CH 84
Chapter 84: Ambiguous
After Lu Zheng finished, it was Lu Hua’s turn.
Lu Hua faltered and said: “I’m afraid of ghosts.”
Lu Shi jumped at the opportunity: “Then are you going to accept punishment?”
Lu Hua thought for a while and said: “I can tell a ghost story that Luo Nan told me.”
“Luo Nan said that there was an art room in school, where there would always be bursts of crying at night, which was very scary. One night, a girl stayed in the art room to draw. She was an art student and was about to take the exam, so she practiced very hard, and then she heard the crying…”
Lu Hua’s face became tangled. Chang Qing glanced at her, and she hugged his and Lu Zheng’s hands tightly, and then continued in a low voice: “The girl was very scared, so she planned to go back. Unexpectedly, the door of the art room suddenly closed by itself and couldn’t be opened. The lights also suddenly went out. When she looked in the direction of the crying sound the girl saw a shadow under the moonlight. It was a half-body plaster statue in the art room.”
Apart from anything else, Lu Hua’s storytelling ability was quite good, and several of the people present were brought into the story. Chang Qing also listened carefully.
Lu Hua breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to take a sip of water, when Lu Shi urged in a low voice, “Hurry up, you’re so slow!”
Lu Hua gave him an unhappy look, and then continued, “The girl remembered it very clearly. The plaster statue was clearly placed in the corner. How could it suddenly run to the window? She didn’t dare to blink at all, but from the corner of her eyes, she saw another plaster statue in the corner that suddenly ran very close to her. She turned her head to look at the corner, but unexpectedly the plaster statue across from her near the window suddenly approached her. In a short while, all the plaster statues around her scattered around the room surrounded her. She fainted from fright, and when she woke up, she was in the hospital. When the police came to look for her to get her statement, they told her that a plaster statue in the art room had been broken, exposing the head of the person buried in it. They also said that the other plaster statues also had body parts buried in them…”
Lu Shi shuddered, and Lu Hua noticed it. She blinked and continued, “It turned out that the person buried in the plaster statue was a senior who had disappeared last year, and the plaster statues were all made by the art teacher. The art teacher was arrested and it was discovered that it was a crime of passion.”
Lu Shi shouted: “You must have copied this from some ghost story, right?”
Lu Hua replied unhappily: “I didn’t copy it. It’s all true, Luo Nan told me. You can find out about the corpse hidden in plaster if you look it up on Baidu. Luo Nan told me that the case was true but I don’t know if the girl really saw a ghost, or if it was just a rumor that people started spreading.”
Lu Shi looked it up and found that there really was such a case. He put down his cell phone in embarrassment and said, “Okay, you pass.”
Then his eyes fell on Chang Qing again, and Lu Shi’s face became a little excited. He raised his chin to Chang Qing. “It’s your turn.”
Chang Qing said slowly, “I have a lot. Let me think about it and see which one to talk about.”
After a while, Chang Qing said: “I used to be a delivery driver in the past. And one day I went to Xinjiang to collect a stone pot to stir-fry tea leaves. The fried tea1 is of good quality. Each pot can sell for 1,000 yuan, but I had to go to the village to collect it. So, I went to the village with my master. The village was very small with a population of less than 100 people, most of whom were old people. But every household had to tie an open black umbrella at their door, and no matter whether it was sunny or rainy, it couldn’t be taken down.”
His tone was cold, and slow, with a gloomy chill. Lu Hua was already very frightened, and she hugged his and Lu Zheng’s arms, and their hands touched each other again.
Chang Qing had the foresight to clench his fingers into a fist early on, making it impossible for Lu Zheng to make a move, but this time Lu Zheng didn’t seem to care at all, and simply clenched Chang Qing’s fist.
Chang Qing paused for a moment before continuing: “We collected the stone pot but it was already evening when my master and I entered the mountain. You can’t see the road clearly at night, and it’s easy to have an accident so we planned to stay there for one night. The village chief let us sleep in a side room of his house. He also had a black umbrella tied on his door with string. He told us not to take the umbrella down.”
“A black umbrella at the door was very inconvenient. There was no door there only a curtain. I didn’t understand the local customs at that time. I felt uncomfortable before I went to bed that night, so I took off the black umbrella.”
“Then what?”
“Then…” Chang Qing’s face was a little stiff, he took a breath, and said: “Then when I was sleeping at night, I felt that water was dripping onto my head, cold and icy. When I opened my eyes, I saw a woman’s face blurred with water vapor. And where her eyes were supposed to be was just hollowness.”
