Luan Da gritted his teeth in secret. *That man named Ruan—how dare he plot against me!*
"Then set up the altar and let the General of Five Profits perform the ritual," Liu Che commanded with a sweeping wave of his hand.
"As you command," Luan Da replied, offering no further refusal.
Standing to the side, Wei Zifu felt her face grow stiff. A ritual in the Pepper Chamber? There was no telling what kind of rumors this would spawn. Yet, the moment she thought of Luan Da’s claim that there was a ghost in her palace—and how he had pointedly hinted at Chen Ajiao—her skin began to crawl.
Upon hearing the Emperor’s orders, Yang De-yi moved nimbly, directing his subordinates to prepare. In a short while, everything Luan Da had requested was assembled.
Luan Da had changed into a long robe. Holding a bell in one hand and a short wooden sword in the other, he stood in the center of the Pepper Chamber.
With a sharp ring of the bell, Luan Da began to chant under his breath.
Liu Qing had never witnessed such a spectacle. Driven by curiosity, she cast aside her previous displeasure and stared fixedly at Luan Da.
Luan Da let out a loud cry, then suddenly began to laugh as if conversing with someone. A moment later, he broke into a sob, sounding as though he were weeping.
"How is it?" Liu Che asked urgently.
Luan Da did not answer. He continued his chanting, his short wooden sword dancing through the air.
"Aie, aie, aie! Your Majesty, the immortal is helping me seize that ghost!" Luan Da suddenly shouted, spinning in circles around a specific spot before letting out a series of heavy sighs.
Liu Che grew tense, his hand pressing against the hilt of his sword. *Was Ajiao truly still here?*
Wei Zifu finally couldn't help but gasp. A ghost was actually in her palace! What if it turned into a malevolent spirit and tried to harm her?
"Your Majesty, please, deal with this ghost quickly! Do not let it hurt anyone!" Wei Zifu dabbed the sweat from her face with a silk handkerchief.
Liu Che remained silent.
Taking advantage of a turn, Luan Da stole a glance at Liu Che’s expression and suddenly bellowed, "Immortal, do not leave!" He then pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed deeply.
"What happened?" Liu Qing asked, startled.
Luan Da stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the immortal said that although this ghost is an old acquaintance of yours, her lifespan in the mortal world has ended. She should not linger. Having said that, the immortal took the soul and departed!"
*Gone?* Liu Che felt a sudden surge of anger. "Why did you not ask the immortal to stay?"
"I tried to detain the immortal on Your Majesty’s behalf, but the immortal said the affairs of the celestial realm are numerous and complex. He departed before I could even finish speaking."
Liu Che sighed repeatedly in disappointment.
Once the ritual was concluded, Liu Che offered a few perfunctory words of comfort to Wei Zifu and Liu Qing before departing. Luan Da and Ruan Songhe followed beside the Emperor’s palanquin.
Suddenly, the Emperor’s voice drifted out from behind the curtains. "That old acquaintance of mine... is she well?"
Luan Da bowed toward the palanquin. "She is well, and yet she is not."
"How is she not well?"
"She could not bear to leave Your Majesty, so she specifically came to find you, wishing to stay by your side once more. This was a violation of the laws of the Underworld. I fear that now the immortal has returned her to the depths, she will inevitably face punishment!" Luan Da had heard many folk tales and ghost stories in his time; such words came to him with practiced ease. "However, before she left, she kept weeping toward Your Majesty and calling your name."
Liu Che fell silent. He thought: *Ajiao truly loved me. Even knowing she would be punished in the Underworld, she spared no effort to find me. Knowing I had misunderstood her, she insisted on explaining herself—it is a pity I realized it too late!*
For reasons he couldn't name, Liu Che felt a pang of sorrow.
"...Do you know who she is?" Liu Che asked suddenly.
"Ah, you wouldn't know!" He sighed again and spoke no more. He was truly beginning to feel exhausted.
Luan Da remained silent, but in his mind, the image of Princess Liu Qing, whom he had just seen, surfaced.
*If it were not for Heaven’s intent, how could I have met such a beauty?* Luan Da thought to himself.
***
Yun He led Ajiao toward the Morning Radiance Pavilion to handle the matters regarding her "First Seven."
"To be honest, I really don't understand why they gave this place such a name. Tell me, where is there any 'morning radiance' in the Underworld? There isn't even a sun. Every time I want to see the sun, I have to travel all the way to the human realm. Sigh~" Yun He couldn't keep his mouth shut as they walked.
"Perhaps... the person who named it also liked the sun," Ajiao answered thoughtfully.
"Person? Hahahaha! Where are there any 'people' here? Aren't we all ghosts?"
"..." *Can't I just use a figure of speech?* Ajiao felt a bit stifled. Seeing Liu Che this time hadn't stirred as much sorrow as she expected.
During her first few years in the Nagging Gate Palace, Ajiao had imagined more than once how she would weep and recount her suffering if she ever saw Liu Che again. In the end, she never saw him until her death. Now that they had finally met, they had spoken of the past with nothing but plainness.
Ajiao wondered if too much time had passed, and she had finally let go of all her love and hate for Liu Che. If she truly had let it go, that seemed like a good thing.
