Dragon Clan: Avoid the College Entrance Examination to Slay the Dragon

Chapter 8 Hospital
The wipers left scalloped shadows on the windshield. Steel-blue rain fell from the clouds, corroding the sharp corners of the skyscrapers into blurred silhouettes. Countless shattered neon lights floated in the rearview mirror, their scarlet and blue specks like the single eye of a giant beast, peering through the rain at the lonely car at the intersection.

"We're almost at the hospital." Gu Yi thought.

After all, Lu Mingfei had dragged him to Yunyin Temple today. As soon as he stepped out of the car, raindrops as big as beans pounded the bluestone pavement, and the once bustling temple was almost completely empty in an instant. As Gu Yi followed Lu Mingfei up the wet steps and into the main hall, the abbot was dozing against the alms box, the iron eaves jingling in the downpour.

Explaining that he was haunted by an evil spirit, the old monk's dry, branch-like fingers immediately rested on Gu Yi's wrist for half an incense stick of time. Then, he suddenly gasped, "Amitabha, your pulse is as slippery as a swimming fish. It's clear that you are being haunted by an evil spirit!"

As he spoke, he pulled out a yellowed price list from under the altar. The words "Exorcism Package" in gold powder dazzled in the candlelight. Gu Yi stared at the price at the bottom, which was 6700 yuan. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lu Mingfei's throat move twice.

"Master, we are both students..." Lu Mingfei began, rubbing the seam of his trousers. Before he could finish his words, the abbot interrupted him: "Buddhism shouldn't talk about money, but these incense, candles, and ritual implements all cost money."

Then the two of them bargained like vendors in a vegetable market, and when they finally agreed on 1500 yuan, the old monk suddenly took out a POS machine from under the cushion, and his movements were so skillful that it was shocking.

The so-called exorcism ritual felt like a ridiculous bathing show. Icy "holy water" trickled down Gu Yi's spine, and the abbot dabbed cold tea on his eyelids before shouting, "Tea brightens the eyes!" The tabby cat napping under the altar jumped out startled.

After the ceremony, the two men tried to leave, but the abbot had already rolled out a mobile display case from behind the prayer flags. A peach wood sword rested on yellowed talisman paper, Five Emperors coins were wrapped around a gilded cross, and a star-moon bodhi tree was interspersed among the bodhi rosary beads.

"Donor, please stay!" The old monk's fingertips brushed over a dazzling array of warding off evil spirits. "How about a consecrated Pi Xiu to protect your home? If you donate over 2,000 yuan today, you'll also receive a free electronic wooden fish on QQ."

Gu Yi picked up a titanium necklace engraved with the Heart Sutra with his fingertips and asked, "A Buddhist temple sells crosses?"

The abbot's wide sleeves suddenly rose, and the sandalwood bracelet on his wrist jingled against his Patek Philippe. "Young donor, you're obsessed. The three religions uniting in one place demonstrates our stature. Back then, Master Wang Chongyang..." He said as he stuffed a necklace into Lu Mingfei's arms, "This item is most suitable for dispelling evil spirits!"

The abbot fooled the two of them again and again, and with the mentality of "since I'm already here", they spent hundreds of dollars to buy three necklaces. Later, when they were waiting for a car on the roadside, Gu Yi saw the abbot wearing branded clothes and getting into a Mercedes-Benz, and he immediately felt that he must have been cheated.

But Lu Mingfei didn't think so. He just patted Gu Yi on the shoulder and said, "Look at his robes, they are all inlaid with gold thread. He must be a high monk."

Gu Yi was very puzzled. "Why does a monk with a robe inlaid with gold thread mean he is an enlightened monk?"

"If you are not a high-ranking monk, how could you wear such an expensive robe?"

Gu Yi was choked by Lu Mingfei's words and didn't know how to refute for a moment. He just listened to him talking nonsense in silence. While he was thinking, the car was almost at the hospital.

"I'm getting off right away. Ask the driver to take you back."

Lu Mingfei put down the phone he had just finished talking on. "I forgot to ask you, two necklaces would be enough, why buy one more?"

"Senior Brother Chu is going abroad soon, so give him a gift." "Senior Brother Chu? You mean Chu Zihang, the one you often play basketball with? I think half of the girls in Shilan would go to watch you two play basketball."

Gu Yi thought about it and realized that there were indeed quite a few girls around when they played ball, and they would give gifts to the two of them, but they were all rejected.

"Three-fresh dumplings with preserved egg porridge," Lu Mingfei squinted at the glare of his phone. "I just called and they said it'll be delivered soon. You wait under the eaves of the booth and don't let the staff wade through the water into the hospital. Not many businesses will deliver in this kind of rain."

"You care about my brother but not me?" Gu Yi pulled open the collar of his shirt that was stuck to the back of his neck, and the metal buckle of his seat belt made a dull sound when it hit the leather seat.

The sound of a cell phone and a cover cut off the conversation. Lu Mingfei tilted his head to examine his shadowed profile and scoffed, "Someone like you, buried in the Arctic ice for three thousand years, could still be resurrected from the spot when it melts."

"You he…"

The driver's voice interrupted Gu Yi's curse words, "Hey young man, we're at the hospital!"

Gu Yi flung open the car door, the June downpour pouring down on his burning ears. He heard a slow, drawn-out voice behind him: "You left your phone number—remember to answer it..."

The muffled thud of a car door slamming, mixed with the patter of tires rolling over puddles, drowned out Lu Mingfei's unfinished words. Gu Yi wiped the rain from his face and watched the warm yellow light of the sentry box shatter into dancing gold foil in the puddles.

After receiving his dinner, Gu Yi walked into the inpatient department. The smell of disinfectant and a cacophony of noises filled the air. The fluorescent lights on the third floor hummed, and the sound of wheelchairs rolling across the tiled floor mingled with the intermittent ringing of call bells.

He opened the ward door. The old man remained in the same position, slumped in the white blankets, the green light of the bedside monitor dancing rhythmically in the twilight. Grandpa had been in a coma since returning from the Nibelungen.

He asked the ghost-like girl, and she replied that ordinary people would feel very uncomfortable if they were forcibly dragged into the Nibelungen, let alone an eighty-year-old man. The experience hurt him deeply.

Gu Yi asked the girl again if there was any way she could save him. That was the first time he saw the girl put away her cynical smile. She reached out her hand to touch Gu Yi's head, but Gu Yi dodged that time.

He sat beside the hospital bed. His grandfather's face was still kind, but it lacked the wisdom and warmth of a lifetime, and instead looked a bit weak and tired. Gu Yi remembered that when he was a child, his grandfather would always tell him stories with a smile, stories full of warmth and hope. But now, his own story seemed to have come to an end, as if all the good things in his life were being taken away.

"It shouldn't be like this." Gu Yi murmured softly, his voice sounding particularly clear in the empty ward.

Gu Yi stared out the window, his thoughts drifting away. He had been by his grandfather's side almost every day since he'd been in a coma, watching the once strong and determined man gradually become thinner, until even the most basic things, like getting out of bed, became a luxury. He held his grandfather's hand, knowing that this wasn't an illness he could overcome; it was a wall that was infinitely high, above, below, and to the left and right.

Outside, the torrential rain gradually formed a curtain, and amid the sound of broken jade and beads hitting the window frame, Gu Yi's eyes misted over. He gripped the old man's withered hand with white knuckles, his chest heaving violently as he tried to swallow the bitterness surging in his chest.

(End of this chapter)