Grandpa had mixed feelings. The yellow weasels had done our Old Wu Family a great kindness. Without them, I would never have lived this long. Even if none of those calamities had killed me, I would have starved to death. But Grandpa had also watched the Zhang brothers grow up. As children, they had crowded around him, calling him Uncle. Although the five Zhang brothers had bullied his son, it had only been petty squabbling, the sort of thing a few words could settle. They would all have to keep living in the same village and seeing each other every day. Grandpa did not want them dead, either. This time, he felt torn, and even a little resentful toward the yellow weasels, because he thought they had gone too far. All the youngest Zhang brother had done was slap me. He had been in the wrong, but that hardly warranted taking his life.
Yet the yellow weasel had traded its life for the youngest Zhang brother's, and now it would not even leave his corpse alone. It was still causing trouble.
Then again, the second Zhang brother had also abused the yellow weasel's corpse. In a way, this was repayment in kind.
Respect the dead-that was an old saying. Whatever had happened, Grandpa still felt that a human life was worth more than a yellow weasel's.
Afraid Grandpa might cause some serious trouble, Granny Liu hurriedly told him, "Brother Wu, tell the Zhang family to bring a few chickens over."
"What if it asks for something else after eating the chickens?" Grandpa asked.
"Don't you worry. This old woman knows what she's doing." Granny Lin gave Grandpa a mysterious wink with her one eye.
Left with no choice, Grandpa went outside the courtyard and passed the message to the Zhang family. The eldest Zhang brother immediately ran home to fetch their chickens.
As a Spirit Medium, Granny Liu was no stranger to yellow weasels.
Yellow weasels were among the most extraordinary creatures of the five great Immortals.
In fact, Granny Liu had encountered yellow weasel possessions several times before.
Yellow weasel possessions happened from time to time in our area, most often during funeral vigils. The deceased's devoted children and grandchildren had to keep watch overnight in the mourning tent. Letting any furry animal near the corpse was particularly taboo, because it could cause the dead to rise.
This so-called rising of the dead did not mean someone had become a hopping corpse that chased people around. It meant an animal had possessed the body. Yellow weasels in particular loved possessing human bodies and demanding things from the living. Once a yellow weasel possessed a dead person, it would control the corpse, sit cross-legged on the coffin, and state its demands.
If its demands were not met, it would make the corpse roll around on the ground and refuse to leave the body. It was extremely difficult to deal with.
Whenever something like this happened, people from all the surrounding villages would invite Granny Liu over to drive the yellow weasel out of the corpse.
Force was no way to handle a yellow weasel possessing the dead. If everyone acted like Grandpa and went up to give it a couple of hard slaps, the weasel would not only damage the corpse, but might even use it to hurt the living.
Usually, before a Spirit Medium could be brought in, the grieving children and grandchildren could only plead with the yellow weasel and try to satisfy every demand it made.
Most of the time, yellow weasels only wanted food. They particularly liked chickens, ducks, and other domestic animals. If given what they wanted, they would leave once they had eaten and drunk their fill. The dead person would then fall back onto the coffin and lie motionless again.
But there were exceptions, such as the yellow weasel before them now. Food was not its only goal. What it ultimately wanted was to throw the Zhang family into turmoil and bring ruin and death upon them.
At that point, a Spirit Medium had to be called in to negotiate with the yellow weasel.
It was like haggling at a market. While negotiating, the Spirit Medium also had to gauge the yellow weasel's strength and work out how to deal with it.
There was a method to judging a yellow weasel's strength, too.
It involved analyzing the things the weasel demanded.
Generally, yellow weasels with greater cultivation demanded more valuable things, sometimes even medicinal herbs such as old mountain ginseng. These could help them advance their cultivation.
Those with weaker cultivation usually asked for food: live chickens and ducks, or even live fish.
Some yellow weasels had such little cultivation that they could not even speak human language. They could only try to describe what they wanted. They would imitate a hen, going "Cluck, cluck... cluck, cluck..." without stopping. People would then work out that they wanted an old hen to eat.
In short, yellow weasels with little cultivation could only describe what they wanted through sounds and gestures. Whether anyone understood depended on how perceptive the person dealing with them was.
For the moment, Granny Liu could not judge the cultivation of the yellow weasel possessing the youngest Zhang brother. She could only meet its initial demand and see whether there was any room to ease the situation.
Granny Liu worshipped a Chang Immortal-a snake that had cultivated into a spirit-so she had few qualms about dealing with yellow weasels.
Before long, the eldest Zhang brother returned carrying several chickens and handed them to Grandpa, but he did not dare enter the courtyard. Grandpa had no choice but to take the old hens inside and give them to Granny Liu.
Grandpa did not hurry away. He was curious to see what Granny Liu would do next.
But what he saw next nearly made him vomit.
After taking the chickens, Granny Liu handed them straight to the youngest Zhang brother, who sat cross-legged on the bed.
"Second Master Yellow, we've brought your chickens. Once you've eaten and drunk your fill, will you leave?" Granny Liu tossed the chickens onto the bed as she spoke.
"Heh heh... we'll talk once I'm full." The youngest Zhang brother grabbed one of the flapping hens and brought it straight to his mouth. He bit into its neck, killing it on the spot, then gulped down its blood.
Watching the youngest Zhang brother devour raw flesh and blood with chicken feathers filling his mouth, Grandpa felt a chill of revulsion. Nausea churned in his stomach.
Grandpa had been on the battlefield and seen plenty of bloody scenes, but the sight of a dead man eating a live chicken still unnerved him.
Before long, the youngest Zhang brother had torn apart and devoured an entire hen raw.
Then he reached out, grabbed another old hen, and brought it to his mouth.
At some point, Granny Liu had lit her pipe and begun puffing away, her expression shifting uncertainly.
The yellow weasel had asked for food right away and could speak human language. Its cultivation did not seem particularly high.
Watching the youngest Zhang brother eat with relish, Granny Liu prepared to act.
After taking several deep draws from her pipe, Granny Liu suddenly stood and blew a mouthful of smoke into the youngest Zhang brother's face.
The next instant, she brought the bowl of her pipe down hard on his head.
The youngest Zhang brother, still gnawing on the live chicken, lurched violently. A strange, piercing cry rose from his throat.
In a flash, Granny Liu reached out and seized him by the neck. Her eyes turned an eerie green again.
"How dare you, Second Yellow! This Immortal stands before you. Leave at once!"
Granny Liu's voice had changed, too. It now sounded like that of a very young woman.
With his neck clamped in her grip, the youngest Zhang brother's eyes rolled sharply upward. His whole body shook as though he were having an epileptic fit, and he shrieked, "I won't leave... I won't leave..."
"If you won't leave, this Immortal will send you on your way!" Granny Liu tapped some ash out of her pipe bowl, dipped a finger into it, and began drawing on the youngest Zhang brother's forehead.
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