PCJ – Chapter 176 Seeking the Talisman Again

Not only was Gong Ziyuan scared out of his wits. The students who were watching the lecture on the platform were also scared. Dumb reacted the fastest, directly diving under the table. The other students followed suit, all diving under the table.

Zhang Jiaohua, just after activating the fire talisman, immediately realized that he was still in class, so he quickly withdrew the spell, so the fire talisman did not fully ignite. Otherwise, the first to bear the brunt would definitely be Gong Ziyuan, who would end up as a roasted human.

“Zhang Jiaohua, if you don’t want to sit in the front row, just tell the teacher. Don’t play with fire. The teacher has a weak heart. Being scared by you like this could kill someone,” Gong Ziyuan said, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

Zhang Jiaohua felt a bit guilty, “Teacher, I did it unintentionally just now. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

Gong Ziyuan had always found Zhang Jiaohua’s play with this to be quite interesting and fun. Protective talismans, safety talismans, he even wore a safety talisman himself. He didn’t expect Zhang Jiaohua to play with fire talismans as well, and it could be so dangerous.

Zhang Jiaohua had also been startled just now; the fire talisman was so explosive and difficult to control that he had to activate it forcefully at the moment of completion. Fortunately, he controlled it in time and neutralized the fire talisman. If he hadn’t, who knows what would have happened to Gong Ziyuan with the fire talisman.

Dumb’s hand stretched out from under the table, “Jiaohua, there’s no more fire, right?”

Dumb was the most timid. Everyone else had already come out, but he didn’t dare to come out.

“Bang!”

Someone deliberately simulated the sound of a firecracker explosion to scare Dumb, which really made him tremble all over.

This accident made Zhang Jiaohua not dare to use drawing talismans to pass the time in the following classes.

When Zhang Jiaohua was walking home from school, he found many people gathered around his family’s field.

“Is Jiaohua’s family promoting some new technique?”

“It should be direct seeding of paddy fields. I saw it on TV. This technique has many advantages, saving one transplantation and reducing damage to the seedlings.”

“That’s true, but there’s a problem. With such low temperatures now, can the seeds germinate directly if planted this way? Even if they do germinate, the sprouts will freeze to death. Have you considered that?”

“That’s also true. But the situation now is that Jiaohua’s family’s field was sown yesterday, right? Anyway, when I came to see yesterday, the field was plowed, but the seeds hadn’t been planted yet.”

“Hey, look, isn’t this hole made by a dibbler? Jiaohua is treating rice like rapeseed, huh?”

“Beans are also planted this way.”

The villagers couldn’t help but laugh when they heard this.

“Don’t laugh. It doesn’t matter how Jiaohua plants it. What’s important is that the seedlings have emerged, and they’re growing well. I heard from Uncle Manyin that Jiaohua’s field is planted with hybrid rice. His seedlings are at least a week earlier than others. If they survive this period of low temperatures, they might overcome the long growth cycle problem of hybrid early rice.”

“It’s not just a week. Using conventional methods, it takes one or two days just to germinate a small sprout. Transplanting to a seedbed takes a few more days to adapt and grow to this size. It takes more than ten days. Then, in another twenty days or so, the seedlings need to be transplanted again, which injures the roots and takes about a week to recover. This way, Jiaohua’s field is more than half a month ahead. It might even mature earlier than conventional varieties.”

“Can we learn Jiaohua’s method?”

“If you want to learn, go ahead. I’m not daring enough to be sure that seeds planted like Jiaohua’s will germinate. We soak the seeds in hot water, toss them repeatedly, and the seeds barely germinate, losing quite a few. Look at Jiaohua’s field; every hole has three seedlings, no more, no less. That’s not easy. It’s a hundred percent germination rate.”

Upon hearing this, the villagers carefully observed and indeed found that each hole had exactly three seedlings. These seedlings were truly strange.

Someone picked a grass from the roadside and measured the height of the seedlings by marking the grass, then comparing it with other seedlings. To everyone’s astonishment, every seedling was of the same height. Identical! Absolutely identical.

This discovery shocked the onlookers, making them all fall silent and quickly head home.

When Zhang Jiaohua came back, the villagers were about to disperse.

“Look, Jiaohua is back.” Someone said, and everyone turned to look.

