The Ghost Bride

Li Lan is hopeful that she will not have to think about the ghost marriage ever again. However, after several days, she receives an invitation to visit the Lim household and play Mahjong with the matriarch, Madam Lim. Li Lan doesn’t play Mahjong, but she is encouraged to accept the invitation. Amah accompanies Li Lan to the Lim mansion, and Li Lan marvels that it is a traditional Chinese structure without any European colonial influences. She and Amah are welcomed inside, and Li Lan observes that the walls are covered in clocks of all types and sizes. They are then ushered into the parlor, where Madame Lim and the other women play Mahjong.

Madam Lim asks about Li Lan and makes pleasantries, but Li Lan becomes bored. She excuses herself to use the restroom and shakes off the servant sent to escort her. She explores the Lim mansion and happens upon a young man in a small study repairing a pocket watch. The young man explains that the old master of the house was fascinated by clocks. He then explains the finer points of time-keeping and navigation. Li Lan wishes to stay but realizes she should return to the Mahjong game before her absence is noticed. At the end of the night, Madam Lim escorts Li Lan and Amah to the door and inquires about Li Lan’s marriage prospects. She also asks for one of Li Lan’s hair ribbons, as she would like to use it to create a new shirt. Li Lan obliges the strange request.

Li Lan reflects on her encounter with the young man repairing the watch. She is enamored with him but knows that her father would not condone her marrying a servant. She drifts to sleep still thinking of the young man and then has a strange dream. In it, she is wandering around a foggy version of the Lim mansion and encounters a young man, who is thrilled to see Li Lan. He speaks to her with great familiarity although Li Lan doesn’t recognize him. He is Lim Tian Ching, the recently deceased heir of the Lim family, and he proclaims his intention to court Li Lan.

Soon after, Li Lan and her father receive invitations to celebrate the Double Seventh Festival with the Lim family. The Double Seventh Festival commemorates a traditional romantic tale about a cowherd and a weaving maid forever separated in the heavens by the Milky Way. One day each year (the seventh day of the seventh month), their stars align, and they are reunited. During the visit, Li Lan meets Yan Hong, the eldest daughter of the Lim family, whose mother was the now deceased second wife. Yan Hong asks Li Lan about her family and reveals that her husband was a “love match” rather than an arranged marriage: Her family initially objected to her husband because he was not wealthy. Li Lan and Yang Hong wander into one of the inner rooms where several musicians are playing, including the young servant. After the performance, the young man introduces himself to Li Lan as Tian Bai, Lim Tian Ching and Yan Hong’s cousin—and the new heir to the Lim family fortune. Yan Hong leaves them alone to talk. Tian Bai says studied medicine in Hong Kong with Yan Hong’s husband but didn’t finish his degree. He would rather be an explorer though there are increasingly fewer uncharted lands to discover.

Li Lan spends most of the night’s performance glancing at Tian Bai across the courtyard. Afterward, she is asked to participate in a needle-threading competition with the other young women. The winner of the competition is whoever can thread the most needles the fastest. Li Lan proceeds to win the contest, after which all the other girls cheer for her, with the exception of an unfriendly looking girl sitting next to her.

When Li Lan returns from the Double Seventh Festival, Lim Tian Ching again visits her in a dream. She asks why Lim Tian Ching is so familiar with her when he is almost a complete stranger to her. He explains that he saw her at the previous year’s dragon boat festival when he was still alive. After his death, he asked his mother for a piece of clothing or one of Li Lan’s possessions so that he could more easily enter her dreams. This leads Li Lan to realize what Madam Lim actually wanted with her hair ribbon. Lim Tian Ching asks Li Lan to marry him, and she responds with an emphatic no, pointing out that she cannot marry him since he is dead. Lim Tian Ching seems clearly upset by her response.

The next day, Li Lan asks Amah about her new friend Yan Hong and her mother, the Second Wife. Amah explains that Yan Hong’s marriage was the subject of a scandal since her family did not approve of the match. As a result, Yan Hong became pregnant, and her mother, the Second Wife, died, possibly of shame. The rest of the family felt so guilty about the outcome of this ordeal they allowed the marriage to proceed. Later that afternoon, Amah brings Li Lan a package delivered from the Lim household. Inside is a piece of batik fabric and a note from Yan Hong, explaining that it is her prize for winning the needle-threading competition. As Li Lan unfolds the fabric, a pocket watch falls out. Amah is taken aback by this additional gift, noting that the giving of watches and clocks is very unlucky. Li Lan reassures by saying that it could have been a mistake, an object that fell into the package by accident, but she clearly observes that the watch is the same one that Tian Bai had been working to repair on the first night that she encountered him at the Lim mansion. She surmises that it is in fact a gift from him.

Li Lan begins to have foreboding dreams almost every night. Lim Tian Ching does not appear in any of these dreams, but it is clear that Li Lan is under his influence. Li Lan has a conversation with her father, and he finally explains that when she was a child, he had arranged for her to be matched with the son of one of his good friends. However, the situation and status of this young man has since changed—he went from a mere nephew in a large wealthy family to the new family heir. The family in question is the Lim family, and the young man is Tian Bai. Tian Bai’s uncle recently spoke to Li Lan’s father about the fact that Tian Bai could no longer marry a girl of lowly status and encouraged him to agree to the ghost marriage between Lim Tian Ching and Li Lan. Li Lan’s father understands that his daughter is repulsed by this prospect but explains that this arrangement would mean that she would be well cared for in the Lim household. Li Lan still refuses to agree to the arrangement, and her father assures her that he would never force her into a marriage against her will.

