People born in the eighties and nineties all had family stories about some supernatural explanation for their birth. Nearly every young person in town had a legendary tale from the day they were born.
Zhang Kai, from the east end of town, was born amid gusts of ghostly wind. The fortune-tellers said a ghost had taken an interest in the newborn and that he wouldn't live more than seven days.
The old folks in town told me that strange things happened in the sky when I was born, and even the old well bubbled up with blood. It was a terrible omen. They said that one day this child would cause many people to die.
But my mom was the town's famous spirit medium. She warded off ghosts and evil, summoned souls and immortals, sealed things away with paper figures, and could prolong lives or wound souls. But Mom was afraid of frightening me, so she never let me touch her paper figures. She only said that when the time came, I would touch them whether I wanted to or not.
