Real Unexplained Paranormal Events in Chinese Folklore - Part 5

After the Chinese New Year in 2002, my grandfather, who had been in poor health, began to request candles. At first, no one paid much attention to it, as my grandfather lived in a retirement home in the city, and they had their own power supply. However, my grandfather's request for candles continued for a week, and eventually, my aunt had to search for a pack of candles on the balcony to fulfill his request. By this time, my grandfather's eyesight was failing, and he held onto the candles tightly, saying, "Not enough, not enough, we need more for the Lantern Festival."

Soon after, my grandmother fell seriously ill, and both my grandparents were confined to their double bed. My grandmother's condition was more urgent, so we called a family doctor to treat her at home instead of taking her to the hospital. During this time, my grandfather began calling out the names of his children, one by one. He even called the name of his son who had passed away in childhood at the age of one. We tried to gather all his living children around him, but he persisted in calling out the name of the son we couldn't bring back.

In their bedroom, there was a statue of a Bodhisattva, and it was customary to light incense in front of it every day. My aunt, feeling that the house had become chaotic recently, decided to light a stick of incense. Strangely, halfway through the incense stick, my grandmother suddenly said to my aunt, "Go check the incense; it looks different today." My aunt turned to look at the incense manual and found that, for our type of incense, there was a single line in the manual that simply said: "In mourning for three days."

That night, my aunt and her elder brother began discussing the situation. Her elder brother was known for his divination skills and often performed fortune-telling. He asked my aunt to toss three coins, and based on the results, they would interpret the divination. The result indicated a death omen. Surprisingly, when they asked my youngest uncle's wife to perform the same divination, the result was the same - a death omen.

The family was in disarray. They didn't know whose death the omen referred to, and the situation was too strange. Although my elder brother primarily earned his living through fortune-telling, he wasn't entirely convinced by such things himself. He decided to consult another divination expert who had initiated him into the practice. This expert suggested a specific date - the 20th day of the lunar calendar.

So, on the 20th day of the lunar calendar, my aunt went to see my grandfather before going to work. She felt uneasy about the situation. My grandfather suddenly said, "Today, come back early." In the afternoon, all my grandfather's children came back from various places. One of my uncles had flown in from Shanghai. When he entered the house and said, "Dad, I'm back," my grandfather glanced at him and then passed away.

Three days later, we held the funeral. On that day, our city experienced an unprecedented fog, something that hadn't occurred in over fifty years according to the newspaper. This didn't bother us much, but the fog disrupted power generation, causing us to hold the memorial service by candlelight. Even the cremation had to be postponed.

The entire funeral process was recorded on video. The memorial service was held in almost total darkness, and when we watched the recording afterward, one of my cousins commented that there were too few candles, and if there had been more, the scene would have been much brighter. My grandmother raised her head and said, "Your father asked you all for candles. Which one of you bought them?"