NiuJustSaid
隨筆和文學
小說"白鹿原"是時代傑作，比"戰爭與和平"一點不差。
以下是我的翻譯，歡迎提出批評意見。
White Deer Plain
By Chen Zhongshi
Translated by the NiuJustSaid on May 22, 2017
Chapter 1
Bai Jiaxuan was proud of having married seven women in his life. At 16, he married his first wife, the eldest daughter of the wealthy Gong family of Gong Village on the West Plain. She was two years older than him. The wedding night was a mess. He was ashamed to tell others his ignorance and ludicrousness, although it was an unforgettable experience. One year later, the woman died in the childbirth.
His second wife was the foster daughter of Pang Xiurui, the well-off family of Pang Village on South Plain. She was two years younger than him. She was pretty and had sparkling eyes. She knew nothing about marriage and sex. He already knew all the secrets between men and women. He felt excited when he saw her in confusion. She dared not to resist and let him to wrap her under his body. What he got was her pain rather than joy. After the long and exacting effort, he stopped and felt pain at his shoulders. She had bitten the inner sides of his shoulders.
He was to burst of anger at her being spoiled and wayward but at this moment she insinuated that she wanted it again. After the first copulation, the woman became unrestrictably wayward. It was less than one year between she was carried into this house and she was carried out in a coffin. She died of tuberculosis.
His third woman was the daughter of an equally rich family of Fan Village on North Plain. She was 16 but had a body of the woman of twenty, plump and well developed with round shoulders and round butts and a pair of magnificient breasts. She was either precocious or had the knowledge about sex. She immediately held him tightly after getting into the bed, eager and greedy, pressing her plump and swelled breasts against his chest without feeling awkward.
When he entered her body, she screamed out of joy rather than pain. In a year, this round and plump woman became as thin as a corn stalk. She vomited blood and died with unidentified ailment.
The fourth woman was from Mi Village at South Plain. He had hardly any memory of this woman. She seemed not responsive to his initiative. She did not resist when he wanted her. She did not initiate it when he did not. She performed all her duties and hardly spoke. He was out of town when she died. When he was back, he saw her still biting a corner of the quilt. Her fingernails were off. The blood on her hands was not completely dry yet. The mark of scratch and blood stain were visible on the pillow and the carpet. She had felt stomach pain after the noon time. Dr. Leng was sent for. Leng diagnosed as "sheep wool disease". Leng performed bloodshedding with needle puncture, but the blood was already too thick to come out. She died in extreme pain with her body wrung into a curved shape like a dried shrimp.
Jiaxuan became scared after four women had died one after another at his home. He started to believe what villagers said about him that he had a “hard fate” and his wife could not survice. He was afraid of having to remain single for his whole life. His father wanted him to marry again. He wanted to wait for a while. His father Bingde blowed at the tabacoo pipe and ashes flied everywhere and loaded it with fresh tobacco, blowed the flame, two whiffs of smoke out of his nostrils. He said unequivocally, “sell one more mule.”
In the morning of the following day, Bingde went to the fair at Bailu Town to sell the mule. It was dusk when he was back. He tossed the half-chain half-rope rein onto the ground and told him that his next wife would be the third daughter of the carpenter Wei of Li Village at East Plain. This girl was from a poor family. Statuses did not match but it was not a consideration anymore. Carpenter Wei had five daughters, and worried about how to feed them all.
What the carpenter cared about was the money, not about whether his daughter would be another victim. Then, the rumour spread all over the villages around that his penis was like that of a dog, long enough to wrap the waist, and at the end of it there was a poisonous backward hook. Women’s liver, lung, intestine, and stomach were all damaged and poison was injected. Not a single wealthy family would like to consider the highly vaulted morality and wealth of his family. Nobody wanted to send their daughters to the family of someone with a dog’s penis and to be killed. Only this carpenter who could not wait to drive his dauther away disregarded all this rumours. When the wedding was being arranged according to the traditional cusmtom, Bingde died in a sudden.