Lu Hua took a deep breath. She wanted nothing more than to hug both him and Lu Zheng into her arms. Chang Qing didn’t pull his hand away. Everyone’s eyes were on him. Although they weren’t in the shadows, if he made any movement then it would be seen clearly.
“And then?” Lu Shi urged, “Don’t keep pausing!”
Chang Qing came back to his senses from the scorching heat of Lu Zheng’s hand. His voice was somewhat weak, “What else is there? I immediately got up and hung the umbrella up again. When I went back to sleep, I didn’t see that woman again. When I got up in the morning, I asked my master about it. My master said that he didn’t see the woman, but he went to ask the village head. The village head said that the black umbrella was hung because a teacher had been drowned by her husband in a tub of water after which she became a ghost and would go to every house asking where her husband was.”
Lu Zheng frowned, and asked, “You and your master slept in the same bed?”
Chang Qing paused for a moment, and glanced at Lu Zheng. His face was hidden in the shadows and his expression wasn’t visible. However, Chang Qing felt that he was frowning. He had no reason to be upset, but his mouth began to explain anyway: “The conditions were poor, how can you pay so much attention…. and my master has a wife and children.”
Everyone pretended not to hear their conversation, Shang Shu laughed and said: “I see that you’re young, but you’ve actually experienced so much.”
Chang Qing said: “And that’s not all. I also went to the mountains to collect herbs. There are also some not-so-good things that happen when you go to these places and you can encounter many strange things. A timid person couldn’t do it.”
After Lu Zheng heard him say so much his chest felt a little congested. He didn’t expect Chang Qing to have such a difficult life before.
After that, a few more ghost stories were told. When it was Ah Jian’s turn, he couldn’t come up with a single idea. By coincidence, the much anticipated card draw resulted in Lu Zheng drawing the king.
But the king had to punish those who didn’t tell a story. Even if others suffer, it was only incidental. Lu Zheng looked at Ah Jian and his eyes gradually darkened.
Ah Jian expressed that he was terrified.
Lu Shi was very impatient and couldn’t bear it any longer, so he urged: “Hurry up, don’t keep wasting time.”
Lu Zheng pondered for a while, and said, “Why don’t you learn how to crow like a rooster.”
A Jian: “… …?”
Seeing that Lu Zheng didn’t seem to be joking, Ah Jian could only “crow” a few times.
Seeing Lu Zheng nodding his head, Ah Jian felt that this request was unbelievably simple.
After another round, it was Lu Zheng’s turn again. Lu Zheng said that he still had nothing to say, he was a cold-blooded man without any stories.
Lu Shi was already screaming excitedly. He asked everyone to draw a card, and finally got the king card he dreamed of.
“Hehe, you didn’t expect to fall into my hands one day, did you?” Lu Shi grinned darkly.
Lu Zheng looked at him in silence. After a while, he said, “Hurry up.”
Lu Shi said, “I have to think about it.”
His gaze swept past several people like a hyena, before it finally fell on Chang Qing’s face.
Chang Qing felt his eyes, and couldn’t help but tremble a little. Then, he heard Lu Shi say, “What are you two doing with your hands under there?”
Lu Hua immediately looked down and saw Lu Zheng holding Chang Qing’s hand. She hesitated for a moment then reached out and grabbed their hands too. She raised her head and said to Lu Shi, “It’s what are the three of us doing with our hands underneath.”
Lu Shi didn’t care, either. He looked at them maliciously and then said, “How about letting Chang Qing princess carry my brother?”
“Come on, the size difference is too big, don’t make it so difficult.” Sun Yi has a better relationship with Lu Shi, and after what he said, he stopped.
Lu Shi glanced at Lu Hua and saw her looking at him with burning eyes. She threw him an unhappy look as if she would blow his face off if he had any bad intentions.
Lu Shi pursed his lips and his evil thoughts disappeared a little. He couldn’t help but pause for a while thinking about a new punishment. When he heard someone urging him to hurry up, he came back to his senses, and said: How about this, let my brother do 30 push-ups, while Chang Qing stands on my brother’s back.”
Lu Zheng: “…”
Lu Shi saw that his face didn’t look good, so he couldn’t help but curl his lips up and deliberately said, “If you don’t want it to be Chang Qing, then let Shang Shu stand on your back.”
Shang Shu complained endlessly, then said in an injured tone: “Why do I always get shot while lying down?”
Lu Shi stared at Lu Zheng, “Will you do it or not?”
Lu Zheng said slowly: “OK, you’re the king, I’ll listen to you.”
He loosened his grip on Chang Qing’s fist, glanced at Chang Qing and said, “Come here.”
