ISBH - Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Sulking
Mo Sheng did not head for the garbage piles first. She ran to the edge of the construction site. During these days, everyone nearby who was not yet touched by demolition was working at the site for wages, and the place was also where all the gossip gathered.
Sure enough, she had barely arrived when she heard exactly what she wanted to hear. Sixth Aunt and Sixth Uncle had quarreled, no one knew why. Word was that someone had seen Sixth Aunt carrying on with another man, and pressed for answers, Sixth Aunt had accidentally let the truth slip. Now the couple was in the middle of a divorce dispute. Sixth Aunt was dragging the child along and begging Sixth Uncle to forgive her, while Sixth Uncle suspected the child was not his and meant to spend good money on a paternity test...
The couple was not popular here, and when people talked about their scandal, everyone sounded as if "evil gets its due"...
Hearing this, Mo Sheng breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like Sixth Aunt will have no energy to make trouble for me in the next few days.
Only after hearing this did Mo Sheng begin scavenging.
The five years were almost up and her father would soon return. Afraid her father would ache to see how she looked, Mo Sheng had resolved to dress better and improve her lot as best she could.
Apart from the usual cardboard, bottles, and scrap iron, Mo Sheng found several dresses that looked hardly worn, plus stools and a sofa thrown away by families facing demolition, and a few bowls that still looked whole.
Afraid of waking the female ghost sleeping in the room, Mo Sheng went back and forth several times and left what she had found by the door, meaning to carry it all inside together toward evening.
Pity that incense sticks were used only by devout old folks, and such people would never toss incense sticks onto the garbage piles. Mo Sheng searched several piles and found not a single stick.
On her last trip, Mo Sheng found a thermos on the garbage pile.
The outside was battered and shabby, but the inner lining was unbroken.
What an unexpected joy! Mo Sheng felt happy. She had wanted a thermos to keep hot water for so long, and now she had finally found one!
Cheered by this, Mo Sheng thought for a moment as she passed the small shop, then stopped. She spent one yuan on a few loose incense sticks and a roll of tape, and went next door to the steamed bun shop for several steamed buns.
The weather was hot now and Mo Sheng did not dare buy much. Usually one yuan bought four steamed buns, but in the evening near closing, Mo Sheng could get five steamed buns for one yuan.
That would last Mo Sheng until tomorrow evening.
Everyone around was an old acquaintance. The owner of the small shop knew the scrawny little girl, and seeing Mo Sheng buy incense sticks, gave her two extra. "Are you burning incense for your Father today?"
Mo Sheng took the incense sticks without speaking, a small unhappiness stirring in her heart.
Her father had said he would come back. In the past Mo Sheng would never have admitted her father was dead...
But thinking of the female ghost at home, Mo Sheng suddenly did not know in what form her father would return...
What if he returns just like the female ghost?
Mo Sheng suddenly felt helpless. Has Father hated me all these years? I never sent him any food...
Mo Sheng pressed her lips together, a sudden soreness welling up inside.
It did not matter if she suffered. She could not bear her father suffering.
Mo Sheng went home in silence, carefully put the incense sticks away, and opened the door.
It was already past seven in the evening, the line between dusk and night. The moon had risen at the edge of the sky and a few stars hung straight above. The female ghost had likely woken long ago, sprawled on the floor with limbs flung wide, eyes vacant, no one knew what she was thinking.
The moment she saw her return, the female ghost floated to her side, a small dimple showing in her smile. "Little Mo Sheng, I have a surprise for you..."
"Mo Sheng, will you press the switch? I fixed the wiring in the house and the bulb still works. You won't have to do your homework in the dark anymore..."
"With electricity, I can make many things for you. I'll find a way to earn money and raise you plump and healthy..."
"Mo Sheng, Mo Sheng..."
The female ghost stretched out her voice, sounding very gentle.
How old are you, still so fond of acting spoiled!
Mo Sheng grumbled to herself while carrying what she had scavenged into the room, though her movements quickened despite herself.
But had she really fixed the wiring?
Mo Sheng hardly dared believe it, her gaze drifting toward the wires in the room.
In the dim light, Mo Sheng could see nothing at all.
Mo Sheng pressed her lips together and carried everything she had found into the house.
The female ghost chattered beside her. "Ah! These dresses you brought back are so cute, Mo Sheng. You'll look lovely in them..."
"Mo Sheng is wonderful, you dragged back such a heavy chair all by yourself..."
"Pity I can't leave this house, or I could have helped you carry..."
The female ghost can't leave her own house?
No wonder she can only stay home all day...
Hearing this, Mo Sheng paused briefly, then acted as if nothing had happened while she moved everything into the room. She picked up the incense sticks, lit them, and stuck them in the dirt mound beside the doorway...
Mo Sheng had never worshipped ancestors and did not know how to pray, but she had seen the old people in the village kneel when they prayed...
With a sidelong glance at the female ghost floating beside her, Mo Sheng pressed her lips together, torn...
"Mo Sheng, you've tired yourself all day. Go eat something..."
The female ghost kept nagging at her side.
Fine! I'll count this as a way to shut her endless mouth!
Mo Sheng bit her lower lip and knelt before the incense sticks. She did not know the female ghost's name, so she could only pray in her heart, "This incense is for a female ghost. The one beside me, silly and pretty and chatty. Please don't let her starve to death..."
