8 The Heritage of The Boy

By the time Yang YueChen came of age, his ghost traits slowly getting stronger and began to take hold of his being. His scent, which used to be unnoticeable by three realms, started to attract ghost and the likes. YueChen, whose constitution was weak and had poor health, of course often was bedridden every few weeks, no matter how mild it was. On top of that, YueChen attracted more bad luck without amulets.

"Body of a mortal, heart of a god, soul of a ghost, eyes of a demon, and strength of a beast."

The pair blinked and Yuan Ji whipped his head to the direction of that voice. YueChen raised his head to meet a youth clad in black's deep brown eyes.

"Just what in the world are you?" the youth asked with a low voice and a slight hint of rhetoric.

"Who are you?" YueChen asked the youth back, ignoring his interested gaze that seemed to bore into his soul.

"JingAn. The spirit of seeking truth inside living and unliving." he replied.

Yuan Ji rested his chin on his hand, as though thinking about something.

"The name is familiar, but I can't pinpoint the person. JingAn is one of the judges in afterlife."

The pair scrutinized the youth. JingAn had a pale complexion, with long dark grey hair that could actually pass as light black (if the term exist, of course) that reached to his knees—done in half ponytail, he had the appearance of a dying sickly youth. With the black and grey traditional robes that certainly suited him, he looked a little out of place in the dull, brightly lit classroom. YueChen thanked the gods above that JingAn didn't bring anything—like sword or fan or scythe or—

"He's not a reaper, XingXing..."

"Might as well be."

YueChen brought his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat once, "May I ask why would a spirit came here, to this humble place of mine, for?"

"You're terrible in polite gestures and greetings." Commented the fallen deity with an unamused tone.

"Couldn't help it. This is the twenty first century, no one is using honorary greetings on daily basis."

While the two were busy arguing in his head, JingAn had taken a small tour in the classroom, checking things out. Only when their argument calmed down and YueChen's attention back to him again did the spirit open his mouth.

"I believe a deity of Eastern Water inhabited your body, was it right?"

"Y—Yes?" Stuttered the boy, a little panicked.

"Dong Shi Shui Shen, am I correct?."

"Hell yes you are. Now tell us the matter." With those words, Yuan Ji flicked his wrist and the deity manifested himself.

JingAn produced a black paper fan out of his sleeves and started to fan himself slowly. "You didn't change. Rude as usual."

"You two knew each other??" Blurted YueChen out. Yuan Ji just said that he know the spirit, but only the name and the job. Not the person himself.

Yuan Ji snapped his fingers in realization. "Oh, right. I definitely knew him. I always called him You An, I just happened to be forgetting his real name."

The spirit's hand twitched, he kept a smile plastered over his face, but someone with eyes could see clearly that there was a vein popped on his temples. JingAn folded his fan and tapped it on his palm a few times.

"I'm here to discuss something, Shui Shen." JingAn glanced at the boy, still smiling. "However, I'd like to talk under four eyes with Shui Shen. The matter shouldn't be known to outsider or being spread out over the world...."

Simply said, the judge kicked out the ghost.

YueChen stepped back, letting the water deity to borrow his body. Right at the moment when he was about to slip into unconsciousness, Yuan Ji whispered something.

A swirl of blue danced in the dark orbs, lighting the dull black up. The boy's demeanor instantly changed, his posture upright. On his face, a distasteful look instead of calm and quiet air.

He turned to JingAn and spoke lightly, "What's the private matter, then?"

JingAn reopened his fan, looking somewhat proud and satisfied with his capability to make YueChen obeyed his request and ask nothing at all. He then proceeded to bring out the matter to discuss.

"The inner council of the heaven had decided that your banishment is to end once you regained your memories and your sword, as well your powers—" JingAn watched the deity closely, waiting for the other's response.

"Four years, they have a meeting four years after I was thrown out from the heaven. Just what in the world—" Yuan Ji was cut off by the judge of afterlife before he could proceed to cuss.

"Well, we spent two years to find you among the mortals in the world only to find nothing at all. And another one and half to find out what's wrong and half the scribes flipping through the book of life and death of all eras again and again. After our efforts produced no useful outcome, we tried to use the red strings to track you down. It ended up useless, as the strings were lost and burnt..."

It must be said that the red strings were no normal strings. They couldn't be easily lost or burned, but matters that involved Yuan Ji often contravene the laws of nature.

JingAn took a deep breath before proceeded to continue. "We gave up and tried to use the water serpent to find you. Only to find a youth around the age fifteen or sixteen. Which is your host." He gestured to YueChen.

"Things are complicated, aren't they?" Sighed Yuan Ji sarcastically.

"It's your fault, not ours. Go deal with it alone."

"I'm not exactly alone. I have a ghost-ling by my side."

At the last few words, JingAn's eyes twitched. He promptly brought his hand to his temples to massage the intensifying headache. "May I clear the misunderstanding, the right term for his condition is YiChang—anomaly, not ghost."

"But I prefer to call him that way."

The headache increased, the pale fingers added more force, pressed on his temples. "Common mistakes, an extremely common one."

