11. “The Parasitic Ghost”

“You were unconscious for seven whole days. Thank God you made it through!” The woman sitting beside my bed, who claimed to be my mother, wiped away her tears as she spoke to me. But the price I had paid was that the memories of more than twenty years of my previous life had suddenly vanished, as if the devil had erased them all with an eraser.

My younger sister accompanied me to the garden plaza to sit in the sun. For the first time, I felt that the afternoon sunlight was so warm. Several elderly stroke patients were there. Some leaned on canes, some were pushed along in wheelchairs, and others were supported by nurses or family members as they slowly limped along, like astronauts walking across the surface of the moon.

Just then, a wheelchair slowly passed by me. Suddenly, I felt an intense crushing pain in both my legs. I turned my head and, sure enough, the wheelchair was rolling over my shadow projected on the ground, right across the area corresponding to my lower legs. Instinctively, I reached out with both hands and forcefully pushed the wheelchair away.

The nurse pushing the wheelchair was startled by my sudden action and stared at me with an expression that seemed to say, “What the heck is wrong with you? You’re so reckless.” My sister also could not understand why I had suddenly lost control of myself. Of course, I was equally confused by the sudden crushing pain.

A moment later, an elderly man walking with a cane came along, and the tip of his cane poked directly into the head of my shadow. Although my head was wrapped in several layers of gauze, I felt as if someone had jabbed me in the head with a wooden stick. I quickly jumped out of the way.

My sister was even more astonished and bewildered by my strange behavior. She walked toward me, and I immediately pointed at my shadow on the ground and said, “Come around from the side. Don’t step on my shadow.”

My sister was startled and carefully walked around me. Looking at me in utter confusion, she asked, “Brother, what’s wrong with you?”

I said almost to myself, “I don’t know! It seems that whenever someone steps on my shadow or a vehicle runs over it, I experience pain. And the part that hurts is exactly the same part of my body corresponding to where the shadow was stepped on or run over.”

“How could something like that happen? Brother, could you be imagining it?” My sister still found my reaction completely unbelievable.

I decided to return to my hospital room and rest. My sister walked beside me, and the upper half of her shadow was projected across my chest and abdomen.

After returning to the hospital room, I roughly described what had happened to my mother, with my sister there to confirm what I had told her. My mother immediately called the doctor on duty. After listening to my description, the doctor suggested that I might need to see a psychiatrist to determine the cause.

That evening, a female psychiatrist, a sophisticated woman who looked to be under thirty, entered my hospital room. She walked over to my bedside and stared at my face for more than ten seconds before saying, “From this point on, I’m going to communicate with you in writing.”

She then turned to my mother and sister and said, “Please leave the room for a while. I’m going to begin evaluating the patient’s mental condition.”

My mother and sister looked at each other for several seconds. Although they were somewhat puzzled, they wisely left the room.

The female doctor opened a folder and sat down on the round chair beside my bed. She immediately began communicating with me in writing.

“Sir, you have been possessed by a female ghost, and I can see her. I don’t want her to hear what we are saying, so I’m communicating with you in writing.”

The female doctor handed the folder to me. I quickly read what she had written, nodded to indicate that I understood, and handed the folder back to her.

The female doctor erased the pencil writing on the sheet of paper with an eraser and continued writing.

“This female ghost does not seem to have any ill intentions toward you. She is probably possessing you because she wants you to help her. Perhaps tonight, after you fall asleep, she will enter your dreams and come looking for you. Don’t be afraid. Just talk to her sincerely and calmly. Find out why she has possessed you, and ask what she wants you to do for her.”

The female doctor handed the folder back to me. After reading it, I wrote beneath her words, “Okay. I will face her and communicate with her properly.”

The female doctor took the folder back, erased my pencil writing once again, and wrote a new line:

“I’ll come back tomorrow morning. Please write down what she tells you.”

I nodded, but my emotions were all over the place. I thought to myself, “Could this female doctor actually have psychic abilities? But why doesn’t she simply find a way to drive the ghost out of me?”

Seeing me staring blankly, the female doctor finally spoke. “Sir, please don’t doubt my professional abilities.”

Her words hit the nail on the head. I stared at her in surprise and gave an awkward, foolish grin.

After the female doctor left, my mother and sister came back into the room. The two of them curiously bombarded me with questions, but I simply waved my hand, signaling them to stop asking.

That night, my sister slept on the small bed beside the window. Perhaps that was when I began entering a dreamlike state. A pretty young female college student stepped out from my body. At the time, I was sitting at the desk browsing the Internet, trying to choose which World Cup soccer matches to watch.

She sat cross-legged on the desk.

“Sir, you have finally regained consciousness. I have been protecting you for these seven days, preventing the soul reaper from having a chance to pull your soul out of your body.”

I gathered my courage and said, “Thank you for doing so much to help me.”

The college student gave a bitter smile. “We suffered the same fate. Helping you is the same as helping myself.”

I asked curiously, “What do you mean by saying we suffered the same fate?”

The college student began telling her story sadly and slowly.

