People often find themselves doing something halfway and suddenly realize: Ah, why am I doing this, or why did I come here? They usually say: Ah, I got distracted, spaced out, it's all common.

  It's not uncommon for people to suddenly find themselves in a different city, with no recollection of why they came there or how they got there. This kind of confusion can be explained by science as being similar to sleepwalking.

  But there are some situations that even sleepwalking can't explain, that is, there is a voice in your brain that leads you to do something, usually Taoists think this is the person being captured by the heart and soul, being possessed by evil spirits, and folk generally call this situation being hooked by little ghosts.

  If it were me who was seduced, perhaps it wouldn't be too strange. After all, I'm just an ordinary person, maybe a bit more passionate than others, but people will always have their ups and downs. The Taoist philosophy of yin and yang teaches that when one's luck is good for a while, it will inevitably decline slightly, as the full moon wanes.

  But Cha Wenbin is different, who is he? He's a Taoist priest. To take it a step further, he always carries a cloth bag on his back, which never leaves his side. Inside the bag are all sorts of things like compasses, command tokens, talismans, and flags, all of which are genuine articles passed down from his ancestors. Each one is an evil-repelling artifact. Moreover, he wears the Heavenly Orthodox Taoist sect's official seal on his person, inscribed with the four characters "Heavenly Master Treasure". This treasure was left behind by the founder of the sect, Ling Zhengyang, so what kind of evil spirit would dare to try and possess him?

  Zha Wenbin realized that he might have been misled by something and was also startled, breaking out in a cold sweat. He said: "Let's sort it out, first I met Liu Lao Da when we came back, and he asked me to help him. Then we went to Gao Cheng's house, took out the coffin, and then you had a car accident but were unscathed. After that, my aunt Jin Feng told me not to get involved in this matter, but I insisted on bringing it here. Xiao Yi, these seemingly unrelated events are connected like this, do you think it was a coincidence that we met Liu Lao Da as soon as we came back?"

  "It must be a coincidence, that day he was showing my family the house foundation, but now that you mention it, Aunt Jin Feng did seem a bit strange, she's been like this for several days, her fever has gone down but she still can't speak. I think she might know something you don't know. And also, now that you mention it, I'm starting to remember, that day when we were on the bus, I said there were nine people in the car, but Lin Baobao said ten people, and indeed, including me, there were only nine people... later I remembered that when I fell down, I seemed to see a person wearing white clothes flash by..."

  "Alright, let's assume that the accident you were involved in was indeed caused by some kind of supernatural force. What could be its motive?"

  "The motive is to delay the time!" I suddenly understood a bit: "I was injured, you must have rushed over. At that time, it was planned to bury Gao Cheng the next morning, but you opposed it. But I had an accident, you came back, Gao Cheng was buried as scheduled, and then we went to retrieve the coffin. There's one more thing I didn't ask you, why couldn't Gao Cheng be buried?"

  "Gaotai's eight characters lack the element of earth, so his name has a 'city' character, but he died in an intercalary month. Usually, it is not advisable to bury people before the intercalary month because it is an extra month that appears out of nowhere, and it is said that people born in this month are auspicious, but those who die are not. This is one reason; secondly, he died an untimely death, and from his eight characters, he should have had 19 more years of life. People who die prematurely often have grievances, and if they are not given a proper sendoff, it may lead to trouble; thirdly, you all went up there during the day with many people and strong yang energy, so you were not afraid, but red burials always have their taboos. Ancient people believed that the color red represents life, blood is red, fire is red... The loss of blood, stagnation of blood; the extinguishing of fire means the end of life. The living need the support of blood and fire, and the dead also need the nourishment of blood and fire. In such a burial environment, the deceased can seem to come back to life, their soul not extinguished. Therefore, it is possible for people to come back to life from a red burial. Gaotai's soul was actually lost there, already buried in the earth. If we had not found his lost soul before burying him, the soul that entered the earth would feel that its body has perished and become a vengeful spirit. But his soul is trapped in the red burial and cannot come out; after a long time, it will turn into an evil entity and may come out to harm people. Originally, I wanted to use a life-extending lamp to create an illusion that Gaotai was still alive, then think of a way to lead his lost soul back from outside, and then give him a proper sendoff so he could reincarnate and eliminate the karmic obstacle. But now it's all in vain."

  "That's it, delay the time, after Gaicheng is buried, lift him here, Wen Bin, can a dead person really have such great ability to control living people?"

  Cha Wenbin was also bewildered, for the first time he felt that he wasn't a particularly powerful Taoist. In his memory, being a Taoist used to be a profession, many people made a living from it, and he had even heard of some Taoists or practitioners who died while performing rituals. But now the Taoist community has withered away, and someone who can read the eight trigrams and set up an altar is already considered quite impressive. The times have changed, especially in China which has gone through the baptism of the Cultural Revolution, many ancient things have disappeared just like that.

