“Chirp, chirp, chirp…”
The little grey sparrow on the female ghost’s shoulder grew anxious, hopping down from her body and rubbing itself anxiously against her fuzzy little form.
A trace of amusement faintly dyed Yan Zhu’s eyes, and he took a couple of hurried steps forward in preparation to approach. However, Yu Li grabbed his sleeve, his eyes gazing straight at him.
“I just thought that little sparrow was rather interesting and wanted to take a look. There won’t be any danger.” Yan Zhu frowned, feeling that the attitude of the person before him exceeded that of a master toward a sword-servant, yet he still patiently explained.
Yu Li released his grip, and Yan Zhu stepped forward, gently cradling the little sparrow in his hand. The sparrow instantly bristled, tilting its head to peck at him.
“Quite fierce, aren’t you?”
“Don’t touch her! Don’t touch my Jiao Jiao! Direct whatever you want at me!”
The female ghost Xi Zhuo cried out shrilly. The color of her originally bright red garments slowly deepened and grew heavier, faintly leaning toward purple.
Red represents fierce ghosts, while purple represents calamitous spirits.
Yu Li struck with yet another surge of spiritual energy, and that hint of purple slowly receded.
Yan Zhu turned his head to glare at him in disapproval, wondering why he had to strike with such heavy force.
Then he lowered his gaze back toward Xi Zhuo, his lips curving slightly into a smile with dimples barely visible beside his cheeks. “So her name is Jiao Jiao. What is there to be afraid of? I am not going to hurt her.”
Having suffered two successive blows of spiritual energy, Xi Zhuo was already seriously injured, yet her eyes still stared stubbornly at the little grey sparrow in his hands.
“Don’t harm her, don’t harm her. She is innocent…”
Even a fierce ghost ultimately has a soft spot.
“Does the Immortal Lord have any vessel for nurturing souls? This female ghost’s obsession has not yet faded, and my heart aches terribly seeing her like this.”
Yu Li glanced at him, a faint white light brightening in his hand, and he finally produced a glazed lamp.
“Two Immortal Lords, will this female ghost really not harm my son Chang’an?”
Yan Zhu looked at them with a smile, tugging at the tall and upright figure beside him. “What? Do you not trust our renowned Immortal Lord Yu Li?”
Only then did Chang Yu write a letter with trembling hands and mail it to Chang’an’s maternal family.
After staying in the Chang residence for another two days, Yan Zhu and Yu Li finally saw Chang’an.
Clad in a smokey ink-colored brocade robe, he possessed a slender figure, brows slanted into his temples like temples, and eyes bright as cold stars.
He truly was a dashing young master, which was no wonder both women loved him so desperately.
Only—
Yan Zhu’s gaze flickered slightly. This Chang’an’s appearance was somewhat familiar.
“Where is Xi Zhuo? I heard she turned into a ghost. Where is the ghost? My Xi Zhuo…”
Only when he drew closer could one see the lingering red bloodshot veins in his eyes, his chapped lips bearing cracks, his voice hoarse, and dense stubble growing along his chin.
Eager to return like an arrow flying homeward, he had traveled across mountains and rivers for two days without once closing his eyes.
Yan Zhu looked up at the sky. There was no sun today, yet the azure-blue sky remained dazzlingly bright enough to hurt one’s eyes.
“She has already turned into an evil ghost. Aren’t you afraid of her?”
“She is my wife. In life she was my person, and in death she is my ghost. Naturally, I am not afraid.”
“You may not be afraid of her, but you will be afraid of waiting until evening. In broad daylight, even without the sun, it is still not something a little ghost can withstand.”
Saying this, Yan Zhu glanced at the huffy little sparrow in his hand and handed it over. “You can take good care of this little sparrow first. When Xi Zhuo died, she was already three months pregnant. Since the infant wasn’t full-term and its soul was incomplete, it could only attach itself to a small animal.”
Chang’an received it with stiff movements, and the little grey sparrow instantly became docile, rubbing its furry little body against his wrist.
