22
Even I was startled when I heard this. I couldn’t imagine how those two girls, barely in their twenties, had managed to face everything that happened.
“I… I ran away…”
Đặng Huyên choked out, her sobs catching in her throat. “I left Vi Vi there alone and ran.”
Her voice was full of guilt and regret.
But… could she really be blamed?
“It was all my fault. I was too much of a coward.”
Đặng Huyên didn’t dare lift her head. Big tears fell straight onto the floor.
“I never imagined that the very day I left, Vi Vi would slit her wrists and try to kill herself.”
Luckily, the neighbors found her in time and took Hàng Vi Vi to the hospital.
By the time Đặng Huyên arrived, Hàng Vi Vi was out of danger, but still hadn’t woken up.
Afterward, Đặng Huyên went back to Hàng Vi Vi’s house to pack her things. She accidentally broke Vi Vi’s mirror.
“It was in the crack in the mirror that I found these.”
Đặng Huyên took out a photograph, a talisman, and two locks of hair.
But the photograph wasn’t of Hàng Vi Vi. It showed another girl.
“I looked her up online. Her name is Tang Nhã. She was in a car accident three years ago and still hasn’t woken up. And she’s the landlady’s daughter.”
23
It wasn’t until then that Đặng Huyên understood that everything Hàng Vi Vi had been going through wasn’t an accident or a personal psychological problem. Someone had set her up.
When Đặng Huyên went back to look for the landlady, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find her.
The neighbors said the landlady’s daughter had recently shown signs of waking up, so the whole family had transferred her to a hospital outside the province.
Desperate, Đặng Huyên posted the talisman online and happened to come across a practitioner who seemed fairly trustworthy.
The practitioner said that someone had switched Hàng Vi Vi’s fate with another’s. Tang Nhã’s soul was likely being held captive on the mountain road where the accident had happened three years earlier.
The family of three who had died there wouldn’t let Tang Nhã return without finding their daughter.
Tang Nhã’s mother had targeted Hàng Vi Vi, a girl with no parents and no one to care about her, in order to save her own daughter.
This plan to exchange their fates was incredibly dangerous. Tang Nhã’s mother had gambled her daughter’s life on it.
The seventh day after Hàng Vi Vi tried to kill herself was her last chance to return to her own body.
If she couldn’t remember her name, she would have to take Tang Nhã’s place and remain trapped on that road forever.
24
“Do you remember now?”
I was standing right at the scene of the accident.
La Anh, Old Mu, and Tang Nhã’s boyfriend had all appeared. They stared at Hàng Vi Vi, trying to coax her over and over.
Hàng Vi Vi was still clutching the thermos I’d tossed her, her pupils trembling.
Just then, the girl in the little-flowered white dress appeared again, calling out loudly to Hàng Vi Vi.
Her call was a drawn-out, choked cry, as if it had come from far away—broken and mournful.
At last, Hàng Vi Vi looked up at the girl by the roadside. “Tiểu Huyên? Didn’t you leave?”
“I never left! I’ve been by your side the whole time!”
I yelled at Hàng Vi Vi, “Look closely at her! Look at her arms!”
At that moment, Đặng Huyên was actually on a street near the hospital, wearing Hàng Vi Vi’s white dress and continuously calling her friend’s soul back.
That white dress had no red flowers on it. The red stains on Đặng Huyên’s sleeves were her own blood.
25
“Tiểu Huyên, what happened to you? What’s wrong with your arms?”
Hàng Vi Vi finally noticed. She tried to step toward her in alarm, but her legs still wouldn’t move.
Đặng Huyên rolled up her sleeves, revealing arms that had once been fair but were now covered in tiny lines of scripture.
“Look, Vi Vi. You won’t be possessed anymore. I won’t hurt you again.”
In truth, Đặng Huyên couldn’t see Hàng Vi Vi. She was speaking to the invisible space in front of her. “Come back now. I won’t abandon you again. I was wrong. Please come back.”
“Tiểu Uyên, why would you do something so stupid? It must hurt so much!”
Hàng Vi Vi walked toward Đặng Huyên.
And the remnant of Tang Nhã’s soul beneath her feet could no longer control her!
26
At the same time, La Anh, Old Mu, and Tang Nhã’s boyfriend all rushed forward to hold Hàng Vi Vi back.
I immediately lashed out with my whip. Three sharp cracks rang through the air!
