Xiuxiu leaned closer to me, her voice as low as a mosquito's buzz.
"But what was sticking out of that swaddling clothes wasn't a baby's hand, but the paper paw of a paper effigy of a young boy, still stained with the blood from when my father died..."
Suddenly, Yuan Ying, who was behind the counter, smashed the Bagua mirror on the ground.
The mirror shattered into seven pieces, each reflecting a blurry shadow behind Xiuxiu, as if a man holding a baby was slowly approaching.
When I turned around again, I found that the man holding the swaddled baby was gone.
I don't know if I'm seeing things.
After Xiuxiu left, Yuan Ying squatted on the ground to pick up the Bagua mirror that had been broken into seven pieces. Suddenly, her fingertip stopped on one of the pieces.
I followed her gaze and saw the paper-crafted shelf in the corner of the counter reflected in her glasses.
The boys and girls who were originally neatly arranged now had three or four of their heads tilted to the side.
The cotton paper around the eye socket bulged slightly, as if something moving had appeared inside.
“Yingniang, in the mirror…” I quickly pointed to the mirror and showed it to her.
Yuan Ying put the shards of the lens into the peach wood box, her voice three degrees lower than usual.
“Debts from the underworld are not so easy to clear. Bald Third used ‘Thirteen Substitute Papers’, burned seven red vests, and hid five substitute talismans on Xiuxiu’s body, and another one on you.”
As she spoke, she suddenly looked up at me and said, "Go and get the 'Bone-Illuminating Mirror' from the third level of the shrine, the bronze mirror with the skull pattern engraved on it."
As soon as the bronze mirror appeared, the paper effigy of a boy on the counter suddenly collapsed with a "thud".
Dark yellow water stains seeped from his chest, shaped like a baby's handprint.
Yuan Ying pointed the mirror at the cloth bag left by Xiuxiu.
The mirror was instantly covered with white mist, and a blurry image gradually appeared.
Xiuxiu's bedroom wardrobe door was half open, and dark red liquid was dripping from the neckline of the dress hanging there.
Thin lines of blood snaked across the floor, converging towards the bottom of the bed.
"not good!"
Yuan Ying suddenly grabbed the peach wood sword: "Xiuxiu still has the substitute talisman on her body. Bald Laosan's ghost has attached itself to her through the paper talisman. Tonight at midnight is the 'returning soul period' of the substitute talisman. We need to hurry over there."
When we arrived at Xiuxiu's house, all the streetlights at the entrance of the alley were out.
The window of her room reflected a swaying figure, as if someone was repeatedly folding paper.
Just as Yuan Ying was about to knock on the door, it creaked open by itself.
Seven pairs of red cloth shoes were placed in the entrance hall, all with their toes pointing towards the inner room, and the soles were covered with fresh grave soil.
Seven pairs of red shoes?
My pupils contracted.
Seven red vests, and now seven pairs of red shoes.
"Xiuxiu?"
I tried shouting, and the echo crashed into the empty living room, carrying an indescribable hollowness.
The sound of tearing paper came from the inner room.
The moment I pushed open the door, it felt like all the blood in my body froze.
Xiuxiu sat on the bed with her back to us, constantly folding paper effigies of boys, with more than a dozen unfinished ones piled up at her feet.
Each boy had a yellow talisman with his birth date and time written on it pasted on his chest.
Hearing the noise, she slowly turned her head, her face covered with a layer of pale powder, her lips painted a deep purple, her movements mechanical like a puppet.
"Grandpa, Mr. Yuan."
She held up the paper figure in her hand, a forced smile tugging at the corners of her mouth: "Dad said that if I fold a hundred paper boys, he can take me to see my brother."
Yuan Ying suddenly held the peach wood sword in front of me: "She's been possessed by a paper effigy sorcery! Look behind her ears."
By the moonlight, I saw a red mark behind Xiuxiu's ear that looked like it had been stitched together, as if someone had used red thread to sew her soul and the paper effigy of a boy together.
