Tag: fantasy

40000 in Debt

Minister of War, Mr. Wang1 in Xincheng2 had a head butler who was quite well-off. 

One night, in the butler’s dream, a man ran to him and said, “You owe me 40,000 qian3 and now it’s the time to pay me back.” The butler tried to ask for more information, but the man said nothing more and disappeared.

After he woke up, he learned that his wife had just given birth to a baby boy. He couldn’t help but wonder if the baby was the same man from his dream. If so, the man might have come to collect his money. 

The butler set aside 40,000 qian in a designated room and ordered that from then on, everything the family needed for the boy had to be purchased with money from the specific stash.

When the boy was about 3 or 4 years old, there were only 700 qian left. 

One day, the nanny took the boy over to the butler so he could play with the kid. The butler said to his son, “That 40,000 is almost gone. I guess this is about as far as it goes.” 

The boy all of the sudden put on a totally different face and jerked his head back, eyes wide open. The nanny and the butler checked on him immediately, only to find him dead. 

What’s left of the money turned out to be the exact amount needed for the boy’s funeral.

Long time ago, some heirless old man asked a highly respected monk how he ended up childless. The monk said to him: “You don’t owe anyone, and no one owes you anything. How can you have kids then?” According to the monk, if you have good children, they are here to pay you back for something nice you have done for them; if you have one that brings you tons of headaches, it’s because you owed them in the past life, and you need to pay them back. In summary, don’t get too excited about having children in your life. On the other hand, if you lose them, don’t get overly sad, either.

–From Pu Songling’s  Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (The Qing Dynasty)

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1. Wang Xiangqian, a real minister in the Ming Dynasty.

2. Old name for a town in Shandong province.

3. An ancient Chinese currency unit in the form of a copper coin with a square hole. 1000 is one Guan.

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For more ancient Chinese strange tales, feel free to check out Head Flyer and 100 More Ancient Chinese Strange Stories

The One

It took me a while to find the perfect doll. The second I laid my eyes on the blurry picture of her eBay listing, I knew she was the one. The perfect haunted doll I’d been looking for.

Bidding at $555. 25 bids. 30 seconds left. I waited till the last 10 seconds and bagged her at the cost of $999.99, beating all the crazy losers pursuing an overpriced humanoid supposedly possessed by a human spirit. So much for the limit on my credit card. That’s a problem I wouldn’t have to worry about for a while.

She arrived three days later than the estimated delivery date. Thrilled to see it on the front porch after my second job, I took off my name tag and threw it on the tall grass in my front yard. I kicked off my shoes, escaped from the prison of my work uniform, and reached for my blade hidden beneath my bloomers. Was that blood on the inside of the left flap of the box? Right on!

I slit the rest of the tapes open and finally met her. Craftsmanship! People don’t care about it as often nowadays. Although the doll was only made of resin, the level of attention to detail resonated with me as some old memories rose from somewhere deep inside me. 

She stared at me as if she was the one who had just opened up a new package, not me. I was wondering what kind of spirit, if any, sat behind the pair of glass balls glistening against my flickering hallway lights. Time to change the lightbulbs. Like I gave a shit.

I set her on my nightstand before bed and fell asleep like a legit baby. All the overtime went unpaid and days off wasted thanks to those idiots’ no-call-no-shows drained me faster than any vampire or whatever blood-sucking creatures I’d ever heard of. Time for a rest. 

Before I lost consciousness, I saw the doll’s innocent smile twitch into a mischievous smirk. 

I woke up standing, faced with the wine glass I put down on my nightstand the night before. I lifted my arm and the whole room brightened up as I saw the delicate resin hand attached to my wrist by a ball joint. I was free. In my new body.

As to whatever that took that floppy flesh vessel, good luck with that.

I wanted to do so many things. First, I closed my eyes for a long overdue nap.

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For more original strange stories please check out Bleeding Money and 26 More Strange Tales