IBGSW Chapter 11
Planning a Funeral
"Brother, do you think Zhao Fusheng is playing dumb? Or has she really lost her mind?"
Inside the Demon-Suppression Bureau of Wan'an County, Fan Wujiu could not, for the life of him, work out why Zhao Fusheng had suddenly come out with such raving nonsense.
"She only got lucky and ended up controlling a ghost. Before that she didn't even know what a ghost was. How does she suddenly decide she wants to drive out ghosts and handle ghost cases?" Fan Wujiu truly could not make sense of it.
When Zhao Fusheng had finished her grand speech, she'd said that having barely escaped her death calamity, she ought to wash up and change, and see to her parents' funeral first. So she had put the jade book back into the ghost-life box and told the Fan brothers to put everything away.
Then, while Fan Bisi's face was still livid, she slipped back into the main hall where the bodies lay. She planned to pay her respects to her "parents" before changing into mourning attire, leaving the Fan brothers frozen in the courtyard, utterly bewildered.
"Is she really not afraid of death? Or does she know she's doomed and want to drag us down with her?"
Still holding the ghost-life box, Fan Wujiu watched his brother’s face turn as black as ink. Unable to bear the heavy silence any longer, he finally spoke up.
"Brother..."
"Enough. Stop talking."
In a foul mood, Fan Bisi cut his brother off before he could finish.
"Never mind what she's thinking. One thing I'm sure of: she has no intention of striking our names from the register and letting us leave Wan'an County."
"Then what do we do?" Fan Wujiu grew anxious. "The ghost fog over Wan'an County gets thicker every day. Once it completely seals off the county, we'll never get out. We'll be trapped here, waiting to die—"
"There's nothing to be done." Fan Bisi gradually steadied his voice as he spoke. At this point, whether Zhao Fusheng was harboring vengeance or hidden motives, she clearly had no desire for an amicable parting.
His nerves were steel. To go from high hopes to outright rejection, and still manage to swallow his fury, took serious self-control.
"She doesn't even know where ghosts come from. She probably thinks that because she controls one, she's something special. She's completely forgotten herself, actually aiming to assume the commanding officer's duties and handle cases—"
In the end, Fan Bisi was still young. He couldn't keep his temper in check for long, letting out a cold, contemptuous scoff.
"She doesn't know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth1."
"Dealing with ghosts is deadly. Judging by the look of her, if she really tries to manage ghosts, she won't last a month."
Having said that, he calmed down again.
"So what do we do now?" Fan Wujiu always did as his brother said. Seeing him composed again, he looked at the big wooden chest in front of them and asked.
"Wait. Don't act rashly." A chilling glint flickered in Fan Bisi's eyes.
"When she inevitably loses control of the ghost, we pivot back to our original plan: locate another host with immense fortune to draw the creature away. Once the immediate danger is resolved, we'll find a scapegoat to strike our life souls from the register for us."
He always had a plan and acted methodically. Hearing this, Fan Wujiu finally relaxed considerably and nodded. "Right."
"Put these things away." Fan Bisi swallowed his anger and instructed his brother.
"Right." Fan Wujiu was about to start tidying when Fan Bisi changed his mind.
"Leave out some of the bureau's old case records and materials on ghost entities. If Fusheng wants to handle cases, she'd better learn about these things properly."
...
The two brothers had decided to make Zhao Fusheng back down.
Zhao Fusheng hadn't overheard their scheming, but she could easily guess Fan Bisi's intentions. Still, she had no time to dwell on it.
A massive tear ripped across her clothes where the ghost's palm had pierced the original Zhao Fusheng's chest. Soaked through with blood, the garment was completely ruined and was obviously unwearable.
Following the original Zhao Fusheng's memories, she went back to the rear side-wing room where she'd been lodged temporarily and found a bundle belonging to the original host.
Inside were two sets of brand-new clothes. The Fan brothers had prepared them as a "gift" at the start, to make their story convincing. The original Zhao Fusheng had never been able to bring herself to wear them. Later she died at a malignant ghost's hands and never wore them at all.
After a quick wash, she returned to the hall.
The Fan brothers were gone from the county bureau's courtyard. The main gate stood wide open, where the two human-skin lanterns smashed the night before still hung. A gust of cold wind swept into the hall and caught the two "奠" characters pasted to the door panels, making them whistle and rustle like low, weeping sobs.
Since the haunting began, scarcely a living soul could be seen within several li of the bureau; no fool was reckless enough to wander into this cursed yamen. That suited her fine. The silence gave her room to think without interruption.
Her parents' bodies lay in the main hall. She fetched a kneeling mat and dropped to her knees before them.
"Though Zhao Fusheng and I come from different times and places, we share a name. That's fate, I suppose."
She still didn't understand why she'd been able to be reborn in Zhao Fusheng's body. But having been given a new life, she meant to hold on to it.
"I came too late to save you. But since I've taken Zhao Fusheng's body, I'll do her duty and bury you both. And if I ever get the chance, I'll find a way to kill the Fan brothers and avenge the three of you." She thought this to herself, then solemnly kowtowed three times.
With her respects paid, she sat back on the kneeling cushion, silently taking stock of her plight and the information she had gathered since returning to life.
What she knew so far was this: She was in a dynasty called the Great Han, where ghost calamities raged and ghost incidents broke out everywhere, to be suppressed by the Demon-Suppression Bureau.
Her bureau belonged to Wan'an County. But Wan'an was currently being swallowed by a ghostly fog, and the imperial court seemed all too ready to abandon it.