That was lunar April, Small Fullness per Chinese calendar, when wheat developed ears and rape developed pods. The farmers had changed from quilted clothes into single layer clothes and still felt uncomfortably warm. After lunch, Bingde advised Lu San to start planting cotton after feeding the horses and went to rest. He took a rest every day after lunch, sometimes as short as a nap, and then got off the bed and wiped his face with wetted towel. He felt relaxed and fresh. All the fatigue was gone right away. Then he sat down and drank tea, smoked pipe, and felt energetic again, like a fully loaded clock. After Lu San fed the horses, they carried plows toward the field. He was like a general heading for a battle. During the entire afternoon, he had been energetic and concentrated to the work, exerting a huge pressure on Lu San who had to work harder to catch up.
He had never scolded his employees, let alone beating them. He kept his promise and never shortchanged them. He and his employees used the same copper wash basin and the same dining table. His former employees had all worked hard and become his good friends. His reputation was well known across the plain.
Bingde fell asleep soon after lying down. He dreamed he was carrying a sickle on a cattle-driven cart heading for the wheat field. It was the wheat harvesting season. Suddenly a bright light flashed in the sky overhead and flames fell all over like dust. One piece of flame fell on his chest and he heard the burning sound. He rolled off the cart and fell into the rut filled with leaves and grass. He woke up and found that he was already on the brick floor. He felt his chest and found no trace of burning. But he felt a burning sensation in his heart. The fire seemed rushing out and burning and burned his throat and tongue which had become hard, stiff, and dry. His wife rushed into the room upon hearing the noise but could not manage to bring him onto the bed. She panicked and called her son Jiaxuan and her employee Lu San. They together moved Bingde onto the kang and asked what had happened with anxiety. But Bingde could not speak anymore. He scratched his neck and chest with the hardened fingernail and made a sound a suffering dog made. Jiaxuan and his mother were shocked into dumbness. Lu San was still at manageable situation, and shouted, “Go to get the doctor.” Jiaxuan bolted out of the courtyard and ran toward Bailu Town.
Bailu Town was located to the west of the village, boasting a narrow road and a drug store. Mr. Leng was the doctor, serving the patients and selling Chinese medicine. He got an idea after hearing out what Jiaxuan had to say about the symptoms and extracted a leather bag from the drawer and pinned it onto his belt and headed out for Bai. Leng was the respected doctor of Bailu Plain, in delicately tailored yellow silk shirt and black silk pants that waved with his every move. At his forties, he had hair as black as ink and as shiny as wax, rosy complexion, and lucid eyes. He received patients in his clinic and his business was booming. He treated all the patients, rich or poor, the same way. The wealthy people would carry him with a sedan or blanket padded cart. The poor people would carry him on a donkey. Some patients did not have even a donkey and he woudl go on foot.
He did not refuse gold and silver offered by the wealthy. He accepted the copper coins from the poor. He sometimes did not charge the really poor patients if the patients or told them to pay him at their conveniences. His good reputation was established. When his father died, all the patiens who had been saved from the brink of death by his father and those who only had admired him had sent so many plagues and silk ribbons that lined half the street. People found that he was ever colder than his father, sitting on the chair painted pitch black. He was not talkative. He did not slight the anxious patiens. He remained calm and in aplomb at all times, no matter when he found the cure, did not find the cure, or the patient died. The patients trusted him fully. When the cure was found, they thought that Leng had the superior technique. Otherwise, they thought the ailment had been incurable and one hundred other doctors could not do better.
Upon entering the room, Leng spotted Bingde on the bed in a convoluted shape. He was still whimpered in pain like a suffering dog. He maintained his composure, felt the pulse of Bingde’s left hand and then his belly, pried open his mouth, made a weak sound and turned to ask Jiaxuan, “Do you have alcohol?”. Jiaxuan’s mother, Baizhao, said “yes, yes, yes” and turned and fetched a whole bottle of alcohol. Leng asked for a blue porcelain bowl, poured the alcohol into the bowl, and signaled Jiaxuan to ignite the alcohol. Jiaxuan was sweating cold sweat and failed to start a sparkle with the flints in his shaking hands in a few attempts. Lu San took over, started the sparkle at the first try, blowed out a flame, and ignited the alcohol. Leng unfastened the leather bag from his belt, unlocked it, and a row of knivies, awls, hooks, needles, and a shiny scrubing knife of prism shape came to view. Leng extracted a steel needle of the size of the wheat stalk, a steel plate, and held them in the blue flame. He told Jiaxuan to hold still Bingde's two hands, Baizhao to press Bingde’s legs still, and Lu San to hold Bingde's head and neck still. He told them by no means loosen it.
