She Is Dead

The most terrifying phone call I have ever received in my entire life was the one I just hung up.

Just a few minutes ago, Han Ying and I were performing a ritual together. Yet, her parents just called to tell me she was dead.

How was this even possible?

Did she really die in the few short minutes she was away from my sight?

That made absolutely no sense.

I told Yanxi to stay and watch the shop while waiting for the police to handle Mr. Hu’s situation. Then, I jumped into my car alone and rushed straight to the police station.

When I arrived, an officer led me and Han Ying’s parents to identify the body.

Inside the morgue, we were quickly brought to the corpse. The moment we saw the face, Han Ying’s mother fainted on the spot, and her father burst into tears.

Because that body… really was Han Ying.

I froze in place as if struck by lightning, the hairs on my arms standing completely on end.

Just half an hour ago, Han Ying and I were standing side by side doing a ritual.

And now, she was… already dead?

Furthermore, according to the police, Han Ying had passed away five days ago. The body was already showing signs of decomposition, and a faint, foul odor filled the room.

What on earth was going on?

Was I dreaming?

Or… had a ghost been performing the funeral ritual with us from the very beginning?

After leaving the morgue, the officer in charge of Han Ying’s case invited us into a meeting room to talk.

Han Ying’s parents were too deeply shaken to speak. Given their old age, the officer decided to interview me alone first.

I intended to tell him everything, including the fact that Han Ying had been with us tonight. Whether the police believed it or not, I had to say it.

But before I could even speak, the officer asked a question about my identity that made me incredibly uncomfortable.

He asked, “A year ago, Han Ying filed a report accusing you of sexual harassment. The police opened a case, but she withdrew it herself two weeks later. Can you explain what happened back then?”

I explained that it was all a misunderstanding. “Han Ying was suffering from mental health issues at the time. Once she recovered, she withdrew the report.”

The officer didn’t let it go, looking at me with deep suspicion. “If she had mental health issues, why would she specifically report you for harassment? Besides, harassment is a public prosecution matter and usually can’t just be dropped. Did she provide a psychiatric evaluation report back then?”

This continuous questioning began to anger me, because I was completely innocent in that matter.

It all started a year ago when Han Ying and I did a ritual for a female murder victim who harbored an immense amount of resentment. Han Ying ended up possessed by that spirit, which completely broke her mental state. She caused chaos for a whole month, turning her household upside down, and eventually filed that false report against me.

Who wouldn’t feel wronged in a situation like that?

In the end, I couldn’t handle it alone, so I went to a local temple and invited a real Taoist priest down the mountain to resolve the issue. Only then did Han Ying return to her senses, withdraw the report, and apologize to me.

We were business partners and friends, so I didn’t hold a grudge. But now that she was dead, the police were using this past incident to suspect me.

I couldn’t exactly tell a police officer that she had been possessed by a vengeful spirit, could I?

The officer kept pushing until I finally lost my patience. “If I had actually done something terrible to Han Ying, we wouldn’t have continued to work together so smoothly. Her parents wouldn’t have called me the absolute first thing after learning she was dead.”

“I can give you the literal truth: both of us work in the funeral industry. She caught something sinister back then and was possessed by a ghost, which is why she framed me. Do you believe that?”

Naturally, the officer didn’t buy it. He looked at me with displeasure. “I need you to calm down. This is a criminal homicide. Han Ying was murdered; she was severely beaten before her throat was slit. We have to do routine questioning. What is the point of giving me answers about ghosts and spirits?”

I felt like a mute person chewing on bitter medicine—I had all the truth in the world but no way to voice it.

“Fine, Officer. Then let me report another situation to you, something that happened just tonight.”

I proceeded to recount everything that happened this evening—how Han Ying came to the funeral hall, how she conducted the ritual with us, and every bizarre detail that followed.

By the time I finished, the officer’s eyes were wide. “Are you joking with me?”

I took a deep breath, still trying to process the news of Han Ying’s death. “Officer, my colleague can back me up, and there were plenty of people at the funeral hall who can testify. I am not lying to you. If you don’t believe me, you can come back to the company right now and check.”

This officer’s name was Officer Huang. He looked quite young and was clearly a strict materialist. He refused to believe a single word I said and insisted on returning to my company immediately to check the surveillance footage.

I had to cooperate with the investigation, so I led him back to the shop. As for Han Ying’s parents, the police would arrange for other relatives to pick them up.

When we returned to the company, other police officers were already there handling Mr. Hu’s case and taking statements from the witnesses.

Yanxi and I brought Officer Huang up to my office and pulled up the surveillance footage of the funeral hall.

