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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 102: The Vision Before Death
Hearing this, I realized that the child had just drowned not long ago. Unlike other spirits whom I could help, I could do nothing for this water ghost because to save them, one must jump into the river and exchange their own life for theirs to be reborn.
Although I am dedicated to doing good deeds and accumulating merit, I am not yet compassionate enough to sacrifice my life for a water ghost.
I told him that while I sympathized with his plight, I was unable to help him. He should wait here quietly; heaven has a benevolent nature, and as long as he does not cause harm, a substitute will come to allow him to be reborn.
I was not lying; not every drowned ghost needs to harm others in order to be reborn. Some vengeful spirits that die in the water become water ghosts and wait for years until someone deserving falls into the river, becoming their substitute.
However, upon hearing that I was unwilling to help him, the little boy began to cry. He said, "I am only twelve years old. A few days ago, my classmates took me to bathe in the upper reaches of the river, and I was dragged underwater by a water ghost, becoming its substitute. It’s so unfair that I died like this. Now, I miss my dad and want to return to the shore. It’s so dark and cold down here, and I'm so scared. Please have pity on me and pull me up! I don’t want to be alone underwater; I'm really afraid."
Hearing him say this made me feel quite uncomfortable; he truly was pitiful. But no matter how pitiful he was, he was still a water ghost, and there were limits to what I could do. So I sighed helplessly and said, "This is all fate; perhaps it is due to causes from your past life that you have this result in this life. The cycle of cause and effect is predetermined."
What I meant was that the reason he became a substitute for the water ghost in this life must stem from causes he planted in his past life. Therefore, he should not feel wronged but rather find peace without harboring resentment.
The little boy seemed somewhat resigned after hearing this. He said, "Aren't you a kind-hearted person who does good deeds? If you come down, you can help me be reborn. Isn’t our meeting today also a result of past causes? Look at how small I am; I have to suffer alone in this cold river water. If you don’t help me, I will have to wait at the bottom of this river day after day, year after year for hundreds or even thousands of years. I'm really so pitiful; please save me!"
To be honest, his words did sway me a bit. Yes, who could say that meeting him wasn’t a cause I planted in my past life? However, asking me to use my life in exchange for his rebirth—though I consider myself a good person and not a bad one—I still wasn’t at that Bodhisattva level of compassion. All I could do was sigh and say, "All cause and effect have their own predetermined outcomes. Today you fell into the water; you were unable to take me as your substitute—that is fate. Seeing your plight, if you have any unfulfilled wishes, please tell me quickly; perhaps I can help you with one or two."
At this moment, the water ghost understood that it was impossible for me to serve as its substitute and felt somewhat sad. After a moment of silence, it said, "My bones are still in the water; my parents must be heartbroken because they cannot find me. Please tell my family that I'm here."
This request is not high, so I nodded in agreement and then asked for his family's address and names before leaving. I left the water ghost standing on the surface of the water, crying with a face full of sorrow...
He is very pitiful, but all of this is destined; no one owes him anything.
The next day, I followed the address given by the water ghost and found his family. When his parents saw me at their door, they asked what was the matter.
I looked at his parents, who were clearly overly saddened in recent days, their eyes still red and swollen. So I asked them, "Are you looking for your son?"
Upon hearing my question, the parents nodded vigorously and said, "Our son went swimming in the river with some other children a few days ago and hasn't returned. The other children said he was swept away by the water, but we have searched for several days without finding him. Did Brother see our son?"
I nodded and then told them that their child was under that bridge.
They all began to cry, knowing that this meant their son had indeed drowned. Subsequently, I led them to under the bridge, and soon we finally brought the child's corpse up from the water. The child had been caught on a rebar sticking out from a bridge pillar; if no one knew the exact location, it would indeed be very difficult to find underwater.
The child was the same one I had seen last night. The corpse was taken back home, and both parents were heartbroken. They were also curious and asked how I knew the child's corpse was under the bridge pillar. I recounted what had happened last night, which made them even more sorrowful.
I offered some words of comfort, and they felt a little better. Then, the child's mother told me that there had been some strange occurrences in the days leading up to the incident; they just hadn't paid much attention to it. If they had known earlier, they would have kept a closer watch on their child to prevent this from happening.
I believe that people exhibit some abnormalities in the days leading up to their death, so I simply told them that all of this was destined from the start; no matter how closely you watch, it is useless.
They nodded and then shared with me the strange things that had happened before their child’s accident. It turned out that in the days leading up to the incident, whenever the parents got up in the middle of the night, they would often see their son sitting in the living room talking to himself.
At first, the parents didn't think much of it; when they asked him why he wasn't sleeping, he wouldn't respond but just sat there in a daze. This went on for several days until later on when they felt something was off because when they asked their son why he was sitting in the living room at night instead of sleeping, he claimed he had been asleep and hadn’t gotten up to go to the living room at all.
However, the parents were very certain that their son would indeed get up in the middle of the night and sit in the living room, talking to himself as if there were someone else in the living room chatting with him.
Until the day of the incident, it was still morning, just as dawn was breaking. The child's mother had just gotten up to prepare breakfast when she suddenly heard the living room door open. She went out to take a look and saw a tall dark figure entering her home. At that moment, the mother was startled because she couldn't see what the person looked like. But when she rubbed her eyes, the person had disappeared, and the door was closed, as if no one had entered at all.
The mother told this to the father, and both felt uneasy. During the day, some children came over to play, and a group of kids were playing in the yard. There were many boards in the yard, and the father was using these boards to prepare to build a partition wall in their home.
Suddenly, the son lay down on one of the boards and remained still, as if he were sleeping. The father called out for him to get up quickly because the board was dirty.
But the son stubbornly refused to get up and began kissing that board vigorously while giggling, saying to his father: "If I die, I want to sleep on this board. Dad, please use this board to make me a coffin!"
At that moment, the father found his words very jarring and ominous. He scolded his son for being so young and asked where he learned such things, pulling him off the board and even making him cry.
After being scolded, the son cried while his other friends took him outside to play, and the father didn't pay much attention. However, once they went outside, they never came back. Soon after, other children rushed into his house crying and told him that his son had been swept away by water.
The parents nearly fainted from shock and hurried to where their son had fallen into the water. They searched for three or four days but could not find their child's corpse.
Listening to the parents recount these events made me sigh repeatedly. Indeed, there are often some unusual signs before a person's death. For example, some people will go touch their coffin during those last few nights. Generally in the countryside, when an elderly person passes away, their children will make a coffin for them, paint it black, and place it in an attic or other places that are usually unvisited. However, before an elderly person dies, their children often hear someone going up to the attic at night causing a loud "thud" noise with the coffin. The next day when they check on it, they find fingerprints all over the coffin lid.
Additionally, there are cases where dogs kept at home will bark incessantly during those last few nights before someone dies as if a stranger has come outside at night. Everyone should know that dogs typically do not bark at familiar people; they only bark when they see strangers—especially more aggressively at night. Yet if you open the door or window to check outside, you will find no one there. Still, the dog continues barking fiercely.
There are many such unusual occurrences before death; this is not surprising at all. I comforted the child's parents by telling them that since their son liked that board while he was alive, they should use that board to make him a coffin!
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