CG - Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Wu Gu had a dream. She dreamt she was back in her first year of middle school, fighting with a male classmate. The homeroom teacher had hauled her into the office and called her guardian. When Lao Wu arrived, he immediately launched into a string of apologies to the teacher without a second thought. That wasn't enough; he then pulled her along to apologize to the parents of the student she had hit. At the time, the parents saw how quiet and well-behaved Wu Gu looked and blindly assumed their own boy had been the one to start trouble, so they were too embarrassed to press the matter.
After leaving the school, Lao Wu rode his little green Yuhe, jostling a terrified Wu Gu all the way home. As expected, the moment he steadied the bike, he grabbed a broom and started chasing Wu Gu to give her a beating, scolding her as he went.
"Getting bold, are we? Learning to fight with your classmates now? What did I teach you? To listen to your teacher and be polite! How long has school been in session and you're already getting me called in?"
Wu Gu ran around the courtyard with her head in her hands, not daring to talk back for fear of making Lao Wu even angrier. In her heart, though, she felt her master was too weak. It was clearly those boys who were in the wrong first. She was just standing up for justice, so why did she have to apologize? The two of them chased and fled, but in the end, Lao Wu never managed to land a single blow. It was all bark and no bite as he chased her around the yard a few times.
Lao Wu threw the broom aside, fuming, "No dinner for you tonight."
Wu Gu stuck her neck out defiantly. "Fine by me."
Outside the dream, Wu Gu threw off her covers with a whoosh and jumped out of bed. Slippers slapping against the floor, she ran into the courtyard. Seeing Granny, she immediately played the victim, complaining furiously, "Granny, Master hit me again."
Hearing this, Granny's expression turned a little strange. She asked her, "When did your master hit you? How did he hit you?"
"It was when I fought with my classmates. It was clearly not my fault, but Master insisted I apologize, and then he hit me when we got home."
Granny froze, her eyes sizing Wu Gu up and down, inside and out, several times over. She asked her, "Where do you go to school?"
"The middle school in town, of course. Granny, what's wrong with you? Why do you have to ask that?"
"Then how old are you this year?"
"Twelve."
"Pfft." A snort of laughter came from behind her. Wu Gu turned around and squinted. A tall boy was looking at her, trying to stifle his laughter. She said, "Monkey, how did you suddenly get so big?" Pang Diao, who was on Monkey's shoulder, saw that she was awake and flew over to her. She looked at it, puzzled again. "Pang Diao, how did you suddenly get so thin?"
Everyone present, except for Wu Gu, understood the situation. The Wu Gu who had woken up was the Wu Gu whose memory had reverted to age twelve. They didn't know what had happened after her soul left her body, nor did they know where the problem lay. Three pairs of eyes, each filled with different emotions, stared at Wu Gu. Wu Gu, completely bewildered, felt her bravado weaken. She asked, "Where's Master? He's not really angry, is he?"
Before anyone could answer, the sharp screech of brakes sounded from outside the courtyard gate. The gate was then thrown open with great force, and a frantic Wei Jinzhi appeared in the doorway. At that moment, her eyes saw only Wu Gu. She ran over and pulled the girl into a tight embrace, her voice hoarse and trembling when she spoke. "It's good you're okay. It's good you're okay."
Suddenly hugged by a stranger, Wu Gu blinked her eyes and asked timidly, "Auntie, do you know me?"
Wei Jinzhi's heart skipped a beat at the address. She thought Wu Gu was deliberately messing with her, but it seemed like a strange joke to make. She released Wu Gu to observe her carefully. After waiting a moment without a response, Wu Gu's eyes flew open in alarm. This scene was too much like a reunion of long-lost relatives. She opened her mouth and asked cautiously, "Could it be that you're the one who abandoned me all those years ago?"
What little color had returned to Wei Jinzhi's face drained away instantly. She raised her eyes, looking past Wu Gu with alarm and unease. Coincidentally, those three pairs of eyes were also looking at her. It wasn't until Monkey raised his index finger, circled it at his temple, and then gestured toward Wu Gu that Wei Jinzhi understood. Although Wu Gu was standing right in front of her, perfectly fine, something was wrong with her mind.
