Chapter 38: Substitute Doll

Sitting in the car, I had a feeling almost like an illusion, and I also started to feel a bit doubtful about my cheap master.

“Master, why can they get this kind of car to take us?” I asked.

“It is nothing. They are officials. I once helped their boss catch a ghost,” Old Man Jiang replied as if it was perfectly normal.

I was still young at the time and did not think too much. Whatever he said was what it was, and even that small bit of doubt in me faded away.

“San Wa Er,” Old Man Jiang suddenly called me.

“Hmm?”

“When we get back, do not tell your family that we rode in this car, and do not say we went to the town either.”

“Why?”

“No reason. If you still want to ride in a car next time, keep it a secret for me. Also, I am your master. What the master says goes. You understand respecting your teacher, right?” Old Man Jiang threatened me, mixing inducement with intimidation against a seven year old kid.

“Alright.” I agreed quite simply. I did not really understand what respecting the teacher meant. I only knew I very much wanted to ride in that car again.

By the time we got home, it was around eight in the evening. After all, the car only dropped us off at the dirt road entrance of the village market area, and we walked the rest of the way back ourselves.

When I got home, I was tired. I quickly finished my meal while gulping it down, then collapsed onto the bed. But my cheap master did not even have time to eat.

After lying there for a while and feeling better, I wanted to go see what Old Man Jiang was doing. During that time, my parents came in several times to look at me, but each time they hesitated as if they wanted to say something and then left again, which left me a bit puzzled.

Looking back now, they probably wanted to ask what I had done with Old Man Jiang all day, but felt it was inappropriate. After all, they had already handed their son over to him as a disciple. As long as he brought me out and safely brought me back, that was the greatest reassurance.

In the courtyard, I saw that Old Man Jiang had lit an oil lamp. Under its light, he was carefully pasting paper.

I ran over and saw that he had made a frame out of bamboo strips, and he was now pasting paper onto it. From the outline of the frame, you could tell at a glance it was a human figure.

“Master, what are you doing?” I asked curiously.

“Can’t you see? Making a paper effigy,” Old Man Jiang said. He was working very carefully, and while pasting the paper, he was also drawing and marking on the bamboo frame with a strangely colored ink that I could not understand at all.

I squatted beside him and watched him seriously making the paper effigy. After a while I got bored, and noticed there were two sheets of paper on the stone table nearby. I picked them up curiously and looked.

One of them had writing on it, something like a year and a month, but I could not fully recognize it with my second grade level. The other sheet was a photo of a person. It looked like a photo, but it was printed on paper. I knew this kind, it was printed on, just like textbooks.

I studied the image carefully. It was a woman, very beautiful. Her eyebrows were sharp and elegant, her eyes long and expressive, her gaze flowing, with a high nose bridge and thin lips.

Looking at her like this, she seemed both like a beautiful woman and a handsome man. I was not stupid and immediately guessed it, so I said to Old Man Jiang, “Master, this is Yu Xiaohong, right? What do you want her photo for?”

“Not just the photo. I also got her Eight Characters,” Old Man Jiang said as he finished pasting the last piece of paper, explaining in detail. “I am going to make a substitute doll. Without these two things, it cannot be done.”

“A substitute doll?” I did not quite understand.

“What is Li Fengxian’s greatest wish? To live together with Yu Xiaohong until old age. To resolve her resentment, we must untie her heart knot. This substitute doll is to take the place of Yu Xiaohong. You can treat it as Yu Xiaohong herself, to accompany Li Fengxian.”

“Can a paper doll really replace a person?” I scratched my head, still confused.

“Of course a paper doll alone cannot. Making a substitute doll is not simple at all. For example, the bamboo used for the skeleton must be made according to Yu Xiaohong’s bone weight ratio. This bone weight is not the weight of bones, but the fortune bone weight from the Eight Characters. And on the frame, you must inscribe transformation patterns, a special kind of conversion rune. In ancient legends, powerful transformation patterns could temporarily turn decay into wonder. For example, if you fold a bird and draw transformation patterns on it and infuse your power into it, the bird can fly for a while. There are many other details. It is complicated.”

