Don't Wet the Bed

Chen Shi returned home still feeling somewhat dazed. Grandpa called him to eat, but he only took two bites before setting down his bowl and chopsticks. He made his way back to his chamber on unsteady feet, flopped backward onto the bed, and stared straight ahead with wide-open eyes at the roof beams.

"Smelly brat, are you eating or not? If not, I'll feed the dog!"

Grandpa tossed the meal in front of Black Pot.

Black Pot sniffed it, shook its head, and turned to leave.

"The dog raised at home, I wonder if it tastes any good..."

At this, Black Pot wagged its tail with a ingratiating smile and turned back. It sniffed, opened its mouth as if to eat, but found it truly too hard to swallow, so it had no choice but to tuck its tail and turn away.

"Today's meal really tasted a bit over the top, almost entirely medicinal herbs with nothing fit to swallow."

Grandpa frowned slightly, engaging in some self-reflection. "I'll rein it in next time, at the very least to where the dog can eat it. If the dog would rather die than eat it, Little Ten definitely won't eat it either."

By dinnertime, Chen Shi finally got up, looking somewhat listless.

The desolate mountain temple was the only place he had found where he could practice properly. Now, this place had been blasted to pieces by a meteorite. If he had to rely solely on starlight for cultivation, who knew how long it would take him to shake off the identity of a good-for-nothing.

He wanted to retake the Xiucai examination, and then the Juren examination, to shake off his current life. At the very least, he needed to earn a lot of money to provide for Grandpa in his old age.

Grandpa was getting older by the day, and he didn't want Grandpa running around taking care of his little useless self when he reached old age.

Yet now, a sudden meteorite from beyond the heavens had turned his dream into an illusion.

He was crestfallen.

However, life had to go on, and Chen Shi quickly pulled himself out of this state because Grandpa had prepared a lavish dinner.

This time, the dinner lacked any weird-tasting medicinal herbs. Aside from having way too much salt, there was nothing else wrong with it.

For two years, this was the first time Chen Shi had eaten a meal that tasted somewhat normal. After taking two bites, his eyes turned red and he nearly shed tears.

"Is it too salty?"

Grandpa stood before the offering table with his back to him, eyeballs on his shoulders staring at Chen Shi. Hearing this, he asked, "I can't taste anything, maybe it's a bit salty."

He had lost all sense of taste, and could even eat candles with great relish.

Chen Shi shook his head. "Not salty, it's delicious."

Grandpa smiled. "Endure the bitterest of bitter, and you shall rise above the rest. Double the medicine dosage tonight."

Chen Shi ate with his head lowered. After a moment, he raised his head and said, "Grandpa, the temple we stayed at the other night was destroyed. A stone from beyond the heavens shattered that mountain."

"Such things are as numerous as ox hairs on the Western Ox Continent. Why worry about them?" Grandpa ate a candle at a leisurely pace, his tone neither hot nor cold.

"Have many things like this happened?"

"Mm. Many."

After the meal, without Grandpa telling him, Chen Shi took the initiative to clean the pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, acting quite diligent.

After his medicinal bath, Chen Shi practiced Three Lights Righteous Qi as usual. From the adjoining room came the sound of Grandpa using a Thousand Mile Sound Talisman to contact his father. Grandpa repeated his old tune, telling his father Chen Tang that he was old and didn't have many days left, and that he wanted Chen Tang to take Chen Shi into the city.

Yet the other end of the Thousand Mile Sound Talisman always had various excuses.

Grandpa asked Chen Tang again if he would return for the New Year.

The opposite side still offered excuses.

The Thousand Mile Sound Talisman burned away completely, leaving the room in dim darkness, broken only by a long, lingering sigh.

"A Tang, I really don't have much longer to live, I'm worried about Little Ten..."

Chen Shi in the courtyard felt dejected and continued to bury himself in his cultivation, but his cultivation speed dropped drastically, falling far short of the rapid progress he had made in the desolate mountain temple.

Late at night, he returned to bed, staring wide-eyed at the gloomy roof beams, and only drifted into a deep sleep after a long while.

Hearing a sound come from Chen Shi's room, Black Pot couldn't help pricking up its ears to listen.

"Grandpa, don't worry about me, I can take care of myself..."

Black Pot was somewhat puzzled. Grandpa had clearly already gone out, so who was Chen Shi talking to?

It hurriedly stood up, quietly pushed open Chen Shi's door, and peered inside.

"Grandpa, I am not a good-for-nothing, I won't have the illness act up again, I will get better, I will pass the Xiucai exam, and pass the Juren exam."

On the bed, Chen Shi was sleeping restlessly, talking in his sleep. "I will let you live a good life... I don't like Dad, I haven't even seen him, Grandpa please don't give me away okay, I beg you... Grandpa don't give me away, I will be a good and filial grandson to you..."

Black Pot watched for a moment as Chen Shi turned over in his sleep and stopped talking in his sleep.

Black Pot stepped forward, helped him pull up the quilt he had kicked off, quietly went outside, and pulled the door shut by its ring.

Early the next morning, Grandpa hitched the cart and prepared to go out. Chen Shi asked nervously, "Where are you going, Grandpa?"

