Bloodstained Clothes for Ghost Festival

Chapter 6

"Grandpa Sun, what's strange?" Tian Juan asked anxiously.

"Bian Jizhong killed more than one person, and his ghosts are not all the same!"

We were all stunned.

Jiang Ping asked in confusion, "I don't understand what you mean... Are you saying that Bian Jizhong killed more than one person, and then these people turned into ghosts and are chasing after him?"

Old Mr. Sun shook his head: "That's not what I meant. I don't know either. That ghost's abilities don't seem to be something a ghost could accomplish..."

"Are you saying that several ghosts are secretly helping him, or that he has gathered the spiritual energy of several ghosts?"

“I can sense that this ghost is very powerful. Last night when I was worshipping the gods, it gave me a warning. No ghost has ever taken the initiative to provoke me before.”

"What warning?"

The old man coughed a few times but did not respond.

Jiang Ping was good at observing colors, so he quickly changed the subject: "When you say there's more than one ghost, do you mean he's gathered the energy of several ghosts?"

"Very likely, but I'm referring to the existence of another ghost?"

"There's another ghost?" We all widened our eyes in surprise.

"Yes, when that ghost was plotting against me yesterday, another ghost helped me out."

"Have you seen them?" Jiang Ping asked.

"No, but I can sense that they are two different forces."

When was that?

"Around ten o'clock, in fact, it was just a blink of an eye. I almost got tricked by him. But the one who came later was much less skilled than the first one."

Jiang Ping was silent for a moment, then asked the question we all wanted to ask: "Grandpa Sun, can you subdue this ghost?"

The old man didn't answer for a long time, and we all held our breath and watched him quietly.

After a long silence, he slowly said, "I'm not sure. Many years ago, in Xiongjiazhuang behind our village, there was an old man whose wife died early. He raised his son alone and found him a wife. His wife was very fierce and abused her father-in-law. His son was useless and let his wife mistreat his father, but he didn't dare to utter a word. One winter, his wife drove the old man to live in the thatched hut where the cattle were kept. The old man was hungry and cold and died on New Year's Eve."

After his death, the family never found peace again. Every night, the daughter-in-law would see her father-in-law, leaning on his cane, carrying a broken bowl, asking her for food. She couldn't eat or sleep properly.

Later, they invited me over. I had only recently started practicing divination and didn't know much about the couple's character. After some divination, they used a very cruel method: they found four peach wood logs as thick as bowls and nailed them firmly to the grave mound.

This method worked very well; after it was nailed on, the old man's ghost never came out again.

He paused here and sighed.

We remained silent, unsure of his purpose in telling this story.

After a moment, Tian Juan couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

The old man said in a very guilty voice, "In the end, the couple still died because of this."

"Why? Peach wood didn't work?" Tian Juan looked very disappointed. Indeed, we all had high hopes for this method.

"Not long after, I heard that the couple had been frightened to death. I later learned about their character and was furious. When I went to check on the old man's grave, I found that the peach wood was gone. I don't know if someone dug it up or for some other reason. The old man died with his eyes open in discontent. I shouldn't have used that method to seal his soul in the grave, preventing him from being reborn."

He hadn't initially held a deep grudge against his son, but the act of nailing the peach wood had completely chilled his heart, and he no longer spared even his son.

Tian Juan said, her face pale, "Are you saying that this method of subduing is only a temporary solution and not a cure? Once the ghost is released, it will become even more ferocious?"

"Yes." The old man looked at her approvingly.

Jiang Ping quickly understood what the old man meant: "Grandpa Sun, you're referring to what I said about whether or not we can subdue ghosts, right? But what can we do? This method can at least work for a while."

The old man shook his head: "This method may not work on this ghost either. I don't know if it can be suppressed, or how long it will last."

"What should we do then? Is there any other way?" Jiang Ping scratched the back of his head and asked.

Suddenly, an idea struck me: "I've heard that vengeful ghosts are reluctant to reincarnate because they have unfulfilled wishes. Do you mean to find a way to let the ghosts understand their wishes so they can reincarnate in peace?"

