Chapter 34:
School Specter (Conclusion):
“Qinqin, Mama Loves You.”
Seeing Chen Henian’s frown, Li Qinqin quickly said, “It’s about a half-hour walk. There’s a park halfway there. It’s late, we can rest there.”
Chen Henian reassured her, “I took the job, you’re the client, I’ll resolve your issue.”
Li Qinqin hadn’t paid him, but Jiang Wan had brought her case to him.
“Lead the way,” he said.
Li Qinqin seemed relieved, the frantic look in her eyes softening.
Chen Henian was annoyed. Fulfilling a ghost’s wishes wasn’t his job. He especially disliked hospitals, places of death and lingering spirits. Newly deceased ghosts often looked like living people. With his yin-yang eyes, if he accidentally made eye contact with one, it would latch onto him.
Ghosts lingering in the human world were lonely, their voices unheard, making them clingy and demanding.
That’s why he always wore sunglasses, hiding his gaze, avoiding unwanted attention.
This was his first time in a large hospital in eighteen years.
They arrived in the morning, when Li Qinqin’s mother was most likely to be there.
To ordinary people, Li Qinqin was in a vegetative state. But her soul had left her body seven days ago, with no chance of returning.
She was truly dead.
Chen Henian, followed by Jiang Wan, carried his suitcase and followed Li Qinqin to a hospital room door.
Li Qinqin slipped inside.
Her eyes widened. “Such a clean place, even prettier than my home.” She floated around the single room, admiring the white tiles and pale blue curtains, then a pang of guilt struck her. Such a room must be expensive.
The door was locked from the inside. Li Qinqin, a ghost, couldn’t open it. Chen Henian had Da Hei open the door, and they entered, finding Li Qinqin standing there, a dazed expression on her face.
A woman with graying hair, sitting by the bed, looked up. “Leave,” she said, her voice hoarse and tired. This was Li Qinqin’s mother, Li Guimei.
“Leave,” she repeated, her voice laced with anger. Seeing them standing there, she stood up and yelled, “Get out!”
Chen Henian didn’t waste time. “Your daughter is dead. Wasting money at the hospital is pointless.”
“What do you mean?! Are you cursing my daughter?!” Li Guimei’s eyes reddened, her expression turning hostile as she advanced on them.
“These are your daughter’s words. She doesn’t want you to waste money. You refuse to accept her death, so her ghost is trapped here.”
One shouldn’t cry before the deceased was placed in a coffin or on the day of the burial. Tears would bind the spirit to the world. Li Qinqin’s soul was tethered to her mother’s grief, preventing the underworld officials from taking her away. She would linger near her body, her presence draining her mother’s life force.
Li Guimei paused, then pointed at Chen Henian, her voice accusing. “Is this another trick to make me sign the papers? I won’t sign! I’ll never sign! Get out! Leave me alone! I only want my daughter back, nothing else!”
“Do you have enough money to keep her body here forever?” Chen Henian asked.
His question silenced her. She wasn’t wealthy. Their savings were meant for Qinqin’s college education, but now… She took a deep breath, her voice trembling. “I raised her for sixteen years, I can keep her here until I die!”
That day, Li Guimei had been preparing her noodle cart, ready for her usual morning and evening shifts outside the school gates.
She always followed Qinqin, selling noodles wherever she went to school. Whenever Qinqin was hungry, she would pass a bowl through the school fence. Her daughter never went hungry. But Qingping No. 2 High School was too far. She was getting old. She could probably keep pushing the cart for another ten years, until Qinqin graduated and started her own life. Then she could rest.
“Are you Li Qinqin’s parent?”
That day was different. Several people, including Qinqin’s homeroom teacher, approached her. She nervously wiped her hands on her apron. “What’s wrong?”
Her heart pounded with anxiety. Had Qinqin done something wrong? Could she afford to fix it? What if Qinqin couldn’t continue her studies? She had no answers, only a growing sense of dread.
The teachers, in their crisp Zhongshan suits, looked just as uneasy, their voices strained.
“Your daughter jumped from the building. She’s in the hospital now.”
Li Qinqin had jumped.
Li Guimei’s world collapsed.
Li Qinqin wouldn’t wake up. The doctor had told her, her daughter would remain in a vegetative state.
Her daughter would never open her eyes again, never speak. She lay in bed, connected to a ventilator, her face obscured by a thin mist.
Li Qinqin had committed suicide. She had jumped. The news made the papers.
Wealthy people visited, bringing fruit baskets and flowers, offering condolences, praising Li Qinqin, then presenting her with a contract, offering a large sum of money, more than she could earn in ten years.
On one condition: she had to admit her daughter was mentally ill.
“My daughter is not mentally ill! Get out! All of you, get out!”
She chased them away, one after another.
