Aunt Fen and the female ghost Xiao Qi hugged each other suddenly and collapsed into tears together, right before all of us. Mr. Lee, who felt deeply moved, asked hesitantly, “This woman is…” My father sighed and answered, “Ah… She’s the wife of Zhang Baoguo.” Stunned by the revelation, Mr. Lee stammered, “Z-zhang… Z-zhang Baoguo? The Zhang Baoguo of the prominent business group, Zhang Group?” My father nodded. Mr. Lee was instantly petrified, staring at his wife before he turned to stare at Aunt Fen who was still on the ground, hugging Xiao Qi as they wept. He murmured, “But I remember Zhang Baoguo is already more than fifty, even older than me. I had long known that Zhang Baoguo had taken a young lady as his wife, but I did not expect his wife to be this young…” As he spoke, he was still eyeing Aunt Fen so intently that his wife elbowed him, displeased and jealous as if meaning to say, “Are you envious of others having a wife so young?” Then again, Mrs. Lee appeared to be rather young herself, looking barely thirty of age.

Mr. Lee immediately regained his senses after being nudged hard by his wife. He gawked strangely at the woman and female ghost weeping together in a heap on the floor with myriads of emotions appearing on his face as he asked my father again, “But why did the female ghost called Zhang Baoguo’s wife as ‘Big Sister’? Is she also a ghost too?” But before my father was able to answer him, Aunt Fen, still kneeling on the ground, snapped angrily, “Only you are the ghost here!” Embarrassed at her lashing remark, Mr. Lee’s tried to mutter an incomprehensible apology although the words seemed to stuck at his throat and his apologetic smile seemed to froze midway on his face. The mood in the living room became so tense with an awkwardness that no one dared to speak until Aunt Fen’s voice broke the ice. “Alas…” she sighed, “I was the oldest of the Seven Sisters of Tangshan, and Xiao Qi was the youngest of us when our name was known among the dead of this vicinity.” “What?!” Mr. Lee exclaimed with astonishment with disbelief on his face, not knowing how to react.

My father exhaled heavily. Speaking to Aunt Fen, he revealed, “This was why I asked you to wait for us downstairs, Fen. I was afraid that both of you would be inseparable after meeting each other. Still, it seems that your meeting is inevitable. I had initially wanted to instruct Shiyan to lead Xiao Qi to her rebirth, but I think she would not want to leave now after meeting you. So be it then. You can keep her, but you must be careful to keep her away from mortals lest her Yin energies might endanger other humans and keep her from frightening others too.” Mr. Lee tugged at my father’s sleeve and whispered, “She’s the oldest of the Seven Sisters. Does that mean she’s a ghost too?!” My father smiled and said, “Of course not. But I’m afraid there’s a long story behind this. Let’s meet up tomorrow. You’ve bought us dinner today, let me be the host tomorrow. I’ll call along Fen and her husband, and you bring along your wife. My family will come too, and we mustn’t leave out Fearless Hao! Let’s have lunch together at the Jingluchuan Restaurant. I’ll tell you the full story. Zhang Baoguo is a close friend of mine; I’ll introduce you too.” Mr. Lee replied, “I’m bored with the food at the Jingluchuan Restaurant. I know another place. It’s called the Sea Society Restaurant. Let’s go there for a change.” Mr. Lee handed to me a name card of the restaurant as my father nodded his assent and he replied, “So be it then. Eleven o’clock in the morning. I’ll be waiting.”

That night, Aunt Fen drove home on with Xiao Qi, and I went home with my father. The matter between Aunt Fen and Xiao Qi was no longer any concern of mine. It was past nine went we reached home, my mother, as if she knew that we had already eaten, had left no food for us. She came out of the house, asking, “Has it all being settled?” My father nodded, not saying anything. Come to think of it; my parents were hardly ordinary people. Not only they looked impossibly young for their age, nothing about my father’s exploits outside seemed to be able to escape my mother’s knowledge despite her being a full-time housewife. But this would hardly mean that my father was a man who feared his wife. My father held some manner of patriarchy, a form of complete authority in the family as he did in the Institute. All decisions in the family, from dinner-time dishes to the purchase of properties, were all made by my father alone. This could be attributed to their long-standing conjugal interactions, I guess.

