dmims Chapter 82: Aunt Zhang counted to 147
Chapter 82: Aunt Zhang counted to 147
In the latter half of the night, the courtyard finally had a brief moment of peace.
Tang Wanqing stood guard by the well, a compass resting on her lap, and copper coins arranged in a circle around the well's edge.
Tieguai Li sat leaning against the courtyard gate, with a wrench and a bottle of ash water beside him.
Zhou Banxian huddled in the threshold of the main room, clutching his wine jug, his head drooping little by little, with half of the incantation still lingering in his mouth.
Cheng Xiaojin sat at the octagonal table, not daring to lean over it. The table was old, the chair was old, and even the blue bricks under his feet were old.
He was afraid that if he closed his eyes, his fingers might brush against some old piece of wood and he would be pulled into the old shadows hidden among the objects in someone's home.
Tong Kexin took a thick coat, draped it over his shoulders, and pulled the hem forward.
Cheng Xiaojin opened her eyes. "Boss lady, if you keep being so nice to people, I'm going to suspect that you're raising the price of braised pork tomorrow."
Tong Kexin bent down to adjust his collar, "Can you eat now?"
"Even if I can't finish the food, I still have to ask the price first. It's an old habit of mine."
She stared at his hand. "The bluish tinge has reappeared."
"The light is flickering."
"Do you think I'm blind?"
"How could that be? With eyes like yours, even the fakes at Panjiayuan would confess."
Tong Kexin didn't respond to that, but simply pushed the thermos in front of him, saying, "I let the ginger soup cool down before bringing it here."
Cheng Xiaojin looked at the spout of the kettle and said, "You shouldn't touch the water either."
"I know."
A soft sound came from the kitchen.
tick...
The two looked up at the same time.
In the main room, Master Ma also opened his eyes.
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
The sound of water was very soft, but at this hour, it was more unsettling than a muffled thud at the bottom of a well.
Cheng Xiaojin stood up. "Who's in the kitchen?"
Master Ma's face darkened immediately. "She often gets up in the middle of the night to boil water."
Cheng Xiaojin headed towards the kitchen, but Tong Kexin reached out and tugged at his sleeve.
"Don't go at the very front."
"The water pipes have gone around the well." Cheng Xiaojin pulled his sleeves back. "The main valve is in the west corner of the yard. Turn it off first."
Tong Kexin turned and ran, "Oh my god!"
Hearing the commotion, Tang Wanqing grabbed a copper coin and rushed over from the well. "What happened?"
"Kitchen tap." Cheng Xiaojin had already arrived at the kitchen door.
The door was half open.
The main lights in the kitchen weren't on; only the small nightlight beside the stove was lit.
Aunt Zhang sat on a small stool, wearing her old cotton-padded coat, her hair loose, her right hand gripping the faucet.
The tap is on.
What came out was a thin stream of greyish water.
The grey water didn't fall into the basin; instead, it clung to the back of her hand, wrapped around her wrist, and formed a wet line.
Aunt Zhang's lips were moving.
One hundred and forty-three.
Cheng Xiaojin's chest sank.
"Aunt Zhang!"
Aunt Zhang didn't turn around.
One hundred and forty-four.
Tang Wanqing tossed out a copper coin, which rolled along the ground to the edge of Aunt Zhang's shadow. It made a sound as soon as it touched the edge of the shadow and bounced outward by half an inch.
Her face was pale. "The shadow was caught by the waterline."
Cheng Xiaojin rushed to the stove and tried to press the tap through his sleeve.
The faucet was so cold it felt like it was piercing your bones, even through the cloth.
He pressed the Qianlong Tongbao coin down, and just as the coin was touching the dragon's head, the lime water pushed outwards, causing the coin to tilt.
One hundred and forty-five.
Master Ma entered, his voice hoarse. "Gui Lan?"
When Aunt Zhang's name was mentioned, her lips paused for a moment.
Taking advantage of this opening, Cheng Xiaojin pressed down on her wrist with his left hand and sent Xin Jinqi into her fingertips.
As soon as it was put in, the damp coldness pushed it back.
His entire arm felt numb, and the bluish tinge around his fingernails had crept up a bit.
Tong Kexin shouted from outside, "The main power plant is shut down!"
The grey water from the tap was still flowing.
Tang Wanqing said, "This isn't water from the pipe; it's air traveling through the pipe."
One hundred and forty-six.
Cheng Xiaojin cursed, "Stop counting, Aunt Zhang, look at me, look at me."
Aunt Zhang turned her face away little by little.
She showed no signs of pain, her eyelids drooped, and she was extremely sleepy, yet her lips were still moving slightly.
One hundred and forty-seven.
With that sound, the grey water from the tap stopped, and the kitchen fell silent.
Cheng Xiaojin was still holding her wrist, which was already ice-cold. The coldness wasn't from the night chill, but from the temperature of the ashes left in the stove overnight.
Tong Kexin stood at the door, her hand still in the position of pushing the door open, her lips devoid of color.
The copper coin in Tang Wanqing's hand fell to the ground, rolled half a circle, and hit the foot of the stove.
Tieguai Li rushed over, dragging his prosthetic leg. When he saw the scene in the kitchen, the words of cursing stuck in his throat.
Zhou Banxian stood outside the door, the wine jug slipped from his arms and smashed at his feet, spilling wine all over the ground, but he didn't look down.
Mr. Ma walked up to Aunt Zhang, reached out his hand to touch her shoulder, but stopped in mid-air.