  The Taoists are gone, but what about the filthy things? In the past, there were, and now they still exist. They haven't been knocked down by the Cultural Revolution. On the contrary, a batch of things that suppress evil spirits have been destroyed, capable people have been suppressed, and more people would rather go home to farm than be Taoists. This has created fertile ground for their possible rise. If there are as many filthy things as described in "The Investiture of the Gods", even if there is a Jiang Ziya now, it's not certain that they can be cleaned up. This era is truly a prosperous age for filthy things!

  "Xiao Yi, look at you now, you have money in your pocket, you don't lack food or clothes, and you've seen the world. But I feel that people these days are not as genuine as they used to be. Everywhere you go, there's cheating and deception going on. I don't know if it's the times that have changed or if it's people's hearts that have changed."

  "You're thinking too much, I'm still the same me." I offered him a cigarette, but he refused. I took a puff and said: "You're a bit stubborn, if you say it big, it's just being obstinate, if you say it small, it's just old-fashioned. You say you don't do anything all day, just drawing symbols and catching ghosts, what do you eat? Even if you open a Taoist temple, you don't have the proper procedures, the higher-ups won't let you handle it, where does your incense money come from to maintain it? Don't blame yourselves for becoming fewer and fewer Taoists, you've also been to Hong Kong, even going to Guangzhou to resell some broken goods would earn more than you."

  Cha Wenbin burst out laughing, I said these things and he wouldn't get angry, he also didn't spend much money, not smoking or drinking, all year round wearing a long shirt, like an ancient person, two pairs of cloth shoes on his feet, alternating between them, his hair doesn't even need to be combed, it's tied up! The other day Zhu Zihao gave him some money, I gave it all to him, that guy has no concept of money, he just eats a few grains of rice.

  "Some things, someone has to do them, otherwise it's like my master, who's been crazy all his life. At least he raised me up, what else does he want? From a young age, he taught me to follow my heart, and by the time I was seven, I could see through the workings of heaven. He knew what I should be doing with my life. It's just that in the end, my skills are still too shallow, if my master knew, he'd rise from the dead to beat me."

  "What are we going to do now, Master Dao? The sky will be bright in two hours. Should we go home and sleep or continue searching for those two damned corpses?"

  Found!

  How to find? I won't know, Wen Bin will know, there are special methods for special doors.

  He cleared a patch of grass, inserted three incense sticks, and took out a yellow paper with eight characters written on it, which was the Ba Zi of Gao Cheng. His hands were quite skilled, and with a quick tear, he tore the paper into a small human shape, complete with head and face.

  There was straw all over the ground, Zha Wenbin found a wooden stick and temporarily tied up a small scarecrow, about the size of a doll. He stuffed the paper into the scarecrow's chest and leaned it against one side, saying to me: "After a while, you'll hold this thing, close your eyes, calm down and ask where to go, it will take you there."

  I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me?" At this time, Cha Wenbin took another section of red rope and tied it to my middle finger without saying a word. The other end was tied to the waist of that straw man. He then pricked my middle finger with a silver needle and suddenly stabbed it into the top of the straw man's head.

  "Close your eyes!"

  I hastily closed my eyes, and all I heard was a crisp ringing sound in my ear. "Ding" went the sound, and I knew it was his Three Clearing Devil Bell ringing again. He lightly shouted: "The fragrance floats, one soul returns, holding the golden bell to ride the cow upside down; three shouts gather two souls, pointing at the red door with no blood flowing; carving wood into a puppet, three souls together, a red thread, life hangs by a thread! The Supreme Old Lord's urgent order is like a law!"

  "Ding" was another crisp ring, it's strange to say, I suddenly felt my middle finger move involuntarily, and I could feel the string on my finger contract. Then I started to feel a blankness in my head, as if I had been suddenly thrown somewhere, wanting to move but unable to, yet my consciousness was still clear.

  I wanted to ask if Wen Bin was okay, but my throat was blocked and I couldn't speak. Just then, a faint voice whispered in my ear: "You only have the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, don't slack off, focus your mind on what's right in front of you, follow him, tell yourself that the one standing ahead is Gao Cheng!"

  I wonder if you've ever tried something, can you feel the exact moment when you fall asleep? I never have, even though I try to every time before I sleep, but I always fail because once I'm asleep, I don't know anything. I often think that maybe it's the same from birth to death, perhaps, because when my feet start moving, my soul has already moved into that scarecrow, as Cha Wenbin said, in that moment of incense time, the real me behind is just an empty shell...