Teacher Lin’s Boyfriend
When I woke up in the morning, Teacher Lin was already dressed and was sitting at the desk checking homework. Seeing me wake up, she smiled and said: “Woke up, ah?”
I nodded my head, then got dressed.
Knowing that I had to return home and do my chores, Teacher Lin hurriedly squeezed an object into my hands. After walking out I took look at it, and it turned out to be a caramel treat. This was something I had eaten during the time of new year celebration. Thirteenth Uncle had brought a small box for me when he came to visit for the new year’s greetings. It tastes very sweet.
Early in the morning, the Primordial Qi in the world was very active and vigorous, and walking on the mountain roads, the mind becomes especially clear. The dogs in the village have never barked at me. However, the villagers had already become accustomed to seeing such strange sights associated with me.
After returning home, the first task is to take the Ox out of the cattle pen. My family’s Ox’s body is quite clean. In the cattle pen, the dung is piled up on one side, and the rice straws on the ground are stacked up on the other side . My family’s ox surprisingly loves to stay clean. Nobody in the village paid any attention to this point. However, what made the villagers feel surprised was that my family’s Ox, while grazing on the ridges between the fields, did not eat the rice crops and only ate the straws.
When it was time for taking breakfast, Grandpa returned from outside, holding a small puppy in his hands.
I was after all a seven-year old kid, with a particular love for puppies: “Where did it come from?”
“Do you like it?” Grandpa seeing me so happy, a smile piled up on his face.
“I definitely like it.” I nodded firmly.
“In your Great Grandpa’s house a dog gave birth not long ago. I have already spoken to him about it. It is not even a month old, but when I held him, he had the biggest teeth I’ve seen on a dog (Male Dog).” Granda sat down at the table, waiting for me to serve him the food. After that I also served food for myself and then ate it together with my grandpa.
“I am thinking of raising fish in a pond, we can raise some mudfish. This way we can eat fish whenever we want to. During New Year’s time, we would also be able to sell them and get some money.” I said while looking at the pickles on the table.
“Can’t afford to raise them. The electrical fish machine is too expensive. We won’t be able to stay and guard.” Grandpa shook his head helplessly.
“I will raise this puppy, and after its big I will make it guard the fish pond.” I said earnestly.
“If you want to rear then do it. Anyways, the pond is lying empty. Where are you going to get fish seeds from? Do you want me to buy some for you?” Grandpa asked.
“No need. I will go to the river and bring back some to rear.” I said after a bit of thought.
“Childish talk.” Grandpa laughed a bit and did not take it seriously.
After school was over, I began putting my plan into action. Mudfish are somewhat easy to obtain, one can even just dig a ditch for a few. However, this is the era of the ubiquitous electric fishing machine, which has become a scourge for the posterity of mudfish in the field ditches. I can only hope that my puppy can just hurry and grow up quickly. Otherwise, it will not be able to safeguard the pond fishes.
This puppy seemed to have a particular fondness of sticking to me. It would immediately run over to wherever I would sit, constantly rubbing his body against my leg. Treating it similar to the Ox, I condensed some primordial qi and directly patted it into the head of the puppy.
The puppy is a black dog, I gave it the name “Black Bean”. After that in order to be fair, I also chose a name for the Ox, calling it “Old Yellow”.
The weather was clear, the temperature was still a bit high in September. However, the water was still cool, so bathing in the river was not a big problem. There was a rocky riverside beach not far from the village. Lots of fish like to hide beneath the stones at the rocky beach. The villagers often go there to fish. However, at present there are fishing machines aplenty, so the fishes in this area are already scarce. Sometimes, even after waiting for a long time, they wouldn’t be able to even touch a few.
I had a half-filled bucket set aside, and then looked under each stone one by one, for fish. However, even after looking for a long time, I couldn’t find even one. Unexpectedly, when I finally found some mudfish, they ran away. If it continued like this, then i would still have caught nothing, even after it got dark.
I was frowning and worried, whereas Black Bean jumped around cheerfully. Every time I would reach out to a mudfish, it would bark at the water for a long time. However, it did not dare go into the water, and could only jump from one stone to another.
Seeing Black Bean hopping from one stone to another, my eyes shined, and I also began treading on the beach with weird steps, while chanting from my mouth a, o, e, i, u, ü.
Almost instantly after I began jumping, those hua la hua la sounds could be heard coming from the water. A shoal of long and stout fish whooshing through the water moved at a very fast pace. It was as if they had heard a summons.
I stopped at once, and at a very fast speed began putting the shoal of fish into the bucket. Not long after, the bucket was filled up.
“Fish crossing! Fish crossing!“
Huang Shulang while pulling along an Ox saw me from afar. Seeing the shoal of fish shuttling back and forth on the beach, he shouted immediately in a loud voice.
I had once heard the adults talking about the phenomenon of fish crossing. Nobody was aware of what actually caused the fish crossing, but every time there was fish crossing, the river would become densely packed with large shoals of fish concealed within the dark-green river water. The only thing visible everywhere would be densely packed fish mouths.
