Born Foolish

The second day of the second lunar month, the dragon raised its head. The third day of the third lunar month, worship Xuanyuan.

March 29, 2009, was the third day of the third lunar month.

A few years ago, every household here still observed the custom of honoring their ancestors and worshipping Xuanyuan on this day.

But as more and more young and middle-aged villagers went to the cities for work, the village was left mostly with elderly people and children. Many customs had been simplified, and the festive atmosphere gradually faded.

Some families still treated it rather solemnly, laying out offerings and preparing a more lavish dinner, as though celebrating Xuanyuan Huangdi's birthday.

Most kept it simple, with the elders merely taking the children inside to offer a stick of incense to the Yellow Emperor.

Some families had even abandoned the custom entirely.

But the Old Huang Family worshipped Xuanyuan every year. Even after only the old man and his grandson remained, they had never been careless about it.

After tidying up the incense altar, the old man lit a stick of incense and said sorrowfully, "Lord Yellow Emperor, please bless my Xu'er with good health... cough, cough, cough..."

"Grandpa! Dinner's ready." A teenage boy carried a plate of food into the room and swiftly set the table.

Coughing, the old man sat down and looked worriedly at his grandson.

"Xu'er, what did Doctor Liang say about your condition this morning?"

The boy smiled. "Doctor Liang said my emotions are stable. I'm fine now."

The old man nodded. Seeing his cheerful grandson, the worry on his face eased somewhat.

Grandfather and grandson ate lunch together. The old man kept piling food into the boy's bowl, looking at him with both affection and heartache.

The child had suffered since he was little. There had always been something wrong with his mind.

Moreover, his pupils had been different from everyone else's since birth. Too many white spots mottled his irises, forming a ring of white that made it look as if a large pupil enclosed a smaller one.

For a long time, he could not speak. Since childhood, his gaze had been vacant. Yet a fortune-teller had always said good things about him, claiming that he was born with double pupils, that he would achieve greatness late in life, and that he was a sage born into the world.

The old man had believed him and never taken the child to see a doctor.

Not until he was four and still unable to speak did the family panic and take him to the hospital.

After testing him, they said his IQ was only fifty... mild intellectual disability, an imbecilic type of intellectual impairment.

Not only that, his eyes were not double pupils at all. He had congenital cataracts and very poor eyesight—only 0.2 in both eyes, along with astigmatism.

With so many illnesses tormenting him since childhood, the old man's heart had nearly broken from worry.

Yet neither condition could be cured.

Still, having an intellectual disability did not mean someone was an idiot. Mild intellectual disability in particular merely caused poor concentration, weak memory, and weaker thinking and language abilities.

When Xu'er was five, his parents suffered an accident while working away from home. A gas-powered vehicle exploded, killing both husband and wife.

That year, Xu'er called out "Dad" and "Mom" for the first time, but sadly, his parents could no longer hear him.

Though the family received substantial compensation, the child had lost both parents at such a young age and was left with only his grandfather. He was terribly lonely.

After that, his intellectual disability improved noticeably. He learned to speak. Though he was still poor at expressing himself, he could understand what others said. He simply seemed rather slow-witted.

Ever since he learned to speak, he had always said he could see strange things and sense extremely complicated matters.

But he could never explain them clearly. It was as if he had seen ghosts, and with his double pupils on top of that—

Over time, the whole village began saying that the boy could see unclean things. The old man considered this highly taboo. Whenever his grandson mentioned it, he would hit him and scold, "What things? Don't talk nonsense!"

After a while, Xu'er stopped bringing it up.

After the age of seven, he did not attend a special school. Instead, he went through compulsory education alongside ordinary students. Though he ranked last in class and learned everything several beats slower than others, he could at least communicate with people.

But middle school was different. The coursework became far more intensive, and he could not keep up at all.

The teachers disliked him, and his classmates all called him an idiot.

He wanted to spend more time studying to make up for his shortcomings, but whenever he used his brain for too long, he suffered terribly. His head would feel like it was splitting apart, and he would even faint.

Especially at night—whenever he looked up at the stars, his head would ache. He would bite his lip and tremble without making a sound.

If he saw the moon, he would faint outright.

His grandfather felt sorry for him. Combined with the teachers' persuasion, he eventually had Xu'er voluntarily give up the Junior High School Entrance Examination and return home to help out and farm.

He had given up the Junior High School Entrance Examination in June 2008. More than half a year had passed since then, and he handled hard labor such as plowing, harvesting, and threshing quite deftly.

Every day, he fetched water, cooked, and prepared meals. He looked no different from an ordinary person.

But in his spare time, he would sit on the ridge between fields and stare blankly into space, or space out while watching others talk, or watch television all day long.