Wei Jinzhi composed herself and spoke again. "I'm not your birth mother, but if you want to find her, I can help you. And you can't call me Auntie. We knew each other before. You always called me Sister."
Wu Gu was a little disappointed. She had just been thinking that if her real mother was this beautiful, she would forgive her for the abandonment. Whenever school let out, most of the parents waiting at the gate were ordinary-looking. If Wei Jinzhi could come pick her up, she would surely be the object of many jealous stares. But alas, Wei Jinzhi was not her mother. She looked at Wei Jinzhi with disappointment in her eyes. Wei Jinzhi put a hand to her forehead; at that moment, she truly felt like spanking Wu Gu.
A few minutes later, Wu Gu was left alone in the courtyard under Pang Diao's watch while the other three closed the door to a room and held a meeting to discuss the situation. Wei Jinzhi first took out several pieces of a broken red cord. "I found these in my yard," she explained. "They should be from the Soul-Piercing Bell."
Granny took them and nodded. "It's my snake slough."
To follow the timeline, they had to start with Wei Jinzhi three days prior, on the night of New Year's Eve. After bidding Wu Gu goodnight, Wei Jinzhi had gone to bed. In a state between sleep and wakefulness, she was startled awake by an immense pressure. An alarm bell went off in her head. She got out of bed to grab the peach wood sword Wu Gu had given her, but even those few short steps left her limbs weak and her heart racing.
Now that Ji Yu had a physical body, he could be seen without the need for yin-yang eyes. When he smashed through the window and appeared in the living room, Wei Jinzhi was on the second floor, holding the peach wood sword, her face pale with terror and vigilance. How could an ordinary person be a match for Ji Yu? In just a few moves, she was thrown out into the yard. It was at that exact moment that Wu Gu sensed she was in danger.
Miles away, Wu Gu had set up a barrier to keep Pang Diao from getting close, and Granny was hibernating in the mountains. Pang Diao was frantic, but thankfully, it had gained spiritual intelligence. Seeing that it couldn't stop Wu Gu, it followed her aura to find the nearest person—Monkey.
Monkey had arrived in the county town that night and had to wait until seven the next morning for the minibus back to his town. He was sleeping on a bench at the station when Pang Diao woke him by crashing into him.
After Pang Diao chirped at him for a while, Monkey knew something was terribly wrong. He found a secluded spot, reverted to his original form, and flew home at top speed. At that time, Wu Gu was lying lifeless under a tree. He couldn't break Wu Gu's barrier, so he went to search for a barrier-breaking artifact left behind by Lao Wu. By the time he managed to break the barrier, it was already six in the morning. Wu Gu's soul had been out of her body for a full six hours. Any longer, and her life might have been in danger.
Monkey's own skills were limited. He tried every method he could think of, but Wu Gu showed no signs of waking. Pang Diao was so anxious it kept ramming its head against the spot between Wu Gu's eyebrows. Just as they were growing desperate, a crisp sound suddenly came from Lao Wu's room. He and Pang Diao exchanged a look and rushed into the room, only to see that the Soul-Summoning Bell had, for some reason, rolled off the altar and onto the floor. He picked up the bell, ran back to the tree, and held the bell's clapper suspended over the spot between Wu Gu's eyebrows.
He rang it the first time and called Wu Gu's name. The person on the ground showed no reaction. Then he rang it a second time and called her name again. Still no reaction. Drenched in an anxious sweat, he struck the bell a third time with all his might. This time, however, the bell made no sound. Instead, color gradually returned to Wu Gu's face. He placed his hand on Wu Gu's wrist and felt a faint pulse. He let out a sigh of relief.
Wu Gu's soul had returned to her body, but she had fallen into a coma. Worried that something might happen to her, Monkey went into the mountains to wake Granny from her hibernation. At the same time, Wei Jinzhi was waking up after being unconscious for a day and a night.
After waking, Wei Jinzhi ignored her mother's objections and returned to the Changshan Villa. She felt a deep sense of unease, as if she had been in a very long dream where Wu Gu was watching over her unconscious self. Moreover, the horror of New Year's Eve was still vivid in her mind, and her current state of safety made her feel anxious. She had Wu Yong pull the security footage from the cameras on the courtyard wall.
