Our village is now called “Peace Village”. But many years ago it is called “Dead Huai Village” because the village was engaged in the funeral industry and many bodies were placed inside. The village has a lot of planted acacia trees too, so it was named as that.

Then the later generation thought this name is not auspicious so they changed it to “Peace Village”, to say that the village people are living safe and sound.

In fact, it’s not because the village name sounds unlucky, but because of it’s “taboo” activity before. I was able to hear this thing from the village chief’s mouth. Generally, the adults won’t tell about this to the children but because the more they keep it a secret to us children, the more we got interested in that matter.

They said that a long time ago, due to famine in 1942, every household couldn’t eat any food. Even the grass roots and the book cover were all being eaten and dug.

The village has no way to stop the famine, but still grandmother and the other villager didn’t leave the place, it’s not because they don’t want to go, but because they don’t know where to go.

How about outside the village? A lot of people already felt dizzy due to hunger and their feet are already soft so no one was willing to go. Even the village chief who escaped came back from the village at once.

Dozens of villagers were already prepared to starve to death due to famine, but unexpectedly, a stranger came in the village!

That stranger was a bald monk, his hands were still holding a dry food when he was passing through the village. He saw that the villagers are very hungry and had turn skinny. So he put down his dry food to give to the villagers.

The hungry villager’s red eyes saw it and rushed to loot the food. The bald monk who wanted to save several biscuits was unexpectedly hit with a stone by the villagers and fell to the ground.

Grandmother was only ten years old at that time, although she wasn’t able to grab a food to eat, but still, she begs her parents to drag the poor monk back to their house and bandaged his wound. But things are not that simple, so a seven or eight pieces of biscuits are not enough to the villagers.

Seeing that the monk has always been unconscious the villagers got an idea. The Village Chief personally brought people to grandmother’s house to take away the bald monk and said that he will personally help to treat him today after all the villagers got too rude when the bald monk gave them food.

Grandmother’s parents agreed. And that night, the villagers starts a bonfire.
The village people was able to eat a delicious broth soup and barbecue. The village chief said that he and his eldest son went up to the mountain to play and was able to catch a wild boar.

In fact, even if he doesn’t say that, they all know it very well that if they can catch a wild boar in the mountains then they wouldn’t need to get hungry like this, right?

Moreover, the monk also disappeared that night without a trace.

After the famine has passed, the village chief has experienced a series of a catastrophe. First, his eldest son died and then during the Cultural Revolution he was inexplicably criticized by the large family who got lesser in number due to death in starvation.

The village people said that because they killed the monk that day, the monk’s ghost wanted to take revenge. And the monk’s hatred is not only directed at him but also to the whole village, whenever a pregnant women gave birth there is a high probability of abnormal fetal defect, so they changed the name of the village to pray for peace.

From the Village Chief’s home backyard, they were able to dig up a jar, and that jar is said to be where the monk’s bones are.

Then the villagers bury him on the good side of the mountain, but no matter how many times they buried him in that place, by the next day the top cover will always disappear.

At that time, the village got an unwritten rule, they said an unmarried adult man will experience an unsatisfied death. So they need to get married to have a peace of mind. Even the newly recruited monk wanted to get marry for they are afraid to die suddenly.

In the beginning, they want to put this vague idea in advance, but when the village patriarch’s daughter also gave birth to a deformed fetus, they decided that both men and women cannot oversee this. And finally, under the village patriarch’s command they made a paper wife for the dead monk.

But the strange event was still continuing, so another rumor spread among the villagers saying that it must be a living wife. The village people began to draw lots and they have to offer their own daughter to be the “monk’s bones bride”.