Knocks in the Night A Tale of Ghostly Encounter and Spiritual Healing in a watermelon file

My name is Mamengjun from Anhui Province. I heard a story that happened to my classmate’s grandpa in 2006. That year, his grandpa planted several acres of watermelon around the bank of SiQing river, where it was said that many people drowned, and there were plenty of graves on the bank. The atmosphere surrounding the river was weird, making people not want to approach it.

But the watermelons were almost ripe, and his grandpa needed to watch the field to prevent someone from stealing them, especially at night. During the first two nights, he felt afraid of the vibe around the shore, so he asked his wife to accompany him to watch the watermelons at the riverbank. The two nights were uneventful. On the third night, he decided to go there alone, but something odd happened.

He brought a flashlight and saw that everything was in order in his field. He then went to a cabin for a nap. He didn’t know how long he slept when he suddenly awoke to knocking. He turned on the flashlight and approached the door, wanting to open it, and saw a man standing outside with a bag, his clothes dripping with water. The old man asked the man who he was, and the man responded that his name was Zhangtian, and he came to catch fish. He added that he was thirsty and asked for a watermelon. Then his grandpa picked one up for the man, who had it while sitting on the ground. The man asked the old man how he was alone there, not afraid of ghosts.

The old man smiled and said that there were no ghosts on earth. The man wanted him to come with him to catch a big fish in the water, but his grandpa refused. They talked for about five minutes, and the man suddenly vanished, leaving some watermelon rind on the ground. His grandpa thought that the man had just gone and ignored it.

On the next night, when the old man was sleeping, he suddenly woke up to knocking. When he opened the door, there was nothing outside. On the third night, he heard his name being called faintly again. The old man felt a bit afraid and did not answer it, then put the covers over himself and fell asleep. When he made his way home, he felt very weak all over his body. When he reached home, he stumbled into bed, and his wife and son sensed that something was wrong with him.

His son asked him what had happened, but he did not respond. He just slept for a whole day. That night, the old man was preparing to set off to the field, but his wife requested his son to go to the watermelon field with him. Then the father and son set out together, seeing everything was normal, and returned to the cabin to sleep. In the middle of the night, the old man saw someone indistinctly open the door and enter the cabin. He wanted to shout out, but he could not make any sounds through his throat and felt that he could not move a little. He felt that everything was real, not like a dream. He saw the man walking to the head of his son’s bed and approaching him, asking, “I called out to you last night. Why didn’t you answer me?” After hearing that, the old man screamed and sat up from bed, and his son woke up from his scream. The son asked his father what was wrong, and the old man said, “He came, he came again.” Then the son took the old man home.

When his grandpa got home, he had a high fever and was sent to the hospital. After several days in the hospital, he did not get better. Then his family realized that something was not right. They knew that there were paranormal activities around the SiQing river. They thought that maybe the old man had encountered ghosts, so the family decided to bring him home.

The family invited a psychic to their house, and the psychic told them that the old man’s soul had been taken away by the ghosts. If it had been discovered later, the old man would have been doomed to die. After hearing this, the family members were quite surprised. The psychic instructed them to burn some Hell money and incense, and he said that the old man should get better. After they did what they were told by the psychic, the old man recovered the next day.

Some days later, the old man’s wife asked him what he had experienced. The old man told her that on the first night, a man named Zhangtian knocked on his door, and he opened it and chatted with him. Since then, every night, he could hear someone knocking. Upon hearing this, his son decided to find out the answer. He walked a long way to the neighboring village and asked the villagers about the name Zhangtian. One of the villagers told him that Zhangtian used to live there but drowned and died in the SiQing river.

The villager told the son that it was three years ago when Zhangtian went to the river with another villager to catch some fish. That night, when they reached the riverbank, Zhangtian saw a big fish in the center of the river, so he walked into the water to catch it. Then he saw a large stone floating on the river, and he looked up to see two boys standing on the river, smiling at him. The other villager also saw the two boys and shouted at Zhangtian to swim quickly to the shore because the two boys were ghosts. When Zhangtian realized he had drowned in the river, he sank down into the water.