The footage only captured the window breaking for no reason and her lying on the ground. The subsequent frames were like a still image until Wu Yong, having heard the commotion, rushed over. She watched the clip, a little over an hour long, many times. One had to be extremely observant to notice anything amiss, but she clearly saw a few frames flicker rapidly, as if the signal had been disturbed.
She was convinced that Wu Gu had come and saved her. She and Wu Yong then searched the yard. Wu Yong found a piece of red cord about the size of a palm, which she recognized as being from the Soul-Piercing Bell. The two of them spent half an hour finding all the broken pieces of the red cord. When pieced together, the length matched that of the cord on the Soul-Piercing Bell.
The cord was severely damaged. In an instant, her heart sank as if into an icy lake. The deep winter cold sent a chill through her, making her heart tremble. She called Wu Gu and had Wu Yong prepare the car to head over. Unfortunately, Wu Gu's phone was unreachable the entire way. The moment the courtyard gate opened and she saw Wu Gu looking at her just as she always did, she was filled with immense relief.
The night of Wu Gu's incident, Monkey had learned about Wei Jinzhi from Pang Diao, as it was part of Wu Gu's final instructions. He went to check on the house Lao Wu had left behind and found it in a complete mess, with books from the shelves scattered everywhere. He sighed, righted the shelves, and put the books back in order. Before leaving, he lit three sticks of incense for the founding master, praying that he would keep Wu Gu safe.
Leaving the house, Monkey locked the door with the original lock. This place was left to Wu Gu by Lao Wu, and despite what Wu Gu had said, he still wouldn't touch it. Pang Diao perched on his shoulder, its head drooping. He sat on the porch, guarding Wu Gu's door. Who would have thought that Wu Gu would sleep for three whole days.
Returning to the present, the group pieced together their information and got a general understanding of what had happened. Monkey glanced at Wei Jinzhi several times. He admitted that Wei Jinzhi was a beautiful woman, but he couldn't say he liked her, especially since Wu Gu had been hurt because of her. Still, he remained polite on the surface. "You must be Wei Jinzhi. Hello, my name is Hou Jingxing."
Wei Jinzhi said, "Hello. Wu Gu has mentioned you often."
Hou Jingxing was a tall young man of one-point-eight meters, and he didn't beat around the bush. "Before the incident, she left a message for Pang Diao to pass on to me. If she died, I was to go to North City to check on you. If you were okay, I was to hide her death from you. She cares a lot about you."
A wave of guilt and sadness washed over Wei Jinzhi's heart. She asked, "Granny, will Wu Gu really be okay?"
Granny looked at her and said slowly, "Damage to the soul consciousness can be major or minor. Perhaps she'll be like this forever, or perhaps she'll be fine tomorrow. It all depends on her fate."
Wei Jinzhi nodded. "I'll go check on her."
Wei Jinzhi stepped outside and, from the porch, saw Wu Gu arguing with Pang Diao. Wu Gu stood with her hands on her hips, yelling at Pang Diao, who just chirped and flew circles around her. Getting annoyed, Wu Gu reached out to grab it, but Pang Diao was agile, flapping its wings and dodging high and low to tease her.
Wu Gu said, "You're the stupid one! If you've got the guts, don't fly so high, you stupid bird!"
Pang Diao's chirps were filled with glee. Wu Gu scrambled up the tree in the courtyard in a few moves, bent her knees to push off the trunk for leverage, and in an instant, her body shot out nimbly, pouncing toward Pang Diao in mid-air. The sight nearly made Wei Jinzhi cry out; her heart almost leaped out of her chest at Wu Gu's action.
Wu Gu's hands shot forward and snatched Pang Diao from the air. The momentum from her pounce exhausted, her body began to fall. As she landed, she rolled with the impact to soften it and came to a stop in a half-kneel, stabilizing her form. She looked at Pang Diao in her hand with a triumphant expression. But then she looked up and saw Granny talking with Wei Jinzhi on the porch. Suddenly, she was afraid that Wei Jinzhi was going to scold her.