Today was not a sunny day, but as evening arrived, a gust of wind swept by, scattering the floating clouds, and the moon slowly climbed up overhead.
The glazed lamp flashed, revealing a shadow as fiery as red robes.
Chang’an’s eyes instantly turned red, and moonbeams as white and pristine as flying silk fell onto the tips of his hair, staining them with whiteness inch by inch.
“Your hair… An’er, your hair…” Chang Yu nearby cried out in horror, but no one paid him any mind.
“Xi Zhuo.”
Chang’an staggered forward, spreading his arms to embrace the illusory figure before him, but it was naturally in vain as he plunged into empty air.
“Qing Yao told me you were going to marry a wealthy young lady, and that I stood in your way, so I had to die.”
“There is no one else, only you. There is no one else. I know, it was always because I was too cowardly and could do nothing right. I couldn’t even manage to welcome you into the manor as my wife, nor could I fulfill my promise to treat you well for a lifetime. In the end, I didn’t even get to see you for the last time. The only thing I managed to do was redeem you from the brothel, yet that ended up costing you your life. Xi Zhuo, it is only right that you hate me. Everyone told me you died and became a fierce ghost, but I am not afraid. You came to take me away with you, didn’t you? Xi Zhuo, I am so happy.”
Hearing this, Xi Zhuo suddenly burst out laughing, her laughter growing louder and more shrill. Yet the red color on her body was gradually fading, step by step changing from the bright red at the beginning into a pure white now.
White to the point of near transparency, she smiled faintly, her voice ethereal and drifting. “I don’t blame you, and I won’t take you away. I don’t regret meeting you; I only blame our ties of fate for being too shallow.”
Under the frost-like, bright moonlight, Xi Zhuo’s figure grew lighter and more transparent until it finally transformed into a wisp of curling blue smoke.
Seeming to sense something, the little grey sparrow struggled to fly toward that direction, but it was all in vain. A gust of wind blew past, leaving no trace in the blink of an eye.
“Immortal Lord, where is Xi Zhuo?”
Watching that wisp of blue smoke slowly dissipate, Yan Zhu turned his head with a smile to look at him. “Lady Xi Zhuo’s obsession has been put to rest. In the parlance of you mortals, she has naturally gone to be reincarnated and start anew. What is it? Could it be that you still expected her to turn into a wandering lonely ghost and accompany you?”
“No, no…” Chang’an stammered a few times, a glimmer of light once more dyeing the depths of his eyes.
“Does that mean Xi Zhuo and I will still have a chance to meet again?”
The smile at the corner of Yan Zhu’s lips widened further. “Who knows? Perhaps. Perhaps after another twenty years, when she grows up into an adult once more, the two of you might cross paths again.”
“You must take good care of the grey sparrow in your hand, and nurture it well for a few more years. Once this sparrow reaches the end of its natural lifespan, her soul will also have healed, and she can go be reincarnated anew. The three of you as a family might even be able to continue your bond in another life.”
“I will, I certainly will.”
Chang’an cradled the grey sparrow in his hands as if it were a priceless treasure.
In a place where Chang’an could not see, Yan Zhu slowly turned his head back, his face entirely devoid of a single trace of a smile.
Looking at this face that bore such a striking resemblance to a deceased friend, he ultimately yielded to a moment of soft-heartedness and told two monstrous lies.
The first was about the female ghost Xi Zhuo.
The reason a fierce ghost becomes a fierce ghost is that they burn their soul power to gain strength. Once their obsession dissipates, the few remaining fragments of their soul ultimately meet no other end than scattering into the heavens and earth.
Where on earth would there be any chance of reincarnation?
The second was about the grey sparrow Jiao Jiao.
When an infant dies in the womb, it cannot even be considered a human being, and its soul cannot form. Even if it fortuitously attaches itself to a living creature, the final outcome is merely perishing alongside that creature until the soul is completely exhausted.
From that moment onward, there would no longer be any proof in this world that she had ever existed.