Chapter 89 Part 2
When the homeroom teacher and the principal arrived, they saw the bizarre scene: the boy on the floor, wrestling with thin air, as if possessed.
Remembering yesterday’s incident, the teacher called out, “Teacher Zhou? Zhou Fenghua? Please stop causing trouble! You care about your students! This will affect their studies!”
This was absurd!
A dead teacher fighting a student?! And how did she even get in? The school was sealed.
Just then, Zhou Yi arrived with Officer Wang and the Gu masters.
Grandma Lai, holding a bamboo tube, dipped her pinky in the insect repellent, flipped her hand three times, then flicked the liquid at Tang Liang.
As the dark liquid landed on his skin, he froze, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, a black insect emerging from his throat.
Grandma Lai quickly captured it in her jar.
“Ah—!” The students screamed.
The principal and teachers were stunned, a student… dead… at their school?!
Zhou Yi quickly explained the situation, and the principal, initially horrified, then realized, “So Teacher Zhou wasn’t causing trouble?”
She was here to protect her students?
The students were terrified. So Tang Liang, their classmate, wasn’t even human, just a bug wearing human skin? Some girls almost fainted.
The boy who almost drank the water was shaking, his legs weak.
He knelt, kowtowing towards the air, tears streaming down his face, “Thank you, Teacher Zhou! If it weren’t for you…”
Zhou Fenghua, not bothering to help him up, scanned the other students.
‘I… I can see the mature Gu worms inside them…’
Grandma Lai relayed her words, and the principal, slamming his fist into his hand, ordered, “Seal the school! All students confined to their classrooms!”
He looked at the air where Zhou Fenghua was, his voice filled with respect. “Teacher Zhou, please, we’re counting on you.”
After they left, the police removing Tang Liang’s body, the students, although scared, began discussing.
Having witnessed Zhou Yi’s possession and fall, their acceptance of the supernatural had increased.
“So, anyone who shared saliva might have those eggs? And if they hatch, we’ll become like Tang Liang?” The class president summarized, swallowing nervously.
“I’m reporting Chen Yong and Li Jiajia! They’re dating!”
“And I saw the class representative and the girl from Class 2 kissing the other night!”
“…”
Zhou Yi, listening to the gossip, pushed up his glasses, so he was the only one truly focused on studying.
“Hey, is that the point now?!” the class representative, holding his pen, exclaimed. “Are we just going to let Teacher Zhou be trapped in one of those pots?!”
Silence fell.
Justice and retribution, a universal concept.
Many of them, from the villages, had seen those pots before, their grandparents consulting with Gu masters when they were sick, using insects for healing.
Those pots, unlike prisons with windows and sunlight…
A student whispered, “With all these supernatural things happening, what difference does it make if Teacher Zhou stays until June? We’ll get used to it.”
“Think about it, even as a ghost, she won’t harm us, and she can see those things we can’t, maybe even warn us! The principal can just give her a new job, teach us ghost evacuation drills!”
Another objected, “But she’s a ghost! Didn’t Doctor Wu say ghosts cause illnesses? Teacher Zhou knows this, that’s why she’s willing to be… confined.”
They walked to the windows, the school sealed off, police cars and an ambulance outside, a body bag being carried out, another living corpse.
“Zhou Yi, call Doctor Wu!”
Zhou Yi contacted Wu Heng on WeChat. Wu Heng’s face was tense, and they could faintly hear Wu Su screaming in the background.
Having arranged the banquet and chosen several pigs, intending to slaughter a few in the backyard for his son’s coming-of-age ceremony, Wu Su, with the useless Chen Zhao and You Jin unable to hold them,
Was now riding a pig, screaming, “Help! Xiao Heng, I don’t want to ride a pig!”
Wu Heng, telling Da Bai to handle it, took the phone and sat down.
Zhou Yi, holding the phone, the other students crowding around him, said, “Xiao Heng, it seems Teacher Zhou and those Gu masters caught several living corpses, but she can’t see those who only have the eggs inside.”
Wu Heng nodded. “Just eggs, not a problem, some deworming medicine, or the vaccine works too, I’ll post some common remedies in a few days.”
