Volume 1, Chapter 57: The Wife in the Dream

Grandpa Fourth smiled and said, "This kid is something else. Made two hundred bucks from a job and actually bought you wine."

I asked, "He just went out this morning, how come you're already back?"

"Your master's wife was worried about you, so she sent me back. How did things go?"

I recounted everything that had happened today.

Master Ma nodded repeatedly, offering all sorts of praise.

I couldn't help feeling a little smug; a master is a master, his words sound so good.

Master Ma said, "Alright, let's head home."

Grandpa Fourth smiled and said, "Have a drink before you go, what's the rush?"

Master Ma let out an affirmative grunt, took off his shoes directly, and hopped onto the brick-bed (*kang*). I figured Master Ma had no intention of leaving in the first place, just angling for a free meal.

One dish, three wine cups, and just like that, we started drinking.

They always say Master Ma has no shame, but once he gets a little liquor in him, he lights right up.

Since they were old acquaintances, there was no need for pleasantries. They just chatted aimlessly about the past—things from their youth, which production team's donkey had the most stamina, what they used to eat during the New Year—the usual nostalgic chatter.

As they chatted away, Grandpa Fourth suddenly blurted out, "Old brother, tell me my fortune. How much longer do I have to live?"

Master Ma paused for a moment, then laughed, "Damn it, since when do I know how to do that sort of thing?"

"I'm not shitting you, calculate it for me. I'm sixty-three. How much longer can I live? I need to get things ready so the kids aren't left running around like headless chickens."

"Why bother calculating that stuff? Live one day at a time, just be happy while you can."

Having polished off two taels of cheap booze, Master Ma's tongue was starting to loosen up.

Grandpa Fourth took a sharp gulp of wine, his voice rasping, "Tell me, how much longer can I live? I feel like I'm running out of time."

Master Ma also put down his chopsticks, looking serious as he said, "I can't calculate that, old brother. Did something happen to you?"

"Sigh, she has come looking for me. I'm finally going to be reunited with her. I've yearned for this for so many years, and now the day has finally come."

I was dumbfounded, my mind filled with question marks.

Master Ma asked, "When did she come?"

"Ever since the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month, up until now, I've been dreaming of her every single day. She has come to take me away."

"It's nothing. I'll go back and tidy things up for you. You just eat and drink as usual, what are you afraid of? You still have a long life ahead of you; you'll even get to drink this kid's wedding wine."

"I'm not afraid of anything else, and I'm more than willing to go with her. I'm just afraid I'll suddenly drop dead, and the kids will panic, completely clueless about how to handle a funeral. I don't want to be a burden to them. Just give me a date so I can prepare."

Having said that, Grandpa Fourth stood up and walked over to the stack of quilts at the end of the *kang*, rummaging through a black plastic bag on top. A second later, Grandpa Fourth turned back with a smile and said, "Come, take a look at how my portrait turned out."

My heart tightened.

It was a black-and-white photograph—a funeral portrait.

In the photo, Grandpa Fourth had uncharacteristically taken off his hat, his beard was closely shaved, and he looked thoroughly kind-hearted. Looking into his eyes, they were filled entirely with a reluctance to leave the mortal world.

Master Ma said, "Old brother, what on earth are you doing?"

Grandpa Fourth looked happily at his own funeral portrait, admiring it greatly. He said, "I should have lifted my chin a bit when the photo was taken; my forehead has a bit of a glare."

Hearing this left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Master Ma asked earnestly, "Old brother, what on earth have you encountered lately?"

"Sigh, I'll speak the truth. At my age, I'm not afraid of death; I'm afraid of cremation. You say when a person dies, not even a corpse is left behind—what kind of way is that to go?"

"It's the New Year, stop going on about death, it's inauspicious. Tell me, what actually happened?"

Grandpa Fourth took a small sip of wine, ate a bite of sticky rice cake, and slowly recounted, "A few years ago, I had Sun Xiwang from the back village make a coffin for me. You know how it is, when a carpenter makes a coffin, you ask how soon it'll be used. If the carpenter says it'll be used in a few years, that means you still have a few years left. Sun Xiwang said a little over three years, not quite four."

