Chapter 1

My boyfriend and I were out shopping when, on a whim, I dragged him over to a bone-reading fortune-teller beneath an overpass.

The old man felt his hand over and over, but seemed unable to reach a conclusion.

My boyfriend called him a fraud and walked off.

I was about to follow when the fortune-teller seized my arm.

“Young lady, your boyfriend’s bones… are eighty years old!”

I thought he was a fraud too, and paid no attention.

But that very night, I caught my boyfriend in the bathroom changing… his dentures.

For the fourth time, the blind fortune-teller ran his fingers over my boyfriend Cố Tu Minh’s hand.

His brow furrowed. He clicked his tongue.

Tu Minh impatiently knocked the withered hand away.

“I knew you were a fraud.”

Then he glared at me.

“You really have nothing better to do.”

He turned and left.

With a helpless sigh, I hurriedly gave the old man all the loose change in my pocket.

We had happened to pass his stall beneath the overpass, and I had dragged Tu Minh over out of curiosity. He hadn’t managed to tell us anything, but he had spent time on us. He deserved something for his trouble.

The fortune-teller rubbed the coins in his palm, an odd expression on his face.

He opened his mouth, hesitated, then said nothing.

I thought little of it and turned to catch up with Tu Minh.

The old man raised an arm to stop me.

“Young lady, how old is your boyfriend?”

“Twenty-two.”

His frown deepened.

“Strange… very strange.”

After a moment’s thought, he leaned close and lowered his voice.

“You must be careful. There’s something… wrong with your boyfriend.”

I bristled, but before I could argue, he continued.

“I’ve been reading bones for decades. I cannot be mistaken about their age. Your boyfriend’s bones… are eighty years old.”

“…”

What the hell?

So he was a senile old man too.

I gave him a resigned look.

“All right, all right. I understand.”

Tu Minh was waiting impatiently in the distance. I hurried over.

“Could you stop dawdling? A girl who drags her feet like this is bound to get on her in-laws’ nerves.”

I immediately felt guilty.

“Sorry… I won’t do it again.”

He snorted and strode ahead without me.

It was the weekend, and a rare chance for us to spend a day out together. By the time we’d had our fun and returned home, it was almost eleven.

Tu Minh casually pounded a fist against his lower back.

“Does your back hurt?” I asked. “Should we get it checked at the hospital?”

His hand stopped.

He straightened at once and shot me an impatient look.

“Must you make a fuss over every little thing?”

“I’m sorry. Don’t be angry.”

He didn’t bother answering. He took his clothes and went into the bathroom.

Sitting on the living-room sofa, I remembered what the blind fortune-teller had said that morning.

Bones… eighty years old.

Ridiculous.

I might tease Tu Minh about his creaky old limbs, but that was only because he rarely exercised. He was still young.

I even knew his ID number by heart. There could be no mistake.

I shook my head and pushed aside the faint unease.

I was about to get my things for a shower when I noticed his towel on the sofa.

Without thinking, I took it to the bathroom.

Just as I was about to knock, a mischievous idea struck me.

I pulled the door open.

“Darling, your tow—”

The door slammed shut from inside before I could finish.

I couldn’t dodge in time. It hit me square in the face.

Only when two hot streams of blood ran from my nose did I come to my senses.

A few seconds later, the door opened again.

Tu Minh stood before me, his face dark.

He didn’t ask whether I was hurt.

“What did you see?”

His voice was utterly flat.

So cold it raised goosebumps.

Furious, I threw the towel at him.

“You bastard! I didn’t see anything! Is your body so precious I can’t even look at it?”

“Don’t even think about touching me tonight! I’m sleeping in the spare room!”

I stormed off and slammed the spare-room door.

Inside, everything was dark.

I leaned against the door and slowly sank to the floor, trying to stop trembling.

Mouth open, I drew deep, silent breaths.

Because I had lied.

It wasn’t true that I’d seen nothing.

I had seen something strange—and perfectly ordinary.

Something you could find everywhere.

But something that should never have been in twenty-two-year-old Cố Tu Minh’s mouth.

A set of blackened, yellow teeth.

The instant I opened the bathroom door, he had been standing before the mirror… putting in dentures.

Dentures?

Had he been wearing them all along?

Then every time he kissed me…

I couldn’t stop retching.

After I calmed down a little, the old man’s words came back.

The teeth of an eighty-year-old man.

Wasn’t that exactly what Tu Minh’s teeth had looked like?

A chill spread through my entire body. I began trembling again.

I quickly messaged my best friend, pouring out a jumbled account of everything that had happened.

