Chapter 40.2: Hand the money over to me, Qin Shi Huang!
Chapter 40 Part 2
With this nap, it was very unpeaceful. Xi Jia kept on feeling that something was scratching him. In his dreams, he dreamed of a female ghost with nails ten meters long. Unwilling to fight steadfastly, it had to use its nails to madly scratch his face.
Xi Jia wrinkled his brows in discomfort. Finally, he was scratched awake by the female ghost’s claws. When he opened his eyes, he realized that Song Song was lying on his pillow and scratching his nose non-stop.
The corner of his mouth slightly twitched, and Xi Jia helplessly brought Song Song into his arms. However, Song Song quickly struggled out and scratched him as if its life depended on it, whimpers coming out of its mouth.
Xi Jia suddenly became alert, and he immediately sat up. Ye Jingzhi was awake long ago.
Ye Jingzhi blankly watched a person and a cat, not understanding what’s happening. Xi Jia quickly turned on the lights and looked down, “Song Song?!”
The little black cat about the size of a palm currently had red eyes. Tears and snot were flowing down incessantly. For the first time, Xi Jia became aware that a cat could also shed tears and have a runny nose. The little guy miserably shrunk in Xi Jia’s arms. Its body was slightly trembling, making Xi Jia’s heart ache as he watched.
He hastily examined Song Song’s body but didn’t find any wounds. However, Song Song kept on crying.
After a while, Ye Jingzhi softly said, “Looks quite similar to you a moment ago.”
Xi Jia turned his head, “Looks quite similar to me?”
Ye Jingzhi nodded, “En, after you ate that bowl of noodles, your eyes were also……also reddish.” It looked so nice!
Xi Jia suddenly thought of an answer. He looked down with slight disbelief at Song Song that is still shedding tears and snot, “You couldn’t have……couldn’t have eaten the small dried fish and ate a spicy one?”
Things couldn’t be delayed. Song Song suddenly became like this in the middle of the night. Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi could only take it to a nearby hospital and check.
Before Xi Jia had fed the fish to Song Song, he intentionally tried one. The fish wasn’t spicy. It was only a small dried fish with a pretty unique flavor. When he had ordered from the hotel, he even said that the dried fish was for the cat to eat. Could it be that the cats of C Province defied natural order and could actually eat spicy food?!
There was only one hospital in this area of the mountains where they were filming at. There was no pet hospital. There was really no other choice so Xi Jia had to drive and take Song Song to the county hospital. When he had just arrived at the hospital’s entrance, he saw Vice Director Chen.
Vice Director Chen was also very surprised to see him here. He went up and asked, “You also know that Fang Moting got injured?”
Xi Jia was stunned, “Injured?”
Vice Director Chen realized that he didn’t know. He went closer and whispered, “En, I was about to send you the news. When Fang Moting was taking pictures in the evening, he was suddenly crushed by the stage props and bled a lot. Fortunately, the person is okay. His face isn’t hit either. It’s just that the scene that you have with him will have to be postponed for a while. You can’t speak of this matter to anyone else. Keep it a secret. Film Emperor Fang didn’t break any bones, and his manager has said that he can continue filming next week. Letting the media know is bad.”
Xi Jia nodded in promise.
Vice Director Chen didn’t bother with him any longer and hurried into the hospital to visit Film Emperor Fang.
Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi found a doctor to take a look at Song Song. This doctor actually knew how to treat pets. He randomly felt Song Song’s stomach and looked at Song Song’s little plump face that was stained with tears. He said mercilessly, “It ate spice. I’ll write a prescription. It’ll be okay to drink it when you go back. This cat can’t eat spice. You have to pay attention to it.”
Xi Jia didn’t understand, “Doctor, we gave a bit of small dried fish for it to eat. Before that, I even tried a bite, it wasn’t spicy.”
The doctor flamboyantly wrote on the medical prescription form, “The spice level that you can eat, it can’t eat it since it’s a cat. Alright then, let it eat cat food and then drink some medicine. It’ll get better soon.”
