Chapter 5: Lighting a lamp to ask a ghost (Part 2)

Since Mrs. Zhou told my mother to wait, my mother had no choice but to wait. After all, she was asking for help, so even if she was anxious, she had to show enough patience and sincerity.

After saying that she would wait, Mrs. Zhou stopped talking, closed her eyes, and then had another tremor. She then fell to the table and it took her a long time to recover.

After a few minutes of rest, Mrs. Zhou walked over to the bed, ignoring my mother’s surprised look, pulled the quilt over her body, and then sat on the bed, her whole body still trembling slightly.

“Uh… Xiu Yun… uh… please make… uh… make some ginger soup… uh… and bring it to me.” Mrs. Zhou’s teeth were chattering when she said this.

My mother replied and immediately went out to make the ginger soup without asking any more questions.

This is the unique kindness and simplicity of the people in the mountains. Although she was worried about her own child, she couldn’t bear to see Mrs. Zhou freezing like this. Besides, wasn’t she also helping herself?

When she pushed open the door and entered the kitchen, she saw a person sitting there. This sudden encounter really scared her, who was already in a state of shock.

When she looked more closely, she saw that it was the second daughter-in-law of the Zhou family sitting in front of the kitchen stove.

“Why are you here? It’s cold, why don’t you go to bed?” After seeing who it was, my mother let out a sigh of relief and greeted the second daughter-in-law.

“I’m cooking on the stove, preparing some ginger tea,” said the second daughter-in-law as she added firewood to the stove.

“Making ginger soup? That’s a coincidence, I’m also making ginger soup for your sister-in-law.” My mother was very surprised, and while marveling, she helped Tuesday’s wife add firewood to the stove.

“I’m making it for my sister-in-law. She used to drink a bowl of ginger soup after she finished her work. I guess she’ll want it again this time, so I’m rushing to make a bowl for her.”

“Oh, you two sisters-in-law have a good relationship.” My mother said sincerely. If that were true, Tuesday’s wife would have nothing to say to Widow Zhou.

“My sister-in-law is not easy. I feel that she is suffering.” The wife of the second wife got up and scooped a ladle of water from the large water tank and poured it into the boiling pot with a loud splash.

My mother didn’t know how to respond to this, so she simply stood up, picked up a kitchen knife, and helped her chop up the old ginger that was on the cutting board.

The two of them worked silently in the kitchen. In a short while, a bowl of boiling ginger soup was ready.

Then my mother carefully carried the ginger soup in a thick porcelain bowl out of the kitchen. My mother’s front feet had just stepped out of the kitchen when my sister-in-law sighed behind her.

“Sister Xiuyun, my sister-in-law is suffering.”

Again, my mother didn’t know what to say, but the next sentence from the daughter-in-law really scared my mother, and she almost dropped the ginger soup in her hand.

“Sometimes I really think my brother hasn’t left, and I don’t know if it’s good or bad to be so attached to my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law’s health is getting worse and worse.”

After saying this, the wife of the second wife turned and went back to the house. I guess she has seen a lot of things, and she felt that it was okay to say it to relieve her anger.

But my mother? It was hard to steady the ginger soup in her hands, and she stood there for a long time before she recovered. She thought about the behavior of Widow Zhou in the west wing and then thought about what the wife said on Tuesday, and she already believed it to be true.

Women are more emotional than men. Compared to men, such things are terrifying to talk about, but they also touch a softer part of their hearts. If it weren’t for the deep affection between the two of them, how could they stay together even though they were separated by Yin and Yang?

Thinking about this, my mother felt more sympathy for Mrs. Zhou, and her eyes softened. When she entered the gloomy west wing with the ginger soup, she wasn’t so afraid.

Carrying the ginger soup, my mother fed it to Widow Zhou, bite by bite. Perhaps it was the change in her mood, but my mother’s movements were softer. After feeding the ginger soup, my mother couldn’t help but grab Widow Zhou’s hand to warm it up, but when she did, she found it cold and creepy.

The widow broke free of my mother’s hand and shook her head. Her eyes clearly told my mother that it didn’t matter to her, and that she was willing to do it.

My mother saw something, and Mrs. Zhou knew it. This time, the matter came up quickly, and Mrs. Zhou was not concerned about anything when she was doing it. You have to know that in the past, when she was doing business, she always went into the house alone.

If my mother didn’t see anything, Mrs. Zhou herself couldn’t believe it.

The two women, at this time, had some tacit understanding.

Pointing to the stool, Mrs. Zhou gestured for my mother to sit over. She turned her head and mumbled something on the bed, probably discussing something important. Mrs. Zhou had a lot of facial expressions, spoke quickly, and even made some body movements.

My mother waited patiently, because from what she had just heard from the Tuesday wife, this scene looked to her like a couple discussing something. The poor thing, they were separated by more than 100,000 miles.