Everyone performed their duties according to Leng’s instructions. Leng inserted the steel plate into Bingde’s mouth, formed a V-shaped bracing plate with his index finger of his left hand, prying his mouth in a wide open position. He inserted the red hot steel needle into Bingde’s throad with is right hand. Before everyone got a sense what was going on, the steel needle was already pulled out. A whiff of smoke escaped from Bingde’s mouth. Accompanied it was the stinking smell of buring flesh.
Leng wiped the tools and said, “Release. It is done”. He blowed out the flame in the bowl filled with alcohol. Bingde’s twisted limbs relaxed and rested on the bed without movement. Black sticky liquid oozed out of his mouth, nauseating indeed. Jiaxuan carefully cleaned with a towel. Bingde slowly opened his eyes. The four people discovered at the same time this great transition and the light of life from his eyes, resemling a ray of soft and lively sunlight through a crack of the dark cloud. The three exclaimed and turned to Leng in unison with teary eyes. Leng remained his usual composure and said, “Feed him some cold boiled water.” The three fed several spoons of water into the wide mouth in a careful yet quick manner. Bingde sat up, miraculously, grabbed Leng’s hand, and joked, “ah-y, my nephew Leng, I was putting ticks on the notebook of the death Satan. Suddenly someone pulled away my brush pen and inserted it into my throat. I told the Satan that he could not blame me. It is you!” The three people burst into tears and laughed. Bingde accused his wife, “Why not hurry to prepare the meal for Leng?” Baizhao left with obvious guilt of slighting the benefactor and from the kitchen came the sound of water and wind blower.
Leng sat down but did not say a word. He started smoke slowly Bingde’s water pipe handed over by Jiaxuan. Baizhao carried over a gilded fine china bowl with three cooked eggs in it. Leng refused determinedly with a gesture. Baizhao wanted to say some comforting words. But Bingde fell again on the kang and his limbs became twisted again, worse than before. The light in his eyes dimmed instantly. He was obviously dying, with the same painful sound from his throat. The wife, son, and the employee, having relaxed, were shocked again and sensed that they had congratulated too soon. The crisis was not dissolved. They plunged into the second round of suffering. Leng was again at his composed manner and repeated what he had done. The three performed their dutiesy without being instructed, with each one restraining a part of the body. Steel needle was again inserted into Bingde’s throat and a stinking smell and blue smoke came out.
Bingde was again quiet and his eyes were illuminated with light. He did not make a joke this time. The three had solemn faces and douts in their eyes. Leng picked up the leather bag and fastened onto his belt again and wanted to depart. Jiaxuan and Lu San grabbed his arm, how can you leave? How would we cope with it without you? Leng said plainly, without making slight movement of his eyebrows and facical muscles, “It is said that you can have it once or twice but not thrice or for four times. If it does not happen again, it is Bingde’s luck. Otherwise, it will not cut it even if I pull his brush pen.” He went outside of the room, the courtyard, and to the street. Jiaxuan saw him off and asked what ailment his father had contracted. Leng said it as “xia xia disease”. Jiaxuan felt he was too weak to make back to his home. “Xia xia disease” meant “terminal disease”.
Bai Bingde died. It was the first time for Jiaxuan to see the process of dying with his own eyes. His grandfather had died before he came to the world. He did not have the capacity of memory when his grandmother died. He did not witness the dying of his four women. He was pulled into Lu San’s horse stable and covered with a red kerchief to prevent the ghost from sticking on his body.
