After only a few glances, Chen Ping looked away from the photos.
The individuals selected by the special task force were either those who had witnessed supernatural events or had close relatives involved in supernatural cases.
Alternatively, they had ancestors who made a living in the metaphysical field.
Whether it was a second great-uncle or a third cousin-in-law—no matter how distant the relative—anyone with such a connection was caught in the wide net cast by the special task force.
The information provided by Qin Yue was incredibly detailed, down to the smallest detail.
Blood type, age, ancestral home, place of birth, parents, and maternal relatives were all listed in a large, clear table.
It included where they went to school as children, who their homeroom teachers were, their college entrance exam scores, their roles in university, their performance at work, whether they got along with colleagues, and if they had recently encountered any supernatural incidents...
The young woman currently before him, named Nan Zhi, had her ancestral roots in Xixiang. Her parents were divorced and had both started new families early on.
As a result, she had lived with her Grandma, Dao Magu, her uncle, Nan Fang, and her aunt, Wang Qiuping, since the age of thirteen.
Nan Zhi’s relationship with her uncle was actually quite poor. During her university years, there were records of neighbors calling the police due to physical altercations between the uncle and niece when she returned home.
Once Nan Zhi finished university and Dao Magu passed away, the girl returned to her hometown for the funeral and never went back to Xixiang again.
The reason her file had been sent to Chen Ping was because of her grandmother, Dao Magu.
Dao Magu belonged to an ethnic minority. She had later married Nan Zhi’s grandfather and given birth to Nan Zhi’s father, Nan Yuan, and her second uncle, Nan Fang.
Before the founding of the country, Dao Magu’s father was a locally famous "witch doctor" who specialized in "seeing work" and "settling matters" for money.
Later, during the movement to eradicate old superstitions, Dao Magu’s father retired from his practice, but he died shortly thereafter.
From the records, Nan Zhi seemed like a perfectly ordinary young woman. Her life was a simple routine of commuting between home and work. Aside from occasionally going out with friends, she mostly stayed home to play games.
I think I remember her.
The one with fair skin who spoke slowly and loved to gossip?
Chen Ping strained his memory and finally managed to dig up such a person from his limited recollections.
Back when his eyes had been clouded by resentful energy, he had even exploded a lightbulb over her head.
He shook his head.
This girl was completely ordinary; she had absolutely nothing to do with the "Song Dynasty Female Ghost."
Chen Ping tossed the photo aside and continued looking through the next file.
The night was long, and he still had several files to review.
...
...
A cramped room, walls plastered with yellowed newspapers, and a yellowed university admission letter, torn to shreds and thrown on the floor.
“Don’t even think about it! A money-losing commodity like you wants to go to university? Was the pittance your parents sent enough to cover your food and drink? Where would the money for your tuition come from?
Why does a girl need to go to university? You’ll belong to someone else’s house eventually anyway. Marrying a few years early or a few years late is all the same!”
On the man’s face, the emotions of a hypocritical smile and a ferocious rage switched back and forth. His hoarse, lung-bursting roars seemed to still ring in her ears:
“You dare glare at me? Have I raised you all these years for nothing? University? Go to your mother’s university! I’ve already made a deal. For a university-student bride, they’re willing to pay a thirty-eight thousand yuan bride price. I don’t care if you’re willing or not.”
“The admission letter? What about it? Isn’t it gone now? I don’t care. If you dare try to go to school, I’ll break your legs. I’m your biological uncle; I’d like to see who dares stop me from marrying off my niece!”
An indifferent aunt, a Grandma who could only cry, and a younger cousin sitting to the side playing on his phone, acting as if none of it concerned him.
Nan Zhi couldn’t remember if she had cried at the time.
She only remembered pouncing like a little leopard, biting the man’s ear hard, and tearing off a piece of flesh with her teeth.
That was the first time Nan Zhi realized that there wasn’t much difference between a man’s scream and a woman’s.
“You idiot, you damn legal illiterate! Trafficking women is against the law! So what if you tore up my letter? You don’t need the physical letter to attend university.”
