Chapter 9

At noon, the grandmother I'd been longing for finally arrived.

She looked much more worn than before.

She was still wearing her clothes from New Year's Eve.

The moment I saw her, I burst into tears and ran into her arms.

“Grandma... In the dream, I thought I'd never see you again...”

“Silly girl. Don't say that.”

She patted my back gently and comforted me.

Mr. Zhang made only a few simple dishes for lunch.

Throughout the meal, he kept Grandma talking about the old people in the village.

Mostly, she listened quietly, answering only now and then.

He really was a strange man.

His features were sharp and cold, enough to make people wary at first sight.

But once he opened his mouth, he was like an overgrown child.

Especially around Grandma.

Then he became a loudspeaker.

With me, on the other hand, two extra sentences were enough to give him a headache.

After lunch, I immediately pulled Grandma into my room.

I took the doll out of the cabinet and handed it to her.

“Grandma, Mr. Zhang said... Mom's soul is trapped in here.”

She took it.

Her fingertips softly stroked its face.

Her eyes reddened, and her voice caught.

“Yes...”

“My daughter is in here.”

“My poor girl... You've suffered so much.”

My heart felt as if someone had gripped it in a fist.

I didn't know how long Mom had been trapped.

Or how much she'd suffered.

“Grandma... let's save her.”

She nodded.

“It's all right now.”

“Your mother's been in the hospital for two days.”

“Her body's recovered a little.”

“We can let her soul return.”

“Bring the doll and come to the hospital with me.”

“Really?”

“That's wonderful!”

“Let's go now!”

It was the happiest moment I'd had since coming home from school.

After saying goodbye to Mr. Zhang, we walked for more than ten minutes before reaching the main road.

Then we waited a long time for a bus to the county town.

Once there, we took a taxi to Mom's hospital.

Mr. Zhang lived far away in the countryside.

The journey took more than an hour.

I spent the whole time asking Grandma questions.

She didn't know everything either.

Why the ghost had chosen Mom, for instance.

Or what it wanted with me.

But she told me red spots had appeared on the inside of Mom's arm and behind her ear.

Seeing those marks at the hospital had confirmed that Mom was possessed.

On New Year's Eve, when Auntie also arrived at the hospital, Grandma grew worried and rushed back to Uncle's to find me.

She'd found me unconscious just inside his doorway.

No matter how she called, I wouldn't wake.

So she'd asked Mr. Zhang for help.

After seeing me, he'd told her and Uncle to find Mom immediately.

He said the ghost could only affect me at close range.

If it had pulled me into a dream, it couldn't be far away.

Eventually, they found Mom in a storage room on the roof of Uncle's apartment building.

She was unconscious too.

Then, with the help of Mr. Zhang and the child ghost he was raising, they'd managed to save me.

“So...”

“If I hadn't opened the door that day, I would've been all right?”

Grandma shook her head.

“Unless we got rid of that ghost, it would keep finding ways to take you away.”

“So even if you hadn't opened the door, you still wouldn't have been safe.”

“Now that it's all over, I can finally stop worrying.”

At the hospital, Mom was still asleep.

Grandma placed the doll beside her pillow.

Then she tied a lock of the doll's hair to a lock of Mom's.

“What are you doing, Grandma?”

I was curious.

“Mr. Zhang told me to.”

“We have to create a connection between your mother's body and the doll holding her soul.”

“Hair is one way to link them.”

“I don't understand the details either.”

“But if he says so, it'll be right.”

“Okay...”

I looked at Mom.

“Why hasn't she woken up?”

She was little more than skin and bone.

She lay there without any sign of energy.

It hurt to look at her.

“It'll take a little time.”

“Her body's suffered so much.”

“Even when her soul returns, it'll need time to adjust.”

Grandma's eyes shone with tears as she watched Mom.

This was her daughter too.

Perhaps she was hurting even more than I was.

We stayed to look after her.

There was an empty bed in the ward.

I made Grandma lie down on it.

I sat in a chair and rested my head beside Mom's bed.

“...Yiyi...”

A familiar voice.

Slowly, I raised my head.

Mom was looking at me.

But this time, her eyes were completely different.

There was joy in them.

Emotion.

Tenderness.

“Mom!”

“You're awake!”

I leaped out of my chair.

Grandma woke too, scrambled out of bed, and hurried over.

“My daughter...”

“My poor daughter...”

She held Mom and cried.

I stood beside them, crying too.

One hand gently patted Grandma's back.

My eyes never left Mom.

That look in her eyes.

Those gestures.

She was the mother I knew again.

Thank goodness.

My real mother had come back.

