Chapter 17: The soul returning night

Many people have seen a movie called "The soul returning night", which described the story of the special night.

To mention about "the first seven" (A funeral custom, traditionally, the first seven refers to the seventh day after the death of one person), although folk legends are more terrible, in fact, in the view of Wenbin Zha is also a simple ritual event. However, he did not expect this time "the first seven" will make such a big noise.

Seven days later, Mr He took his wife, Mrs Wang and Wenbin to his hometown again. According to the arrangement, a memorial tablet and tributes were set up in the hall of Mr Wang's home, with a portrait in the middle. The mother of Mrs Wang was still alive, that is the wife of the dead (Mr Wang), and everyone calls her granny Li.

This afternoon, they all had dinner together, nothing happened yet. Everything seemed very reasonable. Mr Wang's house is a small two-storey building. In this hall, there is a staircase leading directly to the second floor. According to the prior agreement, Wenbin began to do the dharma after the day gets dark. Wait until 12 o 'clock, Xin Wang led by Wenbin to the outside door to welcome the soul of Mr Wang. Then all other people in the house hide upstairs and turn off the lights, until the signal from Wenbin Zha which they can turn on the lights.

When the day gets dark, after everyone had dinner, Mr Wang's family was very prosperous. His children and grandchildren in a total of more than 30 people. Although the man could not be revived, Mr Wang was already so old that everyone could accept his death. Only his wife granny Li who was sad, as they lived together for 70 years, of course, she cannot take it.

Wenbin Zha followed the same method as usual, firstly pasted a guide letter on the gate, fearing that after a while if Mr Wang did come back and could not find his own home. This was explicitly used to tell the Imp of the underworld that this was the destination. Children and grandchildren of Mr Wang then toward Mr Wang's memorial tablets and portrait burning papers and incense, after that, a group of people sitting there and chatting, waiting for the time to come.

As twelve o'clock was approaching, by the prior agreement, Wenbin Zha took Xin Wang with the lantern and went and stood in the front door of Wang's house. This was a welcoming ceremony. As a rule, he burned some silver bullion at the intersection, which was regarded as a red envelope for Imps of the underworld. Everything seems reasonable until now, about 100 meters away from Mr Wang's house, lights all turned off as expected.

Although it was Xin Wang's grandfather who died, on this occasion, he was a little afraid. He stood close to Wenbin Zha and did not dare to raise his voice. People in the village knew in advance that this evening is "the first seven", so every household turned off the lights, men who like to hunt or play cards all go to bed early with their wives. Even children who want to play will not dare to come out tonight as their parents will tell them not to run out as they may meet evil. This night was so silent, there was not even a dog barking, it was also so dark, which people cannot even see their five fingers. The entire village, except the red lantern in the hand of Wenbin Zha, only the two candles in front of the memorial tablet of Mr Wang was lit.

Wenbin Zha didn't speak, he felt the surroundings with his eyes closed. In any case, in the middle of the night, there was no difference between the opening and closing his eyes. Suddenly, a definite "ding-dong" sound from the evil-retreat bell on his hand, this was the signal for Mr Wang to come back. This scared Xin Wang ultimately, he did not allow to run away, and can only tightly grasp Wenbin Zha's clothes, estimated that this kind of matter, he will never want to experience again.

Wenbin Zha turned around, face Mr Wang's house, holding a lantern, shook the bell every 10 meters, and kept read words in his mouth. Of course, those are some spells to open the way for Imps and ghosts, tell them here is the destination.

When they arrived at Mr Wang's house nearly 50 meters away, Wenbin Zha and Xin Wang both vaguely heard a cry, though it was quite far away, but still can be heard, this cry is not from others, it is Mr Wang's wife, granny Li.

Is she still in the mourning hall?Didn't she go upstairs?

Wenbin Zha frowned, accelerated the pace, he wanted to remind them to go upstairs quickly, but he cannot shout, in case of a shout may disturb the Imp of the underworld, If they run to other people's home, it is going to be big trouble.

