After leaving the hotel, under Xie Yilin's guidance, we bought tickets to Deqing City. This is Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, where customs and dialects are completely different from my hometown of Shuhe County. People speak a dialect that I cannot understand at all. Jietou and I practiced Mandarin along the way and finally solved some communication barriers.
In the early afternoon when the weather was good and spring was in full swing in the south, we got off the bus and arrived at Deqing City. Mount Modu is located in western Deqing City, not far away. We took a taxi directly to its foot after finding a small restaurant for lunch and buying some camping supplies.
Deqing Normal College where Xie Yilin studies happens to be next to Mount Modu. There are also many primary and secondary schools near this college. It is a good time for spring outings now so there were many tourists on Mount Modu with people coming back-and-forth on the road.
After getting off at the foot of mountain, we first saw a square with dense crowds above it: many stalls selling tourist souvenirs as well as tour guides wearing yellow hats waving flags trying to attract customers.
With Xie Yilin around us who knows her way around here very well, we didn't need any tour guide so after descending from mountain directly bypassing these crowds; we walked up along a stone staircase towards top of mountain instead.
The trees on both sides of road were lush with new buds sprouting everywhere emitting fragrant scent throughout our journey uphill.
Although not very steep but it felt high enough that looking up while walking one could hardly see end of path ahead.
Not long afterwards arriving at a platform where several tourists gathered around one stall before realizing it was an antique fortune-telling booth run by an alcoholic middle-aged man dressed in blue robe wearing towering hat sporting long beard named Chi Qingshuai.
Chi had a purplish-red face, a bewildered look in his eyes, an obvious alcoholic nose and carried a wine pot on his waist. He was clearly an alcoholic.
"Sir, please help me see how my fortune is." A middle-aged man wearing casual suit with gentle appearance walked up to him and made the request for fortune-telling.
"Give me your hand first. Let this celestial master feel your bones," Chi said as he lifted the wine pot to take a sip before reaching out to pinch the wrist of the man in suit feeling it for quite some time.
"You started at three years old, went to school at seven years old, entered society at twenty years old; found someone you love next year then got married when you were 25 years old followed by having children next year. You will have official career starting from thirty years old and become wealthy with no worries about food or clothing throughout life." After feeling his bones for fortune-telling purposes, Chi quickly told him about his future prospects.
Seeing that Chi answered fluently while being sharp in bone-feeling technique piqued our curiosity so Jietou and I moved closer but Xie Yilin immediately pulled us back saying: "What are you doing? Don't go near there."
"Why?" I asked curiously.
"He's Drunken Celestial Master named Chi Qingshuai who knows me well. If he sees me later on it might cause trouble," Xie Yilin explained to me.
"This person has some tricks up his sleeve so let's just stand here and watch first," I nodded towards her without moving forward continuing watching what happened next.
At this point we saw that gentleman in suit looking puzzledly at Drunken Celestial Master asking: "Sir, everything you said earlier was correct but I'm already forty this year yet why haven't I become rich or hold any official position?"
Hearing this, Chi was taken aback and thought for a while before looking up at the man in suit asking: "What profession are you in?"
"The most glorious profession under the sun. I am a teacher," the gentleman replied proudly.
"What a pity," hearing this, Drunken Celestial Master shook his head with regret: "Knowledge changes your destiny--" ...
"Sir, my name is Huosen and I want to have my fortune told." After that gentleman left feeling depressed, a young man sat down at the booth.
"You lack wood element in your five elements," hearing his name, Drunken Celestial Master took another sip of wine before speaking.
How did you know, sir?" the young man asked curiously.
"If a name has 'sen' in it, it's definitely lacking wood in the five elements. If it has 'miao', then it lacks water. These are all child's play," Drunk Master said with a smirk.
Hearing this, the young man blinked and asked, "So if a name has 'yan', does that mean they lack fire? And if it has 'xin', they lack metal?"
"Correct," Drunk Master nodded.
"What about a name with 'jing'? What element is lacking?" The young man laughed and asked.
"Missing sun... uh... get lost!" Drunk Master was so angry he sprayed out an old mouthful of wine.
"Hahaha..." The young man laughed and ran up the mountain.
...
"This Drunk Master is interesting," I couldn't help but become interested in him after watching for a while. I wanted to go talk to him, but Xie Yilin kept stopping me. So we had no choice but to continue walking up the mountain.
Xie Yilin seemed somewhat guilty as she hid behind me and Jietou, not wanting Drunk Master to see her.
Drunk Master was completely drunk and his eyes were blurry; he couldn't even see people clearly. So there was really no need for her to be so nervous.
However, what we didn't expect was that just as we were about to leave his stall behind us, Drunk Master suddenly whistled and called out a white-browed green-haired monkey from the forest.
The monkey came out holding onto a rope which led back to an oversized white-tailed rat like dog at its end.
"Stop!" Seeing this situation unfold before us made me instinctively stop Jietou and Xie Yilin. Then I turned around and looked at Drunken master asking them, "Did you see that? A white-browed monkey and a white-tailed rat. This is not normal, this person is definitely an extraordinary individual."
"Liuyiheng, what are you talking about? Where are the monkey and the rat?" Xie Yilin looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"Don't tell me you can't see them?" I was surprised in my heart as I looked up to Jietou who also had a confused look on his face. This meant he couldn't see the monkey or the rat either.
"Covering Heaven Technique!"
Seeing this situation unfold before us made me understand immediately what was happening. So I quickly pinched Jietou's wrist and said to him: "Activate your spiritual energy!"
Hearing my words, Jietou narrowed his eyes and activated his qi while focusing on Drunk Master.
This way he finally saw the monkey and the rat; then he frowned saying: "If I'm not mistaken, that should be the one that attacked us last night. It has been caught by him now; I don't know how he will deal with it. That Monkey Spirit should have been raised by him for around two hundred years already; its golden eyes show it can recognize ghosts from souls - it's not ordinary."
"What are you guys talking about?" At this point, Xie Yilin was still lost in confusion about what was going on.
Just as I was preparing to explain everything to her, Drunk Master suddenly grabbed a rusty green sword from his antique stall and swung it towards the white-tailed rat like dog.