Days passed and a week gone in a blink of an eye, but the lady never gotten any better. There wasn't anyone in the household who cared for her, not even her husband whom she just got married to, visited her once.

YuQiao noticed that no matter how sickly the lady appeared she never failed to visit the bamboo forest every morning.

However, one day as she walked home to the mansion, she collapsed on the side of the door, leaning against it breathing heavily and unconscious. YuQiao paced around her anxiously, but she could not help her being a ghost. But she tried her hardest and went in search for Madam Wong.

She saw Madam Wong who was in the lady's room dusting the windows. YuQiao saw a cup that was lying on the table, and she tried to pick it up. “Focus, focus, YuQiao, you can do it,” encouraged YuQiao to herself. After several tries later, she was finally able to grab it and made the cup fell on the floor. “Yes,” cried out YuQiao.

The fall surprised Madam Wong and caused her to suddenly feel a sudden bad foreboding. “Maybe the mistress is in trouble.” She rushed out of the house with an umbrella in her hand to go to the bamboo forest to search for her.

When she opened the door, however she saw the lady on the side of the door. She picked up her skirts and rushed towards Mistress Zhen. She placed the umbrella down and tried to wake her up, even slapping her face. But it was no use, it only caused a slight redness in her pale face. So, Madam Wong did what she thought was best she went back into the house and called for help.

And soon after, help came as Madam Wong bought a whole load of people with her and the lady was carried back into her room. Soon, she was laid on the bed as Madam Wong stuck her into bed. Her face was pasty and approaching ashen. It was not her usual ailment, Madam Wong could feel it in her bones; this time around, or the next morning she might not be able to see the girl anymore.

The doctors confirm her suspicion as they all came but shook their heads and left. Everyone knew what was happening, the lady is going to die, but none dared to say it.

Madam Wong stayed with her the whole time, sitting on the edge of the bed, not leaving her even for a second. The lady woke up and told her that she was thirsty. Madam Wong went to the table to pour out a cup for her, but it was empty. She called out to the others but there was not a single person who answered her call. Madam Wong was hesitant to leave the room, or more precisely the mistress.

Sensing her reluctance, the girl told the old maid. “I will wait for you.”

“Wait for me?” said Madam Wong who was almost in tears. The lady could hear the shakiness in her voice. “I will,” she replied to the old maid, trying to assure her. Only hearing her reply, that Madam Wong stepped out of the room.

Madam Wong went out to get the water, leaving the girl and YuQiao all alone in the room.

“The scenery tonight is very beautiful. The moon is so round and bright, with no apparent cloud clouding its brilliance,” thought YuQiao as she sat on the window ledge, hugging her knees, overlooking the full moon that was surrounded by the thousands or millions twinkling stars above the night sky through the open window. “Too bad, someone might die tonight,” thought YuQiao. And she hugged her knees with her arms around them, closed her eyes and rested her head upon them, listening to the sound of cricket outside of the room, when the girl suddenly spoke.

She did not care at first because she thought the girl was dreaming and talking in her sleep again because she had been delirious these past days. “Miss,” she called out in her direction. YuQiao looked towards her and for the second time both of their eyes met.

“You see me?” asked YuQiao.         

“Yes.”

“I am not a death ripper. I am just an ordinary ghost,” stuttered YuQiao. She doesn’t want the girl to think badly of her. “I hope you live a long life.”

“I know,” she laughed at her statement.

Silence crept over them as YuQiao didn’t know what to say, to comfort the dying girl.

The lady signalled her to come closer and YuQiao did as she was told. She sat on the chair that was beside her bed. “You looked very similar to a person,” she started. “I think I saw you before once in the bamboo forest and another place.”

YuQiao ignored her last comment, but nodded, so she did not imagine it because she actually saw her.

“I was always waiting there, in the forest.”

She looked at the ceiling of her bed and sadly she continued with great effort, “My lover is dead. He was killed by my own father because he was a poor man, in that bamboo forest. I thought that maybe his soul would still linger around there, and I could see him one more time.”

YuQiao could not even think of any comforting words to say to the lady. At last, she understood why the lady frequently visited that place.

“My sickness comes from grief. They are no medicine in this world that could have helped me.”

“And-” she continued. “I will be soon… be meeting him...on... the road… to Huang Quan (Hell).”

“No, you will not. You still had a long way to go. You must live a long life. You must play more of that beautiful music.” YuQiao could not understand herself, but she wished from the bottom of her heart that she wouldn't die.

“No. I can’t anymore. I am so tired. I miss him so much. Thank you for accompanying me to the end,” said the girl, as she left the world like a gentle wind which had blew into the room, causing the curtains to move slightly yet without so much a trail of her existence when it left.

“Do not die,” YuQiao cried to the girl, although she had only met her today but deep down there was a strange feeling of an old friend, someone she had met so long ago. And by reflex YuQiao tried to grab onto the lady's hand, as if the act could pull her back from the dead.

And something miraculous happened.

The soul of the girl left the body; she took one last look at the body lying on the bed. The girl gave a satisfied smile and walked away as her soul gently dissipated into thin air while YuQiao who was kneeling beside the girl before had entered into the empty vessel. And there she laid assimilated into the girl's body.