So what happened to granny Li? Since Wenbin Zha took Xin Wang out of the house, all people were obedient enough to turn off the lights and went upstairs. They were all crowded in a room and didn't dare to raise their voices. Mrs Wang was afraid that her old mother (granny Li) may out of breath, so let her by the window to sit down. However, they found that granny Li was not there at all, they got panic and then went downstairs to find, sure enough, granny Li was in front of the memorial tablet and crying:

"My old man, when you come back tonight, please take me with you, please do not leave me alone, I'll be here waiting for you... "

Granny Li was crying very sadly and sounds thrilling. In "the first seven" nights, granny Li howled like this, as soon as Mrs Wang saw, she went down immediately and tried to pull her up. But did not know whether granny Li was too sad or want to see her husband so much, she actually a held the table leg didn't let go. No matter how hard Mrs. Wang tried to pull and persuade, granny Li was still held tightly.

The people upstairs looked at Wenbin just about to arrive at the gate soon, shouted downstairs: "hurry up, they will come in soon, why still staying downstairs?"

This shout, not all people inside the house heard, Wenbin Zha outside the house also heard very clearly, from the gate less than five meters, Wenbin Zha also heard crying, and roar: "all people inside the house quickly go upstairs. "

The roar scared granny Li, and she looses out of her hand from the table leg. When granny let go of the table leg, Mrs Wang dragged her to the stairs. Mr He above the stairs held granny Li went up. While Mrs Wang stepped on the stairs, they felt a gust of cold wind blowing, and then they heard the sound of "Kuang". What has happened? Mrs Wang fell down in front of the mourning hall. Wenbin Zha also listened to the music, although he could not see it, he understood what had happened, shout out: "No !"

He took out the big seal immediately, but it was too late to do anything about it. He put it on the table where the tributes were placed, hoping to control the situation. And immediately called out, "Turn on the lights, turn on the lights, everybody come down."

The dazzling fluorescent lamp shone the Mourning Hall of the White, in front of the Mourning Hall, Mrs Wang with two eyes opened wide, staring at the ceiling, and already no consciousness…

At the moment the crowd did not dare to breathe hard, especially the mother of Mrs Wang—granny Li, implicating her daughter in the "way", of course, her face was also pale. Mr He kneels down to Wenbin Zha: "Wenbin, you must save her."

Wenbin counted with his finger, a soul-fixing symbol scattered in the air, this symbol is not as he used in the past fell down somewhere in the hall, this time even went straight outside the door…

He shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's too late, send her to the hospital quickly. "

Not long after, the ambulance arrived, due to Mr He relations in the provincial capital, they sent the best doctor. Two hours later, the doctor informed the family that it is cerebral haemorrhage, the success rate for craniotomy is less than 1%, and proposed to prepare for the funeral…

This kind of operation, if you want to ask whether to do it or not, I can only say that doing it was for nothing, and also for nothing, let Mrs. Wang gets a knife before she died. As soon as the whole family put it all together, they had to leave it to chance. Mr He could not withstand the blow of losing his wife, he fainted straight away and went into the emergency room next door.

Leader Wang also came, asked Wenbin what had happened, Wenbin Zha did not speak, how the matter naturally is understood in his mind.

The soul returning night, the ghosts who had come back had actually drunk Meng Po soup (In ancient Chinese folklore, it is a kind of tea soup that can forget all the troubles and memories, all the love and hatred.), and most of them had been brought back by the Imp of the underworld to make a formality, for fear that some of the dead who had a strong desire in their hearts would not forget their lives, so taking them on this trip.

If the dead still remembers their strong desire after drinking Meng Po Soup, they will probably end up feeling resentful or become an evil spirit. There's a human kindness in the underworld too, in case there's an evil spirit who can't enter reincarnation, so they will bring the dead back on the 7th day after their death.

Mr Wang is old, his life is almost ended, as a matter of fact, can't have any grudges, even he doesn't remember that this was his own home, he wouldn't have to take his own daughter with him. But they went too fast, even Wenbin took out the big seal, he didn't have time to stop it. Which was strange, Wenbin Zha thought genuinely in his mind.

The method to go to the underworld again after the pain of his daughter, Wenbin is not going to do this again. There are rules in the human world, ghosts also have rules in the underworld, so if want to act against those rules, nobody knows what price and how serious the price to pay in the future.