Haunted Houses’ Chronicles – Vol.1, Chapter 7

This old friend of mine was a classmate back in junior high school. Although we had not talked for a while, we always kept up with each other’s updates. He heard from other people that as of late, I often accompanied a friend who knew ‘the supernatural arts’, so he thought about asking for my help. His relatives got into a big trouble. Even though the ordeal had nothing to do with a ‘haunted house’, this was also a remarkably bizarre case because the source of the trouble was a ‘haunted car’.

How the car came to be haunted was pretty simple; it was the same way many other cars became a haunted car: a car accident. Let’s call this relative of my old friend “A”. A was present in the car when the accident happened. They bumped into a big delivery truck. It was a small car so anyone could already tell the outcome. As luck would have it, A survived, but the car driver was pierced in the neck and his blood splattered over all A’s face.

The peculiar thing was that, since the day A woke up in the hospital, she insisted inside and out that she wasn’t A but the driver. Even more peculiar was that A’s face started to grow blood-colour stains that looked exactly like the ones that were splattered on her face during the accident.Things didn’t stop there. A’s family resided at the border between Hebei and Liaoning. The family members believed that she likely developed a mental disorder due to the trauma, so they thought of transferring her to a bigger hospital in the province. To do so, they had to pass the gate of Shanhai Pass. A stood firm that she couldn’t go through that pass because there were ghost soldiers¹ guarding the gate and they wouldn’t let her go through. Seeing his relative on the verge of giving up, my old friend asked around and learnt of my ‘haunted house’ business. He was desperate, clinging onto the hope that I would agree to have Qin Yiheng look at this ordeal.

¹ 阴兵 [yin bing], lit. translated as “underworld soldiers” or “ghost soldiers”, is an army of ghosts that work under the order of the King of Hell. One of their duties is to escort wandering souls to Hell so the souls could stand their ‘trials’ in Hell then reincarnate to their next life.

Although I was a profit-minded person, I would still willingly support a friend in need. Not to mention, I actually didn’t have much use for him; at most, I only played the role of a middleman. Thus, I persuaded Qin Yiheng to inspect A’s circumstance. 

Qin Yiheng was also a generous man and was happy to help. We swiftly packed up some items and embarked on the bus to Shanhai Pass the very next day. The journey was tiring but I could use it as a chance to travel and even felt refreshing. We didn’t talk much throughout the whole journey. Arriving at Shanhai Pass, A’s family was at the train station to pick us up. They were delighted to welcome us and even arranged the best hotel accommodation. It seemed that they truly regarded us both as saviors.

When we asked about the situation, we learnt that they had engaged several so-called ‘masters’ and tried out some methods but none actually worked. They had sought out whoever claimed to be able to pass on merit, but nothing had changed for the better. Now they could only tie A up at home. They couldn’t bear to send her to an asylum, but keeping her locked up was also not the way out.

After we parted with A’s family, I chatted with Qin Yiheng at the hotel.

He said that judging by what the family had told them, it should be nothing more than a common ghost possessing human, which wouldn’t be a huge deal. However, if it was that simple, the ‘masters’ they invited would have easily solved the case, unless those ‘masters’ were all frauds. If not so, then the matter indeed was strange.

I didn’t worry much after listening to Qin Yiheng. In any case, there was nothing I could help with; I would just stand by the side for the fun of it. We went to sleep early. The next morning, we headed straight to A’s house and the family was already waiting for us. Entering the bedroom, we saw A tied to a single bed. We were uncertain if A was asleep as she was just sitting on the bed in a feeble posture.

I walked over to take a look. True to what I had heard, there was something like a birthmark on her face. Qin Yiheng made one round in the room, lit up an incense stick and stood it in a bowl of rice. He then let us all withdraw from the bedroom, warning us to not disturb A and let her sleep peacefully. The matter needed to wait until nightfall to be handled.

A’s family heeded Qin Yiheng’s words and quickly retreated to the living room, squeezing into one spot to smoke. Qin Yiheng dragged me to a corner.

“It is an interesting case this time round. Have you ever seen an immortal?” he asked in a low voice.

I was stunned for a moment. Did he mean that A wanted to become an immortal? Just like those cultivation stories of ancient men?

“Do you mean that it isn’t an ‘unclean thing’ but an immortal that has attached to A?”

He smiled and said no. Then he glanced at the smoking group and said, “There are ghost soldiers in this group, do you believe it?”