Looking at the two of them, my mother thought of the deep affection she and my father had for each other. She wondered if one of them would make the same choice if the other one died first. Thinking about it, my mother actually started to cry.

Only my mother could react like this. If my father had been there, he would have been shocked and thought it was weird and scary.

Just as my mother was feeling sad and nostalgic, Mrs. Zhou also stopped her muttering, and then she suddenly opened her eyes again, threw off her quilt, and sat down across the table from my mother.

This time, without any nonsense, Mrs. Zhou said to my mother, “I am Mrs. Zhou.”

Although I was prepared for the fact that Zhou Da was still here, when I suddenly heard Zhou Da say that she was Zhou Da, my mother was still so scared that she immediately stood up and sat down again after a long time.

Could it be that she was possessed by a ghost? My mother, who had never left the countryside, had never heard of anything supernatural, but she had heard a lot about ghosts and spirits, and she knew that ghosts could possess people.

But the widow in front of me, no, I should say, Zhou Da, didn’t have the slightest intention of talking nonsense with my mother. She said straight to the point, “I don’t understand your son’s situation at all. As soon as you brought him in, I saw a group of very fierce people following him in. Do you understand what it is?”

Hearing this, my mother was scared and pale. This one was scary enough, but what about the group that followed?

The thought of me being haunted by a group of ghosts day and night, and the thought of my family living with a group of ghosts day and night, made my mother feel like she was going crazy. She lost her mind and started to cry out, “Old Chen, Old Chen…”

At this point, she needed the man of the house to make a decision.

But just as she finished speaking, Zhou Da, who was standing in front of her, said loudly, “Don’t shout. Men have a lot of yang energy, and I can’t take this kind of impact.”

Fortunately, my father was in his room on Tuesday, and I don’t think he heard my mother’s shaky, low voice.

However, after Zhou Da shouted, my mother finally regained some composure and was not so afraid of Zhou Da. He could not stand the impact of a man’s yang energy, so it seems that ghosts are not omnipotent.

In other words, the son is hopeful.

Seeing that my mother had calmed down, Zhou Da continued without waiting for my mother to ask: “Don’t blame me. I’ve been in the world for so long that I’m already very weak. When I saw you holding your son and came in, I knew that this was not a good thing. I didn’t want to cause trouble. But my wife begged me.”

At this point, Zhou Da sighed and muttered, “It’s useless to ask me to do good deeds. It’s useless to accumulate good deeds with me and Yuehong.”

Zhou Da’s statement was actually quite sad, but after hearing about the ghosts, my mother didn’t care about the details of Zhou Da and the widow’s affairs. She just wanted Zhou Da to continue talking and explain everything.

She believed that if there was really no way out, the widow and her husband would not have been muttering for so long, and they looked like they had something to say to themselves.

I believe that my mother had already completely calmed down at this point, and only then did she have such analytical ability. Therefore, never underestimate the wisdom of women and their greater adaptability to adversity than men.

As expected, Zhou Da was very pleased with my mother’s calmness at this time and continued to talk to himself: “They threatened me. I originally wanted to help your son look at his head to see if there was any dead air, but when I looked at it, they threatened me with their fangs and teeth. They are lonely ghosts with a lot of resentment, and those who remain in the world of the living are not the same as me. Not to mention a group, even if I meet one of them, I have to walk around it. So, I have no choice.”

“So what should I do?” Hearing this, my mother finally asked, “Zhou Da’s description of the things that are haunting her son is so fierce, how can my mother stand it?”

“Listen to me finish,” Zhou Da waved his hand and continued, “Ghost eyes are different from human eyes. No matter how capable I am, I can still see clearly a person’s fortune. For example, if a person is going to have good things happen to him, there will be a red light on his crown. I can see such people from afar and I have to hide. If a person has no blessings or misfortunes, there will be nothing on his crown. If a person is in trouble, there must be a gray aura. If it is a black aura, it is a death aura, and if it is not, it will be a serious illness. I just want to do my part and help you see if your son has a death aura, and then tell you about the situation that has something entangled with him. But I can’t see your son. I feel very hazy. I want to ask you to hold him and look more carefully, but I was threatened. I looked at him, but I saw a little yellow light on your son’s head. I really don’t understand this.

Zhou Da said all this in one breath, and it was as if he had explained the situation to my mother. However, when I listened to what he was saying, I realized that he had no solution at all. My mother’s question was a waste of time.

“Is that all my son can do?” My mother couldn’t help but feel sad. She had originally believed that Zhou Dayou had a solution, but the cruel reality made her afraid to entertain such fantasies.

But she was unwilling to accept this, and her strong unwillingness made her ask one more question.

“This…” Mrs. Zhou’s face showed hesitation, and it was clear that Zhou Da was hesitating.

My mother saw that there was a chance, and immediately looked at Zhou Da with pleading and hopeful eyes.