Ghost Bride 2

Chapter 7

"Yes! Nightclubs. Aren't they just brothels? Why use fancy terms? They're just like old Shanghai. I heard my uncle's youngest son tell me that he drove a car for a boss in the city. He was always made to follow him during the day, and at night, when they went to or from entertainment venues, he had to wait in the car. One time, he couldn't stand it anymore and went to check out what... nightclubs... what kind of nightclubs. He was really amazed. The whole room was full of women, and not a single one of them was wearing clothes..."

"You blind old woman, you know quite a lot."

"Of course! How can you say I don't know? Brothels these days are much more upscale than they used to be!"

“I said we can’t sell it in that area, or it’ll be too cheap. There’s a new term in the city now, ‘keeping a mistress,’ have you heard of it?”

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Hehe, then you can relax! Just tell me if you're selling or not. If you say yes, I can find a buyer and guarantee you a good price."

Five thousand?

"You blind old woman, is that all you've got? Fifty thousand!"

Really?

Are you going to sell your niece or not?

"That's hard to say... She's a daughter of the Lan family."

"Look how much you cherish her. You'd even sell Mei Xue, so what difference does it make if you have one more or one less? Neither of them are your children anyway."

"That's different!"

"What's different?"

"Mei Xue is a child without parents."

Isn't your niece the same?

"Her parents are still alive!"

"What's the difference? Didn't they say they abandoned her when she was nine? They left her at her grandmother's house all these years and no one has come looking for her. Isn't she just like a child without parents? What's the difference?"

It's truly eye-opening to see these two people so blatantly guilty of their crimes, yet they're so open with each other. I believe in divine retribution; it's not that retribution won't come, it's just that the time hasn't arrived yet. In this world, it's always been humans, not demons, who commit the most evil.

Meixue! It seems your father has also met with a terrible fate.

My uncle came back with the food, put the basket on the stove, and was about to leave. Seeing Dahei and me sitting by the stove waiting for him, he jumped in surprise: "Why aren't you making a sound! Are you trying to scare me?!"

I stood up and grabbed him: "Uncle, tell me, which is scarier, people or ghosts?"

He stared at me blankly, then abruptly shook his hand: "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uncle, hasn't the little Buddhist shrine in our backyard been closed for a long time?" I said. "That quiet place is now stained with filth and blood, and it's no longer peaceful and serene."

He looked at me, opened his mouth in confusion, but ultimately refused to admit anything.

“Come with me.” I took his hand and forcibly dragged him into the backyard.

What are you doing here?

“Look!” I pointed. “You probably never noticed, but that jujube tree is already incredibly red! Look, look at its branches, look at its fruit, why is it so bright red, so red it looks like it’s burning with life! That’s because its roots have absorbed blood, human blood. This nourishment is so fertile, it’s almost burning its life out. Listen, it’s screaming now, this human flesh and blood is too hot, it can’t stand it, a soul is about to break free and fly out…”

"Enough!" My uncle interrupted me, shaking his head as if he had been provoked. "Stop talking!"

Are you scared?

"You're just as mentally unstable as your grandmother!"

I sighed, "Why do people refuse to acknowledge their own mistakes and instead blame others for false accusations?"

Section 18: The Uninvited Guest (5)

"You... what do you know?" He was trembling, shaking with fear.

"Uncle, have you never seen the wall behind the Buddhist hall?"

He was stunned: "A wall? What's on the wall?"

Why not go and see for yourself?

He almost staggered to the base of the wall and saw Mei Xue's handwriting. He pointed to the wall in front of him: "That's all?"

I smiled and said to him, "Turn around and take a look! Someone left something on the wall behind you."

He walked around it with some skepticism and saw these words:

It was the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, almost Chinese New Year. Mom said she would make New Year's cakes for us. I was so happy, even though I was worried about Mom's illness, she still went to the kitchen with a smile. It was snowing lightly here, the first snow of the year. The sky was as clear as a mirror, so bright it seemed you could see your reflection. I took my younger brothers to the open space in the threshing ground to have a snowball fight, and we had so much fun. But none of us could have imagined that our departure would be our last farewell to Mom. Mom died. She died at 11 a.m. on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Spring had arrived, and the Lunar New Year had just passed when several fierce-looking men came to the Lan family and viciously kidnapped the eldest brother, Dongzi. Dongzi also died on the seventh day of the third month of spring.

