The Tale of the Ghost Eyes Chapter 109 Xiao Yi's Wishes

"You died." I finished for her.

She didn't look up, her face was set in a mask of grief. "I was only Xiao Yi for a few years before that was taken from me too."

"The name given to you by the Wang family?" I asked.

She nodded. Her voice rising as she explained what happened next. "I died. I died. I died and they took me. With their filthy hands and their shovels, they took Xiao Yi from me. They took my name and my body and my…" She shook in her invisible bindings as if she could feel them doing it all again. "They took me and sold me to a rich family. They sold me into marriage after I died. A little girl!" Her voice doubled, suddenly two spirits were speaking as one. It was a horrible sound. "They stole a little girl to sell her into marriage." The air around her quivered as she tapped into anger that no spirit should feel.

I remembered what Master Liu said about the ghost marriage ceremony and spoke under my breath, "The groom will have control over the bride's ghost, linking them for eternity…"

"It's a ceremony from the feudal age." Lz Bin spoke from across the way. "An incantation to enslave women to their husbands after death. It was a horrid practice."

"He's old." The red girl spoke, fists still clenched and voice shaking. "He's old and he drinks. He beat women in life and he'll be worse in death. He's a monster. A monster." She repeated. Her red face began to lose color.

"You already know?" I asked, emboldened by the green spirit's voice. "Has the ceremony been performed? Is that part of you with him now?"

Her small red head shook from side to side. "Evil begets evil." She said. "There was a storm. The heaviest rain I'd ever seen, alive or dead. The town flooded and that bastard's tomb was swept away in the river. His power waned for only a moment, but I managed to flee. I came back to my tomb, my Wang An, my home."

"Then your body is gone too?" I asked. She nodded.

The same rain fell on me that day. It almost swept Master Liu and I away from the golden turtle as it contested the gods for immortality. She'd been lingering around the watermelon and communing with Wang An ever since.

Then it all went wrong. Wang An grew sicker, the Wangs invited Lv Bin, and he captured Xiao Yi. "Your whole life has been suffering. Even after death you've been plagued with it." I thought at her.

"Red Ghost, I name you again, Xiao Yi." She met my eyes and nodded. "I can't let you hurt the people you mentioned. You're a spirit now, and if you torment the living your soul will be destroyed. I won't let you."

Her expression melted into one of fury. She looked at me with loathing and began to pulse a deeper red again.

"However!" I said raising a hand to stop her. "I can bring your parents to you and demand they make amends. I hope that you can forgive them and seek reincarnation."

Her eyes wavered for a moment as she considered my proposal. With a curt nod of her head, she whispered, "Thank you."

With that, she was gone. She melted into a shadow of red smoke and I knew what to do. I murmured the incantation to send away the green spirit within me and relished the feeling of his power as it withdrew. When he was gone I felt the strength go from my legs. They wobbled beneath me, but I planted the peach wood sword in the ground to steady myself.

The red smoke thinned and drifted back into the stean. As the last of it disappeared into the spout, Lv Bin closed the distance and pasted another soul suppression amulet upon it. I plucked it off at once and met his eyes.

"She's on our side. She won't run. Your amulet might hurt her, use this one." I held up a soul gathering amulet. It was designed to help kindred souls find one another and cultivate supernatural air. Lv Bin gave me a look and then nodded.

"Your fight, your choice." He muttered. He was looking at me with an expression I couldn't discern.

"What?" I asked impatiently. The energy was quickly draining from the arm keeping me standing.

"You…" He started, "You're somethin' else kid."

I gave him a mocking grin and took the stean in my free hand. I turned towards the house and started walking, slowly.

"How did it go?" My father asked, his face much whiter than usual.

I looked at the stone pot in my hand and frowned. "She's had a difficult life and a harder death."

Inside the house, Xiao Wen was quiet. She looked at me the same way she had when she first arrived, lost and confused. I put the stean down in a safe place and retrieved the mirror, walking it slowly over to my baby sister. I raised it to her, praying that I was right.

Xiao Wen's reflection looked curiously back at her. I heaved a sigh of relief and let my legs collapse beneath me. Lying next to my baby sister on the floor, I wiped off the streaks of blood that had dried while tearing down my face.

"Maybe she's gone because she knows I'm helping, or maybe she's gone to find Wang An…" I wondered. "The living and the dead have much too much influence on one another." I heaved a sigh.

The next day Lv Bin came to my house. When I answered he immediately began ranting about how Zheng Balong had been arrested. "He knew Xiao Yi's family! He knew she was dead! He was the one who dug up her body!"

"So he's the one who condemned her to be eternally cursed?" I asked, rage boiling in my stomach.

Lv Bin nodded and then absurdly, he smiled. "He's dying."

"What?" I asked.

"He's got cancer. Call it karma, or whatever you want, but he's done a load of terrible things and now he's dying."

"Like heaven is punishing him?" I asked incredulously.

He nodded again. "Let's hope his loved ones aren't using any of his money or else they'll meet the same fate."

"Do you want to see him?" Lv Bin asked.

"No." I said too quickly, "I used all of my energy to do what I did yesterday."

Lv Bin nodded. I started to close the door when he held out his hand to stop me. "Where did you get all of the amulets you use? Did Master Liu leave them for you?" He cocked an eyebrow. I remembered what Master Liu had said about keeping my secrets and nodded tiredly.

"Yeah. He gave me a stock of a variety, although I'm almost out."

Lv Bin's face curled into a wicked smile. "Your friend, Zhao Jie, told me that you made them all by yourself. You wouldn't be lying would you?"

"I…" I started.

He cut me off by clicking his tongue. "It's a shame that you're way out here in the middle of nowhere. If you moved to the city and got proper education you could work for your country."

I didn't say anything and begged my face not to react. Lv Bin clicked his tongue again and turned to leave. After I closed the door behind him, my dad came over. "That man is strange. Why did you lie about the amulets?" He asked, placing his hands on my shoulders. "He works for the government son, you shouldn't lie to government officials."

I didn't know how to answer his question so I forced a smile.

Xiao Wen came over and said, " I don't like the man."

I smiled and touched her head saying, "Ya' know, I don't either."

"Zheng Baolong was caught. Now I only had to go to Xiao Wen's parents and convince them to apologize to their dead daughter." I thought to myself, "Easy peasy, right?

Chapter end