The Pig-Eared Ghost fell silent again, finishing one cigarette before asking me for another. I had no idea what kind of spirit this Pig-Eared Ghost was, but he could actually smoke. Yet, judging by his appearance, he seemed honest and simple.
“You’re trying to find it to save someone, aren’t you?” the Pig-Eared Ghost asked in return.
“Yes.”
“To be honest with you, I haven’t seen the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart since the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.” The Pig-Eared Ghost exhaled a puff of smoke and spoke slowly.
“Are you saying this plant has gone extinct? Then what exactly is the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart? Is it a flower?” I clung to my last shred of hope as I asked.
If the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart truly didn’t exist, Ji Qianqian would remain a living corpse forever, condemned to eternal darkness.
“Heh. Who told you the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart is a plant? It’s a heart—an exquisite heart. Every person has one heart, but those with the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart are one in ten thousand, maybe even one in a hundred million. Even if you found someone with it, would you really cut open their chest and take it out?” The Pig-Eared Ghost shut his mouth after finishing his last sentence.
Answering questions seemed to drain the Pig-Eared Ghost’s energy. He slumped back into his chair, the chains on his feet clanking loudly.
“When I think too much, I get hungry. When I get hungry, I eat. And when I eat, I get sleepy…” The Pig-Eared Ghost dragged a basket over, grabbed a large pancake, and devoured it messily, saliva splattering all over the floor and table. The ink on the table had already dried.
At this moment, the Pig-Eared Ghost was the very picture of a glutton.
My vision darkened. The Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart was just that—a heart.
The Pig-Eared Ghost was right. Even if we found someone with it, who would willingly give up their heart and die?
This was a dead end from the start.
A dead end. Xie Lingyu had deceived me so cruelly.
“Ah, ah…” Xie Lingyu woke up on the bed. “Where am I? Xiao Qi, why are you here? Pig-Eared Ghost, you too?”
She got out of bed and glanced at the Pig-Eared Ghost, who buried his head deep into the basket, as if unwilling to face her.
“Xiao Qi, step outside for a moment. I need to ask the Pig-Eared Ghost something,” Xie Lingyu said.
I hadn’t expected Xie Lingyu and the Pig-Eared Ghost to know each other.
I studied Xie Lingyu, unable to see any trace of her true identity—a spirit fox lingering in the mortal world to endure her trial of love.
“Ask him again where the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart is,” I said before pushing the door open. Outside, Xu Jun and Liu Yunxin were waiting for me. I called Little Rascal out before shutting the door behind me. Leaning against the centuries-old wall, I slid down, legs sprawled, my mind completely blank.
A dead end.
“Brother, it’s all up to you now,” Xu Jun said, trying to console me.
“I was wrong before,” Liu Yunxin chimed in. I nodded weakly and told Xu Jun that the great spirit had said we needed to return to Jiangcheng to break the curse. I lit a cigarette but couldn’t bring myself to smoke it.
Wasn’t I also enduring my own trial of love? Wasn’t I?
Once the door closed, I heard Xie Lingyu and the Pig-Eared Ghost arguing. Xie Lingyu scolded him for revealing the truth about the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart.
The Pig-Eared Ghost mocked her in return, “Still searching for that white spider lily, Xie Lingyu? Isn’t that just wishful thinking? Do you really believe you’ll find him by the River Styx?”
So Xie Lingyu had asked me to find that thing so she could search for *him* in the underworld?
Xie Lingyu was furious. “Keep yapping, and I’ll beat you, you cowardly Pig-Eared Ghost! Still daring to mock me? Should I expose all your shameful secrets? You’re just a big, dumb pig, yet you have the nerve to boast in front of me. Tell me where the white spider lily is!”
I missed a few exchanges, but soon, Xie Lingyu’s sobs echoed from the room. Puzzled, I struggled to my feet and rushed inside to find her clinging to the Pig-Eared Ghost, tears streaming down her face.
“My fate ends today. Everything is resolved now. Miss Xie, please forgive me for any wrongs I’ve done,” the Pig-Eared Ghost said weakly.
He seemed on the verge of dissipating.
Deji, alerted by the commotion, arrived with a line of red-robed lamas, Ciren among them.
“You can’t die! Tell me where the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart is!” I screamed, half-mad.
“There is no Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart in this world…”
“He has entered the cycle of reincarnation,” Deji said, pulling me back.
The Pig-Eared Ghost dissolved faster and faster, vanishing completely within a minute. Xie Lingyu’s sobs grew louder, and I, too, broke down, wailing as if the heavens had collapsed.
Everything was a lie.
“Xie Lingyu! Xie Lingyu! Why did you deceive me? Why?” My eyes rolled back as I glared at her with hatred.
“I… I…” Xie Lingyu had no answer.
……
I knelt before the Buddha for an entire day and night, not uttering a word, my mind utterly blank.