Chang Qing was a little embarrassed, and couldn’t help but glance at Lu Shi. Lu Shi didn’t feel that anything was wrong and he smirked as if his scheme had succeeded.
Lu Zheng started to do push-ups, and Chang Qing stepped onto his broad back with one foot. He felt that if he put another foot on him, Lu Zheng would be crushed to the ground.
Lu Shi urged: “Hurry up.”
Chang Qing took a cushion and put it on Lu Zheng’s back. He then asked Lu Shi, “Is it fine if I sit down?”
Lu Shi thought for a while and said, “OK.”
Chang Qing sat down on the cushion on Lu Zheng’s back, which reduced the difficulty so it wasn’t so hard for him to do 30 push-ups. Chang Qing tried his best not to focus on Lu Zheng. However, it was hard to avoid feeling Lu Zheng’s back muscles which flexed every time he moved, firm and flexible. Even separated by a layer of cushion, he could feel the heat and toughness in them.
This kind of behavior was actually a little ambiguous. Lu Shi might not know but it was impossible for Lu Zheng not to be aware of it. Whether it was intentional or not his push-ups became very fast. His back was very flexible and it became slippery and shaky underneath Chang Qing. Chang Qing’s hips bounced up and down so he could hardly sit on his back. He reached out and grabbed his clothes.
The 30 push-ups were done in no time. Lu Zheng couldn’t help but pant a little and a little sweat broke out on his forehead. Lu Shi snorted and said, “It’s only 30 push-ups, and you’re panting like this. Your physical fitness isn’t very good.”
Lu Zheng seemed to be in a good mood, so he didn’t stab him, and sat down obediently.
Chang Qing felt that his butt was a little numb. This feeling was very strange. If he hadn’t thought too much about it, he might not have cared. But once he knew how Lu Zheng felt about him, it was hard for him not to pay attention to his buttocks.
Once his attention was focused there the more he felt numb and that something was wrong with all kinds of discomfort.
<
1. So I went down the rabbit hole here. ‘fried tea’ 炒茶叶 is the phrase used here. Since I have no idea what frying tea would entail I looked it up and found some videos. It seems to be what it sounds like- frying the leaves. Has anyone on here ever tried tea leaves prepared like this? I’m so lazy- it’s too many steps for me.
After Lu Zheng finished, it was Lu Hua’s turn.
Lu Hua faltered and said: “I’m afraid of ghosts.”
Lu Shi jumped at the opportunity: “Then are you going to accept punishment?”
Lu Hua thought for a while and said: “I can tell a ghost story that Luo Nan told me.”
“Luo Nan said that there was an art room in school, where there would always be bursts of crying at night, which was very scary. One night, a girl stayed in the art room to draw. She was an art student and was about to take the exam, so she practiced very hard, and then she heard the crying…”
Lu Hua’s face became tangled. Chang Qing glanced at her, and she hugged his and Lu Zheng’s hands tightly, and then continued in a low voice: “The girl was very scared, so she planned to go back. Unexpectedly, the door of the art room suddenly closed by itself and couldn’t be opened. The lights also suddenly went out. When she looked in the direction of the crying sound the girl saw a shadow under the moonlight. It was a half-body plaster statue in the art room.”
Apart from anything else, Lu Hua’s storytelling ability was quite good, and several of the people present were brought into the story. Chang Qing also listened carefully.
Lu Hua breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to take a sip of water, when Lu Shi urged in a low voice, “Hurry up, you’re so slow!”
Lu Hua gave him an unhappy look, and then continued, “The girl remembered it very clearly. The plaster statue was clearly placed in the corner. How could it suddenly run to the window? She didn’t dare to blink at all, but from the corner of her eyes, she saw another plaster statue in the corner that suddenly ran very close to her. She turned her head to look at the corner, but unexpectedly the plaster statue across from her near the window suddenly approached her. In a short while, all the plaster statues around her scattered around the room surrounded her. She fainted from fright, and when she woke up, she was in the hospital. When the police came to look for her to get her statement, they told her that a plaster statue in the art room had been broken, exposing the head of the person buried in it. They also said that the other plaster statues also had body parts buried in them…”
Lu Shi shuddered, and Lu Hua noticed it. She blinked and continued, “It turned out that the person buried in the plaster statue was a senior who had disappeared last year, and the plaster statues were all made by the art teacher. The art teacher was arrested and it was discovered that it was a crime of passion.”
Lu Shi shouted: “You must have copied this from some ghost story, right?”
