A silver-white motorcycle stopped at the entrance of the town, and an old man and a young man got off the bike.
The elder wearing a Taoist robe and carrying a peach wood sword was the first to get off the motorcycle, followed by a youth in a black leather jacket.
"Master, I told you to slow down! Slow down! It's pitch dark here, the headlight is broken, why are you rushing me? I couldn't see anything in the first place, now look, we hit someone!" Zou Sheng complained incessantly as he took out his phone and turned on the flashlight.
The lights at the entrance of the town were dim, only able to illuminate the area directly under the memorial archway, nothing else was clearly visible.
Bi Dejiang kicked Zou Sheng: "Stop talking! Hurry up and save the person!"
Using the light from the mobile phone, the two searched around in a circle, covering an area of about a hundred meters, but strangely were unable to find the person they had hit.
"Master, where is the person?" Zou Sheng asked somewhat puzzledly. The scream he heard earlier sounded like a man's. "Did I mishear?"
"You didn't mishear, the voice was loud! It was right by the car!" Bi Dejiang said.
The old Taoist who had lived in the mountains for over a decade was making his first trip down the mountain in years, and the first thing he did was hit someone with his car, leaving Bi Dejiang very apprehensive.
Zou Sheng: "Then I'll go check the back of the car!" he said, craning his neck to look behind.
Song Jixing stood in the dark, watching the rat that had been run over by the motorcycle, tightly covering her own mouth without making a sound, feeling helpless inwardly.
In the pitch darkness it was normal not to see clearly, so she pinched a small pebble and threw it at the rat.
The rat shrieked in pain, "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"
"Master, there's someone!" The old and the young simultaneously turned their heads back, locating the source of the sound.
A little rat was standing next to the tire of the car, uttering sounds just like a human.
The master and disciple looked at each other in shock and horror.
"Ma-Master, it's not a person! Ahhhh!" Zou Sheng dragged out the last note, ultimately screaming out!
Help! Why would a rat make human sounds!
Not only Zou Sheng, but this was also Bi Dejiang's first time encountering such a situation.
Although the old Taoist master still kept his composure, his hands gripped tightly around the peach wood sword were already drenched in sweat. He calmed himself and said steadily: "You and I, master and disciple, came here based on the divination symbols. This rat must be the object shown in the divination symbols!"
Having seen such an eerie incident for the first time, Zou Sheng's whole body shook like a sieve, his teeth chattering ceaselessly: "Ma-Ma-Master, sh-sh-should we..."
Bi Dejiang immediately struck the side of his disciple's head heavily with the peach wood sword, "What is there to be afraid of? Our ancestral master has left us with so many magic weapons! A petty demon, what can it do to us?"
By the end of his words, Bi Dejiang himself was also uncertain.
It appeared that the rat had been run over by the car directly on its tail, firmly pinned there, unable to move.
Bi Dejiang poked the rat with the peach wood sword.
The rat immediately admitted its wrongdoing: "Sister, the rat knows it was wrong! Kind sirs, please spare the rat! The rat has gained the rare ability to speak, it just wants to live well!"
Things had been fine when it didn't speak, but now that it opened its mouth, it scared Zou Sheng even more.
At the moment the rat was wholeheartedly hugging its injured foot, crying bitterly, and had not noticed the people around it.
From behind, Bi Dejiang took out a grayish-green lidded ceramic jar.
"This is one of the magic weapons passed down by our ancestral master, let's put the rat inside."
Scared to death already, Zou Sheng began to stutter again, "Ma-Master, I..."
"I'll do it together with you!"
Master and disciple worked together, shoving the rat that had lost most of its tail into the jar.
There was a small air vent on the jar so the rat wouldn't suffocate, but there was no telling if the rat would escape.
To be safe, Bi Dejiang also tied a rope tightly around the jar's opening.
"Drive, let's go back!" Bi Dejiang said heavily.
Still shaken, Zou Sheng said: "Master, my...my legs have gone soft, I can't drive the bike!"
Bi Dejiang glared at him, "Then I'll drive, teach me!"
Caught between teaching his master to drive and dying, Zou Sheng decisively chose life. "Master, let me catch my breath for a bit, I'll move around."
Zou Sheng swung his arms and legs, took several deep breaths, stood in place for several minutes, then started the motorcycle again.
Seeing the master and disciple's behavior, Song Jixing was quite worried that the rat would cry out a couple times on the road, scaring them into getting into an accident.
So she threw a wisp of spiritual energy over to seal the rat's mouth and nose, preventing it from making any sound for 24 hours, after which the restriction would automatically undo itself.
The spiritual energy was something Song Jixing had gradually accumulated recently from an unknown source, just a few drops.
Hearing the sounds fading into the distance, Song Jixing took out her phone and sent Shen Feixian a message asking him to help delete the surveillance footage.
On the way back to the RV, the mobile phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated. Song Jixing took it out and saw that elder martial brother had taken care of everything.
Before she reached her own RV, Song Jixing discovered the nearby courtyard was brightly lit and bustling with noise, when she had left it pitch dark earlier.
The scent of hot pot wafted out from the yard, and someone was standing at the gate calling someone.
Song Jixing walked straight over without any attempt to avoid suspicion.
Shi Fei absentmindedly caught sight of the figure nearby while on the phone, and turned to see Song Jixing dressed all in black, standing not far under the street lamp.
Shi Fei immediately greeted: "Teacher Song, you're not asleep yet! Want to join us for a midnight snack?"
Song Jixing smiled: "Thanks, but I'm not hungry!"
"That cat was making too much noise, keeping me up at night, so I called everyone to eat together." Shi Fei explained.
Song Jixing nodded in understanding.
"Actually, Teacher Song..." Shi Fei said earnestly, "You're also a fan of horror! That's why you went out specifically at this time of night! And purposely came to perform in my drama?"
How could she explain this?
Song Jixing shook her head: "No, I simply couldn't fall asleep."
Just as Shi Fei was waiting for Song Jixing's reply to confirm her guess so he could share his knowledge of classic horror films and bond over their mutual interest, he had to swallow back all the words he wanted to say.
He didn't have much of an appetite for the hot pot anymore!
Oh well!
-
After overcoming all difficulties, Bi Dejiang and disciple finally made it back to the hotel before dawn.
The first thing the two did after closing the room door was to check if the rat in the jar was still alive, or rather, if the rat was still inside.
Opening the jar, they discovered the rat still scurrying around vigorously inside, but it had become mute.
Zou Sheng poked the rat with the complimentary hotel pen. Discovering that the rat had no reaction whatsoever, he started to panic.
Zou Sheng: "Master, what should we do? The rat's not making any noise now!"
"Was the talking rat last night just an illusion?"
For once, Bi Dejiang didn't scold his second disciple. He looked at the rat for a good while in silence, then finally spoke: "I'll make a call."
About an hour after the call, a squad of men in military vehicles and special suits arrived at the hotel to take away the two men and one rat.
Sitting in an armed vehicle for the first time, Zou Sheng felt a bit uneasy. Watching the rat scurrying around frantically in the jar, he suddenly felt a sense of empathy.
Ah...
- Offscreen narrator
Rat: Damn it! If you wanna catch a rat then catch a rat! And you don't even give food, abusing the rat, trying to starve the rat to death!
