Chapter 4: Lighting the lamp to ask the ghost (Part 1)

Fortunately, my father was a younger generation, so he didn’t break the taboo, but how could Grandpa Zhou feel comfortable with a man kneeling before him?

On Tuesday, my father was already being pulled by Zhou Er, and even Zhou Laotai had put her little foot up and ran over, holding my father and saying, “My dear, you can’t do this.”

“Uncle Zhou, my husband said that a man’s knees have gold, and they should not be kneeled on lightly, but I really have no choice.” As he said this, my father wiped away a tear, and my mother followed suit. It was clear that they had made up their minds to ask Widow Zhou for help once today.

“Alas, I don’t care. Let my eldest daughter-in-law decide for herself.” Grandpa Zhou sighed, called out to Grandma Zhou, and then the two of them turned and went to the bedroom.

This was actually Grandpa Zhou helping my father. After all, Widow Zhou had lost her husband, and the Zhou family pitied this daughter-in-law. How could they tell Widow Zhou to do this and that? That would be bullying an orphaned widow. Having said that, Grandpa Zhou had already done his best.

In addition to my father’s kneeling, the reason for this was that my father mentioned my late grandfather, who had a close friendship with Grandpa Zhou when he was young. The reason was that my grandfather had once saved Grandpa Zhou.

There are many snakes in the mountains. One time, when Mr. Zhou was working in the field, my grandfather happened to pass by and saw with his own eyes a black-banded krait (a kind of poisonous snake) behind Mr. Zhou preparing to attack him. Normally, poisonous snakes don’t attack people unless someone steps on them or gets close to their eggs.

At that time, my grandfather did not have time to warn Mr. Zhou, so he just shoveled it with a hoe. Mr. Zhou heard the noise and looked back to see it was my grandfather. He looked down at the ground following my grandfather’s eyes and suddenly broke into a cold sweat. The mabwa that had been cut in half by the hoe was still writhing on the ground, obviously not dead.

The people in the mountains remember favors. When my father mentioned this, Grandpa Zhou couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. So he was willing to take the risk for the whole family.

When he saw that the old man had given in on Tuesday, he didn’t object either. He just said, “Old Chen, you get up first. My sister-in-law will decide what to do. It’s not a good idea for you to kneel like this. I’m going out first.”

After that, Tuesday also left, and we were left alone in the main room with Mrs. Zhou.

At this point, kneeling would be bad luck for Mrs. Zhou. My mother stood up and grabbed my father, saying, “Old Chen, get up. It’s not good to kneel anymore.”

My father got up as he was told, wiped his tears with his sleeve, but my mother was much calmer. She looked at Widow Zhou and said, “Yuehong (the name of Widow Zhou), we are both mothers. Look at my son. He has been tortured like this for just over a month. My heart as a mother is like cutting meat every day.”

All mothers share the same feelings. When my mother said this, Mrs. Zhou immediately felt the same way. She quickly waved her hand and said with a burp, “Well… Xiu Yun… well… don’t you… well… say anymore… I actually… well… want to help… well… it’s just that I was worried… well… too much before, and tonight… well… I’ll help you… a little.”

When Mrs. Zhou said this, my parents were overjoyed. They didn’t quite understand what it meant to cross over to the other side, but they just wanted Mrs. Zhou to start the ritual right away. They thought that whatever magic she used would be the ritual.

A few minutes later, my mother took me into the west wing while my father had to wait outside.

There is a rule for Zhou’s ability to cross over to the other side: no men are allowed to enter the west wing. If there is a problem, only female relatives can ask. Sometimes, even if Zhou takes a woman into the west wing, she will let her out after a glance.

This is quite different from the abilities of other mediums.

In this way, my mother finally entered the over-the-top mysterious West Wing of Widow Zhou.

As soon as she entered the room, my mother’s first reaction was that it was dark, so dark that she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Then it was cold. This is normal in winter, but this kind of cooling is different from the usual cold. It is a kind of cold that is more psychological, making people’s backs straighten up and goose bumps appear.

