Uncle Liu saw that I didn't believe him, so he went into the house and looked around.

He picked up the pair of cloth shoes I wore when I returned to the village and shook them, and a piece of paper money fell out of the shoes.

Uncle Liu held two pieces of paper money and showed them to me:

"See? The money for the journey is ready for you. They want to take you away."

My mother was frightened and asked what to do.

Uncle Liu burned the two pieces of paper money and asked me to hand over all the university-related things.

I brought back two textbooks in my backpack to read during the summer vacation, as well as my student ID.

Uncle Liu took these things from me and asked my mother to buy a whole sheep from the butcher, with the skin and internal organs all taken care of.

My father bought the sheep, and Uncle Liu stuffed my books and student ID into the sheep's belly and sewed it up with red thread. He asked for my birth date, wrote it on a talisman, and put it in the sheep's mouth.

After finishing all this, Uncle Liu hung the sheep on the jujube tree in our yard.

I asked what he was doing.

Uncle Liu said:

"What else can we do? Fool the ghosts!"

Uncle Liu wanted our whole family to hide in the house, not making a sound or going outside no matter what happened.

"And then?" I asked.

"Then Qiuge will come, but she will take the sheep as you. After taking the sheep away, you will be safe."

"When will Qiuge come?" my mother asked again.

Uncle Liu pinched the few strands of beard on his chin and said:

"She has already come."