Wen Shu, who couldn't hold his liquor, drank a few cups of cat's urine and then talked to me non-stop, boasting loudly.

  He told me that when he was young, he learned the trade from his master. He had done similar tasks many times before and back then, just like me, he was a young and ignorant kid. Whatever the master asked him to do, he would do it, including keeping vigil over the dead. Until one time, he encountered something strange that left a shadow in his mind until now.

  That was the time he was keeping vigil for a family whose elderly woman had died, the old lady of that house was quite unlucky, she fell into the river while taking a walk after dinner and was dead when people fished her out. At that time Wen Shu didn't understand anything, his master asked him to keep vigil, every hour he had to burn incense and kowtow, and couldn't let the lamp go out, after instructing him on some essential things, he went to sleep elsewhere. Wen Shu had done this kind of thing several times before, so he knew what to do and relaxed.

  He took a roasted chicken and a small stove prepared by the owner of this house, sat on the mat in front of the altar, eating and drinking while guarding the soul. The wine made him dizzy, and Wen Shu, who was not in good spirits, fell asleep. He didn't know when he suddenly heard some movement, so he woke up and saw that the room was pitch black. He muttered to himself that it wasn't good, then quickly took out a box of matches, but no matter how hard he tried, they wouldn't light. The matches seemed to have been dampened.

  At this time, the air in the house seemed to be very humid, and I don't know why. Fortunately, Uncle Wen finally lit a match, but just as the match ignited and brightened up the room, he saw what was said to be the most terrifying scene of his life.

  The old lady, who should have been lying in the coffin, was wearing a bright red and blue longevity dress, but at this moment she was actually leaning on the offering table, grabbing the steamed buns and meat offerings on it and quietly stuffing them into her mouth. Her face, wrinkled from being soaked in river water, flashed into Wen Shu's eyes the moment the match was lit, eating and laughing, forming a very eerie picture.

  Can't help but say, the story that Wen Shu told me is quite interesting. At this moment, I'm sitting next to him with a mouthful of eight-treasure roasted duck, listening to his ghost story like I'm listening to a storytelling session. The old man's words are so vivid that they're almost sparking fire, and I'm completely absorbed in the story, gasping for breath. It's really unexpected that he's actually good at telling stories, and someone like Wen Shu would be wasted if he didn't become a storyteller.

  As I chewed on the duck meat, I asked Wen Shu: "I said, and then what?"

  Wen Shu was taken aback for a moment, apparently collecting his thoughts. He picked up his wine cup and began to speak to me with a flourish: "And then that scene, it was quite thrilling! In today's language, it would be like a grand celebration with drums and firecrackers, red flags waving amidst a sea of people. Your uncle here, quick-witted as ever, grabbed a nearby object and knocked the old lady to the ground with one swift motion. Then, I took advantage of the opportunity to light the long-life lamp, stood up in a majestic pose, and began reciting the 'Great Compassion Mantra'. In the end, the old lady transformed back into a corpse."

  I felt like there was too much nonsense as soon as I heard this, how did Wen Shu go from being pretty good in the first half to talking nonsense in the second half? And what's with the gongs and drums, firecrackers going off everywhere, isn't he supposed to be reciting scriptures here, why are there people setting off firecrackers outside?

  This old guy is probably drunk again, his mouth is running like a train. Actually, he asked me earlier if I wanted to drink, but I thought we still had to stay up late tonight, so I didn't drink. So that bottle of Wuliangye was all drank by him. As for the cold dishes on the table, we ate quite a lot, of course, Wen Shu also did. The two of us changed from "avoiding meat" to "starting with meat".

  Looking at him drinking a bit dazed, I suddenly had an urge to pour nail polish remover into his drink, but fortunately I restrained myself. Let this old guy get drunk and go to sleep, anyway he's not much use when he's awake, with or without him it's all the same.

  So I didn't stop him, and after a while, this old guy was getting a bit tipsy, the wine was taking effect, and he said to me with some slurred speech: "Nono... that thing... it's all up to you now... give me some spirit..."

  Having said that, he went upstairs, presumably knowing where his room was.

  It's past five in the afternoon, and the night of early spring has just fallen. At this time, I'm full and don't know what to do. Fortunately, the things prepared by the Li family for Wen Shu and me are very complete, with cigarettes, wine, fruit, and everything else. The cigarettes are Su cigarettes, a whole pack, probably worth 400 or 500 yuan, which is quite generous. This point is in line with my thoughts, anyway, this is what we deserve. So I put two boxes of cigarettes in my clothes and took a string of bananas, then walked towards the main hall.

  Because I came to take a look every now and then while eating, the lamp couldn't have gone out. I took a chair and placed it in front of the brazier, burned some charcoal beforehand, and sat on the stool, right in front of me was the offering table, behind the offering table was the coffin, what's inside the coffin doesn't need me to explain.

  Are you asking me if I'm afraid? My answer is: Yes, I am very afraid.

  Although I have encountered too many such things and seen a lot of ghosts and monsters, in this environment, I still feel eerie. The large living room is left with only me, the first floor of the villa has floor-to-ceiling windows, the house is lit up, but outside it's pitch black, and Jiangbei belongs to the suburbs, where the wind blows constantly throughout the year. In early spring, the trees have not yet grown leaves, but the sound of the dry branches swaying in the yard is so eerie in this quiet suburb.