“Yuehong, I don’t feel comfortable. It’s like I’m being stared at.” At this point, my mother’s only hope was to rely on Widow Zhou. She tightly held onto the corner of Widow Zhou’s clothes and refused to leave the doorway of the west wing.

Of course, the main reason was that the room was too dark and my mother couldn’t see anything.

“Don’t be afraid… I’ll go light the lamp…” Widow Zhou said, still hiccuping.

My mother had to let go of Mrs. Zhou again. It was hard to wait in the oppressive darkness. Every minute seemed like an eternity. The room felt so uncomfortable to my mother that she would have turned around and left if it were not for me. She was not a brave person.

But for my sake, my mother was willing to take the risk. In the absence of my father, my mother firmly believed that she was my only hope.

Fortunately, Mrs. Zhou was very familiar with the house. After a while, there was finally light in the house. It turned out that Mrs. Zhou had lit an oil lamp.

The light from the lamp was very dim, but it was enough for my mother to see the layout of the room. There were no windows in the room, and thick black cloth was hung all around the walls, for reasons unknown.

The furnishings were also very simple. The original furniture had probably been moved out a long time ago, leaving only a bed, a table, and two stools.

There were some food on the table, but I didn’t know who it was for. When I looked closer, I saw a brazier on the floor with some ashes in it. My mother knew at once that this was the remains of burning paper money.

Next to the food was a radish, already wilted, with the remains of a few incense sticks.

The only thing that made people feel a little warmer was the bed, which was surprisingly neat and tidy, with a simple and clean white background with blue flowers.

At this time, Mrs. Zhou was sitting on a stool next to the table, beckoning to my mother, indicating that she should go over.

My mother took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and walked over to her, sitting down on the only remaining stool in the room, the one opposite Mrs. Zhou.

“Uh… Xiu Yun… uh… today you saw… uh… what… uh… you can’t say… the only thing you can say… uh… is what I’ll… uh… tell you later… remember?” Mrs. Zhou said to my mother very seriously. Although the sound of her hiccups made Mrs. Zhou’s words sound uncomfortable and somewhat comical, it did not affect the severity of Mrs. Zhou’s words.

My mother hurriedly nodded in agreement. The people in the village originally valued their promises, and if it weren’t for something that happened later, my mother would never have told anyone what happened in the house.

Moreover, telling someone about it was also what Mrs. Zhou wanted. This is a later story, so I won’t go into it now.

After my mother agreed, Mrs. Zhou closed her eyes. My mother didn’t know what Mrs. Zhou was doing, so she just waited quietly.

After a short while, my mother saw that Mrs. Zhou’s expression had changed. She was smiling, a very gentle smile that was unique to women. However, in this strange environment, under the dim lighting, this smile made my mother’s hair stand on end.

What was she laughing at? My mother thought that even if she gave her ten old hens that laid eggs, she wouldn’t be able to laugh.

Then, Mrs. Zhou frowned again, with a look of surprise on the corners of her eyes. Then, with a strange emphasis, she began to mumble something, and the speed of her speech was so fast that my mother couldn’t hear what Mrs. Zhou was saying at all.

The strangest thing about this whole process was that Mrs. Zhou kept her eyes closed, and after she started laughing, her head kept twisting in the other direction.

My mother is a simple country woman, and this scene had already scared her to the point of goose bumps all over her body. I don’t know how much courage she had to sit here and watch all this weirdness.

Finally, Mrs. Zhou stopped muttering and her expression relaxed. Then, Mrs. Zhou shuddered and turned her head. She looked at my mother and opened her eyes.

The moment she opened her eyes, my mother was a little stunned. My mother was familiar with Mrs. Zhou from the same village, but she was stunned because she felt that the moment Mrs. Zhou opened her eyes, the person in front of her didn’t look like Mrs. Zhou herself.

