Dreadful Radio Game

“That makes sense.”

Su Bai lifted the bowl and took a sip of the soup. To be honest, he still preferred the taste of plain noodles[1] in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, where noodles were boiled in water and then sobbed in superior soup and garnished with chopped green onion when served. He didn’t realize how delicious it was, but when he was away in other places, he began to miss that flavor so much. The soup of these pulled noodles[2] had a strong flavor but it was a little too rough.

He put down the bowl and continued: “Don’t tell me these Lamas are just here for the noodles and happen to see me.”

“Yeah, I invited them here for breakfast.” Seven said, also lifted his bowl and took a sip.

“That’s not cool.” Su Bai replied.

“Since we’re a team now, working together in this mission, we’d better act like a team. You want to take a trip and enjoy yourself, but as far as I’m concerned, accomplishing the mission must have priority.”

The monk put down his bowl and chopsticks, took out a 50 yuan bill and put it on the table.

Su Bai pointed to the old Lama with his chin: “Can you handle him?”

Seven looked at the old Lama, thought it over and answered:

“He who fed the sacred hawks so much that they wouldn’t dare to eat dead bodies with hatred must be polluting himself with earthly desires these years, both physically and mentally. I would’t be so sure in the old times, but now… Yes, I can handle him.”

Then, Seven stood up and put his palms together as a greeting to the old Lama: “Brother, a word, please. I have something to discuss with you.”

The old Lama thought Seven had merely invited him for breakfast, then when he saw Su Bai sitting by Seven, he thought that Seven had managed to put Su Bai under control. When he heard Seven describe him as polluted physically and mentally, his breath became heavy. He had always had a bad temper, and these years he had become more and more irritable. He was already trying to control his temper, otherwise he would have started a fight right away. Then when he heard Seven say he wanted a word, even his long beard began to shake. He raised his hand, pointed to Seven and moved his lips.

But before he could say anything, Seven continued:

“Brother, please.”

Right after these words, Seven’s breath slowed down. With his palms together, he started casting a spell. Instantly, a vague figure of an arhat appeared behind Seven and they merged into one. A golden light flashed in his eyes and he started running towards that old Lama.

Normally people might only hear stories of Shamans in the northeast inviting great spirits into themselves, which meant they could borrow some power from these spirits in the ancient woods. There were also similar tricks in Taoism and Buddhism. But nobody would invite any demon; usually they would invite the founders of their lineage or some immortals born in belief or worship. What Seven had invited now was an arhat.

The old Lama wouldn’t dare to look down upon Seven. He spread his legs, formed a sign with both hands and growled. A milky, white light burst out from him.

Actually, neither of their light was strong, but the momentum they were showing was breathtaking.

“Bang!”

Two masters dashed against each other. Seven held the old Lama with his arms and rushed outside, broke through the walls, over the street and into a hotel opposite the street, shattering the glass into pieces.

That was a tough way of having a private moment with someone.

Su Bai clapped his hands and stood up. He was not worried that Seven would set him up; Seven would merely use some tricks as he did before, but that was only because Su Bai was too lazy and left him no choice.

Since they were already in the same team, Su Bai had to accept it. He had to postpone his traveling plan and take care of what was going on now.

Seeing Su Bai stand up, the younger Lamas walked directly to him.

Su Bai moved his neck from one side to the other, then he turned gloomy and creepy with two fangs growing out of his lips. Then he pick up the chopsticks from the table and stabbed it towards the person in front of him.

However, these Lamas were not just normal people. Though they were not very capable, they were well trained and they even carried weapons around. Seeing Su Bai ready to fight, they pulled out their knives.

But Su Bai kept dashing towards them even though they had knives. A Lama stabbed his knife into Su Bai’s belly; Su Bai took a deep breath, held the knife handle with one hand and stuck the chopsticks right into his face. The Lama screamed and stepped back as the chopsticks pierced through his skin and was stuck in his flesh. Su Bai didn’t turn into a zombie because he was concerned that his difficulty might be increased in the next story if he killed someone here; a vampire might be weaker in attacking, but it had some certain advantages when fighting against a group of people.