“The living soul must return to its body; the wronged dead may not trespass…”
I held the three old ghosts back, giving Hàng Vi Vi a chance to run toward Đặng Huyên.
But just then, Mục Húc appeared from who knew where and charged straight at Hàng Vi Vi.
“Watch out!” I shouted.
Mục Húc was almost upon Hàng Vi Vi when she managed to touch Đặng Huyên’s hand.
On Đặng Huyên’s arm, where the fresh blood had not yet dried, a brilliant golden light flashed!
Mục Húc let out a shrill scream. His body rapidly shriveled and twisted until he finally turned to dust, scattering everywhere.
Hàng Vi Vi took Đặng Huyên’s hand, and the two of them disappeared together.
27
La Anh and Old Mu both let out anguished howls. In a fit of rage, La Anh snapped Tang Nhã’s boyfriend’s neck on the spot.
He turned into a cloud of red mist and vanished on the wind.
Old Mu, meanwhile, rushed into the old black car, started it, and drove straight at me.
There was no time to get back to the car. I spun around, vaulted over the guardrail, and hurtled toward the cliff.
Old Mu’s car shot toward the edge and immediately went out of control. I heard him scream “Giai Giai” from inside. This was where he had lost his daughter.
I dodged Old Mu’s car. By reflex, I glanced down into the pitch-black depths, only to feel a sudden chill behind me.
A freezing-cold hand shoved hard against my shoulder, throwing me off balance and sending me straight over the cliff.
As I fell, I saw clearly who had pushed me…
It wasn’t La Anh or Old Mu…
It was Đường Đông.
How ironic. They were both friends, yet Đặng Huyên could cover her arm in scripture written in blood for Hàng Vi Vi, while my closest friend since childhood had tricked me into losing everything while he was alive—and even after dying, he still wouldn’t leave me alone.
28
But I wasn’t going to die so easily!
In the chaos, I hurriedly grabbed at the grass growing out of the cliff face. Its roots were embedded deep, slowing my fall. I quickly clung to…rocks.
Using the jutting rocks and the cypress branch on the cliff face for support, I steadied myself, then quickly climbed toward the road.
But as soon as I reached the road, a hand cold as ice clamped tightly around mine.
…It was La Anh.
She gave me a cold smile, her sharp nails digging into the back of my hand. “Stay here. Stay here with us.”
I grabbed the cypress branch beside me and drove it hard into her head!
La Anh let out a shrill scream, and great clots of blood gushed once more from the wound in her stomach.
She had been killed by a cypress branch, so even though she depended on one, it was also the thing she feared most.
I hauled myself fully onto the road. When the soul-whipping whip sounded again, a golden glow was already beginning to spread across the horizon.
29
Morning had come. The scene of the earlier car accident had disappeared, and even the guardrail had been completely repaired.
Only the spot where Mu Giai had fallen over the cliff still had a few wilted bouquets lying there.
I thought Mu Giai must have already gone where she needed to go; it was her family’s attachment that kept them from letting go.
I took some joss money from the car and burned it by the side of the road.
I hoped the wronged souls would soon find peace, and that such horrific accidents would never happen again.
On the way back, I got a call from Đặng Huyên. Hàng Vi Vi had woken up.
Đặng Huyên burst into tears on the phone, saying Vi Vi didn’t blame her and had forgiven her.
I smiled and comforted her, telling her to get that bloodied hand of hers treated properly before it got infected.
As soon as I hung up, I saw a familiar figure flash past outside the car window.
He stood beyond the guardrail, staring at me with a gloomy look. It was Đường Đông again!
That guy really wouldn’t stay gone.
I thought it was about time to settle things with him once and for all.
30
Later, Đặng Huyên told me that after she recovered, Hàng Vi Vi had moved away.
When she saw that landlady again, the woman was skin and bones.
Vi Vi had returned everything the woman had ever given her.
The woman sat motionless in her room, not answering no matter how much Đặng Huyên cursed at her.
According to the spiritual practitioner, after using the forbidden art of exchanging lives, the mother wouldn’t have long to live either.
I heard that her daughter, who had been in a coma for three years, drew her last breath less than half an hour after waking. All she left behind was a face frozen in utter terror, never to rest in peace.
Perhaps Tang Nhã and her boyfriend are still trapped on that mountain road to this day, forever tormented by the cycle of traffic accidents.
-THE END-