Chapter 5: Lighting a Lamp to Question a Ghost (2)

Since Widow Zhou had told my mother to wait, all she could do was wait. After all, she was asking someone else for help. No matter how anxious she felt inside, she still had to show enough patience and sincerity.

After saying that, Widow Zhou stopped speaking. Instead, she closed her eyes, her whole body shuddered again, then slumped onto the table. It took quite a while before she recovered.

After resting for a few minutes, Widow Zhou walked to the bed. Ignoring my mother’s astonished gaze, she pulled over a quilt and wrapped herself in it, then sat on the bed, her body still trembling slightly.

“Uh... Xiuyun... uh... could you please... uh... make a bowl of ginger soup... uh... and bring it to me?” Widow Zhou’s teeth were chattering as she spoke.

My mother answered and immediately went out to make the ginger soup without asking a single question.

This was the unique kindness and simplicity of mountain folk. Although she was worried about her child, she could not bear to see Widow Zhou frozen like this. Besides, wasn’t the woman helping her?

Pushing open the kitchen door, my mother found someone sitting inside. The sudden sight startled her badly, especially since she was already shaken to the core.

But upon closer inspection, wasn’t the person sitting in front of the large stove none other than Zhou Er’s wife?

“What are you doing here? It’s cold out, shouldn’t you be asleep already?” After recognizing her, my mother let out a sigh of relief and greeted her.

“I’m tending the stove, getting some water boiled so I can make a bit of ginger soup,” Zhou Er’s wife replied casually while adding firewood to the stove.

“Ginger soup? What a coincidence. I’m making ginger soup for your sister-in-law too.” My mother was quite surprised. As she spoke, she helped add firewood to the stove.

“It is for my sister-in-law. After she finishes her work, she often needs a bowl of ginger soup. I figured she’d want one this time too, so I hurried over to make some.”

“Hehe, you sisters-in-law really have a good relationship.” My mother spoke sincerely. If that was truly the case, then Zhou Er’s wife really had nothing but kindness toward Widow Zhou.

“My sister-in-law has had a hard life. I think she’s suffered a lot.” Zhou Er’s wife stood up, scooped a ladle of water from the large water vat, and poured it into the blazing hot pot with a loud Splash.

My mother did not know how to respond to that, so she simply stood up, picked up a kitchen knife, and helped chop the old ginger on the cutting board.

The two women worked in silence. Before long, a steaming bowl of ginger soup was ready.

My mother carried the ginger soup in a coarse porcelain bowl and carefully left the kitchen. Zhou Er’s wife followed right behind her. Just as my mother’s front foot crossed the threshold, Zhou Er’s wife let out a faint sigh behind her.

“Big Sister Xiuyun, my sister-in-law has suffered so much.”

That same sentence again. My mother really did not know what to say. But what Zhou Er’s wife said next startled her so badly that she nearly spilled the ginger soup she was holding.

“Sometimes I really feel like my eldest brother never left. I just don’t know whether it’s good or bad for him to keep staying with my sister-in-law like this. Her health is getting worse and worse.”

After saying that, Zhou Er’s wife turned around and went back to her room. She had probably seen such things so many times that speaking about them was simply a way to ease the weight in her heart.

But my mother?

After finally steadying the bowl of ginger soup, she stood frozen for quite some time before recovering her senses. Thinking of Widow Zhou’s behavior in the west side room and then recalling Zhou Er’s wife’s words, she already believed seven or eight tenths of it.

Women tended to be more emotional. Compared to men, things like this might sound terrifying, but they also touched the softer parts of their hearts. If a husband and wife did not deeply love each other, how could they still wish to remain together after being separated by yin and yang?

Thinking of that, my mother felt even more sympathy for Widow Zhou. Her gaze softened as well. When she carried the ginger soup back into that gloomy west side room, she no longer felt quite so afraid.

Holding the ginger soup, my mother fed it to Widow Zhou spoonful by spoonful. Perhaps because her state of mind had changed, her movements had become gentler. After Widow Zhou finished the soup, my mother could not help grabbing her hand, wanting to warm it a little. But the moment she touched it, she discovered it was frighteningly cold.

Widow Zhou pulled her hand free and shook her head. Her eyes clearly told my mother that it did not matter. She was willing to endure it.

My mother had already figured some things out, and Widow Zhou knew it. This matter had come so suddenly that Widow Zhou had no time to worry about hiding anything. In the past, whenever she conducted her “business,” she always entered the room alone first.

If my mother still had not noticed anything after all this, even Widow Zhou herself would not have believed it.

At that moment, the two women shared an unspoken understanding.

Pointing at a stool, Widow Zhou signaled for my mother to sit down. Turning her head, she began muttering again toward the bed. Apparently, she was discussing something important. Her expressions were animated, her speech rapid, and she even used hand gestures.

My mother waited patiently. Because of what Zhou Er’s wife had said earlier, the scene looked very much like a husband and wife discussing some important matter. The pitiful thing was that the distance between them was far greater than a hundred thousand li.

