Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 100

80 years ago, on a certain day, the spring flowers were blooming.

The maiden Ling Dang was currently washing up and grooming herself. She was trying a wedding gown that was vibrant red like blood.

After wearing her wedding gown, the size happened to fit her, and she could not resist spinning a few times in front of the mirror.

— She was going to get married in a few days, and when her husband sees her in this wedding dress, he should be quite fond of it, right?

At that time, enemy troops happened to be gathering, and they invaded the country.

The husband she was supposed to marry signed up for conscription.

She had been waiting for three years, and he was finally coming back to marry her.

What Ling Dang did not expect was that, the eve of her marriage, would also be the day where the enemy troops surrounded their village.

Her fiancé had rushed back in advance because he had received this piece of news, and he protected them as their family escaped.

But they were still caught in the end.

In the instant where the bullet flew over, her future husband pushed her aside.

That courageous man, made out of unswerving determination, had lifted up his gun, turned his body and looked back, taking the shot to his chest. Before he fell down, he even opened fire and killed the two enemy soldiers that were chasing after them.

Then, he fell into a pool of his own blood, closed his eyes, and stopped breathing.

After being separated for eighty years, she finally found his reincarnation.

But it was like a cycle.

80 years later, she stood in front of that person and took the bullet that was coming from the opposite bank of the lake.

Ling Dang could still remember that day from 80 years ago.

That day, after she brought her parents to flee to safety, she remembered her future husband’s death and she had been inconsolable and grief-stricken.

He had died to protect her, how could she possibly let his corpse remain in the wilderness.

With her parents’ persuasion and deterrence during the day, she could not leave.

But when her parents were asleep at night, she secretly returned to the vicinity of the village, because she wanted to collect her future husband’s corpse.

* * *

This was indeed an error she made, because she was caught by the enemy soldiers on night watch.

The endings that would befall the women that landed in their hands, Ling Dang was aware.

Hence, before they could catch her, she used a dagger and pierced it into her own heart, thus ending herself.

The resentment that immediately arose after death was related to the hate she felt for the enemy country and the tragic circumstances of her husband’s and her own death. She transformed into an evil ghost and killed numerous enemy soldiers as revenge. Afterwards, she wandered in the wilderness, gradually losing herself in the excitement that slaughter brought.

She started to lose her consciousness, thinking that she should slaughter for slaughter’s sake, completely forgetting the fact that she used to be human, and she also forgot that she had only intended to kill the enemy troops in the beginning, not the people of her own country.

This was the first sign of becoming a malicious ghost.

Once she became a malicious ghost, there would be no hope for reprieve any longer.

What awoke her later was the resounding name of the Buddha.

Above the wasteland, she knelt down to the ground, seeing a Buddhist monk.

“Are you here to kill me?” Ling Dang asked him.

The monk said: “The Buddha precept of ‘do not kill’, applies to all sentient beings. Ponder carefully, do you have any unfulfilled wishes in your heart?”

The sobered Ling Dang remembered the memories of her past life and said: “I want to be together with him. I want to find his reincarnation.”

The monk: “You should be aware that after death, humans have to cross the Naihe Bridge, and drink Grandmother Meng’s soup. Even if he has reincarnated, he will not have a single recollection of you. He has already died in this life, and he will become a completely different person in the next.”

Ling Dang: “I don’t believe it. He loves me so much. He died in order to protect me. Even if he doesn’t remember me for the time being, he will definitely love me again. Even if… Even if he doesn’t love me, I want to repay the debt of gratitude. He… He took the bullet for me.”

The monk sighed, “If you became a malicious ghost, you will completely lose your consciousness. When that time comes, even I have to slaughter you. No matter. Now that you have a lingering attachment in your heart, it is better than completely losing your consciousness, and being reduced to a malicious ghost.

“In that case, doing some good deeds and cultivating your merit can transform the resentful energy on your being. When that time comes, and if you truly find his reincarnation and he genuinely falls in love with you, he can be together with you, and he will not be harmed by your yin energy.”

As the monk was turning around to leave, Ling Dang went forward to grab hold of his robe, “Great Master, should I… how many good deeds do I have to do in order to meet him? Can I help other people fulfil their heart’s desire? Especially… the wishes that humans have prior to their death. If everyone can attain what they wished for, they won’t transform because their hearts harboured laments and attachments like me, a ghost who is unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation.”

“It is good that you have such thoughts. In that case, go ahead…”

The monk said, “Perhaps if you help one hundred and one people, your own wish will be actualised.”

The monk said that offhandedly only because he wanted expectation to hang in her heart. This expectation would allow her to live on in a serious manner while harbouring kindness in her heart, instead of becoming a malicious ghost that was consigned to eternal damnation.

The monk did not expect that Ling Dang would take the number ‘101’ seriously.

In the next 80 years, Ling Dang opened an inn, and became Proprietress Ling.

