Even though, she was reluctant at first to follow her advice, but “It is better than no direction.” So YuQiao heeded the old woman’s instruction and was able to get out of the forest, but instead of escaping she walked into another forest. It was a bamboo forest. “Darn, another forest. I got tricked by that old woman,” said YuQiao.

Picking up her spirit, she began walking again and only stopped for a while to rest. Evening came painting the forest with a glow of red and orange. While sitting on the earthy ground, she heard a music coming from her right.

Out of curiosity, she followed the sound and there in the middle of a miniature glade around the bamboos, there was a girl who was playing a zither (古琴) as she sat on top of a flat stone. Her slender fingers were strumming the strings on the zither; the notes she made were powerful and strong, but her hands made them look effortless. Listening to the music, YuQiao began to forget about everything, the bamboo forest, her circumstances, and her revenge there was only her and the zither player and the gentle music flowing around them.

But then just as the music was getting better, the player stopped. For a moment, their eyes met when the player looked ahead, but YuQiao was not sure because maybe she was staring at something else instead of her, because she is a ghost. A normal would not be able to see ghosts, even when she was alive, she was not to see ghosts, and any living person would not be able to see ghosts as well, only those who practice the arts could see them anyway.

She walked closer to the girl, to inspect the girl. She waved her transparent hands in front of her face, but the player did not respond to her at all. The player only sighed deeply, and she wrapped her zither in a piece of cloth and carried it on her back and went away. YuQiao was fascinated and attracted by her music, so she decided to follow her.

The girl walked slowly. “Even slower than a normal girl,” thought YuQiao as she slowed down to pace herself with the girl.

The girl walked out of the bamboo forest and then using her free hand, she opened her umbrella and carrying her zither in the other, she strolled along a lake until she reached the back door of a house located right beside the lake.

She called out, “Madam Wong. Madam Wong.”

And the door quickly opened and a woman who was in her thirties came running out of the house. Although the lady had insisted to carry it by herself the woman won the argument and she helped her carried it into the house. YuQiao, who was following closely, heard snippets of their conversation as they walked to the lady’s room.

“Mistress Zhen, you must take care of your body. Your grandmother often sends you letter of how worried she is for you.”

“I am fine,” the lady replied softly. “I will write a reply to her later. I miss her too.”

“I am not pushing you to write a letter.”

“I know what you mean,” said the girl, smiling weakly.

The conversations were mostly from the old maid as she asked a lot of questions and given a lot of advice to the girl whereas she only replied sometimes with a simple nod or yes or no answers. The girl looked dazed. Suddenly, she was short of breath and Madam Wong had to support her to sit next on the wood railings.

“You look very pale.”

The girl did not reply the woman. “I will call for help,” said Madam Wong.

“No,” cried the girl. “I will be fine, just help back to my room. I am just tired.”

Seeing how she was so insisted, Madam Wong followed her order.

She hoisted the girl up and with one arm around her waist she carried her back to her room. It took a long time to reach her room, as the girl was even too weak to walk.

Arriving in her room, the lady was at once put into bed at once by the old maid.

Even when she was asleep the old maid did not leave her side. It was puzzling at first, however later it became clear because occasionally the lady would be coughing heavily, and the old maid has to soothe her by patting her back or give a sip of water to sooth her so that she would fall back into sleep.

As the lady slept, YuQiao walked around the room. There wasn't much to see in the room. Everything was placed away neatly, and the room was simple. There weren’t any personal items in the room. It felt like a guest lived here instead of the mistress of the house.

Night came, and another maid came carrying the lady's dinner and medicine.

She drank the medicine without argument, but she could not even eat a single bite of the food. The moment the food was brought up to her face she vomited. Therefore, in the end she only drank the medicine and did not eat anything.

When the maid went out again, the Madam Wong seems pretty upset. “How could your father, married you off to someone like him?”

“It was my wish not father,” replied the lady meekly.

“Your wish!” said the old maid while doing an action that resembles someone spitting a splat of saliva onto the ground. The lady smiled, “I must marry him even if I do not want to. A woman's marriage is not decided by herself, but her parents. And the marriage proposal was an order from the city lord; it is something father can’t even refuse.”

“Old selfish man,” insulted Madam Wong. “I am sure he had received a lot from this marriage.”

“I have already been married. There isn’t anything I could do about it. Do not worry. I will be fine in no time,” and with that said, the old maid stopped talking and the lady went back into sleep.