“Many years ago, the Pig-Eared Ghost came here. My master imprisoned him because he carried great sin. He came seeking redemption—to atone,” Deji explained calmly. “And you? You came seeking answers. Yet when the answer was given, you refused to accept it.”
At that moment, I wept uncontrollably before the Buddha.
The sorrow seemed endless.
That night, I rose from the Buddha’s feet as if freed from my grief. In the courtyard Deji had arranged for us, I saw Xie Lingyu. The first thing I said was, “I’m hungry.”
Xie Lingyu smiled. “I’ll cook for you. Eat well and get some rest.” The scent of food briefly distracted me from the impending sorrow.
Little Rascal and Xu Xiaokang came running at the smell. I looked at Xu Xiaokang and spoke to the eleven starving ghosts inside him: “Eat well now. You won’t get another chance.”
“The Pig-Eared Ghost told me we must wait until the full moon to leave the valley. They won’t trap us here,” Xie Lingyu reassured me. “We just need to wait a little longer.”
During the day, I often read from *The Compendium*.
At night, Xie Lingyu and I strolled through the Blue Moon Valley. The Jade Corpse grew stronger, absorbing moonlight in the valley, playing with us. Under the moonlight, Little Rascal rolled around happily. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of Ciren watching from afar, unwilling to be seen—especially by the Jade Corpse.
What a lovesick monk.
From the nearly full moon when we arrived to the full moon when we left, we spent almost a month in the Blue Moon Valley.
The final days seemed to fly by. Our carefree time was coming to an end.
By my count, it was the Ghost Festival—the fifteenth of the seventh lunar month. But in the Blue Moon Valley, it was just another beautiful moonlit night.
As soon as darkness fell, the moon appeared.
I packed everything carefully. Xie Lingyu had smoothed out the crumpled *Heart Sutra*, restoring it to a thin booklet, though some words were still illegible. The *Heart Sutra* was less than three hundred characters long, yet I had never finished reading it once.
I tucked the *Heart Sutra* away and packed the U.S. dollars I had brought. I had intended to donate them to the temple, but to the monks, they were worthless—useless even as toilet paper.
I polished the golden compass and packed everything neatly.
Liu Yunxin had dried and packed rice crusts for her son to eat on the journey. Over the past days, she had been busy preparing these, ensuring Xu Xiaokang wouldn’t go hungry. Once everything was ready, we ate dinner together, finishing every last bite. Liu Yunxin washed the dishes meticulously.
Now, we only waited for Ciren to fetch us.
At seven o’clock, Ciren arrived as promised. He led us to the temple, explaining that Deji had words for us before sending us off when the moon reached its zenith.
Midway, the temple’s bell tolled urgently. A clean, plump piglet came trotting toward us. Little Rascal, seeing the piglet here to bid us farewell, dashed forward and collided with it, both tumbling to the ground in a playful roll.
The piglet turned and led Little Rascal toward the temple.
The prayer flags flapped wildly in the wind, which had grown unusually cold. Snowflakes began to drift down as I took a few steps forward.
“Trouble! Someone has broken in!” Ciren shouted. The bell’s toll was an alarm. He sprinted ahead, and I followed, running to the temple. Before even entering, I heard the commotion inside.
“Deji, how dare you shelter them? That thieving brat—I *will* kill him! Bring him out now! This old woman waited a month for the right moment to break in, and I won’t leave without his life!” The Wrinkled Crone held a black bag.
Turns out, after driving me into the water, she had searched for me to turn me into a medicine puppet for breeding insects. Failing to find me, she realized I had entered the Blue Moon Valley. She waited a month, entering only when the moon was full.
Beside her stood the Fool, still dressed in black with red shoes and socks.
But the most striking figure was the One-Legged Zombie, Mo Bai. His sunglasses remained on as he studied Deji. Standing steadily on one leg, hands clasped behind his back, he lifted his chin arrogantly.
“You failed to kill him, so the Buddha intervened to save him. Crone, why cling to your delusions? Turn back before it’s too late—stop this killing,” Deji said firmly. “If you wish to murder, you’ll have to get past this monk first…”
Ciren stepped forward protectively beside Deji.
“I won’t curse an old woman before the Buddha. Half an hour is all it’d take to count the hairs on your head. Three pounds of powder couldn’t hide your ugliness. I was just about to settle scores with you, yet *you* came to *me*? Perfect… Let’s settle old and new grudges together!” I charged forward, brandishing my jade ruler.
The Wrinkled Crone took a deep breath, her face flushing red. Her lungs heaved, her throat convulsed, and she spat a thick glob of phlegm straight at me. The stench was overpowering—likely from her diet of rotten salted fish.
An ordinary person would faint from the smell alone. Mid-sentence, she shot it at me like a basketball player making a shot.
And my mouth was the hoop…
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage