Ten Ways to See Ghosts
In the dilapidated gray-brick house, several large wooden chests stood against the walls, with bedding spread over them to make beds;
others were clustered in the middle of the room. Some served as tables, with a dressing mirror, brushes, paints, and other things on top, while others were used as stools.
Several people sat on the chests, gathered around the troupe leader, Chang Dafeng.
"Master, what exactly is going on in Daliang Village right now?" The man who spoke in a pinched voice looked at Chang Dafeng with great respect.
Zhou Yang remembered that when Chang Dafeng was absent, this same man had accused him of neglecting his duties and doing nothing but running circles around the village every day.
"That's right, Master. It's time we decided whether to stay or go," the broad-faced man with thick eyebrows agreed in a muffled voice.
Chang Dafeng was lean, wearing a blue-cloth cotton jacket and a dogskin cap.
One earflap hung down, while the other was folded up and fastened to a button on top of the cap.
Listening to the two men and meeting the anxious gazes of his other disciples, he patted his knees with both hands, looking as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.
"Have we... really run into a ghost?"
The tall, burly man asked in a hoarse voice.
His voice was rather raspy, making his words slightly indistinct. But when he said "run into a ghost," the anxious atmosphere in the room was like a pot of boiling water suddenly doused with a ladleful of cold water-
The boiling pot fell silent in an instant.
Six people crowded into the small room, yet a chilling cold still seemed to creep through the dark corners beyond the oil lamp's reach.
Everyone looked startled and uncertain.
Chang Dafeng tucked his hands into his cotton jacket sleeves and hunched his shoulders.
He gave a heavy "Mm," answering the burly man's question.
The others fell even more silent, unable to keep from curling up and huddling closer together.
For a moment, nothing could be heard in the room but the rise and fall of their breathing.
"Then why don't we hurry up and run? We can't just stay here and wait to die!" cried the boy, who looked about twelve or thirteen. Tears streamed from his eyes. "My pa and ma were both eaten by a ghost!
"It's too scary. I don't want to-"
"Run where?" Chang Dafeng raised his eyebrows, and his feminine-looking face suddenly took on a fearsome air of authority.
He raised his voice, drowning out every other sound in the room. "Look at our feet-which of us can run far? Which of us can get away?"
At his words, Ding Ling looked down at her feet.
Below her trouser legs, her feet were frozen red inside her straw sandals.
Looking at her feet, Zhou Yang saw nothing amiss apart from a few chilblains.
When Ding Ling shifted her gaze and he saw the others' feet, he was startled. Though the men wore cloth shoes, their feet looked a size smaller than Ding Ling's.
The toes of their shoes were rather pointed, resembling the shoes worn over three-inch golden lotuses in the Qing dynasty.
Chang Dafeng's feet were even smaller than theirs.
"Which of us opera performers doesn't have bound feet?
"With these little feet, run all you want. How many li could you get?" Chang Dafeng lowered his voice. After scolding the weeping boy, he turned to Ding Ling, who sat in the corner, and said pointedly, "Even if you can run, can you outrun a ghost?"
Ding Ling's little face turned slightly pale. She clasped her hands fearfully in front of her stomach and lowered her head, not daring to look at Troupe Leader Chang.
"Besides, I still can't be sure what kind of ghost has gotten into this village.
"Let's try a method first. Use a method to get a look at that ghost...
"See whether it's a ghost or a Puppet," Chang Dafeng said quietly.
Something stirred in Zhou Yang's heart.
The man with the operatic voice immediately asked the question he had wanted to ask. "What if it's a ghost?
"And what if it's a Puppet?"
"If it's a Puppet, we'll put on an opera about gods and ghosts—for three days and three nights!"
"We'll sing until we reach the gods and the opera takes possession of us. Then we can scare that Puppet away and head home in peace!" Chang Dafeng spoke forcefully for a while, then suddenly gave a cold laugh. "If it's a ghost, we'll still put on an opera about gods and ghosts—
"Never mind how long we sing. We'll treat it as the last performance we ever give.
"Once it's over, we'll each wait for death!"
The man with the operatic voice twitched, then sighed and closed his eyes.
So ghosts and Puppets are different. Ghosts sound much more formidable than Puppets.
After all, if they run into a Puppet, they can still scare it away by "singing until they reach the gods and the opera takes possession of them," but that method is useless against a ghost.
