My name is Zhang Lingfeng, I dont like this name, because many people like to call me Zhang Lingfeng, its like a girls name, but once I asked my dad, my dad told me that when I was just born, he wanted to name me Zhang Lingling, my mom wanted to name me Zhang Fengfeng, finally one of them took a step back and named me Zhang Lingfeng. Suddenly I felt this name is really good, luckily I wasnt named those two names, if I were, my life would be ruined.

  In this world where I was educated in science from a young age and overthrew feudal superstition, I should have also been like many others, with a lollipop in my mouth, aspiring to become a scientist.

  But my grandfather was a superstitious old man, my grandfathers name is Zhang Daosheng. It is said that our family was quite wealthy in the last century, but because my grandfather spent his days fortune-telling and calculating eight characters for people in the village, he attracted a guy named Wang Gou Dan from the village who brought the Red Guards to loot our home clean.

  My grandfather was also locked in a cowshed and not given anything to eat. At that time, my grandfather was around thirty years old, and my father was just a little kid. The two of them almost starved to death.

  That Wang Dog Egg is also an extremist, often coming to humiliate my grandfather, urinating on his face and so on, these are all common occurrences. At that time, those people didnt feel sorry for my grandfather, but instead felt that my grandfather was asking for it.

  At that time, the village head led the villagers to open up wasteland and plow the land everywhere near the village, but strange things happened.

  The villages east side was a burial mound, where people used to show respect from afar. Later, in order to overthrow feudal superstition, no one could be afraid of ghosts, so the village chief organized five young men to dig up the burial mound and turn it into farmland.

  My grandfather immediately found the village chief and told him that this grave was a place where the villages evil spirits gathered, it was a place built by a geomancer in the past, and couldnt be moved. The village chief scolded my grandfather severely after hearing this, and even kicked him twice.

  The first three days were fine, but on the fourth day in the evening, these five people dug up a blood-red coffin. At that time, Wang Dog Egg was rewarded for reporting my grandfathers merits and became a small team leader, so he let the other four companions open the coffin to see what was inside.

  As soon as the four of them opened the coffin, they were shocked to find that inside was a perfectly intact corpse. The corpse was wearing a Qing dynasty official robe and showed no signs of decay, looking almost lifelike instead.

  Although it was said to be overthrowing feudal superstition, everyone in their hearts still feared this thing. At that time, the sky was also late, and Wang Dog Egg let them seal the coffin, saying that they would come to deal with it tomorrow. The five people slunk back into the village with a grey face.

  Back in the village, as soon as the village chief heard about this, he immediately got angry and said that we were responding to Chairman Maos call, how could we be afraid of those evil spirits? Then the village chief led a dozen strong men back to the chaotic burial mound, wanting to take the lead in burning away this strange corpse.

  Everyone went back and opened the coffin to take a look. To their surprise, the coffin was empty, and the corpse had disappeared.

  The village chief scolded Wang Gou Dan and his companions for lying, and they were also confused, and could only say that they had made a mistake.

  Everyone returned to the village to rest, and the next morning, the two people who followed Wang Goudan to dig graves yesterday died mysteriously, with extremely cruel deaths, and all the blood in their bodies was gone, dry like a mummy.

  At that time, some people said it was a ghost, and the village chief scolded: We must believe in science.

  On the third day in the morning, except for Wang Goudan, the other two people who dug up the coffin had also died in the same way.

  The whole village is in an uproar now. No one believes it was an accident anymore, not even the village head who always claims to believe in science is confused.

  King Dog Egg was also scared, and this matter reached my grandfathers ears when he was still in the cowshed. My grandfather came out to find the village chief and said that they had encountered a corpse evil spirit.

  At that time, the village chief kicked my grandfathers buttocks twice and scolded: "Still spreading feudal superstition, believe it or not, Ill beat you to death."

  The village head was not joking at all. In that chaotic era, beating a person who spread feudal superstition to death was nothing.

  My grandfather heard this and suddenly fell silent, not saying a word. But Wang Dog Egg was scared, knelt down and grabbed my grandfathers leg, saying: "Brother, save me, Im still young, dont want to die."

