Creeping quietly, I sneaked into the girls’ dormitory. After slowly walking under the small window of the supervisor of the dorm, I beckoned to Shang Yi behind me and signaled him to be faster.
I had lived in this dormitory for three years. The supervisor of the dorm was not someone to be taken lightly. She was sharp-eared and would not miss any sounds and movements.
I slowed down, then tiptoed up the stairs like a thief. Shang Yi quietly followed behind me.
The building was very dark.If we didn’t have a flashlight, we probably would have had to stumble up the several flights of stairs.
I slowly climbed up to the rooftop and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The door on the rooftop was locked from the outside. It did not need a key. It opened as soon as the handle was twisted. However, if the door on the rooftop was locked from the inside, it would be impossible to open the door.
The door was rusty and normally opened with a ‘quack’ sound every time, which made people horrified.
I opened the door gently and took the lead to step onto the rooftop.
There was no wind at first, but a gust of wind from nowhere hit me as soon as I stepped onto the roofto, making me shudder from the cold.
I took two steps back, letting Shang Yi walk quickly to the front.
He walked to the center of the rooftop and put down his backpack. He took out a Buddha statue from his bag and placed it facing west, and then took out the incense burner, incense stick, joss paper, and a glass bottle containing some red liquid. It looked like blood.
I asked him what it was and he saaid that it was black dog’s blood.
I was shocked, “I asked you to release her soul from purgatory. You are not here to catch ghosts.”
He turned his head and glared at me, and said coldly, “In case of a disaster, I can only kill her if she doesn’t cooperate.”
“Are you still a disciple of Buddhism? Disciples of Buddhism are compassionate…”
“Stop it,” He stopped me and said impatiently, “It’s true that I live in a temple, but I am neither a monk nor a Taoist priest. I can marry a wife and have children. I can also eat meat, of course. You may not believe it, but the monks in the Thunder God Temple eat meat secretly and visit the brothel too.”
His words left me speechless. There were so many liars in the world. I would have also thought of Shang Yi as a liar if he had no real skills.
Shang Yi turned his head, picked up three incense sticks, and lit them. He then put the incense sticks into the incense burner and sat cross-legged facing the Buddha statue.
After a period of silence he closed his eyes and put his palms together chanting softly, “I pray sincerely to all the Dharma of all realms for the blessing of Triratna to fulfill my wish for …”
He suddenly stopped. He sighed and put his hands down and looked at me, “What’s her name?”
I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh. Why didn’t he ask clearly before he started? How urgent was he to finish this?
“Xu Zixi.”
He turned his head, closed his eyes, and put his hands together. It took a long time to start chanting again this time.
“I pray sincerely… to fulfill my wish for Xu Zixi’s great vow of liberation.”
He continued to read after a pause, “The deceased Xu Zixi, I am Shang Yi. Now I will read you The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo to abandon suffering and obtain happiness, liberate from birth and death, and attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. You must listen carefully, act as it is, and never underestimate it. At this critical juncture of life and death, you must listen to my advice. Don not miss the opportunity. Once we lose the human body, we may not recover it for ten thousand eons and suffer endlessly.
I know that you are miserable now, no one to rely on, no food, no shelter, drifting everywhere, mentally and physically disturbed. Sinisterness and terror rose up one after another. The violent storms echoed vast thunders. There was heavy snow fog, beasts, resentful enemies, and evil spirits of all kinds hunting you. They want to behead and tear your abdomen, eat your flesh and drink your blood, smash you into pieces and inflict other evil karma. It was frightening just hearing it, how can one bear it? The evil karma can not be avoided, can not be thrown away, and more dangerous things will come later. You are in a dilemma, at a loss, and in danger. I sincerely help you to liberate yourself completely and impart you The Great Liberation for enlightenment and completion. You must listen carefully, be honest, understand the principle, awake aspiration for enlightenment, attain Buddhahood, and save all beings, don’t miss your last good karma and opportunity…”
I listened to his muttering. I could vaguely feel that the surrounding temperature was getting lower and lower.
Xu Zixi appeared like a gust of wind. She was standing right in front us, only two meters away from me. Her badly mutilated face looked even more terrifying in an eerie night.
I swallowed hard, trying to tell Shang Yi that she appeared, but Shang Yi continued to chant the spell in a louder voice.
However, Xu Zixi’s attention was not on Shang Yi. She stared at me, deadly. She opened her bloody mouth and yelled at me, “Ji Sixi, you lied to me!”
I stepped back in a hurry. My legs were trembling badly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Listen to me; this man is a master. He is here to help you… Ah-Uncle Shang.”
She didn’t listen to my explanation. She rushed towards me, appearing right in front of me in the blink of an eye. Her face was close and her blood-red eyes freaked me out. I screamed and called Shang Yi’s name.
I drew back desperately, but I had unknowingly retreated into a corner. There was no way for me to go anymore back.
Shang Yi stopped chanting. He slowly stood up. He started stretching his body and complained in pain, “Ah, my legs are numb.”
I want to use the sole of the shoe to hit him at this moment.
Come on. I can hardly keep myself alive, yet he was still steady.
“You let me wait for three years, and let that stinky woman protect you personally so that I couldn’t get close to you. You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” Xu Zixi yelled at me. The blood in her mouth spurted out and splashed all over me me. The stench was nauseating.
At that moment, I felt my whole body go stiff. I had staked all my hopes on Shang Yi, but Shang Yi was so unreliable. He was still rubbing his numb legs with his waist.
“Uncle Shang, what are you doing?” I anxiously shouted.
Xu Zixi’s face approached me again. Her entire face was pressed up to me. I could even feel that the tip of her nose had touched my nose.
I held my breath as she was so stinky. The smell of rotten corpses was unbearable.
“You must die today. No one can change this fact,” She said bitterly. She then held me by the throat and lifted me.
She tightened her grip on my throat and I could not breathe at all.
“Shang…Uncle, save…”
I couldn’t yell it out.
My body was lifted by Xu Zixi and she suddenly moved to the edge of the rooftop.
I could feel the cold wind whizzing past my ears. I tried my best to kick Xu Zixi, but she didn’t budge at all.
“Girl, don’t do anything stupid. I’m here to save you.”
Shang Yi finally spoke. However, a silver light flashed in front of my eyes as soon as his voice stopped, which happened to cut off the arm Xu Zixi was using to hold my neck.
I vaguely caught a glimpse of the silver light of a fan. I was not sure of what I had just seen yet because the speed was too fast.
The hand left on my neck turned into a cloud of blue smoke and dissipated. I fell heavily to the ground without anything to cushion me.
I would have fallen directly from the rooftop at the moment if Xu Zixi had taken just one more step forward.