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Chapter Text

As long as she could remember, Yue Daiyu had been stuck in the Burial Mounds the entire time she was dead. She had watched her own corpse rot away, eaten by the too-skinny crows and corpses, there was nothing left, not even bones. She was not sure why she was still a ghost, didn’t ghosts disappear when their remains were destroyed? If anything she feels stronger, wandering around the mound for years, maybe, and absorbing the resentful energy that saturates the place. She continued her afterlife, wandering around and getting stronger and stronger. She had no idea how long she had been dead because the sky was hidden by the black miasmic qi, and she was not able to leave. But, one day, this all changed.

It started when she could feel the mostly dormant resentful energy surge toward a seemingly random area. Her curiosity got the better of her and she made her way over, as she got closer she noticed that every resentful being was also making their way over.

When Daiyu finally reached the mass of resentful energy she noticed what was calling it, a young man. It was hard to make out his appearance through the black energy surrounding him, but she could hear his heart-wrenching screams. She had never been fond of children, nor had any of her own, but hearing his screams and realizing just how young he must be, made her realize why women killed and died for their kids.

She watched for a moment longer and took notice of the way the boy was managing to manipulate the energy. He wasn't good at it but he was doing surprisingly well for a living human. She moved forward, shoving her way through the evil spirits and salivating corpses, once she reached the boy she took notice of his features. He was too pale and looked tired, he was drenched in sweat and tears were falling from his eyes that were clenched shut. She reached out and pushed her hand through the resentful energy to rest it on his lower dantian. She could feel him tense further and pushed her hand down harder, to keep him from moving more than he already was. Daiyu starts to absorb as much of the black miasma as she can, not only making it easier for him to control but also letting him feel the way she does it. Demonstrating how he should do it, going with the energy, not against it.

It takes a while, she absorbs more of the evil Qi than she has ever done before, she feels like she will burst with all the energy being held in her ghostly body. Finally, the young man can control the resentful energy and absorb it into his lower dantian, where it starts to slowly circle in a ball-like shape.

Is this what cultivators do with their Qi? Daiyu thinks to herself.

She decides to try, circulating her gathered resentful energy the same way the boy was, letting it gather in behind her belly button. Almost immediately she notices that she feels a little stronger, the Qi is now reaching her entire being and reinforcing it. She keeps playing with it, letting it move how it wants and making sure it is settling as it is supposed to, it almost seems more content with being able to move and not just being squished into a ball in her chest. She lets time pass as she lets herself adapt to the new strength coursing through her body.

A few hours go by, and Yue Daiyu notices the young boy stirring and makes her way over to where she left him.

“Wh-who are you?” He asks groggily, his gray-blue eyes were not fully alert.

She puts her hand on his chest and pushes him back on the ground when she notices him trying to sit up. “My name is Yue Daiyu, and you should not be moving yet.” She chides him gently.

He tenses up when he feels her hand, it is too cold to be from a human. The chill of her hand erases his grogginess and he can finally see the strange woman clearly.

Yue Daiyu, as she introduced herself, was a beautiful woman, if you ignored the fact she was obviously dead. Her robes, although covered in dirt and blood, were of high quality. They were the typical robes a young woman would wear on her wedding day, red with gold trimming. The ghost's brown hair was a mess, strands were sticking out of her fancy updo, braids were coming apart, and some parts were matted with tangles or blood. Her eyes were clear and bright blue, and her skin was almost white, which made her look even more eerie. He could make out various injuries to her body, ones that must have happened before or during her death, she had cuts on her face, one of her eyes was swollen shut, and she had handprints around her throat. Due to the injuries to her face, the makeup she was wearing was smeared, her red eyeliner was running down her cheeks and her lipstick was streaked down to her chin.

Daiyu waits for the boy to finish his observations, holding still so as to not cause any panic. After a few seconds, she speaks up, “Do you feel well enough to move?” Her voice is gentle and sweet.

“Uh-” The young man slowly starts to sit up, not taking his eyes off the ghost. You could never be too cautious around any supernatural being, no matter how kind they acted. “Yeah, I can move.”

The lady in red stands up and offers a pale, dainty hand to the boy. “There is a cave not far from here, it should provide enough shelter from the others.”

The boy hesitantly grabs the cold hand and is hoisted up with shocking speed, it is almost as if he weighed nothing to her. She continues to hold his hand and guide him through the Burial Mounds, toward the cave she had spoken of earlier. Her demonic Qi lashes out at any of the other beings that are trying to approach if the beings are not already avoiding her strong aura.

“So- uh, are you related to the Lan?” He asks, trying to joke about her surprising strength, the joke falls a little flat.

“Lan?” Yue Daiyu tilts her head, trying to remember, “I do not believe so. I had nothing to do with the cultivation world before I died.”

The boy raises his eyebrows in surprise, with the amount of resentful energy she has he thought she had been a cultivator that had died in the mounds.

By the time they reach the cave, exhaustion is evident on the young man's face. His steps are starting to slow and his face has paled further. She slowly guides him into the cave and lets him sit against the wall.

“You should rest. There is not much you can do until you have regained your energy.”

The boy nods sluggishly and closes his eyes, too exhausted to try and be suspicious of the strange ghost girl.

