The Priest Kept a Ghost in His Gourd and Let Him Out Every Night novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Memorial
Nobody in the doorway said anything about the bed.
Auntie Xu held her lantern high and looked at the two of them for a long moment.
"Get dressed," she said. "Both of you. There is something at the memorial I should have shown you the first night."
"Auntie..." Pingan began.
"Get dressed, and bring the tall one. I am too old to say this twice."
The memorial stood at the top of the landing, where the street met the river.
It was a slab of grey stone twice as tall as a man, and in the first light it was beaded with damp.
Three hundred names were cut into it, in rows.
Villagers had followed in silence, a long uneven line of them, and stood among the nets and boat hooks with their arms folded.
Zhuoran walked up to the stone and stopped a pace short.
He did not touch it.
His hands hung at his sides, and Pingan could see him reading, row by row, without moving his eyes.
"I have never looked at it," he said.
"Nobody asked you to," said Auntie.
She set her lantern down on the step and turned to face the crowd.
"My grandmother was five years old on the night of the red moon," she said loudly. "She lived on the last boat."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Priest Kept a Ghost in His Gourd and Let Him Out Every Night are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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