Zhang Qian was stunned, momentarily forgetting to react, as she watched a stone the size of a chicken egg hurtle towards her face.
Just as the stone was about to hit Zhang Qian’s forehead, she felt a force on her shoulder, as if something had pushed her.
She followed the momentum, toppling to one side.
Zhang Qian was in a panic, instinctively stepping forward, trying to balance her tilting body.
Zhang Qian, with her body skewed, her legs in a half-split position, managed to stand firm.
The stone, having missed its direct target on Zhang Qian, didn’t hit her.
The stone landed on the ground and then lightly bounced, not too lightly nor too heavily, hitting the foot of a female classmate standing beside Zhang Qian!
It was August, in the heat of summer, and the fashion-conscious girls were wearing toe-exposing sandals.
Coincidentally, the stone hit the big toe of the female classmate.
Although it didn’t fall straight down, the force was still enough to cause the classmate to feel a piercing pain.
In that instant, her tears burst forth.
Zhang Qian was deeply moved, wishing she could hold the classmate’s hands and thank her repeatedly, "Dear, thank you so much, you saved me by pushing me away just in time!"
Having pushed Zhang Qian away, she herself got affected.
Tsk tsk, what spirit is this?
Sacrificing oneself for others, huh.
The female classmate, with a numb face, "When did I push you?"
She, too, was terrified just now, wasn’t she?
She was thinking, if Zhang Qian got hit by the stone, what would she do?
Then, Zhang Qian suddenly dodged, and the stone, after a series of bounces, landed on her toe.
This, this... it’s spooky, just too damn spooky.
"You didn’t push me? Then, then who was pushing me?" Zhang Qian’s face turned pale with fright, suddenly feeling that even the wind blowing through the mountains carried a chill of yin energy.
Zhang Qian and her classmate exchanged glances, both seeing the terror in each other’s eyes.
But, Zhang Qian suddenly remembered something, "A peace charm?! That’s right, I... I got a peace charm from Guiyuan Temple, maybe it saved me!"
Zhang Qian quickly opened her backpack, trying to find the talisman that looked like a ghostly scrawl.
But she couldn’t find it!
"That’s impossible, I... I put it right in the bag. Honey, you saw it too, right?!"
Zhang Qian emptied the contents of her bag, sorting through everything, but no matter what she couldn’t find that neatly folded peace charm.
It was the female classmate who exclaimed, "Zhang Qian, it’s written in internet novels that if a peace charm saves its owner from disaster, it will turn to ashes!"
And as Zhang Qian turned the contents of her bag inside out, the ashes of the peace charm may have already been scattered by the mountain wind.
Zhang Qian’s eyes sparkled, "Yes, that’s exactly how it’s written in novels. So, the peace charm from Guiyuan Temple really works? And, and I was just saved by it?"
The classmate nodded frantically, "Exactly, that’s it!"
Because she did indeed see with her own eyes Zhang Qian put the peace charm in her backpack, and now, Zhang Qian had turned her bag inside out without finding that talisman.
The classmate was both excited and regretful.
She was excited that she had witnessed a supernatural event firsthand.
Regretful that at noon, she hadn’t bought one along with Zhang Qian.
She, she even mocked Zhang Qian for paying the "stupidity tax," saying that the temple master was a swindler, wait a second.
The classmate thought about these things and suddenly lowered her head to look at her big toe, which was hit, a ridiculous thought suddenly rising from her heart: Was her being hit a kind of punishment?
The temple master of Guiyuan Temple was a Taoist with true spiritual powers, yet she doubted him to be a charlatan.
Was she like that scumbag boyfriend who caused his own head to bleed, speaking ill and then suffering "retribution"?
Ah no, please, she really hadn’t blasphemed the divine, she... she was just joking with a classmate.
"Let’s go, let’s go back to Guiyuan Temple, I... I want to buy a peace charm too!"
The more the classmate thought, the more afraid she became, and to avoid further "punishment," she ignored the pain in her foot, pulling Zhang Qian to run up the mountain.
As an eyewitness to a supernatural event, Zhang Qian was immensely excited, her hand clasping the hand of her classmate in response.
The two supported each other, running together towards Guiyuan Temple.
Unfortunately, Guiyuan Temple had already closed, and the Taoist on duty had gone to rest.
"Then, then we’ll come first thing tomorrow morning, to ask for the first peace charm!" Zhang Qian and her classmate weren’t discouraged but were even more eager.
A female ghost, disguised as an old lady and hidden in the shadows, clasped a secretly taken peace charm with her soul body, watching this scene unfold, felt a bit doubtful in her heart—
Well, this should count as a success, right?
The young lady should be pleased, and then she might give me a "Ghost Pill"...