Only then did he resemble the Huang family's big fool in everyone else's eyes.

Yet as the days passed, the old man thought it would be fine if they could simply live peacefully like this for the rest of their lives. He only worried that, as his grandson was, he would probably never be able to find a wife.

He worried even more about his own health. The old man's lungs had always been bad. The older he got, the worse his chronic illness became. He coughed all day, his throat full of phlegm, his airways feeling blocked, while his hands and feet grew weaker by the day.

He did not know what would happen to his grandson once he was gone.

"Doctor Liang! Doctor Liang!" After dinner, while they were clearing the dishes, the Village Chief's voice rang out from outside the courtyard.

The old man walked into the courtyard, opened the gate, and asked, "What happened?"

"Old Huang, is Doctor Liang at your house?" the Village Chief asked.

The old man shook his head. "No. Xu'er is much better now. Every morning, I have him go to Doctor Liang's clinic by himself. No need to trouble Doctor Liang to make the trip."

The Village Chief frowned. "This morning? Doctor Liang disappeared early in the morning. It's already evening, and she still hasn't returned. The clinic door wasn't even locked. Something felt wrong, so I came to see if she was at your place."

Because Xu'er fainted from time to time, Doctor Liang often came to the Huang family home to check on him. Sometimes, she even stayed for meals.

Xu'er had fainted again last week. After waking, he ran into the courtyard and stared at the moon, his face looking terrible.

Though, strangely enough, he had not fainted again from looking at the moon, he had started trembling for no reason afterward and babbling nonsense. The old man had invited Doctor Liang to his home to examine him, and this continued for several days. Now that Doctor Liang had gone missing, the Village Chief had come to the Huang family first.

"Doctor Liang has been missing since early this morning? Xu'er!" The old man turned and stared at Xu'er.

Xu'er obediently stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Grandpa. I lied to you. I didn't go to Doctor Liang's this morning."

"You've learned to lie!" The old man flew into a rage. His grandson had never deceived anyone before. He had never imagined that the boy would lie to him now!

Xu'er apologized, "I'm sorry, Grandpa. I really am not sick. I'm better now. Doctor Liang is very busy. She's under a lot of pressure and has many troubles on her mind. I shouldn't bother her every day."

"How are you not sick? Doctor Liang said you had a men... Anyway, whether you're sick isn't for you to decide. The doctor decides! Back then, I believed that quack and didn't take you to see a doctor sooner!" The old man became agitated, and after saying that, he looked somewhat guilty.

In truth, Xu'er's illnesses were congenital and incurable. Even the cause of his fainting spells had yet to be discovered. Seeing a doctor earlier would not have changed anything. But the old man simply believed it was his fault.

Especially since Doctor Liang had secretly told him last week that the child had a mental illness... This made the old man feel even guiltier. He believed he had failed to raise his grandson properly and had even raised him into mental illness.

Xu'er merely smiled obediently at his grandfather's words, then hurriedly helped him sit down... The old man was advanced in years and already had chronic respiratory problems. At that moment, he was so angry that he was struggling to catch his breath.

Xu'er said, "Grandpa, rest at home. I'll go with Village Chief Grandpa to look for Doctor Liang. I may be slow, but I can run errands."

The old man sat on his stool, caught his breath, and nodded. "Go. Doctor Liang has taken care of you so many times. You have to be grateful. Old Fan, let my grandson go with you. Let him handle any errands. He's not foolish to that extent. I just hope nothing happened to Doctor Liang..."

The Village Chief nodded and hurried off with the boy.

After leaving the house, the two followed the road and asked from door to door.

They asked several households without finding any leads. A living, breathing person had simply vanished.

The neighbors all felt something was wrong. "Did you call her?"

"We did. Her phone is off," the Village Chief said.

"Could she have gone back to her hometown?" someone suggested.

The Village Chief shook his head. Doctor Liang had graduated from Capital Medical University. Though no one knew why she had come to work in such a remote, impoverished place, her medical skills were good, she was kind, and she treated everyone well. Whenever anyone in the nearby villages had a minor illness, they sought her out.

She lived a very regular life and was never impossible to find. Especially not like this—disappearing for an entire day with the clinic door left unlocked. It was simply impossible. That was why everyone suspected something had happened.

"Uncle!" Suddenly, a young police officer rode over on a small motorcycle. He was an officer at the local police station, and the Village Chief of Hua Zhuang Village was his uncle.

The Village Chief said sternly, "Wang Meng, why are you alone?"

"Doctor Liang has only been missing for a little over ten hours, and she's an adult. We can't open a case yet. Maybe she just went out for fun?" Officer Wang Meng said helplessly.

"Impossible. Doctor Liang would never go out for fun without even locking her door. Something must have happened," the Village Chief said.