His father’s death was the first time he saw someone going to the other world. His death left an eternal memory on him. That memory did not diminish or disappear with time but became ever clearer like a repeatedly polished copper mirror. After Leng returned to his clinic in Bailu Town, Jiaxuan and his mother Baizhao and Lu San encircled Bingde like loyal guardians around the King. He and his mother fed Bingde with a spoon of sugared water. They held hope that he would not repeat the seizure. Bingde scanned the three with his weak vision and sad feeling and then the room through the gaps between their bodies. He realized that Leng was no longer present and closed his eyes after a light hesitation. When he opened his eyes again, it was the deadly quietness that occupied the room. He knew that his time was limited and stared at his son Jiaxuan and said determinedly, “After I die, you should marry the daughter of carpenter Wei immediately.” Jiaxuan replied, “Dad, do not mention that. We will cure your ailment first. We will talk about it later.
Bingde said, “What I mean is if I die. You have to promise me.” Jiaxuan felt awkward, “If, ……, that is the case, I will wait for three years. This is the custom.” Bingde said, “No posterity is the biggest sin among the three sins. Have you forgotten what you have learned? Our family have been wealthy but we have not had enough kids. Your grandfather had been the single son. So was I. And so are you! As I can remember, the men from Bai family all live short lives. Your great grandfather died at 48. Your grandfather died at 46. I am the longest, above 50. Waiting for three years does not make you a good son. It is the greatest vice not having a son.” Jiaxuan started sweating. Bingde continued, “After the fourth, you need to marry the fifth. The past women were not meant for Bai family. The deaths were the result of our not having paid back the money we owed. I only want to say one sentence, even if we have to sell all the cattles, horses, land, and houses, …” Jiaxuan saw his mother was signalling him, but he could not utter a word. He did not think it was appropriate to wed within three years after his father's death. Bingde suddenly twisted his body and the light in his eyes came and went. The dog-like noise came out from his mouth again. Nobody knew what to do.
Jiaxuan's one hand was suddenly grasped by his father. The nails cut deep into his flesh. The dying eyes emitted vicicous light. White foam oozed out of his mouth. He tossed and wrung on the bed. The grasping hand remained tight. His mother shouted, “Promise your father.” Lu San also panicked. “Just agree with him.” Jiaxuan burst into tears. “Dad……I will follow your advice……Rest assured.” Bingde loosened his hand, leaned backward, and breathed his last breath. Jiaxuan fainted after a long cry. When he woke up, his father had been dressed in funereal clothes. Incenses were burned on the table.
Lu San said, “Stop crying. Do the funeral first. You have to take the lead or others cannot start.” Jiaxuan conferred with elderlies of his clan and determined on the things that had to be done first - sending out four people from his clan closer to his family on the family tree as messengers to inform relatives, one to each direction; sending out eight people from his clan distant to his family on the family tree preare the the grave and moving the bricks to the field before the location of the tomb was finalized by the fengshui master; sending a couple of helping relatives to grind the flour on the water mill since his own water mill was too slow. Next thing was the musicians for the funeral. This had to be decided by Jiaxuan. How many of them would be hired? How much fanfare would be made? How many days would it last? Jiaxuan said, “My dad had toiled for his whole life. He should have been kept at home for three years before he would be interred. But my dad had told us to bury him in three days, no musician was needed, and simplicity was everything. I think although I cannot keep him for three years, I will not bury him in three days. I will keep him for seven days at home, and this time will be needed to build the tomb. Uncles, please advise.”
All the related elderlies knew that Jiaxuan was under a bad situation. There was not even a woman beside him yet in the funeral ceremony. They all agreed to Jiaxuan’s plan. One uncle said frankly, “People said that you need to look forward and also look backward. That cannot be done at the same time. So you should look forward first, and look back later on. Life and death cannot be handled at the same time. So you take care of the life first and death later on.” Things were settled at once. He sent one person to the neighboring village to hire the musician troupe head and to determine the number of musicians required. For the first three days and the last day, the whole troupe should be present. For other days, only five would be required to play in front of the coffin.
