At that time, I racked my brains thinking about the supernatural things I had heard in those hours, but most of these stories were already very vague in my mind. I recalled the scene when I was fighting against Guan Ming who was possessed, and when I used chopsticks to clip his fingers, suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. Got it!

  I remembered a story my grandfather told me, it was about the past, if someone in the family got 'hysteria', some old people would use a large bowl filled with water, then put a chopstick upside down in the bowl, and repeatedly chant, if there were really unclean things in the house, the chopstick would stand upright in the water. It was very eerie.

  Don't underestimate this small chopstick, the things left to us by our ancestors are precious heritage. There are many mysteries hidden in this chopstick. The Book of Changes says that food is heaven for the people: two chopsticks, the number two corresponds to the heavenly trigram Dui. Dui represents the mouth and eating. The shape of the chopstick is straight and long, corresponding to the Xun trigram. Xun represents wood and entering. Combining them together means using chopsticks to eat. What enters the mouth? It's the tip of the chopstick. The tip of the chopstick is round, corresponding to the Qian trigram, Qian represents heaven. So isn't eating like "heaven"? Therefore, it's believed that "people regard food as heaven" originated from this.

  Many folk remedies also use chopsticks, like the big bowl standing chopstick I mentioned earlier. I've heard there's even a standing egg trick. Later, I saw in the newspaper that it was actually a scam, but whether or not it's a scam depends on how you think about it. In fact, there are indeed many people with real skills in this world, it's just that scammers outnumber them. As for this aspect of things, I'll describe it later, and won't discuss it for now.

  I recalled the method of standing chopsticks in my mind. Although I don't know the specific method, knowing the general idea should be enough. This folk trick should be a technique that achieves a certain spiritual perception through the combination of bowls, chopsticks, and water. With my current cultivation, if I want to learn it, it shouldn't be difficult.

  I just need to know when you're coming, and I'll be ready. I've spent three sleepless nights thinking of a plan to stop you, and it's starting to take shape in my mind.

  At least after having hope, I no longer hesitated and started to draw talismans wholeheartedly. The talismans I drew were naturally my old three styles: 'Ding Yi Ju Xing Hu Ti Fu', 'Jia Wu Yu Xing Po Sha Fu'. Because according to my current strength, these few talismans are already the most powerful ones I can draw. This time I didn't draw 'Jia Zi Wen Xing Huan Shen Fu' because that thing is something I fundamentally couldn't see. So even if I drew it, it would be useless, and it's better to draw more talismans with attacking power.

  At noon, when I returned to the hotel for lunch, Guan Ming woke up. In the dining hall, I saw him, his face was pale, and he still had a thick black eye circle. At first glance, it looked like those who smoked in TV dramas. He staggered to the seat next to me and asked: "Fei Ge, how did I sleep in your room?"

  It seems that being possessed by that dirty thing is really harmful to the body. I said to him, "You were so sleepy last night and insisted on sharing a quilt with me, don't you remember?"

  He shook his head dazedly and smiled at me: "I don't know, I seem to have caught a cold, my whole body is weak."

  I thought to myself: You poor kid, if it weren't for your buddies, you might be taking a photo with Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui right now. Feeling completely drained is already a huge stroke of luck.

  After finishing dinner, I continued to write life in the afternoon, and I tried my best to draw a few more symbols. Grandma's, why is it only my fate that is so bitter? Even coming on vacation doesn't let me rest.

  My mouth never stops, muttering to myself and feeling wronged, but my hands are still not idle. If I say that my skills have really improved now, I can use a brush dipped in ink to draw effective symbols.

  After six o'clock in the afternoon, I saw the sun setting behind the western hills and finished the last stroke. Not bad, with a great enemy in front of me, my work efficiency is still very high, and I drew eleven talismans in one day, breaking my previous record. I packed up my things and prepared to return to the hotel. Holding this small batch of talismans, my confidence increased again.

  I wolfed down my food, and I must say that drawing talismans consumes a lot of spiritual energy, so I have to eat my fill. Storing up physical strength for tonight's preparations. As a result, I ate three large bowls of rice, leaving the girls at the same table staring at me in shock. They said I was a starving ghost reincarnated. My mouth was stuffed with food and had no space to retort back at them, so I just ignored them directly.

