This Venerable One Will Tell You a Story (Pt. 3)...

The governor's precious daughter Yao had a spirited personality. She even forgot about food and drink once she got home, and spent all her time pestering her Papa to go ask around about this Chen Bo'huan person. Although Chen Bo'huan was already married, the ceremony had been done behind closed doors; who on the outside would know? The townspeople didn't even know about the arranged betrothal between the Luo and Chen families from way back.

And so it was that the precious mistress Yao was informed that this Chen-gongzi was "unmarried".

The governor spared no effort in looking into this person, and in the end decided that this young man Chen was a capable man with a gentle temperament and a satisfactory family situation, so he sent a messenger to the Chen couple with a marriage proposal.

On hearing this, Landlord Chen was so full of regret that his intestines near turned blue. They politely told the governor's messenger that they need some time to think it over, closed the door, and immediately started arguing with each other.

Landlord Chen yelled, "Look where your rushing got us! That broke scholar died early, so his daughter should've been in mourning for three years, if you hadn't urged them to get married ahead of time, our son could have still gotten out of it! Look at this mess now!"

Madam Chen was just as anxious. "Oh so you're blaming me now? Weren't you the one who wanted to arrange the betrothal back then? This is the governor's precious daughter we're talking about here! How could that Xian… that Luo Xianxian even hope to compare?"

The pair of old bastards argued behind closed doors til they were red in the face and out of strength, both breathing roughly across the table.

Landlord Chen asked, "What should we do? Maybe we should turn the governor down."

Madam Chen said, "…Absolutely not. Our family is counting on this precious mistress for fame and fortune."

Landlord Chen shot back angrily, "Do you really think the treasured daughter of the Yao family would be willing to be a concubine? Do you? Our son already has someone, how are we to squeeze in another? And besides, look how in love they are!"

"..." Madam Chen was quiet for a while, then her eyes lit up and she muttered, "Say, old Chen, the way I see it, no one outside our family even knows about this thing between Luo Xianxian and our son…"

There was silence for a moment while Landlord Chen stared blankly, before suddenly understanding his wife's meaning.

He was shaking a little, half from apprehension, half from excitement.

"Y-you mean…"

"If no one knows about it, then the marriage never happened," Madam Chen said. "We'll chase her out one way or another. If asking doesn't work, then we'll just use force. Everyone knows our son is yet unmarried. And do you remember that incident where she stole clementines when she was younger? As long as all of us stick to the story, even if she grows extra mouths to cry about it, who would believe her!"

Landlord Chen strode to the door to make sure it was closed tight, then sidled over. The two had been arguing like a pair of fighting cocks a mere moment ago, but now they were huddled together, scheming in quiet whispers.

Landlord Chen said, "I don't think it'll work."

"Why not?"

"Our son will never agree to it. He's liked Luo Xianxian ever since he was little, but now you want him to just up and ditch her, do you think he'll go along with that?"

Madam Chen thought for a while, then patted her husband's hand and said, "Don't you worry, I'll take care of it."

Before long, Madam Chen suddenly came down with a grave illness. It was a strange illness; the doctor couldn't find anything wrong, but she was unhinged day in, day out, muttering nonsense and insisting that she was being possessed by a ghost.

Landlord Chen was worried sick. He invited a Taoist priest who carried a horsetail whisk and an air of Taoist propriety. The priest pinched his fingers together and discerned that there was something in the Chen family that meant ill towards Madam Chen, and that if not resolved, she would not live to see next year.

Chen Bo'huan was very filial, and anxiously asked, "What bears ill will toward my mother?"

The priest walked around for quite a while in an enigmatic pretension before saying it was "a beauty who never sees the sun".

Everyone in the room was shocked. One by one, the Chen brothers all turned to stare at Luo Xianxian.

Luo Xianxian was just as shocked.

Ever since she had been little, others had always said such things about her, that she was unlucky, that she brought misfortune on all those around her, that she had killed her mother at birth, then her brother, and then her father.

Now, the fingers were pointing at her again, saying that she was going to kill her mother-in-law.

Distressed, the Chen brothers took turns talking to her, asking her to leave, saying that no one outside knew that she was married, her reputation was still intact, they would give her some money and she could go find another family.

