Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Immortal Lady, three years ago, you once praised me for having the skin of a beauty.”

“Now… would you still be willing to take it?”

Chu Yu’s voice was very soft.

She was a living, breathing person, yet she looked even more lifeless than a spirit like me.

I looked at her withered body, at her thin, bloodless face, and stayed silent for a long time.

“You look like you’ve suffered quite a lot.”

Chu Yu gave a bitter smile. “I have. You told me before, Immortal Lady, that someone like me was bound to suffer.”

“You said it three years ago.”

I had.

Ever since Chu Yu first saw me in that ruined temple, she came to visit me every day.

She would burn a little spirit money for me and place a fragrant, crisp baked flatbread on the altar.

After enough time passed, she even started pestering me with questions.

“Immortal Lady, have you ever met anyone before who could make a Skin-changing trade with you?”

I ate my flatbread. “This ruined temple is small and remote. In seven years, counting you, only three people have stumbled in here.”

“One was a scholar on his way to the capital for the imperial exams. He’d studied himself half mad and said he wanted to make this deal with me. His wish was to rank in the top class.”

“I ignored him. What would I want with a man’s skin?”

“The second was a woman who sold pork and couldn’t get married. She said she wanted to make this deal with me. Her wish was to marry the man she loved.”

“I ignored her too. With her broad shoulders and thick waist, if I changed into that, I’d have to find a tree to hang myself from.”

“The last one is you. I like that hibiscus-like face of yours, that beauty’s skin. But you won’t trade.”

I blinked and frightened her on purpose. “But I know you’ll definitely make this bargain with me one day.”

“In this world, with that face of yours and a family like yours, of course your life won’t be easy.”

Then one day, Chu Yu came to say goodbye.

Before she left, she brought me a whole basket of baked flatbreads.

She said her maternal aunt had found her a husband’s family.

She was being sent to Rong’an Marquis Manor as a concubine.

In truth, they had sold her, taking the betrothal money to find a wife for their own son.

Her eyes were red. “Immortal Lady, I’ll come back to see you someday.”

I looked at her face with deep reluctance and said resentfully, “Remember, the next time you come to see me, make this deal with me.”

“Give me your skin.”

The words became prophecy.

Chu Yu held the child in her arms and knelt silently beside my remains.

I was silent too.

Back then, I had only been trying to scare her because I wanted her skin.

But now that she truly stood before me, I realized I did not want it that badly after all.

Wanting a human skin was only so I could leave the ruined temple and be a little less bored.

But during those days three years ago, I had not been bored.

My voice came out muffled. “You came too late.”

Chu Yu smiled bitterly. “I know. I’m about to die.”

She looked down at the child in her arms, her eyes reddening. “At least I can go keep An’er company.”

I glanced at the little infant.

His tiny face, no bigger than half a palm, had turned purplish blue.

He had died long ago.

Probably only a few days after he was born.

Chu Yu burned spirit money for me.

A gust of wind blew through, sending smoke drifting all over the room.

Even I choked on it. I almost wanted to cry.

Chu Yu said, “Immortal Lady, you once said that burning spirit money for you meant I wanted to do business with you.”

For no reason, irritation rose in my chest. “I lied to you.”

“I just wanted to scare you back then, to trick you into giving me your skin.”

“Didn’t you already know that making a deal with me means dying a terrible death?”

Chu Yu forced out a smile. “It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t going to live much longer anyway.”

“Immortal Lady likes the skin of a beauty, and I hate this hibiscus face of mine. Let’s trade.”

I should have been happy.

Soon, I would have the only beautiful skin I had found pleasing in the past ten years.

But I was silent for a long time. “What is your wish?”

“Do you want the people who bullied you to pay blood for blood?”

Chu Yu knocked her forehead to the ground. “Immortal Lady, that would disturb your karma.”

“My life has always been hard. I don’t want much. I just remember you once said that you wanted to go outside and take a look.”

“If you can, after you go out, just burn a little spirit money each year for me and my An’er. That will be enough.”

She swallowed the pill I had given her three years ago.

All the blood and flesh in her body seemed to be drained away. In an instant, she shriveled up.

Like a flower that had completely withered, she fell to the ground.

She became a skeleton without its skin.

Her skin peeled away and floated onto the altar.

Expressionless, I changed into it.

In the bronze mirror appeared a woman with an almond-shaped face, willow brows, and a luminous beauty bright enough to reflect the world.

Phantom Bone, beauty’s skin.

I had lied to Chu Yu.

I was a Painted-Skin Spirit, a rakshasa demon, a wicked ghost.

Why would I fear karma? How could I be satisfied with merely burning a little spirit money?

In this transaction, she gave me her beautiful skin.

I would repay her with the lives of those people.