"To the county seat to buy medicine, the medicine at home has run out."

Chen Shi thought for a moment and said, "The reason the meal Grandpa cooked last night tasted good is because there's no medicine left at home?"

"Mm. I'll be back in the afternoon, don't run around."

The old man sat on the cart, holding a luopan, and instructed, "If you're hungry, skip a meal. I'll give you something good to eat tonight, brought back from the county seat."

Chen Shi was full of anticipation.

The wooden cart creaked out of the village.

Chen Shi went out to pay his respects to Godmother, then practiced for a little while. Sure enough, he got hungry quickly, so he extorted a few duck eggs from Yuzhu's family's ducks, stole some sweet potatoes and a watermelon, and only returned home after eating his fill.

Godmother of Huangpo Village sat in the tree, blinking her dark, glossy eyes, holding a crimson-red fruit in her hand, and beckoned to him.

"Taking advantage of Grandpa's absence, you're trying to poison me to death, right?"

Chen Shi sneered, returned to his room, dug out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, intending to draw some talismans to secretly sell for money.

"Black Pot, are we good buddies?" Chen Shi kept one hand behind his back, approaching the large black dog with a smiling expression.

Black Pot backed away alertly, already guessing what he wanted to do.

Chen Shi lunged forward, his true intentions exposed as he revealed the small knife hidden behind his back, crying, "A good brother should stab himself in the ribs for a good brother... Why aren't you stabbing? My blood isn't as fragrant as yours... I'll draw talismans and sell them for some money, how about we split it evenly?"

He was in the midst of a brawl with Black Pot, turning the place upside down with feathers and fur flying, when suddenly violent knocking sounded at the door. Following that, the courtyard gate was pushed open, and a travel-worn man barged in. He wore coarse hemp-cloth garments and a pair of straw sandals with soles worn completely flat. Seeing a man and a dog wrestling, he froze in place.

"Is this Master Chen's home?"

The man hesitated for a moment before saying, "Something happened in our village! An evil sui is haunting the place, several children have gone missing, we beg Master Chen to help exorcise the evil!"

Chen Shi let go of the dog, climbed up, and said to the man, "My grandfather went to the county seat to buy medicinal herbs and won't be back until the afternoon."

Disappointment appeared on the man's face, and he wailed, "What is to be done? If we wait until afternoon, I'm afraid everyone will be dead!"

"Umm... to exorcise the evil for you, is there a reward?"

Chen Shi's eyes shone brightly, and his breathing grew somewhat hurried. "Is there silver?"

The man hesitated for a moment, took out three or four finger-sized pieces of fragmented silver, amounting to about five liang, and stammered, "Everyone in our Huangyang Village together could only scrape this much up..."

Chen Shi snatched the silver away, clutched it in his hand, and smiled. "My grandfather is Master Chen, and I am also Master Chen. I'll take this business! Wait for me a moment, I'll pack my gear and go with you!"

The man was dumbfounded, watching Chen Shi cheerfully enter the house, followed by the large black dog.

He only heard dog barks and the child's voice coming from inside the room, sounding like a dialogue.

"Woof, woof woof!"

"I know I don't have true qi and can't use spellcraft, but I can draw talismans."

"Woof woof, woof woof woof!"

"Rest assured, nothing will happen. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, not to mention they've lost several children, several human lives."

"Woof..."

"You want to say that evil sui causing trouble in broad daylight defies common sense, right? I also think it defies common sense a little bit. However, I must earn this money. The next time I encounter a desolate mountain and a ruined temple, I won't need to ask Grandpa for money; I'll have the money myself to repair the ruined temple."

"Woof?"

"I was thinking, if that temple weren't so dilapidated, the sunlight inside wouldn't be discovered by the eyes in the sky, perhaps it wouldn't have been destroyed, and I could continue my cultivation."

After a moment, Chen Shi finished packing and stepped out carrying a book box. The box was taller than he was, stuffed full of things, weighing at least twenty odd catties. Yet carried on Chen Shi's back, it felt as light as nothing, as if he couldn't perceive any weight at all.

"Black Pot, I'll leave a letter for Grandpa telling him where I went."

Chen Shi wrote a letter, handed it to the dog, and said, "When Grandpa comes back, give this letter to him. If I run into danger, tell him to rush to Huangyang Village to rescue me."

Clenching the letter in its mouth, Black Pot sprinted to the central hall and pressed it down beneath Grandpa's spirit tablet. Then it sprinted back, carrying a small knife in its mouth to signal Chen Shi to put the knife inside the book box. If they encountered danger, splashing its dog blood on the evil sui might save their lives.

Knowing it worried for his safety, Chen Shi had no choice but to let it tag along.

The man hurriedly led the way in front, the two of them and the dog heading toward Huangyang Village.

Huangyang Village was at the northern foot of Ganyang Mountain. The straight-line distance wasn't far, but they had to walk mountain paths that were rugged and difficult to traverse, with desolate mountains and dense forests flanking the roads where wild beasts frequently roamed.

Along the way, Chen Shi roughly understood the situation.

