Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Yan Er’s Story (2)

She’d only ever confessed that secret worry to her best friend in the mirror. Gu Shi Yi had hated that household for as long as she could remember: Li Yan Er’s father was violent, her mother was spineless and shameless, and her brother was a brainless catastrophe waiting to happen—sooner or later, he would drag Li Yan Er down with him.

“The sooner you leave, the better,” Gu Shi Yi urged. “Once you’re out, go far away, find a good place to settle down, and marry an honest man!”

It was a nice plan. Too bad life loved ambushing people.

Just as Li Yan Er entered the final semester of her senior year—running around lining up internships, ready to grow her wings and fly—her brother got into trouble.

Not small trouble, either.

He killed someone.

Li Yan Er’s brother was born rotten. He never studied, skipped class like it was a hobby, and spent his days squatting in internet cafes with a gang of boys, gaming. When he ran out of money, he went home to demand more. As long as his son could “carry on the family line,” her father didn’t care what he did. Her mother didn’t want to interfere, and Li Yan Er didn’t dare.

She tried once. She hit her brother a single time. Her father beat her so badly she couldn’t get out of bed for three days. After that, the Li family boy grew more and more lawless—doing every filthy thing imaginable. And because he was young, and because the Li family did business and had money, any disaster was “handled” with cash.

They indulged him until it finally blew up.

A group of boys were gaming in the internet cafe, screaming insults at the guys across from them. Both sides got genuinely heated. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-old punks were at that age where they didn’t know the sky had a limit. Li Yan Er’s brother grabbed an ashtray off the table and smashed it into the other side. The impact split a kid’s scalp. The boy wasn’t much older. His face went instantly red with blood. When he staggered back, he tripped and fell, and the back of his head hit the floor—hard and straight.

Blood spread across the tiles.

The proprietor realized something was wrong and rushed the boy to the township clinic. The doctor took one look and waved them off.

“We can’t treat this here. Take him to the county hospital!”

By the time they reached the county hospital, his pupils were already blown wide.

The moment the news got out, the other family stormed the Li house. Li Yan Er’s mother hid in a room, too scared to make a sound. Li Yan Er’s father—legally illiterate and loudly proud of it—puffed himself up and shouted like volume could change reality.

“It wasn’t on purpose! He’s underage—he can’t be sentenced!”

The law didn’t care what he wanted. Killing someone in a beating wasn’t a minor offense. Money had to be paid, and prison still had to be served. The other family had some backing too. Their son was dead—how could they let it go? They screamed that they didn’t want money; they wanted the Li family boy’s life.

“Your family has money. We’re not short on cash either. Let your boy rot in prison for life if he wants. But if he ever dares come out—he’s dead!”

This wasn’t something money could patch over.

Li Yan Er’s father finally panicked. He’d slept around with plenty of women, but not one had ever given him a son. The old Li family only had this single seedling. If someone killed him and the incense line snapped, who would inherit everything Li Yan Er’s father had built?

After years of swaggering around town, he still had a few connections. He knew being rich wasn’t the same as being powerful. If he found the right door and bowed low enough, maybe this could still be smoothed over. So he begged and bribed his way to the mayor’s brother-in-law, borrowed the mayor’s face to mediate, offered to pay, and tried to persuade the other family to swallow it and move on.

It just so happened the mayor’s brother-in-law had a son—thirty years old and still unmarried. With their background, finding a wife shouldn’t have been hard, but this son was a lazy drifter with no real job, and he’d been born with uneven legs. A limp. A cripple.

The women he met while drinking and chasing pleasure were all the wrong kind. The elders scoffed at every one of them, calling them fox spirits who couldn’t bear sons. And even if they did give birth, who knew if the child was really theirs?

They’d already scanned every eligible girl in town. They’d set their eyes on the Li family’s eldest daughter early on. Now the Li family came begging, and they brought up the marriage like it was casual conversation. If the girl agreed, the mayor’s brother-in-law said, this matter wouldn’t even be a matter.

Li Yan Er’s father was thrilled.

“So raising that money-losing trash finally pays off. A college student really is worth something!”

A perfect deal: their son’s crisis would be “settled,” and they’d be tied to powerful relatives. From then on, wouldn’t the Li family be able to swagger through town sideways?

And just like that, the marriage was decided.

