Chapter 2 Jade pendant

The jade pendant was sitting at the head of the bed while my mother carried me out of the bed and accidentally knocked it onto the floor. The sound of the jade pendant hitting the flood was crisp and shrill like screaming, as if to beg me to stay; my mother heard it too and left it a sideways peek before striding out without another slightest hesitation. This had not only become a nightmare for me, but also haunted my mother to this day. For the past four years, she did not allow my father to get in touch with the family. She knew and hated the Fan Family very much, and the quarreled with my father from time to time even now out of the grudge that my father had conspired with the Fan Family elders in plotting this.

How did this thing end up here now? I knew my mom was trying to reassure me by making up that she had brought it here; that night was still vividly imprinted on my mind--she walked out leaving that jade pendant on the floor and took me out of the village just before dawn. The jade pendant was not taken along with her.

Mother picked it up and tucked it away out of my sight: "You have a good rest, call me if you need anything."

After my mother left, I could not fall asleep. I dared not turn off the light or close my eyes.
Dawn broke finally; I dragged my heavy body to the school; the college entrance examination was around the corner, I could not afford to be distracted by this matter; to enter a good university was now everything to me.

The sun had been grilling the small town even it was still in the morning; the temperature was rising.
I didn’t know why I would get such uncomfortable sensation of being watched. I looked around and saw nothing or nobody odd. It was the rush hours of the day with commuters and students everywhere.

When I arrived at the school gate, a cat with jet-black fur jumped down from a tree, gave out a strange cry and stood at a distance staring at me. Its green eyes seemed to be able to see through everything.
I did not know if it was my illusion; but that gaze of the cat was so odd that it was nothing like that of an animal...

My walking past it was like treading on the eggs while it remained its quite and bold gaze at me!

Grandma once said that cats were psychic, especially the black ones.

The thought of it gave me goose bumps, hammering my already sensitive nerves over the incident of last night.

Picking up my pace, I walked into the school while the old security guard at the gate greeted me unexpectedly: "Rae...
You are here..."
His voice was hoarse and odd, his tone slow,as if he had tried some hard to squeeze them out letter by letter; what made it even stranger was the fact that over the past three years I had been studying here, not for once he had spoke a word with me, said hello to me or even kindly called me Rae!

I knew little about him, not his name, only that he was over 60, small-figured, wrinkled-skinned and high-spirited all the time except for today; he was ghastly pale today.

Out of courtesy, I replied with "um" and walked on. Suddenly, I heard the meow again. As I looked back, the old man was holding the black cat that had jumped out of the tree and stared at me oddly.

My heart beat a lot faster, I patted my face to remind myself not to be too neurotic; the black cat should have been his possession, that's all, although I didn't know he had a cat...

Atmosphere within the classroom was as odd; where there should have been a bunch of students cramming for the exam there was few attending; their books were laid open on the desk with their expression dull.

I sat down at my own seat with some suspicion. The boy in the front row, Aaron, suddenly turned around and said, "I'm dying..."

I frowned and felt disgusted by him; he was plain-looking, ignorant, and somewhat gross with his mouth full of filthy and lame jokes; and like a sticky plaster, he always followed me everywhere.I didn’t know what kind of boring joke he was making this time.

Ignoring him, I unzipped my bag and took out the books. I was stunned to see that thing again--at the bottom of the bag lied quietly that piece of white jade carving with dragon. My breathing became rapid and I was trembling all over.

Aaron burst out laughing: "Hey hey hey hey..."

I snapped at him angrily, "What are you laughing at?!"

He broke into a very strange sneer, leaned closer to me and whispered, "Empty mountains after fresh rain, the king of underworld weds new wife. The livings shall eye no such scene, as the dead ..." before he could even finish, I threw my backpack on him and shouted: “Get away!”

I felt guilty as I watched the metal material on the bag's decoration scratch a deep scar across his face.
As I was about to apologize, he turned away and continued to sing in a strange tone that odd ditty which reminded me of that night four years ago...

I had to admit that I believe in ghosts and gods, despite what my mother had told me countless times that there were no such things.
Even mother found it hard to explain why I lost my virginity that night, she doubted that someone, instead of so-called ‘underworld beings’, had defiled me; but deep down, I was more than clear the one whoever lied atop and raped me was not human, that the ice-cold touches, breath and lifeless aura of him was nothing human!

I reached into my backpack and ran out of the classroom, holding that piece of jade pendant.
There was a river outside the high wall of the school, I climbed onto the edge of it and threw out the jade pendant with force.
After all this, I dragged my collapsing body back to the teaching building, I just wished everything gone from now on just like the jade pendant, just like it should have been four years ago...

Suddenly, I felt there was something atop; I looked up to see Aaron falling towards me from above and landed heavily on the ground; 'bang', his blood splashed all over me and scattered on my white casual shoes.
All this happened so suddenly; I stared at him lying at the side of my feet still convulsing, and my legs were too heavy to move.

Blood seeped out from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He looked to me desperately, and a faint voice in his throat said, "Save...Save me..."