The old man nodded slowly: "If I had known the whole story about what I just mentioned, I would have made them hold a proper Buddhist ceremony, and then have the couple kneel and make offerings every day, and obediently observe three years of mourning. Perhaps that tragedy wouldn't have happened later."

Tian Juan asked in bewilderment, "Isn't this ghost's wish to kill Uncle Bian's entire family?"

The old man said, "If that's the case, I have no way to subdue him. You should use the method you mentioned to find the ghost's body, offer a proper sacrifice, seal it with peach wood, and then consult a wise person."

As evening fell, Mr. Sun's daughter brought out steaming hot glutinous rice balls.

Everyone felt hungry and a little tired.

"Have something to eat first, then we'll prepare dinner later."

Mr. Bian called the driver in as well, saying, "Old man, let's not bother you tonight. Let's go to a restaurant in town for dinner. I'm sorry to bother you any longer."

Jiang Ping was eating glutinous rice balls with gusto when he suddenly remembered something and stopped eating. "Grandpa Sun, how come ghosts are so powerful? They can even control the rain?"

The old man looked at him, not understanding what he meant.

"Look, this ghost has killed four generations of Mr. Bian's family, each time at a interval of twenty-one years, each time on the fifteenth of July, and each time it just so happens to rain. Isn't this manipulated by a ghost? What a coincidence!"

The old man also put down his chopsticks, muttering repeatedly, "Twenty-one years, rain, July 15th." He calculated with his fingers for a while, then suddenly said, "This ghost isn't impossible to subdue!"

"Really?" We all looked at him with surprise.

"But it's not necessarily true. I have a feeling that the ghost is coming to find me today."

The old man was unwilling to reveal what method he used, so we had no choice but to keep our questions to ourselves.

The driver said his superiors had instructed him to stay and await Mr. Bian's orders, which was indeed very convenient for us. We returned to Mr. Sun's house in two groups because the old man was going to perform a ritual at his altar that evening. Mr. Bian ordered some food from a restaurant in town, but the old man only ate some pickled vegetables and vegetables.

He had a very good impression of Tian Juan. Tian Juan also felt a sense of warmth towards the old man, sitting next to him and helping him serve food, asking, "Grandpa Sun, how do you maintain your health? You don't look like someone in your eighties at all!"

Mr. Sun's son said, "My father has been a vegetarian for many years and has been meditating for an hour every morning and evening for decades. A few years ago, he still worked in the fields, but now he doesn't. However, he doesn't stay idle. He sweeps the yard and waters the vegetable garden behind the house."

"The old gentleman is truly knowledgeable about health preservation!" said Mrs. Tian in admiration.

Tian Juan said, "Sitting meditation is very popular abroad now. It is very helpful in enhancing the function of the cardiovascular system and can also prolong life."

Mr. Sun said, “I didn’t know that meditation had so many benefits. A friend taught me this many years ago, and I have been doing it ever since. My physical condition and mental cultivation have greatly improved. I also encourage others to meditate, but they suffer at first, so I don’t force them. If the opportunity isn’t right, you can’t force it.”

I asked curiously, "Is your friend also someone with magical powers like you?"

He said somberly, “He is a man with predictive abilities, but he rarely shows them, so no one knows, which saves him a lot of trouble. However, he predicted long ago that he would die at the hands of his own grandson, and he cannot change that. He can never love his grandson like a normal grandfather, so there is no affection between them.”

During the Cultural Revolution, he inadvertently predicted Lin Biao's downfall, which was overheard by his grandson. That brat gathered a group of Red Guards and had his grandfather denounced and killed.

Actually, I don't want to have such magical powers. When my family members have problems, I usually can't tell the difference, and I'd rather spend money to find someone else to help.

I think this might be because when he's explaining things to others, he's a calm outsider, but when he's explaining things to his own family, he's an insider and can't see things clearly. Many surgeons don't operate on their own relatives for the same reason.

After we finished eating and sat for a while, the old man washed his hands and led us into the side room.

The house was spotless and had a strong sandalwood scent. Inside was a shrine containing a bronze statue about a foot tall, with an ever-burning lamp beside it. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a statue of Sun Wukong (the Monkey King). On the altar were offerings of peaches, peanuts, and other fruits.