Li Yan Er refused, of course. The man was older than her, soaked in every vice—drinking, gambling, whoring, fighting—the kind of thug mothers warned their daughters about. How could she marry someone like that?

Her father knew she wouldn’t agree, so he hid everything. He made up an excuse to lure her home, locked her in a room, and then tossed down the real terms. Li Yan Er wouldn’t nod. Her father tried fists. She clenched her teeth and still wouldn’t nod.

When brute force didn’t work, her mother tried sobbing and begging. They dragged it out for days. Watching it all, Gu Shi Yi realized that if Li Yan Er stayed locked up any longer, her internship would be ruined.

She leaned close to the mirror and whispered a plan.

“Pretend to agree. Find a way to steal your ID. Then we run.”

Li Yan Er looked soft, but she was steel inside. With Gu Shi Yi’s idea in her ear, she forced herself to play along. She pretended to give in. She even coaxed her father into squeezing the Wang family for an even bigger bride price. Then she added one more condition, sweet as honey.

“I haven’t gotten my diploma yet. The family spent so much money sending me to school. If I don’t get the certificate, isn’t all that money wasted?”

That hit her father right where it itched. He stared at his daughter for a long time, eyes hard, then snarled, “If you dare run, I’ll break your legs!”

Li Yan Er had seen that savage face her whole life. She nodded obediently on the outside—and laughed coldly on the inside. She went back to school, got her diploma, even tossed aside the internship she’d worked so hard for. Then, under cover of night, she boarded a train and disappeared.

She stayed gone for three years. Far from home, she found work, settled down, and tried to become a person again.

If she’d never returned, nothing that followed would have happened.

But in the end, Li Yan Er’s weakness was a soft heart.

One day, she happened to reconnect online with an elementary school classmate. That classmate told her her mother had cancer and didn’t have much time left. The news hit like a fist. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. She wanted to go back, just once, to see her mother.

Only Gu Shi Yi sensed something wrong.

“That classmate lives in town, right? And I think they’re related to that family somehow. What if it’s a lie?”

Li Yan Er had thought of that too.

“But… what if it’s true?”

She hesitated for days. In the end, she still went back.

She meant to be careful. She planned to slip into the hospital, take a look at her mother, leave some money, and vanish again. She didn’t even make it past the hospital room door before her father caught her.

He wore a feral grin and slapped her twice.

“You thought I couldn’t deal with you? Run, then! Run as far as you want—I’ve got ways to drag you back!”

He forced her home.

Meanwhile, on the groom’s side, the man’s reputation was infamous. In that area, no decent family would marry their daughter to him. But he truly had his eye on Li Yan Er—the college student.

“I’m a hoodlum, sure. But if I marry a college student and make her my wife? I can brag about that for the rest of my life.”

So the groom’s family never let it go. They used the marriage to squeeze Li Yan Er’s father for three years, until he finally tricked his daughter into returning.

On the wedding day, Li Yan Er was held down while they changed her clothes and painted her face. Two thick-armed, broad-waisted middle-aged women clamped her on both sides and shoved her into the car. At the groom’s house, they locked her in the bridal room.

She paced in circles, panic turning her stomach, a small shard of mirror clenched in her hand. Her ID, her phone—everything had been confiscated. Only that shard survived, because she’d hidden it in the sole of her shoe when no one was looking.

“What do I do? What do I do? Shi Yi—what do I do?”

Gu Shi Yi was frantic too, thinking, [I’m too far away. I’ve got skills and dao techniques, but I still can’t help her.]

She paced with her hands behind her back. After a long, helpless stretch, she finally snapped her fingers.

“Don’t panic. Listen to me…”

…

The groom’s family had power and influence. Half the town showed up for the banquet. By the time the drinking ended, it was well past midnight.

Li Yan Er didn’t dare take off her clothes. She sat on the edge of the bed in a bright red traditional bridal outfit, eyes closed in fake sleep. When she heard the messy footsteps outside, she jerked upright.

The door banged. A man with one high step and one low step stumbled in, drunk, followed by a pack of relatives. Some young men grinned and tried to crowd in, eager to “make trouble in the bridal chamber,” but Li Yan Er’s so-called mother-in-law blocked them with a glare.

“Out. All of you. If anyone dares start trouble tonight, I’ll break his legs!”