Lu Hua replied unhappily: “I didn’t copy it. It’s all true, Luo Nan told me. You can find out about the corpse hidden in plaster if you look it up on Baidu. Luo Nan told me that the case was true but I don’t know if the girl really saw a ghost, or if it was just a rumor that people started spreading.”
Lu Shi looked it up and found that there really was such a case. He put down his cell phone in embarrassment and said, “Okay, you pass.”
Then his eyes fell on Chang Qing again, and Lu Shi’s face became a little excited. He raised his chin to Chang Qing. “It’s your turn.”
Chang Qing said slowly, “I have a lot. Let me think about it and see which one to talk about.”
After a while, Chang Qing said: “I used to be a delivery driver in the past. And one day I went to Xinjiang to collect a stone pot to stir-fry tea leaves. The fried tea1 is of good quality. Each pot can sell for 1,000 yuan, but I had to go to the village to collect it. So, I went to the village with my master. The village was very small with a population of less than 100 people, most of whom were old people. But every household had to tie an open black umbrella at their door, and no matter whether it was sunny or rainy, it couldn’t be taken down.”
His tone was cold, and slow, with a gloomy chill. Lu Hua was already very frightened, and she hugged his and Lu Zheng’s arms, and their hands touched each other again.
Chang Qing had the foresight to clench his fingers into a fist early on, making it impossible for Lu Zheng to make a move, but this time Lu Zheng didn’t seem to care at all, and simply clenched Chang Qing’s fist.
Chang Qing paused for a moment before continuing: “We collected the stone pot but it was already evening when my master and I entered the mountain. You can’t see the road clearly at night, and it’s easy to have an accident so we planned to stay there for one night. The village chief let us sleep in a side room of his house. He also had a black umbrella tied on his door with string. He told us not to take the umbrella down.”
“A black umbrella at the door was very inconvenient. There was no door there only a curtain. I didn’t understand the local customs at that time. I felt uncomfortable before I went to bed that night, so I took off the black umbrella.”
“Then what?”
“Then…” Chang Qing’s face was a little stiff, he took a breath, and said: “Then when I was sleeping at night, I felt that water was dripping onto my head, cold and icy. When I opened my eyes, I saw a woman’s face blurred with water vapor. And where her eyes were supposed to be was just hollowness.”
Lu Hua took a deep breath. She wanted nothing more than to hug both him and Lu Zheng into her arms. Chang Qing didn’t pull his hand away. Everyone’s eyes were on him. Although they weren’t in the shadows, if he made any movement then it would be seen clearly.
“And then?” Lu Shi urged, “Don’t keep pausing!”
Chang Qing came back to his senses from the scorching heat of Lu Zheng’s hand. His voice was somewhat weak, “What else is there? I immediately got up and hung the umbrella up again. When I went back to sleep, I didn’t see that woman again. When I got up in the morning, I asked my master about it. My master said that he didn’t see the woman, but he went to ask the village head. The village head said that the black umbrella was hung because a teacher had been drowned by her husband in a tub of water after which she became a ghost and would go to every house asking where her husband was.”
Lu Zheng frowned, and asked, “You and your master slept in the same bed?”
Chang Qing paused for a moment, and glanced at Lu Zheng. His face was hidden in the shadows and his expression wasn’t visible. However, Chang Qing felt that he was frowning. He had no reason to be upset, but his mouth began to explain anyway: “The conditions were poor, how can you pay so much attention…. and my master has a wife and children.”
Everyone pretended not to hear their conversation, Shang Shu laughed and said: “I see that you’re young, but you’ve actually experienced so much.”
Chang Qing said: “And that’s not all. I also went to the mountains to collect herbs. There are also some not-so-good things that happen when you go to these places and you can encounter many strange things. A timid person couldn’t do it.”
After Lu Zheng heard him say so much his chest felt a little congested. He didn’t expect Chang Qing to have such a difficult life before.
After that, a few more ghost stories were told. When it was Ah Jian’s turn, he couldn’t come up with a single idea. By coincidence, the much anticipated card draw resulted in Lu Zheng drawing the king.
But the king had to punish those who didn’t tell a story. Even if others suffer, it was only incidental. Lu Zheng looked at Ah Jian and his eyes gradually darkened.
Ah Jian expressed that he was terrified.
Lu Shi was very impatient and couldn’t bear it any longer, so he urged: “Hurry up, don’t keep wasting time.”
Lu Zheng pondered for a while, and said, “Why don’t you learn how to crow like a rooster.”
A Jian: “… …?”
Seeing that Lu Zheng didn’t seem to be joking, Ah Jian could only “crow” a few times.
