Chapter 390

Chapter 390

◎Sister◎

The good news was that, aside from the Li family, no one else was harmed in this incident. Not even many talismans were used. The two surveillance team members dealt with by Li Heng were merely knocked out and suffered no serious consequences after waking up.

The bad news was that four out of the five members of the Li family had perished. Only Li Qing, their youngest daughter, remained—she was still on a flight returning home. When she boarded the plane, only her younger brother had died; by the time she landed, she would have to handle funeral arrangements for her entire family.

Why hadn’t the vengeful spirit killed Li Qing? What grudge did the ghost hold against the Li family? Who was she? These questions still needed answers. Although the ghost had already gone, without clarity on these points, they couldn’t even begin drafting a final case report.

Following the address provided by Ji Nanxing, Bureau personnel dug beneath the pear tree and discovered a skeleton several meters underground.

The body had not fully decomposed into bones—some soft tissue remained. Based on the level of decay, it had been dead at least four or five years.

After reviewing Li Heng’s social ties and considering the name "Xiao Fan" he had shouted during the confrontation, investigators confirmed the remains belonged to an adult woman named Yan Yifan, who had once been in a romantic relationship with Li Heng. Beside Yan Yifan’s skeleton was another small set of remains, with the umbilical cord still attached.

Soon after, forensic testing on the bone fragment inside the jade pendant Ji Nanxing submitted to the Bureau confirmed it belonged to Yan Yifan’s child—and further analysis showed the child was also Li Heng’s.

But what ultimately allowed them to close the case was the discovery of the tightly wrapped layers of yellow silk talismans encasing Yan Yifan’s remains—the Hejin Curse, a form of ghost marriage ritual. Unlike ordinary ghost marriages, the Hejin Curse elevated the man as the dominant party, invoking heaven and earth to unite two families in the afterlife.

However, the ritual treated the woman as subordinate to the man. Though technically a ghost marriage, the deceased woman was expected to submit completely to her “husband,” bound by curse magic and effectively reduced to a slave under the guise of matrimony.

This curse originated as punishment for so-called “unfaithful” women. There was an old saying: *Once you enter this door, in life you are part of this family, in death you are this family’s ghost.* This kind of Hejin Curse was used to bind souls, ensuring they remained suppressed even after death, never to find peace.

Yet such rituals and curses had long since faded from practice with the modernization of society. Divorce had become common—gone were the days when a woman was expected to obey her husband unconditionally. No one could understand how Li Heng had even learned of this ancient rite, let alone why he had chosen to perform a ghost marriage.

After reading about the Hejin Curse, Xiao Ye couldn’t help but ask, “Are there really so many benefits to ghost marriages? I’ve heard people profit from them. In pre-modern times, wouldn’t they have been widespread?”

Ji Nanxing replied, “Absolutely not. Ghost marriages are never a good thing. They occur in only two situations. First, both parties are deceased, and their living relatives arrange the marriage so they won’t be lonely in the afterlife. It’s symbolic—a comfort for the living. People used to fear becoming unworshipped ghosts. Without a husband, a woman couldn’t be buried in her family’s ancestral grave, meaning no one would offer sacrifices. A ghost marriage ensured she had a resting place and offerings, so she wouldn’t become a wandering spirit.”

“The second situation is when someone tries to harness a ghost’s power to change their own fate—like those with weak life force or destined for early death. They’d consult a master to find a compatible ghost spouse and ‘borrow’ their fortune. It’s a transaction: *You share your life force with me, and I’ll honor you as my spouse forever.* But if it backfires, it can cost your life.”

Xiao Ye asked, “Then what about Li Heng’s case?”

Ji Nanxing said, “Li Heng wanted Yan Yifan’s fortune but refused to honor her. He wanted to exploit her. As long as the curse remained intact, Yan Yifan couldn’t harm him. But when you broke the warding charm on Li Rong, she found her first target, gained strength, and then took them one by one. Once she grew strong enough, Li Heng’s control over her became useless.”