The next morning at eight, my father instructed me first to place a booking at the Sea Society Restaurant. We reached the restaurant at ten. As an avid enthusiast of heavy drinks, my father brought something from his hoarded stockpile: two large jars of wine. I carried the two jars from the trunk of our car, asked a doorman to move them into the restaurant and then handed to the waiters of the restaurant, bidding them to prepare the wines for our consumption later. Half an hour later, when the food and wine were all laid ready on the table, my father then instructed me to wait outside to receive our guests. When I just exited the revolving doors of the restaurant, I noticed an expensive-looking BMW and a Mercedes Benz rolling through the entrance of the compound. I went forward to the guests and led the five of them into our room for Fearless Hao had come with Mr. and Mrs. Lee. When everyone was present, my father then made the introductions, saying, “This is Mr. Zhang of the Zhang Group and his wife, Dong Xuefen. This is Mr. Lee, Lee Zhenghui of the Zhenghui Energy Corporation and his wife, Guo Xiaojia; and this is a new friend of ours, Hao Junsheng.” After some small talk, my father called for everyone’s attention, “Come, let’s have a taste of my wine, fellow wine-lovers! Guess how old it is!”

Emptying his glass, Mr. Zhang, feigning drunkenness, was the first to venture a guess, “Um… A fifty-year-old work of art!” My father guffawed and said, “Since when you learned to tell these things?” But Mr. Zhang smiled mischievously, “I saw the label on the jars when I came in, heh heh heh heh,” leaving everyone howling with laughter. After about three cups, Mr. Lee could wait no longer, nudging my father to get on to business. My father cleared his throat and lifted a bowl. He looked at everyone sitting at the table before he intentionally pouted and struck the table loudly with the bowl like a gavel Pingshu performers used, saying, “I have a tale…

“So, the tale would have to begin from the time when I received a patient last year who was suffering from hysteria. Hysteria consists of two types: conversion disorder and dissociative disorder. The instances where the latter manifests suddenly might occur when one is suddenly obsessed with something. Normally I would deign to take assignments such as these. These are menial undertakings beneath my standing or my abilities. Still, the patient was a special person; hence I made an exception.

“It was an old man who came to me. He and his wife had just begun retiring. He was once a coal miner and his wife was formerly a waitress at a workplace canteen. “With their grandchildren already in preschool, the old couple did not need to take care of their grandchildren following their retirement. The wife would then learn dancing and practice Taiji, while the old man would play chess and sometimes go fishing. Life was simple and fulfilling, until one day, the old lady was struck with illness, and she was sent to the hospital. The doctors diagnosed her problem and determined that she was afflicted with hysteria, even though they could find no cure for her. For days she was pricked with acupuncture needles that she could no longer be able to bear the pain. Seeing that staying at the hospital was no help at all, the old man had his wife brought home. Someone then came to him with a suggestion that the old lady might have been cursed. The husband then scoured high and low for witch doctors and shamans, spending a lot of money and having their entire house filled with many talismans, yet to no avail. They had even enlisted the help of an agent who went to the city of Qinhuangdao and asked for the help of a Taoist master. Still, despite his prowess, the Taoist admitted, ‘I’m afraid I am not capable of fully curing this old lady. I can prepare some talismans that might help ease the pain when her seizure strikes. But this is but merely a temporary remedy. There’s someone who will be able to help. But it’ll depend on your fate to see if he’ll agree to help you. Go to the Wen Chang National Studies Institute of the Wu Zhong County. The Head Person of the Institute is a man who possesses incredible powers across all Three Realms of Existence. Try asking him for help.’ Hence the old man came to me.

“After listening to his plea, I asked the old man, ‘Did the Taoist tell you what was disturbing your wife?’ and the old man answered, ‘He did say that it was a ghost, but he could not drive it away!’ I then told him about the rules of seeking my help, saying, ‘This is an institute for the learning of National Studies and therefore my services would be billed as Lessons. Each Lesson will be two thousand yuan. Now, you require my on-call services. This would cost you the charges of three Lessons. But if I’m unable to help you, the amount shall be refunded in full. In addition to that, you will have to make some preparations such as candles, joss sticks, papers for charms, chickens’ blood, glutinous rice, and so on. I will also require your total compliance to my requests and instructions. The deed would not be effective without the said requirements met. The charges, billed as Lessons, will be like a psychological consultation, similar to how shrinks treat their patients. Would you be fine with that?’ The old man was overjoyed and surprised to hear my price. He made the payment, and I bade him keep the receipt of his payment well in case he would later need them for refunds. I then went with him into Tangshan proper.

“That was a convulsive disease. The patient was not suffering from any seizure when I met her. She was able to speak like how a normal person would, although she was evidently weak and her expression was very pale. I proceeded to examine her pulse while her husband handed me a cup of tea and began explaining her condition, ‘It began one afternoon when I was out shopping for cooking ingredients. I met a little girl who was dressed strangely, but I paid no heed to her then, save for a peculiar sensation that told me that something was amiss. Then I thought, this little girl looked so familiar to me. The weird clothing that she wore seemed oddly familiar too. Still, I could not remember anything about her until I took a few more steps. Then I realized, is that not my wife? But why was she looking so young!’ ”