But no one stopped, just took a glance and quickened their pace home.

Making all the seedlings identical, apart from some supernatural factors, the villagers couldn’t think of any other possibility. Supernatural phenomena might look beautiful but also made everyone very afraid.

Zhang Jiaohua was used to such gazes, so he was indifferent to the villagers’ behavior.

Zuan Shanbao didn’t care about its owner’s identity, whether poor or rich; it was its little master. So it always remained loyal. It ran up, like a child, standing on two legs and hugging Zhang Jiaohua’s foot.

“Shanbao! You did well today. Guard the house well. I’ll give you a big piece of meat later.” Zhang Jiaohua patted Zuan Shanbao’s head. Although Zhang Jiaohua was home alone, the meals at home were still good. There were still many pieces of cured meat hanging on the smoke rack on the stove. Zhang Jiaohua would cut a piece from it every now and then. Shanbao would often bring back various wild animals from the mountains, so Zhang Jiaohua’s life was quite plentiful.

The sound of a car engine revving came from the dirt road at the entrance of Meizi Village. Zhang Jiaohua listened and thought it sounded like Luo Changjun’s off-road vehicle. However, he couldn’t think of any reason why Luo Changjun would come to Meizi Village at this time. So he continued to sit indifferently on the bench, watching the sparks in the stove.

“Crackle…” A series of continuous crackling sounds came from the stove. This sound of fire bursting in the stove was considered by rural folks as a sign of guests coming. Because it sounded like firecrackers.

“Jiaohua!” A familiar voice called out. Indeed, a guest had arrived.

Zhang Jiaohua got up and walked to the yard. Luo Changjun walked into the yard from the main road.

“Uncle Luo, why did you come over?” Zhang Jiaohua was surprised to see Luo Changjun.

“What? Not happy to see me?” Luo Changjun laughed.

“Of course not. I’m glad to have guests,” Zhang Jiaohua smiled and brought a stool and poured a bowl of cold tea.

“It was late when I came, so I went to the market to see, but there wasn’t any good meat left. There was only a piece of less than a pound of beef, which had hung there all day and was dried out,” Luo Changjun took out the beef from a plastic bag.

“Uncle Luo, there’s no need to bring anything when you visit. It’s not as convenient as in the city, but I can still prepare a few dishes,” Zhang Jiaohua refused to take the beef from Luo Changjun.

“This is different. You’re growing, so you need to eat more beef to grow taller,” Luo Changjun said sincerely.

“Uncle Luo, did you come in such a hurry because something happened?” Zhang Jiaohua, though young, knew that Luo Changjun wouldn’t come without a reason.

“Yes, there’s something. Yesterday, after I took you home, I got to the town and the fried dough sticks shop next to my house caught fire. The shop burned to ashes,” Luo Changjun started to talk about the matter.

“Ah! It really caught fire?” Zhang Jiaohua was shocked. Although he had hallucinated twice at the fried dough sticks shop, he didn’t think the shop would actually catch fire.

“Jiaohua, how did you foresee that the fried dough sticks shop would catch fire? If we had believed you earlier, there wouldn’t have been such a huge loss,” Luo Changjun said regretfully.

Zhang Jiaohua scratched his head, “I don’t know, I just suddenly saw a ball of fire.”

“Jiaohua, why did you insist on me and Grandpa Luo wearing safety talismans? Did you foresee something?” Luo Changjun looked at Zhang Jiaohua with hopeful eyes.

“No. I just felt like something might happen. I was worried about your safety, so I wanted you to wear the talismans,” Zhang Jiaohua couldn’t explain it clearly. It was just a vague premonition.

“Now that the fire has happened, is the danger over?” Luo Changjun asked.

“It doesn’t seem to be over yet. You’d better keep wearing the talismans,” Zhang Jiaohua looked at Luo Changjun, feeling there was something indescribable about him.

“Grandpa’s talisman has already been used,” Luo Changjun said. The talisman he had was used by Luo Yongming yesterday, so they didn’t have enough for everyone.

“Wait a bit, I’ll draw a few more talismans for you to take back,” Zhang Jiaohua returned to his room, took out the cinnabar ink, a writing brush, and yellow paper from the bottom of his chest, and began to draw talismans in front of the oil lamp.