"Today at eleven in the night, go to this address, find the granny, and tell her you are there to pick up something for me."

I nodded; it didn't sound so hard.

My cousin told me in a very serious expression, "When you get the stuff, just leave, don't wait, just leave immediately."

As he finished, my cousin took off his watch and put it on my wrist.

"Remember, no matter what happens, leave before twelve."

It sounded pretty scary. WHat, is the granny some sort of monster? And that she will show her true form at zero, and eat me?

My cousin didn't tell me. He just repeated told me to not forget about his words.

In the evening, my cousin and I called for takeout at the teahouse, and at ten thirty, I went on to the last bus of the day to go to Huang Quan Rd.

It was an unusually empty street, only even a hundred and fifty feet or so would there be a dimly lit street lamp. You had to squint hard to see the road in front of you.

The street sign stood at the intersections, creaking as the wind blew on it.

There wasn't a single person on the street. The only thing you can hear is the sound of the leaves rustling in the distance as the night wind breezed amongst them.

I am not a coward. Before, when I was back in my village, I usually walked under the moonlight. But today, for some reason, my heartbeat was fast, and my arms were filled with goosebumps.

I focused and tried to give myself more confidence and continued walking. Around three hundred feet or so, I finally saw the rows of houses next to the street.

Those houses looked dilapidated, as many roofs had collapsed. It was evident that they had been deserted for a long time.

There were house numbers on the door, the deeper you walk, the number was larger. 89 was still pretty far away.

Howl, howl …

The wind became stronger as the night went on. Even though it was still around the summer solstice, the wind was still strangely cold as it blew on my skin.

There were several broken street lamps amongst the road, making the road grim and dark. I was somewhat scared and decided just to start running forward, and only stopped once I stopped at the next light. Only then did I stop to take a breather.

I didn't know where did I run at, but felt that there was something next to me, as it touched my face.

I turned around, and saw an unusually pale face, with two black, empty eye sockets.

"Ghost!"

I instantly sat on the ground, propping the ground with my two hands as I shifted backwards quickly, bubbing my ass on the ground, it was painful.

Only after shifting back around three hundred feet or so, did I realize that the ghost face was made out of paper.

I really wanted just to curse out who in the world had nothing to do and decided to put a paper mask next to the street. It scared the crap out of me.

I massaged my ass as I stood up from the ground. The wind blew past me as the paper mask rustled in the wind, almost as if they are mocking my cowardness.

I was a little bit angry about that, so I knocked down the wall of paper ties. It then did I realize that there was a run-down house behind the wall as the house was covered with different paper ties and wreaths.

On the front door, there was a white sign, written with inc were the words "Garden of Vitality," a place that sells explicitly flower rings and paper ties for the "white events," (白事, means funeral events).

I yucked a few times, to get my anger out (how we do it in China), and left quickly.

Who knew that all of the houses in that row were funeral related. At a glance, the entire roadside was filled with wreaths and paper ties.

I was dumbfounded. No wonder this road was called Huang Quan Rd, this road deals specifically with funeral events.

I read the house numbers on the store next to me. 82, it was already pretty close to the address my cousin gave me.

“82, 83, 84, 85 … 89.”

I counted the numbers as I moved forward. But when I reached the house with number 89, I was stupified once again.

In front of me was an unusually large yard, with at least six to seven houses within. It was tranquil, there weren't even sounds of insects even tho it was middle of June.

There was a security booth in front of the yard with a sign on it.

"Ande Funeral … Funeral Home."

My cousin had trolled me. He is asking me to come to the place that burns corpses in the middle of the night.

I had a natural fear of gloomy places like this. Just by standing in front of the door, my legs were already shaking.

At that moment, all I had in mind was just to leave quickly.

But at the thought that if I didn't complete the mission, Hong is going to "renovate" the tea house, I hesitated.

"Dad said, there is no ghost in this world, they are all made up by the cowards …"

"I am brave; I know I am, no need to fear!"

I encouraged myself as I walked toward forward. There was no one in the security booth, but there was a small door that led into the yard.

When I entered into the Funeral Home, I can hear my heart beating like crazy. I clenched my fists, and my hands were sweaty.

Only one of the six or seven houses was lit. I approached the door and knocked.

"Knock, knock."

The knocking sound on the door echoed throughout the back yard, catching me off guard and gave me even more goosebumps.

"Knock, knock."

I knocked on it twice but didn't hear any movement within. I tried to push the door, as a small creaking noise sounded, the door opened up a gap.

Was the door not locked?

I dared and pushed the door open and walked in. It was a relatively spacious and empty room, around the size of a classroom when I was still in school. Didn't know if it was the humidity inside or the floor was just mopped, but it was still wet.

I scanned across the room. Except for a dimly lit ceiling light, there was just a cupboard, and a small wooden door leading to other rooms, painted with dark red tung lacquer.

I didn't see anyone.

Is it not this room? I didn't saw any other rooms being lit.

I looked down at the watch my cousin gave me. It was eleven twenty-seven at night. I remember that my cousin told me I should come to see Grany at eleven. I was a little bit early.

The glass on the cabinet was brown, and you can vaguely see a statue of Zhong Kui (鐘馗) inside, which was said to counter ghosts.

I walked up curiously; this Zhong Kui statue was different from others I had seen before. It was more ugly and more gruesome.

I mean, although Zhong Kui was an ugly god. But making him this unpleasant, did the craftsman justs didn't care?

Next to the Statue of Zhong Kui was some glass jars. There seemed to be some things soaked inside, but I couldn't make it out what.

It was at that point, that I noticed the wrinkled and ghastly face on the glass, with a sinister smile across her face.