Chapter Text

Yue Daiyu decided to try and gather some things that the mysterious young boy would need. She leaves the cave and heads towards the entrance of the Burial Mound, it was usually where bodies were dumped by bandits, or where people decided to enter for various reasons. It takes her a while to get to her destination, but once she reaches it she finds the freshest bodies and starts to search them. There are 3 fresh bodies, two of which were once wealthy merchants and one was a teen boy, probably here on a dare or a suicide trip.

The merchant's clothing looks too big for the boy, so she starts to strip the dead teen boy of his robes. They were gray and red, very simple robes. She cannot find anything for the strange boy to eat, but one of the merchants has a half-full water pouch. She grabs that and begins to head back to the cave, on the way there she notices something white lying in the dirt. Upon approaching it, she realizes it is a small white cloth bag with fancy embroidery, she grabs it.

It takes her some time to get back to the cave, and once she does, she sees that the boy is awake and trying to get off the ground. “Oh no! You should not be moving, sir!” She sets the stuff down on the ground and rushes to the boy.

She grabs his shoulder and guides him to sit back against the wall, “You are too injured to be moving right now,” she chides him gently. He looks at her, his eyes are much clearer than when he first was awake.

“Who-” he starts to cough, his throat probably hurts from all the screaming he had been doing earlier. She stands and hurries over to the things she had gathered earlier, once she is back by the boy's side she hands him the half-full water pouch. “Drink slowly, this is all I could find.”

The boy takes a few slow sips before speaking again, “Who- What are you?”

She blinks a few times, a little shocked at the rude question before she realizes what he means, “Oh,” she gasps, “I’m Yue Daiyu, I am a ghost, at least I think so.”

“A ghost?” He mumbles to himself. She nods and looks him over, he is less pale than he was earlier and he seems a lot more alert. 

“I think you should be able to move around, not too much though, you are still injured.” She tells him, a little unsure because she was definitely not a doctor when alive, “I found some decent clothing for you to change into.”

“Clothing? Here?” He asks skeptically, “Where did you find clothing in the Burial Mounds? ”

Daiyu looks away sheepishly, “Ah…”

The other raises an eyebrow, “Hm?”

“I got them off of a..” She pauses, “body. But I couldn't find any other clothes around here for you!” She tries to defend herself.

He watches her flail for a few more moments before cackling, “Haha! It's fine, I kind of figured it out myself.” He smiled cheekily at the ghost.

Daiyu pauses at his words, before crossing her arms and poting at him, “Well then! If you must be this way than I will not show you what else I found for you.” She says in a huff.

The boy pauses and looks at her curiously, “Oh? What did you find?”

“Ask nicely.” She demands haughtily.

He rolls his eyes at the ghost before widening his eyes and pouting a bit, “Please show me what you found.”

She stares at him and his wide eyes, “Uh…” Daiyu is a little shocked at the sudden shift in personality. “Here.” She hands over the fancy white bag.

The second he sees the bag, it is snatched out of her hands. He holds it up to his face, closely examining it, after looking the bag over for a few moments, he speaks up.

“Where did you find this?”

“Next to the dead.”

He hums and goes back to staring at the bag.

“Is-” She hesitates, “Is it important?”

He nods, eyes still on the bag, “It's a qiankun bag, basically a spatial storage bag.”

“It is a cultivation tool?”

“Kind of,” He starts, “Qiankun bags are expensive and are mostly owned by the 5 great sects, but sometimes rich merchants get ahold of them. They either buy them from sects or get them as gifts for some reason or another.”

She hums and thinks for a few moments, “That makes sense.”

She then looks back at the boy and stands up from the ground and holds out a hand to the other, “Come on, let's get you changed.”

He looks down at his clothes before sighing and grabbing her hand, as he is, once again, yanked off the ground with surprising strength. He looks at the ghost bride's arms, is she secretly related to the Lan, even distantly?

“Come on,” She holds his hand and pulls him further into the cave, “There is no water to wash up, but you can use your old rags to wipe off some of the dirt.” 

As she speaks, she leads him to a dead end and lightly nudges him forward, “You can change here, I will keep watch and make sure none of the monsters get in.”

She shoves the clothes she had given him into his arms and turns around, heading a few feet away to keep watch.

He is slightly disoriented from her sudden demands and stands there staring at her back for a few seconds before stripping his torn robes from his body. He does use the cleaner parts of his old robes to wipe some of the dirt and blood off his body. Once he does that he looks at the robes she got him, they were gray and had some red details on the sleeves and bottom, he quickly puts them on.

“Okay, I’m done.”

Yue Daiyu turns around and takes in his new appearance. He looks a little more put together, he is still a little dirty and his hair is a mess, with strands falling from his ponytail.

“Looks good, now come here.” She motions him over, “Let me fix your hair.”

He slowly approaches her before turning around, he almost crunches before he realizes that she is taller than him by a good bit.

Daiyu pulls the ribbon from his hair, taking care not to rip it, she knows all about wanting to keep your possessions safe. She runs her fingers through his hair, getting the worst knots out and then pulls some hair from his face and puts it into a half-up half-down style.

He turns around and runs his fingers through his hair, “It’s different.”

She nods, “Yes, do you not like it?”

“It’s fine.”

They descend into an awkward silence for a few moments before Yue Daiyu speaks up, “What is your name?”

The boy looks at her, confused.

“You never introduced yourself.” She continues to speak, “And it seems like we are going to be around each other for a while, so what should I call you?”

“Wei Wuxian.”