Ghost Wife: Qianlong-Era Folk Tales

In the thirty-first year of the Qianlong reign, the scholar Chen Yansheng wandered into a ruined temple in a desolate forest and stumbled upon a bizarre wedding feast, lit by eerie green flames and red candles, with red silk draped from the rafters.

He thought it had all been a nightmare, but at the market an old woman stopped him and offered him her beautiful, gentle daughter in marriage. All she wanted as a betrothal gift was a piece of calligraphy.

He went to fetch his bride at the fifth watch. There was no sedan chair or wedding music, but he brought home Wan Niang, a wife so perfect she seemed beyond mortal.

She treated him wonderfully, and was just as kind to everyone in the village. But the village livestock began dying one after another, their hearts, livers, kidneys, and lungs neatly removed.

Only when an old Daoist pointed at his wife and said, "The woman you married isn't human. She's an evil spirit who has cultivated for many years," did he remember that the old woman who had arranged the marriage had died six months earlier. He had even written her epitaph himself...