Wang Chong told me that one day, when he wasn't at home, a white snake slithered into their chicken coop. Fearing for the chickens' lives, Chen Cuilian killed the snake with a thick bamboo pole. Given the value of white snakes, the greedy Chen Cuilian sold the dead creature to a restaurant.
Within days, Chen Cuilian began to act oddly, with a vacant look, flicking her tongue like a snake, and at night, her eyes would roll up, showing a greenish tint.
Wang Chong intended to take her to a hospital, suspecting something was seriously wrong, but before he could, she hung herself. After her death, her belly bore raised markings resembling small snakes. They looked like veins and even seemed to move, which terrified everyone at home, prompting a hasty burial with little news spreading of her demise.
Wang Chong also shared a bizarre incident that occurred on the night of Chen Cuilian's burial. As the coffin passed by my tattoo shop, it toppled over, and her body sat up abruptly, staring toward my shop. The pallbearers were too frightened to react until Wang Chong prostrated himself and offered incense, after which the body finally fell back, allowing them to proceed with the burial.
After hanging up the phone, a chill went through me. I had unwittingly given a ghost a tattoo earlier that day.
As the strange man prepared to leave my shop, a cold wind blew in, rattling the doors and windows. I thought I heard distant, unsettling laughter, which seemed imaginary, yet the cold wind bit sharply into me.
Recalling my grandfather's words, a shiver ran through my body, considering the likely consequences of disobeying his advice.
Then came another memory, a piece of grandfather's advice—that if someone comes asking for a ghost tattoo, do it, for that person will save your life.
With that, I realized how extraordinary this man was and couldn't let him leave. I called out to him, hastily saying that I could indeed perform a ghost tattoo.
As soon as he returned, the cold wind and sinister laughter ceased.
I confessed to mastering all ghost tattoo techniques and explained my earlier reluctance and the encounter with Chen Cuilian.
Hearing about Chen Cuilian, Zhang Qing, the man, lamented the misfortunes that befall those who harm sentient creatures like the white snake, especially selling it as food, a sure recipe for karmic retribution.
He explained that Chen Cuilian had not intended harm, seeking only to restore her baby so that she could rest in peace, using the power of the ghost tattoo. She would've already killed me if that was her intention. She didn't know that ghost tattoos aren't meant for the dead.
This information terrified me; faced with the potential wrath of countless spirits on the Ghost Festival, I was desperate for Zhang Qing's help.
Zhang Qing assured me of his aid but on the condition that I help him first—he required a ghost tattoo to rid himself of the red fur and livor mortis on his neck caused by the wrath of three uncorrupted corpses he had encountered while performing a ritual in a remote forest on behalf of some thrill-seekers.
As the wind howled once more, Zhang Qing warned me that more spirits were gathering as the night deepened and that by midnight, we might be surrounded.
I found myself not just bargaining for my salvation by offering to tattoo him, but also picking up a precious family photo that had fallen to the floor. It was the only image I had of my young self with my parents, with grandfather standing behind them.
Zhang Qing's reaction to the photographs was peculiar—he seemed to recognize the corpses he had encountered in those images.