After my second uncle stopped speaking, I didn't bother him. The fact that he spoke so much today was already a miracle. Right now, my second uncle felt like Pandora's box, slowly unfolding its secrets for me to peek into.
I turned my attention back to the crowd in the ancestral graveyard. Lately, the Lin family village had become very lively. It was the talk of the town in the surrounding villages. My grandfather, Lin Laome, my third grandfather, and Lin Erda were all topics of discussion over tea and after meals. But to be honest, there weren't many doubts about the Lin family village, even now many people, like me, were skeptical about these so-called ghostly matters. So even though Lin Sanshui and the fat guy were busy, the villagers did not form the circle properly, and the old ladies began to dance and sing within the circle. Lin Sanshui couldn't even say anything, and in the end found me and said, "Xiaofan, I'm leaving it to you here. I've brought these dogs to the grave to feed the mosquitoes. I'm going to sing and dance; why are you angry? Can’t we go back now?"
Lin Sanshui looked for me because of my status in the villagers' eyes—being a university student and also a disciple of the feng shui master Xu Lin. They would accept whatever I said and not listen to the fat guy. Why? Because judging by appearances, the fat guy was miles away from Xu Lin's saintly appearance. Lin Sanshui found me, and I couldn't refuse him. I had to say, this was something I should do. The moment I came out, someone asked me, "Xiaofan, what mystical event is this? Why isn't Master Xu here?"
"He has something to do; this fat guy is my senior, and he's my master's senior brother, he's got a lot of skills. Just listen to him." I said.
"Okay, we'll listen to you, Xiaofan. For your sake, I'll bear this person's bizarre appearance. If you didn't say so, I really couldn't believe he's also a master." The other person said.
This person, who had been bothering Lin Sanshui and the fat guy, was now handled easily after I said a few words. Lin Sanshui didn’t feel uncomfortable about this but was even somewhat pleased, and I figured he probably saw me as a prospective son-in-law.
Even though I said I didn’t understand this so-called feng shui art, after reading so many novels and watching movies, I understood that the so-called method in Daoist arts was very particular about location, formation, and most importantly, the time. It's like many people are familiar with the saying 'time is everything.'
The village was waiting for the fat guy's 'time.' Nobody knew what time that would be. On such a hot summer day, people were getting tired, and the wild grass and mosquitoes in the cemetery were getting to them. By the time it was past nine or ten o'clock, some were feeling sleepy, and some were getting bitten by mosquitoes and had had enough. The crowd was getting restless. Some were asking, "What are we doing here waiting? Are we going to let everyone get sucked dry by mosquitoes? Why are we even waiting? Let's go back now." This time, even my presence wasn’t making much of a difference. Lin Sanshui scolded a few times and nearly got into a fight with two younger men. The current village head was nowhere near as good as the previous production team leader. It can even be said that the village head was worse than a cadre?
“Sanshui, the only way to keep the villagers waiting now is to bring Lin Erda over here and tell everyone what's going on and how important it is to get Lin Erda here. Why don't you tell the villagers what's happening? Sometimes the masses need to be informed, don't they?” I said.
Lin Sanshui went to ask the fat guy and now, the fat guy, who previously looked despicable, had changed his appearance to a certain extent. He said, "What kind of person are you, Sanshui, that the people don't listen to you when you speak? Go, bring that poor kid over here."
Lin Sanshui called a few young people who lived nearby and were willing to listen to him, as well as me, to Lin Erda's house. We lifted Erda, now as weak as a thread, and brought him over. Bai Zhenzhu also knew that today was Erda's big day. She called some relatives to cook at home, and the villagers came out to help. They didn't ask for payment, but they did ask for a hearty meal. That was the custom.
When we carried Lin Erda to the cemetery, Fatty walked over to us and said, "Once inside the circle, don't stop. No matter what the people carrying him may hear, don't be afraid. Wherever he falls, he can't be lifted, so we can only stop at the center of the formation."
After saying that, Fatty walked in front of us and took out a small copper bell from his pocket. As he walked, he shook it and chanted, "Spirits of the underworld, make way for the little ghost."
In the late evening, the sound of the small bell was particularly eerie. I didn't see any little ghosts make way, but the villagers automatically made way. By now, the villagers had been informed by Lin Sanshui that they had come to help Lin Erda survive. Tonight, if they didn't help, Erda would not wake up. The villagers were not afraid, but rather very cooperative.
