I was saddened by his sensible words. My eyes stung and I wiped them.
Ok, I won’t tell her. I’ll tell her that MaoMao has gone abroad and is living very well. I looked at him as I thought this.
“Thank you, Older sister.”
MaoMao seemed to have understood my intention and gave me a smile.
“Mao……MaoMao……”
The woman’s weak voice came from the hospital bed. I jumped up in shock. Just as I was about to push the button to call for the doctor, I sensed something appear on her body similar to that of the white-haired old man earlier.
The heartbeat on the machine began to change for the worse, it began to drop low.
She only mumbled these two words and didn’t say anything after that. Seeing this I rushed to push the button. MaoMao’s face was full of tears and the gray air around him began to turn black.
I frantically pushed the button and almost immediately the nurse ran in, followed by a doctor.
“She is dying, quickly save her!”
I hurriedly stood aside to give way to the medical staff.
Why….why did it become like this….
Pervert standing by my side suddenly said: “Hua’er, do you believe that the mother and child have a spiritual connection.”
He quietly watched the doctors as they rushed in to for the emergency treatment. There wasn’t a trace of emotion in his tone as he looked at this disturbing scene, looks like it wasn’t able to arouse any pity in his heart.
“This woman, can’t be saved.”
“MaoMao’s soul is here, it’s a unique summon between the mother and son. Her soul will no longer stay in her body.”
He hadn’t finished talking when I heard the ‘beep’ sound come from the machine.
I could see a white cloud coming out from Lin MiaoMiao’s body. The doctors were trying hard to save her but even then the soul showed no signs of returning to the body.
“Mommy!”
MaoMao shouted loudly towards the soul.
I couldn’t bear to look at him. He wanted his mother to live and for me to tell her that her son was living very well in another world. Even though it was a lie, it would have given Lin MiaoMiao the faith to go on living and that is a good thing!
But who could have thought that something like this would happen?
Just as I stepped forward, Pervert stopped me and looked around.
“The Black and White Impermanence[1] haven’t arrived yet; it seems that her grievance has not been resolved.”
Do we even have to think about it? Besides MaoMao what can be Lin MiaoMiao’s grievance?
I saw her soul slowly sit up and stand on the ground. Her body was covered in a layer of pure white light, without even a tiny bit of impurity.
MaoMao pounced at her. He was crying very loudly but only me and Pervert could hear it.
The medical staff was still trying to help Lin MiaoMiao but I knew the end result.
Seeing this scene of the mother and son meeting each other, the sadness in my heart lessened. If Lin MiaoMiao opened her eyes and saw her son, would her obsession fade?
Lin MiaoMiao slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was her precious son and she froze. I thought she would be pleasantly surprised but instead she covered her face sorrowfully.
“MaoMao! MaoMao why are you here! Why….do you look like this?”
She realized that the son standing in front of her was now a soul and she couldn’t stop crying! She knelt down as she cried bitterly. The loud, sad and shrill sounds of her soul crying gave me goosebumps and my heart couldn’t stop trembling.
Pervert took me into his arms and whispered: “Don’t blame yourself.”
I felt upset. I had brought MaoMao here and according to what he said, Lin MiaoMiao’s death might be caused because MaoMao’s soul had called to his seriously ill mother.
If I hadn’t brought MaoMao over then he would have become an evil spirit and I would have had to take tough measures to deliver him to the Underworld.
MaoMao couldn’t bear to look at his crying mother. He hugged her and said: “Mommy, now I am by your side. We don’t have to pay for papa anymore. We don’t have to work everywhere for money either. From now on we can always be together, you don’t have to think about those things and worry anymore.”
“No! You cannot die! You are still so young, you had to grow old and see this vast world. How can you die! Where is Aunt Yun? I have to find her and ask her!”
Yun Ya was her best friend. MaoMao lowered his head and didn’t say anything.
I know, something bad must have happened at YunYa’s place otherwise how could MaoMao be dead? The doctors and nurses tried their best to save Lin MiaoMiao but in the end they sighed and shook their head.
I saw the Older sister nurse from before had her face covered in tears.
The doctors walked towards the door. Their foreheads were covered in sweat and as they passed by me they sorrowfully said: “We tried our best.”
I bowed my head as the medical staff walked out of the hospital room one by one.
“Someone will come to tidy up the body. I will get in touch with her family.” The nurse said to me tearfully before she staggered out the door.
I looked around to see if the coast was clear before I approached the mother and son.
“MaoMao, older sister MiaoMiao, we’ll go on the roof, there is something I want to talk to you about.”
