On a narrow mountain path, two processions met.
The funeral procession heading into the mountains blew suonas and swayed their heads, paper money flying everywhere. Accompanied by bouts of dry wailing, they looked rather sinister amid the swirling snow.
The procession heading out of the mountains consisted entirely of paper people. Rouge colored their cheeks, and their eyes were pitch-black. They had human shapes but no human likeness.
They, too, played wind instruments and drums, but wore white clothes and white flowers. Gusts of yin wind swirled around them, sweeping up the snow and forming hideous faces that danced across the sky, obscuring it for thousands of meters around.
Meeting on the narrow path, neither side yielded.
At a thought from Wang Quan, the Palace Maidens carried his eight-bearer sedan chair straight to the front.
At the same time, an eight-bearer sedan chair in the departing procession also moved straight to the front.
The two eight-bearer sedan chairs faced each other.
Wang Quan spoke. "Friends, whether you're human or anomalies, please make way!"
"I am Flower-Scatter, a Daoist who specializes in burying beings that might become anomalies!"
"Do not delay the appointed hour and let the deceased become an anomaly. If that happens, neither of us will have an easy time."
Anomalies competed with other anomalies, too.
So there was nothing wrong with Wang Quan's argument.
A sweet, coy voice came from the opposite sedan chair. "Flower-Scatter Daoist, you were the one who buried me on West Accumulation Mountain!"
"Back then, I gained consciousness inside the coffin and saw you and two Daoist nuns patting your chests, laying hands over your consciences, and solemnly vowing you wouldn't let me become an anomaly. Yet I became one anyway!"
"Heehee... why was that?"
Wang Quan's mouth twitched. Had he encountered an aggrieved