The funeral was carried out according to plan. Seven days later, Bingde took a spot on the cemetery. A fresh and moist mound was formed there. His mound was under his father’s and to the left. The right side was reserved for his wife Baizhao. This sad event was finally over. After he was gone, the room and the courtyard suddenly felt void and suffocating. His mother was in the upper room alone. He was in the attached room alone. Lu San was in the horse stable alone.
If not for the coughing of his mother, the whole courtyard was dead silent, day and night. This evening, his mother asked him about his plan to get married. He said he would wait for one year. His mother said he should not wait anymore because it was useless. She said the home was too quiet and she could not even do cleaning, laundry, and cooking, let alone spinning the yarn and other chores. He said, “If that is the case, let us wait for one hundred days.” His mother said, “Do not wait for even 100 days. You should do it after seven by seven (49 days).” It turned out that he married his fifth wife, the third daughter of the carpenter Wei, within in two months during the short lull period after the wheat was harvested and ground, the field was cleared and the autumn crops were planted.
The first night after wedding was a very hot day. Jiaxuan latched the door of the side room, turned and removed his sleeved shirt and trousers. The bride who had been sitting on the kang properly suddenly knelt down and genuflected to him, beseeching him not to remove the short sleeved shirt and the underwear. He asked her why. She said that she had had a bad fortune, it was more so to be the third daughter in a poor family (1). He sensed something and pressed her whether she had heard any rumour. She said she knew that he had married four women and all of them had died.
She also said that she heard heard that he not only had a “killing” tendency, but also a poisonous backward hook at the end of his penis that would destroy women’s heart, lung, and liver. Even a woman made of iron could not withstand. She started to tremble and weep, “My dad was after your money and did not care about me being alive or dead and I had no other choice even if I had to jump off a cliff or into a well. I do not want to die young and early. I want to look after you for more years. I will prepare the water, the tea, wash your feet, cook, sweep the floor, sew and mend, whatever, without complaint. I only hope you would not scare me with that thing in the evening. Please! Please! You are a good brother. Please agree with me.” Jiaxuan plopped on the chair of a sudden. All the anticipation of the wedding night vanished. He had heard this ridiculous rumour but he felt incapable of putting in an argument. He wondered how different others’ penis was from his. He had pretended to use the latrine when he went to fair in an attempt to take a sneaky view of other’s penises and found all were the same. This made him more puzzled.
What his new wife had done to him did not raise his sympathy, but hurt his self respect and angered him. He stood up from the chair and lept onto the bed, undressed in an instant, and showed his penis to her. Where was the poisonous backward hook? She felt shameful, afraid, and started to weep and tremble. He got evern angrier and undressed her. After that, he asked her what innards had been destroyed, only found that she was dead already. He pressed his finger hard on her “Ren Zhong spot”. After waking up, she curled up in a corner of the kang. He felt funny and incensed. He kissed her and caressed her and talked sweetly to her. No matter what, her psychological ailment could not be dispelled. Every evening, she trembled in the kang. She became half mad. When she went to wash clothes the last time she seized and fell into the washing pond and was drowned.
The financial situation improved when he interred the third daughter of Carpenter Wei. He made a coffin with poplar panels and put on five layers clothes on her. The former wives were put on only three layers. No musician was hired. The funenal was simple. It was already luxurious for a young woman. Jiaxuan wanted to treat her slightly better only for undescribable psychological reasons. He developed an intense feeling of guilt when her body, smudged by the dirty mud in the pond, was put into the coffin.
At the day of wedding, at the moment he opened her head covering, he found that she was pretty and strong, with rosy face and two pit-black sparkling eyes, and her arms emitting strength. She even had a thin layer of cocoon on her palm, the evidence that she and her mother had taken care of the field work when her father was out looking for carpentry work. The strong body resulted from labour could not eventually withstand the attack of the rumour…… He could not dispel the image of her beseeching him and her cold and trembling hands and legs. She had never experienced the joy of lovemaking. What she had experienced was just fear. She could not dispel the fear that accumulated and finally took her down. He was dispirited. He lied on the cold kang after coming back from field.
