The following day.
The rain had finally stopped. In the early morning, Lang Po sent orders for the carriage to be brought to the entrance of the academy, with the luggage placed inside one by one. Teacher Yu also got up early to see them off.
Meanwhile in Lin Shu's room.
Lin Shu got up from the bed with a pale face. He held his shoulder with one hand and his waist with the other. The pain twisted his face into a grimace. He sat down by the table and was about to pour water for a drink when someone ran in.
The short man spoke. "Lin Shu, I brought you something good."
He looked sneaky, hiding his hands behind him and sat down with a smile. "I brought something good and I promise it will be useful."
"What is it?"
The man put a pot of wine in front of him.
Lin Shu immediately wrinkled his nose and eyebrows. "Wine? Why did you bring me this?"
"Weren't you bitten by a snake? Although it was raised in our academy, it could still be poisonous. You didn't look good so I tried to get some medicine for you. This wine has been soaked all night with herbs from my hometown. Apply it on your wound and it will be useful."
"Take it away." Lin Shu was disgusted with it.
"But you were bitten by a snake. This medicine is very effective. Just use it. This is a great medicine from my hometown."
"I said that I'm OK. It's just a snakebite. It won't kill me. Furthermore, no wine is allowed in the academy. We'll be in trouble if Teacher found out."
The man smiled. "Teacher wouldn't have time to care about us. That group of people is leaving now. Teacher is going to send them off and he won't notice."
The man opened the mouth of the pot and was about to apply the medicine to Lin Shu.
Lin Shu pushed his hand away.
As the two of them pushed back and forth, the pot of wine suddenly slammed into the ground. Wine spread all over the ground.
They were stunned.
Immediately, Lin Shu covered his nose and jumped to two meters away.
At this moment, Mo Ruo appeared at the door. He looked at the scene with great interest and smirked. "Didn't you say Teacher Yu has rules about no drinking in the Academy? I didn't expect that there are still people drinking secretly. How interesting."
"Nonsense. We didn't drink." The short man was picked up the broken pieces of porcelain in a panic.
"Okay okay, don't be nervous. I won't report it. If you don't like to drink at all, you are wasting your life." Mo Ruo stepping in and put the things he brought on the table. "This is a medicine that specializes in treating various snake venoms. I gave you some extra, in case you feel like pulling the fur on the tiger's head again later." Sarcasm!
Lin Shu's face turned green but he couldn't say a word with his nose and mouth covered.
Mo Ruo sneered and turned to leave. He glanced back as if he had something else to say but finally left without another word.
At the entrance of the academy, Teacher Yu was leaning on a walking stick, waiting to see them off.
Jing Rong bowed to him. "Teacher Yu, I'll see myself out. If there is another chance in the future, I will come to visit again."
"Master Jing, be careful on your journey."
"Sure." He cupped his hands again in farewell.
Tang Si rubbed her knees in the carriage and complained, "It's the first time I had ever kneeled so long in my life. In the future, I will destroy this crappy academy."
Ji Yunshu said, "Miss Tang, you kneeled to sacred ancient sages. There's no harm, only benefit, in respecting and worshipping them."
"Those are neither Buddhas nor gods. Why should I worship them? Can they guarantee me a long life?"
"This loss is a blessing. You will remember next time if you come across a similar situation. You should keep your temper as well."
Tang Si was speechless.
Ji Yunshu looked at her knees and softened. "I will talk to Mo Ruo and have him treat you later."
"No!" She was so angry that she turned away. What a child!
Suddenly...
"There's an accident!" someone shouted. The voice came approached and passed to the entrance of the academy.
Ji Yunshu opened the curtain and looked out. She saw a student drenched in sweat running towards them. The student said to Teacher Yu, "Master, there was an accident. The back hill... The well in the back hill... "
Teacher Yu never liked fuss. He frowned. "What happened in the well?"
"There is a dead body...in the well!"
Huh? Dead body?
The group burst into a discussion. Seems like they cannot leave today either.
Soon, there was knocking sound coming from the clock in the academy.
Everybody gathered around the well in the back hill.
Normally, people rarely came to the back hill and it had long been left to grow wild. It was surrounded by towering trees with a thick carpet of fallen leaves. The atmosphere was dark and damp, made eerier by a cold, biting wind. In the middle was an abandoned well, covered with piles of dead leaves and other detritus. Next to it was an abandoned wooden basin and… a pile of bones.
Yes, bones!
To be precise, human bones!
At first glance, there were two ulnas, a tibia, two sound femurs, a few ribs and some scattered phalanx…
But the skull was missing.
Next to the human bones, sat a person. It was Fatty Lu who had been kicked out of the hot spring pool last night. At this moment, his face was pale and his eyes were dull. It was evident he was badly shaken.
When people saw the pile of white bones, they were shocked and quickly retracted to both sides. Those students who only knew how to study had never seen such things before!
In contrast, Teacher Yu appeared extremely calm, but even his expression was slightly tense. After a long while, he glanced at Fatty Lu.
"Zhou Lu, what exactly happened?"
Fatty Lu trembled fearfully for a long time before he opened his mouth and said, "I... I don't know." He shook his head violently from side to side.
"There were too many people taking a shower last night so I came here instead. However, when I drew the water and looked at it, there were bones in the basin! I was scared, and just... fainted." He pointed at the incomplete skeleton.
The person who reported the news chimed in. "I just passed by here and heard Zhou Lu shout, so I quickly came over and found..." He didn't continue.
Teacher Yu nodded and called the pageboy.. "Inform the authorities. Ask the officials to come."
The apprentice was also scared, nodding his head, "Okay!" He then hurried off to do as he was told.
Then, Teacher Yu said, "Come on, pack up the white bones, take them to the front, and wait for the officials to come over."
Some of the bolder ones stepped forward, taking off their outwear and prepared to wrap the skeleton.
At this moment, one person came out of the crowd. "Wait!"
Ji Yunshu walked over to the pile of white bones. "These bones have been damaged and can no longer be moved a second time. Even if you want to move them, you can't move them like this."
Teacher Ji?
Someone disagreed. "They were just bones, why can't we move them? Are you suggesting that we should just put them here and wait for the officials?"
Ji Yunshu stated matter-of-factly, "This pile of bones has been here for at least a year. They have been soaking in the water all year round. The bones have lost much of their calcium and are very fragile. You will damage them if casually pick them up, and...this is not yet a complete skeleton."