In Changshan County, Mr. Li, the nephew of a high-ranking official, the Chief Justice, lived in a residence often plagued by supernatural occurrences. On one occasion, he saw a long, narrow bench in his room. The bench was a fleshy pink color, smooth and glossy. Since such an item hadn’t been there before, Mr. Li stepped forward to touch it. The bench responded to his touch, bending and curling, almost like soft flesh. Startled, he quickly withdrew. When he looked back, the bench, moving on four legs, slowly receded into the wall.
Another time, Mr. Li saw a white rod leaning against the wall, smooth, slender, and glossy. As he approached and touched it, the rod collapsed limply, twisting and slithering into the wall like a snake, disappearing after a moment.
In the seventeenth year of the Kangxi reign, a scholar named Wang Junsheng took up residence at the Li home to teach young students. One evening, just after lighting the lamps, Wang, fully dressed and lying on the bed, noticed a tiny figure, about three inches tall, enter from outside the door, circle briefly on the floor, then leave again. Shortly after, the small figure returned carrying two tiny stools, which he placed in the middle of the room; the stools looked like playful crafts made from sorghum stems. After a while, two more small figures entered, carrying a miniature coffin about four inches long, which they placed on the stools. Before they had settled it fully, a woman dressed in mourning attire entered, accompanied by several small maidservants. All were as diminutive as the tiny figures from before. The woman, in mourning clothes, wore a hemp rope around her waist and wrapped white cloth around her head. She covered her mouth with her sleeve, weeping softly in a sound reminiscent of a large buzzing fly.
Wang watched this scene unfold, his hair standing on end, his body cold as if enveloped in frost. He cried out, jumped up, and tried to run but tripped, falling to the floor and trembling uncontrollably. He couldn’t even get up. Hearing his shouts, others in the house rushed over, but the tiny figures, the coffin, and the stools had vanished without a trace.
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