The Omniscient

Chapter 1: Born Foolish

On the second day of the second lunar month, the Dragon raises its head. On the third day of the third lunar month, people honor Xuanyuan.

March 29, 2009, was the third day of the third lunar month on the Chinese calendar.

Just a few years ago, every household in this area still upheld the tradition of ancestor worship and honoring Emperor Xuanyuan on this day.

However, as more young adults left for work in the cities, the village became populated mostly by the elderly and children. Customs became simplified, and the festive atmosphere gradually faded.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Some families still kept the tradition solemnly, setting out offerings and preparing a more lavish dinner to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Xuanyuan.

Most others, however, handled it more casually, with just the elderly lighting incense for the Yellow Emperor while the children looked on.

Some families didn’t even bother with the custom anymore.

The Huang family, though, honored Xuanyuan every year. Even when only the old man and his grandson were left in the household, they never slacked.

“Grandpa! Dinner’s ready.” A young boy walked in, carrying a plate of food, and deftly arranged the table.

The old man coughed as he sat down, a worried look directed at his grandson.

“How did it go with Dr. Liang this morning, Xu?” he asked.

The boy smiled and replied, “Dr. Liang said my emotions are stable and that I’m fine now.”

The old man nodded, the sight of his cheerful grandson easing his worries a bit.

As the grandfather and grandson ate lunch together, the old man kept piling food onto the boy’s plate, a mix of love and heartache in his gaze.

Life hadn’t been kind to the child. From birth, he had problems with his brain.

His pupils were unusual too, with excessive white spots forming a ring around them, making his eyes appear as though a smaller pupil was nested within a larger one.

He didn’t speak for a long time, and his gaze was blank as a child. Yet, a fortune-teller once praised him, claiming that his peculiar eyes marked him as someone destined for greatness—a late bloomer, a natural sage.

The old man believed it and avoided taking him to a doctor.

But by the time Xu still hadn’t uttered a word at four years old, the family panicked and sought medical advice.

Tests revealed that he had an IQ of just 50, a mild intellectual disability categorized as "foolish and slow."

The unusual eyes were not a mark of destiny but congenital cataracts. His vision was severely impaired, with both eyes registering just 0.2 acuity and accompanied by astigmatism. ꞦãΝó𐌱ËṦ

These numerous ailments from birth had caused the old man endless grief. To make matters worse, neither condition was treatable.

Having an intellectual disability didn’t mean Xu was outright incapable, though. Mild intellectual disability mainly affected his concentration, memory, and abilities in reasoning and communication.

When Xu was five, tragedy struck again. His parents, who were working away from home, died in a gas explosion.

That year, Xu spoke the words “Dad” and “Mom” for the first time, but it was too late for them to hear it.

Although the compensation was substantial, the boy was left without his parents, raised solely by his grandfather—a life of profound loneliness.

Over time, his intellectual challenges showed noticeable improvement. He could talk, though his ability to express himself remained weak. While he appeared slow, he understood what people said to him.

Since Xu started speaking, he often claimed he could see strange things and sense intricate, inexplicable phenomena.

But he couldn’t articulate it clearly, and his descriptions sounded like ghost stories. Combined with his unusual pupils, rumors spread throughout the village that the boy could see "unclean" entities.

The old man was deeply superstitious and found such talk taboo. Whenever Xu brought it up, his grandfather would scold him harshly, sometimes even hitting him. "There’s no such thing! Stop talking nonsense!" he would shout.

Eventually, Xu stopped mentioning it.

At seven, instead of attending a special education school, he was enrolled in regular public school. Though he lagged behind his peers and was consistently at the bottom of the class, he managed to communicate with others.

However, things took a turn in middle school. The pace of learning picked up significantly, and Xu simply couldn’t keep up.

Teachers grew impatient with him, and classmates mocked him, calling him a fool.

He wanted to spend more time studying to make up for his shortcomings, but prolonged mental effort caused him unbearable pain. He would suffer severe headaches, sometimes to the point of losing consciousness.

Nighttime was particularly challenging. Whenever he gazed at the starry sky, his head would ache, and he would tremble silently, biting his lip to endure the pain.

Seeing the moon was even worse—it would trigger immediate fainting.

Heartbroken, and persuaded by his teachers, Xu’s grandfather allowed him to quit school and forgo the high school entrance exams. Instead, Xu returned home to help with chores and farming.

It was June 2008 when he gave up on school. Now, more than half a year later, he had adapted to the routine of plowing, harvesting, and threshing.

He performed these physical tasks efficiently, and his daily chores—hauling water, cooking, and cleaning—made him appear no different from others.

But in his free time, Xu would sit dazed on the edge of the fields, stare blankly at people as they talked, or spend entire days watching television.

It was in these moments that he seemed like the “big fool” everyone in the village labeled him to be.

