Chapter 42

The way Fu Nansheng gave her for drawing the snake out of its hole was to call up a pen spirit.

Calling a pen spirit pulls in whatever unknown thing is nearby, and in a dormitory block the most likely thing to come would be whatever was making the footsteps.

So that evening, when her roommates got onto the subject of the fourth-floor footsteps again, Ning Shu said, "Why don't we call up a pen spirit and ask?"

"We could!"

"Exciting."

Only Fang Ruoyun was uneasy. "Calling a pen spirit. Isn't that dangerous?"

Ning Shu said, "Don't worry. Nothing will happen with me here."

And if anything did, she could handle it.

Yi Qiu said, "I've done it before. I'll set it up."

Ning Shu got her phone out and opened the app.

Evening, Ningning!

Pulling up a chair.

Ningning, where are we going tonight?

Ning Shu said, "Hello everyone. Tonight we're calling up a pen spirit in our room."

I've done that. It's terrifying.

Though with Ningning there I'm sure it'll be fine.

Just after midnight Yi Qiu turned the lights off and lit a candle.

The candlelight moved and guttered over the four girls' faces.

They sat at the four points of the compass with a sheet of paper in front of them, and on it two characters.

Yes. No.

The four of them put the backs of their right hands together, laced their fingers over and under one another, and held a single pen between them.

Yi Qiu looked round at them all. "When everyone's ready we'll start."

"Ready."

"All right."

Yi Qiu had done this before and knew the way of it. She said, under her breath, "Past life, past life, I am your life now. If you would take up the bond with me, draw a circle on the paper."

The four of them looked at one another. The pen did not move at all.

Yi Qiu said it again. "Past life, past life, I am your life now. If you would take up the bond with me, draw a circle on the paper."

She was on the third time when a draught lifted the curtain, and the candlelight jumped about, and a cold went through all of them.

And then the pen, held between the eight hands, moved.

It began to draw circles on the paper, round and round, faster and faster, and would not stop.

They looked at one another, strung so tight they could have burst.

Then Yi Qiu said quietly, "Pen spirit, is that you?"

The pen moved slowly across to the character for yes and drew circles round it.

Yi Qiu steadied herself and went on. "Are you a god or a ghost?"

"Why would you ask it something so awful?" Fang Ruoyun's voice was shaking.

Yi Qiu took no notice. "If you are a god, write one. If you are a ghost, write two."

The point of the pen moved slowly and wrote: 2.

Apart from Ning Shu, all the girls were frightened to some degree, and Yang Qing said, "Shall we send it away?"

But Ning Shu said, "The footsteps outside our door every night. Is that you?"

The pen circled yes.

Yang Qing was appalled and said shrilly, "What do you want?"

"You can't ask it like that." Yi Qiu cut her off and said, "Pen spirit, pen spirit, do you need our help?"

And then the pen moved slowly across until it stopped in front of Ning Shu.

All three of them looked at her.

Ning Shu looked at the pen. "You want me to help you?"

The pen drew a circle in front of her.

So the pen spirit had come looking for her.

"I refuse."

That astonished the other three. Ning Shu had dared refuse a pen spirit?

Ning Shu had indeed refused her, and she said coldly, "Ask about me. Ask what the name Ning Shu is worth on that road. People come to me wanting something done, and whether they're living or dead, every one of them asks politely and respectfully, and then waits to see what sort of mood I'm in. And here you are, making a nuisance of yourself in our school and frightening people. You don't know what's good for you, and I'm certainly not helping you."

Ning Shu was not being arrogant about it. Over these years she had made something of a name in this world, and what she took on she delivered, which everybody would tell you. From the rich she would take a hundred thousand or several and think nothing of it, and from the poor ten yuan was not too little.

It came down to Ning Shu's mood and nothing else.

And just now she had no wish to help a pen spirit who went about frightening people.

When Ning Shu had finished, a cold draught came in at the window and the candle went out.

It gave the others a bad fright, and Yi Qiu said shakily, "You've made it angry."

The candle came back, and the light off it was not warm. It was cold.

Yang Qing noticed first. "There's something wrong with Fang Ruoyun."

And so there was. In that cold light Fang Ruoyun's head hung down and there was a black-and-white cast over her.

She was saying, under her breath, "You called me here. You called me here."

The voice was no longer Fang Ruoyun's. It was another woman's altogether, and a stranger's.

Ning Shu was not frightened in the least. She dropped the pen and said, hard and straight, "And what if we did? Even the gods of every heaven come when I hold the Heavenly Master's seal, and go when I send them. You're a little ghost. Can I not call you?"

"Oh. Oh, oh, oh."

Fang Ruoyun began to weep, which rather made it look as though Ning Shu were bullying her, and Yi Qiu and the others stared and had no idea whether they ought to comfort her.