Xi Jia took the medical records and went to buy medicine.
By the time they took care of everything, it was already 5 o’clock in the morning. Because he didn’t need to shoot any scenes the next day, Xi Jia wasn’t worried. Holding Song Song in his arms, he sat down in the hospital’s garden. After confirming that Song Song had really fallen asleep, he gently picked it up before getting up to leave.
“You treat it very well……” A low male voice softly sounded.
Xi Jia turned his head. He said while smiling, “En, of course I treat it well. This year, it is the one that has always kept me company.”
Ye Jingzhi asked, “What about Chen Tao?”
Xi Jia smiled, “Taozi has his own work and friends. He can’t always stay with me. That night during last year’s graduation party, Song Song suddenly scuttled out from the underbrush and grabbed my leg when I came back to the neighborhood. It wouldn’t let go no matter what. I guess it and I have fate……After graduation, when Taozi was all over the country and I couldn’t see him often, it came.”
Beneath the faint dawn, Xi Jia softly smiled while holding a cute little black cat. It looked peaceful and beautiful.
Ye Jingzhi quietly watched. As soon as Xi Jia spoke again, he would suddenly move his line of sight away, the tips of his ears becoming slightly red.
The garden was behind the hospital building. To get to the main entrance, you must re-enter the building. Xi Jia held Song Song and talked to Ye Jingzhi while walking into the building. Right when he said up the point that he didn’t need to shoot any scenes today and they could go have fun nearby, his voice suddenly stopped. He looked in the distance with a serious gaze.
Ye Jingzhi was facing Xi Jia so his back faced the area where he was looking at. But at this time, Ye Jingzhi suddenly pursed his lips. His gaze became slightly cold as he slowly turned his head to look at the place where Xi Jia was looking at.
The morning sun was about to rise. However, there was a slight chill inside the hospital building. The acrid smell of disinfectant permeated the hallways.
At 5 o’clock in the morning in the hospital building, the nurse on duty flipped through the medical records at the nurses station. Underneath the illumination of the pale lights, there was no one else in the empty hallway——besides Xi Jia, Ye Jingzhi, and a black shadow.
The black shadow was very short and only up to Xi Jia’s knees. The dark shadow condensed into a mass of darkness underneath the lights. Even without Yin Yang Eyes, a trace of gray could be seen on the hallway floor. Swaying left and right, it floated over.
With an ice-cold expression, Xi Jia calmly watched the shadow. He saw the black shadow drift into the middle of the hospital corridor before suddenly turning a corner, passing through a door, and floating into a ward.
After a long time, Xi Jia turned to look at Ye Jingzhi, and Ye Jingzhi also looked at him.
The two of them didn’t utter a sound. Xi Jia thought for a very long time before he couldn’t help but ask, “Master Ye, I can see ghosts since I was small. But, I’ve lived for 23 years, and I’ve never……never seen this kind of ghost. What kind of ghost is it?”
The hospital is one of the places with the most yin energy in the mortal world. Xi Jia never doubted that he could see ghosts in the hospital, but how was what he had just seen a ghost? It was just a ball of jet-black yin energy!
Whether it was a wandering lost soul with low magic power or the most frightening female ghost he had seen in Lijia Village, normal ghosts would have a specific form and not a mass of yin energy like this.
Xi Jia had only heard Pei Yu mention this kind of situation before. At that time, Pei Yu had activated Yin Yang Eyes to look at him. What he saw was a large mass of yin energy, and he couldn’t see the person inside.
Could it be that the ghost was so powerful, and the yin energy was so strong to the extent of being unable to see its entity?
But, that also didn’t seem right. Even if it was a ghost, how could it be that short, short enough to only reach his knees?
Ye Jingzhi looked at the tightly closed sickroom with a serious expression. He thought deeply for a long time before saying, “That thing might not be a ghost.”
Xi Jia asked in shock, “Not a ghost?”
