Spirit Reaper - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Wedding Procession—Today is Our Wedding Day.

Realizing what was happening, Wuyi broke out in goosebumps. A jolt like an electric current surged through her, leaving her trembling and frozen in place.

The wind seemed to lose patience with her lack of movement. It grew bolder, tracing the lines of her arms and moving upward.

“Yu Wuyi… Yu Wuyi…” A blurry female voice echoed in her ear, drifting near and far. The slight huskiness in the tone held a seductive quality.

Startled by the sound of her own name, Wuyi snapped back to reality. She felt a strange sensation on her face—itchy, as if she were being lightly caressed.

“I’ve really seen a ghost this time,” she exhaled deeply. She shut her eyes tight, refusing to respond to the phantom voice no matter how it called. She sat cross-legged, entering a state of meditative stillness.

Call all you want. I’m not paying you any attention today, Wuyi sneered internally.

She was used to these tricks. Over the years, many spirits with more greed than courage had tried to “call her soul” to lure her into a trap. She wouldn’t be easily charmed, though a ghost bold enough to actually touch her was rare.

After a tense standoff, the calling gradually weakened until it vanished completely. The sensation of being caressed disappeared as well.

“Giving up already?” Wuyi slowly opened her eyes. The flames in the iron basin were still churning, sending waves of heat against her face. She scanned her surroundings, and seeing nothing, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Ugh—what is—?” Suddenly, her vision went dark. The smell of scorched paper and smoke hit her nose. Wuyi ripped the object off her face, but when she saw what it was, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

It was a large sheet of yellow paper, half-burned. It was covered in dense rows of text written in cinnabar. The edges were blackened by fire, obscuring some of the content.

Wuyi only needed one glance to confirm: this was a Marriage Contract—but not for the living.

As she read further, her hand began to shake uncontrollably. This contract had been inside that big black bag. Logically, it should have been for “that girl,” but the birth chart (Eight Characters) written on the paper was clearly hers.

Bing-Xu year, Geng-Zi month, Jia-Shen day, Wu-Chen hour… A disaster star from heaven…

She read the document again, word for word, until her eyes landed on the bright red characters of her own name: Yu Wuyi.

The story about a girl finding a “good ghost” and dreaming of her parents was a lie. Everything—the offerings, the ceremony—was for her. From the very beginning, she was the one meant for the Ghost Marriage.

She had even thrown the contract into the fire with her own hands.

Wuyi slumped to the ground, staring at the name of the “spouse” she had never heard of. Thinking about how her own grandmother had pushed her into a marriage with a ghost, she felt an absurd urge to laugh.

“Qin An…” she whispered the name of the other party, shaking her head bitterly.

Once the contract is burned, the covenant in the underworld is sealed. Even though it wasn’t entirely consumed by the flames, she and this ghost named “Qin An” were now firmly bound together. There was no way out.

Wuyi didn’t know how to feel. She knew her constitution and fate were “special,” so she wouldn’t jump to conclusions about her grandmother’s intentions—Yu Song had been good to her for years. But the idea of suddenly being married to a ghost made her skin crawl. She was a staunch advocate of a single life; she had long prepared to be alone forever. This sudden blow caught her completely off guard.

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. As the person involved, she didn’t even have the right to know. If she hadn’t caught this stray piece of paper, she would have entered this marriage completely blind.

“Qin An… Hmph. I don’t care what kind of monster you are, you better stay out of my sight, or I’ll make you regret it,” Wuyi hissed, tossing the remains of the contract back into the fire.

She watched the yellow paper turn to ash, and her heart grew a bit colder. As she cleaned up the ashes, she muttered to herself, “There’s no bigger idiot in the world than me, delivering myself right to the thief’s den.”

“Qin An, or Qin ‘Un-peaceful’… if I ever meet you, I’ll make you get on your knees and kowtow for mercy.” She shifted all her resentment onto this mysterious ghost.

Dusting herself off, Wuyi prepared to head home. But a sudden sound of gongs and drums from the distance pinned her to the spot.

This was… the melody of an ancient Wedding Procession.

The festive music grew louder. She was certain it was heading directly for her. Without the fire, the woods were pitch black. Wuyi looked toward the sound; all she could see were crooked trees and fluttering white cloth.

