"Don't be surprised. This is just a custom from my hometown. It might seem trivial, but many people find it frightening."
Despite the guesthouse owner's gentle tone, the Eaves Under Water Pig felt his hair stand on end, and his expression froze. The hand that had touched the drum felt a bit tingling and uncomfortable, so he quickly wiped it on his pants.
"Boss, how come you have something like this here?"
The guesthouse owner smiled again, "Maybe I'm a bit superstitious. This drum was given to me by a friend when I left my hometown, said to ward off evil spirits. After striking it, if the circumstances are right, it can even communicate between the realms of the living and the dead. I found it fascinating, so I kept it."
The Eaves Under Water Pig couldn't help but ask, "Where is your hometown?"
The guesthouse owner avoided the question, "It's too far, too far. I can't go back."
That night, the Eaves Under Water Pig had a strange dream.
In the dream, his deceased parents stood by a frying pan. The pan was boiling, and it seemed like something was frying inside, sizzling and emitting thick black smoke. He squatted by the side, seemingly waiting for something. After a while, his father fished out a pig's head from the pan, now badly burned and unrecognizable. When he took a look, it wasn't a pig's head at all—it was a human head!
What was even more terrifying was that the burned human head opened its eyes and smiled at him. As the mouth moved, pieces of skin fell off its face…
The Eaves Under Water Pig woke up in fright and couldn't fall back asleep. His colleague on the other bed was snoring loudly and occasionally grinding his molars, which sounded quite eerie in the night.
Unable to stay in bed any longer, the Eaves Under Water Pig went to the hallway to smoke. After taking a few puffs, he heard a "thud." He paused his smoking. The sound seemed like drumbeats?
Then there were two more "thuds," interspersed with a very fine yet exceptionally sharp noise that made his brain ache. He was already feeling a bit uneasy, and these strange sounds made him even more uncomfortable.
Unable to bear it, he decided to go downstairs.
To his surprise, the guesthouse lobby was empty. A dim yellow light illuminated the walls, casting a hazy glow that allowed him to see the layout of the lobby clearly.
Since he came downstairs, the strange noise had stopped, which only made him more puzzled. He cautiously looked around and slowly made his way toward the skull drum.
Under the yellowish light, the drum looked different from how it did after dinner. The figures carved on the drum seemed to have come to life, each one with a grimace and bizarre poses.
He hesitated for a moment but ultimately refrained from touching the drum. He thought, maybe the sounds earlier were just his imagination?
Just as he was about to turn back upstairs, he suddenly saw changes occurring on the skull drum. Without anyone touching it, the skin on the drum lightly moved, and then, to his horror, a human face appeared!
No matter how composed he tried to be, he couldn't stay calm at this moment. Terrified, he screamed, took a big step back, and stared at the drum with a pale face, his mind filled with many terrifying images.
"Guest, what are you doing?"
The sudden voice behind him startled him even more. Turning around, he saw it was the guesthouse owner, holding a thermos and looking at him with curiosity.
At this moment, the skull drum had returned to its original appearance.
The Eaves Under Water Pig sighed with relief and awkwardly pointed at the drum, "I heard some noises downstairs, so I came to check, and then… then I saw a human face on the drum."
It sounded too unbelievable. If someone else had told the Eaves Under Water Pig that a face could appear on the drum, he would have laughed them off. But seeing it with his own eyes, he didn't know how to react. Having just heard the guesthouse owner say that the drum was made from human skulls and skin, and now witnessing such a strange scene, he couldn't help but shiver.
"What is this? How could it…" The memory of the earlier scene left him still trembling.
The guesthouse owner smiled slightly, "I told you, the drum can communicate between the realms if the conditions are right. Perhaps you triggered something, which is why you saw the face of a deceased person."
The Eaves Under Water Pig was completely stunned by the guesthouse owner's explanation.
In other words, what he saw on the drum was a dead person, or rather… a ghost?
But the guesthouse owner remained calm and natural. The Eaves Under Water Pig didn't want to appear too weak. He forced himself to remain composed and asked, "I also heard some strange sounds that were very piercing…"
The guesthouse owner pondered for a moment, "What you heard was probably the sound of a white bone flute. The white bone flute is made from the leg bones of young boys or girls. It was common in the past, but now it's rare."
The guesthouse owner's explanation left the Eaves Under Water Pig feeling even more horrified.
Skull drums, white bone flutes—just hearing about them was frightening.
"Who was playing the white bone flute just now? I didn't see anyone else around," the Eaves Under Water Pig asked, alert.
The guesthouse owner looked sorrowful.
"Don't be afraid. There's a young girl living nearby, an orphan. She has a white bone flute and plays it when she misses her family. Many guests have heard it."
The guesthouse owner continued, "In our hometown, skull drums and white bone flutes serve similar purposes. They're used to summon and guide wandering souls, and then to help them move on. There's also a story about them. If you're still awake, I can tell you the legend."
The Eaves Under Water Pig immediately agreed. They sat on the chairs in the lobby, one telling the story, the other listening.
As he listened to the story, the Eaves Under Water Pig felt as if time was slowly rewinding, back to a summer over a hundred years ago.