Early in the morning, as the sun rose in the east, Xie Yilin and I had already arrived on the street. YunQingYue's words from last night made me feel uneasy, so it felt strange to be walking with Xie Yilin now. Along the way, I kept stealing glances at her, trying to see if she really liked me. After looking for a while, I still couldn't figure it out; maybe I just don't understand women very well. This has always been my weakness - I'm not good at interacting with girls and have trouble understanding their feelings. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked YunQingYue that question.
To my dismay, YunQingYue refused to answer me and only snorted coldly before going back to sleep: "Who would like you?" My face was full of black lines; this girl always left me helpless without any solution.
Fortunately, everything was normal with Xie Yilin so my mood quickly relaxed after we bought some buns and finished eating them simply. Then we started buying things needed for summoning spirits which were not easy to find since they required searching store by store or even making them ourselves. By the time we had everything ready it was already noon.
Xie Yilin bought a suitcase and put all our stuff inside while I helped her drag it along as we went together for lunch on our bikes before heading towards her ex-boyfriend Han Tianjiu's house.
It was past two o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at Han Tianjiu's house located in a village called Hanxutun where people mainly had surnames of either Han or Xu. The location of Hanxutun is relatively remote and poor but what surprised us was that conditions seemed pretty good at Han Tianjiu's home - they lived in a tiled house with a newly renovated yard which looked like a well-off family.
After Xie Yilin's introduction, I learned that the money used to build this house was actually compensation from Han Tianjiu's death. The driver who hit him paid their family 150,000 yuan which had now become their welfare.
This situation made me feel uneasy and unsure of what to think. Xie Yilin knocked on the door and Han Tianjiu's mother answered it - a typical rural woman in her fifties with short stature, slightly dark skin, and a naturally smiling face that made people feel kind-hearted. Her spirits seemed good; she must have already come to terms with Han Tianjiu's death.
Xie Yilin called her "Aunt Han" and I followed suit calling her "Aunt". Seeing Xie Yilin, Aunt Han was obviously surprised but after staring at her for quite some time she finally grabbed hold of Xie Yilin's hand saying: "Oh my goodness! You're such a good girl! How could you travel so far? Come inside quickly!"
After sitting down in the living room and exchanging pleasantries while chatting about various things, Xie Yilin told Aunt Han why we were there. Apparently only Aunt Han was home since according to her husband he went out working while his younger son was still studying at school so she basically stayed home alone watching over everything.
Hearing about our purpose for coming here moved Aunt Han deeply as tears streamed down her face while holding onto Xie Yilin's hand: "Girl...I know you're a good child...it's just too bad that our family is not blessed enough to marry you into our household...oh dear...this child (Han Tianjiu), he was doing so well studying outside when suddenly..."
"Aunt don't cry anymore please rest assured even if something happened to Tianjiu I will remember him for the rest of my life." Xie Yilin comforted Aunt Han while also asking her: "Aunt, to be honest with you, I really miss Tianjiu. The reason why I came this time is not for anything else but just to talk to him. This little master (referring to me) is a divine person who knows how to summon spirits from the underworld but we need your help Aunt can you fulfill my wish?
Of course I can," Aunt Han wiped away her tears, looked at me with a somewhat suspicious expression, and instinctively grabbed Xie Yilin's hand to ask, "Girl, is this child reliable? Can he really summon spirits?"
"Definitely. Auntie, you can rest assured," Xie Yilin said. "As long as you follow his instructions, it will definitely work."
"Mm-hmm...well then," Aunt Han nodded but changed the subject and said to Xie Yilin: "I understand how you feel about this matter. But we shouldn't handle it ourselves. Let me think of a good way for you. Later on, I'll take you to see Guan Wangpo."
"Guan Wangpo?" Both Xie Yilin and I were puzzled.
"You'll find out later. Don't you want to meet Tian Jiu and talk to him? Guan Wangpo specializes in that." Aunt Han told us.
Upon hearing this, Xie Yilin's eyes lit up and she couldn't help but beg Aunt Han: "Aunt Han, we have nothing else going on right now. Can you take us there?"
Aunt Han nodded and said that we should get ready before leaving soon after packing some eggs into a basket along with some money.
We didn't ride bikes; instead we walked with her to the neighboring village where we stopped in front of a large courtyard surrounded by green trees.
There were two motorcycles parked in front of the courtyard along with a small car while ten or so people stood inside waiting for Guan Wangpo who was known for communicating with spirits.
As soon as we entered the courtyard area an amiable middle-aged man greeted us asking what brought us here today?
Quickly responding before anyone else could speak up first - Aunt Han explained that she wanted to talk to her deceased son through communication from beyond the grave.
The man smiled and said that Guan Wangpo was currently helping others, so we would have to wait a while. He then led us to a small room on the side where he invited us to sit down and poured tea for us before asking us to be patient.
During this time, the middle-aged man chatted with Aunt Han about Tian Jiu's situation. Finally, he told her that Guan Wangpo needed to consume energy when performing such tasks and had to buy many supplements after each session.
Upon hearing this news, Aunt Han quickly handed over the basket of eggs along with two hundred yuan bills as compensation for their services.
After waiting for more than an hour during which we talked about various things - Xie Yilin remained quiet due to nervousness. As for why she wanted to talk specifically with Tian Jiu, she naturally didn't tell Aunt Han.
Finally, after more than an hour passed by - the middle-aged man returned and informed us that Guan Wangpo was ready; allowing us entry into her presence.