Suddenly, hearing my master utter the words "undying straw figure" left me bewildered.
I opened my mouth and asked:
"Master, what is an undying straw figure?"
My master, holding a few broken pieces of straw, slowly stood up and then spoke in a deep voice:
"The origin of this mother-child ghost might not be as simple as I imagined.
There are likely human factors behind it."
Hearing this, I became even more confused.
But I didn't speak, just looked at my master with great astonishment.
"Years ago, when I was roaming the martial world with my master, I encountered a type of evil sorcery in the Nanjiang region..."
"Evil sorcery?"
I exclaimed in surprise.
My master nodded and then fell into remembrance.
My master said that this evil sorcery involved chopping up a corpse after death and then drying it.
And in the spring of the following year, mixing the dried corpse fragments with soil and planting rice seeds.
Once the seeds sprouted, a dark film would be cast over them, preventing them from being exposed to the sun.
Only at night would they be exposed to moonlight.
And through some peculiar irrigation methods, they would be nurtured to grow.
The success rate of rice grown this way was not high.
But once the rice survived, it would become particularly thick and demonic.
Such rice would only flower and not bear fruit.
After the flowers withered, the rice stalks would be cut and dried in the shade.
Finally, they would be bound together to make straw figures, with their eyes, nose, and mouth drawn using snake blood.
Then, the soul of the corpse would return, attaching itself to the straw figure, becoming one entity.
The straw figure would then come to life, and clothes and shoes would be put on it.
Every night, it would become indistinguishable from a living person.
But to maintain this state, it would have to continuously absorb human vitality.
The longer it persisted, the more it resembled a living person, even becoming impervious to wind and sun.
Hearing this, my heart involuntarily sank, feeling a sense of dread.
After all, a soul is just a wisp of energy, a wisp of smoke.
If it has sustenance, it's fine, but if it's neglected, it can only drift with the wind, and even strong sun could dissipate it.
But according to my master's explanation, wouldn't such straw figures eventually become truly 'alive'?
"Master, if you say so.
Doesn't that mean the bodies of the mother and child were subjected to this rice straw sorcery?
Did the person making the straw figures intend to bring both mother and child back to life?"
I asked in astonishment.
My master grunted:
"From what we see now, that seems to be the case."
I gasped, recalling the烂脸 (làn liǎn - rotten-faced) little female ghost's last words before her soul dissipated: "Daddy is coming back soon."
I felt that the person who performed this "undying straw figure" sorcery might be the husband and father of the mother and child.
Perhaps out of longing for the deceased, they resorted to such an evil method.
With this thought, I told my master about the little ghost's words.
My master frowned upon hearing this:
"I never expected that in our area, someone would know this Nanjiang evil sorcery.
But how can dead people truly come back to life?
It's nothing more than self-deception and harming others!"
"Master, what do we do next? Should we find that person?"
I pressed.
My master, however, shook his head:
"Find? Where would we find them?
We've done all we can.
Practicing such evil sorcery incurs great karmic debt.
Sooner or later, they will face retribution."
After speaking, my master picked up a charred wooden stick from the ground.
He wrote a few characters on the ground: Tian Dao Huang Huang, Ri Yue Yi Wei Chang.
Having finished writing, my master clapped his hands:
"Leave a message for that person, hoping they can awaken. Let's go!"
Seeing that my master was letting it go, I didn't say anything further.
After all, my abilities were limited, and I couldn't meddle in other people's affairs.
I gave a hum and followed my master downstairs.
After leaving the cursed building, I looked back.
It still looked eerie and unsettling. Shivering, I climbed out of the railing.
Leaving the alley, it was past eleven.
I asked my master for half a day off, stating that I would go to the factory tomorrow to resign and also see Chen Ge.
My master agreed, telling me to go to work in the afternoon after I had completed my resignation.
As for the events of tonight, he told me not to dwell on them.
Afterward, my master took a taxi back to the shop.
I walked back to my rental apartment along the old road.
After tending to the wound on my arm and washing up, I lay in bed, unable to sleep for a long time.
Although my master told me not to think about tonight's events.
Images of tonight's encounters kept flashing in my mind.
And that Nanjiang evil sorcery, the undying straw figure.
Unable to sleep, I used my phone to search.
I wanted to find some information online about that dilapidated building.
There was information, but it was very little, and it didn't even have a name.
It only mentioned in passing reports that the mother and child were from a divorced family and had no relatives.
The little girl seemed to have suffered from leukemia.
Unable to bear the dual pressures of life and illness, she had committed suicide with her child.
I didn't know the truth of the matter, but if it was true, perhaps they were quite pitiable...
Putting down my phone, I felt that besides the difficulty of making money, this world also held much helplessness.
It now seemed that death was not an end.
But merely a new beginning!
Under the shroud of night, the city still harbored many strange events after death.
After a long while, I finally fell asleep.
Though I slept very late, when I woke up the next day, I felt my spirits were high.
The groggy feeling from before had completely vanished, and I felt full of energy.
My reflection in the mirror also looked radiant, with no trace of fatigue.
I put on my clothes and went straight out, taking the bus to the factory...