Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Liu Yulan: The Penultimate Day

I got up early to make breakfast.

I doubt there’s another Ghost Agent as pathetic as I am.

Collecting a soul should be a straightforward task once the time is up, yet here I am, exhausting myself like this.

Grandma was up even earlier than me.

She had already prepared the firewood and boiled a pot of water.

“You know how to cook?”

I nodded. “Mhm. I’ve always been alone, so I learned.”

There are meals provided in the Netherworld.

But they taste terrible.

When I used to cook for myself back there, the other Ghost Agents would just mock me.

“You’re a poor child, aren’t you? Don’t you have any family? It’s almost the Lunar New Year.”

She was at death’s door, yet she was still radiating motherly concern.

In truth, I have no memory of my family at all. Ghost Agents were human once, too.

But my memories are long gone.

“I don’t remember.”

Grandma didn’t push further. “What do you like to eat? Shall we go buy some groceries together? I also want to head up the mountain.”

I didn’t want her overexerting herself. “The vegetables at home are enough. What do you want to do on the mountain, Grandma?”

“The old man is up there. And my granddaughter.”

I followed Grandma as she climbed the mountain. Even though it was just a low hill behind the village, every step was a struggle for her.

The ground was covered in snow, and the crunching sound echoed with every stride.

We finally reached the graves.

They were two simple mounds of earth.

[Jiang Wei], [Jiang Chu].

Someone had placed fruit in front of Grandpa’s grave; it looked quite fresh.

I assumed Grandma, despite her bad legs, visited frequently, but she said, “He was an old doctor of Chinese medicine. He saved many people in the village, but he couldn’t save himself.”

Her eyes were fixed on the fruit.

“Since he passed, people have always come to pay their respects.

“I suppose he hasn’t been that lonely.”

I didn’t stop her as she knelt on the cushion I had brought.

She wept bitterly.

Suddenly, she whispered, “Old man, since you left, there’s been no one to tuck me in at night.”

She pulled out the fruit she had prepared in advance. “Jiang Chu, Grandma brought your favorite fruit.”

The living and the dead.

Two inside the earth, one outside.

On the way back, a cat followed us the whole time.

“Dahua, go back.”

Grandma called out its name, but the cat wouldn’t leave, even when she tried to shoo it away with her foot.

“Grandma, you know this cat?”

“It was my granddaughter’s cat.” Grandma shouted toward the cat, “Go on, go home!”

Dahua stopped pestering Grandma and instead crouched down by the hem of my pants.

I stroked its head, and a sudden realization hit me. “Grandma, did you ask someone else to look after it?”

“Little Chu is gone, and I’m about to die. What would happen to it if it stayed with me?”

Dahua sat by my leg for a moment, then suddenly bolted away.

Before long, it returned with something in its mouth and dropped it at my feet.

I looked down to see what it was, and with a sharp “Ah!” I jumped back, screaming.

The little rascal had brought me a severed rat’s head.

Dahua recoiled, startled by my reaction.

Grandma, however, let out a laugh.

“Dahua, you used to scare Little Chu like that, and now you’re scaring our guest.

“Don’t be afraid. It likes you. It gave you the rat’s head because it thinks that’s the best gift it has.”

Ghosts aren’t supposed to have hearts anymore.

But for a moment, I felt mine soften just a little.