She kept upholding the promise she gave to the monk; not only did she help humans fulfil their heartfelt wishes, but she also helped a few small ghosts.

Her grudges were deep at the start, and the disastrous murders she committed later were also heavy, so she had no way of entering the reincarnation cycle. However, these small ghosts were different; as long as she helped them cultivate merit and resolve their resentment energy, they were able to enter the reincarnation cycle very quickly and become human again in their next life.

In the midst of her wish fulfilling, there were times where she was too idealistic, or perhaps she had used the wrong method, thus causing some errors.

For example at Yellow Springs Inn, when she saw Recluse Wang who was probably here for revenge, she felt extremely guilty. She wanted to talk to her properly, and ask how she should make up for the deficit she had incurred.

But not every deficit in this world had a chance for remedy.

This principle was something Proprietress Ling only understood when she was being shot.

It was like how she had believed it was a coincidence at the start with all the travellers visiting— why were they all people she had come into contact with before? She had acted as School Senior Hua’s ex-girlfriend, she had been President Gao’s ex-wife, and the current School Senior Hua and President Gao, why were they all here?

In the beginning, Proprietress Ling had believed that everything was a misunderstanding.

There was a certain instance where she helped someone fulfil their heart’s desire, which was to see their deceased family member.

During that instance, she had appeared while pretending to be that family member.

Hence, she assumed that person had issued the post online, going as far as spreading rumours, which made everyone believe that Yellow Springs Inn was a place that could allow them to see their deceased kin.

But upon careful consideration, Proprietress Ling realised that something was wrong.

She knew that the person who understood her the most was Waitress Jing.

When she saw a myriad of people that might have possible enmity with her appear, Proprietress Ling finally realised that Waitress Jing was trying to hurt her. But Proprietress Ling did not know that she and Vagrant Qian had conceived of a plan, she only thought that Waitress Jing wanted to borrow a knife to kill her.

Whether they were human or ghost, not everyone would harbour kindness in their hearts like her.

She never thought that the help she gave Waitress Jing, would be perceived as a kind of oppression and restriction in her eyes. Chef Huang was the same.

For the same reason, Proprietress Ling started guarding against Waitress Jing.

If the person who had called her into the room on this day was Waitress Jing, she would not have fallen for the scheme.

But the room she walked into belonged to Tourist Jia.

Tourist Jia, he was her future husband’s reincarnation, and the lover who had taken a bullet for her in his last life.

It was only at the instant where she was pierced with the bullet that Proprietress Ling finally understood that the monk had spoken the truth.

— Her lover had already died eighty years ago.

He walked across the Naihe Bridge, drank Grandmother Meng’s soup, and he had long forgotten her.

In this life, he was a brand new person, who were supposed to have nothing to do with each other.

It was her who insisted on trying to have a relationship with someone she should never have wanted, which led to this final tragedy.

She did not blame anyone.

* * *

In the forest, bells chimed, and a suit of kasaya appeared.

The monk knelt down. Before Proprietress Ling became scattered ashes and dispersed smoke, he retrieved the peachwood bullet from her chest. Then, he sat in a lotus position and started to chant the incantation for rebirth.

Amidst the encompassing gold light, the half-transparent Proprietress Ling opened her eyes, looking at the monk before her.

Proprietress Ling laughed, “Monk, you have grown old. You were still young that year, but now even your beard is white.”

The monk asked her: “Have you relinquished everything?”

Proprietress Ling: “I’ve relinquished them.”

Monk: “Then you should be going back to the reincarnation cycle.”

Beside the bluish-green lake, in the forest.

The gold light became brighter and brighter as the rebirth incantation was being recited, and the woman’s spirit gradually became transparent until it disappeared.

The monk rose to his feet, clad in his suit of kasaya. As he grew further and further, he only left behind a few sentences that echoed in the mountain range for a long time.

All loving affection will, are seldom long-lasting.

There is much dread in this world, for life and dangers are like morning dew.

Love begets worries, love begets fear.

Once departed from the lover, there will be neither worry nor fear.

Translator’s Note: The first two italicised lines that the monk speaks comes from a Buddhist Tale of a Mother Deer (佛说鹿母经) or King Banyan Deer – which admittedly, I’m not one hundred percent sure about, because I couldn’t find any exact translations of this – while the latter half the quoted lines came from The Incredible Sacrifice of Miao-shan (佛说妙色王因缘经) and the Diamond Sutra (金刚经).

Essentially, the first two lines speak of how there are a lot of opportunities and chances to find love and kindness, but they are impermanent, and it is difficult to make them last forever. There are many terrifying and dreadful things in life in this world, and life is as fleeting as the dewdrops at dawn.

The latter half elucidates how, because the heart loves, it gives rise to worries (of their object of love not being theirs for a long time); because the heart loves, it will give rise to emotions of fear (since they fear losing all that they love). If a heart has nothing it loves, it will not have such worries or fears. All of our worries and fears originate from love, because love is a type of desire.