Huangyang Village had a deserted courtyard that originally belonged to a family surnamed Tian, numbering eight people in total. Suddenly one day, everyone in the Tian family, regardless of gender or age, died violently on the spot, and even the livestock including chickens, ducks, cats, and dogs died down to the very last one!

The officials didn't inquire into the matter either, as such things happened far too often in the countryside for the officials to investigate them all, so it became an unsolved case.

Later, rumors spread that the Tian residence was haunted. Over time, it became a deserted house that no one entered.

"A child in our village was mischievous, climbed over the wall, and got struck by the evil. He cried and laughed, chanting in his mouth, 'Whoever wets the bed, I will eat them; whoever wets the bed, I will eat them.'"

The man said, "Posting peachwood talismans didn't help either, and the child's mother offered sacrifices to Godmother, which also didn't help. That very night, something happened."

Chen Shi listened with rapt attention, asking, "What happened?"

"A child in the village wet the bed and was snatched away."

The man wore a peculiar expression as he said, "In the middle of the night, the child's father was half-asleep when he saw a huge shadow on the wall of his home. It opened a giant mouth, stuck out a long tongue, and slurp—rolled his child right away."

Chen Shi's heart gave a jolt. An evil specifically eating bed-wetting children?

This was too bizarre.

"Yesterday, two more children went missing, frightening the other families so much that they didn't dare let their children drink much water, terrified they would wet the bed at night and be eaten. Some families woke their children up in the middle of the night to let them pee, but something still happened. Today in broad daylight, old Liu's child named Fugui was peeing when a long tongue hanging down from the sky coiled around him, and slurp—he vanished just like that."

"In broad daylight?"

Chen Shi couldn't help frowning. Evil sui could come out in broad daylight?

"And then?"

"Then he got eaten, I suppose."

"Your village's Godmother didn't look into this matter? She can allow an evil sui to enter the village?"

The man shook his head. "Not all Godmothers protect the villagers. Some Godmothers, feeling the offerings are too meager, will also make trouble. Some say the Tian family of eight was actually killed by our village's Godmother. They say that night, our Godmother didn't drive the evil away, but let an evil sui enter the village and kill the eight members of the Tian family. It seemed because the Tian family's daughter-in-law spoke disrespectfully to Godmother and cursed her, Godmother held a grudge and did them in. After the eight members of the Tian family died, Godmother gave us a dream telling us to offer more incense and sacrifices, or else meet the same fate as the Tians."

Chen Shi frowned. Weren't Godmothers all kind?

How could they still commit evil?

They arrived at Huangyang Village, only to find it dilapidated, with old dwellings mostly made of thatched grass. The villagers also wore ragged clothes, looking like refugees. Whether children or adults, everyone had a sallow complexion and looked extremely frail.

There were still a few children in the village. Some cowardly ones hid behind their parents, while braver ones clamored for water, likely having gone without water for a very long time.

An evil specifically eating bed-wetting children? This kind of evil should be attracted by boy's urine. In other words, the reason children were snatched away wasn't because they wet the bed, but because of boy's urine. I am still a boy... Wait, before my Divine Embryo was carved out, did I lose my purity? I was only nine back then, I shouldn't have...

Just as Chen Shi thought of this, he was suddenly bumped by someone. He saw a half-grown child around his age run past him.

The child bumped into him, hurriedly stopped, turned around, and apologized to Chen Shi. It was a skinny boy, very shy, with half a strand of snot hanging under his nose, sniffling sniff, sniff.

"It's fine, it's fine."

Chen Shi magnanimously waved his hand and smiled. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

If a child from Huangpo Village had bumped into him, they would likely already be kneeling on the ground, kowtowing and begging Chen the Elder for mercy by now.

The skinny boy asked curiously, "Why should I be afraid of you?"

Remembering those children from his own village who knelt before him in tears begging for mercy, Chen Shi smiled understandingly. "The children in our village are all afraid of me and don't dare play with me."

The skinny boy scratched his head. "Then don't you have zero friends?"

"I have Godmother. And Black Pot. And Xiucai. They're all my friends," Chen Shi smiled.

The skinny boy also smiled. "Then would you be willing to make one more friend?"

Chen Shi's eyes instantly lit up. This was the very first human friend he had made since waking up!

Crucially, it was still alive!

The clan elders of the village surrounded the man who had guided Chen Shi. An old woman trembling all over asked, "Sanwang, you went to invite Master Chen, where is Master Chen?"

"Master Chen is not at home, only his grandson is at home. Although he's young, he's also a talisman master."

Sanwang, the man, glanced sideways at Chen Shi and said in a low voice, "Besides, the money our village raised isn't much, I'm afraid we couldn't invite other talisman masters, we could only invite this young one. Five liang of silver, which talisman master would be willing to come?"

Everyone looked at Chen Shi, only to see him talking to empty air, actually looking happy and laughing while doing so. They couldn't help looking at each other in dismay.

Sanwang mustered his courage and said, "Master Chen, who are you talking to?"

"My new friend!"

Chen Shi smiled. "Right, my name is Chen Shi, nickname Little Ten. What's your name?"

"My surname is Liu, name is Fugui," the skinny boy said.