Chapter Ninety-Four: The Shamaness’s Interrogation

An old woman knelt on a mat in the main room, with a ritual altar set before her. The altar bristled with incense and candles, and offerings had been arranged upon it. There stood an idol of some unknown deity, bare-chested, fierce-faced, and imposing.

On both sides of the room were all kinds of paper figures and paper horses and paper boats, crudely made, yet all the more eerie for it. Especially the paper figures—each with a pale, distorted face, half-hidden in the dim yellow candlelight, as though they might spring to life at any moment.

“F-Fourth Aunt, I’ve changed my mind. Can the ghost marriage be called off?” Ren Qiyun asked timidly.

“Once you choose, there is no taking it back. Blame yourself for agreeing in the first place,” came the cool, ringing reply.

This spirit-medium was nothing like I had imagined. I had thought she would be the sort to put on a show of mysticism and mutter nonsense all day. Yet she was astonishingly composed, and even the way she knelt was straight and proper, with a trace of sternness in it.

“But you said before that my daughter would be all right. Now she’s lying in bed so weak she could be in danger any moment!” Ren Qiyun said.

Without turning her head, the old woman let out a cold laugh. “She has lost her vital yang and been entangled by the old ghost she was bound to in marriage. Of course she looks this way. As for her lifespan, rest easy. Barring any accidents, she can at least last a year.”

The nerve of her, saying “rest easy.” A year, at least. As if a year were nothing. Besides, spending a whole year half-dead in bed would be worse than death.

I could not bring myself to like this old woman at all. Before coming here, I had thought her merely a babbling charlatan of a medium. Now it seemed likely she was no good person at all. The old master Ma had once said that any art capable of taking a life was an evil art. This practice of marrying a ghost to beg for a child, exchanging another person’s life for it—most likely it was an evil technique as well.

Outwardly, I still said respectfully, “It cannot be called off, but there should be other ways. That girl is pitiful, and now even her mother has changed her mind. I hope you can show a little mercy and lend a hand.”

The old woman made no reply. She turned her head and glanced at me. Her face was gaunt, her cheekbones high, and her expression utterly blank.

Then she turned back toward the altar and said with some disdain, “So you’re the one wanting to interfere and help them? I can tell your abilities are weak. You’ve only just entered the trade, haven’t you? Let me warn you: some things, once done, cannot be undone. If you try, you’ll have to pay a heavy price.”

“I have no choice. I can only take a gamble. I happen to know that girl, and I can’t just stand by and watch her suffer herself to death,” I said.

She gave a few cold laughs and said scornfully, “Overestimating yourself! Since you’re in the same line of work, tell me your master’s school and let me see where you come from.”

“I don’t know any school. My master’s surname is Ma—just a thin, gaunt old man,” I said.

At my words, she visibly jolted. In an instant, she sprang to her feet and turned toward me.

“What did you say? Your master is Old Man Ma!”

A heavy knocking suddenly sounded at the door.

“Fourth Aunt, I’ve got business for you! Is my wife in there?” a voice called from outside.

Ren Qiyun immediately panicked. It seemed the man outside was her husband, Wen Yong.

“Fourth Aunt! Fourth Aunt! Answer me! If she says anything to you, don’t listen to her!” Wen Yong said anxiously, clearly worried that Ren Qiyun might change her mind.

Ren Qiyun looked at the old woman in a panic and pleaded in a low voice, “Fourth Aunt, I’m begging you. I’ve changed my mind. Save my daughter, please. I’ve changed my mind.”

The old woman gave no answer. Instead, she waved toward the shadows, and ding-a-ling—a bell rang from the corner. I looked toward the sound. There was clearly no living person there, not even a cat or dog, only a paper figure with a pale, twisted face leaning against the wall, with a little bell hanging beside it.

Could it have been the paper figure ringing the bell just now?

The door opened, and a man walked in. He looked to be in his early thirties and was of average height. He looked at Ren Qiyun, then at me, and anger rose on his face as he was about to start cursing.

“This is a younger acquaintance of mine, come here to visit me. He got lost outside the village and happened to run into your wife, so he brought her over,” the old woman suddenly said.

I was taken aback. I had not expected her to speak up on my behalf.

Wen Yong also froze. “A-are you one of Fourth Aunt’s relatives? I thought you were some... Since you’re Fourth Aunt’s guest, I ought to have treated you properly. It’s just that something’s come up at home lately, and it’s not convenient.”

“It’s fine. Brother, go tend to your business. No need for formality,” I said with easy familiarity.

Wen Yong looked at me in puzzlement, then dragged Ren Qiyun outside.

After they had gone far enough away, I stepped forward and closed the door.

“Thanks just now,” I said.

“You don’t need to thank me. Are you really Old Man Ma’s disciple?” she asked, fixing me with a sharp look.

“If the Old Man Ma you mean is the same as my master, then I am certainly his disciple,” I said.

She took a few steps back and forth, studying me from head to toe, still doubtful. “Old Man Ma would take a disciple? Someone like you, all milk and no beard? Are you not trying to fool this old woman?”

“There’s no reason for me to lie to you. I don’t know who you are, and I have no idea what connection you have with Old Ma,” I said.

She examined me carefully for a long moment, then said, “Fine. I’ll believe you are Old Man Ma’s disciple. For the sake of knowing him once, I’ll tell you how to break the ghost marriage.”

I was a little surprised. I had not expected that name to carry so much weight. “Then I thank you.”

She turned her face away, and a strange look flashed through her eyes.

“To break it, it is easy and hard at once. It is all in the process, and whether you can complete it. First, you must find the old ghost’s corpse and take one of his bones. Then find the girl bound to him in marriage. Prepare the ritual altar, set out the offerings, light the incense and candles, and have her kneel before the altar. Use chicken blood and a red thread soaked in her blood to tie her little finger and the old ghost’s bone together. After that, one person—namely you—must preside and recite the severance document. Once the reading is done, whether the ghost agrees or not, cut the bloodied red thread with scissors. From then on, it will be severed cleanly, with no further entanglement.”

“Just like that?” It did not sound all that complicated.

She let out a cold laugh. “Let’s see if you can even finish reciting the severance document before you speak. That old ghost will certainly refuse to break it off and come to cause trouble. If you can’t hold him down, then what happens next will be left to fate.”

I asked her in detail where the old ghost’s grave was, how the altar should be arranged, and what the severance document said. She cooperated fully and answered each question one by one.

Did Old Man Ma really have that much influence? But from the way she spoke of him, it did not sound as if she had any deep friendship with him.

At last she said, “You’d best go for the bones at night. The woman’s husband does not want this called off. If he finds out, he will certainly come to stop you. Don’t worry—the old ghost is attached to the girl and is not staying at his own grave.”