On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, the Ghost Festival, it is said that the gates of hell are wide open, and the lonely ghosts in the underworld roam the living world. Ghosts that are rarely seen in the living world can be seen everywhere on this day, squatting on the bridge head and street corners, smoking fireworks, or several of them gather around the sacrificial supplies and grab the leftovers to gobble up. Some evil spirits choose to find scapegoats on this day.
However, young people nowadays are the least likely to believe in ghosts and gods. The Zhongyuan Festival has become a holiday for taking a day off and having fun. Families gather together, worship their ancestors, and prepare flowers, fruits, chickens, ducks, fish and meat, as well as operas performed for ghosts. This has become a festival for young people to have fun, and many young people who work away from home will return home on this day.
Chen Yang didn't like the Zhongyuan Festival. It was fine during the day, but at night countless ghosts would appear and try to take his life. He held the basket tightly in his hand, which contained the vegetables and offerings he had bought. Along the way, countless ghosts stared at him, at the intersection, at the bridgehead, and when he reached the middle of the bridge, a pale ghost hand suddenly stretched out from the bottom of the bridge and grabbed his ankle.
Chen Yang was startled, and quickly whipped the ghost hand with the copper coin that Grandpa Wu gave him, and shouted: "Chi!" The ghost hand was burned and smoked, and quickly left. He looked out and was even more shocked. There were dozens of corpses swollen by the river water under the bridge. Those corpses looked at Chen Yang in unison, their black eyes and mouths squirming and trying to climb out from under the bridge, madly coveting this special body.
"Why are you so startled? Don't take up space if you have nothing to do!"
Chen Yang turned around, and his pale and terrifying face frightened the young man who was yelling. Chen Yang glanced at him and whispered, "This position is not good, you'd better not stand here." Then he turned around and left.
The young man was puzzled and muttered, "I don't know what the hell you are talking about." After Chen Yang left, he directly occupied this position and put the goods on it. This is a bridge that must be passed between the town and the village. It is a very old bridge. People have come to occupy the space on both sides of the bridge early, selling vegetables, meat, gold ingots, candles, paper figurines and other things.
The vegetable seller next to the young man reminded him: "I advise you not to talk to him. The child of the Chen family is very evil. He has attracted countless ghosts since he was a child and killed his parents and old man Chen. He was standing here just now. It seems that there is something dirty under the bridge. I advise you to change your place." He lowered his voice and said: "People die on this bridge every year. Some are swept away by the water, some accidentally fall down, and some commit suicide. They are all in your position."
The young man suddenly felt a creepy feeling in his heart, but seeing that there was no room on the entire bridge, he didn't want to give up this position. So he said with all his strength: "Are you trying to deceive me? People die every year, are you always there? And in the same position, the whole bridge is so big, how likely is it that all the dead people fell under the bridge in the same position? It's ridiculous."
The young man squatted down, and could not see with the naked eye that a ghost, whose skin and facial features were so swollen that his original appearance could not be seen, had already climbed up from under the bridge, slowly climbing up along his heels, and finally climbed onto his shoulders and sucked his life obsessively. The young man suddenly felt very cold, hugged his arms and rubbed them twice, and looked up at the sky.
The sky is gloomy and it looks like it's going to rain heavily. It hasn't rained in the past month, no wonder it's going to rain heavily. The weather has become cool and gloomy, no wonder it's so cold.
The young man himself felt cool, but he had no idea how many people present found the air unbearably hot and stuffy.
Chen Yang passed by the village ancestral hall and saw the busy scene and the old stage. On the stage, actors were warming up their voices before they even put on their costumes. The ancestral hall was very old. It was said that it was built during the Republic of China period and has never been repaired. It cannot be repaired because it is too dilapidated. A large piece of the wall has fallen off, and the paint on it has almost all fallen off.
The statues of the two door gods, Shentu and Yulei, which were originally painted with heavy ink and color on the wooden door, have now faded, and a thick layer of dirt has accumulated at the bottom of the wooden door. There is a three or four meter wide stage in the ancestral hall. From the outline, you can see the splendor of its initial construction, but now it has faded a lot due to wind and rain. Someone moved stools under the stage and placed them neatly.
