PCJ – Chapter 65 Selling Talismans to the Teacher

At that time, the childhood lives of these kids were still very sunny and happy. There were no tutoring classes, no endless homework to do, and after exams, they were rarely scolded. Anyway, everyone’s main job was farming, so academics didn’t matter much. It’s just that failing exams would cause some embarrassment when they returned home. If things went wrong, it could become a topic of gossip among neighbors for a long time.

Zhang Jiaohua didn’t care much about this. He wasn’t very interested in studying. Sitting in the classroom was boring for him.

“The sky is so blue, but here I am sitting under a dark roof, looking at the blackboard and the dull white paper with black words,” Zhang Jiaohua thought to himself.

Nowadays, Zhang Jiaohua’s mind is filled with thrilling adventures as a Meishan Water Warrior, traveling around and upholding justice. It’s much more fun than sitting in a classroom. He was always sleepy, and after struggling for a while in class, he would fall asleep on his desk.

Gong ZiYuan has gotten used to having a student who loves to sleep. Sometimes he would turn a blind eye, especially since rural parents didn’t have high expectations for grades. This student was a bit special, usually quite solitary. Apart from Dumb, nobody in the class wanted to play with him. Now, he was sitting next to Dumb. And in class, he never disturbed anyone. At first, Gong ZiYuan used to wake Zhang Jiaohua up often, but after many criticisms and warnings, Zhang Jiaohua continued to do his own thing, so Gong ZiYuan gave up.

“Education isn’t everything,” Gong ZiYuan comforted himself.

Zhang Jiaohua wasn’t completely uninterested in class. He was actually quite interested in calligraphy and painting classes. Music class wasn’t bad either. Of course, the most fun was physical education class. But what Zhang Jiaohua did during class usually differed from what was being taught. During art class, when the teacher asked them to draw, he would always draw talismans. During music class, while others sang, he chanted incantations. And during PE class, while others did the seventh set of radio exercises, he practiced martial arts.

At first, no one noticed the secret behind this, but Ma Sibao was very concerned about Zhang Jiaohua, especially after the incident with the snake. He would occasionally keep an eye on Zhang Jiaohua.

“Teacher, Zhang Jiaohua isn’t drawing pictures, he’s drawing ghost talismans!” Ma Sibao stood up and said to Gong ZiYuan, who also taught art.

Originally, Gong ZiYuan didn’t care much about what the students were drawing; it was just a way to pass the time. There were only a few teachers in Meizi Village, and each teacher had multiple roles. He wasn’t an art major himself; when he was in school, his drawings were nothing special. But when a student brought this up, as the homeroom teacher, Chinese teacher, art teacher, and PE teacher, he couldn’t just turn a blind eye.

Gong ZiYuan walked over to Zhang Jiaohua, who didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. He was still drawing a very strange pattern very seriously. Gong ZiYuan, being from a rural background, also knew a bit about traditional culture. That wasn’t just a drawing; it was a talisman.

“What are you drawing?” Gong ZiYuan asked.

“A house-protection talisman,” Zhang Jiaohua replied without hiding anything. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Other classmates were drawing all sorts of nonsense, so why couldn’t he use the time to prepare a house-protection talisman for his family? Even though it seemed like it had been a long time since the yellow weasel had come to the village to harm domestic animals, Zhang Jiaohua still decided to draw a house-protection talisman and put it in his home.

“Is this a real house-protection talisman?” Gong ZiYuan was surprised. Although he couldn’t understand talismans, what Zhang Jiaohua drew looked quite authentic. Even if Zhang Jiaohua was lying, wasn’t his lying skill too high?

“Of course it’s real. The paper I used is authentic talisman paper, only available in Gezhuping Town. The ink I used is cinnabar…” Zhang Jiaohua explained the materials he used one by one.

In fact, he had long noticed Zhang Jiaohua. While others were using pencils during art class, he was using a brush. Unexpectedly, the brush he used turned out to be a genuine wolf hair brush.

But Zhang Jiaohua knew this wasn’t a good talisman brush. A good talisman brush had to be made from the hair of a spiritually awakened wild animal. But this brush was made from very ordinary wolf hair. The talisman brush used by the old Taoist was much better.

“Never mind, just keep drawing. Or, would you draw a house-protection talisman for me too?” Gong ZiYuan said casually. Actually, he was also intrigued. Recently, he had been living in the teacher’s dormitory at Meizi Village Elementary School. Every night, he would hear noises at the door. Although it was windy in the mountains, and the doors here were just ordinary single-layer wooden doors, it was normal for them to creak in the wind. But recently, he had often woken up in the middle of the night only to find himself seemingly pressed down by something and unable to get up.

Gong ZiYuan had read about the medical explanation for “ghost pressing on the bed” in a magazine while studying at Zijiang Normal University. In medical terms, this condition is called sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is when, during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage, for some unknown reason, consciousness wakes up, but the muscles of the body remain in a low-tension state, causing the limbs to be unable to respond to commands from the brain. This often leads to abnormal body sensations that the brain cannot explain, combined with fearful fantasies, resulting in hallucinations.

But Gong ZiYuan felt that the real situation might not be like this. Each time, he could clearly feel the sensation of being pressed down. Thinking about it now, it was like the powerless struggle before death. It was too terrifying. Recently, because this situation happened frequently, Gong ZiYuan’s sleep quality was very poor. You could clearly see the dark circles under his eyes.

Zhang Jiaohua glanced at Teacher Longzhi and said, “I have to say, these materials are expensive.”

Zhang Jiaohua only had enough materials to draw a few house-protection talismans. He had already allocated these house-protection talismans. If he gave them to Teacher Longzhi, he wouldn’t have enough left. Asking his father, Zhang Youping, to buy more materials would probably be difficult.

“Teacher won’t ask for it for nothing,” Gong ZiYuan’s face stiffened, but soon a smile appeared. He didn’t expect Zhang Jiaohua to ask him for money directly.

“Then I’ll ask my dad to buy some more materials in town. You can have this house-protection talisman I drew today.” Zhang Jiaohua folded the house-protection talisman he had just finished drawing a few times and handed it to Gong ZiYuan. “Just put it under your pillow.”

Gong ZiYuan took out five yuan. “Is five yuan enough?”

“It’s enough.” Zhang Jiaohua didn’t know how much money was enough, but five yuan was already a huge sum in his eyes. Zhang Jiaohua casually put the five yuan into his schoolbag.

Gong ZiYuan, holding the house-protection talisman, felt a twinge of regret. It wasn’t because he thought the talisman was too expensive, but because he was worried that he had been tricked by his student. This was just a first-grade student. How could he suddenly believe him and even pay for the talisman? If someone found out about this, they would probably laugh their teeth off.

In Zhang Jiaohua’s heart, however, he was overjoyed. He could actually make money. Just one house-protection talisman could sell for five yuan. If he sold hundreds or even thousands of talismans, wouldn’t he become a millionaire?