At this point, I didn't care about whether Fatty was truthful or not. He called for the little ghost to make way, but I couldn't hear and wasn't sure if there were really little ghosts.
A few young people and I carried Lin Erda through the opening made by the villagers. As soon as I stepped in, I heard Fatty's voice in my ear. At that moment, he was dead serious, and his tone was grave: "Remember what I just said! No matter what sounds you hear, don't be afraid! You must not let the body touch the ground!"
As he spoke, the small bell in his hand shook more violently. As we entered the circle, we heard "sounds we shouldn't have heard."
It was the sound of gentle weeping, it was Lin Erda's voice!
I was fine, having gone through so much, I had become strong and was not scared. But Lin Sanshui's relatives both seemed nervous, and one of them asked, "What do we do, Xiaofan?"
At this point, I was afraid they might abandon Lin Erda and run, so I quickly reassured them, "Don't worry, even if it's a ghost, it's just Erda. Why should we be afraid of him?"
As I looked at Lin Erda's closed lips and serene face, I looked at the villagers. Their faces showed no sign of anything unusual. I couldn't help but wonder, "Could only we few hear Lin Erda's crying?"
The thought of Lin Erda's soul crying helplessly in a corner of the circle made Fatty seem somewhat agreeable to me. Although he had a bad temper, at least he was now helping my good friend.
As Fatty walked while shaking the bell, the closer we got to the center of the circle, the more intense Lin Erda's crying became. It seemed that what Uncle Er had said about Lin Erda being most afraid of us was true.
Fatty walked to the center of the circle and spread out a piece of black cloth on the ground. He directed us, "Put him here."
As soon as we could finally put down Erda, the young men rushed over, almost throwing him on the black cloth and then running away. The moment they put Erda down, his weeping strangely stopped!
It was only then that I realized my own back was covered in cold sweat. "Liu-uncle, how long do we have to wait to perform the ritual?" I asked Fatty.
"Don't call me Liu-uncle. I'm only eighteen years old, this has to be done at the moment when the yin and yang cross over at midnight. Young man, I hear you once used colored rooster blood to expel an evil spirit?" Fatty asked me.
This was not a secret, so I nodded and said, "It happened by chance. I learned it from TV."
"Hey, there is rooster blood on TV, but I don't remember seeing colored rooster blood being used," Fatty said thoughtfully, and then he wrapped Erda with the black cloth. He said, "At midnight, the gates of the underworld open. Young man, I think you have some courage. Lin Sanshui said you had once used colored rooster blood to expel an evil spirit. A bottle of wine allowed me to help you with this. You've hit the jackpot!" Fatty's words made him seem more profound. It turned out the man was just full of complaints. I quickly handed him a cigarette, but Fatty didn't have the air of a highbrow person. He took the cigarette from me, lit it, took a puff, and then flicked it away, exclaiming, "What the hell is this, a cigarette?"
After that, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and threw it to me, saying, "This was given to me by a former vice-governor. Give it a try."
There was no label on the pack of cigarettes Fatty gave me. When I opened it, I almost exclaimed in shock. Would you believe it? It was actually a panda!
I took out my Nokia phone and checked the time. It was already past 10 p.m., and as the summer nights were dark, time seemed to be passing quickly. The sky had turned dark around 8 p.m., and we only had a few hours until midnight, the time when the gates of the underworld open. I went to chat with the villagers to calm their restlessness, as the mosquitoes in the fields were out to get us.
I thought a couple of hours would pass easily, but that's when things took a turn. A convoy of more than ten police cars came, with dozens of policemen descending and surrounding us.
Lin Sanshui was the village head, and he rushed over to find the fat policeman called Wang-geat who had come that day. He said, "Wang-ge, at this late hour, why have the brothers come here?"
The fat policeman called Wang-ge looked grim and winked at Lin Sanshui, indicating that the woman beside him was his superior. This implied, "Sanshui, this is my superior."
I looked at the woman, who looked at me too. She seemed young and quite pretty, and in her uniform, she exuded a dignified air. She stood still without speaking and, after giving me a glance, looked at the villagers who were now encircled.
At this moment, Lin Xiaoqiang stepped out from the group of policemen and said to the policewoman, "Officer, it's this person and the village head. They are making it hard to send Lin Erda to the hospital. Instead, they are practising feudal superstition here. The patient has been tormented by them. Is this not considered murder?!"