The village has the custom of performing operas for ghosts during the Zhongyuan Festival. The gong is struck at the third watch and ends at the fourth watch. No one can be present when singing for ghosts, except for the actors. The actors must be all men, no women allowed, and all the roles must be complete, without missing a single step. At around 7 or 8 in the evening, someone comes with offerings and spirit tablets, and each household pays for a seat, just as if it were a ticket to buy a seat for their ancestors to watch the opera.
Chen Yang was also tempted, because his grandfather liked to watch operas, and he could sing a few songs when he had nothing to do. But he couldn't go out at night, because if he went out, there would be groups of ghosts following him, and he might even attract some evil spirits.
He could only ask his next-door neighbor to buy a seat for him and bring his grandfather's spirit tablet over to watch the show.
Chen Yang took a step forward, and suddenly there seemed to be a loud shout beside his ear, like the sound of a gong, which gave him a headache. When he looked up again, he saw that the statues of the two door gods, Shentu and Yulei, had suddenly become much taller, glaring at him, and scolding him to get out of here and stop making trouble.
Chen Yang's face suddenly became strange. Because of his special physique and fate, many gods regarded him as a lonely ghost and did not allow him to disturb the world of the living or bless him. As a result, he did not have door gods at home, otherwise he could not even enter his own door.
When he got home and saw that the door was locked, Chen Yang took out the key to open the door and entered the house. As expected, he did not see Grandpa Wu. Then he saw a piece of white paper pressed on the top of the old green refrigerator. On the white paper was written: I have something to do. I will be back later.
Putting the white paper back in place, Chen Yang went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, and placed flowers, fruits and other five offerings on the altar. Then he placed the prepared chicken, duck, fish and other non-vegetarian dishes on another small table, and placed gold ingots, candles, paper people and paper cars on both sides. On the altar were the tablets of the ancestors and Chen Yang's parents and grandfather. He first offered sacrifices to the ancestors and relatives, and then sat beside them and stared at the candlelight.
After a while, Chen Yang took the gold ingots and paper money and burned them in the incineration furnace. As they burned, he said, "Grandpa, Dad, Mom, I'm fine. I've lived safely to the age of sixteen. Grandpa Wu said that sixteen is the most important year in my fate. This year I have a great opportunity. If I catch the opportunity, I can live to eighteen. Eighteen is another great opportunity. If I can catch both opportunities, I won't be affected by my physical condition in the future. Grandpa Wu also said that the opportunity at sixteen and the opportunity at eighteen are tied to one person. I really want to find this person. But I don't want to hurt him. I don't know if I will hurt the other person."
After a pause, Chen Yang picked up paper figures, paper refrigerators, paper color TVs and other items and slowly burned them, sighing as he burned them: "I miss you very much, but I have to wait until I am eighteen years old before I can contact you. I can summon souls now, but I dare not." Because of his physical condition, as long as he summoned souls, he would inevitably summon the most brutal and evil ghosts in hell, so he did not dare to try to contact his parents and grandfather.
"By the way, I passed all the subjects in the final exam this time." Chen Yang was quite proud and happily shared this good news with his family. The town's high school was built on a former mass grave, and there were many wandering ghosts. Although they couldn't hurt Chen Yang, they loved to play tricks on him. Although he knew all the questions on the test paper, the ghosts either covered his eyes or snatched his pen, making it impossible for him to take the exam.
This final exam is related to the class placement for the second year of high school. Chen Yang takes it very seriously and makes sufficient preparations to fight against the ghosts in the school. In the end, he successfully passes the exam. He will not be assigned to a bad class when the class is divided. He can't think of a key class, but at least he can be in an ordinary class. If he is lucky, the teachers of the ordinary class are the same as those of the key class.
Chen Yang knew why the ghosts were making trouble, because they didn't want him to go to a university in another city and leave the town and the village. In the past, when he was in elementary school, middle school, and high school, the ghosts in the village used the same method. It's not that they couldn't bear to let him go, but they didn't want him to leave and then they would never be able to take his body again. If he missed this special body, he didn't know when he would be able to return to the world of the living.
At this time, the voice of the aunt next door came from outside: "Yangyang, your sister-in-law is going to the ancestral hall now, you take out your grandfather's spirit tablet and offerings."
