A Western-educated heiress x a feudal ghost
1.
The elder brother her stepmother had brought into the family had been missing for seven days.
At last, the Yu household was quiet.
Wanchang was delighted to be left alone. No one stopped her from coming home late or scolded her with a cold face for being frivolous and ill-mannered.
Men from the police station came to ask questions. A newspaper had apparently captured his last image, following Yu Wantang toward the banks of Suzhou Creek.
Yu Wantang leaned against the sofa. The fresh red polish on her fingernails was striking. She replied lazily, "He was probably trying to stop me from meeting someone outside. But I didn't see him that day."
The police left.
Yu Wantang changed into a brand-new qipao and headed out to a dance party.
She didn't notice the wet trail snaking across the cement behind her, as if something had crawled up from the riverbed.
2.
Missing-person notices were posted all over the city by the Yu household, frantic as ants on a hot pan.
Yu Wantang, meanwhile, kept dancing one number after another at the Paramount Ballroom.
That weekend, she simply brought home the boyfriend she'd just started dating.
Someone sat in the gloomy living room.
It was Lu Chenbi.
He was still wearing the black silk changshan from the newspaper that day, only now its color had darkened strangely.
His handsome face, already pale, was even whiter, and deep shadows cut beneath his cheekbones.
Yu Wantang jumped in fright and opened her mouth to curse, but before she could speak...
Lu Chenbi slowly turned his face toward her.
His eyes were so black that only the pupils remained, and he gazed at her, silent and still.
3.
On the seventh day after Lu Chenbi "died" in the water, he returned from the bottom of Suzhou Creek.
His black silk changshan hung heavily on him, cold enough to pierce to the bone.
Yu Wantang's bedroom door was half open. A light shone inside, and a man's laughter could be heard.
He thought indifferently,
My younger sister has always been like this.
Willful and wanton.
But an elder brother ought to keep an eye on her.
Whether he is alive or dead.
Theme: You are the tide that drowns me.