"Go," Ning Shu said coldly. "And don't come out and frighten my classmates again. Behave yourself, and one of these days, if I'm in a good mood, I might help you after all."

She had barely finished when the candle went out, and the room came back to itself, and no more cold air came in at the window.

They let go of the pen, and Fang Ruoyun asked shakily, "Has it. Has it gone?"

Yi Qiu said, "It's gone."

Yang Qing looked at Ning Shu and shook her head, unable to believe it. "Ningning, you were magnificent just now."

Yi Qiu said, "You were. It's always the pen spirit frightening people and playing tricks on them, and you refused one. The way you said all that. It was magnificent."

After everything that had happened, Ning Shu's head had swelled a little, in fact. Not enough to matter. She only had to go on acting from what was in her and doing nobody any harm, and her conscience would stay clear. But if anybody came at her, she was not going to let it go lightly either.

As with this pen spirit. It had started out playing at gods and ghosts to frighten her classmates, and Ning Shu had called it up and asked what was behind it, and it had admitted it wanted her help.

Whether she gave it was for Ning Shu to decide.

"But won't the pen spirit come back at us?"

Ning Shu was looking over the night's takings, and said, not much interested, "It wouldn't dare."

That night's stream broke her record. One night brought in nine thousand, and she moved all of it into her account.

And that night the footsteps in the corridor stopped, and for a long time afterwards the girls all slept soundly.

Yi Qiu could not keep anything to herself and told the others about the pen spirit, and how it was Ning Shu standing up to it that had driven the frightening thing off.

After that the class looked at Ning Shu differently, and were careful to be civil.

---

That afternoon Ning Shu arranged to meet Fu Nansheng herself, to report how it had gone and have a meal while she was at it.

If they were going to be friends they ought to see each other.

Ning Shu had been closed-in and solitary in the last life. Twenty-odd years and she had no close friends at all. This time she had decided to change that and make some. Her grandmother had gone about the world for years being exactly what she was, and she had friends everywhere in the trade. When one of them needed her she went without being asked twice, and when she was in difficulty they came.

In this line, friends standing by each other is not optional.

Fu Nansheng waited at the school gate, and Ning Shu said goodbye to Yi Qiu and Fang Ruoyun.

Yi Qiu gazed at Fu Nansheng. "Ningning, that good-looking one is waiting for you."

"Good-looking one?"

"Under the tree. I spotted him from miles off."

Yi Qiu pointed at him. "He's gorgeous."

Fang Ruoyun said, "Give him a nice car and he'd be perfect."

Ning Shu laughed. "He's a friend of mine. If you want to meet him, come along."

"Really? Really?" Yi Qiu went soft-headed about it, and Fang Ruoyun pulled her away. "That's enough. You two arranged this ages ago and we're not playing gooseberry. Another time."

It made no difference to Ning Shu either way. She and Fu Nansheng were friends and nothing else.

Since Ning Shu was paying, Fu Nansheng did not stand on ceremony. He took her straight to the most famous western restaurant in Jiangcheng.

It was an elegant place with a certain amount of style about it, and somebody playing the piano while you ate.

Once they had sat down, Ning Shu said, "You've got a nerve, bleeding me like this."

Fu Nansheng laid her napkin out neatly for her. "Nothing of the kind. You've only just come to the city, and I thought the steak here is good, so you should try it."

Ning Shu made a noise at him and sat down, and the two of them talked about this and that. Ning Shu learned something of Fu Nansheng's life. He had grown up with his master and did not know who his parents were or whether they were still alive. His master had been hard on him and had taught him a great deal. Finding the point in a hill, reading a house and how to enter it, ordering the breath of a place, making feng shui where there was none. He could do all of it.

"So the first time we met, when you were hanging about Longjiang Gardens with nothing to do, you weren't doing nothing at all."

"No. I was watching how those so-called masters string people along."

Ning Shu laughed. "Did you learn anything?"

Fu Nansheng nodded as though it were obvious, and looked at her with something behind his eyes. "I learned a good deal from you. A sharp tongue goes a long way."

"Ha. A master lives off the mouth. Of course you have to be able to talk."

"Fair enough."

And at that moment Ning Shu saw a figure she knew coming in at the restaurant door, and she got up in surprise. "Ye Yingjun. What are you doing here?"

It was Gouwa, in a tracksuit.

"Oh. My big brother's buying me dinner."

"Big brother?"

"Mm. My new big brother."

Ning Shu's face came down at once. "You never learn, do you? What did you promise me?"

"No, Sis, my big brother's a good one." Gouwa had not finished explaining when Ning Shu saw Lu Zheng come through the revolving door in a white shirt.

Tall, and standing well.

He gave his collar a small tug, and those long dark eyes came round to Ning Shu.