Mr. Zhang broke into a fit of laughter as my father paused. Speaking to everyone at the table, he said, “I thought that since he had gone through so much trouble to help me, I should return the favor as well. But I did not know that instead of asking me for help, Brother Hai had visited me to offer me help! He asked me then, ‘There were three of you when you swore an oath to be brothers and sisters. What happened to your youngest…'”

Mr. Zhang interrupted himself by taking a sip of wine from his cup before he carried on, “I grew unhappy at the mention of my young sworn sister by Brother Hai and I grumbled, ‘Alas… You do not know… I’d not complain that she was callous, but how could she have gone missing all of a sudden? I’d never believed for once that life in the city could be better. When we swore to be siblings, we had vowed to die together despite not sharing common birthdays. But she had never once come back! How could she! Look at Xiaojun! He had refused to leave no matter what! Yet she…’ But little did I expect to see Brother Hai sighing heavily after hearing what I’d said. He told me, ‘In truth, she did come back. Many times, in fact. But she did not show herself; therefore you knew nothing of her return.’ Not knowing what was going on, I grew cross, ‘Came back? Why did I not know anything about this? Why did she not show herself since she’d returned? Surely I’d not pounce and bite her like a tiger!’ But Brother Hai heaved another breath and exhaled heavily again, ‘But you’re… You’re different now… One of you is of the living, while the other is of the dead… She was afraid that showing herself to you might have caused you harm instead…’ Instantly, I blurted, ‘Impossible! She’s dead? N-no, not a chance! The earthquake had already ended by the time she’d returned to Tangshan. There should not be any buildings still standing when she reached there! How it is possible! You’re lying!'”

At this moment, I noticed a pained expression on Mr. Zhang’s face as he recounted his recollection. Even though the matter had long past and had been resolved, it was still a very difficult moment for him, I thought. I placed down my chopsticks and said, “Despite his denial, I could see that Mr. Zhang himself believed that what Father said was true. The rim of his eyes was already red and moist in spite of his adamant rejection of the fact.” Hearing me utter these words somehow calmed Mr. Zhang a little. He raised his glass to me and smiled wittingly. We shared a sip of the liquor as my father put down his chopsticks and went on, “What actually happened was Fen did reach the city after parting with her sworn brothers. She looked around in vain, growing thirsty and tired. She saw some fences circling around the ruins and rubbles (fences during that time were made of wood instead of the sturdier materials commonly used today for construction fences) and sat under these barriers, resting in its shade. There she sat as she had a little drink. Chaos and anarchy prevailed during the absence of any governing entity and enforcement body in the city. Shops, restaurants, banks, post offices, and all other establishments were plundered and looted. Hence, to maintain security and order, the local militia formed security teams to patrol the city and start a crackdown on crime. Sometime, even if someone only bent to do something, the security team would treat him as a criminal and fire shots at him. At the time when Fen was sitting by the fence, the security teams were firing on a thief who was standing on a board and trying to take something. But instead of hitting the thief, one of the stray bullets had hit Fen and killed her. The thief narrowly escaped death for the board happened to break up and he fell into a pit.

“I made a hand gesture to Mr. Zhang where the tip of both my index fingers touched each other and asked him, ‘Were you…’ Mr. Zhang immediately denied and explained hastily, ‘I was only fifteen then. I knew nothing of affairs between men and women then!’ I halted and shook my head, ‘But you were only half-correct, I’m afraid, Mr. Zhang. You grew up in the village, but Fen grew up in the city where she was exposed to more education and knowledge. She was also part of her school’s basketball team where she had a stronger physique that experienced adolescent earlier than you did. She had already been interested in you when you first met! As we all knew full well, it was pandemonium in the Tangshan. But many of you knew not that there was also a ruckus in the plane of the afterlife due to the sudden influx of so many souls. If only Fen had followed the rest of the wandering souls down south-west, she would have been reborn by now. But she remembered very vividly that you lived in the north-west from her. In fact, she did not realize that she was already dead, and began traveling back towards your direction!’

“‘I, too, do not know when did she finally realized that she was dead. But for so many years she had remained by your side. Surely you do feel that the success of your career was not without reason? You should have been dead when you had fallen from the second storey last year, yet you had survived the fall completely unscathed! Did you truly believed for a moment that you might be an immortal?’ Mr. Zhang leaped to his feet with shock, murmuring, ‘It was she…’ I nodded in return and said, ‘You might be unhurt, but your fall had caused great damage to her soul! A part of her soul was lost that she lost some of her wits with a part of her memory gone.’ Mr. Zhang grasped my hand tightly and said to me, ‘Please, dear Master! Please help her! Help her regain her soul; I’ll do anything in return!’ I smiled at him and said, ‘Please, a simple ‘Sir’ or ‘Mister’ would do. Recovering her soul is a simple matter. I’ll have my son perform the deed later. But we’ll need your help in restoring her memory!’ Mr. Zhang quickly replied, ‘Anything! I’ll do anything!’ I rubbed my chin thoughtfully and said, ‘I’ll need to re-enact a scene. What you’ll have to do now, is to recreate the setting of the incident that caused her to lose part of the soul! We’ll need to stimulate her mind! We’ll also be needing your assistance, Mr. Nie. We’ll need to make use of your connection and search through the hospitals in Tangshan for a pretty young woman who’s going to die!’ As I ended my sentence, I shot a glance at Mr. Zhang!”