Luo Xianxian was anxious and frightened, worried that she really was the one cursing Madam Chen, and she cried day after day.

Chen Bo'huan's heart ached, watching his mother grow weaker by the day, stuck between the two; he didn't want Xianxian to leave, but also didn't want his mother to suffer. He lost weight rapidly.

Eventually, the Chen brothers had had enough. One day, while their eldest brother was out, they went to find their sister-in-law. Luo Xianxian was in the greenhouse making Hundred Butterfly Fragrance when they found her. They rushed in and smashed all her tools. She was covered in the powder; it was as if the heavy scent soaked into her bones, impossible to wash out.

The brothers surrounded her at first, sermonizing about principles and such, "women's duty" this, "parents before wife" that. But Luo Xianxian was resilient; she was timid but stubborn, crying that she didn't want to leave, begging them to please think of another way.

The second Chen brother grew agitated. He stepped up and slapped her, demanding, "You harbinger of disaster, you're going to curse our mother to death! If there was another way, would your dad have died? Would your mom? What about your brother, living or dead unknown?"

With his one hit, the others took their cue, rushing in as well and closing in around her with punches and kicks, yelling "get the fuck out", "unlucky pest", "bringer of death".

These brothers were of one mind with their mother, and have been in on her plan since long ago. Jumping on this chance while the eldest brother was out, they worked together to drive Luo Xianxian out, threatening to beat her every day if she dared to come back––she had no family anyway, even if they beat her to death, no one would care to get justice for her.

That night, it was snowing. Luo Xianxian was tossed out into the snow, her entire body covered in blue and purple; one shoe had even fallen off.

She crawled forward slowly, choked with sobs like the cries of a dying cub.

The night grew deeper. With the snow falling like this, everyone was staying inside. She crawled in the endless snow, not knowing where to go, not knowing where she could go.

The Chen brothers were right.

She had no family, no father, no brother, no one to turn to, no one who would shelter her.

This pure white world was vast, but it had no place for her.

Her body was frail to start with, and she wasn't wearing much when she had been chased out. Shivering, her legs and feet quickly became numb and lost all feeling.

She crawled to the outskirts of the town, to the temple of the ghost mistress, taking shelter inside, curling into herself, lips blue from the cold, heart cold from the sorrow.

She looked up at the painted, splendid clay idol, and couldn't help the tears rolling down her cheeks. She thought about the customs of the lower cultivation realm, where marriages should be witnessed by a master of ceremonies.

But back then, all she'd had was a red flower tucked behind her ear when she, smiling, had knelt across from Chen Bo'huan and bowed to the ground.

Had the ceremony behind closed doors been no more than a dream, had the blushing face in the copper mirror that day been a mere reverie born of her deepest desires.

She knelt before the statue of the ghost mistress, dragging her frozen body that grew heavier by the minute, kowtowing again and again, tears mixed with laughter.

"Cording hair to become husband and wife, conjugal love never to be doubted. Joy…in this…eve…"

She grew dizzy, vision blurring.

It was as if a sheen of moonlight lit up a mirage of that year, in the yard, when she'd cried: "It wasn't me, it wasn't me, I didn't steal the clementines."

But repeated rumor becomes fact, gossip is a frightful thing; no one would listen to her side of the story.

Even now, she knew that, even if she were to go and cry to people, even if she were to swear up and down that she was Chen Bo'huan's properly wedded wife, no one would believe her. She was still the little girl by the low wall that no one would listen to, just the same as back then.

Nothing had changed.

At least that time, there was still someone who would climb over the wall and press a steamy white mantou into her hands, and say to her, "You must be hungry, hurry and eat."

But…where was that person now…

When he returned and couldn't find her, would he fret, or would he secretly breathe a sigh of relief because his mother wouldn't be cursed by her anymore?

Luo Xianxian curled up in the temple, the tears she shed slowly drying. She whispered, "Mistress of Ceremonies, I want to be with him. I'm his wife… there was no one to witness our wedding... you are a ghost mistress, and don't deal with living people, but I… I can only… I can only talk to you…"

Her last words came out a broken sob. "I didn't lie…"

I didn't lie.

The snow continued falling without a sound in the long, silent night.

The next day, some townspeople passing by the temple found Luo Xianxian's ice-cold body.