Bone-Cleansing Corruption [Infinite]

“I would gladly remain ugly and plain forever, if only I could look up and see you smile. My darling, a dream of a single morning in the breeze. I beg the underworld to spare one soul.”

Chinese-style horror and underworld aesthetics + Chinese-style Lovecraftian horror + food mysteries and suspense. Includes folk customs, feng shui, poisoning with gu, sorcery, and black magic.

Past life: A gloomy, ruthless, suspicious man, disfigured by a gu curse, and his aloof, short-tempered, delicate husband, who frets all day over his handsome face.

Present life: A ghost husband travels a thousand miles with a child to find his wife.

Blurb:

[Good Fortune]

Wen Jiujiu was possessed by a demon cat as a child, giving him the bones of a nine-lived cat. By a twist of fate, he became the disciple of a hungry ghost. He eagerly awaited his wedding, only to learn that the bride he had been betrothed to since childhood was a man.

Not only was he a man, he was also the ill-omened second son of the Jiang family. He had suffered from a chronic illness since childhood and was hideously ugly.

Still, Wen Jiujiu married him. He brought Jiang Sui home in an eight-man sedan chair, and on their very first night, he worked up the nerve to remove the golden mask no one else dared touch.

The face beneath it was half human and half ghost. One side had sharp brows and bright eyes, handsome and dashing; the other was covered in festering sores and poisonous growths, with a foul stench. His body, too, was a mass of bloody flesh covered in scars.

Jiang Sui asked, “Had enough? If you have, give it back. Otherwise, I’ll make sure you die without a place to be buried.”

Wen Jiujiu could tell at a glance that he had been cursed with a poisonous gu, but he said nothing and returned the golden mask.

The next day, everyone knew Wen Jiujiu had married a “shrew.” She beat the servant who brought her meals, cursed out the doctor who came to take her pulse, stayed shut indoors all day, and reeked from head to toe. Wen Jiujiu paid no attention. Once Jiang Sui fell asleep each night, he tried every way he could think of to break the curse, but with little success.

His master said, “This is a poisonous gu born from a malignant spirit. If you want Jiang Sui to recover, you’ll have to use your nine lives to cleanse his bones and purge the corruption. But if the curse rebounds, it will possess you. You’ll wish you were dead, hideous and out of your mind. Is it worth it?”

Wen Jiujiu replied, “I just want to see what he looks like when he’s well. A face that beautiful shouldn’t have been ruined.”

His master said, “Whoever cursed him is vicious. They might be someone you can’t handle.”

Wen Jiujiu said, “I have nine lives, anyway. If I can’t handle it, I’ll give him one.”

Jiang Sui had lived for ten years as neither human nor ghost. He never expected the Jiang family to arrange a marriage for him.

What poor girl would be unlucky enough to marry him?

It wasn’t until the matchmaker handed him a red veil that Jiang Sui realized he was the bride.

On their wedding night, the man not only lifted his red veil but also took off the golden mask he never removed. A man as exquisitely beautiful as a carving stood before him, examining him closely.

Jiang Sui wanted to kill him.

Until one day, Jiang Sui woke from a nap and grabbed the hand Wen Jiujiu was about to use to set a needle. “You think I’m ugly and want to kill me? Then I’ll kill you first!”

Wen Jiujiu gave him a cold smile. “Everyone says you’re vicious, and they’re right. What a waste of such a handsome face. Smile for me, and I’ll treat you, okay?”

Jiang Sui: “…”

The word “handsome” was Jiang Sui’s sore spot. He shoved Wen Jiujiu out the window with a flick of his hand. Every night, Wen Jiujiu would leave home for three or four hours. A servant said he was keeping a mistress outside and told Jiang Sui to write a divorce letter and leave of his own accord.

Jiang Sui furrowed his brow. “I won’t. Even if he keeps some wild thing outside, I’m still his proper, legally wedded wife. If he dares bring some other man home, I’ll kill him with one palm strike.”

But later, he realized that the handsome self he used to be seemed to be slowly returning, while Wen Jiujiu grew more and more haggard by the day. The day Jiang Sui finally recovered, Wen Jiujiu left him a letter of divorce and disappeared for good.

Jiang Sui tore the letter to shreds. “Divorce me? Dream on! Even if I die, I’ll be buried in the Wen family graveyard! Put my memorial tablet in the Wen family ancestral hall!”

