Life: A Black and White Film (一生一世，黑白影画)

Chapter 10.3 - To Gaze Down with Compassion Like Bodhisattva (3)

Something was bumping and moving against the back of her waist, but it was evident it was not his hand. Instantly, a shudder tingled her scalp. "What... is moving?" Letting go of her, he felt around.

"Rat," Cheng Muyun informed her in a calm voice.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

The look on her face shifted.<>This is an UNAUTHORIZED copy, taken from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com

"Scared?" he continued to unperturbedly ask.

Gritting her teeth, she tried hard to repress the shivers that were sweeping over all of her body. She could not let him look down on her. What was the big deal about a rat anyway? But this time, it was not only one place that was moving... There were lots running back and forth, scampering here and there. She shoved him away abruptly, rolling out of the haystack in panic and shrieking in an utterly wretched state. Even after dashing out five or six steps, her whole body was still trembling. So revolting...

Cheng Muyun straightened back to his feet.<>Please read this at hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com instead

Apparently, she had already forgotten that, in the virgin forest, she had been able to watch from her place buried in the bushes as innumerable creatures crawled by and still numbly treat it as if there was nothing. Now that she had returned to civilized society, she had once again started to be afraid of even rats.

"There are many here who view rats as being holy," he said, admiring her expression of fear that still had not dispelled, "so there is quite a serious rat infestation in the nearby surrounding area."

Turning, he ambled toward the two-storey brick building. The meaning was plain: if she did not want her toes bitten off by rats or something along those lines, she should hurry up and follow him.<>Copyright of Fanatical, hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Translated with the express permission of the author for hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com. If you are not reading this from hui3r[dot]wordpress[dot]com, the translation has been taken without consent of the translator.

Exhaling a light breath, Wen Han chased after him, keeping pace behind him. There were no lights inside the brick building. There seemed to be no electricity? This reminded her of those days in Nepal, that country that was so poor many places only had a few hours of electricity a day, that holy land where it already felt as if it had been last lifetime when she was there.

"Do not look in those doorless rooms on either side." His silhouette was two steps ahead of her, and quietly, in Russian, he warned her, "This place has been provided by the lord of this manor for sadhus [holy men; Indian ascetic, wandering monks]."

"Sadhus?" Wen Han immediately remembered the parade of naked sadhus she had come across in India one month ago. It had been an especially difficult sight to look directly at. They slept on steel beds and used the torment of their physical bodies as a path to enlightenment. There were even some sadhus who would pass a long blade through those lower reaches of a man's body, and then they would parade forward, unclothed, in this state in front of a crowd of onlookers.

Here in this corridor, as she thought of these things, she suddenly felt that this entire building had become creepy.

When they arrived at the staircase at the end of the corridor, Wen Han asked in a soft voice, "Why do you want to stay here? Why aren't you staying with us?" The lodgings arranged for her and his several friends were all very nice. She had also heard the servants mention that the lord of this manor estate was one of the top richest men in the state.

"In the previous ten years, I became accustomed to living a harder and more basic life, so I am actually not used to staying in places that are too comfortable," he stated.