Ever since I turned eighteen, I've kept having the same dream. A tune from an opera drifts through it, singing, “The snake bears the sedan chair, the ghosts escort the bride!”
I was born with an unusual yin fate and a pair of yin-yang eyes, so I've been able to see ghosts since I was little.
They say that on the night I was born, snakes appeared everywhere. Countless snakes swarmed into the house, front and back, and only after I was born did they turn their heads toward me and bow three times before leaving.
The village elders all say I'm a lucky child blessed by snakes, but their eyes are full of complicated feelings: pity, fear, and gratitude, as if they were hiding a shocking secret.
I've always been terrified of snakes, yet absurdly, the whole village forced me to marry the Snake Lord, a giant serpent worshipped by the village a thousand years ago, who has since taken human form. On the Ghost Festival, I was forced into a bright red bridal gown and sent by my grandfather to the old ancestral hall to be married.
At midnight, countless giant snakes with flickering tongues appeared before me, bearing a bright red bridal sedan chair...
Xia Huoyan
