Inspection

The Dragon Boat Festival was an important holiday. Besides the widely known rite honoring Qu Yuan, there were other customs that paid tribute to many more humans, ghosts, and gods, including the River God Wu Zixu, the filial daughter Cao E, the Silkworm God, the God of Agriculture, the White Lady, the God of Medicine, the Plague God, Zhang Daoling, Zhong Kui, and others.

Liu Chang'an had researched the matter carefully. There wasn't a single place where the custom was to worship him during the Dragon Boat Festival. Just as Zhu Juntang had said, Peng Zu had lived for eight hundred years and earned countless offerings of incense, even ascending to godhood. And him? He'd lived this long for nothing.

Of course, Liu Chang'an didn't really care about it. He was just getting ready to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

Outside the window, hollyhocks and pomegranates blazed bright, sweet flag calamus steeped the wine in silver bottles.

I had no taste for drink, nor sought to get drunk; I didn't admire the fame of being the only one awake.

One day, I mourned the exile of Chu, a thousand years later, I read the Li Sao in remembrance.

In a foreign land, I marked the festival as custom bade, hanging mugwort tigers and red charms above the door.

Liu Chang'an's mood had nothing to do with this poem. But since it was a traditional holiday, he had to recite a little poetry to seem cultured. For instance, after the Dragon Boat Festival came the summer solstice, and he ought to sing the "Summer Solstice Ninety-Nine Song," too.

Liu Chang'an had prepared realgar wine with realgar, licorice, safflower, and garlic, adding no other medicinal ingredients. Even when made strictly according to the old methods, realgar wine wasn't safe for everyone to drink. For those with weaker constitutions or other sensitivities, the realgar alone could cause poisoning.

Many medicinal ingredients were toxic. The principle behind using them as medicine was simply that tolerable toxins could counter other toxins or illnesses. To call a prescription unscientific just because one of its ingredients was poisonous was itself a superstitious judgment made in the name of science. Much of the time, both Chinese and Western medicine just juggled the patient's chances between dying sooner or later, and tried to make up for what was lacking by reducing what was excessive.

Liu Chang'an had already dug up the little hen. He scalded it in warm water, and all the centipedes in its belly came crawling out. He put them in a plastic bottle and tossed it into the car.

Centipedes were actually delicious, especially the big ones. Follow Hong Qigong's method from The Return of the Condor Heroes, and they turned out wonderfully. At first, they tasted like fresh shrimp, but after chewing slowly, one discovered they were even crisper, more tender, and sweeter, with none of that tough, stringy texture.

"Long, long ago, the big centipedes were as tall as Zhou Dongdong. You could catch one and eat for days. They were delicious. The mosquitoes back then were as big as helicopters, mice were as big as Zhou Dongdong, and when a Butterfly flapped its wings, the wind could sweep all the water from a huge pond up into the sky." Liu Chang'an carried the realgar wine outside to sun-dry it. According to custom, it had to be left in the sun for five days. As he worked, he bit the top of his soy milk bag and chatted with Zhou Dongdong, who was also biting the top of her bag as she watched him.

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

"It was long, long ago!"

"When exactly was long, long ago?" Zhou Dongdong said angrily. "Last time I saw a photo of Mom going out to have fun, I wasn't in it either. I was so mad that she went out without me. She said that photo was from long, long ago, too. Why wasn't I around long, long ago?"

"Because you were a coward and hid in your mom's belly the whole time."

"Then why don't I remember being in Mom's belly?"

"Because you weren't good at studying. You can even forget ABCDEFG, so how could you remember being in your mom's belly?"

"So that's why!" Zhou Dongdong nodded in sudden realization, then hurried home to explain it to her mother. Her mother hadn't known that was the reason, but now Zhou Dongdong did.

Liu Chang'an went to pick a big bundle of sweet flag and mugwort leaves, then headed to school. The Dragon Boat Festival break wouldn't start until tomorrow, and today there were officials from the provincial department coming to inspect the school.