"Son of a bitch, don't listen to his bullshit."

Grandpa Fourth let out a dismissive sigh and said, "No, Sun Xiwang is pretty capable. We used to live in the same village and got along well. Later, he went off to learn carpentry from his father-in-law and moved away. His craftsmanship is quite good."

"That's still bullshit. Tell me, what kind of things have you run into?"

"First, cast a hexagram for me and see how much time I have left."

Master Ma let out a helpless sigh and said, "Cast what hexagram? I don't even have any copper coins on me. No bragging, but if you die tomorrow, I can still buy you a few more years of mortal life tonight. What are you scared of?"

"I have copper coins," Grandpa Fourth said anxiously.

Left with no choice, Master Ma had to bite the bullet and divine the hexagram.

Grandpa Fourth fetched an iron box of ancient copper coins. Master Ma casually picked up three, weighed them in his hand, and tossed them onto the *kang* table. Then, a bizarre scene unfolded.

One of the copper coins stood vertically on its edge.

Master Ma's expression turned rather grim. He silently picked up the three copper coins, weighed them in his hand for the time it took to smoke half a cigarette, and then scattered them again.

One of the copper coins spun around the table a few times and once more came to a halt, standing on its edge.

Master Ma grinned wryly and said, "Kid, you try throwing them."

I acknowledged, picked up the copper coins one by one, and shook them back and forth between my cupped hands for a good while before tossing them.

Two of them stood upright.

To explain divination using three copper coins: the side with inscribed characters represents the Yang aspect, and the reverse side represents Yin. Assuming they are Qianlong dynasty copper coins, the side inscribed with "Qianlong" is Yang.

With three copper coins, the possible outcomes are limited to four: three Yang, three Yin, one Yang and two Yin, or two Yang and one Yin.

If a coin stood on its edge just once by coincidence, it might be possible, but for it to happen three consecutive times—things were definitely not that simple.

As for why copper coins must be used:

Because of copper.

As everyone knows, among common metals, silver is the best conductor of electricity, followed closely by copper.

Scientifically speaking, there is bioelectricity within the human body. Copper has excellent electrical conductivity, or rather, it can rapidly react to surrounding magnetic fields.

If the copper coins could stand on end, there was unquestionably something wrong with the surrounding magnetic field.

In other words, there was an evil presence.

Even Master Ma had never encountered such a situation, and his face showed a trace of panic. Although the ritual normally required throwing the coins six times, Master Ma didn't bother anymore. He forced a grimace and asked, "Tell me first, what happened?"

"On the twenty-eighth, it was almost New Year's Eve, and a lot of people were buying wine. I closed the shop late that night, must have been past eight o'clock. I threw a jacket over my shoulders and went out to latch the courtyard gate. In a daze, I saw a long-haired woman wearing a bright red padded jacket. I felt like it was her."

"What kind of red jacket?"

"She flashed past in an instant, didn't see clearly. Her whole body was red, and her shoes felt red too. Then she just vanished."

Master Ma nodded.

Grandpa Fourth continued, "That very night, I had a dream. I dreamt I was getting married. At our age, let alone dreaming of getting married—even when we go to sleep completely blotto from drinking, I hadn't had a dream in God knows how many years."

"What did you do during the wedding?"

Grandpa Fourth sighed heavily and said, "That dream felt so vivid. But I didn't recognize the bride; it definitely wasn't her. The people attending the wedding weren't human either; there wasn't a single familiar face. Everyone had huge eyes, and their expressions looked rather dull. Then, they made me bow to heaven and earth to get married, just like an ancient wedding. Right as we were about to enter the bridal chamber, my father arrived and told me to go home and celebrate the New Year first. The bride said she would come to pick me up in seven days."

I calculated it mentally: the dream was on the twenty-eighth, and seven days later would be the third day of the lunar new year—which was tomorrow.

Master Ma asked, "Were there any details about the wedding?"

"It was just a normal wedding, except I was riding a big yellow horse—a yellow horse just like the paper horses burned for the dead at a funeral."

Master Ma let out a heavy, solemn sigh and said, "Dreams have no color. A colorful dream is almost always the work of evil spirits."