Inspection

The Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday. Beyond the most widespread practice of honoring Qu Yuan, the festival actually involves customs to pay tribute to many other ghosts and deities, including the Wave God Wu Zixu, the filial daughter Cao E, as well as the Silkworm God, the God of Agriculture, Lady White Snake, the Medicine God, the Plague God, Celestial Master Zhang, Zhong Kui, and others.

Liu Chang'an had carefully researched the matter and found that there was no place where the local customs involved honoring him during the Dragon Boat Festival. Just as Zhu Juntang had said, Peng Zu lived for eight hundred years and reaped endless incense, even ascending to the status of a deity. And him? Living for so long felt like living in vain.

Of course, Liu Chang'an did not truly care about this issue; he was simply preparing to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

Outside the window, the sunflower and pomegranate blossoms shine bright, fragrant calamus and wine fill the silver jar.

I have no capacity to drink and get drunk with others, nor do I admire a pure reputation to stay sober alone.

One day of mourning for the poet who drowned in the Miluo, a thousand years of reading the Li Sao to lament the past.

In a foreign land, I follow the customs of the season, hanging tiger charms and red tassels upon the door.

Liu Chang'an's mood had nothing to do with this poem; it was just that since he was celebrating a traditional festival, he had to recite some verses to appear refined. For instance, for the Summer Solstice following the Dragon Boat Festival, one should also sing the "Summer Solstice Nine-Nine Song."

Liu Chang'an had prepared the realgar wine using realgar, licorice, safflower, and garlic, without adding any other medicinal ingredients. Even when strictly following ancient methods, realgar wine is not something everyone can drink; for those with weaker constitutions or underlying conditions, the realgar alone is enough to cause poisoning.

Many medicinal herbs are actually toxic. The principle of using them as medicine is merely to use a tolerable toxin to neutralize other toxins or ailments. To judge a derived prescription as unscientific simply because one of its ingredients is toxic is, in itself, a judgment born of superstitious science. Often, both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine are just tossing patients back and forth between dying sooner or later, or damaging the surplus to replenish the deficiency.

Liu Chang'an had already dug up the small hen. After scalding it with hot water, the centipedes in its belly all crawled out, which he collected into a plastic bottle and tossed into the car.

Centipedes are actually quite delicious, especially the large ones. Following the method of Hong Qigong from The Return of the Condor Heroes, they can be made very tasty. The first bite feels like fresh shrimp, but after chewing slowly, one discovers they are even crispier, more tender, and sweeter, without a hint of toughness.

"A long, long time ago, the big centipedes were as tall as Zhou Dongdong. You could catch one and eat for days; they were so delicious. Back then, mosquitoes were as big as helicopters, rats were as big as Zhou Dongdong, and when a butterfly flapped its wings, the water from a large pond would be swept up into the sky." Liu Chang'an moved the realgar wine out to sun-dry, following the rule of exposing it to the sun for five days, chatting with Zhou Dongdong, who was biting on a soy milk bag just like him while watching him work.

"How come I've never seen that?" Zhou Dongdong didn't believe him at all.

"It was a long, long time ago!"

"When exactly is a long, long time ago?" Zhou Dongdong asked angrily. "Last time I saw photos of my mom going out to play, I wasn't in them. I was so angry that she didn't take me! She also said those were photos from a long, long time ago. Why wasn't I there a long, long time ago?"

"Because you were a coward and kept hiding in your mother's belly."

"Then why don't I remember things from inside my mother's belly?"

"Because you're bad at studying. You can even forget A-B-C-D-E-F-G, so how could you remember things from inside your mother's belly?"

"So that's the reason!" Zhou Dongdong nodded in sudden realization and hurried home to explain it to her mother, because her mother didn't know this was the reason, and now Zhou Dongdong did.

Liu Chang'an went to pick a large pile of calamus and mugwort before heading to the Affiliated High School. The Dragon Boat Festival break wouldn't start until tomorrow, and today, leaders from the provincial department were coming down for an inspection.