She weighed her situation in her mind, balancing the good against the bad. The good news: after dying unexpectedly in a rented room, she had been lucky enough to borrow a corpse to bring back her soul. The bad news: someone resurrected this way was merely a ghost servant, her life soul bound to one ghost, while entangled with another malignant ghost to boot.
That ghost was already at Baleful-tier.
She didn't know how ghosts were actually ranked, and Fan Bisi had flatly denied it when she'd asked. But the Investiture of the Gods had given a rating, and after turning it over she decided to trust it for now.
A Baleful-tier malignant ghost, the same tier as the one controlled by Jia Yi of the court's bureau...
She sighed long and hard.
However she looked at it, this was a death trap. By Fan Bisi's account, the original Zhao Fusheng's fate was her own future, only a matter of timing.
But heaven never closes every door. With her rebirth, she had somehow stumbled into possession of the Hell's Investiture of the Gods. According to it, as long as she completed its tasks, she had a thread of hope.
The Investiture required her to carry out the duties of chief commanding officer of the bureau: drive off malignant ghosts, protect the common people, and earn merit as her reward.
Once her merit was full, she could open a divine position and send the ghost on her body into the cycle of reincarnation. As for the restriction of the Soul-Life Register, that would have to be dealt with later.
She didn't know where the Investiture came from. But if Fan Bisi's words were true, it was her only road to survival, and she had to try it no matter what.
With her mind made up, she turned her attention to assessing her current resources.
The original Zhao Fusheng had been a poor country girl with nothing.
Now she'd lost both parents and was alone.
She had the title of commanding officer, but the Wan'an bureau was a hollow shell: nearly everyone in it was dead, with no one left except the Fan brothers. Aside from their feud with her and their desperation to escape, she knew almost nothing about them. They certainly weren't about to obey any of her commands.
Fortunately, Fan Bisi, in his eagerness to win her help, had let slip one key fact: she held authority over the Soul-Life Register, so the Fan brothers were bound by her for now and could not leave.
Beyond that, she has a ghost. Using its power might hasten her death, but at this point she had no choice. If it came to it, to stay alive a little longer she would probably use it. That was assuming she found a way to use it at all.
The Fan brothers had said that the ghost language on the soul-life register could also resist the ghost's power in her. She'd have to keep it on her person.
...
She was a person who thought first and drew up a plan before acting. By the time she had listed each step and its details, a long while had passed, and the Fan brothers returned from outside.
The moment they came in and saw her kneeling in the hall, neither looked pleased.
"You're back just in time."
Zhao Fusheng stood quickly at the sight of them.
"My parents are dead, and the bodies can't sit in the bureau forever. Go and find Old Zhang of the coffin shop and have him bring two coffins, so my parents can be laid to rest."
This was her first time in a world of malignant ghosts, and she knew nothing of where they came from. Influenced by old tales, she feared that since her family had met violent deaths in a ghost calamity, her parents might not rest easy and could bring new disaster. To avoid trouble, it was best to bury them quickly.
"Coffins?" Fan Wujiu turned to look at his brother. Fan Bisi shook his head.
"No money."
"What?"
Zhao Fusheng could hardly believe her ears. She hadn't expected that answer from Fan Bisi.
"How can the bureau have no money?" She stared at the two brothers with suspicion.
By Fan Bisi's own account, the bureau had been a power with sway over the whole region before its decline. How could it have no money?
"It's true."
Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Fan Bisi said gravely, "The bureau had three sources of income. One was the court's salary. The second was taxes and tribute from tenant farmers. The third was protection fees from wealthy households and officials. But Wan'an County hasn't been peaceful these past two years. Anyone who could leave found a way out long ago. Those who remain have nowhere to go."
Once the ghost fog rose, the court gave up on Wan'an County, and the county was now left to fend for itself.
"You saw what happened when the malignant ghost got loose. The people who used to collect taxes ran off long ago." His tone shifted.
"If you ask me, this bureau is an empty shell. We might as well disband. Fusheng, do us a favor and let my brother and me go. In return, we'll see to your parents' funeral, even if it costs us our reputation—"
Zhao Fusheng laughed out loud at that.
She'd caught the drift of it now.
The bureau might truly have no money on paper, but she'd bet her life the Fan brothers had private holdings. They simply weren't producing them, plainly to make things hard for her and force her to back down.
Too bad. Now that a malignant ghost was wrapped around her, her only chance of survival was to send it away through the Investiture, and the precondition for that was to stay at the bureau and gather merit. Until she was sure the Investiture wasn't deceiving her, she wouldn't leave under any circumstances.
Although she knew Fan Bisi was making things difficult, she didn't fall out with him openly right away.
She had only just arrived and hadn't yet worked out the two men's true nature. She "controlled" a malignant ghost, but she had no idea how to use its power, and what mattered most was that unlocking that power might also mean her death was near. So unless she had no other choice, she did not intend to use it to force the two into line.
Fan Bisi seemed to have latched onto her weakness, carefully weighing every word.
Zhao Fusheng took a deep breath.
"I told you, I've decided to stay at the bureau. I can't leave for now."
Her words made the brothers' faces darken.
Fan Bisi grinned. "Then I'm sorry, Fusheng. There really is no money for a funeral."
The Zhao family of three had all died because of these two men, and Fan Bisi's expression kindled a fire in Zhao Fusheng's chest.
"Has the bureau really run out of savings?" she asked.
"You may not know us well," Fan Bisi said coldly. "We live one day at a time. Even if we went to Baozhi County, we might not last more than a year or so once we got there."
The people in the bureau earned fast and spent faster.
"Nobody can say whether they'll survive tomorrow once they've survived today. Who saves money for other people?" Fan Bisi's expression seemed to mock her naïveté.