Ye Jingzhi seriously nodded, “I think it is a Kuman Thong.”
Xi Jia never heard of the term “Kuman Thong” before. Ye Jingzhi gave him an explanation, “It’s a child ghost as in raising a child ghost.” He suddenly understood.
When Xi Jia had previously travelled abroad, he had heard from the tour guide that there was a strange witchcraft in Thailand called “Yang Xiao Gui.”1
The tour guide had lead quite a lot of tour groups and went to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, when it came to these four countries, the country that the tour guide didn’t want to go to the most was Thailand and not Vietnam which had slightly worse conditions. It was because, “In Thailand, even the taxi drivers are raising child ghosts!”
Many bus drivers in Thailand would place a pot of flowers in front of the vehicle. A lot of people only thought that it was to keep the air in the vehicle fresh or that the driver had taste. But, they didn’t know that these drivers would place some food as offerings in front of the pot of flowers everyday and talk to the flower pot solemnly as if they were raising a child.
What they had been raising were child ghosts.
The people of Thailand believed that raising child ghosts weren’t scary. As long as they properly raise the child ghost and worship it, the child ghost could bless them with wealth and health. If their circumstances were on the low side, they would use a flower pot and a sculpture to represent the child ghost. If their circumstances were better, they would really find a child ghost that had died, obtain its corpse, and construct a shrine at their house.
These people would feed blood to the child ghosts everyday to make the child ghosts be “friends” with them. They were even more committed to worshipping the child ghosts than Gods and Buddhas, paying respect and kowtowing three times a day at fixed times. They perhaps believed that raising child ghosts was raising something good. However, in the eyes of the Huaxia people, they felt that raising ghosts was truly too frightening.
Ye Jingzhi said, “In Huaxia, Yang Xiao Gui is a type of sorcery. Thirty years ago, there was a senior at Qianshan Sect who went astray, used sorcery to raise child ghosts, and killed dozens of Celestial Masters. The senior was good friends with my Master when they were younger. When Master found out about it, he placed righteousness before relationship and punished him with Cengxiu-zhenjun.”
Xi Jia grasped the main point, “Yang Xiao Gui is sorcery? Since that child ghost has suddenly appeared here, is there someone using some sorcery?”
Ye Jingzhi shook his head and said, “The child ghost just now isn’t Huaxia’s Yang Xiao Gui but Thailand’s Kuman Thong. In Huaxia, only Xuanxue people would know this sorcery. The power is boundless. However in Thailand, Kuman Thong isn’t entirely a type of sorcery. Some ordinary people are able to put it to use appropriately. Just like raising a fox immortal, it won’t cause big problems.”2
Since it was neither a malicious ghost nor a child ghost of Huaxian sorcery, Xi Jia didn’t care about it anymore.
Hunting that thing wouldn’t give him points. It even had a master, and it was being raised by someone. He didn’t want to meddle in other people’s affairs.
As they walked away from the hospital, Xi Jia thought of something, “Speaking of it, I heard someone say that there are a lot of people in Huaxia who are also raising child ghosts. Especially in the entertainment circle, there are rumors of a lot of celebrities raising child ghosts. After raising a child ghost, their popularity would rise, and they would become a big hit. Master Ye, have you heard of this?”
Ye Jingzhi nodded, “That isn’t a rumor. There really are some celebrities raising child ghosts. What they’re raising are Thailand’s Kuman Thongs.”
Xi Jia’s eyes moved. He smiled as he shook his head and said, “I can probably guess who’s raising that Kuman Tong. It’s probably Fang Moting. Fang Moting is at this hospital, and the child ghost is also here. It’s most likely him.”
Speaking to here, Xi Jia remembered the incident of Fang Moting getting hurt last night and also recalled what he had heard of Fang Moting falling down the stairs last month. He felt it was strange: Aren’t Kuman Thongs supposed to help its master get good luck and gain fortune? How come Fang Moting is so miserable lately and always having accidents?
