A Prophet - Chapter 3 (Part 4)
Chapter 4 - Ghost Marriage
The Second Boss spent all his time studying "flying paper" techniques and frequently discussed them with Grandfather. Grandfather deeply appreciated his ideas, and sometimes when they all drank together, Grandfather would praise him openly in front of the other gang bosses. Because the Second Boss constantly dealt with corpses, paper money, incense, and cinnabar, he always carried a faint scent of death about him—an odor that seemed impossible to wash off. Consequently, when visiting brothels, the courtesans were never very eager to get close to him, and it was only at moments like those that the other bosses felt a sense of psychological equilibrium. Once, while practicing his craft, the Second Boss accidentally trapped himself in his own web. Looking back, that incident was truly bizarre... In the twenty-fifth year of the Republic, the daughter of a drapery shop owner died. She died for love.
She had fallen in love with a progressive youth—the sort of intellectual young man who stood on the streets every day handing out flyers and giving speeches. Terrified that such a person would bring trouble, and seeing that the young man was as poor as a church mouse, the old shopkeeper adamantly refused to consent to the match. The girl pleaded with her father, but the old shopkeeper refused to budge. The girl then consulted with the young man, wanting him to talk to her father face-to-face and, if all else failed, kneel before the old man alongside her, staying on their knees until he agreed. But the young man dug in his heels out of sheer stubbornness, declaring, "A real man has gold under his knees! I kneel to heaven, I kneel to earth, I kneel to my parents, and I kneel to no one else!" Weeping, the girl said, "He will be your father-in-law in the future."
The young man replied, "He isn't one right now. He looks down on me, demeans me, and demeans the pure love between us! He's nothing but a comprador bourgeois!" The girl suggested, "Then let's elope. We'll leave, go far away to the ends of the earth, where no one will ever find us again!" The young man countered, "Why run away? A man of integrity always acts openly and aboveboard! How can we engage in such underhanded skullduggery?"
The girl pleaded, "Are you trying to drive me to my death?" The young man answered, "If you die, I will die immediately after. If we cannot be husband and wife in life, we will be together in death." When the young man spoke those words, he never expected the girl to take them seriously. That very night, the girl left a suicide note and threw herself into a well in the middle of the night. By the time her body was hauled up, her face was already swollen and distended. The old shopkeeper nearly wept his eyes out. He felt consumed with guilt toward his daughter, but since she was already dead, he resolved to give her a grand and lavish funeral! People in the neighborhood whispered among themselves: "It's inappropriate to hold a grand funeral for someone who died such a violent death. It's best to arrange a ghost marriage for her, so at least you do right by the deceased girl." In those days, ghost marriages were a very popular funeral custom. The idea was that young unmarried men and women who died would be lonely in the netherworld; without a partner, they would turn into wandering ghosts. To prevent this, one had to find them a companion and bury the two together so the dead could rest in peace. Of course, such opportunities for joint burial didn't pop up every day, and some grieving families had to wait several years before a newly deceased person of the opposite sex and a similar age appeared. Catching wind of this intelligence, the Second Boss recognized it as a golden opportunity to make a fortune. He petitioned Grandfather, and after carefully analyzing the situation, Grandfather authorized the Second Boss to take the lead in setting up the trap. Thereupon, an informant began whispering in the shopkeeper's ear, claiming that a certain Daoist master possessed the ability to summon souls. Since the girl had died bearing grievances, her restless spirit was wandering aimlessly, and a proper ritual had to be performed to summon and pacify her soul. Only then would a subsequent ghost marriage be "complete and auspicious." With his mind clouded by guilt, the old shopkeeper eagerly accepted the suggestion. This was actually a classic swindling trick; if one were to approach a family directly to propose a ghost marriage, it would breed suspicion. Appearing in the guise of a Daoist priest, however, would instantly command trust. The Second Boss told the old shopkeeper, "Before I left the mortal world to become a monk, my family was quite well-off. I had a younger brother who later fell ill and died at the age of eighteen. Over the years, my brother has also rested alone in an isolated grave. If the elder gentleman doesn't mind, we could unite them in a ghost marriage."
