The burned-down old theater has now been turned into a folk museum.

This, however, made my already confused state even worse.

I stared blankly at a set of red opera costumes in the display case, which still bore some scorch marks.

Perhaps I was too engrossed; when I saw an elderly gentleman standing beside me with graying hair and glasses, I was startled.

He looked somewhat familiar to me.

“You were supposed to die ten years ago. By challenging fate, not only are you endangering yourself, but you are also putting your parents at risk!”

He looked into my eyes with a deep and inscrutable gaze, speaking every word with emphasis.

Before he finished speaking, half the blood in my body had already run cold.

Challenging fate means altering one's destiny; if the King of Hell decrees you to die at three in the morning but you hold out until five, you will pay a heavy price!

He was right; even though Sun Xue and I escaped our hometown to study in the city, we couldn’t avoid the inevitable.

I didn’t want to implicate my parents.

“Is there any way to break this?”

I asked, trembling.

The elderly gentleman smiled faintly, touching a gourd hanging at his waist, with a kind and gentle demeanor.

“This old man is not talented; I once practiced cultivation for a few years. Since I encountered you, how could I stand by and watch you die?”

He told me his surname was Wang and that he was a folklore expert employed by the museum. He also told me that the only way to break the curse now was to make a paper effigy in my likeness to replace me in the coffin.

This is called a paper substitute in rural areas, meant to suffer disasters in place of the original person.

Hope surged within me.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and there was no better option at the moment.

Before leaving, he reminded me that until the matter was resolved, I must not leave the village.

I was deeply grateful.

I called my parents and told them I wanted to stay in the village for a few more days to spend time with my aunt.