WC ⋆ Chapter 70

The first time Jiang Yishen chatted with the Master, he wasn’t sure what tone to open with. After much deliberation, he finally addressed him with great respect as “Master.”

The other side replied with a smiley face, looking every bit the stereotypically detached and deeply cultivated old Taoist.

Chatting with him gave one the illusion of transcending the mundane world, and listening to the two roommates in the room slurping spicy noodles, Jiang Yishen kept feeling like it was desecrating the chat window.

But the next second, an image popped up.

The image showed a pile of prayer beads, each with a clearly marked price, and notes on their effects written alongside.

All of them were for marital happiness, family bliss, everlasting love, and growing old together, which was already something, but there was even one for a house full of children and grandchildren.

Jiang Yishen stared in stupefaction, then backed out to take another look at the Master’s profile picture, then clicked back into the very internet-savvy sales interface, and decided that at least eating spicy noodles was a sign of respect, since nobody was eating stinky snail noodles.

He typed a line, deleted it, typed and deleted for a long time, before finally asking: Master, are you the one Yin Yu recommended?

The other side replied: Yes, referred by an acquaintance, I can give you a twenty percent discount.

What a touching discount.

Jiang Yishen confirmed repeatedly: Weren’t you supposed to be very effective? Is this reliable?

The Master said: Sincerity brings results. Everything has been consecrated inside a temple. I absolutely do not engage in fraud in this regard, as it would damage one’s virtue.

Quite a convincing line of reasoning.

He zipped up his backpack, walked quickly to Qi Lin’s side, draped an arm around his shoulder, and headed out, scrolling the chat log to the very top to show him: “The Master Yin Yu recommended, why does he look like a wholesale trinket vendor.”

“Huh?” Qi Lin took only one look before stopping in his tracks and starting to rummage through his pockets.

Like someone had stepped on the tip of his tail, Jiang Yishen thought he had discovered something extraordinary, only to watch him turn out every single pocket on his body, finally fish out his phone, and tap open WeChat with a clatter of frantic scrolling.

He eventually opened a certain profile page and held it up for Jiang Yishen to see, nearly blinding him.

Blue sky, white clouds, mountains and flowing water, do good deeds, friend request expired.

“How do you have this person’s WeChat?” Jiang Yishen was utterly stunned, and in an instant a flood of fantastical thoughts swept through his mind, including loops within loops, pearls large and small falling onto a jade plate[[1]].

“That’s the old man who sold me the bracelet.” Qi Lin was nearly coughing up blood. “At the start of the year I flew over for a friend’s wedding, didn’t I go look for him at the foot of the temple? He wasn’t there at the time, and I got his phone number from the stall next to his. This is what came up when I searched his number. Don’t you remember? Fan Zi was in the hospital after the car accident, I told you about it.”

Jiang Yishen of course remembered. He simply could not accept it.

Especially now that he knew the old man was just a bracelet vendor, someone who had been tricked and lured into Qi Lin’s path by his own past self traveling back in time, it all felt utterly absurd.

He set everything else aside and bombarded Yin Yu with messages, typing away furiously as he walked, not lifting his head, navigating out of the dormitory building on pure muscle memory.

Yin Yu didn’t know about Qi Lin’s bracelet incident and thought Jiang Yishen simply didn’t trust the person he had found, so he explained with great sincerity: “This is someone my feng shui master recommended to me. He said this person has been getting a lot of attention lately, apparently he ran into a ghost, and after that his business just kept getting better and better. Before, he had to set up a stall every day, braving wind and sun for barely any money, but now orders come straight to his door, and you can’t even buy from him unless you’re a regular.”

Jiang Yishen knew this old man well enough, maybe not inside and out but at least eighty percent of the way. The man was a half-baked amateur. What ghost did he supposedly run into?

“Is this person actually reliable? How strange, he can’t even pick up a twig, what’s he doing brandishing a cleaver here?”[[2]] He was still grumbling when he opened the next voice message, and Yin Yu’s voice came through in an eerie, hushed tone, as if deliberately trying to set a certain atmosphere.

“Let me tell you, my master looked into his story. Apparently he ran into an Impermanence Officer and a wandering soul. The wandering soul had an unfulfilled wish and was drifting through the mortal world. The Impermanence Officer entrusted him to help, and through one transaction he fulfilled the wandering soul’s wish, and the soul was hooked and taken away. The man had just pocketed the money, turned around, and the Impermanence Officer had vanished on the spot. The story spread in a very eerie way, but what I’m telling you is definitely the most basic version, honest and true for young and old alike. They say afterward that old man’s business got better and better, and that was the Impermanence Officer’s payment to him.”

Jiang Yishen felt more and more wrong as he listened, and Qi Lin listening alongside him felt it too. After Yin Yu finished his vivid account, the two of them fell silent in unison.

This could absolutely rank at the top of the most absurd rumors in Jiang Yishen’s entire life. Compared to this, Yu Jiaming’s sugar daddy scandal was completely small potatoes. At least the sugar daddy rumor still involved two living people. This story had turned into ghosts.

Qi Lin quietly raised his eyes to observe Jiang Yishen’s expression, and said carefully: “Is this story about us?”

“If not us, then who?” Jiang Yishen was so exasperated he laughed. To think he had been afraid of offending this Master at the start, treating him with such reverence, and it turned out to be an old acquaintance.

He no longer felt any hesitation, and went straight to placing an order with practiced ease, asking this “Master” for the black obsidian strand that could grant wishes.

The other side was very excited, saying this was a bestseller and people requesting this strand were queued up until next week, but since they were acquaintances he could let them cut the line.