Looking at the couple, my mother thought of how deeply she and my father loved each other. If one of them died first, would they make the same choice? As she thought about it, tears began to fall.

Only my mother could react this way. If it had been my father, with his thick nerves, he would probably have felt nothing but eerie terror.

Just as my mother was lost in sorrow and reflection, Widow Zhou stopped muttering. Her body suddenly shook again. Then she opened her eyes, threw off the quilt, and sat down across the table from my mother.

This time, Widow Zhou wasted no words.

The moment she opened her mouth, she said to my mother, “I am Zhou Da.”

Although my mother had already prepared herself for the possibility that Zhou Da was still here, hearing Widow Zhou suddenly claim to be Zhou Da still terrified her. She jumped to her feet and only sat down again after a long while.

Could this be ghost possession?

My mother had rarely left the countryside in her life. She had little worldly experience, but she had heard plenty of stories about spirits and ghosts. She knew at least a little about ghost possession.

But the person before her, Widow Zhou, no, Zhou Da, had no interest in wasting time.

Getting straight to the point, he said, “I can’t figure out what’s going on with your child. The moment you carried him in, I saw a whole group of vicious fellow travelers come in with him. You understand what that means, right?”

The moment she heard this, my mother’s face turned deathly pale. One ghost was terrifying enough. What was she supposed to do if there was a whole group?

The thought of me being haunted day and night by a crowd of ghosts, the thought of our home being filled with ghosts day and night, nearly drove her mad. She immediately lost all composure and began calling out in a trembling voice, “Old Chen, Old Chen...”

At that moment, she needed the man of the house to make a decision.

But as soon as her voice fell, Zhou Da shouted loudly, “Don’t call him. Men carry strong yang energy. I can’t withstand that kind of clash.”

Fortunately, my father was in Zhou Er’s room at the time and probably had not heard my mother’s trembling, subdued call.

Still, Zhou Da’s shout helped my mother recover a bit of her composure. She was no longer quite as frightened of him. If even the clash of a man’s yang energy could trouble him, then ghosts were clearly not all-powerful.

In other words, there was still hope for her son.

Seeing that my mother had calmed down, Zhou Da continued without waiting for her questions.

“Don’t blame me. I’ve stayed in the world of the living for so long that I’m already extremely weak. The moment I saw you carrying your son in, I knew this would be difficult to deal with. I didn’t want to get involved in trouble. But my wife kept begging me.”

At that, Zhou Da sighed and muttered, “Asking me to accumulate virtue won’t help. The way Yuehong and I are, no amount of virtue will do us any good.”

What Zhou Da said was actually rather tragic. But after hearing about the group of ghosts, my mother had no attention left for his situation with Widow Zhou. All she wanted was for him to keep talking and explain everything clearly.

She believed that if there were truly no solution, then Widow Zhou and Zhou Da would not have spent so long discussing things, nor would they seem to have something important to tell her.

By now, my mother had completely regained her composure. Only then could she analyze things so clearly. Never underestimate a woman’s wisdom, nor her greater ability to adapt to adversity.

As expected, Zhou Da seemed satisfied with my mother’s calmness and continued on his own.

“They threatened me. Originally, I wanted to check your son’s crown of the head and see whether there was deathly energy around him. But the moment I tried, they bared their teeth and threatened me. They’re wandering ghosts with heavy resentment. They stayed behind in the world of the living, unlike me. Forget a whole group, even if it were just one of them, I’d have to go around it if I met it. So there’s nothing I can do.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” My mother finally asked. The things haunting her son sounded so ferocious that she could no longer hold back.

“Let me finish.” Zhou Da waved his hand and continued. “Ghost eyes aren’t the same as human eyes. I don’t have much ability, but I can clearly see a person’s fortune. For example, if someone is about to encounter good fortune, there will be red light above their crown. If I spot a person like that from far away, I have to avoid them. If a person has neither blessings nor disasters coming, then there’s nothing above their crown. If a person is facing misfortune, there’ll definitely be gray energy. If it’s black energy, that’s deathly energy. Even if they don’t die, they’ll suffer a serious illness. I wanted to do my duty and check whether your son had deathly energy, then tell you that something was attached to him. But I couldn’t see him clearly. Everything felt hazy. I wanted you to bring him closer so I could get a better look, but they threatened me. Still, during that one glance, I saw a faint yellow light above your son’s head. Now that, I truly don’t understand.”

In one breath, Zhou Da explained everything, making the situation clear to my mother.

Unfortunately, from the sound of it, he had no solution at all. My mother’s question had been for nothing.

“So my son is just doomed to stay like this?” Grief surged up within her. She had always believed Zhou Da possessed a solution, but the cruel reality left her unable to maintain that hope.

Yet she was unwilling to accept it, deeply unwilling.

And so my mother asked one more question.

“Well...” Hesitation appeared on Widow Zhou’s face. Clearly, it was Zhou Da who was hesitating.