After learning that she had once been promised to Tian Bai, Li Lan returns to her room and cries herself to sleep. She awakes in a grand hall, decorated ominously in red. Li Lan recognizes that red is the color used for celebrations like weddings, and she tries to wake herself up. Suddenly, Lim Tian Ching reveals himself. He chastises Li Lan for having feelings for another man, especially when that man is his own cousin. Lim Tian Ching pressures Li Lan to accept his proposal, explaining the details of the ceremony and noting that, even though he is in the afterlife, he will still make sure to be with her as her husband every night. Li Lan is repulsed and manages to break his control and wake herself from the dream.

After this dream, Li Lan becomes quite ill. According to the doctor, she is missing an alarming amount of her qi, or life force. After several days, Li Lan’s recovery is interrupted when a young male visitor comes to call on her father. She sneaks out of her room and observes that the visitor is Tian Bai. He notices her watching him and lets her know that he brought over some medicine from Yan Hong. He also asks if Li Lan received the pocket watch he sent as a gift, and Li Lan gives him one of her hair combs in exchange for the watch.

Li Lan seeks out her father to ask about the nature of Tian Bai’s visit. He explains that Tian Bai had learned that the previous marriage arrangement was no longer in place, but he expressed to Li Lan’s father that he might be able to change his uncle’s mind. Li Lan’s father tells her that she mustn’t be too optimistic about the outcome.

Li Lan asks Amah questions about ghosts and the afterlife, knowing that Amah is knowledgeable on this subject, albeit superstitious. Li Lan finally lets Amah know that she has something she needs to confide in her, and Amah immediately assumes that Li Lan is pregnant: She saw her at the front door with Tian Bai and feared that, like Yan Hong, Li Lan was going to desperate lengths to marry someone of her choice. Amah reveals that the only reason that Yan Hong’s plan worked was because her mother, the Second Wife, died by suicide and left a note threatening to haunt the whole family if her daughter was not allowed to marry her lover.

Li Lan tells Amah the problem she is facing is that she is being haunted by Lim Tian Ching. Hearing this, Amah decides that they need to seek the help of a well-known medium. When they arrive at the medium’s residence, there is a young man already consulting with her. Li Lan is struck by the man’s appearance though she can’t see his face, as it is hidden by a wide-brimmed hat. She notes that he is wearing a robe with a noteworthy cloud design embroidered in silver.

When it is Li Lan’s turn, the medium is able to sense her predicament right away. The medium gives her a powder to mix with water and drink every night before bed but warns her that it is very strong. Li Lan leans over to give the medium her payment. The medium grabs her hand and whispers to her that one other thing she can do is to burn Hell bank notes for herself—or ask someone to do it for her. To do such a thing would be almost taboo since these notes are only burned for the dead, so they may have money in the afterlife.

That night, Li Lan drinks the mysterious powdery mixture and goes straight to sleep. She sleeps a dreamless sleep and does not wake until the next morning. Several days later, the front door swings open, seemingly on its own, and the exterior of the door is painted with a dark red liquid. Ah Chun, the household maid, believes it is the work of ghosts. Old Wong, the cook, calmly washes off the substance, which he says is pig’s blood. It occurs to Li Lan that it may be the work of criminals or moneylenders, and she grows increasingly worried about her father’s financial situation. She approaches him to ask about his debts, and he reveals that Lim Teck Kiong, head of the Lim household, is the one to whom he is indebted. It becomes clearer to Li Lan why the Lim family is so fixated on her becoming a ghost bride for Lim Tian Ching and the kind of leverage they hold over her father.

Li Lan decides to take the medium’s advice and burn funeral money and other items for herself. As she begins to burn the items, Amah finds her and quickly works to extinguish the fire. She tells Li Lan that she cannot burn offerings for herself because she is not dead yet and that to do so is terribly bad luck.

That night, Li Lan is visited by Lim Tian Ching in her dreams again, even though she drank the medium’s mixture. He tells Li Lan that he is responsible for the incident with the pig’s blood on the door of her house. Lim Tian Ching informs Li Lan that he has several of the border guard demons to command as he sees fit, a special privilege that he has been granted by one of the Nine Judges of Hell.

Lim Tian Ching explains that he has been given a series of tasks to complete by this Judge and a co-conspirator. In exchange, Lim Tian Ching will be given a reward, which includes Li Lan, as well as the person responsible for his death. Lim Tian Ching informs Li Lan that he did not die from a sudden illness. He was actually murdered, and he believes that his cousin, Tian Bai, is the murderer.

The next day, Amah informs Li Lan that her father wants to talk to her. When Li Lan sees her father, he tells her that he intends to declare bankruptcy. This will alleviate his debts and ensure that Li Lan has resources to live on. He also tells Li Lan that he learned that Tian Bai is now engaged to be married: He will be marrying the daughter of the wealthy Quah family, the girl who viewed Li Lan so coldly during the needle-threading competition. Li Lan returns to her room and lays in her bed, inconsolable, until night falls. She senses that Lim Tian Ching will visit her in her dreams yet again, so she decides to make an especially strong dose of the medium’s potion. She is careless mixing the powder and the water and reflects that although she hoped for the release of empty sleep, she did not intend to kill herself.