Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I took Great-Aunt back to her room on the second floor.

Only then did I notice that she had written “go home” all over the bedroom walls in pencil.

The words covered every inch, crowded together, jagged and clawing: “go home.”

I had heard that Great-Aunt once had a younger daughter.

Sadly, when the girl was still very young, she had been kidnapped and sold by traffickers.

Great-Aunt’s elder daughter-Chuxue’s mother-had worn herself down searching for that little sister as well.

Even after she later became the first college student in the village, once she had saved enough money, she still left the big city and returned to her hometown, spending almost her entire life running from place to place.

Staring at the words “go home” scrawled across the walls, I suddenly understood.

The ones trapped by those words were no one else.

They were a mother and daughter, trapped for their entire lives.

After that day,

I began dreaming often.

In my dreams, blurred figures and strange symbols would always appear, somewhat similar to the patterns on the altar.

Every time I woke from those dreams, I felt an indescribable exhaustion.

Aunt Chen noticed the change in me and pointed it out with sharp certainty.

“Miss Bai, you’ve been Crossing the Yin.”

“What?”

She stared at me, her expression unusually grave. “Half of your body has already entered the Yin Realm.”

I had never believed in ghosts or gods.

But after what had happened with that ghostly shadow, hearing her speak with such conviction now, I found myself unable not to believe her.

I immediately asked in a panic, “Then what do I do?”

Aunt Chen patted me reassuringly. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll call out for you and tell the people over in the Yin Realm to stop looking for you!”

At those words, fear flooded through me. “You mean… a ghost is looking for me?”

“B-but why would she be looking for me?”

Aunt Chen paused, her gaze flicking toward the second floor. Her tone turned meaningful. “Miss Bai, you’ve seen it for yourself…”

“This house is not clean.”

After thinking it over from every angle, I agreed.

Aunt Chen had me lie down on the bed, then lit incense.

She also placed two shoes at the head of the bed, one right side up and one upside down.

“The way the shoes are placed determines the life-or-death state of the person Crossing the Yin.”

“During Crossing the Yin, one shoe must be turned over. If both are set right side up, then the Yin beings will wake…”

“If both are turned over, it means death.”

As she spoke, she brought over a cup of grayish-white talisman water.

“Here. Drink this.”