  The room is very quiet, so quiet that I can even hear the sound of peeling a banana skin, and my nose smells the burnt paper ash from before.

  At this moment, I was staring at the portrait of a girl with black and white flowers on the altar, and I have to say, it felt quite strange. Especially after knowing that there are ghosts in this world, I still came to guard the spirit. Although I had also dealt with female ghosts and knew they had their own thoughts, I was still made nervous by the environment. I knew I was just scaring myself, like many people do, enjoying the thrill of being frightened.

  It's quite laughable when I think about it later, because every time I scare myself and end up in a cold sweat.

  Although I felt a bit creepy, I gazed at the girl in the old photograph. She was really beautiful - this is true - with a melon-seed-shaped face, small mouth and a pair of big eyes that seemed to be speaking. In the photo, she was staring straight at me. Although her expression was smiling, it gave me the feeling that she wasn't actually smiling. I know this description doesn't quite fit, but under the reflection of the white flowers, her photograph should have given me a sense of a forced smile, yet somehow it looked more like a cold sneer.

  I stared at the person in the photo with wide eyes for a while, and I felt unbearable. If I kept looking, I would have to hypnotize myself, so I stopped staring at the photo. I took out my phone again and looked at it. From finishing dinner until now, only more than an hour had passed, and it was just past 7 o'clock. This is really depressing.

  The TV in this house is still installed in the next room, and I don't want to be as irresponsible as Uncle Wen. After all, death is a big deal. I couldn't leave for a long time halfway through, because it's disrespectful to the deceased. My yin-yang master creed doesn't allow me to do so. I don't know when I started, but I've slowly become integrated into my profession as a yin-yang master.

  But it can't be like this all the time, because it's too boring to say nothing of being easily frightened, and most importantly, if you sit for a long time, you'll easily get sleepy.

  So I took out my phone and started playing Tetris, forcing myself to distract my attention. Actually, this knockoff phone of mine is quite domineering, except for the one drawback that the signal is not good when you switch hands from left to right, basically there's nothing wrong with it. And it has many advantages, I can even use it to crack walnuts, don't mention it, I'm not heartbroken at all.

  It's actually true that the more valuable things are, the more prone they are to breaking. My knockoff phone is always getting bumped and bruised, but it still works smoothly.

  After playing for half an hour, I couldn't play anymore because it was really boring. I burned some more paper in the brazier and thought to myself that this wasn't a good solution either. At this rate, I'd be dead from sleepiness by midnight.

  No way, I have to think of a solution. So I thought and thought, suddenly, I had an epiphany, I came up with a brilliant idea - I can totally bluff Old Yi!

  With this old fellow as company, there's no need to be afraid, and we can chat and discuss what our next step should be. In that case, won't the night pass quickly?

  But I thought to myself, if I told Lao Yi the truth and asked him to come with me to keep vigil, he probably wouldn't agree, as this isn't exactly a good thing to do. I need to think of a way to make him willing to come.

  So I dialed Lao Yi's phone number, and when it connected, Lao Yi's voice came through: "Xiao Fei, what do you want?"

  I heard a noise from his side, it seemed like he was outside, so I asked him: "Old Yi, where are you now?"

  Lao Yi on the other end of the phone replied, "I'm sending Ya Xin back home now, what's wrong, is there something?"

  I was delighted as soon as I heard it, it seems that this guy really accompanied Zhang Yaxin for a day. So I said to him: "What's up, good things, I'm at the resort now, are you coming?"

  Lao Yi on the other end of the phone was clearly stunned, and he said somewhat inexplicably: "Aren't you supposed to be keeping vigil for someone? How come you're suddenly at Hua Shan Villa?"

  I thought to myself, if I tell you that I'm still keeping vigil at night, would you come and keep me company? So I said to him: "Ah, you're talking about that family, they messed up, they directly cremated the kid today, didn't even get a chance to keep vigil, but that family is still pretty grateful to Uncle Wen, so they gave him two vouchers for a holiday resort, all expenses paid, but Uncle Wen had something on tonight, so he didn't come, now one voucher is left over, are you coming or not?

  Lao Yi on the other end of the phone laughed as soon as he heard me say that. He said, "What great luck! I'll come, tell me your address!"

  After I finished telling him the address, I hung up the phone and thought to myself, haha, Old Yi, don't blame me, I had no choice either. When you arrive later, I'll properly apologize to you then.

  Actually, I'm also treating Lao Yi like a brother because I'm really quite scared now. After all, there's a coffin not far from me. This thing looks eerie, so I went to the dining room and took out some delicious food and a bottle of Wuliangye, preparing to apologize to Lao Yi when he comes later. After all, one should not hit someone with a smiling face, and Lao Yi should be able to understand me.

  Put those things aside, I saw that the incense in the censer on the table was almost burned out. So I got up and replaced it, lit five more with a lighter and put them in. As soon as I inserted the incense, I felt something was wrong.

  That faint wisp of blue smoke, as it rose, slowly twisted and turned, forming an irregular spiral shape. Watching this, I immediately became alert.

  At the same time, I seemed to hear some strange sounds by my ear.