The students immediately thought of the rumored press conference and relaxed.
“Teacher Zhou, is there… any other way?” Zhou Yi asked, unable to bear the thought.
Life and death, if she could reincarnate, it would be a different story, but this…
Wu Heng glanced at Da Bai, who had rushed out, hissing at the rampaging pig, finally stopping it.
“You all know the story of Nezha, right? He was reborn in a new body.”
Ancient shamanic practices predated even the Shang and Zhou dynasties, similar principles.
“A lotus root! Yes, Nezha was a lotus root person!” one student exclaimed.
“We can get some! They’re cheap!” another added excitedly.
Wu Heng shook his head, “No need for lotus roots. If you’re sincere, each dig a handful of soil from in front of your main hall’s entrance, mix it with well water, form a ball, and place it on the Nuo God Temple’s altar.”
He had considered paper effigies. Powerful practitioners could bind souls to them, practically human as long as they carried an umbrella during the day, but they were fragile, easily damaged, flammable, and even Yin messengers might mistake them for lost souls and capture them.
But mud, a primal element, a gift from Heaven, connected to the earth, the perfect vessel for a soul wanting to remain in the human world.
“If, by tomorrow morning, they haven’t dried or cracked…”
Zhou Yi asked anxiously, “What does that mean?”
Wu Heng, glancing at the paper figure with Zhou Fenghua’s birth date, smiled faintly, “It means Heaven has granted leniency.”
The legend of Nuwa creating humans from mud… Wu Heng, although a shaman doctor, couldn’t replicate that. He had molded an ear and teeth for Liu Ziyang, but those were just decorations, like prosthetic eyes, only those with merit could receive Heaven’s favor, their wishes fulfilled, the mud body more than just a shell, even recognized by Yin messengers as a living person.
“Understood!” they shouted.
They couldn’t offer much, but a handful of soil was easy.
The incident at Hezipo Middle School couldn’t be hidden. Crowds had gathered outside the school.
After all, that teacher in Doctor Wu’s live stream, she was from their school! Something must have happened.
School was dismissed early. As they left, carrying their backpacks, they were bombarded with questions.
Zhou Yi, a day student, wanted to get the soil, but how? He usually rode his scooter, today he came by police car.
“Hey, aren’t you Doctor Wu’s friend, Zhou Yi?” a voice called out.
He turned and saw a luxury car from the provincial capital. Looking at the passengers, he said, “Oh, you’re the one with the snake fetuses, aren’t you?”
He Yunxiao chuckled and nodded. Then Zhou Yi, looking at the others, “And you guys are the ones who were crawling around our village during summer vacation.”
Li Hao and his friends were outraged!
“You only remember us crawling?! What about the 5G base station we built?!”
Zhou Yi apologized, “Ah, that was just… more memorable.”
They were speechless.
“Get in, we’ll take you to Nan Nuo,” He Yunxiao, barely able to contain his laughter, offered.
Zhou Yi, knowing their connection with Wu Heng, accepted without hesitation, figuring they were probably going to his birthday party.
This road led to Nan Nuo village, they must have passed by the school and seen the commotion.
They nodded, exactly.
Eighteen was a special birthday. They had made time, their families also supportive. This was He Yunxiao’s first visit.
“What happened at your school? Police cordon, body bags?” Li Hao asked. “Could it be… that teacher from the live stream?”
Zhou Yi quickly corrected him. “Don’t speculate! Not Teacher Zhou, it’s the Gu worms.”
Knowing their connection with Wu Heng, he briefly explained the situation, Li Hao and the others’ eyes widening in shock.
He Yunxiao couldn’t believe it. “What? Gu worms controlling corpses?! Pretending to be human?! What is this world coming to?!”
Li Hao, thinking for a moment, then asked, “Zhou Yi, do you know… the grades of those students? They must be failing, right?”
Zhou Yi, recalling their ranking, said casually, “Not too bad. I don’t know about the others, but that Tang Liang kid can sometimes score over 500, way above the first-tier university admission score.”
Li Hao and his friends almost burst into tears. “Seriously? Bugs smarter than us?! We’re the real insects!”
Bugs apparently study?
Thanks for the hard work!