Manbao handed over her small handkerchief to him, and Bai Erlang took it, wiping his tears as he said, "I knew from the start there was something not right about this house, but you all insisted on renting it. Now look what’s happened, there really is a ghost."
"Don’t be scared, don’t be scared, didn’t you hear her? She was crying out about being wronged, which means she was a good person when she was alive. What is there to be afraid of if the ghost is of a good person?" Manbao said, "I don’t know what grievances she had."
Bai Shanbao spoke up, "Tomorrow we’ll go ask her."
Manbao nodded repeatedly, and then asked Bai Erlang, "Are you coming with us?"
Bai Erlang, still wiping his tears, looked at them and said, "Aren’t you scared?"
"A little bit, but aren’t you curious?" Manbao said, "It’s a ghost, after all. I want to ask her what it’s like to be a ghost after you die, whether ghosts can go anywhere they want to have fun, how many ghosts are there in the world, and whether everyone can become a ghost after they die."
Bai Erlang was stunned and asked, "Why do you need to know all that?"
"Everyone dies, it’s only by fully understanding that we can prepare early, right?"
Bai Erlang: "... what kind of preparation do we have to do?"
"There’s a lot actually, haven’t you noticed?" Manbao said, "Every year during New Year’s, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and Hungry Ghost Festival, we have to worship our ancestors and only after they have had their fill can we eat."
Bai Erlang was confused, "So?"
Bai Shanbao slapped him on the back, a bit frustrated, and said, "So ghosts can’t just do anything. If there really are ghosts, they have to rely on what the family offers. Otherwise, if ghosts could do anything they wanted, wouldn’t they just waltz into homes or shops to eat?"
Bai Erlang was taken aback.
"So what’s there to be afraid of ghosts?" Manbao said, "If ghosts could just harm people at will, there would be more ghosts than people in this world by now."
It took Bai Erlang quite some time to grasp the meaning of what the two of them were saying.
He had to admit, he felt a bit more at peace now, but he was still frightened, "So, you think that thing was really a ghost?"
Manbao too felt uncertain and a little scared, but still said, "I’ve never seen a ghost before, and I want to have a look."
Anyhow, it probably couldn’t be worse than her Keke.
Bai Shanbao was also brash with the fearlessness of youth and wanted to see the ghost as well.
"I have seen one," Bai Erlang said in a low voice, whispering, "When I was at home, I woke up in the middle of the night and it seemed like there was a ghost standing by my bed, motionless. I was so scared."
Manbao, who always slept through till dawn, and Bai Shanbao, who was used to sleeping with the light on, couldn’t really relate.
Seeing them quietly looking at him with disbelief, Bai Erlang couldn’t help but exclaim, "I’m telling the truth!"
"Many people say the same thing," Manbao, with many brothers and nephews in her family, said confidently, "But my brothers say it’s just the shadows of tree branches on the wall or clothes making shapes. You were just half asleep and scared yourself."
Bai Shanbao said, "Anyways, whether there’s a ghost or not, we’ll know by tomorrow night."
Bai Erlang asked, "How are you planning to catch the ghost?"
Manbao grinned and said, "That’s simple. If she cries tomorrow, we’ll be able to catch her. If she doesn’t cry tomorrow, she’s bound to cry the day after or the day after that."
Bai Shanbao said, "Luckily, she doesn’t appear too late, so we don’t have to waste too much time waiting for her."
But Manbao was worried about Teacher Mo’s lessons and heaved a sigh of sorrow, hoping they could catch the ghost tomorrow, or how many days of classes would she miss?
Even though the classes at the study hall were on-demand, Teacher Mo would be able to see the records of which days she studied and which she didn’t.
Teacher Mo, who had grown accustomed to checking the progress of the courses each day and assigning homework to a specific student, received an email requesting leave as soon as she logged in that day.
Manbao had no idea how long ghost catching would take, so she wrote that the return date was uncertain.
Teacher Mo, looking at the leave request, couldn’t help but stroke his chin, wondering what kind of urgent matter a little kid could have that resulted in an indefinite return.
Still, seeing the words "urgent family matters" written in the message, Teacher Mo closed the email and turned to attend to other matters.
Manbao and her group, after discussing, went off to sleep. Bai Erlang, too scared to sleep alone, ended up sticking to Bai Shanbao’s room, wanting to share the bed with him.
Mr. Zhuang occupied their Water Classics Annotations, acting capriciously by giving Bai Shanbao the book list and letting him choose one to read first. He said he’d go through it with him after he finished reading and that he could ask any questions if he had any.
Bai Shanbao agreed and handed one of the books to Manbao before slipping off into the courtyard to read. When 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. arrived, and it was time for them to rest, the three of them told Mr. Zhuang they were stepping out and left.
Daji followed them as they left.
Bai Erlang asked, "What are we doing?"
Bai Shanbao replied, "We’re going to buy white hemp garments."
Bai Erlang, confused, asked, "What do we need those for?"
"For disguising as ghosts," Manbao said matter-of-factly. "We’re going to catch a ghost, so we need to make the ghost let her guard down. The best way to do that is to dress up as ghosts."
Bai Shanbao asked, "What do ghosts usually look like?"
"Dressed in white, with flowing long hair, and able to fly!" Bai Erlang blurted out the three traits in one breath.
Manbao and Bai Shanbao nodded and said, "So that’s why we’re going to buy the hemp garments."
Daji, trailing behind, hesitated to say anything, but seeing that the three had already found a place and were stepping inside, he decided not to say anything at all.
After buying the hemp garments and returning, the three of them waited patiently until night fell, then changed into the clothes and set out. Tonight’s moon was also half full, just slightly bigger than the previous night’s.
But clouds still lingered around the moon, occasionally obscuring it, to Manbao’s great satisfaction.
The three let their hair hang loose. At twelve or thirteen years old, having grown their hair out for several years, it was long enough to reach their waists, and when let down, it covered most of their faces.
Giggling, the three reached the door and peered outside. Seeing no one, they cautiously slipped into the alley.
Zhou SiLang wholeheartedly supported their venture. Though he didn’t have the guts to join in, he expressed his support by spending money on a lot of firewood, placing it all in the alley-end near his home’s wall.
He intentionally spread it out a bit to provide them with a hiding spot.
Then he handed the only weapon in the house—the kitchen knife—to Manbao.
Manbao passed the kitchen knife to Daji, while she quietly took the taser instead.
Zhou SiLang found a ladder and propped it quietly against the wall. He told the others, "You’ll be outside, I’ll help from inside."
Manbao, with disdain, said, "SiLang, you’d better stay home and protect the teacher. We can handle this ourselves."
Bai Erlang wasn’t as scared anymore, mainly because there were more of them, and, importantly, Daji was standing right behind them.
Making the most of the dusk, when the sky was just turning dark, the three slipped out the door and squeezed into the space Zhou SiLang had left for them.
They crouched behind the firewood, peeking through the gaps for a better view of the supposedly haunted half of the alley.
Daji didn’t go in; instead, he stood against the wall in the dark, clad in black clothes, silent in the shadows. Even when Manbao and the others knew his whereabouts, sometimes they still couldn’t find him.
It was only then that they realized belatedly, "We might have worn the wrong clothes. We shouldn’t have put on hemp garments; we should’ve worn black clothes instead."