  My grandfather and my father lived in the cowshed every day, all because of this Wang Dog Egg. If it were me, I would have kicked him to death with both feet. But unexpectedly, my grandfather nodded and whispered to Wang Dog Egg: "Bring cinnabar pen and ink, yellow paper, and glutinous rice to the cowshed at 10 oclock tonight, or you will surely die tonight."

  "Remember, glutinous rice is served in two bowls, one raw and one cooked." After that, my grandfather took my father back to the cowshed.

  At more than 10 oclock in the evening, Wang Dog Egg brought things to the cowshed and found my grandfather, giving him the things.

  My grandfather didnt care about anything else, took the bowl of cooked glutinous rice and hastily handed it to my father to eat. The two of them could only have one meal a day, which was leftover rice begged from others homes.

  My dad was also starving, and he finished the food in two mouthfuls. My grandfather smiled and patted him on the butt, telling him to go stay at the village chiefs house for the night. Although my grandfather lived in a cowshed, my dad was still just a little kid, and the other villagers took care of him pretty well.

  As soon as my dad left, Wang Dog Egg hastily knelt down and asked: "Old Zhang, hurry up and save me!"

  "Ive told you before that this land cant be disturbed, but you didnt believe me. Now look whats happened? At midnight tonight, that vengeful spirit will definitely come looking for you." My grandfather said, then had Wang Dog Egg take off his upper garment and lie down on the ground, after which he took out a cinnabar brush and drew a talisman on his chest.

  "This charm will protect you from harm, just stay here and dont run around, then wait for the corpse to come over." My grandfather said after taking out a cinnabar brush to draw the charm.

  The barn was filled with symbols, and at midnight, the old cow in the barn suddenly became restless.

  The cowshed was at the southernmost end of the village, and a figure outside the village came running towards the cowshed.

  The corpse had already rotted extremely, losing the freshness it had when it was first dug up. A strong stench emanated from the corpse.

  Wang Goudan was so scared that he urinated in his pants.

  My grandfather also rushed out with a talisman paper and started fighting the corpse, but the process was unclear because Wang Dog Egg didnt see it. All he knew was that the next day, there was an additional rotting corpse beside the cowshed, emitting a foul odor.

  Wang Goudan was also frightened and fainted, as for my grandfather, there was a very long wound on his chest.

  The next day, after the village chief arrived, he strictly forbade anyone from mentioning this matter again and had people carry the corpse to a deserted hill to be cremated.

  They say that human hearts are made of flesh and blood, but my grandfather and father were forced to move into a cowshed thanks to Wang Dog Egg. Later, Wang Dog Egg even humiliated my grandfather, yet my grandfather still saved his life. However, the day after the corpse was cremated, Wang Dog Egg went to the county town and brought back the Red Guards again, saying that my grandfather continued to spread feudal superstition.

  As a result, my grandfather and father were arrested, paraded through the streets of the county town, and this Wang Dog Egg was approved to join the Red Guards for his meritorious deeds in making repeated reports.

  My grandfather was originally injured by the evil spirit in his chest, and after being paraded through the streets, he became even weaker, contracting a serious illness within half a month, and eventually passed away.

  When he passed away, he left a book for my father and told him to study it carefully, saying that he would benefit from it endlessly.

  These things are what my dad told me from childhood, and I just treated them as stories when I was young, after all, the things in these stories were too mysterious.

  In my memory, my dad was very good to me and never scolded me. Even when I sneaked a peek at Li Erniang from next door taking a bath, my dad praised me for being promising and said it would be best if I could bring home a daughter-in-law soon. Because of this, my dad got scolded by my mom.

  The first time I was beaten, I was sixteen years old. At that time, I came home from school and unintentionally saw a yellowed book in my fathers drawer. The book was very old and had only one character "mountain" on the cover.

  The result was seen by my dad, he didnt say a word, and directly gave me a beating. My mom came back later and told me that this book was actually left behind by my grandfather.

  I was puzzled at the time, could it be that the stories my dad told me when I was a kid were true? Otherwise, how would this book exist?

  Later on, when I had nothing better to do, I would secretly flip through this book and found that it actually talked about some methods for catching ghosts and drawing talismans.

  It wasnt until I was seventeen and in high school that our school organized a trip to the ancient city of Fenghuang, and it was then that I discovered there were indeed things in this world that science could not explain.