As Liu Dashao knitted his brows into a deep frown, his lips twitched unnaturally upward, appearing both like laughing and crying. The strange giggling sound came from his mouth, actually his chattering teeth. Then, with a voice nearly breaking into sobs, he said, “Qiangzi, I’ve encountered something supernatural.”
“What? You encountered… something supernatural?” Tian Guoqiang’s heart sank like a stone had dropped inside.
Tian scrutinized Liu Dashao’s face, astonished beyond words. Just moments ago, Liu had looked terrified, but still appeared normal, flesh and blood as any man. Yet now, within mere seconds, his face had sunken and gaunt, his eyelids swollen, like a malnourished patient.
This was not the place for conversation, and the secret they shared about the previous night could not be revealed to others. Thus, Tian Guoqiang signaled to the other two, dragging Liu Dashao to sit beside a pile of millet stalks.
After several deep breaths, Liu Dashao’s pallor improved slightly. Urgently, he blurted, “I tell you guys, I really encountered something supernatural. It’s damn unbelievable!”
“Isn’t it just what happened last night at the Lingguan Temple? Let’s not talk about it,” Tian Guoqiang said, glancing at everyone.
“No, no, not that!” Liu Dashao waved his hands frantically. “We all ran off and scattered, I was alone on my way back when I met another strange incident.”
“Take it easy, tell us slowly!” Tian Guoqiang ordered, his face serious. He sensed Liu Dashao’s experience might be connected to their previous encounter. Since that night, the four of them had become much more cautious. Even Goudan and Xiao Mazi had cried on the way back. Describing them as grasshoppers tied on the same rope was no exaggeration.
Liu Dashao then recounted in detail the incident with the child selling lanterns to Tian Guoqiang and the others, scaring them and making them gasp in disbelief.
“Goushao, you mean those banknotes you paid might actually have been spirit money from that child?” After much discussion, Tian Guoqiang, who had a relatively sharp mind, finally grasped the situation. He could now empathize with why Liu Dashao had been so frightened; he probably wouldn’t have fared any better himself.
“Not possibly, but definitely!” Liu Dashao insisted firmly.
“Oh my God!” Hearing Liu Dashao’s confident assertion, Goudan, the most timid among them, slid off the pile of millet stalks in fear, rolling into a ball.
“So what do we do next? I heard from my mom that once haunted by ghosts, you’re in big trouble. They don’t eat or drink, nor do they get tired, following you day and night. But during the day, the sunlight is too strong, so they generally dare not come out. However, at night…” At this point, Goudan, his face sooty and disheveled, lowered his voice to a whisper.
“At night what?” Liu Dashao sneered.
“They’ll make you become their substitute so they can reincarnate. You then become a wandering ghost, haunting others.” Goudan wiped his neck with his hand, mimicking a chopping motion, describing it vividly.
Indeed, the concept of substitutes had been widely spread since ancient times. In the eyes of mediums and fortune tellers, those who drowned, burned, hanged themselves, or were killed in car accidents—those who died unnaturally—were considered “wandering ghosts.” Because they were wandering ghosts, the King of Hell in the underworld would not accept them. Other ghosts could be assigned to the cycle of reincarnation, but they could only wander in the human world as lonely spirits. If they wanted to reincarnate, they had only one option: to kill another person at the place they died, making that person their substitute, thus allowing them to reincarnate.
Although this idea lacks theoretical basis, countless real-life cases vividly prove it. For example, if someone drowned in a river, one or two more people would die in the same waters the following year or the year after. The same applies to car accident scenes. To add, most ghosts are merely fragile spirits that cannot directly harm people. However, they can use illusions to confuse and frighten you, causing you to make mistakes and thus achieving their goals. Therefore, most people could be said to kill themselves, but if your will is strong and you are not misled by external things, ghosts would be powerless against you.
Although Goudan’s words made sense and Liu Dashao’s experience didn’t sound fabricated, Tian Guoqiang did not completely attribute the entire event to supernatural forces. He merely chuckled somewhat disdainfully and said, “Goudan, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but after carrying a schoolbag for three years, you haven’t learned to arm yourself with advanced ideas and culture. Instead, you’re always messing around with feudal superstitions. If you keep spreading rumors and bewitching the masses, I’ll be the first to report you to the organization the next time the intellectuals are sent down!”
“Tian Guoqiang, I’m telling you, if you dare to talk behind my back, old man won’t say a word, I’ll immediately grab a big sign, take a train to Beijing, and report your dad to Chairman Mao. The sign will read: Down with the evil cannibal village head, Tian Qingshan!” Goudan retorted without backing down.