The days passed uneventfully, and the old man often consoled himself: perhaps it was better for Xu to live a simple, safe life like this. Yet, he couldn’t help but worry.

How could someone like Xu ever get married? More pressing, what would happen to him when his own health inevitably failed?

The old man’s lungs had always been weak. As he aged, his chronic conditions worsened. He was constantly coughing, his throat filled with phlegm, and his airways felt perpetually clogged. His limbs grew feebler by the day.

What would become of Xu if he collapsed one day and couldn’t care for him anymore?

“Dr. Liang! Dr. Liang!”

As they finished lunch and began cleaning up, the village head’s voice rang out from the yard.

The old man stepped outside and opened the gate. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Old Huang, is Dr. Liang at your house?” the village head asked.

The old man shook his head. “No, he’s not here. Xu’s been feeling much better lately, so I have him visit Dr. Liang’s clinic on his own in the mornings. No need for Dr. Liang to come here anymore.”

The village head frowned. “In the morning? Dr. Liang’s been missing since early today. It’s already nightfall, and he hasn’t come back. His clinic door wasn’t even locked. I thought something was wrong and came to check if he might be at your place.”

Because Xu occasionally fainted, Dr. Liang often visited the Huang household to check on him, sometimes staying for meals.

Just last week, Xu fainted again. When he regained consciousness, he ran to the yard and stared at the moon with a pale, haunted expression.

Oddly enough, he didn’t faint again after that, but he kept trembling inexplicably and mumbling nonsense. Worried, the old man had invited Dr. Liang to the house for several consecutive days. With the doctor now missing, the village head naturally came to the Huang home first.

“Dr. Liang’s been missing since this morning? Xu!” The old man turned sharply to his grandson.

Xu stepped forward guiltily. “I’m sorry, Grandpa. I lied to you. I didn’t go to see Dr. Liang this morning.”

“You’ve learned to lie?!” The old man was furious. Xu had never lied to anyone before. To think that his own grandson would deceive him now!

Xu apologized sincerely, “I’m sorry, Grandpa. I really don’t have any illness anymore; I’m fine now. Dr. Liang is very busy, and she’s under a lot of stress. I shouldn’t trouble her every day.”

“What do you mean, you’re not sick?! Dr. Liang said you have a—uh—whatever it’s called! Whether you’re sick or not isn’t up to you; it’s up to the doctor! I shouldn’t have trusted that swindler back then and delayed taking you to a real doctor!” The old man grew agitated, guilt flashing across his face.

In truth, Xu’s conditions were congenital and untreatable. The cause of his fainting spells remained undiagnosed to this day. Seeing a doctor earlier wouldn’t have changed anything. But the old man couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow his fault.

What made him feel even worse was what Dr. Liang had confided to him last week: she suspected that Xu might have a mental illness. This revelation deepened the old man’s guilt, making him believe he had failed in raising his grandson, driving him into such a state.

Xu, however, simply smiled obediently and quickly helped his grandfather sit down. The old man, already burdened by chronic respiratory issues, was now breathless from his anger.

“Grandpa, you should rest at home. Let me go with Village Head Grandpa to look for Dr. Liang. I might be slow, but I can at least run errands,” Xu said.

The old man caught his breath and nodded reluctantly. “Go on, then. Dr. Liang has cared for you so many times; you should repay her kindness. Old Fan, let my grandson tag along. He might be a bit slow, but he’s not entirely useless. I just hope nothing bad has happened to Dr. Liang...”

The village head nodded in agreement and hastily led Xu out the door.

The two walked along the road, going door to door, asking if anyone had seen Dr. Liang.

Despite their efforts, they found no leads. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.

Neighbors were equally puzzled. “Have you tried calling her?” someone asked.

“I did, but her phone’s off,” the village head replied.

“Could she have gone back to her hometown?” another suggested.

The village head shook his head. Dr. Liang had graduated from a prestigious medical university in the capital. No one knew why she had chosen to work in such a remote area, but she was an excellent doctor and a kind-hearted person. People from several villages came to her for treatment of minor ailments.

Her life was orderly and disciplined; disappearing without warning—leaving her clinic door unlocked, no less—was completely out of character. That’s why everyone suspected something had gone wrong.

“Uncle!” A young policeman suddenly arrived on a small motorbike. It was Wang Meng, an officer from the local police station and the village head’s nephew.

The village head frowned. “Wang Meng, why are you the only one here?”

“Dr. Liang has only been missing for a few hours, and she’s an adult. There’s no way to officially open a case yet. What if she just went out for some fun?” Wang Meng explained helplessly.

“That’s impossible. Dr. Liang would never go out and leave her clinic door unlocked. Something’s definitely wrong,” the village head insisted.

Wang Meng sighed. “That’s why I came to help, isn’t it?”

“Hey? Huang Ji, you’re out at night and not fainting?” Wang Meng suddenly remarked, surprised to see Xu.

