The only unsolved supernatural case acknowledged by the government is listed as one of the “Top Ten Urban Legends in Hong Kong”.
1. Background of the incident and core contradiction
In December 1989, the Chiu Chung Kee Tea Restaurant in the northern New Territories of Hong Kong received takeaway orders from the same address for three consecutive days, which caused a sensation in Hong Kong. This case became the only supernatural event that the Hong Kong government has not publicly denied because it involves the paradox of "living people delivering meals and dead people eating".
2. The incident: Three days of strange food orders
1. Day 1: Paper money passed through the door
The restaurant received a takeaway call from Xixiu Garden Villa, requesting the delivery of four meals (such as fried rice with egg and dry fried beef noodles). When the waiter delivered the meal, he only opened the door a little and handed out Hong Kong dollars, but when the boss settled the bill that night, he found that ghost money (printed with the words "Mingtong Bank") was mixed into the cash box, which felt no different from real money.
2. Day 2: Repeated ordering and mahjong sounds
The next day, I ordered food from the same address again. The waiter noticed a mechanical mahjong sound in the background of the phone, which seemed to be played in a loop. The delivery process was exactly the same, and the amount of ghost money in the cash box doubled.
3. Day 3: The boss’s personal experience of “yin and yang transformation”
The boss personally delivered the food and kept it separately after confirming that the money was real. However, a few hours later, the money turned into ghost money. The foul smell and the dark environment in the crack of the door aroused his vigilance, and he finally called the police.
3. Key details: chain of paranormal evidence
• Condition of the bodies: The police broke into the house and found four highly decomposed bodies. Forensic examination showed that the time of death was more than a week, but there was undigested food (beef, rice noodles, etc.) in the stomach, and the digestion level was only 1-2 days.
• Fingerprint mystery: Fingerprints of two deceased persons were found on the ghost money, and they had died long before ordering the meal.
• Anomalies in the environment: Neighbors claimed that they could still hear the sound of mahjong in the house a few days before the incident, but there were no human voices, and speculated that it was “ghosts playing cards.”
4. The Conflict between the Supernatural and Science
1. Scientific paradox
The medical examiner could not explain the discrepancy between the degree of decomposition of the body and the contents of the stomach. In a normal corpse, the digestive system would stop working and the food should remain in its original state, rather than in a "fed" state.
2. Metaphysical explanation
• A Feng Shui master pointed out that the door of the unit faced northeast, the “Gate of Ghost”, and that the gathering of negative energy had caused the souls of the dead to be trapped in the world of the living, mistakenly believing that they were still alive.
• Folk rumors say that a quarrel among four people playing mahjong triggered an evil spirit to demand their lives, or that it was a yin-yang transaction involving "parallel time and space".
3. Official speculation
The police eventually closed the case as "charcoal burning suicide", saying that the four died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning, but did not explain the contradiction between food digestion and fingerprints on ghost money.
5. Subsequent Impact and Status of Urban Legend
• Government attitude: The case was widely reported by the media, and the Hong Kong government did not deny its supernatural nature, tacitly defining it as an “unexplained incident.”
• Cultural symbols: The incident incorporates elements such as “ghost money trading” and “eating after death”, becoming a classic case of “science cannot solve” in Hong Kong urban legends, and is often mentioned together with the rumor of “headless ghosts playing mahjong” in 1953.
• Social reflection: Some scholars believe that such legends reflect citizens’ confusion about the boundary between life and death, as well as the struggle between “scientific authority” and “traditional superstition” in the process of modernization.
Conclusion:
The "ghost meal" incident remains a symbolic mystery of Hong Kong's supernatural culture. Its horror comes not only from the supernatural details, but also from the integrity of the chain of evidence - ghost money, fingerprints, stomach contents and other physical evidence are all officially recorded. Whether the truth is "yin and yang" or "collective hallucination", it has become a carrier of the collective memory of a city's fear of the unknown.