“What the hell, report my dad? What did he do to you?” Tian Guoqiang was both amused and annoyed.
“He didn’t do anything to me, but his son did!”
“So you report, what are you reporting anyway!” Tian Guoqiang was extremely embarrassed by Goudan’s response.
“There’s plenty of stuff to report. For example, the foreign watch on your hand must have been a gift from the American president, bribing your dad to be a spy, colluding from within to steal the fruits of our socialist family. And your dad’s hair, combed so slick like a Kuomintang reactionary, isn’t that trying to restore capitalism? Don’t glare at me. Also, your dad is just a village head, a tiny official, but insists on having a clerk. Okay, having a clerk is fine, but why must it be a woman!”
“Isn’t a female clerk more efficient and careful…” Tian Guoqiang tried to explain.
“Rubbish! Then why not pick Grandma Hu at the village entrance? Why specifically choose a twenty-year-old girl? Don’t think I don’t know what your dad is up to. I’ve seen him staring at other people’s chests and bottoms many times. He uses his position for personal gain, messing around, old bull eating tender grass!”
“Pfft…” Liu Dashao and Xiao Mazi, who were listening nearby, couldn’t help but laugh, winking at each other while looking at Tian Guoqiang. Tian’s face turned red and purple with anger.
Liu Dashao knew that if he didn’t intervene, the two might end up fighting. So he and Xiao Mazi quickly grabbed each of them by an arm, calming them down with much persuasion.
“Goushao, I’m not saying I don’t care about this matter,” Tian Guoqiang finally spoke to Liu Dashao after a while. “The countryside is vast with many woods and valleys, and all sorts of things happen regularly. So encountering something or other is unavoidable. How about this? Let’s go ask the Flower-Watching Granny for advice. Let her divine our fortune and misfortune.”
One should neither fully believe in superstitions nor completely dismiss them. After all, everything in the world exists for a reason. The “Flower-Watching Granny” that Tian Guoqiang mentioned was actually a folk term for a female shaman or spiritual medium.
Granny Hua, whose surname was Fan, was called “Immortal Miss Fan” by the villagers out of respect because of her old age and grey hair. Over time, everyone just called her “Immortal Miss Fan,” and no one could recall her full name anymore.
It was said that before becoming a spiritual medium, Granny Hua had been an ordinary peasant woman.
One day, after finishing her farm work, she fell seriously ill. She often felt her soul floating out of her body. While sleeping, she always saw a person dressed strangely drawing talismans and saying he wanted to take her as a disciple.
Her family took her to the clinic for a long time, but her condition didn’t improve. Later, they sought out a spiritual master in town. The master told them that she was inherently a medium. He advised her to follow the instructions of the master in her dreams, place an incense burner at home, burn incense morning and night, and once she opened her heavenly eyes, she would recover.
After she recovered, Granny Hua indeed became a spiritual medium, succeeding the master.
As for why Tian Guoqiang knew about Granny Hua, there was a story behind it.
A few years ago, Granny Hua visited his home. At that time, a neighbor’s aunt was holding her two-year-old grandson and chatting with Tian’s mother. The little boy was very cute.
After the neighbor left, Granny Hua shook her head and quietly told Tian Guoqiang’s mother: “This child is hard to raise. Even if he grows up, it will cost a lot of money.”
At that time, Tian Guoqiang was also present. His first reaction was that this old woman was just showing off, probably having a grudge with the neighbor, and taking the chance to frame their family.
But to his surprise, not long after, the child really had problems! He had a long fever, loss of appetite, pale face, and gradually his abdomen swelled. Finally, after examination at the town hospital, it was found that the child had a strange illness and died the next day. Since then, Tian Guoqiang subconsciously accepted the existence of this feudal element. Well, this old woman might be ugly, but she did know some things.
Another time, in the neighboring Xiushan Village, a baby died from illness and was buried in a field of unmarked graves. The mother later became pregnant twice, but miscarried both times after a few months. Desperately wanting a child, she could only turn to Granny Hua for help, hoping she might offer a solution. After obtaining the mother’s address, Granny Hua burned some incense, entered a trance, and claimed that the deceased child’s body had not decomposed, preventing its reincarnation and causing it to haunt the mother. She suggested exhuming and cremating the baby’s body. Though skeptical, the woman followed the instructions. When she dug up the infant’s grave with assistance, she indeed found the body perfectly intact—mummified!
After burning the baby’s corpse, she gave birth to another boy. This time, the child survived and grew up healthy and safe. To show her gratitude, the mother gave Granny Hua three baskets of eggs. However, there was something strange. The villagers said that no one could explain why, but this boy looked almost identical to the child who had died before…
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