The Tragedy of the Family

In the years between 1933 and 1924, misfortune suddenly descended upon my family. In the middle of July of the year 1933, my grandmother fell ill with gastrointestinal discomfort. As custom dictated, we invited the renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner Yang Shucun from Heqiao to our home for consultations, several times in succession, with her transported back and forth in a sedan chair each time. At the same time, my mother also fell ill with gastrointestinal discomfort and took to her bed. As my grandmother’s condition worsened, the family moved her from the inner chambers to the front hall of the main house, where the entire family gathered to serve her around her sickbed. One late night, according to my eldest uncle, when he returned home and passed by the courtyard in front of my mother’s room, he noticed a ball of will-o’-the-wisp hovering and darting around my mother’s window, terrifying him so much that he ran back to my grandmother’s bedside. Later, he summoned a tenant farmer to accompany him to investigate, but when they returned to the spot, the strange phenomenon had disappeared. This supernatural occurrence left the entire family in a state of panic and dismay. From then on, anyone visiting my grandmother from the backyard to the front yard, regardless of age or gender, would not dare to go alone, and even if not in a group, they would at least be accompanied by a young adult. The family secretly agreed to keep this matter concealed from my mother, fearing it would affect her recovery.