She said it was strange, but my mother didn’t think it was strange. Why not? My mother couldn’t say why.

“Are you here to see what happened to your son?” Widow Zhou spoke up. Strangely, she no longer hiccupped. Her speech was slow, but her words were clear. It was just that her voice was strange. It was clearly Widow Zhou’s voice, but it sounded like someone else was talking.

My mother couldn’t describe it. If she had to, she would say it was like holding someone else’s hand to swat a mosquito.

Moreover, didn’t Mrs. Zhou always know that she wanted to see how her son was doing?

But how could my mother dare to argue with this? People who know ‘magic’ are all very magical people in her eyes, and they must not be disrespectful. Besides, her son’s situation is more important. After hearing Mrs. Zhou ask this way, my mother quickly nodded.

“Bring your son over, I’ll take a look first,” said Mrs. Zhou in a strange tone of voice.

My mother was overjoyed and quickly stood up, holding me in her arms, and walked up to Mrs. Zhou, who was in front of her, and opened the swaddling clothes.

At this moment, something strange happened. Just as Mrs. Zhou’s eyes fell on my little face, she suddenly screamed, closed her eyes tightly, and shouted, “Take the baby away! Take the baby away!”

My mother was scared by this sudden turn of events, and her heart tightened. Then she sank again. If even Mrs. Zhou was like this, what kind of terrible thing had my son gotten into?

But when I looked up at Mrs. Zhou, I felt sorry for her. She was so scared that she couldn’t even open her eyes, and her face was pale.

How could my mother dare to neglect her? She quickly took me back to my seat.

“Yuehong, my child…” Worried about my condition, my mother asked as soon as she sat down.

“Take the baby out first, then come back in,” said Mrs. Zhou, ignoring my mother’s question. She just kept asking my mother to take me out, then walked to the bed, squatted down, and looked under the bed as if she was looking for something.

My mother was worried and curious, but she dared not neglect me, so she answered, picked me up and left the west wing.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw my father pacing back and forth in the courtyard, looking worried. As soon as my mother came out, my father hurried up to meet her: “Xiu Yun, is our son being taken care of?”

“No, I can’t explain it right now. You take your son and go to talk to Mrs. Zhou on Tuesday. Don’t stand in the yard and let the child freeze. I have to go back in.” My mother didn’t have time to say anything. She hurried back inside to ask Mrs. Zhou what was going on, gave my father a few words of advice, and then walked to the west wing.

My father was holding me and really wanted to ask again, but in the end he just opened his mouth and said nothing, and then turned to look for Tuesday.

When she entered the west wing, my mother saw that Mrs. Zhou was kneeling on the ground burning paper money, muttering to herself as she burned it. It turned out that she had just gone under the bed to get the paper money.

My mother went back to the table and sat down again. This time, Mrs. Zhou’s words were no longer in the strange tone of the beginning, so my mother could hear clearly what Mrs. Zhou was saying.

I don’t remember the exact words, but the general meaning was clear.

“I’m offering you some paper money. Take it and don’t come back here again. Don’t cause trouble. We’re all in the same boat. It’s not easy for me…” In short, Mrs. Zhou kept repeating these things, and the more my mother listened, the more she felt a chill down her spine.

My mother was not stupid. She was obviously talking to the things. How could Mrs. Zhou be on the same side as those things?

What was even more terrifying was that after Mrs. Zhou finished talking, she started mumbling in a language that my mother couldn’t understand. As soon as she finished speaking, the room started to swirl with wind, and it took a total of 17 or 18 swirls to finally stop.

My mother had never seen anything like this before. The house had thick curtains and no windows, so where did the wind come from?

Tears were in my mother’s eyes, she was really scared, but at the same time she tried hard to hold back, she felt that she couldn’t be afraid like this for the sake of her child.

When the wind died down, Mrs. Zhou finally sat back down on her stool. She looked at my mother and said, “You wait.”