Grandpa once told me that he had met a youth a while back who could directly use the wicker basket to catch fishes from the river.
Hearing Huang Shulang’s shouts, the villagers came running over at a lightning speed, however they had come a bit late. By the time they arrived, most of the fish had disappeared and only one or two stupid fish had gotten stuck in some disorderly heaps of rock leaving them unable to know where to run.
“Huang Shulang, you are a dead fatty, where is this fish crossing in the end, eh?” A big Elder said while slapping hard Huang Shulang’s buttocks.
“Crossed, Crossed, Huang Jingyang also saw.” Huang Shulang said while pointing towards me.
Only now did the villagers realise that there was a bucket of fish by my side. But none of them dared come over to ask me. Seeing me here, without a word, the villagers left one by one.
Grandpa rushed over, solving my biggest problem. I was basically unable to lift the bucket full of fish. Even though I was the evil of the village, my strength was still just that of a seven year-old’s.
Black bean held a little fish in its mouth, treating it as a toy and played with it. Seeing me returning home, he was a little unwilling to part with it, tightly holding it in his mouth.
“Are you really going to raise these fish in the pond?” Grandpa asked while carrying the bucket. Grandpa must have felt that with such a big bucket full of fish, rather than putting them in the pond and rely on the providence of Heaven, it was more of a benefit to put it in their bellies.
“En.” I nodded my head.
That night, I still had to accompany Teacher Lin at the school. Teacher Lin’s suitcase was like a Bowl of Myriad Treasures, there were always yummy things to eat inside it. To someone my age, the allure of yummy food was greater than that of the worldly primordial qi.
The worldly primordial qi hidden in my body seemed to be nurturing the dao seed, causing it to germinate. I could feel it slowly growing, but was unable to tell what benefits it brought.
The next day, an unexpected guest arrived at the primary school. It was a young man about Teacher Lin’s age. He was very handsome, however, I really disliked him. There was a smell coming from his body that I could not stand. I could also see a dark qi entwined around his entire body.
Seeing Cui Chenlin, Teacher Lin became extremely happy, causing the entire class of little brats to suffer broken hearts. Teacher Lin excitedly stopped the on-going class and rushed outside.
“Why did you come?” Teacher Lin sounded as if she was floating.
“Are you wearing the jade pendant I gave you?” The man’s voice was slightly gloomy.
“I’m wearing it, look.” Lin Jing didn’t notice that the man was extremely fixated on the jade pendant.
Taking hold of the jade pendant and seeing that the dark qi had dimmed, he could not help but frown.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Jing was baffled by the man’s cold attitude.
“Have you given this jade pendant to anyone?” The man ask Lin Jing gravely
The little brats in the classroom all crowded around the window, peeking outside. I paid close attention to the man, when he held Teacher Lin’s jade pendant, my heartbeat suddenly quickened. I was extremely worried that he would discover my existence. He was very dangerous for me.
“I haven’t, I’ve always worn it around my neck, Why? Is something wrong?” Lin Jing asked baffledly.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He immediately shook his head.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
The man held Lin Jing’s jade pendant within his palm. I clearly saw him inserting some dark qi into the jade pendant. This dark qi was much more dense compared to what had previously been in the Jade pendant. Had this man’s strength improved?
I don’t know why, when the man turned his head to glance in my direction, also didn’t know if he was even aware of my existence, his eyes were just too terrible, just looking made my heart feel as if it had been dropped into a ten thousand fathoms deep abyss.
“Wear the Jade pendant properly. No matter what, don’t let the others see.” The young man urged.
“Chenlin, why are you always so concerned about this Jade pendant? I think that your concern over the Jade pendant is even greater than your concern for me.“ Teacher Lin said somewhat discontentedly to her boyfriend.
“No, never, you are thinking too much.” The man shook his head.
The man ate lunch and left. Teacher Lin was not that happy about it. I saw that when Teacher Lin walked into the classroom, there were traces of tears. Moreover, that cold aura on Teacher’s Lin’s body which always made me feel unusually uncomfortable had also somewhat increased.
What kind of a person is he exactly? What is that dark qi that was twisting around his body? Why did he insert dark qi into the jade pendant worn by Teacher’s Lin?
Several questions arose in my heart. Unfortunately, I had no place to ask the answers.
As a result of the events from the beginning of the term, nobody in the class dared to sit on the same table as me. Therefore, I monopolized a whole table by myself. Huang Shulang also didn’t dare reveal my secrets, because that would only result in giving me more opportunities of contact with Teacher Lin. Especially now that Teacher Lin had grown accustomed to making me accompany her every night.
However, at night I didn’t dare to use primordial qi again to dispel the dark qi from Teacher Lin’s Jade pendant. Although the dark qi within the jade pendant had become even more dense, it couldn’t hurt me no matter what. Under these circumstances, with me present the dark qi had no option but to stay holed up in the jade pendant.