Grudges and Love

Mr. Bian suggested that the driver go to the hotel to rest first, but he refused. He listened to us talking for a long time in the car, and after hearing Jiang Ping's account to Old Man Sun, he became interested in the whole story and insisted on staying.

The six of us sat on chairs on either side of the room. Mr. Bian and the Tian family were on one side of the wall near the door, while the driver, myself, Jiang Ping, and they sat facing each other on the other side.

Mr. Sun closed the door. The only light in the room was the dim glow of the ever-burning lamp. He slowly walked towards the statue, leaving a long shadow behind him.

There was a mysterious yet slightly frightening atmosphere in the room.

"No matter what you see later, don't shout or be afraid. I'll take care of everything."

The old man devoutly lit a few sticks of incense, bowed several times, placed them in the incense burner, and burned a few sheets of yellow paper.

He sat on the futon and began to chant something in a low, rhythmic voice.

I couldn't hear what he was saying, but his voice was calm and soothing, like the warm winter sun. Gradually, my eyes felt heavy, and my consciousness slowly began to fade...

I don't know how much time passed before I groggily got out of bed. Everyone else was still asleep. I put on a thin sweater and quietly opened the door. The hallway was dimly lit, and a cool breeze enveloped me like water, seeping into every pore. It was pitch black outside, and I could only hear the patter of rain. I wasn't fully awake yet, but my feet seemed to move on their own, and I ran towards the bathroom.

There was water in the washroom, and I carefully stepped on the bricks. A gust of cold wind blew by, and a short, middle-aged man dressed in strange clothes suddenly appeared in front of me. I wanted to scream, but my throat felt like it was being choked, and I couldn't make a sound.

Then I saw a stiff-looking man standing behind him, with a full beard and a fierce appearance, covered in blood, and then I lost consciousness...

"Waaaaah!" Who's crying? I opened my eyes and saw several women in white looking at me. A moment later, a man hugged me, crying and laughing excitedly. He looked just like my father—yes, it was him! I had become a baby! ...

"Sweetie, be good, I'll buy you a cake when you come back from kindergarten." I hugged my mother's neck and cried and screamed at the kindergarten gate.

......

"Did you do your homework yourself? Tell the teacher the truth!" The homeroom teacher looked at me sternly. I lowered my head, putting on a pitiful look, while my deskmate chuckled.

......

The eye-catching words "Only 30 days until the college entrance examination" are posted at the back of the classroom. The teacher with gray hair stands on the podium and passionately declares, "How many times in life can one fight? If not now, when?"

......

"Would you like to go to the movies tonight?" The handsome boy, clutching two movie tickets, looked at me nervously and eagerly, like a helpless child.

......

The room was dark, the candlelight flickered, and the bronze statue glowed eerily in the wisps of incense smoke. A thin old man sat with his back to the shrine, muttering incantations. Who was he, and what was he saying?

Who are those people sitting in the room? Why are they all asleep?

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?

......

Suddenly the old man opened his eyes and looked at us one by one. I opened my eyes, and his eyes were so bright! Suddenly, it dawned on me—I remembered!

The others also opened their eyes one after another, struggling to move, but like me, they all felt weak all over, their hands and feet completely out of control of their brains.

Was I dreaming? Who were those two people in my dream?

Suddenly, a figure emerged from the dark wall opposite the shrine and slowly approached the old man. He was very burly, with a fierce face, wearing an old-fashioned sleeveless vest and a black cloth belt around his waist. This person looked so familiar; where had I seen him before? I racked my brains.

As he approached me, the face of the man behind the strangely dressed man in my dream flashed into my mind. Good heavens! That oddly dressed man was the ghost I saw on the train!

who is he?

He walked straight up to the old man without looking to either side, then knelt down and said, "Please, sir, help me pass on to the afterlife!"

The old man looked at him intently: "You helped me yesterday?"

"Yes."

Why are you helping me?

"Because only you can help me pass on to the afterlife!"

"Your sins are too great; I don't have that kind of ability..."