The Ghost Bride

Li Lan arrives home and discovers that the ox-headed demons are no longer standing guard. She dashes up to her bedroom, but discovers that her bed is empty. She overhears her family downstairs at the dinner table and realizes that she can hear a voice similar to her own among them. Upon entering the dining room, she sees her father, her aunt, and some stranger in her body sitting down to a meal. Li Lan attempts to get a closer look at the impostor’s face. When the girl finally looks up, Li Lan sees Fan’s face peering out at her from behind her own.

After dinner, Fan reveals that she was suspicious of Li Lan’s backstory and did some snooping when they got to the Plains of the Dead. She followed Li Lan to her family’s home in the afterlife and got the full story from the Third Concubine though she still did not understand why Li Lan was such a strange kind of ghost. She then encountered Master Awyoung, who told her that he met a girl he thought might be only half-dead. Putting two and two together, Fan shared everything she discovered about Li Lan, hoping for some kind of reward or recognition from him. She then developed her plan to find Li Lan’s home in the material plane and take over her body.

Li Lan seeks out Old Wong, who is shocked to see her there in spirit form. She explains the situation to him, and he chastises her for straying too far from her body, allowing another spirit to take hold of it instead. He also tells Li Lan that he will give all this information to Amah, who has been suspicious of the impostor Li Lan since she woke up.

Tian Bai comes to visit the woman he believes is Li Lan. He tells her that he had a dream about her and that in the dream, she was behaving strangely. Fan grows suddenly nervous, and Li Lan watches their interaction carefully, to see if Tian Bai suspects that Fan is an impostor.

Li Lan is uncomfortable with the way Fan uses her body and how forward she is with Tian Bai. Determined to regain her body, Li Lan decides to seek out the help of the medium again. She and Chendana continue to follow the path toward the medium’s house, but Li Lan is suddenly overcome by an intense pain in her chest. Suddenly, Li Lan collapses and falls off of Chendana’s back. She remembers Er Lang’s scale, now pressing uncomfortably into her side, and decides to blow on it, even though the effort is probably futile.

Li Lan is surprised by an intense gust of wind, and Er Lang appears. She asks where Er Lang has been, and he tells her that in addition to recuperating from his wounds, he had to report back to his office about the case against the Lim family. He informs Li Lan that the evidence she gathered was strong and that formal charges are being filed against the Lims and Master Awyoung. Li Lan fills him in on her displacement from her body, and Er Lang expresses regret that he did not see this as a possible outcome of their endeavor.

Li Lan realizes she is dying and makes a final request to Er Lang’s true dragon form. He removes his hat to reveal his true features, and Li Lan is overcome by the beauty of his appearance. Er Lang responds to her in his typically arrogant manner at first but expresses concern when Li Lan continues to fade away. He offers her a life-saving opportunity: to take his own qi, or life force. Er Lang asks her to choose between his breath and his blood. She chooses breath, and he places his mouth over hers, exhaling deeply into her. Li Lan devours his life force hungrily until Er Lang tells her to stop.

Er Lang tells Li Lan that she likely took 50-years’ worth of life through his qi and explains that she may be changed in other ways, too. He also comments on the fact that he enjoyed the experience, and Li Lan is embarrassed, noting that he was the one who made the encounter more passionate by putting his tongue in her mouth.

Li Lan returns home and hears a commotion in the dining room. Fan is in the room, screaming at Amah while hiding behind Li Lan’s father. Fan insists that Amah is the cause of her illness and that even now she is trying to do her harm with spells and charms. The room suddenly fills with the smell of burning flesh associated with the ox-headed demons. Li Lan and Fan both see a demon entering the room, but it is fixated only on Fan. It tells Fan that it is here to collect the daughter of the Pan family and take her to the Lim mansion in the afterlife. Fan is terrified but believes that she’s safe since she is technically a living person. Amah rushes toward Fan and places a spell paper on her head. It causes Li Lan’s body to expel Fan’s spirit, and the ox-headed demon carries her off to the afterlife. Li Lan falls on top of her body in a desperate attempt to re-enter it.

When Li Lan comes to, she is being tended to by Amah. Amah confesses that she knew that it wasn’t really Li Lan when she first woke from her illness and asks Li Lan where she went. Li Lan explains that she visited the spirit world though she omits most of the details. In the days that follow, Li Lan thinks about how pleased she is to have regained her physical body. She also considers how the afterlife allowed her a degree of freedom to which she no longer has access. Li Lan wonders what happened to Fan after the demon took her away. Although Fan committed a great betrayal, Li Lan feels some regret for what happened to her in the end.

Back in the material world, Li Lan no longer feels the same level of affection she had for Tian Bai. Tian Bai does not know anything about Li Lan’s out-of-body experience in the spirit world, so their engagement is still set. One day, Li Lan mentions that she had heard a rumor about him, and Tian Bai’s mind immediately jumps to his time in Hong Kong. He admits that he has more experience with relationships than Li Lan and that he did in fact have a lover, Isabel De Souza, in Hong Kong. They have, however, broken it off, and Tian Bai is entirely devoted to Li Lan and their upcoming marriage. Li Lan is disappointed that she did not press Tian Bai about his cousin’s death.