Seeing a glimmer of hope, the old shopkeeper asked the Second Boss, "What family does the Daoist master have left, and what are your parents' wishes?" The Second Boss replied, "My parents passed away one after the other from overwhelming grief. Now I am left entirely alone in this world, which is why I saw through the illusions of the mortal realm, donated my family fortune of tens of thousands of strings of cash, and devoted myself heart and soul to the Dao." Believing this matched his own social standing, the old shopkeeper said, "Your arrival, Daoist master, is truly a blessing that saves this old man!" In truth, the Second Boss had no younger brother whatsoever. He had simply dispatched his errand boys to scout out an old, dilapidated, and unmaintained lonely grave in the barren mountainside, dug the occupant up—regardless of whether it was male or female, old or young—placed the remains in a new coffin, and had it carried straight to the old shopkeeper's residence. This was truly scamming all the way to the ghosts' doorstep! Normally, ordinary Daoist priests wouldn't dare perform rituals for someone who died such a violent death, especially young women who died at night, as rumor had it they were bound to turn into vengeful spirits. But the A-bao swindlers had no such fears.
On the night of the ghost marriage, the Second Boss brought over a dozen errand boys to perform the ritual. A large red coffin sat in the courtyard, containing the bones of his so-called "younger brother." The girl's corpse, dressed in burial garments, lay upon a wooden couch, awaiting the conclusion of the rituals so they could be entombed and buried together. The Second Boss lit incense, took out prepared talismans, and plastered them all over the girl's body. Then, with his hair disheveled, he swayed unsteadily back and forth while muttering incantations under his breath. The moonlight overhead was brilliant when suddenly a dark shadow swooped up the courtyard tree with a swift whoosh. Startled, the onlookers looked up to see a stray cat that had wandered in from somewhere, climbing all the way to the treetop and perching on a branch, its eyes glowing with an eerie green light as it stared down at the scene below. The Second Boss continued his incantations. At that moment, a family dog that the girl had kept while alive crawled out of its kennel, crept quietly beneath the wooden couch where the girl's corpse lay, and flopped down. The Second Boss had previously studied the Secret Manual of Flying Paper alongside Grandfather, and one particular line stood out: "When clouds veil the moon and the hearts of cat, dog, and corpse align on a single thread, the corpse is bound to spring!"
The text warned that when swindlers performed rituals, they had to be extremely cautious of one specific scenario: when clouds obscured the moon, if the heart of a cat, the heart of a dog, and the heart of a dead body happened to fall along the exact same straight line, a corpse-jumping phenomenon would occur. Corpse-jumping meant the dead body would suddenly spring back to life, leaping up like a malevolent spirit to chase and bite people indiscriminately—a terrifying prospect indeed. As the ritual continued, one of the errand boys circling the corpse suddenly spotted the dog lurking beneath the death bed, and an overwhelming sense of foreboding gripped his entire body. He glanced up at the cat on the treetop, which was glaring down at everything with ghostly eyes. These three hearts seemed to be lining up on a single axis. He tapped the Second Boss on the shoulder, opening his mouth to sound the alarm, just as a mass of dark clouds shifted and swallowed the moon whole. Before the Second Boss could even react, the female corpse shot straight up into a sitting position, flung her eyes wide open, and with a gaping maw, lunged directly at the Second Boss. Utterly panicked and caught completely off guard, the Second Boss shrieked in terror, dropped his peach-wood sword, and bolted. Acting as if it possessed a personal grudge, the female corpse shrieked in guttural tones, held out both arms stiffly, and gave chase. Snatching up clubs in a panic, several errand boys rushed forward from behind and rained heavy blows onto the corpse's back. Absorbing several solid strikes, the female corpse finally lost her momentum. With a hollow gasp, her entire body stiffened and she collapsed heavily to the side, her primordial yang energy fully exhausted, dead once and for all. Yet she died with her grievances unredressed, her eyes fixed in a furious stare directly at the Second Boss. Upon learning of the incident, Grandfather immediately ordered the Second Boss: "Drop this scam! Heaven has grown wrathful! We match wits with living men, not with ghosts!" Medical science wasn't advanced enough back then for people to understand that corpses occasionally showed temporary muscular reflex spasms, so Grandfather genuinely believed Heaven's anger had been provoked. Afterward, the errand boys carried the coffin—housing whoever's remains they had dug up—back away. The old shopkeeper no longer insisted on a joint burial and instead buried his daughter separately. Grandfather instructed the errand boys to carry that coffin and its skeletal remains to the back mountains, establish a new grave site, and bury the bones properly. He had them burn copious amounts of paper money and placed offerings of pig head meat and rice wine on an altar table before the grave. When Grandfather led the assembled brothers in bowing three times, a sudden gust of unseasonal wind howled through the trees, sending the ash and smoke of the paper money swirling high up into the air...