The Tale Never Ends Chapter 5 Subduing the Ghost At Night

"T-this... T-that... That concrete cart (a hand-propelled cart used to transport concrete mixture) is moving on its own!?" Mr. Lee gasped with astonishment, staring wide-eyed at my father, who smiled in turned at him and said, "Don't be anxious. Continue."

Everyone was curious now, standing around Mr. Lee to have a look at the playing video footage. In the video, Fearless Hao was just passing by Mr. Lee's car with his electric scooter when a concrete cart sprang to life and began darting and banging around senselessly like bumper cars before it returned to its original position. Everyone, Mr. Lee included, was gaping with shock, their eyes as large as the saucers on the table. Mr. Lee stared disbelievingly at my father who then said, "I believe now the truth is clear, Lee. This object knocked your car." Mr. Lee nodded willingly and was quiet for moments before he confessed, "In truth, the parts where my car was knocked were stained with cement and concrete. At the time, I myself was sure this could never be the work of an electric scooter. But I could not say anything when the security footage of the event showed only Fearless Hao passing through; hence I could only look to him to pursue my questions. Who would have thought that it was this thing that was the menace of the entire debacle? The thing was small, and the security camera that recorded the incident was at the front of my vehicle; therefore it did not appear in the recorded video."

My father laughed and then said, "So I trust everything is clear now? Fearless Hao had nothing to do with this incident, and the blame should never be on him." Mr. Lee giggled and nodded before saying, "To be honest, I had never once thought of blaming Fearless Hao for the incident, in fact, I had never wanted him to pay for the damage, even if he did indeed knock my car." Fearless Hao jumped in his seat, stunned with silence as his eyes began to turn red. "It might have been due to the effects of the alcohol he had had earlier," I thought. Mr. Lee then continued, "I was quite angry at first for the car was being knocked only within five minutes after my driver had parked it. But after my chauffeur had gone through the footage, he had investigated further and had found that Fearless Hao is a construction worker." He now turned to Fearless Hao and said, "Look at this fracas. I'm had never wanted you to foot the bill for me. But never did I know that this matter would have brought Brother Hai to my doors. Relax, brother, I am not a stingy man. I know that the repairs would cost me more than hundreds of thousands. The amount may be trivial to me, but not to you. You make about three to four thousand every month; God knows how much effort and time it would take for you to accumulate such money. How can I do this to you?"

The eyes of them both were red and teary. "Drinking did indeed make these two men fast friends," I thought. My father had worked his magic once again. He was looking at them both with a smile lined across his face. Mr. Lee and Fearless Hao continued talking for some time until Mr. Lee turned to my father with another question, "But there is still one other thing that I do not understand, Brother Hai. How it is possible that the concrete cart was moving on its own? What was happening?" Beside him, Fearless Hao could only exhale heavily while my father, with his perpetual smile, answered, "Fearless Hao did not hit your car. In fact, the incident was hardly caused by a human." Mr. Lee yelled, "What!?" My father pressed on, "It's a ghost. Its purpose was to lay the blame on Fearless Hao." Mr. Lee stared strangely at Fearless Hao, who was sighing heavily while nodding his head.

Just then, before my father could go on further, a voice, filled with anger and spite, boomed over the air, "Impertinence!" The voice had come from nowhere that we knew not of where it came from. There was also a sudden rush of sensation filling our minds when the voice thundered through the hall. At first, I did not know how to put words to the feeling that suddenly assailed us. But my father told me much later that it was the ghost's "vengeful rage" resonating with us.

The sudden deafening voice came so unexpectedly that Mr. Lee and his wife, who was very young, were badly startled that the lady began to scream with fear before collapsing to the ground. Mr. Lee's face was also flushing with fear. Fearless Hao was looking around the ceiling angrily, expecting to find anything materializing out of thin air, although he could not. Then I saw my father, whose kind smile had vanished, replaced with a sinister sneer so cold that everything around him seemed to freeze. He produced the wine flash that he always had with him and unstoppered it. There was a rush of winds lashing about as a strong suction began threatening to tug and draw everything into the flask. I heard a distinct and unmistakable "fizzing" sound and my father resealed his flask. Everyone's eyes were on my father now, hoping for an explanation of the nightmare. But I had seen everything with my Spirit Sight earlier. I saw that a strand of black smoke was drawn into the flask the moment it was opening. My father shook the flask beside his ears as if listening to its contents gurgling and nodded with satisfaction. He then said to Mr. Lee and Fearless Hao, getting ready to rise from his seat, "All is well, my friends. The ghost is subdued. Please carry on. I'll take my leave now."