Only then did Lin MiaoMiao pay attention to me. She cautiously looked me over as she hugged MaoMao tightly: “Who are you?!”
I gave her a comforting smile: “Don’t be scared, don’t forget that you are dead and are a soul now. I can see you, which proves that I have some ability. I was the one who found MaoMao and brought him over. There are some things I think you need to understand.”
“By the way, can you give me some information.”
……
Lin MiaoMiao was very cooperative. She followed us to the rooftop along with MaoMao.
It was a dark night but the summer sky was especially bright from the countless stars twinkling in the sky.
The summer winds were as usual, stifling hot. I sat on top of a stone stool and looked at the pair of mother and son.
“I know you have a lot of questions that you want to ask. Ask me one by one and I will tell you what I know.”
I told her everything, how I saw MaoMao at the subway station a week ago, how I helped him find her at the hospital a week later and the young man who gave me the information.
“That young man told us that he was not able to contact your best friend after your accident. MaoMao too, most likely had an accident after you were admitted in the hospital. As for the specific details, I don’t know what happened yet.”
“If I had been a little late, MaoMao would have turned into an evil spirit.”
Lin MiaoMiao hugged MaoMao and looked at me gratefully. She kissed her darling son as she said: “I thank you first.”
“MaoMao is back with you, the dark air around his body has decreased a lot. If you have any unfulfilled wish then don’t hold onto it, just leave this world of the living or you will turn into an evil spirit.”
Lin MiaoMiao frowned, thinking out loud she said: “Yun Ya is a kindhearted person. We’ve been close friends for ten years and she has helped me every time there was a problem, so, this time…what happened…..”
“MaoMao, you must know what happened.”
MaoMao looked at his mother in confusion and shook his head.
I hurriedly explained: “The memory one has as a human begins to fade the longer you stay in your soul form, it becomes more and more fragmented. He has been in the spirit form for a long time so he might not remember a lot of things.”
“But you can tell me Yun Ya’s address, I will help you find out what happened.”
Lin MiaoMiao’s eyes shone with excitement as she asked: “Are you really going to help us?”
I smiled and nodded: “En, please believe me. Now that your child is by your side you don’t have to feel worried and miserable. Be relieved and go. Leave everything else to me.”
I wrote down the address she gave me in my mobile. It was a posh neighborhood. I’ve heard the name but have never been there.
Yun Ya lived there, seems like she is well-off.
With a happy smile on his face MaoMao hugged his mother tightly and my guilt decreased a lot. People always feel that being alive is a good thing but there are some for whom death is a kind of relief.
Now, the mother and son can always be together.
Lin MiaoMiao hugged MaoMao and bowed towards me.
I saw their silhouettes gradually fade till finally they disappeared from sight.
A sudden wave swept across the rooftop and a voice came from it: “Thank you kind people.”
“Thank you, older sister.”
Followed by that voice was MaoMao’s voice.
My heart shook a little and my eyes felt hot. Seeing the souls that I had just met leave like this made me feel a little melancholic.
“Hua’er.”
Pervert took me in his arms and hugged me tightly. I pressed my face against his chest, myriad emotions in my heart.
“En.” I softly answered.
Suddenly, a thought came to me and I was about to speak when I felt Pervert tighten his hold on me.
“You are not going to die, you have me and the baby inside you. Both of you are going to be safe.”
The tears in my eyes silently rolled off.
“No, Pervert.”
I could feel my voice shaking: “You won’t grow old or die but I will.”
I am a human and you are a spirit. There will come a day when I will grow old and die.
I have been thinking about this for some time now, but every time I start thinking about it I stop myself. I don’t want to think too deeply about it because it makes my heart ache.
Pervert lowered his head and pressed his lips against my forehead.
“No matter whether you’re a human or a ghost, no matter if you are young or old, you will be my wife, forever.”
He smiled at me adoringly and caressed my cheek with his finger.
“The day your life ends, I will wait for you in the Underworld. We will walk together for countless years in that place that belongs to me.”
I don’t know what came over me and I suddenly burst into laughter.
When I die, I’ll become a ghost and go to the Underworld but I will still be by Pervert’s side.
Ai! I’m so stupid.
But, I began to care about my looks. Humans get old and become weak and feeble. I will become an old woman but Pervert will still be a young man as usual. Wont us being together be difficult then?
TL Corner:
[1] Heibai Wuchang= Two deities, one short, one tall, chained together at the ankle, responsible for rewarding the good and punishing the bad. They are like the soul collectors.
YingYing Translates 