The second book in the Oolong Wizard series, titled The Normal Mind

Chapter 9

I told Xiaoyue that my father is still a farmer. My Luo family was a prominent family in the town, but it declined at the end of the Qing Dynasty. My grandfather used to teach in the town, but he was persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution. My father has been self-reliant since he was a child. He took on the responsibility of supporting the family at the age of thirteen, started doing dried bamboo shoot business at the age of twenty, opened a shop in the city at the age of twenty-five, married my mother and settled down in the city, and started his own business in Jiangsu at the age of thirty. Now he has nine shops of various sizes and two agricultural product processing plants. The scope of production and sales includes all local agricultural and sideline products.

From the age of four, my father was away from home for many years, and my mother often had to go to help. As a result, I was raised in my old home in Kuokou Town by my grandmother until I was nine years old when she passed away. It can be said that I spent most of my childhood in my hometown.

In my memory, the deep courtyards, firewalls, ancient alleyways, oil-paper umbrellas, the sweetness of maltose, the booming of popcorn, the town's tranquility and sorrow, its classicism and serenity, are all etched into my emotions, bit by bit.

In recent years, however, the town has completely changed. Through the bamboo shoot industry and various forms of aquaculture, the farmers have prospered. New villages with cement and brick buildings have filled in the ancient alleyways. Only my ancestral home and the old houses in the streets where the entire Luo clan resides have been preserved. The reason is my father. He spent a large sum of money to buy a large plot of land outside the town from the government and gifted it to the clan to build a new village. This way, the government avoided demolition fees and demonstrated its achievements, while my Luo clan benefited and preserved our old house, avoiding the scorn of the older generation. At the same time, my father's agricultural product business is a major source of revenue for the town.

My father therefore enjoyed extremely high prestige in the town and among the clan. In the early 1990s, the town returned the Luo Clan Ancestral Hall, which had originally been used as a granary for the production brigade, and my father donated a large sum of money to renovate it.

Later, when the family established a clan association, my father, who was of a lower generation, was elected as the president. He had to repeatedly decline and refuse, and finally proposed to serve only as the honorary president.

As soon as we arrived at the crossroads outside the town, nearly a hundred people, including my uncles and cousins, my father's close acquaintances, and several senior vice presidents and directors from the clan, were waiting there. When we got out of the car, the folk band they had hired immediately played welcoming music.

---janeadam

Reply [17]: Chapter Eight Green Robe

The autumn wind is brisk, and the chill of winter is already in the air. The leaves of the plane trees lining the road are turning slightly yellow.

After getting off the bus, I followed my parents and, in the crowd, repeatedly bowed and greeted the elders as they asked, trying to be a well-behaved and polite child.

Xiaoyue remained in the car. This was a special treatment her father gave her, partly because he was worried that she wouldn't adapt well, and partly because he was concerned that Xiaoyue's stunning appearance might frighten people.

I know that these relatives and clansmen are incredibly affectionate towards me, but only because of my father. More than ten years have passed, and my impressions and feelings towards them have become quite faint.

Hands waved in front of my eyes, and smiling faces, their skin dry from the sun, appeared and disappeared in a blur. Handshakes, bows, greetings, and answers to questions about marriage and starting a family filled me with growing impatience.

Time seems to drag on endlessly. I'm so envious of Xiaoyue!

The wind, too, became heavy and dull.

Suddenly, the world fell silent, and a beautiful, melodious sound of a flute reached my ears, followed by the clear, joyful voice of a young girl reciting poetry:

"Having failed the Lord of Spring twice in two years, I am returning, determined to make the most of this spring."

It felt like a dream, an indescribably pleasant and mysterious experience, like hearing water flowing in the desert, instantly bringing coolness and clarity to the body and mind.

Following the sound, I turned around suddenly in the crowd and saw a petite yet full-figured girl standing under a camphor tree, looking at me from the other side of the crowd.

I trembled slightly. In my mind, the grass-green dress and those beautiful, clear eyes seemed vaguely familiar.

I looked closely and saw a girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a green dress, with an oval face, big eyes, and long hair draped over her shoulders. She was pure and beautiful, though not as beautiful as Xiaoyue, but she had a different kind of innocent and simple charm. She had a sweet smile on her face, stood gracefully, and stared at me intently, her mouth moving as if she was saying something to me.

Her surprised expression made it seem as if she had been standing there all these years, waiting for my arrival; and vaguely, it seemed as if such a promise had been made to me long ago in my childhood.

However, the distance of just over ten meters was filled with so much noise. As I tried to walk over, an elder immediately grabbed my hand and began asking me a barrage of questions.

I had to give her a wry smile and continue with my social engagements.

