A Gallop on the Embankment with Spring Breeze

Chapter 13: The Ghost Was Spooked

Translator: Wu Meixin

Proofread by Fu Tianying

Ashun, out of concern, as well as two Kongfu masters followed in. After all, they should guarantee that Ma Tian’en, the lifeblood of Ma family, was safe, away from any danger.

Entering into the granary, they split up to search every corner where the ghost could hide. Checking it out carefully, Ma found that the walls of the granary were more than three meters thick. The thick walls were to overcome the great tension that came from grain storage and to maintain constant temperature as well. It’ s said that the open windows on all sides of the top of granary were designed to enable emperors of previous dynasties to see the harvest spectacle of pouring grains from windows to the granary, which was kept largely as a convention ever since.

The grains and goods stored in the granary were in disorder for the granary was too large and had not been cleared up for a few days since it was haunted. They searched for quite a while without seeing anything special. It was already dark outside. With so many grains and boxes of goods, how could they find the ghost hiding there?

“Childe, what should we do now? How about going out and then checking them tomorrow? I heard ghosts would come out at night.” Ashun asked out of fear.

“Leave here right now? Do you remember for what we are here? For catching ghosts! You can leave here if you are scared. I won’t.” Ma Tian’en glanced at Ashun and thought Ashun was as timid as a rabbit.

“I am not scared! I am worried about you, Childe. If there were ghosts, I would catch them as your new ride.” Ashun changed his tone as soon as he got the point of his young lord.

“There are two possible results. The one is that someone dresses up as ghost and we could easily defeat him. The other one is that the ghost is a real one. If it is true, there is no need to be afraid at all. We may be beaten to death and turn to ghosts as well. Then we could beat those ghosts heavily until they regret to be ghosts! Anyway, stop searching now and we could just wait for the ghost to show up.”

When she finished, Ma Tian’en dragged a chair and sat down on it leisurely. She took a book, holding it half a foot away and read it, imitating his teacher Wu Zhong. After a while, he felt tired and put the book on the table with his hands holding her cheeks, staring at the book and listening to any sound around.

The other three stared at him and looked around the quiet granary carefully as well.

Except for some unknown words skipped, the reading sound, loud and clear, spread through the granary. It was so impressing. No fear. No sense of impending doom. But it was a pity that all lasted no longer before Ma began to drowse.

In his drowsing, he heard the sound of wind. Where did it come from in the granary with such thick walls? Meanwhile, the sound of wind came along with some shivery wail. Was all that a dream? However, the sound was so real.

Opening his eyes, Ma did hear the sound with some cold wind getting closer and closer, terrifying.

“Childe, a ghost! Really!” Shrinking back in fear, Ashun looked around carefully, shivering all over.

Two Kongfu masters immediately stood before Ma Tian’en to protect their young lord, getting ready to go into action.

“Don’t you know anything about ventriloquism? What a highly-skilled man! It sounds so real and I would like to have a try some day!” MaTian’en felt excited rather than scared. Followed by Ashun and two masters, Ma walked towards the origin of the sound. Oddly enough, though the sound was not far away, they could not find where it was coming from no matter where they searched.

The whole thing was really a little weird. And at that time, the sound disappeared suddenly.

Maybe, the ghost was not willing to come out for fear of so many people here. Then for a moment, a fine idea came to Ma’s mind.

“Let’s split up. You check out those storerooms and I will stay here.”

“Childe, we’d better not separate…” Ashun was scared and wanted to stay together with Ma.

“You say it as if you are my young lord. How dare you disobey me? We come here to catch the ghost rather than play hide-and-seek with it. Go right now!” Ma said resolutely. According to her experience, the ghost must be played by man, which aimed at attacking Ma family. From the perspective of the ghost, it was much easier to deal with one person than a group. Thus, as long as they separated, the ghost definitively would appear.

The other three gave in and split up. When they were gone, Ma pretended to check boxes and sacks carefully. In fact, neither her eyes nor ears were focusing on goods, but she scanned the back with the afterlight of her eyes.

