8.
I followed her for a long time, found a few paper puppets, and finally dragged Chu Tuấn out of the deep water, where only his head was still above the surface.
Once we were out of the water, Chu Tuấn quickly came to. Looking bewildered, he said, “Oh my God, I fell in the water? What happened?”
I hauled the ghost woman away—the puppet had eaten more than half of her, and her exposed calves were covered in corpse marks—and said, “You had to help her retrieve her shoe from the water. Don’t you remember?”
Chu Tuấn remembered something. His face went deathly pale as he muttered, “So the legend is real!”
The girl in white, who drowned for love, was one of the ghost stories at Qingchuan University.
Many years ago, there was a beautiful girl and her boyfriend, who were about to graduate. They planned to stay in Qingzhou and build a life there, working hard to buy a house and a car. But then, one day, the girl could no longer find her boyfriend. He had picked up his diploma and changed his phone number.
The girl waited by the lake where they had agreed to meet, but he never came. In the end, she drowned in the lake.
Afterward, people often saw her sitting by the lake, calling out to boys who passed by.
Her voice had a strange power that made people unable to refuse her requests. By now, no fewer than ten boys had ended up forever at the bottom of the lake with her.
The story was clear now: The girl in white had pined for her boyfriend until the day she died. Her spirit haunted the place where she had drowned, and the lake’s cold energy had turned her into a water ghost. The only way to ease her resentment was to fulfill her wish.
I put away the puppet and was about to have a serious talk with the girl, but to my surprise, just as she’d been freed, she suddenly lunged at Chu Tuấn, the person closest to her.
She gripped Chu Tuấn’s shoulders and cried emotionally, “Brother Hàn! Brother Hàn! I knew you wouldn’t abandon me! I knew you’d come back!”
When Chu Tuấn saw her reveal her truly terrifying form, he screamed in terror and struggled violently. Though the girl in white was petite, she was incredibly strong, and he couldn’t break free.
Chu Tuấn was so tense that he squeezed his eyes shut and fainted.
“No, no! I’m not Brother Hàn!”
The girl in white let go of Chu Tuấn and came toward me instead. “Then… both of you can die!”
At that moment, the baleful energy around her surged. She looked ready to go berserk, so I hurriedly shouted, “I can take you to find Brother Hàn!”
9.
Ten minutes later, I led the woman in the white dress to an apartment building in Chengzhong Village.
The large courtyard near the entrance was cluttered with electric scooters, drying racks, and all sorts of other things. An uncovered dumpster reeked, and flies buzzed everywhere.
The woman in the white dress frowned. “He lives here?”
I shook my head. “No! A man who betrays love doesn’t even deserve to live here!”
Then I led her down the stairs, through a maze of passageways, and along a dark basement corridor to a row of tiny cubicles. The place was damp and airless, thick with the smell of mildew.
I motioned for the woman in the white dress to look through the ventilation window.
A man of indeterminate age lay curled up inside, his hair disheveled, his face pale, sweat beading on his forehead. A young woman sat beside him, tears streaming down her face. “Does it hurt a lot? Let me take you to the hospital!”
The man weakly shook his head. “Why bother… It’ll just cost money.”
Satisfied with the man’s circumstances, I said to the woman in the white dress, “You see? How has he been living since he abandoned you? I can read faces, too. Just looking at him, I can tell his illness is serious and he doesn’t have much time left! You should let go. He’s already paid for what he did, living in poverty and sickness. The past few years can’t have been easy. We should go…”
But the woman in the white dress remained still, her eyes fixed on the man in the sickbed.
That was impossible! She’d been dead for so many years, and she was still hung up on him?
The man was already in such a state. What could she possibly still be attached to?
I was just about to scold her when the man’s younger sister spoke up. “Brother, why don’t I find Sister Tiantiàn? I know you still think about her…”
“No! You can’t!”
The man weakly grabbed his sister’s hand and said firmly, “You mustn’t let her know! All I want is for her to live well. Don’t bother her!”
“Promise me! Never go looking for her! After I die, scatter my ashes at Qingchuan University. That’s where she and I made our happiest memories!”
No way! So there was another explanation for why the man had disappeared?
10.
The girl in white dug her claws into the window frame, anxiously peering inside. At that moment, I was just as curious as she was about what had happened all those years ago.
Fortunately, the other girl was quite the chatterbox, and as she grumbled angrily, we soon learned what had happened.
The girl in white’s real name was Lưu Thiến. Her family was fairly well-off, and she was beautiful and charming, with plenty of suitors, including many from wealthy families. But she chose a poor country boy named Cao Hàn, who had no parents and lived only with his younger sister.