Xiao Ye frowned. “So the whole Li family were terrible people. Then why didn’t she kill Li Qing?”

It couldn’t just be because she ran out of time—vengeful spirits didn’t simply abandon their grudges.

Ji Nanxing shrugged. “We’ll have to ask Li Qing when she returns.”

By the time the four Li family members lay neatly in the morgue, Li Qing had landed. As she rushed home in panic, He Long detained her at the airport and brought her directly to the Bureau.

Even sitting in the meeting room, she couldn’t process what had happened—her parents and brothers were all dead. When she boarded the plane, only her younger brother had died. How could her parents and eldest brother be gone too?

He Long placed a cup of water in front of her. “The one who killed your family was Yan Yifan. You knew her—she dated your brother. We’ve uncovered what your family did. Yan Yifan waited years for revenge. Don’t claim ignorance—the last person who said that ended up in the morgue.”

To his surprise, Li Qing stared at the cup for a moment before speaking softly. “I know. I… always knew.”

He Long opened his notebook. “Start from the beginning. Tell us everything.”

Li Qing tucked her hair behind her ear and began slowly. “The first time I met Yifan-jie was when my eldest brother brought her home as his girlfriend. She was beautiful, gentle, and had the sweetest smile—her eyes crinkled like crescent moons. I liked her immediately, but my family wasn’t pleased. She came from an ordinary background and couldn’t bring any benefit to our family.”

At that time, our business was already declining—several malls were losing money, and Dad was even considering selling them. With the eldest son set to inherit the company, bringing home a girlfriend with no advantages naturally displeased the family. Still, they didn’t object too strongly, only told him to think carefully.

Li Qing continued, “My brother was determined to stay with Yifan-jie. Eventually, they moved in together. I was still in school then. With the business struggling, my parents were busy, and my second brother was studying hard to get into a good university so he could later help run the company. No one expected much from me, so I had no pressure to excel academically. I often visited Yifan-jie at their place.”

Yan Yifan was still a student at the time, majoring in design. Through Li Heng’s connections, she took on side projects and gradually built her reputation, so she often drafted designs at home.

At that time, she was still in high school and disliked the gloomy atmosphere at home, so she would often visit her eldest brother's place. Since her brother was busy with company matters and often away, she would sit beside Yan Yifan as she sketched, drawing together. They would watch movies, share meals, and sometimes, when her brother didn’t return, she would stay overnight with Yan Yifan.

They used the same shower gel, carrying the same fragrance as they lay in bed chatting after baths. In the mornings, they would make breakfast for each other. She would cling to Yan Yifan, still in pajamas, being clingy and playful, watching as Yan Yifan turned to smile at her with indulgent affection.

Every morning they woke up together, she felt time passed too quickly. She loved those days when it was just the two of them.

Li Qing: "I really liked Yifan-jie. Being with her was so comfortable. But back then, I didn’t understand my feelings. I just thought it was wonderful that Yifan-jie could become my sister-in-law—a sister-in-law I adored who adored me back. I imagined that after she married my brother, there would be fewer family conflicts. Until later, when Yifan-jie got pregnant."

She would never forget that rainy day. She had rushed to buy the last slice of blueberry cake, her schoolbag soaked from the rain. Pushing the door open with the cake in hand, she saw her rarely-home eldest brother embracing Yan Yifan, smiling as he said, "Qingqing’s here! Come, you’re about to have a little nephew."

In that instant, Li Qing’s mind went blank. It was as if she had only just realized then that Yan Yifan was her brother’s girlfriend—that they would not only marry but also have a child. From then on, all of Yan Yifan’s attention would be on her brother and their child. They would be a family, and she would be irrelevant.

This belated awakening stabbed her heart like a knife. She couldn’t accept it, but Yan Yifan would often caress her belly with tender affection, eagerly anticipating the little life inside.

Facing college entrance exams at the time, Li Qing was too distracted to focus. Her results were terrible, and in the end, she simply went abroad.

Li Qing: "After going abroad, I deliberately avoided news from home. I even thought of finding an excuse not to return if they got married. I didn’t want to see her in a wedding dress, heavily pregnant, marrying someone else—even if that someone was my brother."