Su Bai pulled the knife out from his belly. Just then, another Lama was trying to chop him. Su Bai avoided the attack and clamped the blade under his arm. The Lama immediately made up his mind and turned the knife handle. Su Bai could feel that his skin and flesh were cut open, but he didn’t care. He’d been through such pain for so many times that he had become indifferent; although it still hurt as much as before, he knew that he would recover anyway. He chopped the man on the shoulder with the knife that he had just pulled out. The man immediately kneeled and whined, with one hand against the ground and the other covering his wound.

The last Lama was scared away by Su Bai’s fierceness; instead, he murmured something, lifted the chair nearby and threw it at Su Bai.

Su Bai dodged and then approached. The Lama stepped backwards but tottered. Su Bai held his neck with one hand and accelerated; the man was pushed against the wall and his head was slammed. When Su Bai let go of him, he was dizzy and sat there looking confused. Apparently, that was a harsh impact.

After taking care of these three Lamas, Su Bai walked out of the restaurant, covered in blood but almost fully recovered. He went to the hotel that he was in and got into Seven’s van. When the car started, Sun Lin ran over and was shocked to see Su Bai in blood.

“Fill others in, drive the car back to Chengdu and return it. I’ve already paid. I got involved in a fight with the Lamas here, and now I gotta run.” Then Su Bai waved to the Audi he was driving. Lucky jumped out of the car, bounced into the van and continued to stay on Su Bai’s laps.

“You take care. Now go, local people are tough to handle.” Sun Lin reminded him.

Su Bai smiled and nodded. The car started and got onto the road. Then Su Bai turned the van abruptly with a drift, opened the door on the other side of the driver’s cab and shouted:

“Hey monk, let’s go!”

Seven ran to him, ragged and stained with blood. He jumped into the van.

Su Bai didn’t waste a second; he stepped on the accelerator and the van immediately rushed along the road.

After about five minutes, they were out of danger. Only then did Su Bai take out his red box and chewed a red bead for recovery.

Seven kept sitting rigidly upright. He was covered in multiple wounds but none of them were fatal.

“Are all monks so fierce? That’s so different from what I had imagined.”

“Amitabh, compared to my faction, real Esoteric Buddhists have a lot more methods. I used this way to suppress him only because he’s old and weak.”

“If you say so.” Su Bai took out a cigarette and lit it, “So what’s next? Jiuzhaigou Valley?”

“Yep.” Seven nodded.

“Alright then. We’ll be there in an hour.” Su Bai flicked his cigarette outside the window.

“No need to be in such a hurry. There are so many turnings… even if we’ll be alright, we can’t afford the risks of anything happening to the three people in the van.”

“I’m afraid they’ll catch up.” Su Bai said.

“They won’t.”

“Why not?”

“I talked to my brother and gave him two choices: either you and I leave with the three people, or you and I just leave and let him handle the three people.”

“So he chose to compromise?”

“Yeah, my brother chose the former.”

“You believed that?” Su Bai puffed out a smoke ring. Clearly he didn’t trust those Lamas to actually let go of them.

“That’s why I nailed his foot to the ground with his own stave after we reached an agreement.”

“…” Su Bai.

“You were right. Their lineage in the Buddhist system was not trustworthy. They are born to be rebels.”

“We all know that Dalai Lama had personally wrote down ‘Chairman Mao will always be the sun for Tibetans’. But look what he is doing now!”

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] plain noodles: It means that noodles are boiled with no vegetable or meat. Also known as noodles in a simple sauce or noodles in superior soup. It’s a typical kind of food in the southern part of China.

[2] pulled noodles: Also known as hand pulled noodles, stretched noodles or Lamian noodles. It’s a type of Chinese noodles made by twisting, stretching and folding the dough into strands, using the weight of the dough.