Now I became even more confused. I looked at A’s family and counted exactly ten people. There were ghost soldiers among these ten people? Ghosts? Right under broad daylight? Just casually mixing in with a group of normal people to smoke? Discussing stock prices? Seriously, I wouldn’t believe it.

I quietly questioned Qin Yiheng, “Just tell me straight away, I can’t see anyone here to be a ghost soldier. By right, they are all relatives and must know each other. If someone is behaving strangely in such a gathering, the others will realise right away.”

Finally, Qin Ying stopped with all the ambiguity. He explained, stressing on each word, “The incense I burnt just now is Gong Xiang, a very expensive one! Look at them now. Whoever isn’t smoking must be sniffing on the incense².”

² Ghost soldiers, as well as common ghosts and deities in general, like the smell of incense. That is also why Buddhist/Taoist believers often burn incense on the altars and in front of the dead’s graves.

Hearing that, I quickly scanned my eyes through the group again. There were really four people who were not smoking: three women and one man. I couldn’t help but focus on the man, but after watching him for a while, I still didn’t find anything strange.

I turned back to ask Qin Yiheng. He pouted, “I just feel that there is such a thing in this room, but I’m not sure if it has attached itself to a person or where it is hiding.”

He continued, “Just now, I burnt the Gong Xiang incense as a bribe to the ghost solider. It’s some simple preparation and won’t do any harm to us anyway.”

I was a little nervous listening to that. But I thought that even if there were ghost soldiers nearby, they were summoned here under an official order, so they shouldn’t hurt normal people.

Qin Yiheng and I waited for a while and felt that it wasn’t convenient to discuss in this house, so we made an excuse that we wanted to eat out and headed outside. A’s family insisted on having us stay back so they could take us to eat some famous local dishes, but we refused.

Qin Yiheng was still excited as we went out, saying that this kind of thing was an interesting chance encounter, that one couldn’t just demand this to happen. He theorised that A was so frightened her soul was expelled from the body. There were many such tales in folklore. When the soul of the driver left the body upon his death, it happened to enter A’s body by mistake. It was likely that A’s soul still remained in the car. Definitely, the ghost soldier came here to collect the driver ’s soul, but now A’s body and soul were not that of the same person, so it became difficult for him to carry out his mission.

I was enlightened as I listened to his explanation. I remember that when I was a kid, there was a time when I got a big shock and the elders tried to ‘call back’ my soul. It wasn’t just some simple shouting. A lot of factors such as the right directions and the right methods had to be aligned. Due to circumstances, it took a few times to successfully call it back.

Qin Yiheng and I walked around the ancient city of Shanhai Pass, had lunch and returned to A’s house only in the afternoon. At this time, A was already awake and making a fuss on the bed, yelling to her family to not let ‘it’ take her away. Qin Yiheng explained this to me before, so I immediately understood that the one she was referring to was actually the ghost who came to collect the driver’s soul.

A’s family all gathered around the bed, no one daring to do anything while fully aware that just looking at A was not a way out either. They looked at us, their eyes begging for help. Qin Yiheng told them to get out of the room, leaving only three of us behind. Qin Yiheng bowed down and whispered something into A’s ear, then A straightened up, streams of tears falling down her cheeks. We waited until A stopped crying, then Qin Yiheng nodded at her and pulled me out of the room. He said to A’s family, “Later at night, each of you will go in and touch her forehead with your hand. Only one person at a time. When the previous person has come out, then the next person can enter.”

The family was puzzled but they all nodded quickly. I had no idea what sort of method Qin Yiheng had up his sleeves this time, but to be honest, it sounded a bit like bidding farewell to the dead in a funeral.

As I asked Qin Yiheng, he explained, “This is to give the ghost soldier an opportunity to take the soul away.”

“I’ve convinced the driver’s soul and he is willing to go to his next life, but it will be shameful to for him to let the ghost soldier drag his soul to Hell just like that. Sure, others can’t see, but the driver knows that I can see him. After all, I need to save the drive’s face and also give the ghost soldier a proper excuse.”

This theory of his really sounded so… amusing.

I had no idea if all servants of Hell would be so small-minded, but in any case, it seemed that this could be solved with such a simple method.

When it finally got dark, Qin Yiheng went to chat with A for a long time and didn’t even let me in. As he was done talking, his expression tightened up, looking as though he was incredibly restless. 

Going according to the agreed plan, A’s family members took turns to enter her room. After everyone had gone in and out, Qin Yiheng and I went in again and found A asleep. Qin Yiheng probed with his hand and confirmed that she was still breathing, then he quickly went out and asked A’s family to bring us to the ‘haunted car’.