"Gui Lan?"
Aunt Zhang didn't respond; Cheng Xiaojin's hand was still pressing on her wrist.
He sent another breath of Xin Jin Qi, but it was still blocked.
He swayed, and Tong Kexin rushed over to support him.
"Don't bother seeing me off."
Cheng Xiaojin ignored him, bit her tongue again, and put the blood on the Qianlong Tongbao coin, pressing it onto Aunt Zhang's hand.
When the copper coin was applied, the gray water line receded a little.
Aunt Zhang's lips moved again, but no sound came out.
Cheng Xiaojin bent down and leaned closer. "Aunt Zhang? What did you say?"
She was lip-reading slowly, still counting.
Cheng Xiaojin's eyes were filled with a seriousness he never usually showed.
"Come at me!"
A faint sound of water came from the kitchen tap. Cheng Xiaojin looked up at the tap, his voice hoarse.
"What kind of skill is it to hire an old lady?"
Tang Wanqing pressed the copper coin down to the base of the faucet, "Don't provoke it."
Cheng Xiaojin looked at her. "Can it understand?"
"It recognizes both life and resentment. Your current chaotic emotions make it most likely to attract it."
Tong Kexin gripped Cheng Xiaojin's arm tightly. "Let go first."
"If I let go, what if she...?"
He didn't utter the second half of his sentence, but he already knew the answer in his heart.
Aunt Zhang was still clutching the faucet in her hand, her five fingers gripping it tightly.
Master Ma grasped her shoulders and gently tried to pry her hands apart, but he couldn't...
Tieguai Li stepped forward. "Master Ma, let me do it."
Grandpa Ma didn't move aside; he took Aunt Zhang's fingers off the faucet one by one.
When the last one was taken, a drop of ash water dripped from the tap and landed on the stove, forming a small number.
One hundred and forty-seven...
Tang Wanqing raised her hand and covered it with a copper coin.
The numbers scattered into the water stains.
Grandpa Ma put Aunt Zhang's hand back on his lap and adjusted the collar of her cotton-padded coat for her.
"She's afraid of the cold."
No one in the room spoke.
Cheng Xiaojin stood in front of the stove, her hands hanging in her sleeves, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
He tried to hide his hands behind his back, but Tong Kexin still saw them.
She didn't say anything, but simply stood beside him, her shoulder touching his arm.
Tieguai Li asked in a low voice, "Isn't one hundred and thirty-five a fixed number? How come we're counting to one hundred and forty-seven?"
Zhou Banxian wiped his face. "One hundred and thirty-five is the number for suppressing things. When you count to that number, the yang energy will be stopped by the door."
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he said, "Next, it's locked."
Tang Wanqing continued, "It's gotten faster. Before, when you counted to 135, you couldn't stop, and the yang energy would slowly dissipate over six hours."
She looked at the copper coin at the base of the faucet, "Now it directly locks in yang energy."
Tong Kexin looked at Aunt Zhang and asked, "Why her of all people?"
No one could answer it.
Cheng Xiaojin slowly raised his head and looked at the well in the courtyard. The yellow paper was still pasted on the wellhead, and the copper coins had not moved.
They guarded the well all night.
The Yin Water煞 (a type of malevolent energy) emerged from the kitchen water pipe and targeted the most ordinary and least guarded person in the courtyard.
Master Ma said, "Help her back to her room first."
That was a fairly solid statement, but when his fingers touched the buttons on Aunt Zhang's cotton-padded jacket, he couldn't button it up even after three tries.
Cheng Xiaojin reached out to help, but Master Ma gently stopped him.
"Xiao Jin, don't touch it."
Cheng Xiaojin's hand stopped halfway.
Master Ma didn't look at him. "If you touch her now, you might disturb the last bit of her strength."
Cheng Xiaojin pulled his hand back into his sleeve.
"it is good."
Tieguai Li brought over a wooden plank, Tang Wanqing used a red thread to wrap around Aunt Zhang's feet, and Tong Kexin used a dry towel to wipe the ashes off the stove.
She wiped very hard, the towel quickly turned black, and the back of her hands turned red from the cold, but she didn't stop.
Cheng Xiaojin looked at her and said, "Stop wiping."
Tong Kexin didn't turn around. "Someone has to clean it up."
Cheng Xiaojin walked over and took the towel from her hand.
Tong Kexin looked up at him, and he threw the towel into the iron basin, covered it with yellow paper, and said, "I'll burn it."
"Don't use your hands."
"I'll use fire tongs."
He found some fire tongs and used them to put the towel and yellow paper into the stove.
There was no fire in the stove, only cold ashes.
Tieguai Li handed over a match.
Cheng Xiaojin lit the fire after striking three sticks.
As the flames rose, the ash water in the towel made a soft counting sound.
one two Three……
Cheng Xiaojin closed the stove door, and the sound of the fire drowned out several other noises.
Grandpa Ma helped Aunt Zhang up by the shoulder and put her on the wooden plank.
Aunt Zhang's hair was loose on her cotton-padded jacket, and her face still showed signs of exhaustion from counting.
Cheng Xiaojin stepped back to the kitchen door to make way for them.
As the plank passed by him, he whispered, "Aunt Zhang, I'm sorry."
Master Ma paused, but did not turn around.
There was another sound from the well in the yard.
Boom!
Cheng Xiaojin looked at the well and whispered, "I've got it."