Seeing Lu Zheng nodding his head, Ah Jian felt that this request was unbelievably simple.
After another round, it was Lu Zheng’s turn again. Lu Zheng said that he still had nothing to say, he was a cold-blooded man without any stories.
Lu Shi was already screaming excitedly. He asked everyone to draw a card, and finally got the king card he dreamed of.
“Hehe, you didn’t expect to fall into my hands one day, did you?” Lu Shi grinned darkly.
Lu Zheng looked at him in silence. After a while, he said, “Hurry up.”
Lu Shi said, “I have to think about it.”
His gaze swept past several people like a hyena, before it finally fell on Chang Qing’s face.
Chang Qing felt his eyes, and couldn’t help but tremble a little. Then, he heard Lu Shi say, “What are you two doing with your hands under there?”
Lu Hua immediately looked down and saw Lu Zheng holding Chang Qing’s hand. She hesitated for a moment then reached out and grabbed their hands too. She raised her head and said to Lu Shi, “It’s what are the three of us doing with our hands underneath.”
Lu Shi didn’t care, either. He looked at them maliciously and then said, “How about letting Chang Qing princess carry my brother?”
“Come on, the size difference is too big, don’t make it so difficult.” Sun Yi has a better relationship with Lu Shi, and after what he said, he stopped.
Lu Shi glanced at Lu Hua and saw her looking at him with burning eyes. She threw him an unhappy look as if she would blow his face off if he had any bad intentions.
Lu Shi pursed his lips and his evil thoughts disappeared a little. He couldn’t help but pause for a while thinking about a new punishment. When he heard someone urging him to hurry up, he came back to his senses, and said: How about this, let my brother do 30 push-ups, while Chang Qing stands on my brother’s back.”
Lu Zheng: “…”
Lu Shi saw that his face didn’t look good, so he couldn’t help but curl his lips up and deliberately said, “If you don’t want it to be Chang Qing, then let Shang Shu stand on your back.”
Shang Shu complained endlessly, then said in an injured tone: “Why do I always get shot while lying down?”
Lu Shi stared at Lu Zheng, “Will you do it or not?”
Lu Zheng said slowly: “OK, you’re the king, I’ll listen to you.”
He loosened his grip on Chang Qing’s fist, glanced at Chang Qing and said, “Come here.”
Chang Qing was a little embarrassed, and couldn’t help but glance at Lu Shi. Lu Shi didn’t feel that anything was wrong and he smirked as if his scheme had succeeded.
Lu Zheng started to do push-ups, and Chang Qing stepped onto his broad back with one foot. He felt that if he put another foot on him, Lu Zheng would be crushed to the ground.
Lu Shi urged: “Hurry up.”
Chang Qing took a cushion and put it on Lu Zheng’s back. He then asked Lu Shi, “Is it fine if I sit down?”
Lu Shi thought for a while and said, “OK.”
Chang Qing sat down on the cushion on Lu Zheng’s back, which reduced the difficulty so it wasn’t so hard for him to do 30 push-ups. Chang Qing tried his best not to focus on Lu Zheng. However, it was hard to avoid feeling Lu Zheng’s back muscles which flexed every time he moved, firm and flexible. Even separated by a layer of cushion, he could feel the heat and toughness in them.
This kind of behavior was actually a little ambiguous. Lu Shi might not know but it was impossible for Lu Zheng not to be aware of it. Whether it was intentional or not his push-ups became very fast. His back was very flexible and it became slippery and shaky underneath Chang Qing. Chang Qing’s hips bounced up and down so he could hardly sit on his back. He reached out and grabbed his clothes.
The 30 push-ups were done in no time. Lu Zheng couldn’t help but pant a little and a little sweat broke out on his forehead. Lu Shi snorted and said, “It’s only 30 push-ups, and you’re panting like this. Your physical fitness isn’t very good.”
Lu Zheng seemed to be in a good mood, so he didn’t stab him, and sat down obediently.
Chang Qing felt that his butt was a little numb. This feeling was very strange. If he hadn’t thought too much about it, he might not have cared. But once he knew how Lu Zheng felt about him, it was hard for him not to pay attention to his buttocks.
Once his attention was focused there the more he felt numb and that something was wrong with all kinds of discomfort.
<
1. So I went down the rabbit hole here. ‘fried tea’ 炒茶叶 is the phrase used here. Since I have no idea what frying tea would entail I looked it up and found some videos. It seems to be what it sounds like- frying the leaves. Has anyone on here ever tried tea leaves prepared like this? I’m so lazy- it’s too many steps for me.
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