Chapter 136

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“Yah! Take this!” Miss Chen played Go with murderous intensity.

“Slow down, Miss Chen. Is that really how Go is played?” Fu Bao said helplessly, a game piece pinched between her fingers.

“Oh, it’s so boring! There’s no thrill in it at all. I’d much rather go horseback riding and practice archery.” Miss Chen slapped down another stone.

“Speaking of horseback riding, my Red has grown terribly thin lately. She neither eats nor drinks, and even the fat rabbits can bully her. Every day, they climb onto her back with all their babies and sleep soundly, while the whole string of rabbits imitates them perfectly. If this had happened before, how could Red’s proud and haughty nature ever have allowed another creature to touch her?”

Fu Bao continued to hold the Go piece, staring at the board and wondering where she should place it.

“Come to think of it, your horse really is strange. After she went missing last time, she came back looking as though she had lost her soul.” Miss Chen paused, then continued, “Do you think someone might have bewitched her and stolen her soul?”

“Possibly.” Fu Bao stroked her chin, growing more and more suspicious. But who would target a horse?

“Ah! The teacher is coming!”

At the exclamation from the two young ladies nearby, Fu Bao and Miss Chen immediately sat up straight, each clutching a Go piece in hand.

“Mmm.” The old teacher nodded and offered a word of praise as he inspected each student.

But when he reached Fu Bao and Miss Chen, his usually kindly expression began to crack.

Staring at the pig’s head they had constructed from Go pieces, the teacher felt as though a Godzilla were roaring inside his chest.

“Call your parents.”

That roar, capable of making every bird vanish from the mountains, sealed the fate of Miss Chen and Fu Bao: the next day, they would bring their parents to the academy.

…

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At dusk, most of the academy’s students had already left. The headmaster led a group of teachers to a spacious area, where they piled all the paintings together, intending to burn them.

“Headmaster, everything is ready.” A servant stacked the materials and came forward.

“Good. Start the fire.”

“Yes.”

A thick cloud of smoke rose into the air. Soon, the strange paintings caught fire and emitted a series of bizarre cries, which gradually weakened until, before long, there was no sound at all.

“Just as I thought—there really was something wrong with them!” The headmaster, thoroughly frightened, hid behind Old Master Yang and muttered.

“They’ve been dealt with. Don’t worry.” Old Master Yang waved a hand, signaling everyone to relax.

Once the paintings had nearly finished burning, the headmaster left the remaining work to the servant and departed.

The teachers also left. Several servants gathered up the ashes, dug a pit, and prepared to bury them.

“Hmm? There’s still a little piece that didn’t burn completely.” One of them picked up a scrap of paper from the ashes.

“What was drawn on it?”

“A hand.”

“Oh, it didn’t burn all the way. Never mind. Throw it in and bury it. Let’s finish quickly and get back to our rooms.”

“Right. Hurry up and bury it.”

After a while, the servants finished cleaning up and returned to the academy, leaving behind only a pit of earth tamped flat beneath their feet.

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A long time later, a little bird flew over. It pecked left, then right, and the moment it hopped forward, a hand dragged it down into the pit.

At dinner, Fu Bao kept poking at the rice in her bowl, stealing glances from time to time at Meng Yun, who was eating across from her.

Lin Sanlang kept piling food into Fu Bao’s bowl. Enough said—she should eat as much as she could now, or she would not have the strength to endure the “bamboo-board fried meat” punishment later.

Sure enough, that very evening Fu Bao received a thorough beating. She sobbed miserably while Hua Zhi applied ointment to her little bottom before bed.

“Waaah, waaah! Mother doesn’t love me anymore!” Fu Bao hugged her pillow and sobbed.

“Little Miss, your mother does love you.”

“No, she doesn’t! My bottom is blooming! Waaah!”

“That is what happens when you refuse to study properly.”

“You’re blaming me too? Ow!”

“All right, all right. Blame Hua Zhi. It’s all Hua Zhi’s fault. Now stop wriggling around.”

“Waaah…”

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