"That's why I came to help, isn't it?"

"Huh? Huang Ji, you didn't faint after coming out at night?"

Seeing the boy beside him, Wang Meng was surprised that this kid, who fainted whenever he saw the moon, was here as well, so he casually asked.

Xu'er shook his head. "I'm better now. I won't faint when I see the moon anymore."

"Really? That's wonderful." Wang Meng smiled.

The older people in the village all called the boy Xu'er. Among the younger people, most called him idiot, while those who were friendly called him Huang Ji.

Huang Ji was the boy's formal name, the one registered on his ID card. Xu'er was only his nickname.

He had been born on March 25, 1993, which was also the third day of the third lunar month, the day for worshipping Xuanyuan.

He was born before dawn. That afternoon, mother and child were brought home from the hospital. The old man was overjoyed to hold his grandson. Since it happened to be the third day of the third lunar month, he offered incense to Xuanyuan Huangdi before naming the child.

They did not dare use the characters Xuanyuan, so they used the character Xu, thinking it was good enough to be somewhat related, and named him Huang Xu.

His nickname was Xu'er, meaning the son of Xuanyuan Ruins.

In their rural area, names were generally chosen by the most educated person in the family, or else by the eldest elder.

The elders of the whole extended family discussed it back and forth, leaving the child's father unable to get a word in.

The child's father was completely unhappy with the name Huang Xu. Even if they wanted a lowly name, they did not need to use such an inauspicious character.

Xu meant ruins or remains, and could even refer to graves.

Of course, the child's father did not argue with them on the spot. He let the old man have his way, because when it came to naming the child, he truly had no say.

But he had his own idea. Since he, as the father, had to register the child's household record—

He let the family elders call the child whatever they wanted, but when he registered the household record, he secretly gave him another name: Huang Ji.

It did not carry much meaning beyond the auspicious wish of reaching the pinnacle.

This had been kept secret until the child was four and still unable to speak, when the old man took him to the hospital and discovered it.

Needless to say, the name on the household register and ID card was naturally his formal name, and that was the name he used at school.

But the old man stubbornly continued calling him Xu'er. The villagers had called him Xu'er since childhood and were used to it. The nickname was easier to say, so the elderly villagers never changed how they addressed him.

Wang Meng had served in the military. After returning, he became a local police officer. Whenever Huang Ji fainted in middle school, Wang Meng was the one who found a vehicle to send him back to the village.

Wang Meng had always been friendly toward this younger boy from the same village and often brought him tasty food.

Learning that Huang Ji no longer fainted at the sight of the moon, he was genuinely happy for him.

But finding Doctor Liang was more important now.

Wang Meng continued accompanying the Village Chief, asking from house to house.

Yet they had asked through the entire village, and not a single person had seen Doctor Liang that day.

The Village Chief wanted to search her home as well. If the door was locked, he wanted to pry it open.

But Wang Meng said, "No. We don't even know whether Doctor Liang is missing. We can't break into her home."

"How is she not missing? A living person has just vanished! Maybe she was kidnapped!" the Village Chief shouted.

Wang Meng said awkwardly, "There are no witnesses, and she's only been gone for a short time. What if she really had an urgent matter and returned to the city? I can't let you break someone's lock. A highly educated person like Doctor Liang cares a lot about privacy."

As they spoke, the three of them, along with several helpful villagers, had already arrived at the clinic. Doctor Liang's residence was right beside it.

Doctor Liang's home was locked, but the clinic was not. Everyone searched inside to see whether Doctor Liang had left a note or anything else behind.

Huang Ji did not go in with them. Instead, he stood at the entrance, staring at the cement road in front of the door. Then, as though his gaze were following some kind of trail, he looked all the way toward the end of the road.

"Five people... Wang Zhen, Hu Feng, Lü Zongmin, Lin Yong... and Liang Yuan, Doctor Liang..." Huang Ji murmured in a voice only he could hear.

He could see what ordinary people could not see and sense what ordinary people could not sense.

As someone with an intellectual disability, he actually knew more than others...

After surveying the scene once, he looked toward an old tree by the roadside in the distance and thought, There's one more... Li Fan is the witness.

At that moment, Wang Meng came out of the clinic empty-handed. Seeing Huang Ji standing by the road in a daze, he smiled.

Huang Ji often spaced out, so Wang Meng was used to it. He walked over and said, "Go home and rest early. I'm a police officer now. Leave this to me. I guarantee Doctor Liang is fine."

Wang Meng knew Huang Ji was close to Doctor Liang, but he figured the boy could not help much. Speaking as though humoring a child, he wanted to coax him home.

Yet Huang Ji raised his head and said, "Someone saw it."

P.S. Sorry, I've started a new book. Black Emperor, what do you think?