The pipe was made of agate and it was very cold when I took it from him. I quickly said goodbye to him and hurried off into the village.
Mom and Dad made a fuss over me when I got home, asking me all kinds of questions. They said I shouldn't have walked home by myself at night. If something had happened, I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. I laughed it off. "I really wanted to run into a ghost, but the ghosts were afraid to come out to see me."
Mom said, "Children shouldn't say such crazy things!"
When Dad made to smoke, I rummaged around in my bag and pulled out the agate pipe. "Dad," I said, "I ran into Mr. Zhao just now as I was coming into the village. He said he owes you five Yuan, and he asked me to give you this pipe to settle the debt."
"Who did you say it was?" Dad asked in surprise.
"Old Man Zhao!" I said.
He said, "Your eyes are going bad, right?"
"Absolutely not," I said. "I talked to him for a while, and gave him a cigarette, and there's this pipe, too."
I handed the pipe to him, but he hesitated, unwilling to take it.
Mom said: "Old Man Zhao died the day before yesterday, in the morning!"
So, I saw a ghost without realizing it. I didn't know it when I saw it because he wasn't scary like in the stories. He was friendly. He didn't want to die leaving an unpaid debt. Ghosts really don't hurt people, it's people who really hurt people. People are a lot scarier than ghosts!