While explaining patiently to me, Old Man Jiang had already picked up a brush and begun drawing on the paper covered rough form, seemingly preparing to draw a human face.

Old Man Jiang’s painting skills were truly excellent. In just a short while, he had already drawn the eyebrows and eyes based on the photo. Compared with Yu Xiaohong’s picture, it was actually seven or eight parts similar. At times I really felt there was nothing my cheap master could not do.

After watching for a while, I got sleepy. I kept leaning on Old Man Jiang, then on the stone table, yawning nonstop.

“San Wa Er, go sleep for a while. I still need about an hour to finish. After I am done, I will take you out to handle something,” Old Man Jiang said casually, probably annoyed at me circling around him like a little monkey and yawning.

I went inside as he said. It was Sunday the next day, so I could technically skip school openly, but after a whole day of running around I was already exhausted.

I lay on the bed without even taking off my clothes and fell asleep within a minute. In a daze, I only remembered my mother coming in to take off my clothes and cover me with a blanket.

I was woken up by my father. After waking me, he said softly, “San Wa Er, hurry up. Your master is already waiting for you outside.”

He also wiped my face with cold water. The moment the cold water hit me, I woke up completely, though I could not help but mutter that being a Daoist was quite tiring. Running around all day was not enough, and there was still work at night.

After getting dressed, I walked into the courtyard and indeed saw that Old Man Jiang was already waiting for me.

“Master, how long did I sleep? What time is it now?” I stretched and asked.

“Not long. About two hours. I finished the paper effigy, went up the mountain to get something, then had your mother call you. It is still about ten minutes before eleven.” As he spoke, Old Man Jiang glanced at his wrist, and I immediately saw a shiny large steel watch.

“Master, you are really rich,” I said. A large steel watch was a rare thing, definitely a symbol of wealth, and my master’s was especially unusual.

“Heh, you want one too?”

“Yes, I do.” I was an honest kid.

“You are not getting it.” He lifted his chin proudly and walked off.

I was so angry. Did my cheap master not think teasing a seven year old like this was pointless?

He led me along the road toward the village market area. In one hand he held mine, and in the other he carried a paper figure. The paper figure wore a pink opera style outfit and a small opera hat. It looked vivid and lifelike, almost perfectly formed, and its face was strikingly similar to Yu Xiaohong in the photo.

“Master, Li Fengxian will not come looking for my sister tonight, right?” I was very worried about this.

“No. The three talismans have already used up at least half her baleful energy. If she wants to come again, she will need two or three days at least. It is like a person who stayed up all night doing something seriously. The next day they will need a long rest, otherwise their spirit will be damaged. That is called harming the spirit. Ghosts are the same.”

“Oh. Then what about after two or three days?”

The answer I got was a slap on my head.

I looked up innocently at the owner of the slap, my cheap master Old Man Jiang, still not understanding why I was hit. But he glared and shouted, “Do I look like someone so incapable? Forget two or three days, I will settle this tonight.”

Just like that, we headed overnight toward the graveyard in the village market area. Perhaps thinking I was too slow, Old Man Jiang simply carried me on his back and strode forward.

Lying on his back, I could not really feel how fast he was walking, but I just felt that roads that were usually very far away seemed to be reached in no time.

“Master, you walk pretty fast,” I muttered sleepily from his back, almost drifting off.

“This counts as fast? You have never seen real skilled practitioners. They can travel a thousand miles in a single leap,” Old Man Jiang said with a disdainful snort.

“You are spreading superstitions again, Master. Have you ever seen them?” I said dismissively.

“I have not. But they must exist. When the spirit reaches a certain level, it can travel thousands of miles, and eventually even move the physical body. Those people are true great masters, probably already immortal beings beyond the mortal world,” Old Man Jiang said after thinking for a moment, answering very seriously.

“Hmph…” I did not believe in gods, even if I believed in ghosts. I expressed my disdain with a snort, and immediately got my butt painfully pinched by Old Man Jiang. I did not dare say anything after that.

And it was really fast. The road that normally took me an hour and a half to walk felt like it was over in a moment on his back. Old Man Jiang looked at his large steel watch proudly and chuckled, “My lightness skill is pretty good. Less than an hour. Heh.”