The Tale Never Ends Chapter 175 Lu Shengnan

I was annoyed. Honestly. The girl was too direct and blunt for my liking and I retorted coldly, "I am my father's son and this is the name he has given me. The name which I am proud to bear and I am not pleased with what you said about my name."

The girl merely shrugged her shoulders at my reluctance to banter. "Moreover, I don't know that girl and I don't know that she's a friend of yours. Is it wrong to look at them and just grin?" I continued viciously. I didn't know what this girl was thinking; either to try to talk to me or she was approaching me only for some other motives. But most girls would have immediately left indignantly after such sharp words from me. But instead, she giggled. "Come on, there's no need to be so serious! I'm just trying to chat! There's no need to demonstrate to me your close father-and-son love!" I did my best to keep my face straight, staring at her with hardly any more words.

But the girl seemed rather impervious to the tense awkwardness lulling between us. She broke into a cheerful grin herself and patted my shoulder, "Come on! Don't sulk! Let me buy you lunch as a show of goodwill!" But I had no interest in entertaining her invite. But before a "No" escaped my lips, I remembered that the bold girl smitten with Instructor Cao was her friend! This could be my chance to put my skills to the test, the thought flashed through my mind and I said, "Yes."

I sat with the impossibly-generous and unpretentious girl at lunch. In truth, I was hardly interested in the food. The enigma of the girl and the dark aura was all that occupied my mind. But she was in contrast having a great appetite! I stared as she wolfed down some potatoes and steak and was instantly reminded of Chongxi.

A flatly disinterested me looked on with a hand holding my head and I was growing restless. The girl seemed to notice suddenly and she tore her eyes off her food. "Why aren't you eating?" I shook my head dismissively, "I'm not hungry." She gave another shrug and continue digging in. Then I asked, "Should you not tell me your name, since I have already told you mine?" She looked at me and mumbled through her food, "You heard my name when it was called out loudly during a head count!" "And do you expect me to remember the names of everyone in the class in the first few days of our school year?" I rebutted, exasperated. She chuckled. "My name is Lu Shengnan!" And she scratched her cheek sheepishly. "I saw you talking quite lively to others in the past few days. Why are you being so sour towards me?"

If there was anything that I wished to say that the time, it must have got stuck on its way out of my throat. I stared at her, not knowing how to react. But I bore well in mind that I had need of help from her: information. In a single blink, I quickly wiped my expression clean and shrugged too, smiling. Lu Shengnan giggled and finished the last bit of her food and pushed the plate from her, stretching herself and steering off the subject. "What are you studying here?" I looked around and saw some fumes rising into the air; this was a smoking cafeteria, I saw, and I took out a cigarette, deposited it between my lips and lighted it. Unexpectedly, Lu Shengnan sprang up and pounced on my cigarette, taking it and putting it into her mouth instead. Briefly dumbfounded for a split second, I took out another cigarette and set it aflame, while saying simply through the smoke, "Zither."

But my answer seemed to be the one that she did not expect. She choked and coughed. Only when she was feeling better, she stared at me incredulously, "WHAT?! YOU'RE IN THE ZITHER CLASS TOO?! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HEARD A BOY TAKING THIS CLASS!" I could almost feel the veins popping on my forehead, but not to the point of being angry. That could be due to her being a fellow smoker. I chuckled, "What are you? A country bumpkin? Have you never heard of boys learning how to play the zither before? But what you said earlier, does that mean you are also a zither class student too?"

Lu Shengnan shook a fist in front of my chest. "You're right! So that makes us part of a brotherhood, or a sisterhood, I suppose! But your name's too long! I'll just call you Shiyan then!" What a blunt and honest girl, I mused. I shook my head wearily and nodded.

We talked some more before I did my best to look nonchalant when I finally began asking, "So, that bold girl from our class is a friend of yours." Lu Shengnan flicked the ash from her cigarette and answered, "Who? Oh! You're talking about Huang Li!" So her name was Huang Li, I mused, What a well-given name! The name of "Huang Li" shared the same pronunciation as "Huangli" (also known as "Tung Shing" - the Chinese divination almanac), and it was generally considered auspicious for anyone to take a view at the Huangli almanac before leaving home. Huang Li was a student of the piano, Lu Shengnan then told me, and she was a cheerful and bright person. But she could be very persistent, Lu Shengnan warned, and she was also a superstitious person. But these were traits that I had already guessed.