  After dinner, Liu Mingming asked everyone to gather and said that they would review the life writings. In the small playground outside the hotel, everyone scattered the paintings they drew today all over the ground. Among dozens of paintings, Brother's "Dan Qing" was particularly eye-catching. It made me feel like finding a hole in the ground to drill for a while.

  Everyone stood in a circle, Liu Mingming began to criticize Zhang one by one. When it was my turn, Liu Mingming was stunned and asked whose this is and why put waste paper here?

  I didn't like it from the start, although I said that my buddy was scribbling with a pencil, but you can't say it's waste paper? I frowned at him and said: "Old Liu, this is not right, I'm imitating the style of post-modern master painter Donatello to create 'The Sunrise over Dongfang Mirrored Lake is comparable to Songhua River's Awesome Painting'! How about it, isn't it awesome?"

  Liu Mingming is twenty-six years old this year, and we usually hang out together. He looked at me with disdain and laughed, saying: "You're just bragging!"

  Everyone present was laughing loudly, and I also laughed self-deprecatingly, feeling a lot more relaxed. In the year and a half since entering university, I had unknowingly slowly integrated into this group. I had been confused, decadent, and shameless before. But being alone in a foreign land, I had already considered these people around me as my family.

  I want to protect my family!

  After everyone's paintings were evaluated, it had already turned dark. Then Liu Mingming announced the dismissal and everyone went back to their rooms to play.

  I didn't go back to the house, but instead went through the dining room to the kitchen. There were still several cooks cleaning up dishes. I found the cook who helped us with the rabbit and handed him a cigarette. I told him that I wanted a large bowl and a pair of chopsticks to cook instant noodles in my room at night. It wasn't anything expensive, so the cook found me a large sea bowl and a pair of chopsticks.

  I thanked him and then walked back to my room. In the room, Wang Cheng and Xiao Kai were watching TV with their shirts off. I also moved a stool and watched together with them.

  The TV is playing "Kangxi Dynasty", it's really a good show, I'm so into it that I even want to be an emperor myself. But then I think about it and realize who doesn't want to be an emperor?

  Around eleven o'clock at night, the two of them were sleepy, so I turned down the TV volume and they fell asleep. I gazed at their sleeping faces. Thinking to myself, it's time to get ready.

  I turned off the light, and the only brightness left in the room was from the TV. I opened a bottle of mineral water, poured it into that big bowl, then placed the bowl on the small table, and picked up a pair of chopsticks.

  Imagining that the "qi" in my body had entered this chopstick, I gently placed it in the bowl. Then I silently prayed: Heaven, please make it work.

  Now all I can do is wait, and so I begin to wait with bated breath for the arrival of that unknown filthy thing.

  But there was no movement on either side, until the TV broadcast of "Kangxi Dynasty" ended and started broadcasting midnight commercials again. I looked at my phone, it was already past one o'clock in the middle of the night. The night was very deep, would that thing still appear?

  Watching those "she's good, I'm good" ads on TV, I couldn't help but feel a bit drowsy, my upper and lower eyelids were fighting each other. I lit another cigarette, counting from earlier to now, I've almost smoked an entire pack just to stay awake. Now my throat is even starting to hurt a bit.

  I used to be a master of staying up all night, if you give me a computer, I can go three days and nights without sleep, and not feel tired at all.

  But now looking at the disgusting ads on TV, and I haven't closed my eyes from last night to now, listening to Wang Cheng and Xiao Kai's snores beside me. Sleepiness is coming in like a tidal wave, one wave after another.

  It was already 2:50 in the morning, just as I was relieved that tonight was safe and about to take off my clothes and go to bed, I heard a loud bang, my heart suddenly skipped a beat, and I immediately turned my head to look at the desk.

  Only the chopsticks in the large sea bowl filled with water stood upright as if they had eaten something.

  (PS: The "erecting chopsticks" method mentioned in this chapter is just for your reference, please do not imitate it.)