Yuan Ying quickly took out some glutinous rice and scattered it on the ground. When the paper-mache boys came into contact with the rice, they cried like babies.
The yellow talisman on his chest hissed and emitted blue smoke, revealing the words written by Bald Old Third underneath: "Giving birth to a daughter is worse than being a ghost, to shield her father from disaster."
"Xiuxiu!"
I yelled and tried to pull her away, but Yuan Ying grabbed me.
She took out Ji Yunfei's talisman from the cloth bag and stuck it on Xiuxiu's forehead.
"Do you remember the diary in your dad's drawer? He's been plotting to use your life to make money for himself! These paper effigies of effigies of children are all made from your hair and fingernails!"
Xiuxiu's body jerked violently, and the paper figure in her hand fell to the ground with a "thud".
She stared at the paper offerings at her feet, her eyes gradually clearing, when she suddenly pointed at the wardrobe and screamed, "There's something moving inside!"
The wardrobe door burst open with a bang, and seven red vests flew through the air, with burnt paper money falling out of the pockets of each vest.
The birth dates and times on the paper money were clearly Xiuxiu's, and mine as well.
Even more horrifying, the inside of the vest was embroidered with the outline of a baby in gold thread, and a photo of Bald Old Man San's death was pasted on the chest.
In the photo, he is grinning, with dark red blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
Yuan Ying threw the peach wood sword at the red vest.
The moment the sword pierced the fabric, a piercing shriek filled the room, like countless babies crying at the same time.
Xiuxiu seized the opportunity to throw herself into my arms, trembling all over: "Grandpa, when I was folding paper figures just now, I heard Dad whispering in my ear that my little brother is waiting for me in the closet..."
I looked down at her palm.
Beneath the originally smooth skin, fine paper-like textures appeared, as if the paper-woven patterns had seeped into the flesh.
Yuan Ying picked up the bronze mirror from the ground, and Xiu Xiu's back was reflected in the mirror.
A blurry male figure slowly bent down, picked up the paper effigy of a child boy from the ground, and gently "bit" it.
A tooth-shaped scorch mark suddenly appeared on the yellow talisman on the paper figure's chest.
"It's the vengeful spirit of Bald Old Man San that's attached to the paper effigies!"
Yuan Ying quickly lit three talismans for the dead: "He used 'paper offerings to replace his own life' to trap his soul in the offerings, hoping to use Xiuxiu's body to return to life."
Before she could finish speaking, Xiuxiu suddenly convulsed violently.
Paper-like nails grew from his fingertips and reached out to grab Yuan Ying.
Yuan Ying reacted quickly and put the silver bracelet back on her wrist.
The bracelet beeped, and Xiuxiu's fingernail instantly peeled off, revealing the normal skin underneath.
Yuan Ying threw out three more Rebirth Talismans, which automatically spelled out the character "镇" (zhen, meaning "suppress") in the air.
"Hurry up and get out of here!"
Yuan Ying called out to me and helped the semi-conscious Xiuxiu escape quickly.
Along the way, we could always hear footsteps behind us, and Yuan Ying kept scattering soybeans, glutinous rice and cinnabar behind us.
When we brought Xiuxiu back to the shop, it was already dawn.
"close the door!"
Yuan Ying took Xiuxiu from my hands, and then took out a bronze bowl from the cloth bag. The bottom of the bowl was engraved with the Li trigram symbol: "Go and fetch water!"
I quickly went to the altar of the ancestral master and scooped up half a bowl of raw water.
She took it and sprinkled some grains into the bowl—
Rice, millet, sorghum, wheat, and beans were mixed with cinnabar powder. Then, the Bagua mirror from his waist was taken off, the mirror face outwards, and it was placed on the door frame with the edge of the mirror facing the west, the direction of the ghost gate.
Finally, she used a sword technique to draw three strokes on the door frame.
Where my fingertips brushed, the two characters "Chen Yan" appeared, written in my blood.
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