A Leisurely and Extravagant Life - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Driving Away Fright
And so, Luo Zhengjiang and his wife once again brought Luo Tianwang back to Hemawan.
This time, when Luo Baolin once more suggested finding someone to “drive away fright” for Tianwang, Luo Zhengjiang could not refute him. Even though he clearly knew it was just feudal superstition, in this situation where there was no other way, he too began to pin his hopes—however faint—on it.
The little children thought it amusing. Luo Shengui even envied Tianwang a bit: “Your family actually invited an earth-immortal this time.”
Luo Zengcai looked like he was seventy or eighty, but villagers said he was only a little over fifty. Still, eating this “bowl of rice” shortened one’s lifespan, so he looked much older than he was.
Luo Zengcai was Hemawan’s earth-immortal. This title had a plainer name: Meishan. Meishan referred to the followers of the Meishan Water Sect; anyone initiated into the Meishan teachings was called a Meishan Water Master.
In the Luo household, Luo Zengcai set up an incense altar, bowed to invite the Three Masters of deliverance, dipped into the Five-Dragon Sacred Water, and chanted spells:
“Clear, pure water, blooming with the light of sun and moon.
Hidden within is the Northern Dipper, descending the Three Platforms.
Sacred water sprinkled, misfortune goes, fortune arrives.
One sprinkle clears the heavens,
Two sprinkles calms the earth,
Three sprinkles grant long life to man,
Four sprinkles destroy the demons.
Five-Dragon Sacred Water cleanses within and without—utter purity.
Moths flee, waters clear, the dwelling shines bright.
Chickens will not crow wildly, dogs will not bark without cause.
I solemnly command purification.
I inscribe the Purple Tenuity Star incantation:
By heavenly decree, Purple Star brings auspice.
I invite the Sun and Moon Star Lords, the Twin Dippers of North and South, to descend and assist.”
He tossed and chanted through the whole night, but still could not “cure” Luo Tianwang. What he did manage was to empty quite a bit of money from Tianwang’s parents’ hands.
Tianwang, however, remained in his same dazed, half-conscious state.
When her little boy woke for a short while, Zeng Hongmei asked softly: “Son, look at you now. Your father and I already took you to the hospital, and we tried superstition too. Nothing has worked. In the future… will you blame us?”
Tianwang shook his head. “Ma, it’s all my fault for always wanting to nap. I don’t want to sleep, but I just can’t help it.”
“Son… will you still go to school?” Hongmei asked again.
“Yes, I want to study.” Tianwang answered.
But as he spoke, he drifted off to sleep once more.
***
“All this going around in circles has drained what little savings we had. I think I’ll go out and work again in a few days,” Luo Zhengjiang told Luo Baolin.
Baolin nodded. “Go. Life is long. As for Tianwang, he is already like this—we can’t help it. We’ll raise him as best we can. If he wants to go to school, I’ll send him every day. He’ll have moments of clarity. Whatever he learns in those moments, let it be. You two staying home, watching him all day, isn’t any solution.”
Xiao Chunxiu added: “I really shouldn’t say this, but I must. Tianwang is like this now… You’re still young. Have another child. If Tianwang gets better, wonderful. If not, a younger sibling can look after him.”
Zhengjiang and Hongmei were silent for a long time.
Baolin spoke again: “Discuss it between you. If you decide, get the birth permit in the village first, then go. Everyone knows Tianwang’s condition. You fully qualify for a second child under policy.”
That night, Hongmei held her son tight in her arms as he slept deeply, wishing she could hold him forever and never let go.
The light was off. Outside, the sky was heavy with clouds, no moon to be seen. The room was pitch-black, lit only by the glowing tip of Zhengjiang’s cigarette flaring and fading.
“What do you think of Father and Mother’s words?” he asked softly after finishing a cigarette.
“What do you think?” Hongmei hugged her son even tighter. At this moment, thinking about such things filled her with guilt—as though she were abandoning him.
Zhengjiang sighed. “They’re right. We can’t take care of him forever. If he has a brother or sister, they can look after him when they’re grown.”
Pressing her face against her son’s, Hongmei sobbed uncontrollably. After a long cry, she wiped her tears and, still choked up, whispered: “Luo Zhengjiang… we must never neglect our son in the future.”
This meant she had agreed. The boy needed a companion. And the Luo family needed a healthy child to carry on the family line.
Everyone in Hemawan knew of Tianwang’s condition, even people in Shuikou Town knew. The authorities easily approved the second birth.
Zhengjiang bought a few packs of cigarettes for the village cadres, got the stamps in both the village and town offices, and received the permit.
When Hongmei left home, she wept in despair. Why must her little boy be burdened with such illness at such a young age? Now he was too small to understand what it meant—but when he grew up, he would know. It was a lifelong torment. His life ahead was long… How was he to endure?
She carried him all the way into town, still unwilling to let him go.
To her surprise, Tianwang awoke.
“Son, would you like Mama to give you a younger brother?” she asked. She had never spoken to him about this before.
“Sure! Then someone will call me ‘big brother’.” He smiled happily.
“Papa and Mama are going away. Listen to your grandparents.” She kissed his face over and over, reluctant to release him.
Tianwang suddenly felt reluctant too, and burst into tears. But the heaviness soon swept over him again; he yawned, tears still on his cheeks, and fell asleep.
***
When the new semester began, Baolin took Tianwang to school. He persuaded the school to accept him.
“If he sleeps, let him sleep. When he’s awake, let him learn whatever he can.” That’s what Baolin told the teachers.
To avoid disrupting other students, the teacher placed Tianwang in the very last row. No one wanted to share a bench with him. Before term even started, everyone in Hemawan already knew what had happened to him. Villagers whispered he had been haunted by ghosts.
At first, he sat upright and listened attentively. But before half the class was done, he had slumped onto the desk, fast asleep.
The Chinese teacher, Zhao Pingshui, read aloud from the book: “‘Dang, dang-dang! Dang, dang-dang!’ The bell on the great green tree rang out…”
But in Tianwang’s mind another voice resounded:
“Vague, as if absent; fleeting, as if present.
In the utmost void and profound stillness, the divine mechanism stirs.
The formless gives rise to form.
This is the light of the inner Li, the sign of wood and fire’s flicker, the beginning of the subtle yang.
When this divine light stirs slightly, cast downward through the gaze, faintly aware yet dimly unconscious, therein is movement.
This is the first light of Li intersecting with Kan…”