There was the sound of bells chiming in the night air. Laughter and singing drifted among the branches of the trees, and the wind carried the melody of a stringed instrument and flute. 

“I didn’t think the spirit domain would be so festive,” Lanyun commented as he and Renwu walked through the forest. The sounds appeared to be coming from the glowing yellow lights to their right.

“It’s due to the approaching Harvest Moon Festival,” Renwu explained. “Since the spirit domain shares pockets of space with the human realm, they often celebrate the same holidays as humans. After all, many of the spirits and ghosts were once human themselves. Albeit, the traditions may differ.”

“Should we check it out and try asking the spirits if they’ve seen a ghost flower?” Lanyun was also intrigued by the idea of spirits celebrating the Harvest Moon Festival. Moving his arm to point at the lights, he felt a resistant tug and realized that he was still holding onto Renwu’s hand. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize!” Lanyun quickly drew back his hand like a thief caught in the act.

“No, let’s stay like this,” Renwu said, reaching out to hold Lanyun’s hand in his again. “Your human qi is too prominent amongst the spirits. We can mask you as a celestial like this. When we go look at their festival, stay close to me and don’t cause any trouble. We also can’t dawdle around for too long. Don’t forget that we’re here to find the ghost flower, not sightsee.”

Lanyun nodded obediently, but before they could continue walking again, he let out an intense sneeze. Still wearing his wet clothes, he couldn’t help but sniffle in the chilly autumn night’s air. 

“Sorry,” Lanyun mumbled into the sleeve of his robe as he wiped his nose. 

Renwu stared silently at the hand he was still holding with an expression of equal parts disgust and regret. Without saying a word, he waved his other hand and sent all the water on Lanyun’s clothes back into the direction of the river. 

Lanyun instantly felt his clothes dry as the chill he had been experiencing dissipated. He gave Renwu an embarrassed smile. “Thank you.” 

As they reached the edge of the spirits’ celebrations, Lanyun could see the ghostly festivities more clearly. Like the Guwang City’s Night Market, there were a variety of vendors with stalls of different sizes and shapes along the forest’s dirt path. Rather than the red lanterns that humans hang to celebrate the holiday, there were orange and yellow balls of ghost fire in the air, lighting the area brightly. Everything appeared the same as the human realm at first glance, but upon closer observation, it was obvious that they were surrounded by spirits. For instance, though the crowds of spirits were similar in form to humans, some had multiple heads on one body or animal heads instead. Lanyun counted four boar heads, two monkeys, five roosters, and one horse before his eyes grew dizzy from the bustling atmosphere. Many spirits also had limbs that were anything but four, ranging from zero to a hundred.  

Passing by some of the stalls as they walked along the dirt path, Lanyun saw that the wares that they sold were similar yet different from the Night Market’s. Instead of lamb skewers, there were skewers of grey and purple objects as well as what appeared to be raw meat with the blood dripping onto the stall’s counter, forming a small pool of crimson liquid. Lanyun couldn’t help but scrunch his nose at the strong metallic smell in the air.

“I wouldn’t recommend eating that,” Renwu said, noticing what Lanyun was looking at. 

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t thinking of that,” Lanyun said, though he was feeling a bit hungry after only having a few shenguo buns for lunch. He touched the green bag on his back, wondering if he should eat the last bun. “I remember that you said all spirit food would taste disgusting for me.”

“Yes, there’s that.” Renwu nodded. “But you’d also be committing cannibalism if you were to eat it.” 

Lanyun sharply turned his head to look at the celestial, who gave him an innocent smile in return. With his face turning pale at the realization of the ingredients of the spirit food around him, Lanyun instantly lost all of his appetite. When they passed by a stall selling roasted hands coated in a red sauce, hanging from the roof of the stall by wire hooks, he decided to switch to a vegetarian diet…for one day at least.

After leaving behind the food stalls, Lanyun saw that they had entered an area with vendors that sold accessories and clothes. Breathing a sigh of relief, he tried to erase the mental images of the nightmarish dishes and appreciated the intricate designs of the embroidered handkerchiefs instead. The vendor with a rat’s head briefly glanced up at Lanyun and Renwu as they approached the stall before looking back down again, uninterested in the new customers. 

A dark blue handkerchief with a silver flower pattern on it caught Lanyun’s eye. Picking it up, Lanyun noticed that it was similar to a spider lily. Before he had a chance to ask the vendor what flower was used as a reference for the design, a woman’s voice suddenly spoke up from beside him.

“Are you also interested in flowers?” A young woman with two pairs of arms and green-hued eyelids batted her long eyelashes at Lanyun suggestively. One pair of hands applied a rouge tint to her lips from a silver compact while a third hand reached out to gently stroke Lanyun’s long hair. There was an obsessive gaze in her eyes as she touched him. “Your hair is so soft. I know a place with lots of flowers. Would you like to come pick some with me?”

“Get lost, we’re busy here,” Renwu said harshly first. Reaching over, he smacked the young woman’s hand off of Lanyun’s hair. 

Looking over at Renwu, the young woman noticed the two hands intertwined below. With a loud tsk, she immediately turned away in annoyance. “Wasting my time.”

“What…just happened?” Lanyun asked, bewildered. It appeared that the young woman spirit had a serious misunderstanding of his relationship with Renwu. 

