Northeast Spirit Medium: My Red-Robed Immortal

When I was nine, I went up the mountain with Grandpa to gather firewood.

On a snowy path meant for the dead, not the living,

I met a woman in a red cotton-padded jacket whose feet cast no shadow.

She smiled at me and said

“Little Zhu, I’ve come to take you home.”

From that day on, she appeared in my dreams every night, pressing close to my neck as she whispered:

“We couldn’t be together in our past life. You won’t get away from me in this one.”

I thought I was haunted,

until Grandpa told me, his face deathly pale:

“She isn’t a ghost. She’s the Red-Robed Immortal who pinned down the Northeast’s dragon vein a hundred years ago.”

The spirit altar wanted me to sever our bond, the underworld wanted me dead, and the evil immortal wanted my soul.

The whole world was trying to force me away from her.

But she was the only one who held me, smiling with a wild, tender affection:

“If you die, I’ll go with you. If you live, I’ll stay by your side.”

In the Northeast, inviting spirits isn’t about asking them to come

it’s a wager with your life.