Chapter 8: Gui Ping Nourishes Ghosts

  I also had a bunch of other weird dreams, and I slept from morning till noon the next day. When I got up, my whole body was sore. I went to Zhang Shenniang's house, and she didn't blame me for not burning incense for her family's immortal for two days.

  Stayed at Zhang Shennu's house for less than ten minutes, then returned to San Gu's house to feed the two pigs, and then went to Xue Fei Da Bo's house to herd cattle, not returning until evening.

  On the third day, Zhang Shenpo went to collect the soul-gathering pagoda tree sign before dawn without calling me. When I arrived at her house to offer incense to the immortal, she had just returned, and I don't know how this middle-aged woman managed to pull it out of the river that was so far away, and even the ancient bronze dagger was retrieved by her.

  Zhang the shaman put the catalpa wood sign into a ceramic jar and sealed it with red cloth. She told me that this water ghost was indeed a young girl, who had died seven or eight years ago, drowned in the river by someone on purpose. The resentment is very strong, if not for being able to possess a fish body, it would not have harmed so many people. The water ghost can only wander around where she was drowned, but with the fish body, it can swim to other places to harm people.

  I asked her how she planned to deal with this water ghost.

  Zhang Shenniang said that this water ghost has harmed so many people, absorbed so many souls and essences, and can already transform into many things, reaching a level where true and false are hard to distinguish. It is no weaker than the Fox Spirit, sending it to be reincarnated would be a great pity and a waste of effort, I don't know if I have the good fortune to raise it into a Fuwa. If I can raise it into a Fuwa, it will be a great blessing for both it and me, something that is hard to come by in a hundred years.

  Zhang Shenniang said to find a day to ask her family's immortal how to raise this water ghost, and then make plans.

  Time flew by and another month was about to pass, the end of October 1990. One day, my third aunt called me into her room and handed me 100 yuan, which had a purchasing power equivalent to at least 800 yuan today.

  I asked San Gu what she was doing giving me so much money all of a sudden. She said that on the ninth, she would be remarrying and this house would be returned to Xiao Fei's family, as well as the fields and land.

  After she left, I had nowhere to live. She had already arranged with Zhang Shenniang to let me stay at her house. The two pigs were ready to be slaughtered, and the money would be used to buy me some new clothes and good food to eat.

  I feel neither happy nor unhappy, San Gu is still young, she should remarry now, it's not good to be a widow like this. Xue Fei is still little and needs a father figure, even if he's not her biological one, as long as he's a good person. But I will miss San Gu and Xue Fei, who knows when I'll see them again after they leave.

  The day San Gu changed her marriage, the family invited relatives from the same clan in the village to have a meal, that's all. On the same day, she was taken to Zhao Ping Ma Jiang Town, and Xue Fei's sister had to wait until the end of this semester to go.

  That house was left vacant, Xue Fei's sister ate and lived at her uncle's house, and I lived in Zhang Shenpo's house.

  One day in early November, I hadn't gotten out of bed yet when a guest arrived at Zhang Sheng's house. This guest had an extraordinary air about him, wearing white clothes and pants, and was an old man in his fifties. After entering the room, he looked around, finally fixing his gaze on the altar for several seconds.

  Zhang's wife came out of the kitchen and saw a person standing in the hall. She didn't recognize him, so she asked the old man who he was looking for.

  The old man smiled and said, "You must be Zhang's sister! I heard from a relative that the immortal in your family is very effective. I'm from the county and something happened at home, so I wanted to find someone to take a look."

  Zhang Shennu hastily invited him to sit down and speak slowly, washing her hands clean and pouring a bowl of hot tea.

  The old man politely took a small sip of tea and put down his bowl, then spoke about the reason he came to find Zhang Shenniang.

  The old man's wife had passed away last month due to a failed head surgery, but the old man said he almost dreams of his deceased wife every night. In his dreams, she always says she doesn't want to leave and can't bear to part with him, hoping he could follow her. Every time he wakes up, he feels extremely exhausted, which scares him so much that he has called for help several times but to no avail. He's afraid that if this continues, he might really follow her soon. A relative told him that Zhang the fortune teller is quite effective, so he came to find her, hoping she could send his wife away.

  The old man said helplessly, and Zhang Shenniang listened silently for a moment before asking the old man about his wife's situation before she passed away. I was sleeping in the room, while they were talking outside; the old man and Zhang Shenniang talked for more than half an hour.

  The old man was very generous, saying that he would give a red envelope of 800 yuan if someone could send away his wife. It's obvious that Zhang the godmother would definitely agree to it, knowing that usually giving people ghost money is only over ten or twenty yuan, and even wealthy families wouldn't give more than fifty or sixty yuan. An 800-yuan red envelope was equivalent to the money from selling three pigs, just thinking about it made her drool.