He Long’s expression had gone wooden, as if he’d stumbled into some bizarre alternate storyline—a younger sister in love with her brother’s fiancée, only for the entire family to murder the girl. What kind of horror plot was this?

Li Qing: "But I never got news of their wedding. Instead, I heard that Yifan-jie had gone missing. Just like in *The Disappeared Her*, they had just returned to their hometown once, and then Yifan-jie vanished."

A grown woman, vanishing without a trace—and seven months pregnant at that. She couldn’t understand why someone so heavily pregnant would even travel back to their hometown, only for this to happen.

Her brother claimed it was a family tradition—that before the child was born, they had to return to their ancestral home to pay respects, ensuring the safety of mother and child. But in the end, both were lost.

Li Qing: "I couldn’t accept it. The hometown was such a small place, and Yifan-jie wasn’t the type to act recklessly. How could she just disappear? I searched for so long—hiring people, combing the mountains—but found no trace of her. My brother was devastated too, spiraled into despair. He even consulted spiritual mediums, but all of them said Yifan-jie had met with misfortune. And then, he entered a spirit marriage with her."

He Long: "Earlier, you said you always knew. Did you know Yan Yifan was killed by your brother?"

Li Qing nodded: "At first, I didn’t. After Yifan-jie disappeared, I often dreamed of her covered in blood, telling me she was in pain. I was frantic, not knowing how to help her. Every time I grew desperate, I’d wake up. Later, my mother, seeing how unsettled I was—and how my brother was—got protective charms for the whole family, telling us to wear them at all times."

As she spoke, Li Qing took out her copper coin tied with a red string and placed it on the table: "I stayed in the country for over a year, staying close to where Yifan-jie vanished. I even searched nearby deserted villages, wondering if she’d been kidnapped. But I found nothing. My mother couldn’t bear seeing me like this and forced me to go abroad again."

Staring at the copper coin, Li Qing exhaled: "Last year, at a networking event, I met a senior who asked me about the coin. She said it carried a bloody aura—that it didn’t protect but instead suppressed something. This senior had psychic abilities. When I gave her the coin, she sensed it and described a pregnant woman covered in blood, weeping."

That moment chilled Li Qing to the bone. She had never spoken of her family’s affairs to anyone. The senior couldn’t have known—unless she truly had sensed it spiritually.

It was then that Li Qing began noticing oddities. Her family’s business had flourished only after Yifan-jie’s disappearance. Her brother, once despondent, became radiantly confident after the spirit marriage. Her second brother, always exemplary in character and studies, grew increasingly unrestrained.

The entire family seemed off—as if driven by an eerie confidence that everything would go their way. Every deal they pursued succeeded; every competitor faced disaster. Their luck was unnatural.

Later, she returned once more, observing her family closely. The more she watched, the more horrified she grew. They seemed like different people. When she tentatively asked her mother about the coin’s origin, her mother’s face fell, telling her not to pry and to just wear it.

And her brother’s jade pendant—he treasured it like a sacred object. When she merely asked about it, his expression turned vicious—unrecognizable.

Realizing something was deeply wrong, she went back abroad to find that senior: "I told her about my family. She hadn’t met them, so she couldn’t judge directly, but she said it was clear they had done something to the pregnant woman she sensed. The items my family wore were meant to suppress her. Unless I found Yifan-jie’s body, that suppression couldn’t be broken."

She was at a loss. She had never faced anything like this—torn between her family and the woman she’d once...

But no matter how painful the choice, she wanted the truth.

"I researched extensively on this, and through my senior’s connections, I learned about spirit marriages. I knew my brother had married Yifan-jie in a spirit marriage, but back then, I thought it was out of love. Now I know it was never that. He had a dark purpose from the start."

She dug through endless archives, and discovered that Yan Yifan’s life had been charmed. Yan Yifan herself had once mentioned how blessed she’d been since birth—how fortune favored her at every turn, as if she’d been destined for luck.