This old woman was famous for being fierce. Everyone for miles knew it. The crowd laughed and scattered. When they were gone, the groom lurched inside, saw Li Yan Er sitting there with terror written all over her face, and chuckled. He reached back and locked the door.

“College student… college student… I married a college student!”

He swayed over and reached for her face. Li Yan Er swallowed down her nausea, let his greasy hand brush her cheek, and forced a shaky smile.

“Y-you… sit first.”

The man snickered, dropped onto the bed beside her, and pulled her in by the waist. He squinted at her makeup—so thick it looked like someone had slapped it on with a broom—and made a disgusted sound.

“Look at you. You’re not even as pretty as the girls who sell themselves. You just think you’re special because you’re a college student, and you looked down on me. Now what? Still ended up in my hands, didn’t you?”

He grinned, pleased with himself. Li Yan Er bit down hard, kept smiling, and asked in a small voice, “Really? So… you’ve been to all the little hair salons in town?”

Their town sat on a busy transport route. Trucks came and went day and night. Somewhere along the way, “hair salons” multiplied—places where truck drivers parked at the edge of town and went in for a “haircut.” After Li Yan Er’s father got rich, he started frequenting them too. From the groom’s tone, he was a regular as well.

The groom laughed and loosened his tie.

“Your man’s got skills. Those women see me and they’re like cats spotting fish, eyes glowing green. I don’t even have to pay…”

He bragged like it was an achievement. Li Yan Er felt bile rise.

Still talking, he went to unbuckle his belt. “Listen up. You’d better serve me right. If it wasn’t because you’re a college student, who the hell would marry you? Just be good and give me a son… then you’ll have it good.”

He grabbed her chin and leaned in to kiss her. Li Yan Er shoved at his chest.

“W-wait—wait. I… I’ll show you something.”

She reached toward her pocket. The groom squinted at her, drunk and amused.

“Show me what? What, did Li Da Zhuang—that guy who picks his ass and sucks his fingers—let you bring a dowry over here?”

Instead of answering, Li Yan Er slid her hand under the pillow and pulled out a broken mirror shard.

“What’s that?” the groom asked.

His reaction was slow, drowned in alcohol. He leaned closer, squinting.

Li Yan Er smiled.

“Look. There’s something inside it that ordinary people can’t see.”

She patted his shoulders—left and right—then tapped the top of his head.

“Now you can see it.”

“Tch. You trying to mess with me?”

Then his expression froze.

In the mirror shard, a pale face appeared—eyes bulging, nose rotted away into two black holes, upper lip gone, bloody gums exposed, teeth like a white forest.

“Heh heh…”

The female ghost in the shard smiled at him.

“Groom, what a joyous day. Wedding night, isn’t it…”

As she spoke, she stretched out a pale hand. Half-inch black nails gleamed wetly.

“Groom… pull me over. Let me come join the fun…”

The man was big and thick, but his courage was paper-thin. The moment he understood what he was seeing, his eyes went wide. A wet gurgle sounded in his throat as he staggered back and slammed into the vanity at the foot of the bed. His face turned the color of ash. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, but no sound came out.

Li Yan Er watched him and, for the first time that night, felt a sharp, vicious satisfaction. She stepped forward, mirror shard held out like an offering.

“Look again. Isn’t it fun? She looks scary, but she only died a year ago. That’s why she’s rotted like this. I’ve been able to see ghosts since I was little. I can even attract them. Everyone in our home village knew. Later, after we moved to town, my parents made me shut up about it. But now we’re married. I can’t hide it from you.”

On cue, the ghost grinned.

“Heh heh…”

“Y-you…” the groom finally forced out, voice strangled.

His hand shot to his chest. He gasped for air like his lungs had been swapped for sand. Li Yan Er stared as his eyes rolled white, his lips darkened, and his face shifted from ghost-white to an ugly bluish shade. His legs gave out. He slid down the vanity and hit the floor.

“H-help… help… save me…”

He clawed at the air, howling toward the door. Years of drinking, whoring, and gambling had already hollowed him out. He looked strong on the outside, but he was rotten within. Tonight he’d also drowned himself in alcohol. One hard scare—and his heart simply quit.

“H-help… help…”

His voice shredded itself on the last cry, and then—

Silence.