"Okay." Chen Yang responded quickly, put the offerings and grandfather's spirit tablet in the basket, opened the door and walked to the door of the aunt next door. The aunt next door was about five meters away from his house, but the surroundings were relatively quiet, and several households were already empty. The aunt next door was not a relative of his, but just a neighbor, but she was a very good person. Knowing his situation, she not only did not despise him, but also often helped him.
After knocking on the door, the aunt's daughter-in-law next door came out. When she saw Chen Yang, she smiled heartily and said, "Yangyang is quite fast." She glanced at the things in his basket and said, "The tribute is quite rich. Your grandfather must be very happy."
Chen Yang smiled embarrassedly: "Thank you." Then he took out some money from his pocket and handed it to her as the admission fee for the show, but she refused.
The woman said, "No need to give it to me. You can keep it for yourself. You will be in your second year of high school soon. There are still two years before the college entrance examination. Study hard and try to get into college. Keep this money for yourself and replenish your body. You are too thin."
Chen Yang: "This is the entrance fee, please take it."
The woman looked at him, and seeing that he insisted, she had no choice but to say, "Yangyang, you don't know how popular your tribute is, do you?"
Chen Yang was puzzled: "Huh?"
When Chen Yang was sixteen, his face was as white and tender as tofu. He was young and inexperienced, and because of his special experience, he was completely different from the rebellious middle school boys of that period. He was well-behaved and quiet, like a tranquil lake, and was particularly lovable. Suddenly, he showed a puzzled look, which completely touched the woman's heart and aroused her maternal love. She couldn't help pinching Chen Yang's cheek and said, "Yangyang's cooking skills are so good that the fragrance can make us hungry when it wafts to us. Your tribute was divided up by the people in the ancestral hall after you offered it. Many people are scrambling for your tribute. Your tribute is more popular than the entrance fee you gave."
"Really?" Chen Yang didn't quite believe it. His tribute was the same as most people's, just fruits and a piece of braised pork. Nothing special, maybe not as good as other people's chickens and ducks.
The woman nodded affirmatively and suddenly said, "Why don't you sell me this braised pork?"
"If you want, I'll give it to you."
"That's perfect. You can take the money back as payment for the pork." Before Chen Yang could speak, the woman shouted, "It's settled. If you keep nagging, I won't help you."
Chen Yang had no choice but to say, “Thank you.”
The woman smiled and pinched Chen Yang's cheeks: "Go back quickly. It's getting dark soon. If you go back later, I don't know what trouble you will get into."
"Yeah." Chen Yang nodded, and after handing her the basket, he was stuffed with some fruits and candies. He refused to take the fruits, but he was not too strong in refusing the candies. He was a bit reluctant, so he was stuffed with a bag of candies. Chen Yang went home with a bag of candies, his face flushed, and he felt excited and guilty. In the end, the excitement overwhelmed the guilt and he couldn't help but peel a candy and eat it.
My sister-in-law said that the candy was bought from the city, it was very expensive and delicious, Chen Yang, who was holding the candy in his mouth, could prove that it was indeed delicious. His steps became much lighter, and he did not notice that it was completely dark. The sound of gongs and drums in the distance drifted over with the wind. The street lights were in disrepair and dim for many years. The owners of the houses on both sides had moved away and did not turn on the lights.
Therefore, the alley is very dark, and the dark corners are the easiest place to hide those dirty things. Chen Yang heard the footsteps behind him. The sound was very rhythmic, but it felt very strange after listening to it for a long time. After thinking for a while, he realized that the rhythm was the same as his walking rhythm, fast and slow. Chen Yang stopped, and the footsteps behind him also stopped. He looked back and found that there was only his own shadow behind him.
The dirty things hiding in the darkness seemed to be ready to move. Chen Yang quickened his pace to rush back home, so he did not notice that there was an exceptionally clear shadow in the dark. The shadow slowly revealed its ferocious appearance and tried to pounce on Chen Yang.
