[A short-tempered wandering ghost X a young teacher]
Xu Baiqing has been seeing ghosts ever since he was born. His family has hired people to perform rituals and drive them away many times, but nothing has worked.
An old Taoist who looks "highly accomplished" sees him and strokes his beard. "Entangled karma, haunted by resentment."
Unable to withstand his family's repeated pleas, the old Taoist leaves Xu Baiqing a warding bead before he goes.
Though he doesn't know whether the bead really has any mystical power, Xu Baiqing wears it every day.
More than ten years later, a man wreathed in black mist clamps a hand around Xu Baiqing's neck, his gaze vicious.
Bad news: The bead doesn't seem to ward off evil.
Good news: Just as Xu Baiqing is about to die, the man sees the bead and lets go.
The man reaches out and picks up the warding bead. It is smooth and round, black and white all over, and happens to meet the man's unfocused left eye.
*The setting is around the 1930s or 40s. I made it all up, and I might start writing it someday.
Theme: World peace
