Chapter 3: The Aborted Infant Spirit

However, he was also puzzled. If the ghost child were born with no one to rescue it, it would be impossible to survive past a hundred days. As for that Yin-passing old woman, she merely helped me resolve a calamity and did not even send away my child's fate; thus, I am puzzled as to how I have managed to live until now, Li Feng.

After pondering for a long time without finding an answer, Li Feng took out copper coin after copper coin from his tattered waistband, clenched them in his hand, and muttered incomprehensible words that I and my mother could not understand, then scattered them toward the sky.

He lowered his head, staring intently at the copper coins on the ground. As time passed, even his forehead began to bead with fine sweat.

After about ten minutes, he wiped his sweat and called out to my mother: 'Go fetch a basin of water; I need to use the water basin mirror!'

The water basin mirror is one of the methods in the Daoist Sect's Round Light Section. In the Round Light Technique, palm round light, water basin mirror, and green wall manifestation are the three important arts of this section; they can reveal yin and yang, know the past, and investigate cause and effect.

Perhaps because Li Feng could not see anything in the copper coins, he asked my mother to bring a basin of clean water. Anyway, at that time neither I nor my mother understood; we only saw Li Feng chanting spells, dripping blood, and then staring intently at the water basin.

After a long while, he finally seemed to have gained some insight, exhaled, nodded, and muttered to himself: 'So that's how it is!'

Seeing Li Feng's expression, as if he knew the whole story, my mother certainly would not let it go and pressed him for details.

Under my mother's questioning, Li Feng shook his head, seemed to think, and after a moment he said: 'The reason this child has survived until now is that he still has a karmic debt to repay; once that debt is settled, his life will naturally be taken away.'

My mother panicked, not knowing what to do, and hurriedly asked Li Feng what kind of karmic debt this was and whether there was a way to resolve it.

Li Feng sighed and said to my mother: 'To untie the bell, one must find the one who tied it; this karmic debt stems from you, for you owe it, so your son must repay it.'

My mother was bewildered; Li Feng's words only grew more confusing. Even though she is not an insider, she knows the saying 'you reap what you sow'—that one's own karma should be repaid by oneself—so when did it get dragged onto her own son?

'Seven years ago, you were pregnant with a child, whom you callously aborted; this child was a girl, and it is the yin spirit clinging to your son,' Li Feng said to my mother, word by word.

'What are you saying…!' Upon hearing Li Feng's words, my mother was struck as if by five thunderbolts; she stared blankly for a while, then said nothing for a long time. Finally she collapsed to the ground, clutching my head, weeping and crying out about her sin.

Li Feng stepped forward to comfort my mother: 'Sister-in-law, you don't need to worry too much; this is not a misfortune, but rather a good thing!'

Hearing Li Feng's words, my mother froze, tears in her eyes, and asked him in confusion.

'Daoist priest, what are you saying? The karma I created now involves my son. How can you say this is a good thing!'

Li Feng instantly shook his head and laughed loudly: 'Sister-in-law, you don't realize that if you had not committed that wrongdoing, your son could not have lived to this day; precisely because he must repay the karmic debt of that infant spirit, heaven has given him a sliver of life.'

'A sliver of life? Daoist priest, do you mean you still have a way to save him?' The successive blows, hope, despair, and hope again nearly broke my mother's spirit, raising her voice far above normal.

Li Feng nodded and told my mother: 'Of course there is, but you must tell me the full story of that infant spirit before I can save your son.'

Li Feng's words left my mother sitting in a daze for a long time; to her, it seemed like a distant yet painful memory.

But for my sake, my mother finally held back her grief and slowly began to recount her past.

At that point I learned that I actually had an older sister, but she never got to see this world before leaving it again, and her killer was none other than her own birth mother. As my mother spoke of all this, for some reason I, young as I was, felt heartbroken, my nose sore.

According to my mother's recollection, seven years ago she worked at a newspaper factory. On a night unknown to many, as she walked home from work, she was insulted by a drunken ruffian. To her surprise, her belly gradually grew, and she was pregnant with a baby girl.

In those backward times, unwed childbirth was not only forbidden by the state but also invited strange looks from relatives and neighbors.

Under the coercion of her maternal grandparents, the desperate mother took the abortion drug they had prepared and ruthlessly aborted my sister—the fetus in her womb.

According to my hometown's custom, after death one must have a name to be considered to have walked this world, whether one dies shortly after birth or lives to a hundred; only then can King Yama find the name in the ledger of reincarnation. Thus, after my sister died, her spirit tablet bore the name—Jia Jia.

Later, my mother met my father, an honest and simple man who bore no grudge against her for the past insult; instead, out of pity for her ordeal, he cherished her all the more.

They later married and had me, but on the day I was born, my father died in a car accident, so we never got the chance to meet.

When my mother finished speaking, she had become a tearful figure; she regretted deeply, whether unintentionally or forced, she always felt guilty toward my unborn sister, and even now she still remembers the days she carried her sister and the day of the abortion.

She knelt on the ground and shouted into the air: 'Jia Jia, whether you demand my life or anything else, I accept it as a mother. I only hope you will spare my brother, for he is innocent!'

As soon as my mother's words fell, a fierce wind swept across the flat ground—cold and strong. It came from chilling the feet to the head, frightening me into hiding behind my mother.

'Reckless! In front of me, Li Feng, you dare to act out—who gave you the gall!' Li Feng furrowed his brows and shouted loudly; the wind vanished instantly.

After the wind ceased, my mother rushed out, continually calling my sister's name, though the wind never appeared again. Later, my mother, dazed, kept calling my sister's name before finally returning to normal.

Once normality returned, my mother's first request was for Li Feng to save my life and to perform a rites for my sister's soul.

Li Feng furrowed his brows and said: 'Just now I heard you describe the infant spirit's eight characters; using Yi divination I calculated that it, too, is a child's fate and moreover a Daoist child. Because you missed a chance of reincarnation by your hand, its resentment could be so great, lasting over seven years without cease, and just now it could still manifest in broad daylight.'

After saying that, Li Feng paced back and forth in my home. After a while, he told my mother: 'Let's do this: I will go prepare, and return in three days; during my absence, you should get some things ready for your son.'

Li Feng's words startled my mother; she thought it was an excuse for him to leave and never return. She hurriedly grabbed his sleeve and said: 'Daoist priest, you absolutely cannot abandon my son—our whole family is counting on you!'

Li Feng sighed and gave a wry smile: 'Normally I would need no magical implements nor troops; even with just my bare hands I could easily subdue that infant spirit. But I made a mistake during my yin ritual yesterday, and now I am at my weakest; having just used the water basin mirror to investigate karma, I have reached my limit, and now I lack confidence to subdue the spirit empty‑handed, so I must go prepare some things.'

'Rest assured, I will arrive precisely three days from now, without fail!' To reassure my mother, Li Feng emphasized his tone.

Next, Li Feng told my mother what to prepare and how to arrange it, then gave me a prescription of herbal medicine before leaving my home.

The things Li Feng asked my mother to prepare were quite strange: one was mugwort, the other was to have her buy money from a beggar's pouch.

At first, neither I nor my mother knew what these two items were for; even when my mother ran to the beggar's pouch to buy money, the beggar thought she was trying to steal his cash and argued with her. Later, when she explained, he still thought she was foolish.

Nevertheless, my mother paid no heed to how others viewed her; she placed all her hope in Li Feng, and naturally obeyed whatever he said.