A Đóa had always believed in ghosts and spirits.

The moment she heard, she called me.

But I didn’t dare answer. Tu Minh was still outside.

I rejected the call.

Another message arrived immediately.

[Do you have earphones?]

[Yes.]

[Don’t panic. Put them in. I’ll send you a livestream link. Join it. I’ll be waiting there.]

A minute later, she sent the link.

The stream had a strange title:

“Beautiful Female Streamer—Online Fortune-Telling.”

After it, in large letters:

“Tân Di—Huyền Thanh Temple.”

Then I remembered.

A Đóa had mentioned Tân Di before.

According to her, this master was immensely capable. She could read fortunes and even catch ghosts. A true professional.

Unfortunately, I had been so wrapped up in Tu Minh that I’d barely registered a word.

Now, though, I clicked without hesitation.

Like a drowning woman clutching at a straw.

The livestream seemed to have just started.

Onscreen, a young woman with delicate features rested her chin on one hand.

Her long hair was pinned back with a wooden hairpin.

“Hello, everyone. Good evening.”

Her voice was clear and bright.

I hadn’t expected the master A Đóa admired so much to be such a young woman.

Was this… really not a scam?

While I hesitated, Tân Di spoke again.

“The usual rules today. Three readings only. Get ready—I’m about to send out the red envelope.”

A Đóa’s message popped up at once.

[You have to grab the red envelope! That’s how you get a reading from Master Tân Di!]

My heart tightened.

I no longer had the energy to question Tân Di’s abilities. I fixed my eyes on the screen.

Two seconds later, the red envelope appeared.

I tapped instinctively.

Tân Di checked her dashboard.

“This viewer… Thanh Thanh. What would you like to ask?”

Thanh Thanh.

She must mean me.

I had picked that username at random.

Struggling to contain my excitement, and urged on by A Đóa, I connected my video.

Since I couldn’t speak freely, I typed.

[Master.]

I considered my wording.

[Is it possible for someone to look as though they’re in their early twenties, while their bones—and even their teeth—are over eighty years old?]

Tân Di had been lightly drumming her fingers on the desk.

She stopped and looked up at me.

“Yes.”

She asked, “Have you ever heard of a scholar-tree corpse?”

I was baffled.

[What’s a scholar-tree corpse?]

“Before I answer, you need to tell me exactly what happened. Otherwise I can’t help you.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I told her everything.

[My boyfriend… I met him while traveling…]

When I reached yesterday’s encounter with the blind fortune-teller beneath the overpass, I asked with a last shred of hope:

[Master Tân Di, can someone really tell the age of your bones by touch? It sounds so hard to believe.]

“Yes.”

Her reply was calm.

“Which overpass was it? If it was the one in the east of the city, he was almost certainly telling the truth.”

The blood drained from my face.

It was the eastern overpass.

“The man who reads bones there is my martial uncle. He’s no ordinary practitioner.”

She looked at me.

“Young lady… you’re in real trouble.”

Tân Di explained that a scholar-tree corpse was both a corpse and a scholar tree.

There was an old saying:

“The scholar tree is a tree of ghosts.”

Female spirits were particularly drawn to it.

It was a tree of yin, and in late summer and early autumn, its shade readily attracted sinister presences.

If someone died a violent death beneath one, the tree’s yin energy would seep into their remains.

Over time, all the yin and ghostly energy in the area would be drawn to it.

Once that ghostly energy attached itself to the bones, it acquired a physical vessel.

At that point…

It became a ghostly entity.

Tân Di’s voice lowered.

“The greatest difference between ghostly energy and a ghostly entity… is that an entity can grow.”

“It can develop a consciousness of its own.”

“If your boyfriend really is a scholar-tree corpse, he may have existed in that form for almost three hundred years.”

“The skeleton he inhabits belonged to a man over eighty.”

“And the skin he’s wearing…”

“…was very likely stripped from a living person.”

It wasn’t just me.

The livestream chat exploded.

[That’s terrifying! What the hell are you dating?]

[A mind from one place, bones from another, skin from somewhere else… none of the parts match?]

[It’s a miracle you’re still alive!]

Tears welled up as I read.

But among the frightened comments, a few voices disagreed.

[Stop scaring her! Look, you’ve made her cry!]

[Exactly! Fraud is a crime, you know!]

[@ThanhThanh Could you tilt your phone a little to the left? I want to see the photo on the wall.]

I froze at that comment, then instinctively did as it asked.

The phone tilted, bringing the framed photograph into view.

It was a picture I had begged Tu Minh to take with me.

In it, he was scowling, his lips pressed into a displeased line.