13.
And so, the secret Principal’s family wanted to keep hidden became the secret of the entire village. Too many people were involved…
They couldn’t let Tống Lan Chi return to the city. She was smart and educated; she would go to the police and get them all shot.
Their only option was to keep her locked up. But Tống Lan Chi was always looking for a way to escape. She refused to accept her fate; given any chance, she would run.
Once, she almost got away.
The villagers shuddered as they remembered what had happened.
“Keeping her locked up like this forever isn’t a good solution!”
Someone suggested, “Why don’t we…”
He raised a hand to his neck and made a quick slashing motion.
Everyone fell silent.
They were thinking it over.
The drastic solution gave them pause.
In the end, Tống Lan Chi was unable to escape this living hell.
…
Hứa Thúy said, “They strangled her to death, then dumped her body beside the Mountain God’s shrine.”
“They sleep soundly every night, while I’m haunted by nightmares.”
“I always feel like Teacher Tống is blaming me—blaming me for not saving her, blaming me for helping them cover up the truth.”
Consumed by guilt, Hứa Thúy went up the mountain alone when she was eighteen.
She quietly built a grave where Tống Lan Chi had been buried. From time to time, she climbed the mountain to pay her respects and repent.
“When I was twenty, I saw it for the first time.”
Hứa Thúy recalled, “It looked terrifying, but from the first moment I saw it, I knew it was Teacher Tống, back for revenge.”
“That same year, children born in the village began showing signs that something was wrong with them.”
“They were awful—so awful they couldn’t be controlled…”
“It was Tống Lan Chi’s curse, and it was our punishment!”
14.
A demon formed from the powerful resentment a person harbors at the moment of death is called a “corpse demon” in our demon-subduing tradition. What Hứa Thúy saw that year was a corpse demon.
Corpse demons usually don’t last long—at most a year—before dissipating into the world. They aren’t very powerful, either; tripping someone is about the most they can do. Unless, that is, someone is worshiping them. After all, the power of human belief is the greatest force in the world…
I looked at Hứa Thúy. “Was it just you?”
Hứa Thúy shook her head. “I wasn’t the only one.”
As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeve. Her slender arm was mottled blue and purple, crisscrossed with countless scars.
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên sucked in a sharp breath. “What happened…?”
“My husband did this,” Hứa Thúy said.
“In Thượng Liên Village, there isn’t a man who doesn’t beat his wife.”
“Living here, how is this any different from hell?”
“Now the older the children get, the more violent they become. They’re gradually learning to hit people, too…”
“Teacher Tống promised us she’d help us gain our freedom.”
Hứa Thúy said she had placed a fragment of Tống Lan Chi’s bone in the Mountain God’s shrine. On every full-moon night, the women of the village went out to worship the corpse demon. It received enough belief, and inside the Mountain God’s shrine, absorbed some of the divine power that remained there. Over time, the corpse demon became the monster we saw today.
“Teacher Tống was a good person. She never hurt us.”
Even now, Hứa Thúy still called her “Teacher Tống.”
…
Hứa Thúy went home in the dark. On the way back, Tưởng Thiếu Thiên and I were both silent.
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên stole a glance at me, looking like he wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to.
“If you have something to say, just say it. Stop hemming and hawing.”
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên sighed and asked, “Sister Như Ý, do you think there’s a chance the corpse demon showed itself today to save you?”
I thought it over, then nodded. “I couldn’t sense any malice from it.”
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên hesitated. “Then… do we still have to capture it?”
I was silent for a long while, but finally said, “We do.”
“The curse won’t be lifted unless the corpse demon disappears.”
“The children of Thượng Liên Village are still innocent.”
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên said, “But I feel sorry for Tống Lan Chi, too.”
She really was pitiful.
A gifted young woman like her should have had a bright and brilliant life. But because of the greed and filth in these people’s hearts, she was condemned to be imprisoned in this filthy place for all eternity.
I thought I could do one last thing for her.
15.
Standing before the Mountain God’s shrine, I raised my hand and made a gesture to summon a spirit.
As the formation’s golden light swept over the ruined shrine, I said, “Huh? Where’d it go?”
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên darted into the shrine and looked around. “Where did the corpse demon run off to?”
I stood outside in silence, not answering. When Tưởng Thiếu Thiên got no reply, he ran back out.
