Speaking with a Ghost

There should have been four shadows in the living room.

Mine, Meng Yifan's, Xiao Qing's, and the Seventh Master's.

The candlelight stretched those four shadows out, making them easy to spot.

But just after Meng Yifan and I recited the spirit-summoning petition again, I discovered to my horror that our shadows had suddenly disappeared.

If our two shadows had disappeared, though, there should only have been two shadows left in the living room: the Seventh Master's and Xiao Qing's.

Yet I noticed that after our shadows vanished, another shadow had appeared in the living room.

Like Xiao Qing's, that shadow had long hair. It was right beside her shadow, slowly drawing closer.

The two shadows seemed to be merging.

Meng Yifan noticed something was wrong, too. I could even hear him swallowing.

Just then, the Seventh Master gave a dry cough, then continued chanting.

That was his signal to us. One cough meant the ghost had arrived. Two meant it was out of control and something might go wrong, in which case Meng Yifan and I were to run out of the house immediately.

At that cough, Meng Yifan and I understood at once.

The ghost had been summoned!

The Seventh Master had also told us beforehand what to do next.

But for some reason, my mind suddenly froze. All I felt was terror, and my head went completely blank.

Anyone who had never experienced it would struggle to understand that kind of fear. It was utterly beyond my control.

I could only pin my hopes on Meng Yifan. As long as he remembered what to do, I could follow his lead.

But to my surprise, Meng Yifan, who had always been braver than me, was handling it even worse.

He was on the verge of tears.

Fortunately, the Seventh Master remained calm throughout. He walked straight over to face me and gave me a pointed look.

He rang the bell in his right hand while repeatedly gesturing to me with his left.

The moment I saw his gestures, I remembered what I was supposed to do.

I hurriedly picked up the three incense sticks beside me and lit them in the brazier, then stood and bowed three times in each of the eight directions.

Then I sat back down and planted the three incense sticks in a bowl of cooked rice the Seventh Master had prepared beforehand.

I continued burning joss paper and worked up the courage to look at Xiao Qing.

"Li Xiumei, is that you...?"

I was so frightened that my voice trembled.

The instant I finished asking, Xiao Qing, who had been sitting perfectly still, abruptly raised her head.

That face was unmistakably no longer Xiao Qing's, though I could still vaguely make out her features.

It was as though Xiao Qing's face had overlapped with that of an unfamiliar woman. We could see neither Xiao Qing's face nor the other woman's clearly.

Strange as it was, beyond shocking us, it wasn't enough to frighten two grown men like Meng Yifan and me.

What terrified us was that the face before us had no pupils. It looked as though a pair of lychees had been embedded in her eye sockets.

Her hair hung loose and disheveled, drool spilling from her mouth as she snarled at Meng Yifan and me like she was in the throes of rabies.

Neither of us had ever seen anything like it. It felt as though someone had locked us in a cage with a Siberian tiger.

I was terrified. I wanted to jump up and run.

Just then, the possessed Xiao Qing suddenly stood and walked toward me.

She crouched beside me, those pupil-less eyes studying me.

She leaned close like an animal and kept sniffing me, as though trying to catch my scent.

The Seventh Master had told us that during Fuji Divination, a ghost lost some of its ghostly abilities after possessing someone. It therefore had to use the medium's body to sniff out the resentment it had left on Meng Yifan and me.

She was checking whether Meng Yifan and I were the two poor bastards she had marked.

I sat there, tossing sheets of yellow joss paper into the brazier with stiff hands.

The truth was, I already wanted to flee. I wanted to get up and run out of the house.

But I also knew that if I ran, my only chance of survival would vanish. Not even the Seventh Master could save me then.

So I could only force myself to sit there and let Xiao Qing sniff me.

After she finished sniffing me, Xiao Qing went over to sniff Meng Yifan.

Meng Yifan simply closed his eyes, choosing to shut out what he couldn't bear to see.

Once Xiao Qing had finished sniffing us both, her expression suddenly turned blank. She kept staring at the brazier, and I had no idea what she was thinking.

From the way she looked, she seemed to have lost all awareness of her own.

The thoughts in her head now should have been Li Xiumei's.

There was no turning back. Since we had already summoned her, we had to get to the bottom of this.

I worked up the courage to ask, "Are you Li Xiumei? If you are, nod."

The blank-faced "Xiao Qing" turned her head again and looked at me.

She nodded, making a series of clicking sounds, as though something were lodged in her throat.

Although I couldn't understand what she was trying to say, I was genuinely shaken.

It was unbelievable. Someone who had been dead for over a decade was actually communicating with me.

The Seventh Master had warned us about the conversation, too. He had stressed that we must never ask Li Xiumei how she had died. That was a grave taboo in Fuji Divination.

A ghost capable of haunting people was bound to be more aware than an ordinary ghost. She knew she had been murdered and then become a ghost, so asking how she had died would only provoke her.

If we wanted to find out how Li Xiumei had died, we had to be subtle rather than ask directly. Throughout the conversation, we had to keep her pleased.

And whatever Li Xiumei had done while alive, we couldn't condemn her. We even had to take her side and make her feel we were there to help.

So I had already worked out how to phrase my questions.

"Li Xiumei, we're here to help you. We truly feel sorry for you, and we want to help you get revenge."

"But... we don't know who the murderer is. Could you tell us who killed you...?"

After saying those words, my heart was in my mouth. I was terrified of provoking her.

Who had killed her was the most crucial question, and we had no choice but to ask.

Once I finished, the possessed Xiao Qing's neck suddenly began twitching. The spasms wouldn't stop, and she seemed agitated.

Fortunately, her agitation wasn't too severe, and soon those clicking sounds came from her throat again.

Meng Yifan and I exchanged a look. Something felt wrong.

The Seventh Master had said ghosts couldn't speak. Only after possessing someone could they use a living person's voice to talk.

If that was the case, Li Xiumei had already possessed Xiao Qing. Why wouldn't she speak? Why was she making such strange sounds instead?