If the people in the troupe run into a real ghost, all they can do is wait to die. As Zhou Yang listened to their conversation, he began to ponder. What exactly is a "ghost" like, then? What outward traits and signs does it have?
And what is a "Puppet" like?
While he was thinking, he heard Zhou Yang say, "I'm about to tell you the most important part. Little Stone, if you keep crying, I've got the discipline ruler right here!"
As he spoke, Chang Dafeng pulled a pitch-black ruler from a chest behind him.
At the sight of it, the boy, Little Stone, quickly stopped crying and clenched his teeth. Though tears still welled in his eyes, he dared not let another drop fall.
That ruler seemed to have taught him an unforgettable lesson.
His behavior satisfied Chang Dafeng.
The troupe leader nodded, lowered his eyelids, and said unhurriedly, "The elders have talked about many ways to secretly catch a glimpse of a ghost's true form.
"People gathered the methods together, whether they worked or not, and gave them a name: the Ten Ways to See Ghosts.
"Of those ten methods, there's only one that I've seen others use and tried myself that works best.
"It's Combing Hair at Midnight.
"That's the method we'll use. It's the safest and the most effective."
The Ten Ways to See Ghosts? Combing Hair at Midnight?
Zhou Yang's spirits rose at once.
He remembered the method being mentioned in some movies he had watched before.
He hadn't expected a method like that to actually work here and now.
If the people in the troupe could use Combing Hair at Midnight to identify the traits of a ghost or a Puppet, perhaps he could use it to find out whether the villagers in Guan Village were ghosts or Puppets!
Chang Dafeng looked up at Ding Ling.
Ding Ling and Zhou Yang both felt their hearts jolt.
Chang Dafeng said, "Ding Ling, your illness is getting better. Your yin energy is especially strong right now, so you'll have the easiest time seeing a ghost's form if you use Combing Hair at Midnight.
"Listen carefully-
"Tonight, at the hour of the rat, put the oil lamp in front of the mirror and sit in front of it yourself.
"Let your hair down beforehand, then comb it forward forty-nine times and backward forty-nine times.
"After that, ask the mirror: Is anyone there? If someone is, please come out and show yourself.
"Ask three times in a row, then look in the mirror.
"By then, the true form of the ghost around here will appear in it."
At that, Chang Dafeng lowered his eyelids and, without looking at Ding Ling, dropped his voice even further. "Do you remember?"
In the room, the tall, burly martial-role performer Qian Heng, the female-role performer with the operatic voice Li Yichun, Little Stone, who was young and still lacked skill, and Gao Hongbo, who sang painted-face roles, all turned to look at Ding Ling.
Ding Ling kept her head bowed and hunched her shoulders even tighter.
In times like these, who wanted anything to do with ghosts?
Troupe Leader Chang had only explained how to use Combing Hair at Midnight, but a method for seeing ghosts was bound to be accompanied by danger and ill fortune.
The slightest mistake could mean death on the spot for the person seeing the ghost!
Everyone in the troupe knew it, so they all stayed silent, counting on Ding Ling, the troupe's cook, to shoulder the burden.
She did the hardest work and received the least pay.
Anyone in the troupe could order her around.
Now, after falling ill and waking up, she had become the troupe's expendable pawn.
Can I refuse him?
Ding Ling kept her head down and gave Chang Dafeng no answer, but her thought surfaced in Zhou Yang's mind.
Zhou Yang was slightly surprised.
He had yet to find a suitable opportunity to have his first conversation with this Manifestation Body of his.
He hadn't expected this Karmic Retribution Body to approach him directly instead.
Is she certain that another consciousness has taken up residence in her body?
Or is her question to me in her mind also a way of testing me?
As Zhou Yang considered this, he gave his first Karmic Retribution Body her first label: clever and bold.
In such a short time, she had set outside distractions aside and sorted out her thoughts, so she could be called clever. And she had directly tested the other consciousness she suspected was inside her, meeting it head-on without flinching. That was boldness.
He had originally worried that this female Manifestation Body of his might be unable to accomplish anything in such a perilous environment, both within and without.
Now that he had seen Ding Ling's reaction, Zhou Yang was a little less worried.
Laughter rang out within his consciousness.
Accompanied by that laughter, he answered Ding Ling's question. Can you refuse him?