Midnight Taboos

The strange things the old folks forbid us to ask about, passed down from generation to generation...

“Don’t look in the mirror at night. The person in it will be one second behind you.”

“There's an extra black shirt on the clothesline. Whatever you do, don’t touch the collar.”

“When a child cries, check the back of their neck for bite marks first...”

Every village has an old person who keeps a secret no one is allowed to talk about. My grandmother was the one who sat beneath the old locust tree and told us the rules.

She said these things were all true

In 1992, a young wife in Majiagou gave birth to a baby who never cried. Then the midwife realized that every cry came at precisely the same time as the night before...

In 2001, the barbershop in the county town always closed on the second day of the second lunar month. But those who passed by at midnight could hear scissors snipping hair inside...

Last summer, I saw a dripping wet blue shirt hanging on the clothesline with my own eyes. My grandmother struck a match with trembling hands. “That’s a borrowed-life burial shroud. Whoever wears it won’t live more than three days.”

Now I’m writing down these stories, wrapped in red cloth.

Remember, after reading the first chapter, don’t listen to owls after nine o’clock.