Three Days Left

On the very night Ma Laosan's wife was buried, her corpse had already broken out of its coffin. I knew because she had come to our house around midnight.

Back then, Nine Mountains Village was desperately poor. The village had no electricity, and almost every household relied on candles and kerosene lamps.

Even those were too precious for the villagers to use freely, so people generally went to bed early.

In the middle of the night, while my parents were sound asleep, they suddenly heard a rhythmic banging on their bedroom window: three long knocks and one short.

They were exhausted after a full day of farmwork. At first, they assumed it was the wind or a bat flying into the window and paid it no mind.

But after a while, the knocking continued, growing more urgent, still in the same pattern: three long knocks and one short.

Half asleep, Dad got up and opened the window to see what was knocking outside.

The moment he opened it, a stench of decay hit him full in the face. Then he saw a swollen face covered in livid blotches-the face of Ma Laosan's dead wife.

The corners of her mouth still held the same eerie smile she had worn when she died.

The sight jolted Dad fully awake. He let out a scream of sheer terror and fell backward onto the floor.

His scream woke Mom and me from our sleep.

I would never forget that horrifying face. It haunted my dreams, giving me nightmares over and over.

When Mom saw Ma Laosan's wife, she was too frightened to make a sound. She just held me tight, trembling all over.

Then Ma Laosan's wife suddenly spoke. First, she let out a chilling laugh, then fixed her gaze on me. "Four days left. Four days left..."

Dad's scream woke Grandpa, who was sleeping in the east wing. He rushed in carrying a gleaming broadsword, glanced at Dad slumped on the floor and Mom trembling all over, then followed their gaze toward the window. What he saw made him shudder too.

But Grandpa was a veteran who had fought and killed Japanese soldiers. Though he was frightened himself, he remained far calmer than my parents.

"Laosan's wife, I know you're full of resentment, but this was your fate. You can't blame anyone else. Take an old man's advice and leave now, or this sword won't show you any mercy. Who knows how many Japanese bastards died under this blade? Do you think you're fiercer than they were? One more won't make any difference." As he spoke, Grandpa brandished the gleaming broadsword.

He had kept that sword from his army days as a memento. Whenever he had nothing to do, he took it out and polished it until it was bright enough to reflect a person's image.

Perhaps it was because Grandpa had drawn that sword, but Ma Laosan's wife actually turned and limped away. As she left, she gave another chilling laugh and repeated the same words: "Four days left. Four days left..."

After she left, the whole family was too frightened to sleep.

We all wondered what she had meant by "four days left."

Early the next morning, an old shepherd from the village discovered that Ma Laosan's wife's fresh grave had been dug open. But when Ma Laosan took some people there to look, a closer inspection suggested it had not been dug up at all. The earth had been pushed outward, and shattered coffin boards lay scattered around it. No matter how they looked at it, it seemed as though she had crawled out of the grave herself.

Just imagining that scene was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.

In the dead of night, her grave had suddenly split open. Ma Laosan's wife, who had been dead for three days, had crawled out, then staggered toward the Wu family home and knocked on our window.

But Ma Laosan did not know his wife had come to our house that night. Grandpa and Dad had told no one. Relations between our families were already badly strained, and we had no desire to stir up more trouble.

Ma Laosan simply assumed someone had stolen his wife's corpse. There were plenty of corpse thieves in those days, and the bodies of young women were especially sought after. There were all sorts of uses for them, but there was no need to go into those here.

Though Ma Laosan's wife had not been particularly pretty, she was still very young-not even thirty-so her corpse would have been in high demand.

It would have been a relief if someone really had stolen her body. Unfortunately, no one had, because she came to our house again the following night.

After Ma Laosan's wife had come knocking at our window the night before, Mom was too frightened to sleep. Dad tried to reassure her, telling her not to be afraid because the corpse had been stolen.

Mom was so terrified that she insisted Grandpa sleep in the main room, so he could come over with his sword the moment he heard anything.

After another full day of farmwork, my parents went to bed early despite their fear.

But in the middle of the night, while they were sound asleep, knocking at the window woke them again.

The sound brought Dad fully awake in an instant. He sat bolt upright in bed and, by the bright moonlight outside, saw a dark figure standing there, knocking rhythmically on the window.

Mom was already crying with fear, clutching me under the covers as she shook.

"Dad... she's back..." My father held a stick in his hand, too frightened even to get out of bed. He could only guard his wife and child behind him.

It was Grandpa, who had killed Japanese soldiers, who charged straight in at the sound, still carrying that gleaming broadsword.

The figure stood outside the window, its swollen face clearly visible.

"Laosan's wife, you just won't fucking stop, will you? At my age, I've already lived more than long enough. Kill me if you've got the guts. Once I become a ghost, I'll make sure you don't have an easy time of it either."

With that, Grandpa thrust his broadsword forward and forced the window open.

Ma Laosan's wife stood just outside, an eerie smile on her lips and her eyes a ghastly white. In a shrill voice, she said, "Three days left... three days left... hee hee hee..."

Even Grandpa, brave as he was, could not help drawing a sharp breath at her horrifying appearance.

Thankfully, once she had spoken, Ma Laosan's wife turned toward the gate, balancing on the tips of the stark white bones that were all that remained of one foot. Within moments, she had vanished.

"Dad... yesterday Ma Laosan's wife said there were four days left, and today she said three. Does that mean she's going to kill our whole family in three days?" Dad asked in terror as the thought suddenly struck him.