Li Lan has also been searching her possessions for Er Lang’s scale. Since she returned to her physical body, both the scale and her horse, Chendana, have vanished.

Li Lan’s marriage to Tian Bai is scheduled to take place in two months, but she feels that she has unfinished business with the Lim family to which she must attend. Eventually, she finds an opportunity to accompany Old Wong on an errand to the Lim mansion. She hopes to talk to Yan Hong about Lim Tian Ching’s teacup and how she may have been involved in his death. She finds Yan Hong out on the grounds of the mansion, overlooking an old well. Yan Hong tells Li Lan that she, Tian Bai, and Lim Tian Ching used to play by this well as children. She also shares that Lim Tian Ching was a cruel and petulant child.

Li Lan is wary of broaching the subject of Lim Tian Ching’s death with Yang Hong and frames it as a strange dream she had, wherein Lim Tian Ching’s spirit told her he was murdered and that Yan Hong had possession of his teacup. Yan Hong is at first skeptical but soon grows defensive. When Li Lan asks if Tian Bai might have put something in the teacup, Yan Hong swears that he would never do such a thing. When pressed about her own involvement, Yan Hong finally offers a hypothetical scenario, suggesting that perhaps she could have had a hand in Lim Tian Ching’s death. Yan Hong marches away but is cut off by Madam Lim, who suddenly emerges from some nearby trees. Li Lan is struck by how weak and ghostly she looks. Madam Lim insists that she heard them discussing her son’s murder. She steps toward Yan Hang, who moves backward and almost stumbles into the old well. She grabs Madam Lim’s hand to steady herself, but Madam Lim pushes her backward. Li Lan reaches out in an attempt to save Yan Hong, and they both fall to the bottom of the well.

Li Lan and Yan Hong are trapped at the bottom of the crumbling old well. Madam Lim laughs and says that she will tell everyone that Yan Hong died by suicide, just like her birth mother, and that Li Lan was unfortunately pulled down with her. Then she disappears, saying there is something she must do. Li Lan is able to push Yan Hong to safety, but she falls back down to the bottom of the well. She assures Yan Hong that she is unharmed and implores her to go stop Madam Lim.

A heavy, cold rain begins to fall, and Li Lan wishes that Er Lang was here to help her. She cries out his name several times, and, at that moment, Er Lang appears at the top of the well. He jumps down to meet her, which infuriates Li Lan, as they are now both trapped. The two argue about how Li Lan ended up in the well in the first place and how Er Lang should have sent word to Li Lan sooner. Li Lan ends their quarrel when she thanks him for coming to her rescue and kisses him. Er Lang is unable to keep himself from making smart remarks, but the two share a moment of intense passion. Er Lang only pulls away when he reminds Li Lan that she is engaged to be married.

Er Lang picks up Li Lan and climbs his way to the top of the well with her on his shoulder. Once they are out, Li Lan asks Er Lang about the fates of Lim Tian Ching, Master Awyoung, and Fan. Er Lang explains that the Lim men are set to receive judgments from the Courts of Hell, but Fan has completely vanished. Er Lang changes the subject by explaining to Li Lan that, by taking his qi during their last encounter, she will no longer be able to live a “normal life.” In fact, she will outlive the majority of her family. Er Lang comforts her by assuring her that when all those that she cares about have passed on, he will come to retrieve her. Li Lan replies that she may not want to wait that long to be with him. Er Lang explains that spending her life with him will not be typical or easy. He tells her that he will return in two weeks to hear her final decision.

Li Lan learns that Madam Lim attempted to stab Tian Bai with a kitchen knife, but her weak physical condition allowed him to escape. Tian Bai requests for Li Lan to remain discreet about Madam Lim’s actions. He also asks if she would object if they postponed their wedding, given the day’s events and Madam Lim’s current condition.

Some days later, Li Lan receives a visit from the Lim family patriarch, Lim Teck Kiong. He offers to fund Li Lan’s education abroad, telling her that Tian Bai would wait for her and that it would be worthwhile for her to receive further education. Li Lan suspects that in actuality, Lim Teck Kiong wants to delay her marriage to Tian Bai indefinitely, since she now knows about all of their family secrets. Li Lan refuses his offer, but she struggles with the decision before her. She recognizes that she will have a loving and stable life with Tian Bai, but she is clearly in love with Er Lang.

Yan Hong also pays a visit to Li Lan, where she finally confesses that she did kill Lim Tian Ching. She swears that it was accidental. She merely wanted to make him ill by giving him a large dose of an herbal medicine she was prescribed. She gave him too much, however, and he had a seizure that killed him. Yan Hong tells Li Lan that she and her husband will be leaving Malacca to live in Singapore, where her husband has a job offer. She assures Li Lan that Tian Bai does not know what she has done, and Li Lan tells her that she should continue to keep it a secret.

Li Lan thinks deeply about the decision she must soon make. She reveals that although it will be difficult, she plans to give her love to Er Lang. She does not want to marry Tian Bai first and go with Er Lang closer to the end of her days. She is ready to commit to life with him now, and she admits that she likely always loved him best, from the time he comforted and protected her in the Plains of the Dead. With her mind made up, Li Lan must now simply pass the time until Er Lang returns and she can give him her answer.