C2

He was in a good mood that night, so he didn't have any worries as he went to sleep. In my dreams, I dreamed of my childhood, playing with my childhood friends from home. We chased each other and played around until we arrived at an old cemetery in Lingnan. It was then so small that I didn't know what to be afraid of. At this moment, one of Zhang Shaowu's friends noticed that there was a rock wall about the height of a person embedded in the mountain, some cracks were exposed. He beckoned us over, and out of curiosity you squeezed me and I squeezed each other to peek through the crack in the rock, and then, suddenly empty, the stone wall we were squeezing collapsed and threw us both into the hole. The sudden change gave us a fright, and then we burst into laughter. Everyone was laughing at each other because of our previous predicament. At this time, Zhang Shaowu said, "Look, there's a coffin inside." We were a little scared and wanted to run away. Zhang Shaowu said: "Don't be afraid, my grandfather is a fortune-teller, he can behead monsters and get rid of devils. I have received the teachings of my grandfather, what is a small coffin to be afraid of? Let's see how I take care of him."

Indeed, Zhang Shaowu's grandfather was our village's Mr. Divination. The happy events in the village and the surrounding villages were arranged by him every day, and of course, some of the people who were struck by evil and unclean things would also look for him. We were also skeptical about what Shaowu said, so we just stood there and didn't move. At this time, Zhang Shaowu mustered his courage and swaggered over, just as he reached out to touch the coffin, there was suddenly a creaking sound, it was clearly the sound of the coffin breaking. We could no longer endure the panic in our hearts, all of us screaming as we ran out.

The other partners were also similar to me, probably because Zhang Shaowu went back and told his grandfather that Old Master Zhang went to visit us from head to toe, and told his parents that the child should have bumped into the peace of the person inside, and that he was too scared to leave and lost his soul, so he needed to call his soul.

His parents anxiously asked Old Master Zhang what to do, and Old Master Zhang said: "Soul-calling is easy, but that one inside might not be easy to deal with and it might be a little more troublesome. So, first call out the child's soul to rest the soul tonight, then I'll go take a look at the tomb tomorrow noon and decide how to deal with it." His parents quickly thanked the old man and Old Master Zhang told him to prepare the items needed for the Soul-Calling Ceremony.

Then, he put the magnet under my pillow. He said that it was because the child's soul was small, and he liked to play, and his soul was lighter, so he used a magnet to absorb the soul, and the paper was burned to other ghosts, telling them not to entangle the child's soul, and to return to the body. An incense's worth of time was used to guide the soul, so the soul will smell it. That night, the door to the manor couldn't be closed. It would need to be opened for the entire night, so that they could follow the steps into the house and enter the body of the soulless person. And my father would shout my name from the front door, and my mother would shout my name from the inside, three times. So I worked like this for the whole night, and indeed the next day I was better.

The next day at noon, Old Master Zhang entered the tomb while the yang energy was at its highest. After about two hours, he saw Old Master Zhang walking out with his head lowered and his hands clasped behind his back. Old Master Zhang said in a heavy tone: "There's a rich family's young master buried here, and he went to that room at such a young age. He's here alone, and if he wants to be matched with a new person, that means he's going to have a wedding. It's easy to find a new person, but he'll just need to use paper to tie up the person, and then he'll have to make it difficult for the children to be part of the wedding procession. Sigh …" Everyone was speechless.

In order to remove the hidden danger, everyone reluctantly agreed. Old Master Zhang promised that nothing would happen to the child as long as they did as he said. That day, everyone went to prepare what they needed, and everything was arranged according to the old man's instructions. The furniture, horses, and servants were all tied up with paper, making their faces turn red. It was a very strange sight.

At 12 o'clock that night, we lined up the dowry with the paper and prepared to enter the tomb. Old Master Zhang said, after entering, you must remember not to look up, not to speak, and when you come out, don't turn back. Everyone was scared to death, some of them were crying out loud. Luckily, our parents were waiting for us at the entrance of the tomb to comfort us. They trusted the old man in their hearts, so they were a bit more at ease.

When the time came, we lowered our heads and entered the tomb, not daring to look up. After walking for a short while, Old Master Zhang shouted, "Stop." The crowd stopped, I held the bride in my arms and walked in front, the old man brought me to the coffin, saying that the time had come, please pray to the bride and groom, bow to the heaven and earth, I felt a little lost, at that moment I followed the cry, I unknowingly bowed, two kowtows, I bowed again, the husband and wife bowed, at that moment I turned around and found a pair of feet dangling on the ground, I looked up along my feet, oh my, a pale face appeared in front of me, a top hat, wearing a tang suit, a large red flower on my chest, expressionlessly looking at me, scared to the point of falling back, almost to the ground. We started to walk out, but after a few steps I lost consciousness.

That pale face kept appearing in my mind. It felt really familiar. At this moment, my mind was startled and I let out a scream. So it was him.