The Ghost Bride

Li Lan passes beyond the walls of her house, following the shimmering thread. A beggar approaches her, and she sees that it is a “hungry ghost,” desperately seeking food since they do not have access to the offerings from funeral altars. He demands food or money from her, and she hastily offers him a few coins, which she realizes must have been part of the funeral offering she attempted to make on her own behalf. This hungry ghost is satiated, but Li Lan looks on with fear as even more start making their way toward her.

Li Lan escapes the hungry ghosts and decides to pay a visit to the Lim mansion. She passes by two female servants, the younger of whom somehow senses her presence and drops the pitcher she was carrying in fright. Li Lan lingers to hear their conversation and learns that though the official word is that Lim Tian Ching died of a fever, there is suspicion surrounding his death. Madam Lim insists that someone must have served him something in his tea before bed, as his heirloom teacup is missing.

Yan Hong interrupts their conversation, reminding them that the cause of Lim Tian Ching’s death was an illness and that anything else is just rumors. Li Lan follows Yang Hong for the remainder of the day, noting that something appears to be causing her anxiety. Later that evening, the porter approaches Yang Hong to let her know that there’s a man outside, simply standing there, but not approaching the house. Li Lan notices a man hidden by a tree, who appears to be the same one who visited the medium on the same night she did. She recognizes him by his large hat and embroidered robe. Madam Lim is waiting for Yan Hong in the main entrance, and she assures her step-mother that nothing is amiss, but as Madam Lim turns away, Li Lan notices Yan Hong cast a hateful look at her stepmother. Li Lan follows Yan Hong up to her bedroom, where Yang opens a wooden chest to retrieve a small item wrapped in cloth. She unwraps it to take a peek, as if wanting to be assured that the item is still inside. Before she rolls the cloth back up, Li Lan observes that the object inside is a teacup.

Li Lan is still unsure where to go and forces her spectral form through the back gate of a small shop house. Once inside, she happens upon a family eating dinner and realizes how hungry she is. As the meal ends, the grandfather of the family turns to a young woman to ask if she left any food for the hungry ghosts. She is reluctant to do so, but he insists that she leave a bit of rice for them. Li Lan dashes toward the bowl, deeply inhaling the scent, as this is the only means that spirits have of sating their hunger.

Li Lan becomes aware of another ghost circling the perimeter of the room, who demands to know who has eaten from the rice offering. Li Lan reveals herself and the ghost realizes that Li Lan is different than her. She assumes that Li Lan is a heavenly being, and Li Lan plays along with the misunderstanding. The ghost introduces herself as Fan and says she was the lover of the old man of the house. Because they were never married, the old man assumes she might have become a hungry ghost, and the rice bowl offering has typically always been reserved for her. Li Lan notices that Fan is holding something, and Fan explains that it’s a thread, like the one Li Lan has been following, and that it is supposed to connect lovers to one another, usually by literally connecting two objects that they exchanged while alive. Fan has refused to move on to the Courts of Judgment because she wants to pass through to the next stage with her lover by her side. However, because she has been dead for a while, her time to move on to the Courts has long passed, and she is fearful that border officials will be sent to forcefully remove her.

Outside the house, Li Lan and Fan watch a palanquin carried by ox-headed demons make its way down the street. Fan is frantic to hide and explains to Li Lan that these are the same border officials that she had mentioned before. Li Lan notices that the human ghost inside the palanquin is Lim Tian Ching. Fan tells Li Lan that whoever the ghost is, they must be important or have a lot of money since ghosts can bribe the border officials in order to extend certain privileges. Li Lan is eager to know more about the Plains of the Dead, thinking that perhaps her mother is still there and has not yet passed on to be judged and subsequently reborn. She asks Fan how to get to the Plains of the Dead, and Fan agrees to take her, but not for free.

Li Lan begins to finally wander back in what she hopes is the direction of her home. Along the way, she stops by the Stadthuys, the old Dutch-built fortress that is still used by the British as a government office. Suddenly, the ghost of a long-dead Dutch man appears behind her. He tells Li Lan that he understands her current state. He has seen someone else in her similar liminal position, hovering between life and death for several days until passing away and becoming a ghost. He suggests that she may want to return to take care of her body, and when she admits that she doesn’t know the way back to her house, he provides her with directions to her neighborhood, the merchants’ quarters.

Li Lan is just about to walk up to her front door when she spots one of the ox-head demons standing right in front of it. The demon does not seem to have noticed her, and he is soon joined by another demon. From her vantage point, she is able to eavesdrop on their conversation, and she learns that they’ve been assigned to wait outside of her home until she returns. They are clearly agents of Lim Tian Ching, and they complain loudly about having to do his bidding. Suddenly, someone walks through the front door of the house.

Old Wong emerges and seemingly does not notice the demons. Li Lan pursues him down the street, calling out to him in hopes he can see her. Much to her surprise, he turns his head at the sound of her voice and tries to pretend he hasn’t noticed her. He finally acknowledges her and tells her she must return to her body. Li Lan explains that she cannot go back to her body because it is being guarded by the demons outside of the house. Old Wong remarks that he cannot see demons, but he can see ghosts, and he has been able to since he was a child. Li Lan asks if Old Wong ever saw a ghost at their residence, and he starts to tell her of one time when he had an incident on the main staircase—but he doesn’t finish the story. Li Lan, as narrator, notes she would only understand how important this brief exchange was much later in her own story.