Seeing the young boy standing nearby, Wang Meng was surprised that the kid who used to faint at the sight of the moon was tagging along. He asked casually, “Huang Ji, you’re here? You don’t faint at the moon anymore?”

Xu shook his head and said, “I’m fine now. I don’t faint when I see the moon anymore.”

“Really? That’s great news!” Wang Meng replied with a smile.

Among the older villagers, Xu was often called by his nickname, “Xu’er.” The younger crowd mostly referred to him as “Dummy,” though the friendlier ones used his proper name, Huang Ji.

Huang Ji was Xu’s formal name, the one listed on his ID. Xu’er was just his childhood nickname.

He had been born on March 25, 1993—the third day of the third lunar month, the day people honored Xuanyuan.

Born at dawn and brought home from the hospital by the afternoon, his grandfather was overjoyed to welcome his grandson into the family. As it happened to be Xuanyuan’s commemorative day, the old man lit incense for the Yellow Emperor and decided to name the boy.

He didn’t dare directly use the name "Xuanyuan," so he chose the character "Xu", which was somewhat related. Thus, the boy was named Huang Xu, with the nickname Xu’er, meaning “child of Xuanyuan’s ruins.”

In rural areas like theirs, names were often chosen by the most educated family member or the oldest. In Xu’s case, the elders debated for a while before deciding on "Huang Xu."

The boy’s father, however, was not pleased with the name. Even a simple nickname didn’t have to carry such inauspicious connotations!

The character "Xu" could mean ruins or even a burial mound.

Still, Xu’s father didn’t object openly. After all, it wasn’t his place to overrule the elders when it came to naming the child.

However, he had his own plan: since it was his job to register the child’s name with the authorities, he quietly gave his son a different name—Huang Ji.

This name wasn’t particularly meaningful; he simply wanted something with a positive connotation, like “reaching the pinnacle.”

The matter stayed hidden until Xu turned four and was taken to the hospital because he still hadn’t spoken. That’s when the grandfather discovered the change.

Naturally, the household registry and official documents all used the formal name Huang Ji, and it was the name used at school. But the old man stubbornly continued to call him Xu’er. The villagers, accustomed to the nickname, also stuck with it, especially the older ones who found it easier to pronounce.

Wang Meng, who had served in the army before becoming a policeman in the village, had helped Huang Ji several times. During middle school, when Huang Ji fainted occasionally, it was often Wang Meng who found a vehicle to take him home.

Wang Meng had always been kind to his younger fellow villagers and often brought him treats. Hearing now that Huang Ji no longer fainted at the sight of the moon, Wang Meng was genuinely happy for him.

But the matter at hand was finding Dr. Liang.

Wang Meng continued accompanying the village head, going door to door to ask about her whereabouts.

Yet, despite asking the entire village, no one had seen Dr. Liang that day.

The village head grew anxious and suggested breaking into her home to search if the door was locked.

But Wang Meng objected firmly. “No, we can’t do that. We don’t even know if she’s actually missing yet. Breaking in is against the law!”

“How is she not missing? A living, breathing person has just vanished! What if she’s been kidnapped?!” the village head retorted angrily.

Wang Meng hesitated, looking troubled. “There are no witnesses, and she’s only been missing for a short time. What if she had an emergency and went back to the city? I can’t let you break her lock. Dr. Liang is an educated professional and values her privacy.”

As he spoke, the three of them—along with several helpful villagers—arrived at the health clinic. Dr. Liang’s residence was adjacent to it.

While her house was locked, the clinic door was open. Everyone began searching inside, hoping to find a note or some clue left by Dr. Liang.

Huang Ji didn’t join them. Instead, he stood at the clinic’s entrance, staring at the concrete road in front. His gaze seemed to follow an invisible path, tracing its way toward the road’s distant end.

“Five people… Wang Zhen, Hu Feng, Lü Zongmin, Lin Yong… and Liang Yuan, Dr. Liang…” Huang Ji muttered softly, barely audible to anyone but himself.

He could see what others could not and perceive what others could not sense.

Though considered intellectually disabled, Huang Ji often knew far more than others.

After scanning the area, his eyes shifted to an old tree by the roadside not far away.

“And one more… Li Fan. A witness,” he thought silently.

Just then, Wang Meng emerged from the clinic, empty-handed. Seeing Huang Ji standing by the roadside in a daze, Wang Meng couldn’t help but chuckle.

Huang Ji’s daydreaming was a common sight, one Wang Meng was well accustomed to. Approaching him, Wang Meng said warmly, “You should head home and rest. I’m a policeman now. Leave this to me, and I promise nothing bad will happen to Dr. Liang.”

Wang Meng knew that Huang Ji and Dr. Liang were close, but he didn’t think the boy could contribute much. Using a tone one might use to soothe a child, he tried to coax Huang Ji to leave.

However, Huang Ji raised his head and calmly stated, “Someone saw what happened.”