We carried A on our back and headed for the car, which was still parked at the lot inside the traffic police station. When we passed by a park on the way, Qin Yiheng tweaked a branch from a willow tree³. As we stood next to the car, Qin Yiheng asked for the person that was closest to A in the family. He then handed the willow branch to the person and started drawing a circle around him. While drawing the circle, Qin Yiheng shouted the name of A. All other male members had to keep a distance, so a group of men gathered, from thirty meters away, to look over.

³ In Chinese belief, willow leaves, usually when used together with a few other materials such as a black dog’s blood, could summon a soul.

After around ten minutes, A regained her consciousness. At first she was still unsteady and unable to speak, but she could recognise her family. Qin Yiheng looked at her and affirmed that she would be fine after some resting, and advised her to get a lot of sunlight everyday.

A’s family is extremely grateful, so much so that they almost knelt down in front of us. After staying for another day, Qin Yiheng and I went back home. At this point, A was able to walk and talk normally. It was just that her body was weak and her memory wasn’t stable. The birthmark-like mark on the face still remained, but it didn’t matter anymore. After all, she could get her life back, why would she care about this trivial thing?

As I returned, the old friend insisted on paying me a sum. I rejected him many times over but gave in in the end. The money wasn’t a lot, but compared to the minimal cost that we paid for the trip, it was indeed quite a sum.

Since that day, Qin Yiheng and I rested for nearly a month. There was some news of other haunted houses, but because either the homeowner’s asking price was too high or the location was too far, both of us were too lazy to make a move. Not to mention, the real estate industry was particularly sluggish during that period and many houses began to cut prices, so I once again thought about abandoning this line of business. That said, after all, humans were happy this moment and greedy the next, the thirst for money would never go away so easily. Durin this time, we engaged some small businesses here and there. Although we didn’t make large profits, things were easy to handle. Many of them only needed Qin Yiheng to give instructions over the phone. 

One of the houses we visited during the period was subjected to demolition. Even though the two of us couldn’t solve the problem, we still managed to get some compensation.

This man was introduced to us by a relative of A. This was the difficult circumstance that he was in: A very old house had gone through repair too many times so they wanted to demolish it; theoretically, the demolition should be easy, but everytime they tried, the machines refused to work. He thus came looking for Qin Yiheng and even promised that he would pay a considerable reward regardless whether we succeeded or failed. Qin Yiheng went to take a look, then came back and told me that the foundation of the house couldn’t be bulldozed because it stood on an ancient turquoise that was guarding the house fervently. Even if there was an earthquake, the house would definitely stand intact. After learning that, I really felt that not everything could be reasoned with logic. Technology might be very developed now, but it couldn’t be said that modern buildings were as strong as this old house.

Qin Yiheng didn’t dare help with this matter because it would likely cause trouble to himself. But he did mention that everyday, at the time when the yin energy was at its peak, if we poured vinegar at the four directions of the foundation, there might be some impact. No one could confirm if such words were true. However, the house was finally demolished at one point. Perhaps the contractor managed to seek help from a powerful master.

Thereafter, we encountered a lot of to-be-demolished houses that faced a similar situation. Most of the time, when the demolition started, there would always be one or two rooms that couldn’t be taken down, and at least half of them were old houses. As to why they couldn’t demolish the rooms, there would be different reasons. For example, the machine suddenly failed, the main operator became ill unexpectedly, or the developer had ‘warning’ dreams that they must not destroy the place, and so on. Every time, Qin Yiheng would say that we had to stay away from such issues, for no matter how much money the other party promised, this was the type we couldn’t place our hands on. Besides, Yuan Zhen gave us more and more leads to consider, so we became extremely busy and placed our focus back on the ‘haunted houses’ business.

_______

Michelle’s elaboration time!

What exactly did Qin Yiheng do to get A’s soul back to her original body?

As he deduced that the ghost soldier must be hidden among one of the family members, he asked each of them to enter the room one by one to allow the ghost soldier to have time to communicate with the driver’s soul in private (because the driver’s soul refused to be taken away in front of everyone, or at least in front of Qin Yiheng). So by this point, we could safely believe that an agreement had been made between the driver’s soul and the ghost soldier.

Thereafter, he brought A (with the driver’s soul still in it) to the car where the actual soul of A remained inside. With the aid of the willow leaves and the connection with A’s closest family member, A’s soul was called back to her original body. At this moment, the driver’s soul left the body and the ghost soldier would guide him to Hell.