“Eight days ago, late at night, I had just left the school gate and was walking across the crosswalk at an intersection. A black sedan suddenly sped through a red light and hit me, sending me flying. Then it crashed into you, who were riding a bicycle. The car immediately sped away.”

“My soul was knocked out of my body and floated in midair, but the powerful impact tore my body apart. You, meanwhile, collapsed unconscious on the sidewalk beside the road.”

“What happened next?” I asked.

The college student continued, “A soul reaper carrying a hooked scythe immediately approached your body and tried to pull your soul out. I instantly possessed your body and fought against the reaper together with you. After a long while, the ambulance finally arrived at the accident scene. Only then did the reaper give up. Before leaving angrily, he even threatened that he would definitely come back to take you away.”

“So you have been possessing me all these seven days to protect me?”

“Yes. I listened to the wandering ghosts in the hospital. They told me that as long as you survived the first seven days after death, you would be able to return to the world of the living. So I have stayed by your side every moment for these seven days to protect you.”

“But I don’t understand. Why does my shadow have pain sensations just like a living person?”

The college student explained, “Because during the daytime, when you are exposed to sunlight, your body produces positive energy, which counteracts my yin energy. I can only temporarily attach myself to your shadow. But once I do that, your shadow comes under my control and simultaneously senses the external forces that strike me, creating a painful energy field.”

“I see. Then how do you want me to help you?”

The college student’s face filled with resentment. “I want you to help me find the owner of that black sedan and take his life in payment for mine.”

I said, “Okay. I’ll ask the police to retrieve the surveillance footage from the intersection.”

A faint smile flashed across the college student’s face. “Good. We ghosts can’t enter a police station, but you can.”

The next morning, the female doctor came to my bedside as promised and communicated with me in writing. During our written conversation, I explained my conversation with the female ghost as clearly and completely as possible and answered some of the doctor’s questions.

Afterward, the female doctor warned me, “You cannot take everything that female ghost says at face value. Although she may not intend to harm you, she could be using you to find the owner of the car and take revenge on him. If that happens, you may eventually be held responsible for what she does.”

I wrote down my objection: “But she says she has done everything she could to protect me. Doesn’t that mean I owe her a debt of gratitude between the living and the dead? Besides, she died unjustly. Isn’t it completely reasonable for her to seek revenge on the person responsible for her death?”

The female doctor countered, “What if that female ghost is deliberately deceiving you, fabricating these seemingly reasonable details simply to use you to find the person she wants revenge on? Revenge only leads to more revenge. It is absolutely not a viable way to settle disputes between the worlds of the living and the dead. I’m only giving you some well-intentioned advice. Don’t become a tool for the female ghost’s revenge.”

After our written conversation, my spirits sank to rock bottom, and my mind was in complete turmoil.

“Could I really be used by the female ghost and become her instrument of revenge? But if I refuse to help her, will she refuse to let me go? All right. Tonight I’ll ask her everything in detail and then decide whether or not to help her.”

When night fell again, I suddenly had an idea. If I stayed awake all night, would the female ghost possessing me come out and look for me?

So I discussed it with my mother and sister. My mother would keep me company during the first half of the night, and my sister would take over during the second half while we watched the World Cup soccer matches online.

At first, neither of them approved of my plan to stay awake all night. They kept taking turns asking me why I wanted to do it. I made up several excuses and finally managed to convince them.

I had them go to bed early on the small bed. After midnight, when I began to feel sleepy, I woke my mother and asked her to watch the World Cup soccer matches online with me.

At three in the morning, I told my mother to go to sleep. She said she could still stay awake, so she woke my sister instead. The two of them took turns chatting about my childhood as if they were performing a two-person comedy routine, talking about everything from my birth to my elementary school years, and then all the way through my college graduation. I occasionally interrupted to ask questions.

Before I knew it, dawn had arrived, and sunlight streamed through the window.

I said to the two of them, “Let’s have breakfast first, and then we can sleep under the sunlight and catch up on our rest.”

After the three of us had breakfast, my sister took out a small mirror. As she used a wet tissue to wipe around her eyes while looking into the mirror, I saw the female ghost reflected in its surface. She was baring her teeth and claws at me in fury. Of course, my sister could not see the furious ghostly face.

When the female doctor arrived at the hospital room, I asked my sister to hand her the mirror.

The female doctor smiled and said, “I can see the female ghost. The mirror has trapped her inside a virtual mirrored space, so she should no longer be able to come out and bother you. Sir, how exactly did you manage to do that?”

I proudly replied, “I simply stayed awake all night! My mother watched the World Cup matches with me, and my sister and I talked about my childhood together. We talked until dawn. Then the three of us had breakfast, and afterward I discovered that the female ghost was reflected in my sister’s little vanity mirror.”

My sister asked in surprise, “How come I can’t see the ghost?”

The female doctor said, “Young lady, there’s no need for you to be curious about ghosts from the spirit world. I need to take this mirror with me. From now on, your brother won’t be bothered by that female ghost anymore. Once he is discharged from the hospital, he can return to a peaceful life.”