However, after having second thoughts, he thought of what Master Ye had just said. Only when the Kuman Thong was taken care of properly would they have good luck. If they were raised poorly, it was truly possible to suffer from disaster.
Xi Jia really didn’t like this kind of thing like raising child ghosts. However, if others wanted to do it, he wouldn’t stop them either.
Now that a problem arose from raising a child ghost, Xi Jia didn’t feel like lending a hand. After all in this world, you would lose something after gaining something. He wasn’t familiar with Fang Moting either. If he wanted to raise a child ghost, he didn’t need to care about other people’s business.
Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi left the hospital and drove back to the hotel.
At this moment, when the Kuman Thong had just drifted into the hospital room, a man with a pale complexion slowly woke up. Once he had awakened, the young person to the side hurriedly went forward and said, “How are you feeling, Moting, are you okay? Does your head still hurt? The doctor said you have a slight concussion. Although, there’s a cut at the back of your head, it has been stitched up. Fortunately, nothing big has happened. You’ve really scared me to death!”
Fang Moting creased his brows. He wanted to talk, but words couldn’t come out. After a long time, he said with a hoarse voice, “How is the crew?”
The manager slapped his thigh, “How could you still think about filming! Look at you, how many accidents have you had recently? Walking on the stairs and falling down, walking and a flower pot fell from the sky, driving and the brakes even failed……Before, nothing big has ever happened, you can ignore it. Yesterday night, such a big thing happened. If the angle of the prop when it fell wasn’t good, I might not be able to see you ever again. This won’t do. It’s too strange. We’re in C Province right now, let’s go pay respects to the Giant Buddha another day.”
Fang Moting thought for a bit. In the end, he didn’t refuse.
The manager went to find the doctor. Before he left, he said in bafflement, “Just what is going on? We usually do good things every day and donate to charities. How could we have bad luck everyday?”
Fang Moting laughed bitterly, “En, don’t say anymore. I also don’t understand what’s going on.”
The manager turned around and said, “Did you provoke any evil things lately?”
Fang Moting pondered for a moment and said, “You’re always by my side.”
The manager nodded, “Right, I’m always following you. We didn’t touch anything. Also, don’t you hate these enigmatic things? Last month when we were in Thailand to shoot an ad, you weren’t even willing to go into their temple to take a look. This is too strange……”
The manager went out of the hospital room and closed the door.
Fang Moting was lying on the hospital bed and staring blankly at the ceiling as he murmured quietly, “……Could it be that I really offended someone?”
In the hospital room, the black shadow giggled and crawled little by little onto the bed from one of its corners. The black shadow slowly floated onto Fang Moting’s body, floated to his chest, and finally floated before his eyes.
The famous celebrity was still looking at the ceiling with eyes open. A black thing lowered its head, darkly smiling and staring at him.
Translator’s Addition:
Mirror: 【in his own little world, appreciating the beautiful scenery that is his wife (plus cat)】
Translator’s Notes:
1 养小鬼 raising child ghosts/Yang Xiao Gui: Yang Xiao Gui literally means raising child ghosts. Gonna use both interchangeably, like when raising child ghosts is too awkward in a sentence as a gerund. ↵
2 养狐仙 raising fox immortal: I can’t find a Baidu/wiki page on this…if I have to speculate, I think it’s like a charm to increase beauty. Thanks Liu Minge for the info. Direct quote from comments:
In China we believe there are enlightened animals who can cultivate to become immortal just like human, fox is one of them.
So there are families in China (usually in the countryside) who enshrine and worship a immortal fox. The chosen fox (usually one who already had some power but not very much) is worshiped just like the ancestor of the family and it can cultivate faster with these worships. So it will protect the family members in exchange, telling them where to find hidden treasure or how to avoid a certain danger in advance (like a flood or an earthquake).
And there are in all five animals who are usually seen worshiped: fox, mouse, snake, weasel and hedgehog. They are all believed to have power and are said to be spirits rather than ordinary animals. ↵