The Ghost Bride

In the late Qing and early Republican era, Wangchuan Ancient Town lay nestled among the hills and waters of misty Jiangnan. But an eerie formation buried deep by its ancestors had left the town steeped in yin energy year-round, and strange tales of ghost weddings had circulated there for a century. The town clung to its old folk customs concerning the dead: any woman who died unmarried or met a wrongful, violent end had to be given a ghost marriage to suppress her resentment. Otherwise, she would become a vengeful spirit, lingering among the living and wreaking havoc on her neighbors, leaving the whole town in terror. Shen Qingci, a gentle and unworldly scholar fallen on hard times, left the bustling city where he had been studying and returned alone to settle in the ancient town, so he could care for his ailing grandmother. He had hoped to shut himself away with his books and live in peace, but stumbled unwittingly into a fated bond between yin and yang, sealed away for a hundred years and thought impossible to break. The ancient town's once-in-a-century night of the yin-month new moon crept near. That night, yin energy would be at its height, with no light from stars or moon. Shen Qingci sat alone in his courtyard, reading in the cool night air, when he saw a striking red bridal gown standing on the stone bridge at the town entrance. The woman had a graceful figure and peerless beauty, her delicate features veiled by an unrelenting sorrow. A chill clung to her, and she had none of the warmth of the living. She called herself Su Wanqing, an innocent woman persecuted in the ancient town a hundred years ago. Her clan had forced her to take another woman's place in a betrothal, compelling her to marry a wealthy young man who was near death. On her wedding night, she was murdered, her wrongs left with no one to hear them. Her soul was trapped by the town's yin formation, unable to reincarnate or pass on for a hundred years. For all that time, she had been unable to let go of her obsession. Clinging to the broken marriage pact, she wandered the lonely streets of the town, searching desperately for the one destined to break her fate.