This Damned Thirst for Survival

All the way back with the ginseng doll in his arms, Jiang Luo was still thinking about the predestined man. But as he walked, he felt his cuffs getting wet.

When he looked down, the ginseng doll was wiping its tears with his cuff, peeking at him from time to time, as if waiting for Jiang Luo to discover that it was shedding tears.

Jiang Luo was happy, the corners of his lips picking up. But he was stone-hearted and deliberately pretended not to notice.

The ginseng doll got anxious and tugged at his sleeve, saying in a milky voice, “Can you let me go?”

Jiang Luo smiled kindly: “No.”

The ginseng doll whimpered, “But if you don’t let me go, I’m going to be eaten.”

Jiang Luo also said pitifully, “But if I let you go, I’m going to have my leg broken.”

The ginseng doll froze, clearly not expecting anyone to not eat this.

Jiang Luo’s expression changed and he smiled and flicked it, “Little brat, pretending to be pitiful doesn’t work with me, pretending to be pitiful isn’t enough to get people to leave you alone.”

The little ginseng was thoughtful.

*

In the living room, after Jiang Luo had left, Feng Li took the main seat, looked at Jiang Luo’s classmates and said indifferently, “Go ahead.”

Wen Renlian said: “Chi You came to see Jiang Luo again while you were away. Last night, when we were having dinner, Chi You showed up openly. But last night’s meeting wasn’t a bad thing, Jiang Luo and Chi You had a disagreement and Jiang Luo is about to come to his senses.”

Feng Li’s face was unruffled as he rubbed his thumbs together for a moment, “How many times did they meet?”

Wen Renlian said conservatively, “Twice at the most.”

He smiled, ” Jiang Luo stays with us all day, either on school assignments or in the school. People have a trail of movement, but ghosts are unpredictable and can’t be prevented.”

The subliminal meaning is to tell Feng Li that it was all Chi You who came to Jiang Luo and that Jiang Luo had nothing to do with it.

Feng Li didn’t know whether to believe it or not, but he said, “Since you are here in Tian Shifu, you should stay here for a few days. Tomorrow Tian Shifu will hold a lecture and I will say hello to your school.”

Wen Renlian A few people looked at each other.

All are here except Qi Ye, who was called home on short notice last night, and the dead ghosts of the living dead, who are not at liberty to come to Tian Shifu.

Zhuo Zhongqiu smiled generously and volunteered, “Then I will trouble the Heavenly Master.”

Feng Li sidled up and said, “Wudu, you go and arrange rooms for them.”

Soon he was the only one left in the living room. Feng Li closed his eyes and waited patiently for a few moments before he heard Jiang Luo’s footsteps.

“Sir,” Jiang Luo said, “the Master does not want ginseng dolls that have become spirit.”

Feng Li breathed shallowly and said slowly, “When your brother comes back, ask him to bring another one and send it over.”

“As for this ……”

Before he could say anything, he heard the little ginseng say crisply, “Daddy!”

Feng Li and Jiang Luo were both stunned as they looked at the little ginseng. They looked at the little ginseng and saw it pressed against Jiang Luo’s finger, sobbing with pathos, “Daddy, you have to protect me.

That’s a quick enough learning curve.

The corners of Jiang Luo’s eyes twitched as Feng Li gave a good laugh and said, “This ginseng, you keep it for now.”

Jiang Luo : “…… is.”

Only after Jiang Luo had responded did Feng Li say, “Your life preserver is in effect.”

Jiang Luo nodded and humbly asked for advice, “Master, what is this life preserving talisman that allows me to move to Tian Shifu in an instant?”

“This is a talisman that each of Tian Shifu’s first disciples has, written down by each Master himself. When you feel that you are in great danger, the talisman will work,” Feng Li got up, walked slowly to the wooden cabinet and took out a wicker branch from it, “each disciple only has that one.”

Jiang Luo looked at the wicker in his hand and his eyelids fluttered, “Sir?”

Feng Li turned his head sideways, his sharp eyes sweeping to him, “I told you, if I ever see you meet with an evil spirit again, I’ll break your legs.”

Jiang Luo said with resignation, “You are out and about, and I cannot find you when I am approached by evil spirits.”

Before Feng Li could say anything, Jiang Luo said in a downcast voice, “I recognized what kind of person he was …… but he wouldn’t let me go. At the moment of crisis, the life-preservation charm was triggered this way.”

“Sir,” Jiang Luo wiped his tears, “I’ve come to my senses, you did it for my own good, I know Chi You now and will never be fooled by him again.”

“……” Feng Li said as he threw the willow, “It’s good that you understand.”

Jiang Luo had just given a smile when he heard Feng Li continue, “But he came to you and you didn’t take the initiative to tell me, which is still a mistake. The rest is just that, you go to the solitary confinement room to think about it for a day.”

Jiang Luo had previously been unable to take the initiative to tell Feng Li because of his affectionate persona. He hinted to Wen Renlian to tell Feng Li, but to his surprise, Feng Li was even harsher than he thought, and instead of breaking his leg, he came up with a confinement cell.

Jiang Luo dislikes the fact that he has to be held to account for even the most minor mistakes, and that he is being strictly controlled.

Jiang Luo bowed his head, “I know.”

The solitary confinement room is in the most remote corner of Tian Shifu and is rarely visited.

Jiang Luo had not been here before, but Zhou Wudu had sent him here. Zhou Wudu sympathised with him and said, “How long did the gentleman let you stay in the confinement cell?”

Jiang Luo said slowly, “One day.”

“A day? It’s not much,” Zhou Wudu said, “We were all confined by the master. It was more like a quiet room than a confinement cell. There was no internet and no books, so we had to dwell and meditate to pass the time, which was fine except for the boredom. There’s no shortage of places to go to the toilet and shower, so you can stay in peace and I’ll come back for you in the morning.”