This kang had received five women with various statures. He had buried five hard corpses. He had spent half of his family’s fortune, including crop, cotton, mules, and silver coins, in the marriages. But it was eclipsed by his creastfallen mood. He did not lament, and was not sorrowful. He lacked energy and spririt. Ge felt his hands were as light as a piece of paper. He was as weak as if being able to be blown to a corner by a breeze without making a sound. The world became vague and void and irrelevant to him.
He lied on the kang until dusk. His mother called him to eat. He said he was not hungry and did not want to eat. His mother called Lu San. Lu San did not feel appropriate eating alone and came to his room to console and persuade him. He told Lu San to go to eat and do not wait for him. Lu San made a loud noise when eating under the grapevine in the courtyard and quickly finished the meal. Jiaxuan could not imagine what type of food could be so delicious to make Lu San to evince such joy in eating.
After cleaning up the kitchen, his mother dusted her off in the courtyard and called him. Jiaxuan went to the upper room and saw his mother sitting on the simplified chair once used by his father in a posture like his father’s. He sat down in a chair at the other end of the table, pretending to be worry free. His mother said she wanted to visit her mother’s home the following day to asked her brother to find another wife for Jiaxuan. He wanted his mother to suspend the action for a while. His mother asked him why and said he was already above twenty and could not afford to wait anymore.
His mother got irritated and agitated while speaking. “Do not be so dispirited. Women are like the paper covering the window. Put on the new when the old was torn. I want you to marry another five wives afte five of them had died. I would rather exhaust our wealth than not to have the posterity to inherit the wealth and let it be taken away by others.” Jiaxuan did not say anything further. His mother came back from his uncle’s home after five day’s absence. Things had been settled. A family named Hu on South Plain had gambled away all his fortune over night. The gamblers raided his house and took away the crop, the cattle, and the mules. The woman was reduced to half death. The husband was ashamed and wanted to hang himself on the walnut tree in his backyard, only to be discovered and rescued by others. They wanted to marry their daughter and asked for exorbitant bride price. That money could be substituted by 20 dan of wheat and 20 bundless of cotton. Everything had to be paid at once. That number made Jiaxuan feel a cold spine but his mother said she had agreed to the condition. Only thing to to be done was for his uncle to follow the customary procedures of engagement.
Jiaxuan discovered, to his surprise, that his mother was quicker and more determined than his father used to be. She had less worrying and was going directly to the goal without looking back. One month before the anniversary of his father came, in the March while plum blossoming, the sixth wife came to his home accompanied by the joyful music.
He was shocked when he removed her head covering. All the people coming to examine her were equally stunned and became speechless. This woman reminded them the legenary beauty or the noble woman or the daughter of wealthy families as depicted on the theater stage. He heard people calling out the name of Hu Fenglian when he force his way out of the room and came to the dining table in the courtyard. Hu Fenglian was a character in Qing Melody Opera “Touring the Turtle Mountain” with unparalleled beauty. In the evening when he and she sat on the same kang and gazed each other, her splendor and beauty instantly cleared him of the downcast mood created by the former five women. He did not regret the 20 dan of wheat and 20 bundles of cotton.
But soon he found things were so not splendid. She willingly accepted his caress, hug, and kiss, but when he attempted to unlace her underwear she jumped and retrieved a pair of scissors from underneath the pillow. The scissors had been polished carefully and the sharp edge reflected the light from the candle that was buring red. She knelt on the kang, with two snow-white and standing breasts exposed, directed the tip of the knife to him and said, “If you dare to unlace my underwear, I would cut off your stuff.”
