Chapter 1
Chapter 1
I ran away from my wedding.
Just half an hour before the ceremony, I abandoned the man I had loved for years and fled the scene.
All because of a single word left by my grandmother inside a brocade pouch: “Escape.”
Before she passed away, she was a famous spirit medium known throughout the surrounding villages. On her deathbed, she told me, “Girl, you will face three deathly tribulations in this life.”
As she lay dying, her skeletal hand gripped the back of mine with an unexpected, painful force. “These three brocade pouches will help you cross the Gates of Hell three times. You must keep them safe!”
Her clouded eyes shifted toward the first brocade pouch.
“On the seventh day after my death, give this to the seventh person who offers incense!”
Before I could ask why, she drew her last breath.
Many villagers attended the funeral, most of them familiar faces. I clutched the brocade pouch tightly, silently counting the people as they offered incense.
Outside, a torrential rain poured down, cloaking the world in a bleak, dim shroud.
A man wrapped tightly in a raincoat stepped inside.
He was exactly the seventh.