Chapter 38: Two years (Part 1)

“Yes, it’s always appropriate to wear makeup, whether it’s the West Lake in the sun or the West Lake in the rain, it’s all very beautiful. It’s a pity that you don’t seem to be in the mood to appreciate it. You even asked about medicine at this time?” Cheng Xin Ge said with some ‘anger’.

After a month of getting to know each other, I knew that Brother Chengxin was a refined person. In ancient times, he would have been a talented scholar, loving good food, beautiful scenery, world classics, and Tang and Song poetry. Not only did he love them, but he was also very knowledgeable about them. No wonder Uncle Chen always said that he had learned too much about medicine and not enough about the essence of medicine.

I think compared to Brother Chengxin, I am a commoner, I miss too much, and I can’t devote myself to the landscape. The scar on my shoulder aches faintly, and of course I am thinking about applying medicine today.

I unconsciously touched the mark on my shoulder and said to Chengxin, “There’s no way. Applying medicine is a torture. I can’t enjoy the scenery when I think about it. Besides, you’ve brought me to the West Lake a hundred times, and I’ve always been surprised and said, “Isn’t it beautiful?” And don’t even dream about it. Can you wait for the White Snake Lady?”

“Okay, don’t mention the White Snake to me. It’s such a beautiful legend. Every time I mention it, you ask me if I want to go see if there’s a snake spirit under the Leifeng Pagoda. Is there someone like you? Don’t compare the things you saw when you were a child with the beautiful White Snake in the legend. You’re not allowed to mention her.” Chengxin said to me seriously.

If you don’t mention it, I don’t care about a big white snake. Speaking of big white snakes, I can only think of the big snake that was lurking in front of the Hungry Ghost Tomb. Well, it was also a white snake. The master said that it was going to become a jiao and gave it a blessing.

After I ruined it, Brother Chengxin lost his interest in swimming and took me directly back to where he and Uncle Chen lived. Originally, they had the intention of opening a Chinese medicine shop in Hangzhou, but unfortunately, people in our lineage are too nomadic, so this idea had to be abandoned.

Fortunately, their house in the suburbs was large enough to be a farmyard in the south of the Yangtze River, otherwise I would really worry for them, where to put so many medicinal herbs.

I hadn’t seen Uncle Chen for a month, and he was always busy. Except for the first few times when he gave me medicine, now it was always Chengxin who did it.

Because he thought the X-shaped scar on my shoulder was too ugly, Brother Chengxin personally took the initiative to “repair” it on my shoulder, using tattooing techniques to turn the X-shaped scar into a small sword placed obliquely.

At that time, the atmosphere in China was not very open. I looked at the mark on my shoulder and couldn’t help but laugh. Well, I’ve been a bad boy in Beijing for a few years, right? Now that I have a tattoo, I really look like a gangster in a movie.

“There’s no way around it. This mark will probably be with you for the rest of your life. It’s better to change it. Even a fool wouldn’t draw a cross on his body, right? You have to thank me for my eclectic education and learning a little bit of tattooing from someone else, otherwise you’d have to carry a cross with you for the rest of your life.” This is how Brother Cheng Xin explained it.

The last time I got a tattoo, Brother Chengxin gave me a white towel to bite on as usual. After all, the pain is not something that ordinary people can bear. When I signaled that it was time to start, Brother Chengxin picked up his plum blossom hammer and began to hammer it into my tattoo.

This small hammer was specially made by Uncle Chen for my mark. Compared to the plum blossom needle hammer used for massage, the needles on it are much longer and can penetrate deep into the inside of my mark. As the hammer fell, tiny drops of blood appeared on my mark.

Unlike the bright red color of blood, the blood that came out of my mark was a very dark red, almost black. Chengxin joked with me, “If you want to hate someone, give them a sip of your blood. I guarantee that they will regret coming to this world.”

Yes, I am now in such pain that I almost regret coming to this world. You know, I take medicine every three days, and the scabs that have just formed are pierced and opened. What is the feeling of being pierced and opened? I suspect that the flesh in that area is almost being beaten into rotten flesh.