After Old Wong goes back inside the house, Li Lan turns her attention back to the shimmering thread that she was originally following. She follows the trail of her thread out of the city proper and out to Malacca’s harbor, where the trail ends at a warehouse’s shipping office. Upon entering, Li Lan spies the hair comb she gave Tian Bai laying on a windowsill next to a collection of other objects, including parts of a clock and a small horse figurine made of sandalwood. She turns and sees Tian Bai sleeping on the other side of the room. She remembers that Fan was able to visit her lover in his dreams, and that the thread they shared was the key to doing so. She presses the thread against Tian Bai’s chest and descends into his dream world.

In Tian Bai’s dream, Li Lan finds herself overlooking what she assumes is the harbor of Hong Kong. Li Lan spots Tian Bai standing with a group nearby. He seems particularly familiar with another young man, and she guesses that this is Yan Hong’s husband since they both studied abroad in Hong Kong at the same time. The rest of the group is a mix of men and women, all Chinese, but in Western-style dress. One young woman stands out from the rest, and Li Lan can tell right away that Tian Bai has a special attachment to her. One of his friends in the dream, whom Li Lan assumes is Yan Hong’s husband, refers to the woman as Isabel.

Tian Bai turns and is very surprised to see Li Lan. His dream begins to dissipate, but Li Lan is able to manipulate the dream so that it reflects the shipping office where Tian Bai is sleeping. Tian Bai now believes that he is awake and actually talking to Li Lan. She asks whether or not Tian Bai is really engaged to be married, and he asks her if news of his engagement is what caused Li Lan to fall ill. Feeling embarrassed, she explains that she took medicine from a medium to help with an illness, but it didn’t work. Li Lan then asks Tian Bai if he misses Lim Tian Ching, and he responds that he does not miss him at all.

Tian Bai explains that he and his cousin never got along. Lim Tian Ching was jealous, even though after the death of Tian Bai’s parents, Lim Tian Ching’s father became the head of the family, and Lim Tian Ching became the heir. His jealousy stemmed from the fact that Lim Tian Ching’s father always favored Tian Bai. The conversation then returns to the subject of Tian Bai’s marriage. He explains that his match with the daughter of the Quah family is a purely strategic one. In fact, she would have been Lim Tian Ching’s bride, had he not passed away. Li Lan cautiously broaches the subject of her previous arrangement with Tian Bai, and he confirms that if circumstances were different, he would certainly have married her. The two share a passionate kiss. As a parting request, Li Lan asks Tian Bai to burn a drawing of a horse or carriage, making sure to dedicate it to her by putting her name on it.

Li Lan wanders along the beach before realizing how far she has strayed from the more populated part of the harbor. Along the way, notices the young man in the bamboo hat and embroidered robe. She follows him along the beach, not bothering to hide herself, as she assumes she is as invisible to him as she is to all other people. Li Lan climbs a nearby tree to keep an eye on him, and the young man is joined by one of the ox-headed demons. Li Lan is terrified that it has come in search of her. Instead, the young man and the demon have a thinly veiled conversation about Lim Tian Ching, in which it becomes clear that this demon is actually working for the young man in the bamboo hat: The two are working to investigate Lim Tian Ching and his co-conspirator for crimes in the afterlife. After the demon leaves, the man tells Li Lan that she can leave her hiding place in the tree.

The young man in the bamboo hat shares that he knew from the outset that Li Lan was following him. Li Lan grows frustrated at his cool attitude toward her and demands to know who he is. He introduces himself as Er Lang and explains to Li Lan that he is an agent of a ministry of the afterlife that takes charge of the Courts of Hell. His mission as a “special investigator” is to ensure that none of the Nine Judges or their foot soldiers use their position for their own personal benefit. Lim Tian Ching has drawn his attention because since his death, he has demonstrated suspicious behavior. He continues by telling Li Lan that she could be of help to him in building a case against Lim Tian Ching and finding out what he is up to. In exchange, he may be able to help her with her own case with the Courts of Hell, who are the ones that can reunite her spirit and her body. Er Lang encourages her to find Lim Tian Ching’s house in the Plains of the Dead, as that is a place that Er Lang cannot go. Li Lan agrees but asks if he can provide her with any assistance for her while she is there. Er Lang produces an object from inside of his robe that turns out to be a large scale. He tells Li Lan that she may use it to call him; she only needs to blow on the edge of the scale and speak his name.

The next day, a horse appears before her, and Li Lan realizes that it resembles the sandalwood horse figurine on Tian Bai’s windowsill, which he must have burned for her. She names the horse “Chendana,” which means sandalwood in the Malay language. Li Lan returns to the shop house where she first met Fan and Fan tells her that they will meet later, after night falls. Fan is impressed by Chendana and wonders why those in heaven (where she still believes Li Lan is from) did not give her a horse as well. Her jealousy and obsession with appearances add to Li Lan’s growing displeasure toward her, but Li Lan recognizes that she needs Fan in order to find the entrance to the Plains. Fan struggles to locate the entrance, fearing that it might have moved. Finally, she finds a doorway in a nearby wall and beckons for Li Lan to follow her.