The door of his house was right in front of him, so Chen Yang changed from walking to running. The shadow behind him was afraid of the door god and no longer hid. It suddenly opened its mouth and let out a terrifying scream and pounced on Chen Yang's back. Chen Yang suddenly turned around and placed the red rope with a special knot wrapped around his ten fingers in front of the evil spirit. The copper coins on the red rope vibrated, making a light "buzzing" sound.
The evil spirit was afraid of the copper coin, and was burned by the yang energy, so it quickly retreated. Chen Yang took the opportunity to run into the house and pulled the rope, and the door god statue hanging on the door fell down immediately, and a golden light suddenly shone, scaring the evil spirit away.
Chen Yang breathed a sigh of relief, then heard a loud shout. He looked up and saw the door gods glaring at him. He twitched his lips. These door gods mistook him for a ghost again. He closed the door without putting away the door god statue.
Because of his physical condition, he would be blocked by the door gods, so he would usually put away the door gods. When he got home, he would put them down. At least with the door gods there, there would be fewer ghosts to harass him at night. Grandpa Wu hadn't come back yet, so Chen Yang put the food back in the refrigerator. Then he obediently took out the Taoist books to prepare, and took a bath at nine o'clock.
When entering the bathroom, I had to be careful to see if there was any dirt hidden inside. After checking it was clean, I pulled down the cinnabar yellow talisman to block the window and started taking a bath. Halfway through the bath, I heard a sound, but the tiny sound was mixed with the sound of the water spraying, so I couldn't hear it clearly.
Chen Yang thought it was Grandpa Wu coming back, so he turned off the shower head and listened carefully for a while, and found that it was coming from the window. He walked over, opened the cinnabar yellow talisman and looked out the window. It was pitch black outside, with nothing. Just as he was about to put the yellow talisman back, a terrifying swollen face suddenly appeared in front of him, violently hitting the window, staring at Chen Yang and making a disgusting gurgling sound of water.
This was the water ghost that followed from under the bridge. Taking advantage of the strong Yin energy during the Ghost Festival, it actually followed all the way. The window was cracked, and Chen Yang immediately pasted the yellow talisman on the window and chanted: "The evil will dissipate, the Tao will last forever, hurry up and obey the command!"
The talisman and the Pure Heaven and Earth Mantra, one of the eight Taoist mantras for exorcising evil spirits, drove away the water ghost outside the window. Chen Yang thought he had driven away the water ghost, but he didn't know that the water ghost was unwilling to leave, but crawled down the window and possessed the young man with a dazed look on his face. This young man did not listen to the advice during the day and insisted on squatting in the place where countless people had died, and was possessed by the ghost.
The water ghost forced the young man to walk towards the door, but the door god statue saw through his disguise. Seeing that the water ghost dared to possess a human body and harm people when the underworld was busy during the Ghost Festival and the ghost messenger had no time to take care of him, the door god with a violent temper beat the water ghost to death.
The young man fainted on the ground, and after waking up for a while, he was in a trance. After a while, he woke up and saw himself in a strange place. He was shocked at first, and found that he was wet and smelled bad. His face changed drastically and he quickly got up and left.
Chen Yang's house has two floors, and the layout makes the house quite compact. He put yellow talismans on the windows of the upper and lower floors and closed the skylight. After checking, he went back to his room to sleep. When he was sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, he was suddenly awakened by a loud noise downstairs. Chen Yang quickly got up, put on his slippers and ran downstairs. When he saw the broken door on the stairs, he was stunned for a moment, and ran towards the ancestor's shrine without thinking.
Passing by the window and glancing out, his scalp suddenly went numb and goose bumps all over his body. He saw that the yellow talisman that was originally used to cover the window to suppress evil spirits was half burned, revealing dense black handprints on the window. Those black handprints were very small, like the handprints of a baby. Chen Yang did not stop, but ran to the shrine of the ancestor and hugged the statue of the ancestor to his chest and silently said: "Ancestor, bless you!"
When he looked down, he found black footprints on the floor. Chen Yang turned on the light and discovered that the black footprints on the floor belonged to a child. The footprints were facing inward, from the door to the shrine to the sofa in the living room.