The silly female ghost, however, seemed to receive none of her offering.
Watching her offer the incense sticks, the female ghost opened her pretty eyes wide, looking surprised, then, as if thinking of something, a clear look of heartache surfaced on her face.
The female ghost drifted to her side as if she wanted to touch her, but perhaps fearing she would be noticed, she only spoke carefully from the side. "Is Mo Sheng burning incense for Father? Father's turned into a star in the sky. He's been watching Mo Sheng all this time..."
"Little Mo Sheng must live with happiness! Then Father will feel happy when he sees it from the sky..."
Does this female ghost take me for a three year old, to comfort me like that?
Many people had said such things, but Mo Sheng did not believe them at all. Her father had not turned into some distant star. Her father had said he would return...
The female ghost still had the mood to babble on. It seemed this female ghost could not taste the incense at all!
Mo Sheng pressed her lips tight, anger rising in her heart. The female ghost knew nothing, yet she talked about her father that way...
Mo Sheng did not know why she was so angry. She had long grown used to others believing her father would never come back...
Mo Sheng stood up from the ground with a straight face and stamped out the incense sticks.
The female ghost seemed to see her unhappiness and stood helplessly behind her with wide eyes, utterly baffled by what she had done...
At that moment Mo Sheng did not want to speak to her. Though she knew the female ghost badly wanted her to turn on the light, Mo Sheng simply did not want to let her have her way. Pressing her lips together, she went to the corner and lit a short stub of candle.
Unusually quiet, the female ghost followed silently behind her.
Mo Sheng would not look at her. Pressing her lips together, she pulled out the tape she had bought and began mending the torn books by the faint candlelight...
The female ghost crouched beside her, looking as if she wanted to speak yet held back. At last, as if remembering something, she said softly, "Mo Sheng, you're doing very well as you are..."
"If your Father knew how you remember him, he'd be so glad..."
Han Tian did not know how much time had passed in the world ten years on, how many people might be searching for her, or how that woman whose name she dared not recall would react on hearing she had vanished...
"I once met a stubborn girl like you. She kept searching for someone with all her heart," Han Tian felt her eyes sting. Perhaps night made people soft. Watching Mo Sheng paste her books together with care by candlelight, Han Tian felt a sudden sorrow.
Han Tian had always been laid back.
When her parents died, Han Tian was still very small. It was Han Tian's birthday, and Han Tian had wished for a big cake, yet her parents met with an accident on the way to buy it. In memory Han Tian recalled crying and fussing for a time, but when her mother and father never returned, Han Tian accepted that they would never come back...
After her parents died, Han Tian vowed to carry on her father's work. Her father had been a brilliant young scientist, and to follow in his steps, Han Tian had lived in the laboratory since childhood.
From then on, Han Tian's life grew extremely plain.
At first, Han Tian would weep over breaking a test tube in her father's laboratory, trying like the Mo Sheng before her eyes to stick the shattered tube together with tape. Yet when she saw liquid leak from the pieced tube, Han Tian learned that some things could never be kept...
From then on Han Tian grew easy and accepting. She thought her life would stay plain like that forever, until she met Mo Sang.
"After I met her, my life finally turned bright. That girl looked like a star on the horizon. She was beautiful. When she danced she was like a born enchantress, yet when she sang she sounded like the most innocent girl..."
"I really liked her..." Han Tian sniffed. Sure Mo Sheng could not hear her, Han Tian at last showed her longing. "But far too many people liked her. She was the finest idol, and I was only one fan among countless fans..."
How could she not have been moved? Those days with Mo Sang felt to Han Tian like the loveliest dream...
Yet Han Tian knew better than anyone that to Mo Sang she was only a stand-in.
What happened later?
Mo Sheng had listened to the female ghost without noticing how caught up she was, yet the female ghost fell quiet. Mo Sheng stole a look at her. The female ghost bowed her head, tears shining in her eyes, as if she would cry in the next breath...
A sudden displeasure rose in Mo Sheng's heart. She still liked better the carefree and silly female ghost...
That person made the female ghost so sad. Why does she still like her?
Mo Sheng tightened her lips. She found she could not bear to see the female ghost look so pitiful.
Can't she like someone else?
Mo Sheng's lashes trembled, a dull weight rising in her for no reason. What a silly female ghost!
Fine! I won't bicker with a thoughtless stupid female ghost!
Thinking so, Mo Sheng stood up awkwardly. Pretending she was going to relieve herself, she suddenly twisted her foot as she passed the light switch, then caught herself against the corner of the wall, as if she had pressed the switch by accident...
Soft orange light poured down from above...
"The light works?"
Mo Sheng had not thought the female ghost had truly fixed the wiring. Her gasp sounded perfectly natural.
"This is wonderful!" This time her acting was not as overdone as before.
Caught by the sound, the female ghost soon smiled through tears and floated to Mo Sheng's side. "Little Mo Sheng is amazing! You noticed so fast that I fixed the wiring..."
Mo Sheng bit her lip and lifted her chin with a touch of pride, glancing at Han Tian without a trace. I'm smart, of course, which is why I spotted you, you female ghost.
With smart me right before you, why do you still miss that distant woman?
Stupid female ghost, rather than pining foolishly for your star, you might as well keep liking me!
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