Summer had passed, but my younger brother Liangdi still couldn't escape his fate; he too died and was buried under a jujube tree in this courtyard...

The sentences grew shorter and shorter, and I saw my uncle trembling uncontrollably, his withered hands frantically wiping his eyes. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing and turned to ask me, "These...were written by Mei Xue?"

I coldly questioned him, "Who is Mei Xue?"

"this……"

Who is Dongzi?

"you……"

"And who is Liangdi?"

The uncle staggered backward and nearly fell on the broken stake.

"How many lives have been taken in this family? Are you still unwilling to tell me?"

He covered his face in anguish, his voice hoarse and trembling: "I can't say... I can't say..."

"Did you kill them?" I asked, feeling a chill run down my spine.

"No...no..."

What is that?

"Child! What do you want to do?" A hint of despair appeared in the uncle's eyes.

I sighed, “Uncle, you should know that I’m a child born with ghost eyes. Like Grandma, I’m an extraordinary person. We can see the unspeakable things in this house, and we can even hear the ghosts’ cries and wails clearly. You were very flustered when I first came home, weren’t you? Auntie was even more eager to push me out the door. Because there’s something wrong with this house, it’s tainted.” I pointed to my forehead, “The taint of the spirit is even more terrible. It will blacken and stink you up, worse than being attacked and devoured by wolves.”

He stared blankly at the small patch of land under the jujube tree, as if dumbfounded.

"Do I need to remind you?" I observed his expression discreetly. "There's a cave dwelling on the west mountain, and on the north side of the mountain, there's a solitary grave with the remains of a body that couldn't be buried. Do you want me to continue?"

He trembled, then collapsed limply to the ground: "You...you...know everything?"

“Yes, I understand. I was suspicious from the first time Dahei showed me a human finger bone. This morning, after we came out of the cave, Dahei took me to the north side of West Mountain and found the owner of that finger bone. Then I understood everything. What has happened in this family?”

This is absolutely outrageous!

Tears welled up in his uncle's eyes as he sighed, lamenting that in his old age, a single misstep had brought him eternal regret.

Last winter, five outsiders came to the village: a young couple with three children, Meixue, Dongzi, and Liangdi. The children were bright and adorable, but unfortunately, their mother suffered from severe kidney disease that had been difficult to cure for a long time, leaving her weak and frail from uremia. The children's father said he had begged for a long time before finally finding the Lan family. He had heard that the Lan family matriarch could predict things that even the gods dared not do. He asked for a divination, and if the Lan family matriarch said that the disease was incurable, they would give up on seeking medical treatment. If she said it could be cured, he would offer up his ancestral treasure as payment for the medical expenses.

I understood what the older woman was up to; she wasn't about to let such a windfall slip by: "What treasure?"

"A Han Dynasty imperial bronze mirror is indeed a rare item. It is bright all over, with a bluish-black hue and clear carvings. The back of the mirror is also inlaid with eighteen red gemstones of different sizes."

"Did my aunt trick people into staying here, claiming she could cure that woman's illness?"

He shook his head: "I advised her that ill-gotten gains should not be taken. But she said, how can I let a cooked duck fly away?"

"You're lying to me?" The blood seemed to be flowing backward in my ten fingers, so cold that I lost all feeling. "Don't you know, my aunt doesn't know that kidney disease patients live like they're living in a year? The pain is even worse than being cut on the skin."

Section 19: The Uninvited Guest (6)

He lowered his head weakly, nodding repeatedly: "It was almost New Year's, and it was snowing that day, so cold. The children's mother was already as weak as paper, but she still wanted to make New Year's cakes for the children one last time. She went into the kitchen and fainted from the pain... By the time we found her, she was already dead, and two pesticide bottles were empty... When the children came back, her body was already cold..."

"This woman...you didn't kill her?"

“It really isn’t!” He waved his hand hastily in denial. “To avoid becoming a burden to her husband, this frail woman chose a decisive and tragic way to end her life. This matter… even your aunt was moved by it, but…”

Once greed takes hold, those crazy thoughts will devour everything like wildfire.