"Well, I guess it's public knowledge that she is persistent and headstrong. But what about her being superstitious?" Lu Shengnan raised a leg on the seat beside her and propped an arm on that knee, looking more masculine than almost every boy in the cafeteria, "Have you played with an ouija board before?"

The mention of "ouija board" almost had me doubling over inside, but I put on a blank expression, "Nope." I might not have meddled with such things before, but I definitely know more about these things that all of you!

Whereas Lu Shengnan looked earnest when she heard me saying no; she began on a long oratory about ouija boards, saying that they originated from the West and shared similar principals with Chinese divination methods that involved ghosts such as those using little saucers and pens.

Her long lecture began to sound more passionate and vehement, but I quickly stopped and interrupted her, "Wait. I'm meaning to ask, what does the board has anything to do with being superstitious?" Lu Shengnan glowered at me with indignance. "Do you not understand? Do you believe in these things?" I did my best to maintain my expression while shaking my head rationally, and she slammed a fist into the table, "And that is why! No one does! But Huang Li truly believes in these things! You know nothing! She had been sitting with the board through the entire night till this morning, sounding as if she had gone mad, murmuring to herself, 'Does he love me?' 'How should I confess to him?' 'Should I buy him lunch or treat him to chocolate?' and so on!"

I see... So this Huang Li had been asking the bunch of ghosts a whole slur of nonsensical questions! Heaven knows which bloody ghost had so much patience in entertaining her! But there was still one last doubt: Huang Li was supposed to have been possessed by now. Yet she was still looking just fine, aside from the dark aura haunting over her like a shadow. "What happened next?" I asked Lu Shengnan again. She pursed her lips and went on, "When I woke up this morning, I heard her saying to the board, 'I still have four days. Please help me. I need to have him!' or something like that!"

I stifled a laugh, and so did Lu Shengnan when she saw me almost bursting. She was thinking that I was amused by what she said, but I was almost curling up at how stupid Huang Li was! Everything comes with a price. That was the eternal law that governed everything in the world. No ghost would have agreed to help her without its price. And although there was no knowing what the ghost might demand, the price always came due. Huang Li might have succeeded in summoning ghosts to help her and they had naturally acceded to her request. But what she had failed to fully comprehend, was the price of their help that would surely come after four days if she managed to win the instructor's heart.

That would also mean that I would be in no hurry to deal with the ghosts for now. I might as well just enjoy the show for the next few days!

I squashed the stub of my cigarette and looked at the time. We were almost due for the next session. I went to the university mini-mart and got two cans of iced Coke and tossed one to Lu Shengnan, "Let's go. It's time to regroup and let's see what happens next between her and the instructor." Lu Shengnan chuckled and prodded me with a fist before we walked back to the direction of the school field when her arm over my shoulder.

We had only stepped out of the cafeteria when we met face-to-face with Huang Li and Instructor Cao! They were walking abreast while Lu Shengnan's arm was still over my shoulders, looking more like brothers than mere friends. I smiled at them and they quickly traded a sheepish look after seeing us and immediately blushed! "Err... I'll leave you to it. I'll need to get prepared. Please do not be late for the next regroup," he muttered and trotted away quickly. I resisted any attempts to smirk and gently shook off Lu Shengnan's arm instead, saying to them, "You guys go on. I have something to do too." And trying not to laugh, I whirled and left.

Back at the school field, there were many freshmen who were back and ready for the next exercise session. A fellow dorm mate waved at me, looking gleeful. "Way to go, Shiyan! Look at you! How did you manage to get a girl to approach you!" I noticed that Instructor Cao was just nearby and he was listening. I giggled. "I'm just a small fry! Look at Instructor Cao, he's the real deal!" And that made the instructor's cheek blazed red again although he glared at me incredulously. But there was nothing he could say nor do, not when everyone's eyes were upon him at the same time.

Instructor Cao said nothing. But he sure did his best to make sure we would never get on his wrong side again; that dorm mate and I were sentenced to an additional ten rounds of running around the fields. We crumbled to the ground when we finally reached the end, both tired beyond reckoning. We lay down on the grass as everyone else was dismissed and there we remained, talking and chatting, until a figure stood in our view of the setting sun and kicked me.

Chapter end