The Double Ninth Tribulation

Born cursed, I've been death's shadow since my first breath—my mother perished bringing me into this world, my grandfather struck down by lightning at my one-month feast, my father consumed by flames at a hundred days. The villagers whisper that I'm a harbinger of doom, a child who devours his own bloodline. But the true terror began on the ninth night of the ninth month of my ninth year, when ghostly musicians materialized in our courtyard, their suonas and erhus wailing through the darkness. I watched them play until dawn, and awoke voiceless, my screams trapped forever inside. Now, every ye…