When I woke up again, it was already bright outside, and I sat on the bed, filled with lingering fear. Last night, not only did I fail to subdue that female ghost, but I almost got dragged into a well to have my skin peeled off. How reliable are the things arranged by the ancestral master? To be honest, I don't trust any of the arrangements made by the ancestral master; the only one I can truly rely on is my grandfather. When my grandfather comes back, I need to have a serious talk with him about not blindly following the ancestral master's orders. Perhaps the ancestral master doesn't even have a way to deal with fox spirits and just sent me to find the female ghost. While I was lost in thought, I suddenly heard someone knocking at the door. I thought it was my grandfather returning, so I hurried to open the door. But when I opened it, the village chief grabbed me and ran out, saying, "Xiao Jiu, hurry and come with me, your grandfather is in trouble!" What? When I heard that my grandfather was in trouble, it felt like a bolt from the blue, leaving my mind blank: "What happened to my grandfather?" The village chief urged, "Let's go! If we don't hurry, you won't even get to see him one last time." I felt dizzy, almost falling to the ground, but once I regained my senses, I frantically followed the village chief out. When I reached the place where I had parted ways with my grandfather last night, it was already crowded with onlookers. The villagers saw me coming and automatically made way for me. That's when I saw my grandfather lying on the ground, covered in blood, his shoes missing, and several cuts on his face. If it weren't for his clothes, I wouldn't have recognized him as my grandfather. The village chief held onto me with one hand and pushed my grandfather with the other: "Uncle Chen… Uncle Chen… I brought Xiao Jiu here; you can say whatever you need to say to him!" My grandfather barely opened his eyes and struggled to tell me, "Go back! Worship the ancestral master!" Then his eyes widened, and he passed away. My grandfather couldn't bear to close his eyes because he was worried about me; I tried several times but couldn't get his eyes to shut. The villagers helped me arrange my grandfather's funeral, and I found out the cause of his death. On the night my grandfather had his accident, a family at the edge of the village heard him arguing with someone outside and thought it was a conflict among villagers, so they intended to come out and mediate. However, when they looked outside, they were nearly scared to death.
The man saw a group of foxes dressed in human clothes, blocking my grandfather on the road, calling out to him one after another. My grandfather was arguing with them as if he were in a dispute with people, gesturing and pointing while he continued to argue with the group of foxes. The man realized that my grandfather had been enchanted by the foxes, mistaking them for humans. Most people would not dare to approach in such a situation. The man tried to back away into the house, but he tripped over a shovel leaning against the door. When the shovel fell to the ground, a large number of foxes turned to look towards the yard. At that moment, my grandfather also came to his senses, drawing a knife and charging into a fight with the foxes. As he swung the knife at the foxes, he shouted, "Grandmaster, save me! Save my grandson!" My grandfather was nearly eighty years old and had long lost the agility he had a decade ago. This time, he had gone out without much preparation, and he was no match for a group of foxes. Before long, he was bitten all over, bleeding profusely. The foxes bit through my grandfather's Achilles tendon, and he sat on the ground, desperately slashing at his own face with the knife. People living in the mountains know that yellow weasels and foxes can hollow out a person's belly and then crawl into the corpse, controlling the dead body to lure the living, using the dead as a disguise to deceive the living. My grandfather was afraid that the foxes would hollow him out and use his corpse to trick me, which is why he slashed his own face. Those foxes didn't hollow out my grandfather's belly, but they took away his cotton shoes. Last night, the fox standing behind me was wearing those cotton shoes. The villagers all knew that my family had been entangled by foxes, and they simply held a funeral for my grandfather and then left. On the day of my grandfather's burial, apart from a few relatives who couldn't avoid it, no one came to pay their respects. After sending off my grandfather, I returned to the ancestral home to offer incense to the Grandmaster. My grandfather only told me to go back and pay respects to the Grandmaster, but he didn't have time to tell me how to do it. In the village, there was no one who knew how to pay respects to the Grandmaster; even if someone did know, they wouldn't come at this time to take me to confront the foxes. I could only imitate my grandfather, bowing to the Grandmaster, repeatedly chanting, "Disciple Chen Jiu pays respects to the Grandmaster!" There is a complete set of rules for entering the Grandmaster's teachings; missing any step is not acceptable. My grandfather had once paid respects to the Grandmaster and had managed to summon the evil ancestor without going through the proper process. I didn't know the rules, and even if I knocked my head until I died, the Grandmaster wouldn't come out to accept me as a disciple. I didn't know how many times I bowed, yet there was still no sign of movement from the Grandmaster's tablet.
Every time I think about what my grandfather told me, how he once knelt before the master until his face was covered in blood, the anger in my heart becomes unbearable. I stood up and pointed at the ancestral tablet, cursing loudly: "What kind of master are you? Our Chen family reverently honors you, and you won't even bless your disciples. Now that your successor is in great trouble, you just sit there, doing nothing. I'd be better off worshipping ghosts as my ancestors!" The more I cursed, the angrier I became. I grabbed the incense burner used for the master and smashed it to pieces, kicking the ancestral tablet on the ground until it broke in two. I destroyed the area where we honored our ancestors until I was exhausted, and then I sat down in the ancestral home. I hadn't been sitting long when I noticed a patch of bloody red seeping through the crack at the door of the ancestral home. I suddenly jolted— the fox had come to find me. My grandfather was gone, the master wouldn't come to help, and now I was cornered in the house by the fox. Who else could save me? I hurriedly stood up and looked for something, anything. Having a weapon in hand, no matter how small, would be better than facing that fox empty-handed! But the ancestral home was already in ruins; there was nothing useful left. Finally, I managed to break off a leg from the table and held it in my hand. The front door of the ancestral home had been pushed open just a crack, and the fox's round, glistening eyes peered through the gap, sending chills down my spine. I don't know where I found the courage, but I stepped forward and pushed against the door. I hunched over, pressing my hands firmly against it, determined to keep the fox outside. To my surprise, I heard someone outside starting to dismantle the doorframe. Before long, I heard a loud "bang!" as someone ripped the doorframe off and tossed it aside. With the doorframe gone, there was bound to be a gap of at least two fingers wide between the door and the ground. Was the fox planning to squeeze in through that space? I looked down and saw a yellowed piece of human skin slipping in through the gap. The skin had all ten fingers spread wide, like a sheet of paper, being pushed slowly through the crack. As soon as the hands of the skin entered the room, they inflated as if filled with air. What had once been a flat piece of skin quickly transformed into a round, inflated shape, with five fingers spread out in front. The human skin was coming in! I wanted to let go, but I was afraid the fox would rush in from outside. Just as I was at a loss for what to do, the skin suddenly grabbed my ankle and flipped me out. Before I could get back up, the front door of the ancestral home burst open wide, and the woman without skin stood in the doorway, bloodied and coldly staring at my face.