Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts - Chapter 3

Is this a dream? Sitting on the bus heading home, I felt a whirlwind of emotions. Ever since that little girl entered my body last night, I blacked out. When I got up the next morning, I took the bus and rushed home directly. There’s an old fortune-teller in my hometown who’s incredibly accurate, and I figured I’d ask him to take a look at me, see what’s going on.

My hometown is in the Changshou district of Chongqing, but not the main urban area. It’s a small town nearby called Du Zhou. Du Zhou is a mid-sized town where I grew up before moving to Chongqing’s city center for high school, so I only come back about twice a year.

It was 3 p.m. by the time I arrived back in Du Zhou. Stepping off the bus, I was hit by a wave of heat. I originally planned to find the old fortune-teller right away, but then I thought, “I haven’t seen my mom in a while,” so I decided to go home first and see her. I could always look for the fortune-teller in the evening.

I hadn’t been home in almost half a year. Even though it’s just an hour’s drive from Chongqing to Changshou, I’d always found it a hassle and hadn’t bothered coming back.

My family lives in an old building from the 90s on the fifth floor. When I opened the door, I saw my mom lighting incense in front of a statue on the northern wall. My mom’s name is Wang Lianhui. Even though she’s almost forty, she looks quite young. But there’s one thing about her – she’s extremely superstitious. I remember as a kid, I once saw a woman in white standing by our door. Not sure if she was a ghost or what, but I told my mom about it, and she immediately knelt down in front of that statue, chanting something with a very anxious look on her face. When we moved to this town, she even brought the statue with her.

I tiptoed over and looked at the statue behind my mom. It’s odd, not like Brother Xiang’s Fortune God statue or any other deity you’d see in legends. If anything, it looked more like an evil spirit.

The statue is about twenty centimeters tall, with eyes resembling a monkey’s, lips as red as cinnabar, mirror-like eyes, and long horns sprouting from its head. Its skin is a bluish color, with wings of the same hue on its back. Its hands and feet are yellow, some parts with a tail like a leopard’s, and it’s holding an axe.

This statue gave off an unsettling feeling. My mom hadn’t realized I was back and was standing there with her eyes closed, seemingly meditating. An idea popped into my head—I snuck up behind her and, in a spooky voice, whispered, “Give me back my life~”

I was just messing around, trying to have some fun.

Even though my mom is superstitious, she’s usually quite bold. But this time, she was so startled that she jumped up, sweat beading on her forehead. Her pupils contracted as she anxiously looked around. The strangest part was that it seemed like she couldn’t even see me. Her lips had turned pale, and her whole body was trembling.

“Mom, Mom, what’s wrong?” I realized then that maybe I’d gone too far. Her eyes began to glaze over, rolling back to reveal only the whites, like the ghosts you see in horror movies. My heart pounded—I’d just had a ghost encounter yesterday, could this be happening again today?

Then, my mom reached out and grabbed my neck, pushing me down to the floor. I hadn’t even processed it yet, and there I was, flat on the ground. Somehow, despite her being only about 165 cm and usually very slim, her strength was way beyond a normal person’s now. I couldn’t break free. I kept calling her name, but she didn’t respond; her grip just kept getting tighter.

I was staring right at that creepy statue, and I swear, it looked like its eyes were glowing red, as if it was watching me.

I didn’t have time to think much. The pressure on my neck was growing, and I could barely breathe. Fortunately, the front door was still open, and at that moment, the old fortune-teller from our town suddenly burst in.

This guy’s name is Li Shigao, probably in his sixties. People see him as a bit of a crazy old man, always muttering about places being haunted or how someone was born with a life of wealth and fortune. We all just see him as a superstitious old fool.

He came in wearing a black vest and shorts, flip-flops on his feet, and holding a big palm fan. He’d probably just been out cooling himself off. He didn’t panic when he saw what was happening and didn’t try to pull my mom off me. Honestly, he probably couldn’t have with his old bones. Instead, he went straight to the statue, bit his right index finger, and pressed it against the statue’s forehead, shouting, “Urgent as the law! Behave yourself!”

The moment he finished chanting, my mom collapsed to the floor, fainting, while I gasped for air, barely surviving.

The fortune-teller walked over, looked at me, and said, “Kid, still alive? If so, go lay your mom on the bed and make her some ginger tea. Later, come by my place to get a talisman, stick it on that statue, to settle it down.”

“Old man, what the heck is that thing?” I rubbed my sore neck, still shaken. I didn’t want to believe in ghosts, but after what happened with that little girl yesterday and now this, my neck still throbbing, I was starting to wonder.

The fortune-teller didn’t want to explain much, though. He came over, kicked me lightly, and said, “What’s a brat like you need to know for? Just do as I say. Oh, and now that you’re back, stay away from that statue, and don’t go sneaking any of its offerings, got it?”

His words reminded me—when I was about thirteen or fourteen, I was hungry and saw some pears on the statue’s table, so I ate one. The next day, I fell seriously ill and ended up in the hospital for half a month. I later heard that the fortune-teller had come to take a look and gave me some talisman water to drink, and that’s when I got better. It was so long ago that I hadn’t thought much of it, but now that he brought it up, I started to wonder. What exactly is this statue? Is it really some sort of spirit? Could ghosts actually exist?

T/L Notes:

1.) Fortune God: Chinese believes that there is a god specially handling wealth and fortune, worship it would bring wealth and fortune for the family.

2.) Urgent as the law: Originally as 急急如律令, it is a way that make the spell execute as soon as it casted.