"Huanmengying" uses the blood moon as a symbol of guilt, telling the story of Lu Yi, a poor man who was involved in a cause-and-effect puzzle that spanned the past and present due to the birthmark on his chest. On the night of the blood moon, blood oozes from the birthmark, revealing the crime of embezzling 100,000 taels of disaster relief money in the previous life. The book boy Aman (actually a ghost) pushes the gold foil cart to collect debts, while the mysterious Ying Niang plays the jade flute to play the wail of the previous life, which is both good and evil.
From Beidou Temple master Po Junzi summoning the souls of the dead to seek justice with his hammer, to the road to reincarnation paved with 999 coffins at the Bridge of Purity; from the Night Banquet of Ten Thousand Monsters revealing the truth of being coerced in previous lives, to the depths of Forgotten River to glimpse the secrets of being silenced - Lu Yi, in the pursuit of the three worlds of humans, ghosts and monsters, experienced six life and death catastrophes, and gradually uncovered the truth about how he pretended to be corrupt in order to help the victims in his previous life, but was framed by his party members.
Ying Niang's true identity is hidden in mystery. She is both the Qingqiu fox demon Bai Jiuli and the blind Meng Posi. In fact, she is the fusion of Lu Yi's obsession with injustice in his previous life and the Pangu jade flute. When the mastermind (the former master of Beidou Temple) reveals his true identity, Ying Niang uses the phoenix gallbladder to burn the fire of karma to break the chain of cause and effect. Lu Yi's birthmark splits out of the jade flute, and both merits and demerits appear during the performance. The judgment of heaven and earth is that "the merits and demerits are balanced by each other, and reincarnation is determined by itself."
In the end, the blood moon disappears, the birthmark disappears, the gold foil car turns into a book box, and the blood stain on the jade flute turns into a phoenix pattern. Although the dream is awakened, the cause and effect is not over. The figures of Lu Yi, Ying Niang, and Aman remain in the mirror, and the seeds of the symbiosis garden are still sprouting, telling the ancient mystery that humans, ghosts, and demons are essentially the same, and good and evil will be rewarded. Those obsessions and truths that transcend life and death will eventually find their home in reincarnation.
Short story
