At that moment, I was truly frightened. The myna above my head kept calling out, its voice very clear. They say birds are spiritually perceptive and can see gods and ghosts, and today, I seemed to have encountered one!
"Don't be afraid, I've already told Master Han about your situation, and he said it's not a big problem," Fatty reassured me after seeing my fright.
I nodded nervously and entered the inner hall.
In the inner hall, the first thing I saw was a large ancestral offering table covered in thick ash. The entire table was about a meter wide and had a wooden strip with some unknown nails on it placed in front. On the two sides of the hall, there were two hanging scrolls, both portraying stern-looking men, but at that time, I didn't know who they were.
In front of the ancestral table were statues of the Three Pure Ones, which I knew. In the Daoist tradition of China, the Three Pure Ones are Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, and Daode Tianzun.
Sitting next to the inner hall was an old man, wearing a blue canvas jacket and army green cloth shoes, with white hair and smoking a cigarette. He looked about sixty or seventy years old.
"Master Han, my friend's here. Can you take a look?"
The chubby man politely stepped forward to greet us. Master Han nodded and glanced back at me. We made eye contact, but somehow it felt like he wasn't looking at me.
It was a subtle feeling. Even though our eyes met, it seemed as if he could see someone else through my eyes.
"Guawazi, you've gotten into trouble," said Master Han with a hint of Sichuan accent in his tone. I quickly nodded and said, "Master, please help me. It seems like I've been entangled by wandering spirits."
"Even my pet bird at home could see it!" he shook his head, then reached into the nearby box and took out two red candles, placing them on the iron nails I had seen earlier, and then lit them.
"First, kowtow to the ancestors."
He waved his hand, and I hurriedly nodded, running up three steps in two and grabbing a bundle of incense from the box, lit it, and bowed repeatedly in front of the three immortal idols. Then I inserted the incense into the incense ash.
"Sit down."
Master Han patted the long stool beside him, and I nodded and sat down. I don't know why, but sitting next to Master Han made me feel very uneasy. It felt as if my whole body was uncomfortably bound with ropes, unable to break free, and it was extremely uncomfortable.
"You dreamt about those two ghosts, how did they bully you?"
Master Han lit a cigarette and, without looking at me, casually asked as he stared at the incense I had lit.
I recounted the whole incident, but then heard Master Han shake his head and say, "Poor child, look at the incense you lit. It's burning intermittently, not good."
After hearing this, I became increasingly nervous and asked urgently, "Is there a way to get rid of these two wandering spirits?"
But Master Han didn't answer, instead, he kept smoking and watching the incense burn silently for a while before saying, "There's a lot of resentment, not willing to leave."
Finishing his words, he stood up and took some yellow paper from behind the cupboard and burned it in a copper basin. I stared at the copper basin and saw the yellow paper burn very quickly, the burning speed was exceptionally fast, giving me the feeling as if someone was deliberately snatching these yellow papers.
"You are quite brave. Take your money and leave."
Master Han shook his head, and then took out another stack of yellow paper and burned it in the copper basin. This time, the burning speed did not slow down at all. Suddenly, the call of a mynah bird came from outside the hall, "It's coming out, it's coming out..."
I didn't know what was coming out, but a gust of wind blew in, blowing out the candles on the table in an instant. The light bulb above us flickered, and the atmosphere around us became eerie and sinister. I felt a chill in my heart and couldn't help but silently recite, "Amitabha," but then I thought this was in front of the three immortal idols, so I hastily changed it to "Buddha of Infinite Light."
The lighting in the room was poor, but Master Han seemed very calm as he smoked, and he smiled and said, "Take your money and leave quickly. I'll see you off. If you don't leave, it will be difficult."
His words were always ambiguous, but I could tell that they weren't meant for me. After a while, the situation did not improve at all, and I don't know if I was imagining it or if the wind outside was too strong. It seemed as if I could hear laughter again, which scared me and the chubby man into tightening our necks and not daring to make a sound.
The strong wind blew and the eerie laughter continued. The hanging scrolls on both sides suddenly began fluttering in the wind, as if there were invisible threads pulling them.
I heard the laughter in the wind abruptly stop when the two scrolls started to float, then suddenly a 'boom' sound came from the wooden door outside the courtyard, as if something had hit the door!
"Ah..."
After finishing his cigarette, Master Han sighed lightly and then walked to the cabinet next to him, took out a small wooden box that had collected some dust, and from it took out a pair of scissors. The scissors were small, only about half the size of my thumb, and had a red string tied to them.
Master Han held the scissors in his hand and raised them, muttering something under his breath. In no time, the strong wind suddenly stopped. The scroll paintings on both walls also fell back to their original positions.
Me and Fatty stood back, and it seemed that we could vaguely see two blurry figures kneeling in front of the altar, but they were too blurry. I rubbed my eyes, and the two figures disappeared again.
Master Han held two white paper figurines in his hand, walked to the bronze basin and said, "Reincarnate."
He then lit the paper figurines, and I saw those two paper figurines eerily standing up in the bronze basin!
These two paper figurines, one looked like a man, and the other looked like a woman. The man should correspond to the child, and the woman should correspond to the old woman.
The papers should have burned to ashes quickly, but at the moment, they seemed to be on the verge of extinguishing, as if two wandering spirits were struggling to leave.
Suddenly, Master Han's eyes widened, and with a flick of the scissors, I heard a faint wail near my ear. In a blink of an eye, the two paper pieces in the bronze basin burned clean in the flames.
Suddenly, I shivered, and for no reason, sweat began to pour from my body. In about ten seconds, my entire vest was completely wet, and my hair was drenched as if I had taken a shower. But I felt very comfortable, as if something heavy had disappeared from my shoulders and waist.
"It's okay!"
Master Han put away the scissors, lit a cigarette, and then re-lit the candle, sitting on a bench, smiling at me.
Fatty pushed me from behind, and I hurriedly stepped forward, bowing and saying, "Thank you, Master Han."
As I spoke, I took out about ten yuan from my pocket, which was all the money I had at the time. However, Master Han smiled and waved his hand, saying, "No need, kid. Have you ever wondered why you've been attracting unclean things recently?"
His question puzzled me. Before I went to the Mosuo tribe, I had never encountered such things, and I had simply treated the ghost stories of the older generation as anecdotes. But since encountering the female ghost in the Mosuo tribe, one misfortune after another had been happening, all revolving around me. It was a lie to say that I wasn't anxious.
"I think someone is messing with you behind your back."
At the time, I didn't understand Master Han's words. Even if I did, I couldn't make sense of it. I was just a poor kid, with no money or looks, and I didn't dare dream of having a girlfriend. Who would bother with me for no reason?
"In a while, my senior brother will come from Beijing. I'll have him take a look. No need for money, just try to walk the right path in the future. Consider this a gift from me."
Master Han took out a bell from the cabinet, which was tied with yellow paper inscribed with drawings similar to symbols using cinnabar.
"Carry it with you, it will keep you safe. Okay, it's getting late, you two should go back."
Actually, Master Han and his senior brother would later help me a lot, but that's another story. At that moment, I was satisfied after getting rid of the two wandering spirits, and I left with the bell that Master Han had given me, walking with Fatty.
On the bus back, Fatty and I discussed and planned to visit the cemetery tomorrow and investigate whether there were any signs of earthbound spirits!