My father then paused before he said again, “Mr. Zhang then contacted me again on the second morning after the day Shiyan had recovered Fen’s soul…” He had barely finished when Mr. Lee, who had been listening avidly to our tale, interrupted suddenly, “Wait a moment, Brother Hai. Can we hear about how Shiyan had recovered the soul? I really want to hear more about this. Your story is getting more and more fascinating.” As he finished, Mr. Lee threw a keen glance towards my direction.

I looked warily at my father. To my surprise, he nodded to me, indicating his assent for me to disclose our methods. Feeling thrilled, I cleared my throat and said, “Heh heh heh. I had been so anxious to test my skills that I could scarcely sit still when my father instructed me to go recover Aunt Fen’s soul. At last, I can now show everyone what I’m capable of! I was about to leave and head home to get an urn when my father’s call to me made me halted in my steps. ‘You cannot use an urn,’ he told me. ‘Her soul is partially damaged. It would be worst if you were to use an urn.’ I scratched my head quizzically and asked, ‘Then what should I use?’ My father showed me a small calabash gourd the size of his palm and said, ‘It is time for me to pass on to you one of our family’s heirlooms. Take this. It was given to me by my teacher when I was still under his tutelage. It is now passed to you. This gourd can be used to entrap spirits and demons. Use in the same way as how you would with an urn. I’ll train you on some of its other uses in the future.'”

Mr. Lee threw in another question suddenly, looking deeply inquisitive, “Hold up. Do you have this gourd with you now, my boy? “Come show me! Let Uncle have a look!” I removed from my pocket the gourd and presented it to Mr. Lee who dangled it before his wide, round eyes as he studied it closely. “I would have thought that this would be an exquisite work of handicraft, if you had not mentioned that this is a magical treasure!” Mr. Lee exclaimed with wonder. My father giggled, sounding amused, and said, “It might also interest you to know that this magical trinket is called the Spirit Gourd. My teacher had bestowed this to me when I was still learning the ropes when I was still his apprentice. Not only one can use it to ensnare and trap spirits and demons and also store pills, but it can also be used to refine souls for one’s own use. But I would never have shown this to anyone; not under common circumstances. This is an instrument to entrap souls. Therefore it could even draw in the soul of any living person. This very object could be extremely disastrous if fallen into the hands of any evildoers with malicious intent!” Everyone at the table could hardly help from being amazed. Even Mr. Lee had spent quite some time examining the gourd before returning it to me.

Pocketing the calabash gourd, I said, “When I first came to Aunt Ling’s home, she was experiencing an episode. She was gorging on food voraciously. I went up to her and patted on the back of her head three times and knocked Aunt Fen’s soul from her body before I immediately drew Aunt Fen’s soul into the gourd. Then I cast a spell – a Soul-summoning Spell – that recalled the fragments of her soul and stored them too into the gourd as well. Once completed, I went back with Aunt Ling and her husband with me.” I brandished my chopsticks and crammed a piece of meat into my mouth. Mr. Lee was surprised; his eyes were wide as he asked, “Wait a moment. Is that it? Just like that?” I nodded and replied, “Yeah. That’s all of it.” Feeling unsatisfied, he remarked, “Surely you have to explain how you expelled Fen’s soul from Ling’s body with just three knocks to the head?” I shrugged and explained, “Well, that’s simple. Aunt Fen’s soul was splintered then without being able to communicate with anyone. It’s similar to the cases of infant spirits where you can easily expel an infant spirit from a possessed body by yelling and surprising him or her from behind. Still, Aunt Fen is different for hers was still the soul of an adult. Yelling from behind would not achieve anything. But since she was not fully in harmony with the body she’d possessed. Hence, I only needed to look for a proper spot to knock and expel her soul. But this must not be imitated by the uninitiated, lest one might even knock out the patient’s soul too! That would create additional issues. I later used a Soul-summoning Spell to recall the fragments of Aunt Fen’s soul. But I’m afraid I cannot divulge more about this spell.” Mr. Lee clapped his hands in applause, muttering words of praises for me and my father’s prowess. I looked at my father in the eye. Apparently he still believed I needed more training!

Everyone around the table began discussing enthusiastically about the methods I had just explained. Finally, when the racket had subsided, my father continued, “It was the second morning after Shiyan had completed his job when Mr. Zhang called me, informing me that his preparations were ready. He was eager to know when the deed would commence. I then asked him, ‘What was the time the last time something peculiar like this happened?’ He replied that it was about six in the evening. Hence I told him, ‘Very well. We’ll begin at six in the evening. We’ll be at your place at five.'”