Chapter Three: Possession by a Ghost

Just as I was wildly speculating about Xian Hongye’s identity, Wang Hou suddenly stepped on the accelerator, and the van began to shake even more violently. In the midst of this trembling, I immediately sensed something was wrong with our speed.

I stopped chatting with Hongye, snapped to attention, and sat up straight to glance at the dashboard.

“Oh my god!” I blurted out in shock, for the numbers on the dashboard left me utterly dumbfounded.

That broken-down van was going one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour! Had Wang Hou lost his mind?!

I’d ridden in his junk heap before; it started rattling worryingly once it hit sixty. And now he dared to push it to one-sixty? Was he not afraid the car would just fall apart?

At that moment, I felt as if the ground was quaking beneath me. My heart leapt from my throat straight to the crown of my head.

With this insane speed, one thought flashed through my mind: I had to make him stop.

Desperation fueled my voice as I shouted, “Old Wang, slow down! You’re going too fast!”

Wang Hou didn’t answer.

“Old Wang! This joke’s gone too far! Slow down!”

On my second shout, Wang Hou finally responded—but instead of words, I got a chilling, crazed laughter.

“Heh heh, heh heh heh…” That foolish, manic laugh sent a shudder through all of us—Hongye, A-Si, and me. None of us understood what he meant, or knew how to respond.

I was baffled to the core… What was with that idiotic laugh? Was he proud for getting the old van to one-sixty? Had he broken his personal record?

Of course, those absurd thoughts vanished in an instant, because Wang Hou’s next move was even more shocking.

He started singing.

To our horror, Wang Hou let go of the steering wheel, clapped his hands in time, and began belting out a song.

The sound was as shrill as it was off-key, and the lyrics made my skin crawl.

He was singing, “I love Beijing, the sun rises over Tiananmen, our great leader…”

Hearing that familiar song, I almost spat a mouthful of blood.

No doubt about it—Wang Hou was definitely possessed!

And if this went on, we’d all be dead in no time.

Seeing the steering wheel unmanned and Wang Hou clapping and singing, I could sit still no longer. Without thinking, I squeezed myself out from between the seats, sidled over, and grabbed the steering wheel tightly.

Amid the chaos, Hongye’s sharp voice rang out, “The brakes! Quickly, reach for the brakes!”

I nodded, pushing myself forward as best I could, though it was incredibly difficult.

My main obstacle was none other than the possessed, singing Wang Hou.

As if singing wasn’t enough, he was gyrating his massive body to the rhythm, shoving me with his hips until I was nearly out of breath.

But I had no time to care. I held onto the wheel for dear life, stretching desperately for the gas pedal, which Wang Hou’s foot had mashed to the floor, and the empty brake pedal.

But I couldn’t reach…

On the third attempt, I felt as if my whole body might be torn apart between the shaking vehicle and Wang Hou’s relentless shoving. The pain made it impossible to move even a fraction further.

Finally, I summoned every ounce of strength I had and lunged again!

Still, my hand was half a centimeter from the brake.

And just then, Wang Hou’s nostalgic singing abruptly stopped.

I froze, quickly looking up at his face.

Wang Hou was smiling at me, sitting motionless in his seat.

“Old Wang, the brakes!” I thought he’d come to his senses and pleaded with him.

But when he heard me, Wang Hou’s grin only widened, and he waved his hand at me in a mocking, playful gesture.

Looking into his eyes, alight with a strange excitement, I suddenly realized—those weren’t his eyes at all!

But I had no time to think further.

The van suddenly spun out of control, swaying violently from side to side under overwhelming inertia.

Then, with a deafening noise, the van began to spin, rattling my brain with pain.

My mind went blank. In the haze that followed, I seemed to see a little boy in black staring at me coldly. Just as Wang Hou had described, his face was so pale—so pale…

When I finally came to, I found myself sitting in the front passenger seat.

Inside the van, I did not see the carnage I’d expected. On the contrary, the vehicle was still driving along the road, more or less intact. Only now, Xian Hongye was at the wheel instead of Wang Hou.

I rubbed my tired eyes and asked, “Where’s Wang Hou?”

Hongye motioned toward the back. “He’s in the back. A-Si is keeping an eye on him, don’t worry.”

I turned slightly and saw Wang Hou sprawled across the seats, mumbling incoherently and drooling as if he’d had a stroke.

Seeing him like that, I suddenly understood what had happened to him.

Just then, little A-Si, who was “guarding” him, grinned at me and interrupted my thoughts.

He called out, “Brother Wang is fine! Second Brother, just relax and rest!”

I nodded with satisfaction and turned to Hongye. “Was it you who hit the brakes?”