On the day she was born, her father suddenly got promoted. The job was supposed to go to someone else, but that person quit, so it fell to her father.

They didn’t have a local household registration. Back then, even attending kindergarten required paying extra fees for non-local students. But by the time she reached kindergarten age, the policy had been abolished. She attended an ordinary elementary school, but after just one year, the school shut down. She was reassigned to the city’s top school—one that was notoriously hard to get into, even through connections.

This kind of luck followed Yan Yifan all her life—until she met Li Heng.

Li Qing: "My brother had his eyes on Yifan from the start. After learning about her fortunate destiny, many pursued her. After all, Yifan was beautiful, and her family was well-off by ordinary standards—an only child with multiple properties and no burdens. But my brother stood out among her suitors because he knew how to act."

Li Qing looked at He Long: "My brother is ambitious but petty, holding grudges and somewhat arrogant. He never lowers himself for anyone and is old-school macho. Yet with Yifan, he was always gentle, doting, and attentive. No matter how busy he was, he’d make time to message her, asking if she’d finished class, if she was cold or hungry. If he couldn’t go himself, he’d send his assistant to wait in line for hours just to buy her favorite candied chestnuts. He even charmed all her friends—none of Yifan’s girlfriends had a bad word to say about him. I thought it was the power of love. Now I realize it was all calculated. There’s no such thing as a perfectly matched pair. All perfection is just a facade."

He Long: "What happened next? What did your family do?"

Li Qing pulled out a stack of documents: "These are the records I found. This 'Golden Dragon King' was the 'master' my brother consulted. He was the one who gave my brother the idea. The day Yifan disappeared, my whole family worked together. The Golden Dragon King used a ghostly illusion to silently bury Yifan alive in the dirt. She was seven, almost eight months pregnant. A pregnant woman suffocated to death—you can imagine how horrific it was. Later, they used curses to suppress her. I found out it was a Five Phases Curse."

She had a pretty good idea of where Yifan was buried, but she didn’t dare act recklessly—she lacked the ability to break the curse.

Li Qing: "According to my research, the victim of such a curse has nails driven into their five organs. The coins our family members each carry were soaked in the blood of those organs. To break the curse and let the dead rest in peace, the nails must be removed. But to remove them, the spell on the coins must be undone. Mine was already broken with the help of my senior. I was planning to return and try to steal the ones my family wore to break them when I got the news of my younger brother’s death."

All these years, she had been trying to resolve this, but she never dreamed Yifan’s spirit was still around. She only wanted to dismantle the things suppressing Yifan’s body so she could reincarnate sooner. She never expected Yifan was still in the mortal world, waiting for a chance to take revenge.

He Long closed his notebook: "When you discovered this, you could have gone to the police."

Li Qing gave a wry smile, tears falling as she said, "What evidence? I wasn’t sure the police would even believe something so bizarre. And… they’re my family. Not everyone can bring themselves to turn on family."

Her family had done something truly monstrous, but their love for her over the years had been real. Asking her to stand against them was something she couldn’t bring herself to do. Maybe this was human selfishness. Even if she had once loved Yifan, in the end, she was just like her family—choosing herself.

…

Four years ago, on a night when the moon was blurred by ragged clouds, Yan Yifan lay there awake on the stiff bed of the old family house, unable to sleep. In the eerie silence of the mountain village, she faintly heard someone calling her name. She reached out to wake Li Heng beside her—but her hand met empty space.

Her heart pounded. She hadn’t slept a wink—the bed was too stiff, the old house reeked of mildew—yet she had no idea when Li Heng had left.

She got up to flick on the lights and look for him, but a sudden ringing filled her ears. Her body locked in place, a crushing pressure suffocating her.

Her vision blurred, and the scene shifted. She saw the whole Li family gathered around a dirt mound—and herself lying in a deep pit, wracked with pain but unable to move. She could feel the wet heat and iron tang of blood beneath her.

The last thing Yan Yifan saw was Li Heng—the man who’d sworn to love her forever—shoveling dirt over her body.