Chapter One: Encountering a Ghost

My name is Song Chen, a spirit-exorcist who helps souls fulfill the wishes they could not complete in life.

Before then, I did not even know I had such an identity.

My parents died in a car accident when I was born. My grandmother raised me alone. Not until I turned eighteen did she die, and I became an orphan.

Before she passed, she left me a book of ghost-capturing methods, and she told me that because I had been born on the most ominous Ghost Festival day of the lunar calendar, my qi was heavy with yin, and I had opened yin-yang eyes from the moment I was born.

Since childhood, I could see what ordinary people could not. Grandmother knew this. She was the only ritual master in the village, the one who performed rites to release departed relatives, to communicate with spirits.

“Xiao Chen, it looks like I won’t live long. After I’m gone, you must study this book carefully. It will help you in time,” she said, and then she passed away.

After I arranged her funeral, I followed her wish, determined to study the methods thoroughly. Perhaps I could even discover the truth behind my parents’ deaths.

Three years passed. One day in late autumn, the sky was clear and bright, perfect for harvesting grain. I stood on a field ridge in somewhat dirty clothes, gathering wheat, and as far as I could see the fields glowed golden, like a beautiful painting.

In the distance, I thought I saw someone in a dark indigo quilted jacket, hunched over, old, walking toward me with bent shoulders.
It was far away, and the sunlight was glary, so I could not make out the figure well. Yet out of curiosity I walked toward it slowly.
The closer I got, the more suddenly the figure disappeared.

How strange.

I was still perplexed when a pale drift seemed to float in from somewhere, and I coughed hard from the shock.

When I came to my senses, what stood before me was not a person at all, but a grave.
Could it be…?

A bad feeling surged inside me.

Before I could gather my thoughts, two large hands patted my shoulder from behind. I jumped.

It was Fourth Aunt.

“Sorry, you startled me,” she said.
Fourth Aunt was the closest elder to me after my grandmother. Though she was not highly educated, she always tried to give me the very best, never letting me be less than the others. In her eyes I was like a daughter.

“Xiao Chen, how did you end up out here?” Fourth Aunt asked, glancing around as if she already knew.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing… nothing. Hurry and go. It’s getting dark, and this place is frightening at night.”

She seemed afraid of this spot, grabbed my hand and pulled me along as if we could not lose a moment.

My curiosity only deepened. For one who could see ghosts—

Night.

After dinner, after washing up, I got into bed.
Since my grandmother died, I had lived alone. Fourth Aunt had wanted to take me in, but I declined—mainly because I did not want to trouble her. Besides, I was fearless. Even if something happened, I would not be afraid.

Because I could see them.

I drifted off before I knew it.

...

That night, a cold wind swept through the room and jolted me awake from deep sleep.
I muttered irritably, clutching the edge of the quilt, but it slipped away from me and I woke fully.

“Who is it? It’s the middle of the night—don’t you know how to sleep? You’re driving me mad.”

When I opened my eyes, an older man stood before me. His face was white, his eyes lifeless and staring, fixed on me like a corpse in motion.

Good heavens, I was startled.

When I looked more closely, this was the same man I had seen in the field that afternoon, wasn’t it?

“Good evening, sir. Why are you standing here alone at this hour?” I asked, forcing my courage.

Each time he spoke, a breath of cold air slid from his mouth, making the already chilly room feel as if snow had settled inside it.

“Can you help me?”

“Hm?”

“Because only you can see me.”