Suddenly, a splash of vivid red appeared in her vision. She rubbed her eyes, but the red didn’t vanish—it was followed by one identical figure after another.

The dead are fetching a bride; the living must retreat.

Wuyi had just learned of her own misfortune; she had no desire to get involved with a ghost wedding. She turned and prepared to bolt. But today, fate would not let her run.

“Yu Wuyi… Yu Wuyi…” That ethereal female voice returned, but this time, it sounded like it was whispered directly into her ear.

Her hair stood on end. She tried to move her legs, but they were rooted to the spot. She bit her lip hard, refusing to make a sound.

Don’t respond. Just ignore it and nothing will happen.

With the voice in her ear and the procession behind her, Wuyi was trapped between a rock and a hard place. “What terrible luck,” she cursed.

Receiving no response, the female voice lost its softness. It turned sharp and shrill, like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. “Yu Wuyi, why are you ignoring me?” the voice shrieked, descending into madness.

Wuyi kept her mouth shut, her hand gripping the peach-wood sword in her bag. The moment the ghost showed itself, she would strike.

BEEP—!

A loud blast of a Suona traditional horn rang out behind her. The shrill, resentful screams of the female ghost suddenly faded away, dissipating into the air.

The ghost was gone, but the Suona meant the wedding procession was now directly behind her. Wuyi felt despair. She had just gotten into university; she didn’t want to die now.

BEEP—!

The horn sounded again. This time, she found she could move again. The moment she regained control, she sprinted toward the exit of the mountain.

But after running for what felt like ten minutes on a path that should have been short, she realized something was wrong. The scenery was repeating. She was seeing the same trees over and over.

Ghost Wall (鬼打牆).

BEEP—! The procession’s horn sounded again.

Wuyi was at her wit’s end. She had briefly thought the procession were “good ghosts” for freeing her from the earlier restraint. Now, she realized everyone wanted a piece of her. Between the ghosts trying to eat her and the unwanted marriage contract, her temper finally snapped.

“You all want me that badly? Let’s see if you have the strength!”

She bit her finger, smeared the blood on her peach-wood sword, and spun around to stab the paper-doll ghost leading the procession.

BEEP—! The doll was struck. With a final blast of the horn, it burst into flames and turned to ash.

“Come on! Don’t you want my life? Here’s your chance!” Wuyi challenged the other paper dolls.

But her defiance didn’t last long. She watched as the ashes of the lead doll reformed at the back of the line, moved to the front, and blew the Suona right in her face.

BEEP—!

“Ugh…” Wuyi covered her ears and stumbled back. But as she retreated, she bumped into something soft and slimy. She turned slowly and locked eyes with the thing behind her.

“AAAAHHH!”

Wuyi lost it. She bolted blindly into the wedding procession, crashing through the orderly lines of paper dolls. Compared to that nameless, slimy, shapeless mass behind her, these paper-doll “children” were practically cute.

The mountains became chaotic. To the local spirits, Wuyi’s blood was a top-tier delicacy. Now that she had made such a ruckus, every creature lurking in the dark began to move.

“What the—?” A force suddenly grabbed Wuyi’s ankles. Before she could react, a withered branch bound her legs and yanked her into the air.

“What a fragrant human… a Body of Pure Yin?” “The boys are in for a treat tonight, hehehe—”

Evil laughter rose from the ground. Wuyi wanted to cry. Out of the wolf’s den and into the tiger’s mouth; she was truly finished.

But just as she gave up hope, the wind rose again.

“No! Please! Have mercy!” “We didn’t know she belonged to you—!” The howling wind drowned out the screams and pleas of the lesser ghosts.

“Huh?” Wuyi heard the commotion below. She tried to look down, but the branches holding her suddenly let go. She plummeted toward the earth.

Instead of hitting the dirt, she fell into a soft embrace. It was icy cold, but in the sweltering summer night, she instinctively wanted to press closer to the coolness.

“Heh. Truly weak,” a mocking female voice whispered in her ear.

Wuyi felt indignant. This person had a beautiful voice, but her words were like poison. “You…”

Before she could argue, something was thrown over her head. She opened her eyes to see a world of blinding, vivid red.

“Today is our wedding day.”