This infuriated Lưu Thiến’s arrogant mother, especially when she heard that her daughter planned to stay in Qingzhou and build a life with the poor young man. In her fury, she rushed to see them in the middle of the night.
When her daughter refused to listen, she turned her attention to Cao Hàn.
But Cao Hàn didn’t back down. No matter how often she came to his home to insult and threaten him, or what methods she used to tempt him, he remained unmoved.
Finally, she came with one of her daughter’s suitors, a wealthy young master, to demand that Cao Hàn leave her. He suddenly agreed, because he had just discovered he was seriously ill and couldn’t afford treatment. He could no longer give his girlfriend a happy life.
So he didn’t tell anyone. He quietly left school and changed his phone number. Over the years, he never contacted his old friends, completely unaware that Lưu Thiến had died. He still thought she was living a good life!
Hearing this, Lưu Thiến couldn’t hold back her tears. Sobbing, she cried out, “Brother Hàn, I’m here!”
When Cao Hàn heard that familiar voice, he grew flustered and tried to get out of bed. “Thiến Thiến, I can hear Thiến Thiến!”
But Lưu Thiến refused to come in. She covered her face in anguish and sobbed, “I can’t let Brother Hàn see me like this!”
Hmph. It’s about time your puppet master showed up!
I thumped my chest and assured her, “I’m here. I promise I’ll make sure you look your very best when you see your sweetheart!”
11.
The colored pencil swept across the sheet of Xuan paper, and before long I’d made a new skin for Lưu Thiến. After chanting the spell, I pressed it onto her body. It fit perfectly. The features didn’t quite line up, did they? No matter. A few more strokes, and she looked even more beautiful than when she was alive!
And so Lưu Thiến was once again held in Cao Hàn’s arms. At my urging, she told him the truth: she had been dead for a long time. But Cao Hàn wasn’t afraid at all. Instead, he held her even tighter!
It was all fate playing tricks on them!
With Cao Hàn’s younger sister and me as witnesses, the two held a simple but heartwarming wedding. I took care of the wedding dress, the decorations, and the feast. My puppets even played the part of wedding guests.
After the feast, Cao Hàn closed his eyes, content.
By then, all the resentment had left Lưu Thiến. But she had committed a grave crime, and could not be reincarnated yet. She had to descend to Hell and face judgment.
I thought of a good place for her. Senior Brother Wu Xin had taken in a large group of evil spirits. She could help him capture evil ghosts while atoning for her own sins. The work was dangerous and exhausting, but in the end, she’d have a chance to be reincarnated.
After coming to an agreement with Lưu Thiến, I was about to put her in my Qiankun bag and send her to Senior Brother when Cao Hàn suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me with a thud.
“Master, please take me with you! Thiến Thiến hurt people because of me! I’m guilty too!”
“We couldn’t be together while we were alive. Please let us become husband and wife in the underworld!”
Lưu Thiến really hadn’t chosen the wrong man!
Cao Hàn really was a responsible man!
I was so moved that I agreed right away!
12.
At last, after finishing the job and returning to the dorm, I was exhausted and starving.
I ate a piece of bread and went to bed.
In my dream, I heard the piano going “ding-dong, ding-dong.” The sound… was like a brutal jumble of chopped-up notes, completely out of sync and utterly lacking in musicality.
The sound was irritating even in the daytime, let alone in the middle of the night!
I really wanted to yell at whoever was responsible!
I pulled a pillow over my head to block out the piano, but it didn’t help. The sound went on and on, growing louder, as if someone were playing right next to my ear.
There was no way I could sleep now!
I opened my eyes.
At the same time, the others in the dorm woke up too.
Lý Lượng, the hot-tempered Northerner in the bed across from mine, shouted, “What the hell is that awful noise? If you can’t play, don’t play! Some of us are trying to sleep!”
Giang Dã sat up too and cursed. “Which idiot is making all that noise in the middle of the night? Let’s go find him! From the sound of it, he’s right next door! I’ll beat him senseless…”
By then I was more awake. Who in the dorm could possibly be playing the piano? Unless…
I hurriedly shouted, “Quiet!”
But it was too late. A clear child’s voice—not belonging to any of the four of us—rang out in the dorm. “Who said I was bad at playing? And who wants to hit me?”
“I’m coming.”
Bright moonlight streamed through the window, revealing a piano on the floor and a tiny figure sitting on it.
The air around us seemed to freeze.
A moment later, Lý Lượng and the others screamed throughout the room: “Aah… a ghost!”