We didn't go home that night.

We stayed in the hospital with Mom.

She was still weak and on an IV.

Grandma and I squeezed together on the other bed.

Once things had settled, Grandma asked, “When did you encounter that thing?”

“When did it trap you in the doll?”

Mom began slowly.

“Mom... it was a Sunday, about a week before Yiyi's vacation.”

“I'd taken food to her school.”

“I stayed with her all afternoon.”

“I didn't leave until evening.”

“I felt like walking, so I didn't get a taxi straightaway.”

“I thought I'd walk along the river for a bit before calling one.”

“As I walked, someone called my name behind me.”

“I turned around.”

“There was no one.”

“I thought I'd imagined it and kept going.”

“A little later, someone called again.”

“I turned once more.”

“And at that moment, everything went black.”

“I didn't know anything after that.”

“When I woke, I was in a very cramped space.”

“I didn't know what was around me.”

“It was pitch-black.”

“There seemed to be walls on every side.”

“I couldn't move.”

“There was only enough room to turn over.”

“But I could still hear.”

“I heard my own voice...”

“And I heard Yiyi.”

“Then I understood.”

“Someone had taken my place.”

Endless days in darkness.

A space so cramped she could only turn over.

Helplessly listening as someone used her body to hurt her daughter.

How desperate must Mom have been?

Grandma and I started crying again.

“Go to sleep.”

“Your mother needs rest.”

“The day after tomorrow is your father's death anniversary.”

“We'll have to go and burn incense.”

Grandma wiped away her tears.

Dad had died in a car crash on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, ten years ago.

Today, Mom was discharged.

Uncle came to pick us up.

He still didn't know what had really happened.

Grandma hadn't told him.

But after I'd fallen unconscious on New Year's Eve and wouldn't wake, and she'd firmly refused to let him take me to the hospital, he'd begun to believe what I'd told him in the ward.

Once we were home, Grandma and I cleaned the apartment.

Mom was still weak, so we made her rest and wouldn't let her lift a finger.

That evening, Grandma cooked dinner, and we gathered around the table.

The atmosphere was warm, though a little tentative.

“Little sister... you...”

Uncle began to say something.

In the end, he only sighed.

“Here. Have some more meat.”

“Build up your strength.”

Grandma put a piece in Mom's bowl.

Mom smiled at her.

Seeing that gentle smile, I thought again of what she'd told us yesterday.

Something in her story felt wrong.

But I couldn't work out what.

Watching her smile as kindly as she always had, I felt my suspicions fade.

Maybe everything that had happened had simply made me too suspicious.

After dinner, Uncle went home.

Grandma stayed to look after us.

That evening, the three of us sat on the living-room sofa, watching TV, chatting, and laughing.

In that warmth, I had a moment of confusion.

Could everything that had happened lately have been a dream?

It was as though none of it had ever happened.

On the morning of the fourth day of the New Year, after breakfast, Mom, Grandma, and I went to the cemetery to visit Dad.

No one spoke on the way.

This day was heavy every year.

Mom had loved Dad very much.

After he'd died in the crash when I was six, she'd never remarried.

Every year on his death anniversary, she cried a great deal.

Dark clouds filled the sky.

The gray air felt heavy enough to suffocate us.

“It might rain.”

Grandma looked up.

Then she took out the incense, candles, and spirit money she'd prepared.

She lit three sticks of incense and two candles and placed them in front of Dad's grave.

With her hands together, she bowed three times.

Then she stepped aside.

I went forward, knelt on both knees, and kowtowed before his grave.

Beside me, Grandma looked at the tomb and murmured, “You owed these two better while you were alive. You went and left them behind. Now they're all alone, with no one to rely on, and wandering ghosts are bullying them. Wherever you are down there, remember to watch over them.”

I rose and stepped back to make room for Mom.

She was standing silently before Dad's headstone.

Her face was dark.

She trembled slightly.

With tears in her eyes, she stared at the inscription as though there were countless things she wanted to tell him.

“What's wrong? It looks like rain. Hurry and offer your incense so we can go home.”

Grandma urged her when she remained motionless.

Mom finally looked away from the headstone toward us.

Then she bent slightly, one hand pressed to her forehead.

She swayed as though about to fall.

I rushed over to support her.

Half her weight slumped onto me.

“I... I feel awful... My head's spinning...”

She rested her head on my shoulder.

“Mom! What's wrong?”

I called anxiously.

“My girl...”

Grandma came over to support her from the other side.

“Oh... you still haven't recovered. We shouldn't have brought you today.”

With her free hand, she called Uncle and asked him to pick us up.