As a directly managed institution, the Affiliated High School had to take this seriously. Beyond the routine teacher and student council meetings to prepare for the inspection, every homeroom teacher had to keep a close watch on certain students. Liu Chang'an was a key target; Huang Shan specifically instructed him to either arrive early or, if he felt he might be late, just come in the afternoon. This was to avoid him sauntering in late just as the leaders arrived, which would affect the school's image.

Most importantly, Huang Shan was afraid that if the leaders saw Liu Chang'an arriving late and asked why, he didn't want to hear the strange excuses Liu Chang'an would inevitably give.

Liu Chang'an was not late today. If he had been, his reason would certainly have been that he was preparing for the Dragon Boat Festival—picking mugwort and calamus, catching centipedes, and wasting time chatting with a child.

For the average student, a leadership inspection actually has no impact. Times have changed; if a high-ranking leader were to negatively affect school teaching by, for example, making students stop classes to organize welcoming activities, any leader with a shred of media sensitivity would likely turn around and leave upon seeing such a spectacle, then berate the school mercilessly.

Exceptions always exist, but the leaders visiting today were not one of them. Aside from the school leadership and teachers paying closer attention, all daily teaching activities at the Affiliated High School continued as usual.

"Liu Chang'an, what is that smell on you?" After Liu Chang'an sat down, Bai Hui sniffed the air and couldn't help but frown.

Face is given mutually. Since Liu Chang'an had said quite a few nice things that day, whether intentional or not, Bai Hui was willing to take the initiative to speak to him again, even though she was increasingly certain that Liu Chang'an and An Nuan were in a sweet relationship.

"Fragrance."

Bai Hui kept a straight face because she remembered the day Liu Chang'an said he smelled something on her. When she demanded to know what it was, Liu Chang'an had also replied, "Fragrance."

Keeping a straight face didn't mean she wasn't happy. Bai Hui sniffed again. "What exactly is that smell?"

"If you keep sniffing me, Qian Ning and Lu Yuan are going to be unhappy," Liu Chang'an said with concern.

Liu Chang'an was as annoying as ever, but strangely, Bai Hui found that she didn't get angry immediately; she had probably grown somewhat accustomed to it.

"Did you ever use a Posture Corrector when you were little?"

Bai Hui hesitated for a moment and nodded. Why did he suddenly ask that?

"Generally, girls who develop early feel a bit insecure, so they often slouch when standing or sitting, trying to make their chests less prominent. I noticed you don't have a habit of slouching, so I thought you might have used one."

"Using that makes it even more prominent! That's why I stopped using it!" Bai Hui lowered her voice, retaliating with a mix of anger and slight smugness: "You should give it to your An Nuan; she's always been quite concerned about that."

Liu Chang'an didn't answer Bai Hui, wearing a thoughtful expression. Bai Hui couldn't help but be secretly shocked. Could it be that Liu Chang'an and An Nuan had really progressed to the stage of focusing on her chest?

Bai Hui also felt that it would be very, very difficult to make Liu Chang'an treat her the way Lu Yuan and Qian Ning did. Yet, she still felt a sense of unwillingness. She pondered in her heart, Why? What is it that I'm lacking compared to An Nuan?

As a girl, she naturally enjoyed the pursuit and ardent gazes of boys. This was already a matter of course for Bai Hui. She had Lu Yuan and Qian Ning wrapped around her finger; these two boys were the ones she had selected from those who had shown interest in her. Qian Ning had better grades, and Lu Yuan's family was wealthier. Although neither was the most outstanding, they were the most obedient.

But recently, Bai Hui felt more and more that something was missing from her side... or perhaps, a boy as interesting as Liu Chang'an? Yes, Liu Chang'an was very annoying, but he was also interesting, unlike Lu Yuan and Qian Ning, who only knew how to be at her beck and call.

Liu Chang'an was indeed interesting... it was just that he seemed a bit too lecherous. Bai Hui spent the whole morning watching Liu Chang'an draw. He had actually spent the entire morning drawing a ** and marking it with various messy acupuncture points and little dots, along with various massage techniques and explanations on the side.

Was he creating some kind of breast-enhancement massage technique? Heavens, she was about to graduate from her third year of high school; how did she end up with a desk-mate like Liu Chang'an! Bai Hui felt her face heat up as she secretly watched him draw, feeling utterly helpless.