She could hear the nurses and doctors whispering, calling her an unreasonable shrew. No one wanted to enter her daughter’s room.
A mother acting like this, her daughter must have been troubled too. Why else would she jump?
These kids these days, so spoiled, they needed a good beating!
How could they say such things? Li Guimei’s heart ached. Her husband had died, she had lost her job at the construction site, forced to sell noodles. Qinqin had suffered with her, a small child sleeping in a cold, hard cart in the winter, never complaining, never crying, always putting her needs first, a sensible and obedient child.
She was a failure as a mother, unable to provide for her daughter.
She was illiterate, unable to understand the words on the contract, unable to trust anyone.
Qinqin had been bullied. That’s why she was unhappy.
She hadn’t noticed, hadn’t protected her daughter.
She couldn’t hurt Qinqin anymore.
Every night, she regretted not begging the teachers, not doing more to help Qinqin transfer to another class.
The teachers cared about their reputation, the school cared about its image, but she was just a noodle vendor. If she had begged, would things have been different?
“Tell me something only you would know,” Chen Henian said to Li Qinqin.
Li Qinqin spoke, and Chen Henian relayed her words. “Your daughter says you bought her a malt candy for her twelfth birthday. She loved it.”
“How did you know?” Li Guimei’s eyes widened. “Who told you that?”
“You kept your money in a jar under the bed. She found it once. It was her college fund.”
This was something only Li Guimei knew. She couldn’t deny it anymore.
“I’m sorry, Mother, I left you.”
Li Qinqin floated closer, reaching for her face.
“Qinqin, Qinqin!” Li Guimei’s tears flowed freely. She felt it, she really felt it!
“Are you angry with me? Why won’t you wake up and look at me? Were you bullied? Why didn’t you tell me? I was wrong, please forgive me!”
“She says she’s not angry with you,” Chen Henian said. “She wants you to sign the papers and accept the money.”
Li Qinqin said, “I jumped on purpose. I’m not pretty, not virtuous, not smart, not hardworking. I’m tired of living. I’m cowardly and selfish, always running away from my problems. So I decided to die.”
“If I die, Mother will get money.”
She knew Qingping No. 2 High School valued its reputation, and it was a sensitive time for the media. She had planned it a week in advance. If her death caused enough of a stir, it would make the news.
The school would want to silence her, and for the wealthy, money solved everything.
But money meant something different to them.
She didn’t care what people said about her. “Mother, I want you to buy new clothes, to be beautiful, to eat delicious food, to see the world. My textbooks said there are many beautiful places in this world. Mother, I want you to experience them for me. I don’t want you to worry about me anymore. That’s all I want.”
Chen Henian relayed her words.
“I don’t believe it!” Li Guimei yelled. “This is another trick to make me sign!”
“You don’t believe me, but you don’t believe your daughter loves you?”
“Your grief is trapping her,” Chen Henian said. “Keeping her soul from moving on, turning her into a wandering ghost. Is that what you want?”
“Elder Sister,” Jiang Wan said suddenly. “Help her.”
The Black Wraith appeared, exhaling yin energy towards Li Qinqin.
Li Qinqin’s form solidified. She looked around, then entered a notebook on the nightstand.
Her diary.
The diary fell to the floor, its pages flipping rapidly, stopping at a page with a pencil drawing of her and her mother.
Li Guimei stared at the diary.
Black ink appeared on the page.
—Mama, I love you.
Li Guimei broke down, these simple words, the only words she could read, the words Qinqin had taught her, her daughter’s words.
She hunched over, sobbing, her hands covering her face. “Qinqin, Qinqin…” she cried, her voice filled with anguish.
“Mother, I have to go,” Li Qinqin whispered in her ear, her form fading.
Li Guimei picked up the diary, clutching it to her chest, her mind blank.
“Is she leaving?” she asked, her voice choked with tears.
“Yes,” Chen Henian replied.
“But I have so much to say to you.” She murmured, “Qinqin, can you visit me in my dreams? I’ll miss you.”
Her tears stained the pages, her rough, calloused hands trembling, the burn scars on her skin a testament to her hard life, the dirt under her fingernails a mark of her poverty.
She turned, removing Qinqin’s oxygen mask, gently stroking her daughter’s face.
She leaned down, kissing her forehead. “Qinqin, go… go find your father.”
The heart monitor flatlined.
Li Guimei, numb with grief, held Qinqin’s hand, her grip tight, unwilling to let go. She remembered her daughter as a baby, her tiny hand fitting in hers, her babbling sounds, her laughter and tears. Her Qinqin, gone before her time, leaving her behind.
Her tears fell silently onto Qinqin’s face, a mother’s grief washing over her daughter’s still form.
“Qinqin,” she whispered, her voice soft. “Mama loves you.”
