The Curse Method

"No."

Ding Ling sniffed hard, then answered Zhou Yang in her mind.

"The ghost you saw in that stone house was dressed as a huadan, with a full set of head ornaments and brightly colored clothes," Zhou Yang said after some thought. "But Li Yichun, the first person to claim he saw a ghost-

"In his account, it was a female ghost with long hair and red clothes.

"Later, he claimed his eyes had been playing tricks on him. He was also the first to come to his senses and run. There's a strong possibility he never saw a ghost at all, though we can't rule out the possibility that everyone sees a different ghost.

"Keep an eye on him, all the same."

"I'll do as you say!" Ding Ling agreed at once.

"Troupe leader! Troupe leader!" Li Yichun, sprawled on the ground, looked up and saw Chang Dafeng approaching from the main room.

Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he scrambled toward Chang Dafeng and wrapped his arms around the man's lower leg. Sobbing, he cried, "Troupe leader, I saw a ghost!

"I saw a ghost in those woods!"

Chang Dafeng had already learned what had happened from Ding Ling. Hearing Li Yichun wail as if scared out of his wits, he nodded repeatedly. "I know all about it.

"Who could have imagined the villagers here had built a stone house in those wild woods? After seeing a ghost, you were lucky enough to escape.

"You're back with the troupe now. You're safe here, so don't think about anything else."

"Brother Gao went into that stone house like his soul had left him," Li Yichun said, trembling. "Now, whenever I close my eyes, all I see is that woman in red, that long-haired female ghost!"

Hidden in the shadows, Zhou Yang suddenly grew wary at Li Yichun's words!

Li Yichun had clearly said before that the supposed long-haired female ghost in red had been an illusion.

If it had really been nothing more than a momentary illusion, how could it have left such a deep impression on him?

So deep that when he spoke of the ghost without thinking, he described a long-haired female ghost in red!

"That female ghost in red... chased me all over the woods!

"I turned my head, and it was right behind me!

"It was right there, right there!"

Li Yichun abruptly turned his head and stared fixedly at a spot in the courtyard.

Everyone followed his gaze to a corner of the courtyard wall, but all they could see was darkness shrouding the clutter there.

The outline of the clutter, once they thought about it, made it seem as if a long-haired ghost really were standing there. Beneath its black hair, a small part of a deathly pale face showed, with eyes whose whites were bloodshot, staring fixedly at everyone present!

A chill crept into their hearts and swirled around their backs!

"Did you smell anything strange?"

Chang Dafeng frowned at Li Yichun, who was sitting on the ground, and asked the question aloud.

He, too, had sensed that something was wrong.

"A smell?" Li Yichun's eyes were blank. "I didn't smell anything."

Then he remembered something and immediately told Chang Dafeng, "Brother Gao smelled it. He said he smelled something, then turned and went straight into the stone house!"

No one had prompted him. He had volunteered what he had seen.

That only further confirmed the truth of what Ding Ling had said.

At those words, Chang Dafeng's expression relaxed.

Troupe Leader Chang squatted down in front of Li Yichun, a smile on his face. "You've had a fright, that's all. That female ghost in red is something you imagined. There was never any such thing.

"Stop thinking about it.

"If you keep thinking about it, you might actually summon it here."

"I really saw that ghost in red! It kept following me!

"It's right there! There! There!" Li Yichun shouted, pointing repeatedly at several spots.

Everyone turned to look where he pointed, but saw only darkness.

It seemed as though a ghost really was there, yet also as though there was nothing there at all.

A vein throbbed at Chang Dafeng's temple. Unable to hold back any longer, he put down his pipe, seized Li Yichun by the collar, and dragged him close. He swung his right hand and landed several resounding slaps across Li Yichun's face, leaving it badly swollen on the spot!

Then Troupe Leader Chang demanded, "Are there any ghosts now? Are there?!

"Can those eyes of yours still see ghosts?!"

After those slaps, Li Yichun's eyes immediately cleared.

Faced with the troupe leader's furious expression, he lowered his eyes fearfully. "There are no ghosts. My eyes were playing tricks on me... Troupe leader."

"Hmph!"

Chang Dafeng grunted, released Li Yichun's collar, and sprang to his feet. He swept his gaze over the crowd, and the cold severity in his eyes made them lower their heads.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment before he gave his orders. "Get everything ready for Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera!

"I told you all long ago what's forbidden during the ceremony!

"If any of you are careless enough to spout more nonsense while we're Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera, there'll be no need for a ghost to deal with you. I'll throw you out of the courtyard myself and hand you over to the villagers roaming at the bottom of the slope!"

"Yes..."

"We'll make sure it's done right."