However, while the footage didn’t disappoint Officer Huang, it completely disappointed me. Han Ying was nowhere to be seen on the screen. Throughout the entire ritual, only Yanxi and I were visible.

After watching the tape, cold sweat broke out all over me and Yanxi again.

“Care to explain this?” Officer Huang stared at me, his eyes filled with doubt and annoyance.

Yanxi quickly jumped in to defend me. “Officer, our boss Han really was here tonight… She, she even helped us run the funeral! It’s true, I swear on my life!”

Officer Huang ignored her and kept his eyes on me. “Explain the camera footage.”

I was at a complete loss for words. In my past experiences, I had encountered spiritual entities, but those situations never happened around cameras, and I never had the time or desire to pull out a phone and take videos. I honestly didn’t know if a lens could capture those kinds of things.

I couldn’t draw a definitive conclusion about something I hadn’t verified with my own eyes.

“Officer Huang, my colleague and I truly saw Han Ying. As for why she doesn’t appear on the camera, I honestly don’t know.”

He looked at us very sternly. “I must remind you that this is a murder investigation. Lying and giving false testimony carry severe legal consequences.”

We nodded quickly. “We aren’t lying. Not a single word is a lie.”

After a long silence, he asked, “So, if I go downstairs and question the people who were in the funeral hall, they will also testify that Han Ying was there last night?”

I shook my head. “I can’t guarantee that.”

Based on my experience, not everyone can see spirits. This was especially true for the ghosts of loved ones; some family members could see them, while others remained completely blind to them.

Officer Huang stopped questioning me and went straight downstairs to interview the people in the hall. To prove that I was lying, he questioned every single person one by one.

The result was exactly as I expected. Out of everyone present, not a single soul had seen Han Ying. Only Yanxi and I had seen her.

Now, I was completely unable to clear my name. In the end, I provided a detailed account of exactly what I was doing on the day Han Ying died. I had a clear alibi and told him he could investigate it himself.

When he finally left, he told me to keep my phone on and be ready for further questioning at any time.

Watching the officer’s retreating back, Yanxi asked me in terror, “Brother Zhuang… is Sister Han really dead?”

I nodded and told her that I had seen the body with my own eyes.

Yanxi trembled. “How could this happen… A perfectly fine person, just gone like that. And that officer seems to suspect you. Does he think Sister Han’s death has something to do with you?”

I sighed. “The officer is just doing his job by suspecting me. But I have a clear conscience, so I’m not afraid of the…”

I cut myself off halfway, not daring to utter the word ‘ghost’ while standing inside a funeral hall.

“Anyway, since I didn’t do it, I’m not afraid of his suspicion. I believe the police will find the truth and clear an innocent man.”

By the time I finally returned home, it was already two o’clock in the morning.

I was exhausted beyond words, but as I lay in bed, I kept tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Han Ying was my business partner, and we had worked together for a long time. Who could have imagined she would die so suddenly, and then return as a spirit to terrify me at the shop?

Only now did I begin to notice several details I had overlooked earlier.

Yesterday afternoon around five o’clock, the woman who came back to life had originally been pronounced dead at the hospital. Because the company was short-handed, Yanxi and I rushed to wash her body and put on the burial clothes before hurrying to prepare the other materials.

Afraid we wouldn’t finish in time, I had asked Han Ying to go ahead and perform the house-cleansing ritual to invite the gods.

Thinking back on it now, she definitely skipped the cleansing ritual. A house-cleansing is meant to drive away evil spirits and negative energy.

Furthermore, when I was setting up for the ritual, I noticed that many items on the altar weren’t placed correctly—like the peach-wood sword and the Taoist talismans.

Now I understood. It wasn’t that Han Ying didn’t want to set them up; she simply didn’t dare to touch those spiritual objects.

Even the candles blowing out and the portrait tipping over in the funeral hall were entirely caused by Han Ying.

I wondered: why did she do those things? Was she trying to warn us that Mr. Hu’s wife wasn’t actually dead?

But she had also said something very strange at the altar. She said she felt the woman was truly pitiful.

If she already knew the woman was alive, why would she call her pitiful? Surviving should have been a joyful thing.

Therefore, I figured that by ‘pitiful,’ she meant the woman had ended up in that state because her own husband tried to murder her.

But that raised another contradiction. Han Ying was already a ghost, so she could easily sense that the woman was alive. But how did she know the woman was harmed by her husband?

I recognized the puzzle, but I couldn’t piece the answers together. Haunted by these questions and the reality of Han Ying’s death, it took a very long time before I finally drifted off to sleep.