"The children's father was heartbroken and planned to bury his wife in Xishan and then take his three children back to his hometown. Your aunt persuaded him, saying it was too difficult for a man to raise three children alone, and that he should simply take the eldest girl with him and leave the two younger boys behind. She said he could come back to collect them when he was financially better off. She said she would treat his children as her own and asked him to keep that ancestral heirloom as a token, which he could use to claim the children in the future. He was persuaded and left with only his daughter..."

"But...you cruelly killed these two boys?" I asked indignantly.

"No! No! That's not it... You know I have no children and I love children, how could I kill them?"

But both boys are dead. How can this be explained?

“Liangdi is obedient, but Dongzi is hard to tame. He constantly reminds his younger brother that one day they will leave Shebupo and return to their own home. Your aunt advised me that if I really liked children, I should adopt a younger one. Raising an older one is useless; he can already remember things and will eventually return to his ancestral home, abandoning you, this lonely old man. I was really tempted at the time… I listened to her advice and gave Dongzi away…”

He paused.

I questioned, "Sending Dongzi away? Is it really a gift?"

He raised his dim, yellowed eyes to look at me, and let out another long sigh: "After the New Year, some mysterious people came to the village. They kept sending people out of the mountains and bringing money back. Your aunt thought the gods of wealth had arrived and invited them to stay at our house. Honestly, I really didn't know your aunt had sold Dongzi at that time." He swallowed hard, some words difficult to say, "But Dongzi died before he was sold. Those traffickers had guns. Dongzi tried to escape but refused to submit, and even encouraged the other hostages to run away with him. The traffickers killed a chicken to scare the monkeys, and from then on, no child who was sold ever thought of escaping again."

I was astonished: when Hai was shot and killed, the whole village went to surround the killer, Erxiazi. How come when these traffickers killed a child in the village, no one stood up to seek justice?

My uncle's aged eyes, bulging with large bags under his eyes, told me: everyone has weaknesses; profit can buy a killer, let alone silence people. More and more people in this village are involved in human trafficking; who wants their family's affairs exposed? This is also why, despite the traffickers' growing influence in Shebupo over the past six months, not a single person has spoken up.

"Now that Dongzi is gone, how do you explain this to Liangdi?"

“He was still young, and although he caused trouble for a while, he forgot quickly. I thought he would never leave me again…” He wiped away his tears, his throat tightening, “But one morning in May, he swallowed a hard fish bone. I gave him some vinegar to drink, thinking that since he could swallow it, he would be fine. I never expected that he would die half an hour later… I really didn’t mean to kill him…”

He sobbed and cried. I could see the wind rustling the trees and branches whipping against the courtyard wall. Was it a vengeful spirit coming?

“Liangdi is dead. Your aunt was afraid of losing that precious mirror, so we didn’t dare to make a fuss. We buried him under the jujube tree in the backyard... together with Dongzi’s body... I really didn’t mean to kill anyone!”

He cried his heart out. But what good was crying? The dead were gone in vain.

I stopped crying abruptly, and my uncle rubbed his eyes and asked me, "Did Mei Xue really write these words on the wall? She didn't even know where her two younger brothers were, so how could she have written these?"

People are afraid of ghosts, but they are even more afraid of the ghosts in their own hearts.

Those words were written by me imitating Mei Xue's handwriting. Mei Xue is still imprisoned in the cave, so of course she wouldn't come back to leave evidence on this wall. But I have already received confirmation that what the vengeful spirit lingering in this courtyard said is true.

I asked my uncle, "Do you believe that there is an eye in heaven watching over us, and that no matter how thick the yellow earth is, it cannot cover up the sins of greed?"

He nodded.

Section 20: The Uninvited Guest (7)

I asked again, "Whose coffin is that in Grandma's room? Since Meixue and her father have already left Shebupo, how come she's now in the cave dwelling in Xishan?"

My uncle, with red eyes, said, "That's because..."

With a loud "bang!"

The earthenware pot fell to the ground, shards flying everywhere, and an angry shout interrupted him...

Auntie!