"You really are lucky. I haven't bothered with official business for a long time, yet you've run into me twice now." Yun He skipped along the path, unable to stay still.
"You hold a high position at such a young age, sir. You must have achieved great merit and be very busy. To be able to trouble you is truly the great fortune of my life!" These were not mere platitudes. Ajiao remembered her uncle saying that promotions and demotions in the Underworld were decided by merit and faults. This Yun He looked young, yet he spoke to Lord Shen as an equal; he had to be an extraordinary figure. Though he seemed a bit—well, a lot—unreliable regarding her "First Seven" affairs, perhaps it was just because he didn't want to exert himself over such a small matter.
Yun He paused. "Great merit? No, I became a Civil Records Official at this age because my father is the Ghost Emperor of the Court of Judgment and my mother is a Celestial Master of the Clouds and Moon!"
"???" Ajiao was stunned.
Currently, the two supreme deities, the Yan Lords, jointly managed the Underworld. They had established the Court of Judgment and the Court of Soul-Hooking, managed by Ghost Emperor Fu Kang and Ghost Emperor Dong Fu, respectively. Beneath the Ghost Emperors were the Five Regional Judges of the Court of Judgment, and the three Celestial Masters and three Ghost Masters of the Court of Soul-Hooking. Further down were the twelve Civil Records Officials of the Court of Judgment and the twelve Command Officials of the Court of Soul-Hooking.
*You’re telling me you got such an important position through the back door? How is this any different from the human world?*
Ajiao was momentarily speechless.
"Heh, hehe... I was ignorant. I didn't realize you were of such noble birth, sir... hehehehe," Ajiao laughed dryly.
"...Isn't this very common in your human world? Why do you seem so surprised?" Yun He plucked a small flower from the roadside. The blossom emitted faint points of ghostly light and felt cool and refreshing in his hand.
"That... I previously thought the Underworld was different from our human world—but speaking of which, I thought your Underworld had no concept of marriage or funerals?" Ajiao made a casual remark to change the subject.
"Marriage and funerals? We have marriage. As for funerals, ghosts don't have what you humans call 'death,' but we can suffer the dissipation of the soul. You can think of that as death," Yun He mused. "So generally speaking, a ghost can live on indefinitely."
"...Immortality?" *If Liu Che knew about this, would he drop dead immediately just to get here?*
"It's immortality for ghosts," Yun He clarified. "By the way, I didn't realize you didn't know we have marriage customs here. No wonder you were so lukewarm when you entered that Emperor's dream!"
"?" Ajiao was confused. "What marriage customs?"
"In our Underworld, we don't have the 'one husband, many concubines' system of your human world. Only one man and one woman can be together. Seeing how calm you were earlier, I thought you didn't care. It turns out you just didn't know!"
"This..." It sounded quite nice, Ajiao thought. "It sounds good, but what does that have to do with me?" At worst, she just wouldn't be with Liu Che. Lady Bo hadn't stayed with her uncle, after all.
"But if Liu Che chooses you in the future, your punishment could be waived!" Yun He said. "He is an Emperor, and from what I see, he’s done a decent job; he will have merit that passes down through the ages. Although he has another Empress now, as long as he comes to the Underworld and chooses you to continue being his Empress, you can be shielded by that blessing. Your four hundred years of punishment could be canceled! Aren't you tempted?"
...She was a little tempted.
However, since she had already given up on using her burial goods to atone for her sins, why place her hopes on Liu Che? Since she had let go, it was better to cut ties completely.
Moreover, "His new Empress has already given him a Crown Prince. For the sake of the Prince, he will choose the new Empress, not me," Ajiao said to Yun He. It was just like her uncle; although her mother had filed a massive complaint against Wang Zhi after arriving in the Underworld, making her uncle and grandmother very displeased, they still kept Wang Zhi there for Liu Che’s sake. Even though Grand Empress Dowager Bo still hoped Lady Bo and her uncle could rekindle their old flame, she could only give up in frustration.
"That’s true," Yun He nodded.
Upon reaching the Morning Radiance Pavilion, Ajiao signed her name and was promptly tossed out by Yun He.
Standing at the entrance of the Morning Radiance Pavilion, Ajiao felt a sense of emptiness.
*I don't know the way back!*
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
朝旭阁 | Morning Radiance Pavilion | A location in the Underworld for processing post-death affairs.
审判司 | Court of Judgment | One of the two main administrative divisions of the Underworld.
勾魂司 | Court of Soul-Hooking | One of the two main administrative divisions of the Underworld.
鬼帝 | Ghost Emperor | High-ranking officials governing the Courts of the Underworld.
文录官 | Civil Records Official | A mid-level administrative rank in the Court of Judgment.
天师 | Celestial Master | A high-ranking title within the Court of Soul-Hooking.
鬼师 | Ghost Master | A high-ranking title within the Court of Soul-Hooking.
令官 | Command Official | A mid-level administrative rank in the Court of Soul-Hooking.
头七 | First Seven | The seventh day after death, an important milestone in Chinese funerary tradition.
魂飞魄散 | Dissipation of the soul | The ultimate end for a ghost, equivalent to permanent death.