Granny stood beside Wei Jinzhi and said, "She was climbing trees at three and pulling tiles off the roof at six. She was incredibly tough and boisterous as a child. Lao Wu worried that with a personality like that, she would suffer greatly if she got into trouble later in life with no one to protect her. So, he was especially strict with her from a young age, trying to temper her spirit. Luckily, she was talented and willing to work hard. Although she talked back to Lao Wu fiercely, deep down in her heart, she respected him a great deal."
"A few years ago, when Lao Wu passed away, she suddenly reined in her personality. In her last year of high school, she came back during a break and told me she wanted to go to university in North City. I thought it was a good idea. She couldn't be cooped up in this small place forever; she needed to go out and see the world. It would also keep her from staying home and growing depressed thinking about Lao Wu. Who knew she would meet you just two years after leaving."
Wei Jinzhi pulled her gaze away from Wu Gu. It felt as if a fine needle had pierced her heart, causing a sharp pain. She said in a low voice, "I'm sorry."
Granny sighed, and it was unclear who she was trying to comfort. "Lao Wu divined that she is blessed with great fortune and a long life, so you don't need to worry. The fact that she dared to let her soul leave her body to save you means she knew she might not come back. I just hope that since she protected you with her life, you will look after her well from now on. Lao Wu's greatest fear was that, dealing with ghosts and monsters and having such a rash personality, she would never find someone who truly loved her and would end up alone and helpless."
Wei Jinzhi looked up, her gaze burning. "Granny, I will. I will take good care of her."
Granny said no more. She handed the Soul-Piercing Bell over. "I found the cone and the bell in the yard. I've repaired the cord in the middle. You give it to her." Wei Jinzhi nodded and took it.
The boisterous Wu Gu became as quiet and well-behaved as could be the moment she saw Wei Jinzhi, who beckoned to her. "Come here."
Wu Gu trotted over and stood at the bottom of the porch steps, tilting her fair little face up to smile at Wei Jinzhi, a smile as lovely as a peach blossom. Wei Jinzhi reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then gently rubbed her ear and said softly, "What you just did was too dangerous. Don't do it again."
Wu Gu, who was still holding the mischievous Pang Diao behind her back, quickly let it go. The clever bird immediately flew to Wei Jinzhi's shoulder and lifted its beak smugly. Wu Gu gritted her teeth but didn't dare try to grab it again in front of Wei Jinzhi.
Wei Jinzhi reassured her, "You're not stupid. You just have amnesia." She handed the Soul-Piercing Bell to Wu Gu and added, "Don't break it again."
Wu Gu took it, touching the hexagonal cone and the bell with a sense of inexplicable sadness. She answered softly, "I'll remember." In truth, after looking in a mirror, she already knew she wasn't twelve. She asked again, "We know each other, right?"
Wei Jinzhi nodded. "You've saved me many times, so I want to repay you, take care of you, and be with you."
Wu Gu was delighted. "Really?"
"Really."
Wei Jinzhi was once again filled with gratitude. Whether Wu Gu remembered her or not, she was still full of anticipation for her. The eyes that looked at her were, as always, filled with a boundless galaxy and a sea of flowers.
Author's Notes
A middle-school-aged Wu Gu had read too many wuxia novels and was filled with a hot-blooded, chivalrous spirit. When she saw a girl at school being bullied, she let out a great shout and rushed forward, pulling the tear-streaked girl behind her and declaring, "What kind of man bullies a girl!"
The little boy, fired up, retorted, "What about it? You got a problem? Wanna fight?"
She rolled up her sleeves. "A fight it is."
The boys' pranks on the girls were limited to pulling pigtails or secretly placing caterpillars on them; they would never actually get into a real fight. But Wu Gu didn't care. She went at them with fists and feet, beating the four little boys until they were wailing and huddled together in a crying heap.
Wu Gu propped her leg up on a nearby flower bed, looking majestic. "Scared now, aren't you? Hurry up and say, 'Spare us, Nüxia!'"
The little boys knew what was good for them. They all bowed and shouted, "Spare us, Nüxia! Spare us, Nüxia!"
Unfortunately, Wu Gu's triumph lasted less than an hour before her guardian was called. But after that battle, Wu Gu walked sideways through the school for all three years of middle school.
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