Hongye shook her head. “We owe our lives to A-Si.”

As it turned out, when I was struggling with the steering wheel, A-Si, thanks to his small size and circus training, managed to leap from the back seat to the front. With his agility, he pried Wang Hou’s foot off the accelerator at the last second and stomped on the brake just in time.

Even so, the van nearly went out of control. We scraped the guardrail, shattered a headlight, and the entire right door was deeply gouged and wouldn’t open anymore.

Still, we were all alive and intact.

As I felt the battered van swaying along the emergency lane, I didn’t feel the slightest exhilaration at having survived. On the contrary, I was filled with guilt toward Wang Hou. Because of my error, he’d nearly lost his life.

As we drove slowly and steadily, Hongye checked a road sign and told me, “Fifteen more minutes to the service area.”

Throughout our conversation, her eyes never left the road ahead, her expression grave—clearly, she too was afraid of another accident.

I nodded and asked, “How did you know about the ‘Ghost Banquet’? And how did you know they were burning pine nuts in that bowl?”

Hongye replied, “I majored in literature and history in college, so I’ve done some research into these things. Funny enough, do you know what my thesis was about?”

I shook my head.

She told me, “‘Historical Taboos in Han Folk Culture.’ Because of that paper, I learned a bit about folk superstitions, especially those from Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei.”

“Oh!” I nodded, not surprised. “A folk culture expert, then. But why are you working as a state-owned enterprise manager? Isn’t that a stretch for your field?”

Hongye gave a helpless smile and replied, half self-mocking, “It’s all because of my father. He wants me to gain experience in business so I can one day inherit the family’s…” She trailed off, but I knew the word she left unsaid was “business.”

For a moment, we both fell silent. She kept her eyes on the road, while I studied this woman who, over the past few days, had become so entangled in my life.

At that moment, Xian Hongye wore her hair in a neat ponytail. Like the rest of us, she’d changed into a windbreaker for convenience, but whereas ours were black, hers was a vivid red.

Suddenly, I realized this woman had a strong preference for red. The first time we’d met, she wore a red dress; now, it was a red windbreaker. Even her name included the word “Red.” It was as if that blazing color was her personal backdrop.

Yet, in contrast to her love of red, she was not an especially outgoing or exuberant person.

At first, I’d thought her highly capable and measured in everything she did.

But after these past few days, my impression of her had shifted. I saw a resilience in her, and a strong sense of observation—she even had a subtle air of command, a “general’s” bearing.

No wonder she could become a manager in her twenties; she must owe it to her keen perception and decisiveness.

As I pondered, Hongye seemed to sense my gaze and, perhaps a bit embarrassed, glanced at me in the rearview mirror. She smiled and said, “Brother Tian, your name always sounds a little awkward to me…”

I nodded, half-joking, “Just call me Old Tian, like Wang Hou does. All this ‘Brother’ stuff is too sweet for me.”

“Call you Old Tian?” Hongye showed a flash of white teeth in a smile.

“Yes, Old Tian. That’s an imperial decree!” I teased.

But her response made my skin tingle.

Xian Hongye actually replied, “Your humble servant obeys, Old Tian!”

That coquettish “your humble servant” nearly melted my ear right off.

I laughed to cover my embarrassment, quickly steering the conversation back. “Let’s talk about that Ghost Banquet and the Red Pine Immortal. If I hadn’t stopped you, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.”

To be honest, I was still sick with regret over what happened to Wang Hou. If I’d known the ‘ghost possession’ would come on so quickly, I should have stopped him from driving in the first place.

After all, I had just realized what was happening with the ‘Ghost Banquet.’

But I hadn’t acted, not expecting things to escalate so fast, and I’d been too eager to get off this damned highway.

What was the point of regretting now? In that moment, I’d clung to hope and kept silent. I hadn’t wanted to upset Wang Hou, but I did anyway; I hadn’t wanted things to go wrong, but they already had.

So again I said, “It’s all my fault. I was too naive.”

But Hongye only smiled, showing she didn’t mind at all.

After a while, perhaps afraid I’d think she was still upset, she added, “Honestly, I only know a little about this stuff. As for the real ins and outs, I’m clueless. I just know the ‘Ghost Banquet’ is a nasty ritual, used for evil spirits to find substitutes. But I have no idea how it’s actually done.”

She paused, then, as if genuinely interested, asked, “Old Tian, you know a lot—why don’t you tell us about it?”

She deliberately added a hint of our hometown dialect, sounding playful.

I understood she was really just making conversation, keeping things from going awkwardly silent. I appreciated that.

So I cleared my throat and began to explain everything I knew about the Ghost Banquet and its workings, in detail.