After another exchange of words, they bid each other farewell, not wishing to meet the other party anymore.

Although before JingAn stepped out of the place, he gave them one last glance. The spirit's looks, it was as though he knew something more than what could be seen.

•

"Gege." A young teenager girl spoke. She wore a light-coloured floral dress that complemented her dark hair. That girl knelt next to his brother, patiently waited for his response.

"Hmm?" YueChen nodded his head once in acknowledgement, but he didn't turn his head to the girl, still focusing on his homework.

The girl joyfully asked, "Do me a favor, could you?"

"What favor?" YueChen asked as his right hand swiftly scribbled the equations on a paper filled with other scribbles alike.

"I don't know the answer to this one question. Could you answer it please?" She took out her book and placed it next to her brother's stack of homework, a wide grin on her face.

He hummed once, his left hand moved to flip through the math book next to him. He closed it after a moment and scribbled down a formula.

"Okay, do it for me, then!" The girl beamed at his agreement, and quickly ran away before his elder brother realized that he had been tricked.

"...." Yang YueChen's hands stopped at once.

Wait. Something felt off.

"Yang JiaWen!!!" The boy slammed his pencil to the desk forcefully a minute or two after he realized he was being fooled by his sister. A minute hadn't passed yet and his ears had picked out muffled giggles and Korean songs playing in the background. "That brat..." he gnashed his teeth.

As if Yuan Ji only paid attention to his host's homework which now had been done at least halfway, he opened his mouth and commented, "Number seven is wrong. Check the last row again."

YueChen obeyed and fixed the error he accidentally caused. "I don't think whether was it right or wrong will affect my grades. I doubt I actually get merits from this sort of homework."

Seriously, no matter how long it takes to do the homework, his math teacher just checked at the amount of problem the students had done and graded it. Although sometimes she did check the homework thoroughly. And his classmates, they did play a great part in adding hatred to YueChen's used to be pure heart. Borrowing his things with force, copying his homework without his consent, using him as they please and then neglecting him once they're done. To make it worse, they're shameless and the teachers aren't willing to help.

To distract the boy from wandering around in his own thoughts, the deity poked YueChen's cheek.

"Your sister," Yuan Ji started. "Is a full human, I presume?"

YueChen backed a little in confusion. "Why are you asking me?"

"I'm not asking, I'm stating. How come you're able to be the smartest in your school, Dimwit?" A deadpan look crossed his face.

The boy pondered at the question for a while before replied hesitantly, "Because they're dumber than me?"

"I pretty much believe that you're dumber than them."

"Hey!"

"Your sister is a mortal completely. You, on the other hand, are a 'ghost'. I don't think that there's another person in your family that have the similarities to you." Yuan Ji swiftly changed the topic, picking up the pencil and wrote a few characters on the blank paper.

"Are you saying that I might be adopted?"

"A slim chance, both your parents have no widow peak. You don't have it too." Hearing those words, YueChen stood up and hurried to the nearest mirror and lifted his bangs.

"But there's a little peak, at here." He pointed at the center of the hairline.

"Really? You're adopted then."

"That's mean." He examined his front hair line, wondering whether it could be counted as a widow peak or not.

"Don't think much about it. Adopted or not, you're different from the others."

YueChen glanced at his snowy palms and back to the mirror again. "It's easier if their eyes were blue, then I could tell."

YueChen stared at his reflection, and the boy in the mirror stared back. His eyes, as Yuan Ji had once described, were like dark, starless night that could assume another color reflected on his eyes. Sometimes they were black, sometimes grey, sometimes brownish red. His face was lightly freckled with a small black dot on the center of his forehead. Which he tried hard to cover with his slightly overgrown bangs.

"I really hoped that I'm more good-looking." He sighed, breaking the silence that only lasted for a few seconds.

"Why are you suddenly being self-conscious now?"

He glanced at the mirror again and hit his cheeks lightly.

"..."

"Let's change the topic."

Yuan Ji, "....what about your homework?"

"I'm not doing that anymore."

The water deity quietly let out a deep, suffering sigh.

They were thinking about reclaiming Lang Jian after the matter had been left lying in the dust for two years. From YueChen's city to the lake where the sword resided only took two hours at most. But the Yang family never really trusted their son travelling around without companion. They did allow YueChen going to smaller town an hour and half's worth of trip on some occasion though. The first time was for school's group project. The second, which was just held recently, was for strengthening the class's bond.

YueChen suspected that both the occasion were Yuan Ji's doing, as he could manipulate people and nature even without his sword. The latter denied it at once, saying that the Yangs weren't his doing.

After a little probing, the teen finally gave up and threw aside the matter.

"The lake isn't that far. If we got a chance, we should just go."

"Wait. How about this?"

YueChen instantly stopped talking and paid the deity more attention than before. The other took in a small breath and began explaining.

"Since New Year is close by, I think we should use this to make a chance on our own. A class field trip that lasted for a couple days. Of course, held nearby the lake. Your swimming skills had much improved, and my control over the water is much better now. We'll seize the right moment to dive in."

YueChen whose attention still fixed on the deity, lifted the corners of his lips into a small smile and said, "Sounds like a great plan."