“Don’t read too much into it,” Renwu said in a lecturing tone. “She was only interested because she thought you were a celestial.” He glanced down at the handkerchief Lanyun was holding. “Did you find something?”

“Yes, doesn’t this design look like the ghost flower?” Lanyun waved at the rat-headed vendor, attempting to get their attention. “Excuse me, boss, could you tell us what inspired this design?”

“Let me see,” the handkerchief vendor said, narrowing his beady eyes. Contrary to the high-pitched squeak that Lanyun had expected from someone with a rat’s head, the vendor actually had a deep, mellow voice. 

The handkerchief vendor nodded emphatically. “I had used one of the flowers sold by one of the vendors as reference.”

“Which vendor?” Lanyun asked, excited by the new clue. 

“Further down over there,” the rat-headed vendor said, pointing to the right. “You won’t miss it. They’re the only flower seller with two heads.”   

True to the handkerchief vendor’s directions, Lanyun and Renwu easily found the flower stall with the two-headed vendor. The one on the left was a woman’s head while the one on the right had a man’s head. Before them was a dazzling arrangement of bouquets with a few wildflowers that Lanyun recognized as well as more unusual ones that he had never seen before. As Lanyun and Renwu approached the stall, it was the female head that turned 90 degrees to address them.

“Good evening,” she said with a big smile. In her hand, the flower she was holding mirrored her smile with its own sharp teeth. “Is there anything I can help you two gentlemen with today?” 

“Good evening,” Lanyun responded politely, trying not to show any fear regarding the uncanny figure before him. “We were wondering if you might have this particular flower here.” He took out the illustration of the ghost flower from his pocket and showed it to her. 

The female head inspected the illustration before turning to the male head. “Honey, do we still have any more spider lilies?” 

“There’s a few over here,” the male head said, pointing to his right side, where the crimson flowers were standing in a wooden bucket. 

“Oh, actually, do you have something that resembles spider lilies but are actually a different flower?” Lanyun clarified. “For instance, maybe something that glows?” 

“The only glowing flower we have is this one,” the female head said, holding up the flower with teeth. As if on cue, its thin, purple petals began to emit a blue light. “Would you like me to wrap this up for you?”

“No, thank you,” Lanyun said, looking at the flower uneasily. “We’re just going to look around a bit more.”

“Of course,” the female head said. “Please let us know if you do change your mind.”

Almost running, Lanyun practically dragged Renwu away from the flower stall. 

“No need to be so impolite,” Renwu chastised, though he couldn’t hide the obvious amusement in his voice. “Do you not take pity on the spirits of those who are now joined with the one they love in the afterlife?”

At Renwu’s words, Lanyun slowed down his pace to a steady walk. “How do you know that?” 

“It’s a common occurrence,” Renwu said nonchalantly. “When two lovers cannot be together in life due to various circumstances such as familial obligations or social status, they often choose to find a different path starting at a nearby forest…or river…or sea. Regardless, they’re permanently together now.”

“I see,” Lanyun said uncertainly. The spirit domain was far stranger than what he was familiar with. From talking animal heads to conjoined couples, it was a bit much for Lanyun to accept at once. 

Ruminating over what to do next, Lanyun watched a parade of spirits in red and white opera masks walk past. Marching steadily to the beat of the drums, they silently moved down the dirt path while spirits gathered on both sides to cheer and whoop.

“Who are they?” Lanyun asked, leaning towards Renwu while his eyes remained fixed on the parade. 

“They’re here to perform the ‘Song of the Moon Dance’ for the Harvest Moon Festival,” Renwu explained. 

“That’s the one about the great archer who shot down nine suns from the sky to save the world, right?” Lanyun recalled the story that his grandmother would tell the village children every Harvest Moon Festival. “Unfortunately, he was separated from his lover after she thwarted an evil plan by his enemies to steal his reward, and she was sent to live on the moon. Through the help of the Moon Princess, they’re able to reunite once a year on the Harvest Moon”

Renwu observed the spectacle with a wry smile. “Yes, Yinxing was quite proud of herself for that accomplishment. I’m sure she’s thrilled by all this worship every year.”

As Lanyun and Renwu moved to walk away from the parade’s festivities, Lanyun stopped at every flower stall that they passed, searching for a sign of a ghost flower to no avail. Feeling something grasp onto his right hand, Lanyun wondered if Renwu had found his left hand too sweaty and wanted to switch hands to hold. However, when he wanted to explain to Renwu that it was sweat from the bandages and completely unrelated to the fact that the spirit domain terrified him, Lanyun realized that Renwu was still standing to the left of him and holding his left hand. So then, who was the one hanging onto his right hand?

Steeling his nerves, Lanyun looked down at the small hand in his and followed it to a thin arm to a little girl, peering up at him with wide, brown eyes. She appeared to be around eight to ten years old with long brown hair separated into two braids on each side of her face. Though the little girl’s features and clothes reminded Lanyun of the children from his village, there was one striking difference that could be easily noticed at first glance. It was a simple design done only in black, but the shape could not be mistaken. A downward facing dragon tattoo sat prominently on the left side of her face. With the dragon’s head resting on her chin, a claw on her cheek, and the tail wrapped up past her eyebrow, it could only mean one thing. 

She was a Cursed One.