Chapter 9: Treating the Female Ghost's Illness

  I lay in bed, wrapped tightly in a quilt, my whole body trembling, my teeth chattering constantly. My mother added another quilt on me and I fell asleep again in a daze.

  I don't know how long it took, but I woke up and opened my eyes to find Zhong Ling'er in front of me. I was startled, thinking I was dreaming. As the saying goes, "daytime thoughts are reflected in nighttime dreams", so she must have appeared in my dream because I've been thinking about her all along.

  She stood in front of the bed, looking at me with a faint hint of melancholy on her face.

  Perhaps seeing the goddess in my heart, I felt much better physically and was no longer cold. I had two quilts on me and I was already sweating. Subconsciously, I pulled open the quilt, and Zhong Ling'er frowned and turned around to leave.

  "Don't go!" I hastily sat up in bed, and in a flurry of activity, put on my clothes. I heard Jing Ling outside the door say to my father, "He's basically fine now, but he hasn't fully recovered. If he really wants to get better, there's only one way - fulfill that female ghost's wish."

  The father nodded and said he knew.

  My mother came over from another room, and as soon as she saw me come out, she rushed up to me with a look of surprise and delight, tightly grasping my hand and asking if I was cold. I told her I was fine, then walked outside the door and asked Zhong Ling'er if the female ghost she mentioned earlier was the one wearing red clothes. Zhong Ling'er and my father looked at me together, as if they had seen a monster. My father furrowed his brow and asked, "You saw her?" I said I did, and that she even spoke to me.

  Father and Zhong Ling'er stared at each other. Mother asked in shock: "What? Is it a ghost? Is the little knife possessed by a ghost?" Father and Zhong Ling'er did not respond, which was equivalent to admitting it. I asked Zhong Ling'er if she could take back that red-clothed female ghost, but she said: "I can't." I blurted out: "What about your mother?" Zhong Ling'er didn't answer me, but turned and left. My father gave my mother a signal with his eyes, and my mother hurriedly chased after her.

  My father asked me how I felt, and I said much better. Then I asked him why Zhong Ling'er had come, and my father said that Li Shenbao was unwilling to come, but Zhong Ling'er came anyway, bringing me back to consciousness with some unknown method when she arrived.

  My mother came back, and with a sigh, I told her that I was hungry and wanted to eat. She busied herself in the kitchen as if she had been honored. I suddenly thought of the man with the caterpillar-like eyebrows, and felt that it wasn't real, like it was just a dream I had. So I told my father that I thought I saw a man come last night, he lifted up my eyelid and took a look before leaving. My father said he knew about it, then continued smoking non-stop. I asked who the person was, and my father said he was one of his friends. I suddenly remembered what my father had said before about having guests coming over, so I asked if his surname was Song, and my father nodded slightly.

  I didn't ask any further, my father's face was very bad, with a careless and worried look, he must have been having a headache because of me, so I didn't investigate the red-clothed female ghost that had been entwining me either.

  It wasn't until nightfall that Father called me to go to bed early, although my body was no longer in great discomfort, but I was still worried that the red-clothed female ghost would come looking for me, how could I sleep?

  Around eleven o'clock at night, I heard a noise outside the door. I got out of bed and opened the door to take a look. I saw my father burning incense paper outside the house. I asked him what he was doing, but his expression was stern and he told me to go back inside and sleep, not to come out again. I was worried that he would get angry with me, so I had no choice but to obediently return to my room and quietly close the door. However, I couldn't resist my curiosity, so I kept looking outside through the gap in the door.

  Because the door was made of wood, there was a larger gap in the middle, and this gap was facing Father.

  About ten minutes later, a sudden gust of cold wind blew in, blowing the flames that were burning steadily to and fro, and the ashes of the burnt paper were also rolled up high. The air was filled with a bleak and eerie smell.

  Suddenly, I narrowed my eyes and saw a red shadow slowly walking over from the opposite side of the house.

  She was dressed in red, her long hair fluttering, holding a red umbrella in her hand. It was really the red-clothed female ghost who had come to claim my life!