As expected, the ghost fell for it! It was not long before Ma heard the faint rustle behind. When the ghost tiptoed nearby, Ma suddenly uttered a cry and fell on a sack of grain.

With claws stretched out, the ghost had planned to fling himself on Ma. It never occurred to him that Ma would fall down by himself. He was so startled that he froze to the spot.

The ghost was shrouded in a white cloth with face hidden except for his eyes. But from a distance, it seemed like he had no head. Beneath his feet were two blocks of wood-like stilts, creating a feeling that he was floating in the air.

The ghost was confused about everything before him. He thought, “How could the young man pass out? Maybe he was ill? Or was he dead? Okay, well, my work here is done. The boss should give me double pay for my excellent performance.”

With high sense of responsibility and professionalism, the ghost came over, putting his hands out to check if Ma was still alive.

As the ghost just leaned forward, Ma opened his eyes with a weird smile on his face and breathed a fire before the ghost touched his nose. So scared was the ghost that he fell to the ground with a cry: “Oh, dear! A ghost!”

Leaping upon the ghost, Ma Tian’en beat him as he yelled out, “How dare you play ghost with your crappy mouth skills? Well, do you really think you are floating in the air when walking on stilts? How about putting wings on you and see if you can fly in the sky?”

Actually, the ghost was good at Kongfu. He was beaten just because of the unexpected attack of Ma and his limited movements owing to his tight clothes.

The other three ran back when they heard the sound. Landing on top of the ghost, Ma beat him heavily. All of a sudden, the ghost rolled over, threw Ma out and jumped to run away. The two Kongfu masters had already been waiting by the door. How could they allow him to run away? The two blocked him on the way and fought with him.

Ma got up from the ground and ran after the ghost. The three all beat the ghost heavily until he pleaded for mercy. Then Ashun grew braver and tore off the clothes of that ghost. A living man, actually a poor middle-aged man, appeared with scrapes and bruises on his face.

“You’d better tell the truth. Save your silly lies, or I will kill you.” Ma was a little tired and the thoughtful Ashun brought him a chair to let him question the ghost on it.

“I will tell the truth. I will. I was just a man with some crappy mouth skills and plain fist-fighting and kicks. Someone gave me twenty taels for playing ghost in the granary for seven days. After that, I would receive another fifty taels. I did that out of avarice. I was so greedy and foolish. I am terribly sorry. I promise it won’t happen—Please spare my life! Please! I still have family members, old and young, to feed. Please let me go!” Being a good performer, the man made all things clear in a speedy voice, shedding tears throughout his speech.

“Who put you up to it?”

“I don’t know. I just know he is a middle-aged man. Nothing more. Well, you know, we have rules. I was not allowed to ask a little more. ”

“Oh? Rules? You, a liar, obeyed rules! Tell it to the Marines! How dare you play ghost with your crappy skills? ” Ashun scolded him seriously.

All Ma could think was how to bring the man with him to play ghost. After all, the man was pretty good at ventriloquism. Sadly, he was a little timid.

“Put your hands out.” Ma Tian’en suddenly thought that he had once heard about people scratched by ghosts. Ma wanted to check the man’s hands.

Uncomprehendingly, the man put his hands out, trembling with fear. Ma checked his hands carefully, but found his fingernails flat and blunt. Ma continued, “Any weapons with you… like, a talon of falcon?

“No, not at all. I did play ghost, but I never thought about hurting others. How could I hurt people just for twenty taels?” The man proclaimed his innocence assuredly.

Indeed, he was too timid to hurt people.

“Do not dress in white when you play ghost next time. You got it?” Ma Tian’en stepped into accepting the man as a disciple.

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind. So what should I wear next time?” The man knew clearly whom he should rely on.

“Wear in red.” Ma replied.

“In red like that?” One of martial arts master pointed. All looked over to where he pointed. With his face hidden by his black hair, a man in red drifted away in a flash, leaving a strong smell of wet seaweeds.

“A ghost!”