Chen Yang heard from Grandpa Wu that ghosts have no footprints unless lime is sprinkled on the door. When a ghost touches the lime, black footprints will appear when it walks out. Among all ghosts, fierce ghosts and evil ghosts are the most difficult to deal with. Evil ghosts are mostly vicious criminals, and fierce ghosts are mostly women and children. The former are those who have accumulated a lot of karma and are fierce by nature, and they will become evil ghosts even after death. The latter are those who have too much resentment and will become fierce ghosts after death to continue to harm people.
The black footprints in front of him indicated that a resentful ghost had broken into the house. If the ghost died unjustly before it had lived long enough, it would have a strong resentment and would not know right from wrong, but would only want to return to the world. If you don't offend it, it will generally not harm you, but the ghost has an obsession to return to the world. Even if Chen Yang didn't offend it now, he would be killed because of his physical condition.
Chen Yang walked towards the living room and saw scattered snack packaging bags and toys scattered all over the sofa and table. The footprints stopped under the sofa floor in the living room, but the sofa did not sink, and he did not see any ghost energy.
Where is the little ghost hiding? Chen Yang frowned and carefully looked for the place where the little ghost was hiding. He heard a rustling sound beside his ear, but he couldn't find it. And the sound seemed to be following behind him - Chen Yang was stiff all over. Could it be that the little ghost was lying on his back
Chen Yang quickly ran to the mirror, drew a spell on it and looked behind him. There was nothing behind him, no ghost. He breathed a sigh of relief, and felt that his back was not heavy or painful, so there should be no ghost. Then he became alert again, the ghost was not hiding behind him, and the sound was following him like a shadow...
Chen Yang placed the statue of the ancestor on the table and opened the drawer to reveal the bronze mirror inside. The mirror was facing upwards, just in time to find the ceiling above his head. He fiddled with the mirror and suddenly saw a little ghost with a long black tail lying on the ceiling. The little ghost had a terrifying appearance, with a mouth like a zipper pulled to the ears, full of jagged teeth. The eyes were all white, staring straight at Chen Yang.
Little ghosts are playful and like to play tricks on adults. This little ghost didn't know that Chen Yang had discovered him, so he just crawled around leisurely, leaving black marks on the ceiling, like the marks left by a snail crawling on the ground.
Chen Yang hid the bronze mirror under his palm, hugged the statue of the ancestor, pretended to look for the little ghost tremblingly, but actually walked towards the small door next to the shrine. The small door contained the Taoist robes, magic tools and talismans. Now he couldn't use the red rope and copper coins freely, so he could only use the talismans temporarily.
When he approached the small door, the little ghost suddenly opened its mouth and screamed, then pounced on him. Chen Yang quickly dodged and opened the door. Just as he was about to rush in, he was frightened by several dark shadows that suddenly appeared above his head. He turned on the light in the dark, and the light was bright. The scene in front of him was so horrifying that he was speechless.
I saw countless dried corpses hanging upside down in the small room in front of me. They were tied up with thin wires, like dried pork bacon hanging upside down in a bacon shop. The facial expressions of countless corpses looked like a painting in the art album distributed in junior high school, Munch's "The Scream". The expression in that painting has been spoofed repeatedly, but it looks extremely terrifying when it appears on the faces of the corpses.
There were three empty black holes on their dried faces, two black eye holes and mouths that seemed to be screaming. Their twisted bodies seemed to be imprisoned in hell, tortured and struggling madly. They all turned their heads to look at Chen Yang standing at the door. Both sides were still for a moment, and then this group of dried corpses surged madly.
The little ghost screamed to intimidate the group of corpses, warning them not to rob Chen Yang. It rushed in and dismembered the corpse near the door, but was soon overwhelmed by other corpses, and it was unknown whether it was dismembered.
Chen Yang turned and ran away. The talismans and magic tools in the hut were all destroyed and could not be used at all. The ancestor did not show his spirit at all. He probably thought he was in the same group with the corpses.
Grandpa Wu said that he was not suitable for learning Wu clan Taoism yet, and could only learn the simplest spells to suppress ghosts and exorcise evil spirits for the time being. He could not even summon the ancestors or other heavenly generals and ghost messengers, because they might treat Chen Yang as a ghost and deal with him as soon as they arrived.
The house is no longer safe, and the outside is even less safe. Chen Yang can only hope that Grandpa Wu will come back soon.