  My heart was racing violently, and my whole body was trembling uncontrollably, but I couldn't help being curious, and my eyes were deeply attracted to that female ghost.

  His father also seemed to have seen the red-clothed female ghost and stared at her. When the red-clothed female ghost arrived, he asked in a low voice: "Why do you want to entangle my child?"

  The woman in red said expressionlessly: "I have but one request."

  Her voice was soft and delicate, as if it came from a distant sky, ethereal and airy.

  Her father asked her what was wrong and she said: "I wanted to ask you to see a doctor for me, but you won't pay attention to me, I have no choice, so I had to bother your child."

  I was taken aback, give her a check-up? Isn't she a ghost? Can ghosts get sick? Even if ghosts can get sick, how would I treat her anyway?

  My father calmly asked, "What disease did you get?" The red-clothed female ghost said, "Please follow me." After finishing speaking, she turned around and left. My father stood in place for a moment, hesitated, and then followed her.

  I was really frightened, what's going on? A ghost actually asked my father to go and treat her illness! This is too absurd! Could it be a conspiracy? Will the female ghost deceive my father and take his life? The more I think about it, the more afraid and worried I become. I want to call my father back, but he had no choice but to follow the red-clothed female ghost in order to save me. However, when I opened my mouth to shout, not a single word came out. Seeing my father following the female ghost further and further away, I hastily pushed open the door and followed them.

  The red-clad female ghost walked very slowly, with Father following closely behind her. My curiosity overcame my fear at this point, and I quietly followed them from the back.

  Tonight there is moonlight, the road is familiar, and I'm following relatively easily. Because I'm worried about being discovered by my father, I don't dare to get too close. After walking for a while, we came to a hilltop, and in front of us appeared a small wooden house. My father followed the red-clothed female ghost inside. I was very surprised - I remember there wasn't a wooden house here before; there was only a grave. But now the grave is gone, replaced by the wooden house.

  Of course, I didn't think much and crept quietly to the outside of the wooden house, looking inside through a broken window.

  What shocked me even more was that the red-clothed female ghost had stripped her clothes to her shoulders, revealing her fair and delicate skin, while my father stood behind her gently stroking!

  What's going on? I immediately felt uneasy in my heart. Could it be that my father is secretly fooling around with this female ghost behind my mother's back?

  But I immediately denied this idea, because my father is not that kind of person. In my heart, he and my mother are very loving, and he is a steady and upright man with a good reputation.

  But what are they doing inside again?

  I didn't scream, but what surprised me was that the red-clothed female ghost had skin as white as snow. In that instant, I even thought to myself, facing such a beautiful and fair-skinned female ghost, I also wanted to take a kiss from her.

  When my father put his hand down from the female ghost, I suddenly found that there was a black spot on the back of her shoulder. Because the light was dim, I couldn't see very clearly, it just looked dark and rotten, like a piece of rotting flesh!

  "Father asked: 'How did you get this wound?' The female ghost put on her shirt and replied: 'I accidentally got sunburned.'"

  It wasn't until now that I realized my father was just checking the female ghost's wound earlier and not doing anything else.

  Father said: "This rotten meat must be cut off, but I don't have a yin-yang knife, so forgive me for being powerless."

  The red-clothed female ghost suddenly knelt down in front of my father, tearfully begging him to think of a way to save her. My father sighed and said, "It's not that I don't want to save you, but I really have no power to do so. Ordinary surgical knives are useless for your wound; only a yin-yang knife will work."

  "What can I do?" The red-clothed female ghost stood up and wiped away her tears, asking: "Am I supposed to just let that piece of flesh rot forever?" Father said: "If you don't cut off that piece of flesh, it will continue to rot." Then he advised the red-clothed female ghost to leave the mortal world and be reincarnated. This mortal world was not a place for her to stay long, and if she stayed one more day, her wound would grow an inch wider, until her whole body rotted away.

  Thinking of the red-clad female ghost's good skin being completely charred, I took a sudden breath of cold air and involuntarily let out a sigh. The red-clad female ghost and my father suddenly turned to look at me.