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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Six: Encountering a Ghost at Midnight
If there are really ghosts in this world, then who is afraid of whom—people afraid of ghosts, or ghosts afraid of people? Today, I will share a story of my own, which I will tentatively title "Scaring the Ghost."
That day was the Lunar Fifteenth, and the moonlight was exceptionally bright, illuminating the entire earth with a brilliant whiteness. A gentle night breeze blew, causing the branches on both sides of the mountain path to rustle and sway, casting a swaying shadow on the ground under the moonlight.
Although it was a full moon night, the section of the mountain path before me was particularly dark. This stretch of road was lined with Giant Trees that blocked all the moonlight.
This mountain path was my only way home. When I was younger, every time I walked this road, I would feel a creeping sensation. I had heard from the elders that the giant trees along this path had turned into demons, and there were tales of a Ghost Wall appearing here. Some even said that an Evil Spirit lurked along this road to lure souls. But no matter how frightening this path was, I had to muster my courage and walk through it.
The dark mountain path was pitch black; nothing could be seen. Only the old road paved with bluestone showed some white, and I had to follow this white Bluestone Slab as I walked.
The Giant Trees on both sides might have been swaying due to the wind, making sounds like ghostly wails or wolf howls. I was so scared that cold sweat poured down my back; I didn’t dare to check if it was just the wind or if there really were ghosts crying. I feared that if I looked, I might actually see something terrifying.
Aside from the sound of the wind and the rustling of the trees, all that remained was the sound of my own footsteps echoing in the darkness. The sound of my footsteps always made me feel as if someone were following me from behind. However, when I hurriedly turned around to look, there wasn’t even a shadow of a ghost.
I took out a pack of White Sand Cigarettes that cost five yuan and lit one up, humming a little tune. This made me feel much more at ease.
After walking about halfway down the mountain path, I suddenly saw a White-Clad Figure appear ahead. My heart jumped into my throat; my first reaction was—ghost!
But before I could get a good look, that figure in white turned a corner and disappeared.
Thinking I must have been seeing things, I quickly quickened my pace to catch up with this person in white. Although fear gripped me tightly, if I didn’t catch up to see clearly who it was, my fear would only grow.
I hurried along and finally caught sight of that figure again. He was tall and dressed entirely in white, wearing a Conical Hat. Although his attire seemed somewhat strange, that Conical Hat was something commonly worn by people from our Village when they went to work in the fields. Seeing this made me think he must be from our Village. Moreover, in our remote mountain village, outsiders rarely passed through; naturally, this person in white must be one of us.
Realizing that he should be a fellow villager and not one of those ghosts or monsters spoken of by the village elders eased my mind.
The figure in white moved very quickly; perhaps he was frightened too, which is why he walked so fast. So I devised a plan and quietly followed him; I wanted to scare him a little.
To avoid being discovered by him, I controlled each step I took to be extremely light. When I was close behind him, I even held my breath.
Before long, I had stealthily approached the man in white. Then, I suddenly pushed off the ground and shouted, "Hey!"
This shout echoed loudly in the dark and silent night, enough to scare someone out of their wits.
I saw the man in white jump in surprise, his whole body shuddering, and then he vanished. He disappeared into thin air!
I was stunned!
After being dazed for a few minutes, I finally realized that this man in white was not human at all. I then shouted, "A ghost!" and ran away without caring about the dark mountain path beneath my feet, just running wildly. I fell but got back up and kept running...
When I returned home, I fell ill that very night. Later, my grandfather immediately recognized that I had encountered something unclean, so he drew talismans and recited incantations to help me recover.
I believe many people have encountered dirty things like I did late at night; it's just that very few know about it. Next, I'll share one or two experiences of encountering ghosts at night.
Speaking of which, Zhang Xu is a greenhouse farmer. Early this morning, he went to the market as usual to sell vegetables.
At this time, the sky was just beginning to brighten, with a thin mist lingering in the air, making visibility somewhat unclear.
After setting up his stall, all Zhang Xu could do was wait. However, he noticed that today's market felt different from usual; it seemed much quieter than normal.
While he was pondering this, three women with their heads down approached his stall. They didn't speak but pointed at the vegetables with fingers covered by long sleeves.
Zhang Xu was puzzled; why didn't they look up or say anything? Were they mute? And there were three of them! Unable to hold back, he blurted out the prices of the vegetables.
