is, it won"t fail. But this talisman..."

"This talisman... You forgot to mix in the phosphorous?"

That was the only reason I could think of. Phosphorous has a low ignition point, so Xiao Ning could generate heat by rubbing the wooden sword against the talisman, and the phosphorous would burn...

"Of course not..." Xiao Ning said disbelievingly. "This talisman... No, all the talismans on your body, not only have they not disappeared from neutralizing Yin energy, they"ve been filled up with Yang energy. They"ve changed from ordinary cleansing talismans into powerful exorcism talismans, more powerful than the exorcism talismans we normally produce. In our sect, only the sect leader"s shishu can produce talismans like these. But even he has to rest after making just one, and there are ninety-nine talismans stuck to you..."

Hearing this, I was flummoxed. I didn"t understand why Xiao Ning was so surprised.

He pulled all the talismans off my body and carefully put them away, leaving one on his desk.

Ning Tiance then took out a sheet of paper specially made to be written on with a brush, rubbed an ink stick onto an inkstone, took up his brush and wrote: "Reporting to the honorable Sect Leader. This foolish disciple"s sojourn in H City..."

Xiao Ning"s writing was very beautiful, but it was also very refined. If I hadn"t been a liberal arts student, I wouldn"t have understood it.

He was saying something like, his sojourn in H City wasn"t pa.s.sing smoothly. He had originally thought this was part of the Sect Leader"s test for him, testing his ability to solve the problem himself. He had once had the cowardly notion of returning to the sect to ask for help, but in the end he had stopped himself and returned to H City to continue his training. But now he had encountered a rather th.o.r.n.y dilemma and had no choice but to report to the sect...

I didn"t read any more. This was a letter from Xiao Ning to his sect; I shouldn"t have been peeking.

I made for the bathroom to enjoy the hotel"s bubble bath. It sure was good to be rich.

When I was clean and sweet-smelling, I wrapped myself in the hotel"s bath towel and went back to the living room, my face all steamed up.

Xiao Ning had just finished writing his letter and was putting the talisman he"d left out into the envelope.

Out of politeness I asked him, "Do we still need to cleanse the Yin energy?"

"No." He shook his head. "My cultivation is too weak. I can"t see anything clearly."

Seeing that he was depressed, I sat beside Xiao Ning and said comfortingly, "How about... I recite Marxist principles to you? It"s very helpful for falling asleep. No matter what"s troubling you, if you have a good night"s sleep, you"ll wake up to a new day full of hope."

"All right, you go ahead and recite. I want to hear it," Ning Tiance said listlessly, leaning back against the sofa.

After reciting for a while I fell asleep myself. I didn"t remember anything that happened afterwards. I only knew that when I woke up the next morning, I was lying in the big bed in the guest room. Xiao Ning must have put me to bed.

I felt all over my body. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing had happened.

Ah, Xiao Ning is a gentleman, I thought a little hopelessly.