He spoke and Jiang Luo listened. Jiang Luo followed him all the way to the confinement cell, holding the mattress in his arms.

The confinement cell was set up more like a prison cage. The iron doors were on either side of the corridor, and Zhou Wudu, who was indeed familiar with the place, soon found him a room with good sunlight and good ventilation. After putting down the things in his arms, he patted him comfortingly on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your friend for you. You can practice Fu Lu and write here, the time will soon pass.”

Jiang Luo surveyed the interior of the room and nodded his head, “Thank you, Brother.”

Zhou Wudu left him a bag of spicy chicken claws before he left, and once the iron door closed, Jiang Luo was the only one left in the place.

The room is simple, with only a bed and a table and chair. There is a small window against the wall, through which the sun throws itself and the dust glistens in the Jin Guang.

Jiang Luo made the bed and went to look at the bathroom. The bathroom is small, but fairly clean.

The little ginseng crawled out of the bed, it crawled towards the wall when Jiang Luo wasn’t looking and almost escaped through the window when Jiang Luo grabbed it.

Jiang Luo sneered twice, “My good son, what are you running for now?”

Jiang Luo throws the little ginseng into the desk cupboard and closes it. Lying down on the bed, he prepares to take a nap.

Jiang Luo reckons it’s already after 4pm when he wakes up and the sun has turned warm gold.

At dinner time, his friends stopped by. In addition to expressing sighs of distress and gloating over him, they also thoughtfully brought him purified water and dinner.

Wen Renlian was so guilty that he whispered, “Jiang Luo, I’m sorry. I was the one who told the Master of Heaven about your meeting with Chi You.”

Jiang Luo said unconcernedly, “It’s okay, you’re doing it for my own good.”

Wen Renlian sighed, not realising that even though he had made Jiang Luo look so innocent, he had not escaped Feng Li’s chastisement. These big families always have so many rules.

“I brought you the things you asked me to help you bring.” Wen Renlian said, “It’s just that the confinement ward doesn’t allow too much stuff to be brought in, so I put it in your room.”

Jiang Luo thanked him.

They stayed with Jiang Luo outside the confinement door for half an hour before being invited out by the disciples guarding the confinement room. The confinement cell became silent again, and as it grew dark, Jiang Luo wrote a few charms and slept again.

He was in the midst of a light sleep when something in his desk drawer couldn’t stay. Jiang Luo’s eyes open a crack as he watches the little ginseng crawl out of the desk and run through the airy bars under the iron door.

Jiang Luo closed his eyes again, not worried that the ginseng doll would run away.

At night, the door outside the confinement cell was locked, so the ginseng doll could not escape the monk, no matter how much it ran.

He was lazily intending to go back to sleep when there was a sudden crash at the door and the ginseng doll plunged through the airy railing crying out, running on her hands and knees to the bed and quickly grabbing the sheets and crawling into Jiang Luo’s arms shivering, “There’s a ghost out there!”

The little ginseng had gone somewhere and gotten all black and dirty. Jiang Luo tossed it aside in disgust and said carelessly, “How can there be ghosts in Tian Shifu.”

The little ginseng was shivering, tears in its eyes staining one of Jiang Luo’s sheets as if it had wet the bed. Jiang Luo carried it to the bathroom without expression and put it in the sink to wash it.

The black mud was washed away, but Jiang Luo noticed that the water in which the ginseng had been rinsed had turned a faint yellowish colour.

A bit like ginseng tea.

The ginseng doll stopped crying and whispered, “Aren’t you going to drink?”

Jiang Luo said, “What do you want to drink?”

The ginseng doll said rightfully, “My bath water.”

“……” Jiang Luo buried the ginseng doll in the water.

The ginseng doll resurfaces and watches Jiang Luo drain a sink full of water with an incredibly distressed look on his face.

After washing the ginseng doll, Jiang Luo saw a tooth mark on its back. He frowned, “You’ve been bitten?”

The ginseng doll shivered, “There’s a ghost in here, she wants to eat me!”

Impossible.

Even Chi You, an evil spirit, only controlled Brother Qiao by bending over. What kind of ghost could be so bold as to haunt inside Tian Shifu?

As if seeing Jiang Luo’s disbelief, the ginseng doll exclaimed, “There really is a ghost, and it’s a female ghost! She was locked up in the ground, and when I fell, she grabbed me, and her nails were so long and her mouth so smelly that she almost bit me in half.”

Jiang Luo raised an eyebrow: “Under the ground?”

He hadn’t known that there was a ground floor in the confinement cell.

Jiang Luo is intrigued and, holding his ginseng doll, he walks to the door and peers out through the airy railing above.

The corridor was dark, even silent. In the entire confinement room, only his room was lit.

Jiang Luo was the only person held here at this time.

Jiang Luo whispered, “Where did you fall into the ground? Shh, keep it down.”

The ginseng doll covered her mouth, held out her whiskered hand and pointed to the end of the corridor.

Jiang Luo asked again, “And how did you escape after she caught you?”

“The female ghost was locked in,” whispered the ginseng doll, “and I stomped on her face and jumped out on her face.”

Jiang Luo thought for a moment and then suddenly moved the Yin-Yang ring.

A golden mouse ran like the wind towards the end of the corridor and soon came back, shaking its head in one fluid motion.

The ginseng doll was so frightened by the mouse that it burrowed into Jiang Luo’s arms.

Jiang Luo pulled it out and flicked the ginseng doll on the head, saying lazily, “Children who tell lies are to be cooked and eaten by adults.”

The ginseng doll cried out, “I really didn’t tell a lie!”