Grandpa's Ghost-Hunting Tales

The older generation always had plenty of taboos. They would rather chat about anything else than talk about ghosts and spirits, for fear of inviting trouble and shortening their lives. This was all the more true in the rural villages of western Gansu, where the elderly held such beliefs as sacred rules, engraved in their bones and woven into their every word and deed. When my grandfather was young, he crossed between the worlds of yin and yang and subdued evil spirits. No one in the surrounding villages could match his experience with supernatural mysteries. Even the elders in neighboring counties would give a thumbs-up at the mention of his name, their voices full of reverence. But Grandpa never spoke of any of it, not once in his entire life. He never told the younger generation in the family a single word, as though those terrifying and bizarre experiences had long since been buried in the dust of time, sealed inside him, never to be mentioned again.