Hearing this, Mr. Lee immediately held my father's arm and said, "No no no... Y-you... Y-you're now going back to settle the ghost, brother?" My father nodded queerly in return and Mr. Lee, gleefully like how an inquisitive child would, said, "Heh heh heh, Brother Hai, for years I've lived and never have I laid eyes on anything so bizarre and weird like this. Come, show us more of your powers to conquer ghosts and demons!" My father giggled and stared at Mr. Lee, saying, "This is the first time I'd heard that anyone is interested in observing how we work. You should take a leaf out of Fearless Hao's book and call yourself Fearless Lee." This made everyone laughed. "Very well, since you'd asked," said my father, "I'll settle this matter here and now." He then looked at me and instructed, "Make a call to Aunt Fen, Shiyan. Ask her to deliver a box of tea leaves that I've kept in the drawer in my office." Replying with a simple "yes", I took out my phone and looked at the time. "It is eight in the evening, and Aunt Fen should still be at the Institute," I thought. I then made the call and relayed my father's instructions to Aunt Fen, giving her our present location and she agreed.

Putting down my phone, I gave a tacit nod to my father who returned a knowing nod to me before saying to the others, "All right. Let's wait awhile then. We'll begin when the tea leaves are here."

It took only ten minutes for Aunt Fen to arrive at Mr. Lee's residence. She came up and handed to my father the tea leaves who said to her, "Please wait for us in the car. We'll just need a moment to finish up some things." With a curt nod, she retreated downstairs. My father handed the box of tea leaves to Mrs. Lee, "Please, Mrs. Lee, we'll need three cups of tea." Mrs. Lee nodded as she received the box and went off. Puzzled, Mr. Lee asked, "Errr... Brother Hai, should it not be five cups of tea?" My father laughed and replied, "No. The three cups of tea are for you both and Fearless Hao." Still feeling confused, it was apparent that Mr. Lee still had questions that he dared not ask. Moments later, Mrs. Lee returned with some tea. The three of them took a sip as Mr. Lee peered strangely into the cup he had just tasted. Noticing this, my father said to him, still grinning, "It is not easy dealing with ghosts since we humans and they have differing properties. The Yin energies exuded by ghosts might be too overwhelming by some humans. The tea is to help strengthen the Yang energy of humans." Mr. Lee responded finally with an understanding "oh" and my father continued, "But you'll three will need to have more fruits in the next few days. Some honey will also help lest you'll suffer from constipation..."

Mr. and Mrs. Lee and Fearless Hao took a few more gulps of tea until my father gave them an approving nod. He took out the wine flask again and unstoppered it. A black thread of smoke swirled out of the bottle and up into the air, hanging over our heads. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were frightened with fear and I immediately held up a hand to signal to them that everything was under control. A voice came from the black fumes whirling about as the female ghost spoke bitterly, "If only you had not stuck your head into this..." But my father smiled, cutting her off, "Haven't you heard? Even without my intervention, Mr. Lee never had the notion of asking Fearless Hao for payment for the damage." But the female ghost retorted insolently, "Be that as it may. But I will not rest until I have my revenge! I will return once more or twice, or even thrice! His meddling has hindered my rebirth! I want revenge! I want him to die!" Sighing glumly, my father rebutted, "Are you too naive?" My father's unexpected reply amazed the female ghost. He then continued, "You cannot defeat him even when he's a human. What happens if you were to cause his death? He would return as a vengeful spirit, and things would be all the more worst for you. This is the first time I meet someone who's so eager to invite trouble upon oneself." Lost for words, the female ghost could not respond, only for my father to continue, "All lives and deaths are determined by destiny and karma. Hence the common saying that "no plans work without the graces of Heaven". Let's take you, for example; you were destined to fail for your method of trying to gain rebirth is not right. Even with or without Fearless Hao's tampering into your designs, the laws of Heavens dictate that one way or another, your plans will still fail! This is called Justice of Heaven. The premonitions of the Underworld are never wrong!"

The female ghost seemed less bitter and spiteful now, even though she was still seething with doubt and anger, as her hollow voice came, "I know of you. Your name is known across all planes of the afterlife. Even before this incident, you had been one of the persons I admired. I have been hoping to meet you and have my day! To think that you turned out to be an adversary! Your powers maybe beyond my abilities to challenge; still, I do not accept it! Justice of Heaven, you say? I had to sacrifice my chastity to the Hell Guard, Liu San, in exchange for this opportunity for rebirth. Now I failed. Does this mean that Liu San has cheated me? Is this the so-called Justice of Heaven?" Instead, my father laughed and replied sharply, "Of course! Since you owed him a one-night-stand!"

Chapter end