At that moment, the one pointing at the vegetables spoke without looking up: "Look at yourself!"
"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Xu was taken aback for a moment and then felt that her words were chillingly eerie.
Zhang Xu subconsciously glanced around, and what frightened him even more was that the people nearby were all looking down, each with disheveled hair and expressionless faces, moving back and forth.
Watching this scene, cold sweat began to form in the palms of Zhang Xu's hands, and he felt cold sweat trickling down his back. He wanted to run, but his feet wouldn't obey him.
The three people were still talking about something, but Zhang Xu was too scared to say a word, not even daring to breathe.
A chilling aura continuously assaulted Zhang Xu's body, making him feel as if he was about to freeze. His gaze occasionally darted toward the three people in front of him, only to find that all those "people" were now surrounding him, each muttering some incomprehensible words.
"Don't come over, don't come over, Bodhisattva bless me, Bodhisattva bless me..."
Finally, the sun rose at that moment. One of Zhang Xu's friends saw him huddled in a corner shivering and muttering to himself. He jokingly called out, "Hey, what time did you and your daughter-in-law stay up until last night? Still sleeping now!"
Called back by his friend's words, Zhang Xu slowly opened his eyes and realized he was still at the market. Perhaps it had all been a dream, but it felt too real.
When Zhang Xu returned home feeling uneasy, he found his daughter-in-law counting today's earnings and noticed there was actually ghost money in the wallet.
Only now did Zhang Xu recall the few people he had seen that morning with their heads down. Looking back, those people looked just like the dead, and he hadn't been dreaming at all.
Then Zhang Xu fell seriously ill and kept talking nonsense. His daughter-in-law thought he had a high fever, but when they went to the hospital, the doctor simply told them to go home; they couldn't treat this illness and informed her it was a strange disease.
With no other choice, his daughter-in-law brought Zhang Xu back home. The villagers also learned about this matter and came to visit.
In the village, there was a teacher named Wu Wei who was knowledgeable. After visiting, he directly told Zhang Xu's daughter-in-law that Zhang Xu had encountered something dirty and needed a shaman to take a look.
Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged glances, unsure of what this "dirty thing" really was.
The shaman was finally invited over. After examining Zhang Xu, she told his daughter-in-law that he had stumbled into a ghost market and could only blame his bad luck; however, it wasn't anything serious.
Soon after a few words from the shaman, Zhang Xu gradually fell into a quiet state and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The shaman told everyone before leaving that such occurrences are rare and can only happen in specific special circumstances. In the future, if you feel something is off while at the market, don’t be afraid; after all, they are just there to buy things and won’t harm anyone. If you panic, it’s very likely that you could be haunted by something unclean. Moreover, these spirits will leave before sunrise.
Later, I heard my grandfather say that this is called "ghost market," where, at a specific time and in a particular environment, the deceased return to purchase some earthly items using paper money. At that time, it would be impossible to tell. There are many instances of this happening, such as taxi drivers working at night or gas station attendants on night shifts receiving paper money from the deceased. Next, I will share a supernatural story I heard about a taxi driver.
There was a Master Zhu from Henan who had been driving a taxi in Hangzhou for some time. Recently, the weather in Hangzhou had been extremely hot; however, for Master Zhu, who worked night shifts, it didn’t affect him much. On the contrary, due to the heat during the day, people were reluctant to go out, making taxi business much better at night. That day, the radio announced that due to Typhoon "Sula," Hangzhou would experience heavy rain and strong winds, advising citizens to be cautious when going out, especially when driving. For taxi drivers, such warnings were irrelevant; after all, they had families to support and couldn’t just stop working because of a radio announcement. If they did that, they wouldn’t earn any money and would end up losing their shift fees.
In fact, Hangzhou was only affected by the outer edges of the typhoon; the wind wasn’t strong and the rain wasn’t heavy either. The temperature had dropped significantly, which was a relief for the people of Hangzhou who had been suffering from the heat for so long. However, after Master Zhu started his shift that evening, he couldn’t feel happy at all. Normally during rush hour in the evening, it was hard to find an empty taxi; but today, for some unknown reason, his taxi had no passengers despite the empty light being on. He drove around but didn’t manage to pick up a single fare.
