Miscarriage, Kuman Thong

Gu Song looked somewhat despondent, as though he was hesitating over whether to tell the truth.

After a few seconds, Gu Song gritted his teeth and shook his head. "It has nothing to do with me."

Gu Song sounded certain.

"It should be the child of you and your wife, right?" I asked.

Duan Hongbin had told me that. He said he sensed an intricate karmic connection between the child and Gu Song.

Though I was not quite sure what he meant by that karmic connection, I had never doubted his judgment.

The woman beside Xu Qiuyan glanced at me. More precisely, the female ghost glanced at me, her eyes carrying a trace of surprise. Then she looked toward where Duan Hongbin stood, and Duan Hongbin met her gaze.

But I did not linger on the two of them. I looked at Gu Song.

Gu Song bit his lip until it turned slightly pale.

Finally, he nodded. "That's right. He was the child Xiao Tang and I had."

Gu Song and his wife, Xie Xiaotang, had been married for nearly ten years without having children. They had sought medical treatment everywhere for it, but the tests showed that both of them were perfectly healthy. That made it rather strange.

Later, a friend told them that the Four-Faced Buddha at a temple in Thailand was very efficacious, so they went there and sincerely prayed and made a wish for a child.

Not long after they returned, Xie Xiaotang actually became pregnant. The couple was overjoyed.

Once Gu Song knew his wife was pregnant, he took even greater care of her. He rarely let Xie Xiaotang exert herself or tire herself out, wanting her to focus on carrying the baby safely.

As Xie Xiaotang's belly grew larger by the day, the two of them were filled with anticipation for the little one's arrival. They had even chosen a name for the child: Gu Tian, meaning that the Gu family was welcoming a new addition.

They also spent a great deal of money on baby clothes and toys, and even prepared a crib.

All they had to do was wait for the child to be born safely.

But misfortune struck without warning.

No matter how carefully Gu Song looked after Xie Xiaotang, an accident still happened.

One day, when the fetus was over eight months along, Xie Xiaotang craved sour jujubes. Unable to wait for Gu Song to bring some home from work, she decided to buy some at the supermarket in their residential complex herself. But as she went down the steps outside their building, she slipped and fell. Severe bleeding caused a miscarriage.

The child was gone just like that. What they found even harder to accept was that the doctor said Xie Xiaotang would never be able to have children again. That meant the couple could never have another child.

After spending several days in the hospital, they returned home and saw everything they had carefully prepared for the child. Their hearts were filled with grief—and, of course, unwillingness to accept it.

The friend who had previously suggested they go to Thailand to pray for a child came to visit them in person after learning what had happened. When she heard that Xie Xiaotang could never bear children again, she hesitated for a long time before asking whether Gu Song and Xie Xiaotang wanted to keep the child.

Her words gave them a glimmer of hope, but Gu Song was a University Professor. He believed in science. The child was already dead—how could they possibly keep him?

That friend said there was a master in Thailand named Chacha who could use special methods to keep the child by their side. The only catch was that the child could exist only in the form of a soul.

Duan Hongbin whispered in my ear, "Kuman Thong!"

I froze slightly. I had no idea what a Kuman Thong was.

Gu Song continued, "The moment I heard that, I thought of reports I'd read before. There were sorcerers in Thailand who specialized in raising little ghosts, turning infants into Kuman Thong and selling them. Once I thought of that, I didn't want to do it. First, I didn't believe in ghosts or gods. Second, even if such a thing really existed, I didn't want our child to exist in that way."

I finally understood. A Kuman Thong was a raised little ghost.

"But Xiao Tang insisted on doing it. I knew this accident had hit her hard, and she even blamed herself. She said that if it had not been for her willfulness, none of this would have happened. So after hearing what our friend said, she found a way to retrieve our child from the hospital, then had our friend send her to Thailand through special channels."

The child he spoke of was the stillborn infant who had never seen the light of day. It would have been impossible to take a dead infant out of the country through legal channels, so they had used special channels. To put it bluntly, it was no different from smuggling.

Gu Song was worried about her, so he went with her.

