It was already past four in the afternoon, and the sun outside was still scorching. I placed Du Feng in the middle of the courtyard, and Du Niang came out of the room, saying, "The room used to be very dry, but today, for some reason, it's so damp."
I smiled and didn't say anything, she couldn't see the drowned ghost, so she didn't know what was going on.
My grandfather walked around the room and obviously saw the woman at the door, but he remained silent. He handed me a roll of white thread and said, "Use this to tie up the child's limbs!"
I took the white thread and with Du Niang's help, I tied Du Feng up tightly. My grandfather went into the kitchen and came back with a kitchen knife and a bowl.
Although I didn't know what my grandfather was up to, he must have had his own intentions. Du Niang, seeing this, hurriedly stood in front of Du Feng and asked anxiously, "Yin Da-ge, what are you trying to do?"
My grandfather said, "A person has three souls and seven spirits, but your grandson's seven spirits have been taken away by the drowned ghost. The female ghost is inside the room. If we don't retrieve the seven spirits soon, your child won't survive the night!"
Du Niang looked at the room in panic and asked, "You mean the ghost is inside the room?"
"Yes! The seven spirits have been taken by the female ghost, and the person's vitality has left the body, so it looks like this." Without further ado, my grandfather squatted down, cut Du Feng's middle finger, squeezed out seven drops of blood, and put them in the bowl. Then he inserted the kitchen knife into the space above Du Feng's head and said to me, "Let's go, come with me to the place where the incident happened."
After asking Du Niang to take care of Du Feng, we walked out, and then I asked, "Grandfather, the drowned ghost was just inside the room, why didn't you take care of her?"
My grandfather said in a deep voice, "People have a lifespan, and so do ghosts. It's best to let them leave on their own. If you act forcibly, it's easy to damage your own karma."
After thinking for a moment, I asked again, "I'm puzzled, if it was the drowned ghost looking for a substitute, why not let Du Feng drown in the river? Why go to such lengths to take away his soul?"
"Who said this was the drowned ghost looking for a substitute?" My grandfather stopped in his tracks and looked at me.
I was taken aback and hastily asked, "Could it be not looking for a substitute?"
My grandfather continued to walk forward and said, "No, this female ghost doesn't want to reincarnate, she wants to draw out Du Feng's three souls and seven spirits, and then possess him."
"Possession? Ghost possession?" I blurted out.
My grandfather nodded, and told me to quicken my pace without saying another word.
I was quite familiar with this place, and in no time, we arrived at the edge of the small river.
I hadn't been here for years, and both sides of the river were full of tall reeds, and the water was extremely muddy. Nevertheless, even so, I could still see several young teenagers playing and laughing in the water.
We appeared, and those children hastily got ashore, put on their clothes and hurriedly left.
Grandpa placed the bowl containing seven drops of Du Feng's blood on the ground, glanced at the time, took out a joss stick from the wooden box he carried with him, and lit it. He instructed me, "Go and find seven willow twigs, they should be newly grown, and of the same length."
Although there were many willow trees along the river, these swimming children were very naughty, and many twigs had already been pulled clean. It was only after walking a long way that I finally saw a dense willow tree.
The willow tree hung over the small river with thick grass around it, and the water surface was shiny green, looking very unpleasant. After searching around, I found no long willow twigs, so I had to push aside the grass and climb up the tree trunk.
After searching for a while, I finally found seven new willow twigs. However, when I was about to break the seventh one, the calm water suddenly rippled.
I quickly stopped and watched the water surface vigilantly. The ripples slowly expanded on the water surface, and a few bubbles also emerged.
At the moment the bubbles disappeared, the water surface suddenly surged as if boiling. It scared me a lot, so I hurriedly broke the seventh willow twigs and slid down to the ground.
But just as I was about to land, the boiling water suddenly stopped. Before I could catch my breath, a woman's head abruptly floated up from the water.
This was a head that had been swollen by water bubbles, the jet-black long hair was standing on the top of the head like straw, and the pale face, clearly bitten by a fish, had revealed the terrifying white bones.
I was so startled that I didn't even have time to exclaim. The head suddenly turned around on the water surface and finally faced me the next moment.
Clutching the willow twigs, I didn't know how to react for a moment. The head suddenly moved abruptly, and then showed me a very hideous smile.
I screamed 'wow' and quickly turned and ran away.
The sound of the wind whooshed past my ears, and before I had run a few meters, I saw Grandpa walking towards me with a worried look on his face.
Seeing Grandpa, I suddenly felt emboldened and told him, panting, "Grandpa, I saw a woman's head floating on the water just now."
Grandpa's face changed, and he hurriedly asked, "Where?"
"Right where I was breaking the willow twigs!"
As soon as I finished speaking, Grandpa asked me to take him there. We walked back quickly, but when we stood in the original place, there was nothing on the water surface at all.
"It was right there!"
I pointed to the river and was about to turn around when a cold shout suddenly came from not far away: "Mingyang, quickly crouch down!"
I was startled to hear Grandpa's voice. He was standing right behind me, but his voice sounded like it was coming from five meters away. But it was not the time to think too much. Without any delay, I quickly crouched down.
In the blink of an eye, with a splash, I looked up again and saw the water surface shaking violently. When I turned around, Grandpa was walking towards me with a strained expression on his face.
"Come here quickly!" Grandpa beckoned to me, and without asking my doubts, I quickly got up and ran over.
Seeing that I was safe, Grandpa relaxed and said, "Thank goodness I arrived in time, otherwise the female ghost would have dragged you into the water!"
I sighed in relief and hurriedly asked him what had just happened. Grandpa said he had asked me to pick the willow twigs and, after waiting for a long time without seeing me return, he came looking for me along the way.
But when he saw me, he found that I was standing beside the drowning ghost, and this female ghost had already reached out her hands to drag me into the small river.
I was so frightened for a while, just now I was actually covered by the ghost who drowned. Fortunately, my grandfather's timely cold shout saved me, otherwise I would have been tied up by that female ghost and sunk to the bottom of the water by now.
Wiping off the cold sweat, I looked at my grandfather with a frightened heart. He looked up at the sky and said, "It's time," then quickly took the willow branches from my hand and walked ahead.