On Yan'an Road, he saw a passenger waving on the side of the road; however, by the time he stepped on the gas to reach them, they had already gotten into another taxi. When he reached Sports Stadium Road and saw someone waving for a ride from a side alley, he disregarded the double yellow lines and made a U-turn immediately but still failed to catch up with another taxi that smoothly stopped in front of that passenger. Master Zhu felt quite frustrated; it was already past 8 PM and normally he would have made hundreds of dollars by this time—yet today he hadn’t earned anything!
What could he do? He checked his empty light and top light several times; everything seemed fine. His service qualification certificate was properly displayed on the dashboard of the passenger seat, and his green-and-white Hangzhou taxi was easily recognizable as an authentic vehicle. So why couldn’t he get any passengers?
Master Zhu refused to believe in such bad luck! He drove north along Teaching Staff Road from Huanglong Sports Center and thought to himself that if no one hailed his taxi, he would just keep driving! But things were strange; no matter how far he drove from south to north along Teaching Staff Road or even onto Daguang Road into Shen Banlu, no one waved him down.
He stubbornly continued along Shen Banlu until he reached Hanggang where he finally smiled. Under the dim streetlights were several children who looked about middle school age anxiously trying to hail a taxi by the roadside. Master Zhu quickly pulled over without caring whether he was overloaded since they were small enough to squeeze in.
Once they got into the car and closed the door, one boy in the front seat said to Master Zhu: “To Super Mountain please! Hurry up; we’re late for a wedding!”
Master Zhu thought it was strange that they were rushing to a wedding so late at night. Nevertheless, he quickly engaged the clutch and started driving towards Super Mountain. That area was already considered out of town; however, Master Zhu didn’t think twice about leaving town since these polite kids didn’t seem like troublemakers at all. Besides that initial destination request, they hadn’t said anything else and sat quietly in the car—clearly well-behaved children.
When they reached near Super Mountain, one boy in the front seat said: “Driver! Please stop here; we’ve arrived! Here’s your fare—no need for change.” He tossed Master Zhu a hundred-dollar bill. The moment the car stopped and before Master Zhu could react or ask for payment receipts, all seven kids hurriedly jumped out of the car and dashed towards a house at the foot of the mountain.
Master Zhu glanced at the meter; from Hanggang to Super Mountain only cost about twenty or thirty dollars. With this hundred-dollar bill thrown at him with no need for change—could it be counterfeit? He quickly took out his bill validator from an earlier promotional event and verified it; after confirming it was real money, he felt relieved. Shaking his head while looking at that brightly lit farmhouse down by the mountain foot—despite being rainy weather—he could vaguely see people moving around inside as if there was indeed a celebration happening in this rural area.
That night he finally made one fare after so long; Master Zhu thought maybe now he could earn some pocket change. He hurried back into town to continue searching for passengers. But strangely enough after that one fare, it was as if things returned to how they were before—he drove around but still couldn’t find anyone wanting his ride!
Master Zhu parked on the roadside and lit a cigarette while checking himself in the makeup mirror. Even though he had only made one fare all night long, his reflection didn’t show a face full of frustration over national unification issues—instead he looked somewhat handsome; not charming enough to captivate everyone but certainly harmless enough. “Alright then,” Master Zhu decided. “I should head home early and get some sleep.” He drove back to their usual shift change location with day shift drivers where he parked his car securely before locking it up and returning home to take a shower. He placed that hundred-dollar bill received earlier under his cigarette box on his bedside table before heading off to bed.
The next day around noon Master Zhu finally woke up. Lying in bed thinking about yesterday's strange events made him roll over and get up quickly. He had a habit of smoking first thing in the morning; when he reached for his cigarette box on the table suddenly he felt shocked and broke into a cold sweat: The hundred-dollar bill beneath it had vanished! In its place lay a paper note printed with an image of Jade Emperor! That hundred-dollar bill which he had verified as real money—how could it have turned into paper money?
This Room is rented by him alone, and no one else has a key. The doors and windows are intact, and the cigarette box that was pressed down on the cash last night before he went to sleep hasn’t been moved. How could such an unbelievable thing happen? He quickly took out his phone and called his Fellow Villager who drives a taxi in Hangzhou. Before long, several Fellow Villagers arrived at his home. He detailed what happened last night to his Fellow Villagers, but they found it hard to believe. However, the Ming Coin with the Jade Emperor's portrait was indeed sitting there on the table, and Master Zhu is not someone who jokes around. Besides, who would joke about something like this? After some discussion, the Fellow Villagers decided to take a car and retrace the route that Master Zhu took last night.
