Chapter 2

Chapter 2

These reckless kids had no idea what they were messing with!

My face hardened.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“A suona sends the dead on their way. The instrument itself can commune with spirits, and now it’s midnight. The Ghost Gate is right here on Mount Tai. If you play it at random and lure all those ghosts over, what then?”

Mount Tai was the place where the sun rose, so its yang energy was extraordinarily strong. But when yang reached its peak, yin was born. After midnight, Mount Tai belonged to another world.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas recorded, “Within the Northern Sea lies Youdu.” On a tombstone from the Eastern Han dynasty, the words were carved even more plainly: “In life, one belongs to Chang’an; in death, one returns to Mount Tai.”

Ordinarily, countless wandering souls and stray ghosts roamed near the Ghost Gate, waiting for the annual Ghost Festival in the seventh lunar month, when the gate would open wide and they could enter the underworld. Now that the suona had sounded, those spirits would think their living relatives were holding a memorial offering and would all rush over to see what was going on.

After I finished my stern warning, Chen Minghui and the others froze for a moment-then suddenly burst into laughter all at once.

Xiaoyuan laughed so hard she leaned completely against Chen Minghui.

“Hahaha, Qiao Moyu, we really are fated to meet. How come you’re just like my boyfriend? You like all this ghost and spirit stuff too.”

“There’s still a difference. This classmate Qiao Moyu makes it sound way more convincing than Xiao Hui.”

“Exactly. Xiao Hui, you should learn from her.”

Chen Minghui laughed too. As he laughed, he gave me a thumbs-up.

“I’ve gotta admit, you do make it sound more authentic than me. If I keep playing, what kind of ghost is going to come out next?”

“Go on, keep making it up. I want to hear how far you can take this.”

As Chen Minghui spoke, he brought the suona to his mouth and blew hard.

“Beee-”

The piercing note echoed through the mountain path.

Everyone raised their hands to cover their ears and was just about to curse him out when, in the next second, several clangs of a gong suddenly rang out in the distance.

Faintly, a long, lilting, mournful voice followed: “The living, keep away-”

Immediately after came the highly penetrating tone of a suona, accompanied by thunderous gongs and drums. The sound stabbed through our eardrums, almost reaching straight into the soul.

My scalp went numb in an instant.

Jiang Haoyan rubbed the goose bumps on his arms and sighed.

“Damn. One person can actually play with the force of an entire army.”

The people on the platform were startled and all turned to look at Chen Minghui, their faces full of admiration.

“What level of player is this guy-”

Chen Minghui’s classmates were dumbfounded too.

“Wait, Xiao Hui, you can play the suona that well?”

“Yeah, seriously awesome. If you’re not on the Spring Festival Gala this year, I’m not watching it.”

Everyone chimed in at once. The curses they had been about to shout turned into wild praise.

Only I stood there, staring blankly down the mountain.

On the stone steps, four paper effigies were carrying a large red bridal sedan chair, making their way toward us.