Nan Zhi spat out the flesh and blood from her mouth, revealing a satisfied, triumphant smile:
“Who wants you to raise them? Who said I needed you? The state has good policies; I can get a loan for university. I’ll work to support myself and earn my own tuition!
It’s just because your son didn’t get into university and I did that you feel humiliated! If you dare try to sell me, I’ll call the police and have you arrested!”
“You dare talk back? You really think your wings have grown strong? Fine, you want to fly out of this poor ditch, do you? Let’s see if you even have the life for it.”
His secret thoughts exposed, the man flew into a rage, clutching his bloodied right cheek and roaring:
“They’ve already paid the bride price. You’re marrying whether you want to or not! Your Grandma is getting old; I’m the one who has to pay for her care later. Try refusing to marry! Even if you’re a golden phoenix egg hatched in a poor nest, I’ll snap your wings so you can never fly out!”
“Go ahead and sell me! Wherever you sell me, I’ll put rat poison in their food. I’ll set their house on fire and kill them all. I’ll see who dares to buy me.”
Nan Zhi didn’t back down an inch, her neck stiff as she glared at him:
“If they have cows, I’ll poison their cows. If they have chickens, I’ll bite their chickens to death. If they have a dog, I’ll beat the dog and make a dog meat hotpot out of it.
As long as I’m alive, I’ll never let you have a good day. Even if I die, I’ll turn into a ghost and come back to take your whole family away.”
Seemingly frightened by the sheer ruthlessness in Nan Zhi’s words, the man’s raised arm stayed frozen in the air, never coming down to strike her.
And then?
Afterward, she only remembered a reassuring red and blue police light ending the chaos.
A long, long time later, in the middle of the night when she dreamed of the past, Nan Zhi could still remember her uncle’s unwilling curses, the numbness in her aunt’s eyes, and the jealousy on her cousin’s face.
And also, the ID card and a stack of small bills her Grandma had secretly handed to her.
A wrinkled old lady had saved a stack of wrinkled small bills for her wrinkled, crying granddaughter.
That was the ticket to her new life.
“Good child, good child. There’s no one in this world you can’t live without. Grandma left something for you under the tree.
If life is ever hard for you out there, come back and see Grandma... Don’t tell your little uncle. He’s gone bad to the core; all he sees is money...”
The little old lady, dressed in a pinkish-blue burial shroud, sat atop the tall locust tree and smiled at Nan Zhi:
“I’m doing very well now. I ride horses and watch operas every day. But I have to go soon; I just wanted to see my Zhizhi.”
“Magu... is leaving...”
“Magu, it’s time to go...”
“Magu, the hour has come. Don’t be late...”
In the dream, someone seemed to be calling Dao Magu’s name in the local dialect.
The voice was very strange, not sounding human at all, and it carried a faint buzzing quality.
“Zhizhi, remember. You must remember.”
The old lady seemed a bit anxious. She pointed at the locust tree she was sitting on and grinned, revealing a mouth missing several teeth:
“Remember, remember. It’s under the tree, under the tree. Go get it. Go get it.”
Suddenly, a thick mist spread, and the kind face from her memory slowly began to blur...
Nan Zhi suddenly snapped awake.
It was just a dream.
She moved her neck and let out a soft sigh.
“Squeak, squeak?”
The Golden Mouse that had been sleeping soundly by her pillow rolled over, its black bead-like eyes full of confusion in its half-awake state:
“Squeak?”
Nan Zhi smoothed down the tuft of fur sticking up on its head and replied with a smile:
“It’s nothing. I just dreamed of the past. I even dreamed of my Grandma talking to me. It wasn’t a nightmare—”
She suddenly stopped.
Her uncle, Nan Fang, hated her to the bone and hadn’t even been willing to tell Nan Zhi the news of Grandma’s death. It was only thanks to a kind fellow villager who sent word to her.
Nan Zhi had rushed back overnight, but she still hadn't managed to see Grandma one last time. She only arrived in time to see the coffin being buried with her own eyes.
In other words, she had never actually seen the little old lady wearing her burial shroud.
Rate on N.U.