Gu Song's feelings for his wife were truly moving. Most families faced with something like this would have blamed and complained, but after the accident, he had not said a single word of reproach to his wife. Instead, he had comforted her all along.

Although he opposed turning their child into a Kuman Thong, he agreed for his wife's sake and accompanied her to Thailand.

The trip went smoothly. Though they spent quite a bit of money, Xie Xiaotang felt it was worth it.

When Gu Song and Xie Xiaotang took the ceramic jar handed to them by the master, they felt something strange. The feeling was subtle, as though the child had not really died and was still beside them.

That night, in their hotel room, they actually saw the child. He looked like a newborn baby, except his skin was deathly pale, without the slightest hint of color. His eyes, on the other hand, carried a faint blood-red tint. He grinned at them and called out, "Mommy, Mommy!"

Gu Song was startled, and his understanding of the world was completely overturned.

He had his doubts. Was this truly their child? It was clearly a Ghost Infant.

Xie Xiaotang was somewhat frightened at first too, but thinking that it was her own child, she gathered her courage and picked him up. Strangely enough, once she held him, the blood-red color faded from the Ghost Infant's eyes, replaced by a pair of clear black-and-white eyes.

This made Xie Xiaotang's maternal instincts surge all at once. She told Gu Song to get some formula. Gu Song found it all too strange and did not want Xie Xiaotang to stay alone with the Ghost Infant, but he could not persuade her otherwise, so he got up and went to a supermarket near the hotel.

When he returned to the hotel room, he was stunned. He saw Xie Xiaotang sitting on the bed with her hand raised, the tip of her middle finger pressed to the baby's mouth. Blood dripped from her fingertip into the baby's mouth, one drop at a time. The baby had his eyes closed and looked as though he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Gu Song panicked and rushed forward to grab Xie Xiaotang's hand. "What are you doing?"

"He said he doesn't drink formula. He wants to drink my blood." Xie Xiaotang's face was peaceful and full of motherly tenderness.

Gu Song wanted to say more, but the Ghost Infant suddenly opened his eyes and glared straight at him. Gu Song jumped, but worried for his wife, he still stepped forward and snatched up the Ghost Infant. The Ghost Infant did not struggle and burst into tears with a "Waa!" Xie Xiaotang grew furious, snatched the Ghost Infant back, and looked at Gu Song with open hostility.

Hearing this gave me goosebumps.

Just as Xie Xiaotang was about to lose her temper, the Ghost Infant suddenly smiled at Gu Song and called out, "Daddy, Daddy!"

Gu Song's tightly wound nerves instantly relaxed. He thought of all the hopes he and Xie Xiaotang had held for their child's future, and all the baby supplies they had bought for their home. Deep down, he wanted a child of his own too. That one word, "Daddy," broke through his defenses.

That same "Daddy" also made the hostility disappear from Xie Xiaotang's eyes.

"You hurt him." With that, Xie Xiaotang took the child back from Gu Song's hands. "Oh, baby, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid!"

Xu Qiuyan listened with wide eyes. "What happened after that?"

"After that, we came home. Gradually, we got used to this kind of life. He could move about freely in this house, and as time passed, he seemed to slowly grow up. Sometimes I thought that maybe this was not so bad. Though he couldn't be like other normal children, he could stay by our side forever."

"After you brought him back, nothing strange happened?" Xu Qiuyan asked.

"No. He never left this house. Sometimes at night, he would be mischievous and make little noises, but he never truly affected our lives. It was just that over the years, we never invited guests into our home because we were afraid of frightening them. To outsiders, Xiao Tang and I seemed no different from before."

At this point, Gu Song hesitated, as though trying to decide whether he should say it.

"If there's something you want to say, just say it," I said.

Gu Song gave a bitter smile. "Didn't I tell you that half a month ago, Xiao Tang felt someone was following her? Ever since then, this little ghost has been restless and agitated. He always makes noise at night, and he keeps crawling over to that window to look outside. The way he stares out the window is terrifying. His eyes turn blood-red, and he bares his teeth like he could go berserk at any moment."