[Bad Omen]

When Wen Jiu was born, a fortune-teller read his fate and declared that he was “destined to have a husband,” with a ghost husband bound to follow him.

To keep himself safe, Wen Jiu married his ghost husband and made offerings to his memorial tablet.

But the fortune-teller also said that the ghost husband would travel a thousand miles to find him, and the day they met would be the day Wen Jiu died.

Wen Jiu only half believed it.

Then, when he was thirty-two, a child inexplicably appeared by his side, and from that day on he knew no peace.

By day and by night, Wen Jiu could feel a chilling gaze clinging to him. In his sleep, he couldn’t move, and he always felt a pair of icy hands sliding over his body.

It seemed there was nowhere left to run.

Note:

* We reject superstition. This story is entirely made up.

* Another book in the same series is "The Cycle of Hungry Bones". You can read this one without reading the rest of the series.

Follow my upcoming book in the same series, "The Sunken Dragon’s Witch Song" [Infinite]:

Blurb:

At the end of a fishing village stood a shrine to the River God. What it housed was not a clay statue, but a living “River God.”

The elders said he was a jiaolong who had yet to leap through the Dragon Gate. He had taken human form, devoured people, and drunk their blood. The slightest misstep could leave the river running red. The villagers feared and revered him, offering sacrifices every year and begging him to bring rain. The River God couldn’t be bothered with them. Every year brought drought, and every year he pretended not to hear their pleas.

Until one year, they tied up A Yu and threw him into the river.

A Yu was the guardian of his small fishing village. He had been alone and friendless since childhood, and anyone could kick him around. The clan elders thought he was useless and decided to get rid of him. “Offer that ill-omened thing to the River God in exchange for rain.”

So A Yu was shoved into the dark river, bound tightly to make sure he couldn’t escape.

But he didn’t die.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in the shrine, drenched from head to toe. A breathtakingly handsome man sat beside him, with ink-black hair and golden eyes, looking him over with great interest.

“You’re the offering?” The man gripped his chin and gave him an appraising look with a mocking smile. “The fishing village is trying to fool me again with something worthless.”

A Yu silently sat up and wiped his face. “You’re not a dragon, either…”

The jiaolong thought the little thing was rather interesting. He might have been a bit dim, but his gaze was as hard as stone. At first, he planned to keep A Yu around as a breathing ornament and replace him once the village sent a proper offering. But gradually, he found himself starting to care… Who could blame him? A Yu was so good at taking care of people.

Whenever he frowned, A Yu brought him fish soup. Whenever he sneezed, A Yu draped a robe over his shoulders. The jiaolong and the boy lived together in the dilapidated shrine quite happily.

Until one day, A Yu approached with a freshly cooked bowl of mushroom soup and a bright smile. “Lord River God, try this.”

The jiaolong drank it and passed out for three days and nights.

When he woke, he found himself trapped in a formation. Runes covered the space above his head, and a crisscrossing Eight Trigrams array lay beneath his feet. The seemingly harmless boy was calmly wiping a bone knife covered in witch’s spells.

A Yu smiled at him with guileless innocence. “Lord Dragon, I’m the last young witch from Witch Song Village. I want to catch a real dragon as my betrothal gift.”

Trapped in the formation, the jiaolong had already lost his human form. Black-gold dragon scales had appeared on his neck. In more than three hundred years, no one had ever managed to scheme against him so thoroughly. “You little maniac, what are you trying to do?”

“Marry you.” A Yu set down the dragon-skinning knife, a clear threat. “You’re a dragon, I’m a witch. We’re made for each other. Help me deal with the people who killed my entire clan, and I’ll help you leap through the Dragon Gate and become a true dragon. After that, you’ll return to the heavens and earth to soar, while I stay here and live as a human. We’ll owe each other nothing and never meet again.”

Leap through the Dragon Gate? The jiaolong smiled. “I’m a creature of the river, not a sea dragon. Do you know the price of helping me become a dragon? I’ve heard that when a jiaolong ascends, the dark winds blot out the sky and torrential rain falls from the heavens.”

At the time, the jiaolong thought he’d never live to see that day, even after hundreds of years.

Who could have known that when the day finally came, the witch song would echo through mountains and rivers, summoning wind and rain for him?

Theme: Don’t judge by appearances, and stay away from superstition.