He compromised, conceded, and agreed to Hu. He thought he should be satisified with sleeping beside such a woman, but could not help feeling regret every night. He even truly started to suspect whether the stuff coming out of his penis was poisonous. He secretly dispersed that stuff into pig food and observed, for three times, and the pig had displayed no abnormity. He revealed his thoughts to Dr. Leng. Leng burst into laughter and said he had heard of this bullshit. In his twenty strong years of career, he had seen men with sperm, without sperm, with dead sperm, and with watery sperm, but had never seen a man with poisonous sperm or backward hook. Leng continued after laughter, “Brother, why not make the falsehood true and take advantage of it!” He laid out a piece of paper and grabbed the brush pen, and wrote down the prescription for yin nurturing, yang strengthening, and mild remedy. Jiaxuan tool the medicine for seven servings and was told to take the medicine for 100 consecutive days. Jiaxuan carried the buddle of medicine hom and handed to Hu, declaring that the medicine was for poison removal. Hu could not hold her joy. She boiled the medicine every morning and evening and watched her husband drinking it. That night she cuddled in his arms and said with great tenderness and warmth, “As long as you take the medicine for 100 days despite the bitterness and the poison is removed, you can do whatever. I have no evil intention at all.” Jiaxuan was elated to great happiness and took the bitter medicine liquid like honey. One hundred days later and after being nurtured by the medicine, Jiaxuan was in great shape and complexion. Hu did not have the anxiety anymore and unlace her underwear. The two were of same passion, same greed, could not be satisfied, and were never fatigued, until the earth bricks under the kang collapsed and they then moved to a new spot on the kang.
They did it for three nights in a row and both of them were exhausted. They did not have the strength for it in the fourth night and fell into dream together. A scream woke him up from sound sleep and he did not know what to do. Hu hugged him tightly, trembled violently liking sieving the bran, and dared not breathe freely. He ignited the oil lamp and saw suspicion and wandering in her eyes. He asked her and she stammered and finally a word was squeezed out of her mouth “Ghost.” Jiaxuan instantly felt numbness at calp and coldness at spine, and goose bumps appeared everywhere on his body. “Where is the ghost?” he asked. “I dare not to say. I fear.” Hu said with trembling voice. Jiaxuan got off from Hu’s hand, put on his pants, ran out of the room with bare feet, climbed to the second floor and scooped half liter of soybeans, spread the beans one handful after another, from ceiling to corner of the walls, from kang to floor, dense like rain with scary sound, until greenish beans were all over the kang, table, and floor. His father had dislodged ghost in this way when he was little. After so much effort, Hu recovered from terror and liveliness reappeared in her eyes. She started to weep while hugging him tightly. She stopped trembling. He held her and sat upright until dawn and she dared to talk about the ghost in her dream. She said she saw his previous five women. Those five women pinched her, wrung her, scratched her, beat her, and spit on her and wanted to grab him and sleep with him. It puzzled Jiaxuan was that Hu had not seen any one of the five women but her description of the five women was all correct. Jiaxuan narrated to his mother and his mother said immediately, “Let’s invite the master to cath all these ghosts tonight.”
This master did not disclose his name and surname and was nicknamed “a lock of hair”, because of the foot long lock of hair at the black mote to the left of and below his cheek. Jiaxuan described the ghost episode. The master asked him to go back after getting his address and said he would arrive in a minute. Jiaxuan knew that masters travelled faster like moving in the air and therefore hurried back home. The master did arrive shortly after, and threw a net onto the gatehouse. The master made his way into the room, with red kerchief on his head, red belt around his waist, and red shoes on his feet, went up to the house and down to the floor. Hu was scared and covered her with the quilt. Finally the master caught the ghost at the corner of second gate. He showed a porcelain jar with mouth covered and tied by red fabric under the oil lamp. The red fabric trembled incessantly as if a mouce was bumping all around in the confined space. The master ordered, “pour water into the pot, boil it to death and then bake it dry.” Lu San and Jiaxuan operated the blower in turn. After the water was boiled, a stinky gas came out of the pot. Jaxuan vomited and so did Lu San afterwards. They did not give up and continued to boil until all the water evaporated. The master got the pay, carried the porcelain jar, retrived the net, and came back to the hill in the sedan. After this the ghost was gone. But Hu never recovered. She became thiner and thiner and was always in sad mood. Tens of packs of medicine prescribed by Dr. Leng had not helped. She miscarried and a mound of blood and flesh came out of her. She became bedridden and left the world not long after that.
Jiaxuan was in total despair. Leng advised him, “Brother, hire a fengshui master to examine the house location and the tomb and find out what the problem is and then find a solution……”