They called a Fellow Villager who works the day shift, and Master Zhu sat in the passenger seat to guide them as they drove north along Shen Banlu.
“It was right by that lamppost where I got into the car,” Zhu pointed out the spot where the kids got in yesterday.
“Is it here? Isn’t that Banshan Cemetery just up ahead?” said a Fellow Villager who had been driving taxis in Hangzhou for many years. Everyone felt it was strange after hearing this.
“Let’s go check out where they got off,” someone suggested.
“Let’s go take a look; I don’t believe this!” Master Zhu gritted his teeth and said.
Near Super Mountain, at the foot of the mountain just a few dozen meters off the National Highway, there was a quiet Farmhouse Courtyard. At the entrance stood Master Zhu and his several Fellow Villagers.
“Is this the place?” someone asked.
“Yes, this is it; I saw it clearly last night,” Master Zhu said. “Last night, it was brightly lit with people coming and going, just like a celebration in a farming Village.”
“But now it’s quiet here; there are no red couplets posted at the entrance. It doesn’t look like a celebration just happened.”
“Let’s go inside and ask.”
Master Zhu and his group pushed open the slightly ajar courtyard door, and inside, a man wearing a dirty white apron looked at them in confusion: “Who are you----------?”
“It’s nothing, nothing,” Master Zhu quickly handed him a cigarette and asked, “Big brother, did you have a celebration at your house last night?”
“No.”
“No? I passed by here around 8 or 9 PM yesterday and saw your house brightly lit with people coming and going; it looked very much like you were celebrating!”
"Oh------" The uncle in the white apron revealed a slight smile on his somewhat tired face. "You mean that? Last night, our sow gave birth. Come and see, over there, she had seven piglets!" He pointed to the pigpen.
When Master Zhu and the others looked over, they were all astonished: in the pigpen, an Old Mother pig stood quietly, with seven newly born piglets lined up beside her, happily nursing with their little mouths.
There are indeed many incidents of taxi drivers collecting ghost money. For example, there was a taxi driver in Lanzhou who had a streak of bad luck. One night while picking up passengers, he found it strange that not a single customer showed up all night. As it approached midnight, he decided to call it a night and head home. Just then, on the quiet street, an Old Lady was silently waving at him.
The taxi driver had already planned to finish his shift and didn’t want to take any more passengers. However, seeing that it was an Old Lady alone in the middle of the night, he felt it would be difficult for her to find a ride, so he drove over.
Once the Old Lady got into the car, the driver asked where she wanted to go. The Old Lady replied that she wanted to go to the funeral home. Upon hearing this, the driver immediately regretted picking her up; after all, who goes there at such an hour?
But now that the Old Lady was already in the car, he had no choice but to proceed with this fare. He drove cautiously while the Old Lady sat silently in the back seat. Upon arriving at their destination, the Old Lady paid him and slowly got out of the car before disappearing.
However, when the driver looked down to count his money, he discovered that it was all ghost money!
That night, he sped home without sleeping a wink. At dawn the next day, he rushed to the funeral home and asked the attendant if an Old Lady had come by last night. The attendant said he hadn’t seen any Old Lady.
The driver couldn’t believe it because he clearly saw her enter through the funeral home’s door after getting out of his car. Seeing that the driver didn’t believe him, the attendant said that while no living person came by last night, they did receive a body of an Old Lady earlier in the evening. At this point, he pointed inside and said that they were currently holding a funeral.
Following where the attendant pointed, the driver saw a group dressed in mourning clothes slowly carrying an urn out for a funeral. When he caught sight of the black-and-white photo being held by some of them at the front of the procession, he broke into a cold sweat because that Old Lady he had driven last night was exactly like the one in that photo!
At this point, it was clear to him that he had encountered a ghost last night. However, his streak of bad luck wasn’t over yet; just a few days later, he experienced something similar again. That night, he picked up a beautiful woman wearing a white dress who said she wanted to go to Longhua Mountain. Longhua Mountain was quite far out of town, but since she was a young girl, he didn’t think much of it.
By late at night, after driving her to her destination and letting her out of the car, she paid him and said there was no need for change; he could keep it. When he got home and took another look at what she had given him, he was horrified—just like before with the Old Lady, all of it was ghost money!
From that day on, this taxi driver never dared to drive at night again because he feared encountering ghosts!
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