In Zhejiang there are five strange ghosts. Four of them are completely blind; only one has an eye, and the others rely on it to see. They are called the One-Eye and the Five Masters.
In a year of plague the five travel together, and wait for a man to fall asleep, and smell him with their noses. One ghost smelling a man makes him ill; five ghosts smelling him together make him die.
The four blind ones shuffle sideways and hesitate, not daring to decide anything, and take their orders from the One-Eye alone.
A rich man named Qian was staying at an inn. The other guests were all asleep and he alone was awake, when the lamp suddenly shrank, and he saw the five ghosts come jumping in line.
The four were about to smell one of the guests, and the One-Eye said: “This is a great good man. Not him.”
They were about to smell another, and the One-Eye said: “This is a man of great fortune. Not him.”
They were about to smell a third, and the One-Eye said: “This is a great evil man. Still not him.”
The four said: “Then what will the Master eat?”
The One-Eye pointed at two guests. “These are neither good nor evil, without fortune and without rank. If we do not eat them, what are we waiting for?”
The four fell on them together and smelled, and the two guests’ breathing grew fainter and fainter, and the five ghosts’ bellies swelled bigger and bigger.