He stood beside me on the mountainside and followed my gaze downhill. The monster, with a human head and spider’s body, was quickly making its way off the mountain.
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên’s eyes widened. “It’s… it’s gone down the mountain!”
“A corpse demon isn’t supposed to be able to leave the place where it died, is it?”
“Where did it get that kind of power…?”
He stopped midsentence and turned to look at me in disbelief. “Sister Như Ý, what did you just do in the Mountain God’s shrine?”
“A spirit-summoning spell. What else?”
I yawned. “Come on. Let’s go catch a monster.”
…
“Murderer! The monster’s killing people!”
By the time we came down the mountain, Thượng Liên Village was in chaos.
The village chief’s house was brightly lit, surrounded by a crowd.
The village chief lay dead in the courtyard.
“That’s it! That’s the monster!”
At the sound, I looked over. A few men had trapped the corpse demon in a large net.
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên said under his breath, “Wait, why did it suddenly get so weak?”
“It isn’t weak.”
I calmly looked at the corpse demon and explained, “Its resentment has dissipated.”
Everyone involved in Tống Lan Chi’s murder had died, one after another, more than thirty years ago.
The village chief was the last one.
Now that the village chief was gone, the corpse demon’s original resentment had dissipated, too.
“Burn it! Burn it!”
Everyone raised their torches and surrounded the corpse demon.
I frowned slightly and pulled a Qiankun bag from my belt. “Taiyin engenders life, essence of water and ink. Xu and Wei align above; tortoise and serpent take form. It circles through the six directions, subduing all spirits!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the corpse demon let out a heart-wrenching scream.
It turned into a wisp of black smoke and slowly drifted into the Qiankun bag at my waist.
Everyone heard the noise and looked over.
I frowned and scolded them. “Idiots! Do you think ordinary fire can burn this monster?”
“If you can’t burn it and only make it angry, none of you will survive!”
Hearing that, everyone hurriedly nodded. “Yes, yes, Master. You’re right.”
“We were just in such a hurry…”
16.
On the day we left Thượng Liên Village, Hứa Thúy came to see us off.
She gave me an old ribbon.
“That day, the boys in my class yanked my hair tie until it snapped, and I cried so much. Teacher Tống pulled me into her dorm room and used a blue ribbon to tie my hair back.”
Hứa Thúy’s eyes reddened. “Could you help me return this ribbon to Teacher Tống?”
I took the ribbon and looked up at her, saying gently, “The freedom Tống Lan Chi promised you all probably won’t come to pass.”
Hứa Thúy smiled at me. “That’s okay.”
I patted her shoulder. “But you can fight for it yourselves.”
“When the corpse demon disappears, the curse on the children of Thượng Liên Village will end. When that happens, raise the children well and build good lives. Better days will come.”
Hứa Thúy looked at the Qiankun bag at my waist and nodded.
I knew my words were a little vague.
But there was nothing else I could do. There were too many people suffering in this world for me to help them all.
As for those who commit evil, in the end, they’ll get what’s coming to them.
Take Trương Quân, for example. I heard he’s bedridden now, paralyzed on one side, and his wife left with their son.
Who knows how he’ll live out the rest of his life?
…
The train let out a shrill whistle. At last, our day-and-night journey was over.
Giang Thiếu Thiên stretched. “We’re finally home!”
He stepped out of the station looking cheerful, but the moment he saw the scene outside, he froze. “Where are we? This isn’t our Phượng Thành…”
“This is Giang Thành.”
I walked past him. “The corpse demon is about to disappear.”
“Tống Lan Chi spent her whole life unable to leave that mountain. Now we should take her back and let her see it.”
“Come on. Let’s take her home.”
#Extra:
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên got scolded again.
He looked at his reddened palm, which Sister Như Ý had just smacked with a ruler.
“How could you get something as simple as the soul-summoning spell and the soul-sending spell wrong? You deserved that!”
Tưởng Thiếu Thiên felt a little aggrieved.
He’d drawn the soul-summoning spell just like Sister Như Ý had that night in front of the Mountain God’s shrine.
There was no way he could have gotten it wrong!
How could it be wrong? How could it possibly be wrong?
Giang Thiếu Thiên thought this was a question worth pondering.
-THE END-