With that, he sent over an image. It was identical to the strand on Qi Lin’s wrist, listed at five hundred and eighty yuan.

Jiang Yishen still remembered that back then the old man had said these strands sold for three hundred and eighty up on the mountain, and when he sold one to Qi Lin he had given a friendly price, asking only a hundred yuan.

How had it nearly sextupled in less than half a year?

“Are we still buying?” Qi Lin asked.

The commemorative significance of this thing was too great, and Jiang Yishen was reluctant to let go of this connection. He steeled himself and said: “Buying!”

Qi Lin was startled and quickly grabbed his hand: “Let’s not. We might as well use that money to buy rings. Aren’t you going to marry me?”

That one sentence pulled all of Jiang Yishen’s attention away. He stumbled over his words: “You’re willing to marry me?”

Qi Lin found this baffling: “What’s there to be willing or unwilling about. The ring you’re wearing was even bought by me.”

“…Actually…” Jiang Yishen raised his hand and touched the single-strap bag hanging behind him.

Qi Lin’s heart nearly leapt out of his throat. He pressed a hand down on Jiang Yishen, both eyes locked onto that bag, and said warily: “What are you doing? This is school!”

Without realizing it they had walked to the edge of the sports field. A basket of balls sat on the bleachers nearby, and students strolled in twos and threes around the track.

There weren’t many people, but it could still be called a public setting. Qi Lin had feared the feeling of being watched in his happiness ever since he was small, whether it was a proposal or a wedding banquet. Back when they had just started dating, he had already mentioned that if they had to go through the motions, for the wedding just invite the parents, none of the friends, and they could all have a meal together afterward and call it done.

He was terrified that Jiang Yishen would act on impulse and drop to one knee right there. He would rather Jiang Yishen collapse on the spot and sleep there forever than have that happen.

Jiang Yishen had been in a state of excitement all day. Perhaps it was being on campus together that had stirred up memories of when they were deeply in love, or perhaps it was seeing the logo of the internship company during the grade meeting that morning, knowing that even without the loop they might not have been without any connection at all. Layer upon layer of emotion piled up, making his heart surge and race like an untethered horse that couldn’t be reined in no matter how hard you pulled.

Qi Lin used every ounce of strength to hold Jiang Yishen back and stop him from opening the bag, sweating with urgency: “Don’t take it out! Let’s talk at home. I’m willing, I’m willing, can we talk at home?”

But Jiang Yishen’s strength was too great. He lifted the bag off his shoulder and pulled it open little by little: “I ordered it over the New Year. It arrived on Lantern Festival day. I originally wanted to give it to you on Valentine’s Day, but it was delivered to school and I couldn’t find the time…”

“I understand, how about we go somewhere else?” Qi Lin was moved to the point of tears, yet still kept a firm grip on the bag, not letting the zipper open another centimeter.

“I just thought I’d wait a little longer, find a good day, something auspicious…” Jiang Yishen was still talking to himself.

Qi Lin watched helplessly as the little box was about to be pulled out. He threw caution to the wind, grabbed Jiang Yishen by the collar, tilted his head up, and stopped his mouth with a very rough kiss.

Jiang Yishen froze on the spot for a moment. The sounds of the outside world that he had ignored in his excitement came flooding into his mind all at once: the wind, the dull thud of a ball landing on the grass, running and shouting, the distant turning of a bicycle chain, the idle chatter of people talking. The warmth on his lips surged forward irresistibly and shattered every image. He felt dizzy and instinctively closed his eyes.

He counted his own heartbeats, which were quickly thrown into disarray by Qi Lin’s breathing. A pair of cool hands touched his face, and Qi Lin said: “Alright, alright, let’s go back.”

Jiang Yishen stared at Qi Lin in a daze, his throat bobbing, and said: “In broad daylight…”

“How about Arbor Day?”[[3]] Qi Lin cut him off, pointing to the March calendar. “March 12th. Consider it for the cactus.”

Jiang Yishen bit his lip and nodded: “Okay.”

“At home, or we can find a restaurant and book a private room.” Qi Lin counted on his fingers as he calculated.

Jiang Yishen thought something felt off: “You already know, so what am I even proposing for?”

“It’s just going through the motions. It doesn’t matter. If I don’t let you propose I’m afraid you’ll suffocate yourself,” Qi Lin said.

They crossed the sports field toward the library. Jiang Yishen fell half a step behind, checking the time on his phone.

“Baby, wait for me.” He called from behind. “March 12th, you’ll be done with your exams by then, right? I remember you have a lot of exams in March and April.”

“Done already.” Qi Lin walked back toward him and slipped a hand into Jiang Yishen’s pocket. “I’ll be done by early March. You can take me to the exam when the time comes.”

It wasn’t yet time for afternoon classes. Students who had finished lunch were heading back to the dormitory to rest, and the two of them blended into the flow of people, as if returning to some ordinary afternoon from the year before last.

Jiang Yishen grew nervous looking at his phone: “There’s only half a month left until the exam. Damn, I’m so nervous my stomach hurts a little.”

“What are you nervous about.” Qi Lin swiped his alumni card to enter the library. The warmth inside made his wind-chilled ears flush red, and he said quietly: “Alright, I’m going to study. You head back.”

“I’m not going back.” Jiang Yishen also said quietly. “I brought my laptop to work on my thesis. Where do you usually sit?”

Where do you usually sit?

Without discussing it, the two of them walked toward the same place without any prior agreement. The answer was already self-evident.

Qi Lin smiled and said: “The usual spot, of course.”