Since the Affiliated High School was directly overseen by the department, it had to take the visit seriously. Besides holding the usual teachers' meeting and student council meeting to prepare for the inspection, the homeroom teachers had to keep an eye on certain students. Liu Chang'an was one of the main targets. Huang Shan specifically told him either to arrive early or, if he couldn't make it and thought he would be late, to come in the afternoon instead. That way, he wouldn't be wandering in late just as the officials arrived and make the school look bad.

Most importantly, Huang Shan was afraid the officials would see Liu Chang'an arrive late and casually ask why. He didn't want Liu Chang'an voicing any of his strange excuses.

Liu Chang'an wasn't late today. If he had been, his excuse would naturally have been that he was getting ready for the Dragon Boat Festival: he'd gone to pick some mugwort and sweet flag, caught some centipedes, and lost track of time chatting with a child.

An inspection had little effect on ordinary students. Times had changed; no matter how important an official was, if their visit disrupted classes—for instance, by making students stop lessons to take part in a welcoming event—any official with even a hint of awareness of public opinion would probably turn around and leave at the sight of such a scene, then give the school a thorough dressing-down.

There were always exceptions, but today's visitors weren't among them. Other than the school administrators and teachers, everyone else went about their usual school activities.

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

People had to show consideration for each other. Whether Liu Chang'an had done it on purpose or not, he'd said plenty of nice things to her the other day, so Bai Hui was willing to strike up a conversation with him again. She was, however, becoming more and more certain that Liu Chang'an and An Nuan were in the throes of romance.

"Fragrance."

Bai Hui kept a straight face. She remembered that the other day, Liu Chang'an had said he could smell her, too. When she'd asked what kind of smell, he'd also answered, "Fragrance."

Her straight face didn't mean she was unhappy. Bai Hui sniffed. "What does it actually smell like?"

"You keep sniffing me. Qian Ning and Lu Yuan might get jealous," Liu Chang'an said with concern.

Liu Chang'an was as annoying as ever, but, oddly enough, Bai Hui realized she hadn't gotten angry right away. Perhaps she'd gotten a little used to him.

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

Bai Hui hesitated, then nodded. Why was he suddenly asking that?

"Girls who develop early often feel self-conscious, so they tend to hunch when they stand or sit, trying to make their chests seem less prominent. You don't have a habit of slouching, so I thought you might have used a Posture Corrector."

"Wearing one would make them stick out even more! That's why I stopped!" Bai Hui lowered her voice. Annoyed, but with a hint of smugness, she got her revenge: "You should give yours to An Nuan. She's always been pretty self-conscious about that."

Liu Chang'an didn't answer Bai Hui. He wore a slightly thoughtful expression, and Bai Hui couldn't help feeling a little surprised. Had Liu Chang'an and An Nuan really reached the point where they were talking about breasts?

Bai Hui had realized it, too: getting Liu Chang'an to treat her the way Lu Yuan and Qian Ning did would be very, very difficult. But she was still a little unwilling to accept it. She turned it over in her mind: What made An Nuan better than her?

As a girl, she naturally enjoyed boys' admiration and ardent gazes. She was used to that by now. She could order Lu Yuan and Qian Ning around, and those two were the ones she'd picked from among the boys who liked her and had made the first move. Qian Ning got better grades; Lu Yuan came from a wealthier family. Neither was the most outstanding, but they were the most obedient.

But lately, Bai Hui increasingly felt that something was missing from her life... or rather, perhaps she was missing an interesting boy like Liu Chang'an? Yes, Liu Chang'an was annoying, but he was also interesting. Unlike Lu Yuan and Qian Ning, who only knew how to do whatever she said.

Liu Chang'an really was interesting... though perhaps a little too lecherous. Bai Hui had spent all morning watching him draw. He'd spent the whole morning drawing a nude woman, then labeled her with all sorts of acupuncture points and little dots. Beside the drawing, he'd added various massage techniques and instructions.

Was he inventing some kind of breast-enhancement massage? Good grief, she was about to graduate from her final year of high school. How had she ended up with Liu Chang'an as her deskmate? Bai Hui secretly watched him draw, her cheeks warm, feeling utterly helpless.