After being carefully and densely opened, what was even more painful was that Brother Chengxin would start to rub a special kind of grass juice on me over and over again. I heard that it was a kind of mixed poison that could only suppress the mark that the Hmong had drawn for me and completely cover the special smell it emitted.

I don’t understand this, I only know that the poison is constantly rubbed on the wound, and the pain is even worse than cutting meat with a knife. In addition, because the mark is extremely stubborn, this kind of application is not enough, and I have to pierce many hollow needles into my mark and inject some poison into it.

Fortunately, there is a limit to everything. If you go beyond that limit, you will upset the balance and you will be poisoned. Today is the last time I will do this.

After everything was done, the white towel that was taken out of my mouth was bitten to pieces as usual. Looking at the white towel that was about to rot, Chengxin didn’t say anything for a long time. When I came back from the pain, he said, “Chengyi, in fact, looking at these towels, I was thinking that even if those Miao people didn’t target you, as long as you are willing, I can go with you to teach them a lesson, no, I mean to fight with those Miao people. When will our family be able to tolerate this kind of anger? When we are bullied, we have to endure it?

Hearing Chengxin say this, I was moved and a little surprised. I always thought that Chengxin was a gentle man, but I never imagined that behind this gentle and jade-like appearance, there was also the rigidity of jade, and it was even a little more fierce than mine.

“I think we will have to step into that village one day. At least, the way they talk doesn’t seem to suggest that they’re going to swallow their pride. It’s just that the time hasn’t come yet.” I’ve always had this feeling that my business with that village isn’t over. They’ve left a mark on me, and they’re not going to let me go.

Master Chen once said that this mark is very strange, like the human body has drug resistance. If this mark adapts to the suppression of this venom, it will once again play its role. At that time, we will always have to face it.

I think the masters are just waiting for my master, just waiting for my master. When my master returns, our clan will go to the so-called Devil’s Village to settle the score, and there may be more to it.Taoist priest

Uncle Wang asked me to meet him in Duyun City, Guizhou Province. I had never heard of this city, but given the nature of my little con-artist uncle, it would be a miracle if he could stay in one place. He told me to find him in a city, not some hard-to-find backwater.

At the train station, Brother Chengxin smiled and said to me, “You’re lucky. Otherwise, if Uncle Wang gets interested, he’ll go looking for some geomantic treasure, and you might end up having to rent a donkey from someone else and ride it into the mountains to find him.”

“If that’s the case, I’d rather not learn any geomancy.” I also said to Chengxin with a smile. After a month of getting along with each other, I suddenly had to say goodbye, and I was quite reluctant to do so.

But I’m also used to this kind of reluctant days. It seems that I’ve always been like this since I was a child, always drifting around, and after so many experiences of leaving, I’m used to everyone.

“Give me a hug, Big Brother. With you gone and Master not here, I’ll be living alone again.” Chengxin said to me with a smile.

Big brother? I laughed heartily and hugged Cheng Xin Ge happily. The two of us almost simultaneously said to each other in our ears, “Take care!”

“It’s fine. After living with Uncle Wang for two years, you’ll go to the village where Grandma Lingqing lives. You won’t regret going there, really.” When the train started moving, Chengxin said to me.

“Have you been there?” I shouted as I sat on the train. I was very confused. Where the uncles couldn’t find it, had Brother Chengxin been there?

“No, I have seen the people in that village, and I will never forget it.” Chengxin’s figure at the station was already far away, and he waved his hand at me and said loudly.

I looked away, and I was a little tired, lying on the train’s sleeper, teasing myself about whether I should make my home on the train in the future.

There are people like water lilies without roots. Even if they know where they will be drifting to next, they won’t feel at ease. It’s like me. I know where I will be going next, but I also know that it won’t be a place where I can stay. I still have to keep on drifting.

Some people think that this kind of life is wonderful, but that’s only because they can’t feel the same way. Otherwise, I’m afraid that the bone-chilling loneliness can push people to the brink of collapse.

Fortunately, I’m used to it.