When I finally had a moment to spare and quickly walked to the spot where she had just appeared, she was already gone.

"Excuse me, do you know who that long-haired girl in the green dress who was standing here just now is, and which way she went?" I asked anxiously to a flag bearer who had been standing there the whole time.

The flag bearer looked at me blankly, and after I repeated myself, he shook his head in bewilderment and said, "There's no such girl. I've never seen one." Then he asked the people next to him, and they all said they hadn't seen one either.

Was it a dream? I gently placed my hand where she had just stood, but I couldn't sense any spiritual energy.

Everything vanished like smoke, leaving only a faint fragrance, leaving me with a lingering sense of bewilderment and melancholy.

The family ancestral worship ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, but as the honorary president, I need to participate in the formulation of the entire ceremony's procedures first. My father took us directly by car to the Luo Family Ancestral Hall in the south of the town.

The ancestral hall, covering an area of 300 acres, was where my cousins and I played when I was a child. In particular, the pair of stone lions on the gate tower were where my friends and I often rode on them, shouting and slashing with great majesty.

The ancestral hall is divided into a gate tower, outer courtyard, inner courtyard, release pond, upper hall, main hall, and rear hall. It is decorated with carved beams and painted rafters, with flying eaves and upturned corners, and is magnificent. On a pillar that is so thick that one person can barely hug it, there hangs an arched wooden couplet. Of course, these were all added and repaired by the clan association later; the original ones were burned down long ago.

Standing in front of the gatehouse to greet us was Luo Zhongsheng, the current clan head and president of the clan association. He had white hair and beard, kind eyes, and a ruddy complexion; he was a highly respected man. Standing next to him was a tall, thin old man in a Taoist robe, who looked drowsy, as if he hadn't slept all night.

But I sensed that there was spiritual energy fluctuating around him, but it was somewhat mixed and not very pure.

My parents immediately bowed to Chairman Luo with the respect due to juniors. The clan chief warmly shook my father's hand, and then they walked together up to the mountain gate. As they walked, Chairman Luo introduced the elder beside him:

"This Master Xu is someone we specially invited to perform the ritual. He is a well-known entrepreneur from the Luo family and also the honorary president of the clan association."

Master Xu kept his eyes half-closed and nodded lazily as a return gesture.

But when my father introduced Xiaoyue, his eyes lit up noticeably. He opened his eyes, which seemed to gleam with a divine light, and looked at Xiaoyue and me with a look of surprise and doubt. Clearly, this sorcerer was quite skilled, sensing that our spiritual energy was much stronger than he had expected. Xiaoyue was still wearing her veil, standing closely beside me, very docile.

In the hall, smoke filled the air and tall candles shone brightly. The wooden carving and memorial tablet of Luo Yuzhang, the ancestor of the Luo family, stood on a high shrine, with a whole pig, a whole sheep, and five kinds of sacrificial animals such as chicken, duck, and fish placed in front of it.

A young Taoist priest was performing a ritual with a middle-aged Taoist priest. They held a Taoist scripture and chanted incantations, striking a cymbal after each recitation, while swaying and dancing with a peach wood sword. Every now and then, the young priest would stop and burn paper robes covered with talismans inscribed in the incense burner.

"What are they doing?" I asked Xiaoyue curiously, as she was a master in this field.

"They are reciting the Supreme Mystery of Salvation from Suffering and burning the Rebirth Mantra. This kind of incantation robe can not only help the deceased pass on and eliminate the karmic obstacles of the living, but also increase the power of the blessings of the deceased and the blessings of the spirits of the dead." Xiaoyue frowned slightly, a hint of annoyance in her expression. I knew she couldn't stand the strong smell of incense in the hall.

"It's alright here. I'll talk to Dad and then go home."

"Okay, I'd like to see the place where you used to live."

Dad led Mom to the ancestral shrine, where they kowtowed three times, silently thanking the ancestors and deities for protecting their business over the years.

---janeadam

Reply [18]: When I turned around, I saw that the old Taoist priest named Master Xu looked shocked. This guy must have been eavesdropping.

Just as I was telling my dad to go home first.

Suddenly, the old monk lunged at Xiaoyue, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed three times, stunning all the dozen or so people in the hall, including my parents—

Because I was afraid they would worry, I only told them that Xiaoyue was a girl from Yong'an Town, and that they met and fell in love during a business trip. My father always valued character and temperament, and Xiaoyue was impeccable in these aspects.

Xiaoyue remained calm. I saw her fingers make a cloud-like or flower-like gesture before she helped Master Xu up, then took my hand and gently led me outside. I knew that Master Xu had recognized her, but the Xiao family had always been a family religion; there couldn't possibly be a follower with the surname Xu, could there?