  Zhang Shenniang is not a noble character, she wouldn't view money as dirt, that kind of person is rare in reality. She's just an ordinary rural woman, it's fake to say she wasn't tempted by so much money, so she readily agreed. And then asked me to get up and cook to entertain, but the old man repeatedly refused, saying hurry up and leave, we can eat at his house! So Zhang Shenniang kicked me out of bed, tidied up a bit, packed the eating utensils into a yellow cloth bag, and followed the old man out the door, I followed behind them.

  The old man indeed has money, he came in a Jeep. At that time, being able to drive a Jeep was equivalent to driving a Mercedes-Benz S-Class today. This is the first time I've sat in such a good car, before this I only rode in a small truck with my uncle to sweep the tomb.

  The old man started the car and drove very fast all the way, without saying another word to us. I was busy looking at the scenery along the road, and in less than half an hour, we entered the city of Guiping County.

  In 1990, Guiping had not yet withdrawn from the county to set up a city, and it was barely a small town with only three streets. I had never been to Guiping before, and the most prosperous place I had seen was the town's market, and I even thought Hunan was a village.

  After entering Guilin, the car drove for only a few minutes before arriving at the old man's house, which was a three-story small villa. The old man got out of the car and opened the door, inviting us to enter. As soon as I walked into the living room, I couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. This house was worlds apart from Zhang Shenniang's earthen hut. Especially when it came to furniture, the black sofa was both large and soft, a stark contrast to the wooden chairs made by Zhang Shenniang and his family. There were also huge paintings on the walls, electric lamps, fans, fruit on the table, rugs on the floor, and even a television set.

  That was the first time I saw a TV and electric lights. Now that I think about it, it's really amazing how much has changed in over 20 years. Zhang Shenniang and I sat down, unable to help but look around in all directions, like Liu Xiangnu entering the Grand View Garden - everything seemed so fresh and new.

  The old man poured us a cup of tea and then went into the room.

  I took a bite of an apple and was bragging to Zhang Shengpo when suddenly a tall, burly middle-aged man who looked like a butcher rushed out of the room, pounced on Zhang Shengpo without warning, and tied his hands behind his back.

  I was stunned by this sudden change, and I had never seen such a scene before. At that time, the old man also came out of the house, and I threw the apple I had bitten into his head, then ran towards the door.

  The old man dodged the apple that was thrown at him, rushed over and quickly stretched out his hand to pull me back, throwing me onto the sofa. The butcher was also tied up. Zhang Shenniang was scared too, although she often fooled around with gods and ghosts, but after all, she was a rural woman who had never seen such a scene before.

  After the butcher tied us up, he carried me in his left hand and Zhang Sheng's wife in his right hand into a room and locked us in a large iron cage. As soon as the lock clicked shut, we were stunned and had no idea what was happening.

  After we were locked in the cage, the old man and the butcher closed the door and never appeared again. We shouted loudly but no one came to rescue us, so we were locked up for three days.

  On the third day, Zhang Shenniang and I were so hungry that we only had the strength to breathe. We were thirsty as if we could drink several buckets of water. In the afternoon, the door opened, and it was the old man who came. He still wore white clothes and brought us food and water. After Zhang Shenniang and I wolfed down the food, we soon felt dizzy and threw everything up. Having been hungry for too long, eating something didn't work out at first. Only after drinking a little water did we feel a bit better.

  The old man squinted his eyes and asked us if we knew why we were locked up.

  Zhang Shenniang weakly asked the old man, "Didn't you say you wanted me to send your wife away? Why did you suddenly give us..."

  It's locked up, this is an illegal thing! And I crouched in a corner of the cage and didn't dare to speak.

  The old man touched his forehead, with a face full of anger, and asked Zhang Shenniang if he had killed a big fish in Xijiang (what we call the West River) a few days ago, and even drove away its soul.

  As soon as the old man said this, we roughly understood that the fish demon was indeed raised by him, and Zhang Shenniang's guess that day was correct. It turned out that the old man's finding us was a scam, but how did he know it was us who killed it?

  The old man told us that he was a ghost breeder, and this fish had been raised for seven years. It was killed by us, wasting his many years of hard work. I will also kill you and refine you into a fierce and resentful ghost.

  We are not great and perfect people, when we heard the old man say that, we immediately knelt down and begged the old man to let us go, no matter what. As for why the old man raised a ghost, how many people were harmed by the water ghost and fish demon, we didn't dare ask or speak.

  Zhang the immortal hastened to tell the old man that only the fish's body was killed, and the water ghost was trapped by her in a piece of pagoda tree board, so you can't sense it, thinking it has been dispersed. If you want, it can be brought back.

  The old man heard that the water ghost was still there, his eyes lit up, and then said let's hurry up and hand over the huai wood sign, and help him do one more thing, and that would be a clean slate.

  Zhang Shennu repeatedly agreed and said that she can return it to you immediately. Whatever you say, I will definitely do what I can do.

  The old man nodded and said to bring back the locust wood sign first, and then slowly talk about what he wanted me to do. After finishing speaking, the old man opened the cage door, pulled me out into another room, took out a finger-thick leech from a small greasy bottle, and directly stuffed it into my throat.