"We'll do as you say."

A few scattered responses came from the crowd.

Chang Dafeng then looked at Ding Ling. "Ding Ling, skin that roe deer in the woodshed.

"Hang the hide and intestines in front of the door to dry in the wind. Those two things are yours, for your Gate of Opening.

"Salt the rest of the meat and put it away. Once we're done with Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera tonight, we'll cook a pot and all have some."

Both Ding Ling and Zhou Yang stirred at his words.

The "Gate of Opening" Chang Dafeng had mentioned was naturally the first gate in the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting:

Gate of Opening, The Grand Investiture of the Six States, Slitting the Belly and Spilling the Intestines.

Before Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera,

the members of the troupe busied themselves with their respective tasks.

In a corner of the courtyard, Ding Ling lifted the roe deer onto a wooden rack and secured it. Then she picked up the skinning knife she had sharpened beside the basin and plunged it into the inside of the deer's hind leg.

Swish-

The skinning knife moved fluidly beneath the deer's hide, steadily separating it from the flesh.

With her other hand, Ding Ling pulled the hide back, rolling its underside outward, streaked with blood and membrane.

The skinning knife worked around the deer's hooves in turn, and she peeled off the entire hide, hooves attached, like unrolling a bundle of meat.

With the underside facing out and the fur turned inward, the whole hide was almost undamaged apart from the wounds the deer had already borne.

Zhou Yang watched silently as Ding Ling skinned and dismembered the entire roe deer.

A chill ran through him as he imagined himself in its place.

At Guan Village's Revelation Ceremony, would the villagers treat him the same way, stripping off his skin and leaving him bare before them?

Ding Ling truly was an "experienced butcher." In the time Zhou Yang's thoughts had been turning, she had salted the venison for curing, washed the entrails clean, and stretched the hide out beneath the eaves alongside the intestines.

"What a fine hide. It's a bit of a shame to use it for the false belly for Slitting the Belly and Spilling the Intestines.

"I only need a piece this big to sew a false belly..." Ding Ling looked up at the stretched hide beneath the eaves. She intended to use only a third of it to make the false belly.

For the Gate of Opening, the first gate in the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting, a practitioner had to fill intestines with ashes bearing the aura of the Curse Art and sew them inside a false belly.

The false belly would serve as the practitioner's own abdomen, which could then be subjected to Slitting the Belly and Spilling the Intestines to lure ghosts and gods.

The original draft stated that pigskin was needed to make the false belly.

There was no pigskin to be found now, so Chang Dafeng had told Ding Ling to use roe deer hide. Presumably, as long as the ritual was the same, the kind of leather used to make the false belly did not strictly matter.

From Zhou Yang's careful study, the method of divine makeup and ghost painting was founded on the Curse Art.

The so-called Curse Art was also known as the Art of Cursing.

It was a wicked art that used specific objects as mediums to curse others and bring disaster upon them.

To open each gate in the method of divine makeup and ghost painting, the practitioner had to smear an object bearing another person's name with their own fresh blood, then bury it in a specific location along with clothing that person had worn close to the skin.

That was a clear characteristic of the Curse Art.

Zhou Yang had never been certain whom to choose as the target of the curse-which person around them should have their name written on that slip of paper for the best effect?

Now Chang Dafeng was about to help Ding Ling open the gate.

He would presumably teach Ding Ling the crucial details.

"Chang Dafeng gave you the entire roe deer hide and the intestines for the Gate of Opening ritual.

"You can use them as you please. There's no need to be so sparing. Opening the gate is what matters most right now; don't lose sight of that over something small. Besides, what would you do with the leftover dried hide?" Zhou Yang cautioned Ding Ling.

Ding Ling smiled sheepishly. "I could sew a hat and shoes from it, so my face and feet wouldn't freeze in winter.

"But you're right, sir. I'll make sure to keep enough hide for the false belly."

"The leather doesn't have to be particularly soft or hard for a false belly.

"But to make a hat and shoes, wouldn't the hide need to be properly tanned?" Zhou Yang asked casually.

Ding Ling answered just as casually. "Yes, but it's no trouble.

"There's fat right here, and the deer's liver and brain. I can just use a paste made from the liver, brain, and fat to tan it."

Zhou Yang fell silent at once.

A paste of liver, brain, and fat.

Those were also things needed for Guan Village's Revelation Ceremony.

Only, at Guan Village's Revelation Ceremony, what they tanned was human skin...

Afterward, Ding Ling picked out some offal, mixed it with the wild vegetables Qian Heng had dug up, chopped some seasonings, and cooked a pot of wild vegetable and offal soup. It would be the troupe's supper after Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera that night.