Ghost Gate opens wide on the night of the full moon.
An eerie wind blows outside Shi Mo Village.
Jiang Xiaoxiao sits on a grassy mound, pinching a candy figurine in her hand and a gleaming cleaver at her waist.
On the village path nearby, a handsome youth in a blue shirt carries a basket on his back and hurries home, lantern in hand.
The youth is the "noble person" Jiang Xiaoxiao came down the mountain to find.
There's not a noble air about him. A gloomy aura even lingers over his head.
Truly a magnet for bad luck.
Behind the youth floats a hideous female ghost in red.
The ghost spies her chance and is about to strike the youth.
Jiang Xiaoxiao gives a "crunch" and bites off the head of the candy figurine.
The sound of her noisily chewing reaches the ghost's ears.
The ghost looks back, fixing her gaze on Jiang Xiaoxiao, then lets out a string of eerie laughter.
Jiang Xiaoxiao holds out the candy, asking the ghost, "Want some?"
Hearing this, Xie Xun on the village path glances back. Not far away on a grassy mound sits a figure.
The moonlight is hazy and he can't make out her face, but judging by her voice, it seems to be a girl.
A rather slow-witted girl.
Xie Xun has been able to see ghosts since he was little.
It's precisely because he knows a ghost follows behind that he hurries home. He didn't expect to run into such a silly girl halfway.
It's the middle of the Ghost Festival in July. Everyone else hates to even leave their doors open before dark to avoid attracting dirty things.
Yet she sits brazenly outside the village, seeing a ghost but not running away.
With the female ghost's attention completely captured by the silly girl, Xie Xun keeps his head low and continues on his way.
He doesn't have the habit of heroically coming to the aid of strangers.
What's more, he's facing a fierce ghost. He can hardly protect himself.
But he hasn't gone more than a few steps when suddenly shrieks of agony come from the ghost behind him.
Xie Xun whips around to see the girl has jumped down from the mound, still holding the headless candy figurine in one hand and raising a cleaver in the other.
She moves with great agility, chasing the ghost around the mound at high speed for half a lap before pivoting sharply and slicing at the ghost who has suddenly darted behind her.
The blade traces a dazzling arc of golden light, chopping straight into the ghost.
"Ah--- Ah ah ah---"
An evil wind rises around them.
The ghost's cries grow ever more shrill and agonized, its already hideous features twisting in pain.
Next, Xie Xun watches the ghost get hacked in two and dissolve into black smoke, quickly blown away by the wind.
"Don't like the candy? Had to start a fight."
Jiang Xiaoxiao mutters and tucks the cleaver back at her waist before going "crunch" and biting off the figurine's arm.
Her cheeks puff out as she chews with great satisfaction.
...
That silly girl used a meat cleaver to chop a fierce and ominous ghost to death!
Still stunned, Xie Xun looks on with complex emotions.
He's seen exorcists dispel evil, always setting up formations and talismans to cast magic.
A cleaver can kill ghosts?
But what does any of this have to do with him?
Xie Xun turns expressionlessly back around, about to enter the village and nearly home.
"Hey!" Jiang Xiaoxiao calls out behind him.
Xie Xun doesn't break stride.
Jiang Xiaoxiao asks, "Aren't you Xie Xun, the eldest son by primary empress who had his fortune stolen and was banished to the countryside to take his mother's surname as a child?"
Hearing this, Xie Xun's eyes flash with frightening coldness and ferocity. "Just who are you?"
He's lived in Shi Mo Village for years and no one from the capital has ever come looking for him. No villagers know his identity either.
"Oh, I'm Jiang Xiaoxiao. I've come to be your wife."
Her tone is utterly devoid of emotion.
Xie Xun: "???"
Jiang Xiaoxiao glances up at the sky. "The moon will reach its zenith soon. Can you take me home with you?"
On nights of the full moon, the curse on her takes effect. This is Jiang Xiaoxiao's fatal weakness since birth - every full moon night she shrinks to three inches tall.
Her master said she was cursed but was cryptic about the cause, not saying a word.
He only told her that at sixteen, she would meet a noble person whose purple gold dragon aura could help lift her curse.
Xie Xun is the "noble person" her master guided her to.
Eyeing the black gloom over Xie Xun's head, Jiang Xiaoxiao crunches off the figurine's leg.
Xie Xun raises his lantern and finally sees the silly girl's face clearly.
She wears an ill-fitting, loose robe, her hair simply tied up with a wooden hairpin. Her skin is fair and tender, her brows gracefully curved, lashes curled and eyes round, moist and clear without the slightest worldly taint.
Fatal purity!
When she said she came to be his wife, Xie Xun even wondered if she actually understood the meaning of those words.
Yet such an innocent, foolish girl has a vicious cleaver at her waist, which just chopped a fierce ghost to death!
Jiang Xiaoxiao doesn't care how Xie Xun looks at her. She just licks the candy figurine and repeatedly glances skyward, repeating her plea for him to take her home as the moon nears its zenith.
Xie Xun narrows his eyes as a shred of ferocity leaks out.
Every villager treats him like a plague god or evil star, wishing they could drive him from the village.
This is the first time someone has dared propose coming home with him.
"Can you take me home?" Jiang Xiaoxiao asks again.
"No!"
Xie Xun coldly throws down the refusal and leaves Jiang Xiaoxiao alone on the village path as he turns and walks away.
...
In a dilapidated thatched hut east of the village, an oil lamp lights up.
Xie Xun sets down his basket and sees the bruises at the corner of his mouth and on his arm reflected in the copper mirror under the lamplight.
Bandits had robbed him of the money from his day's sales of mountain goods when he was returning, and beat him up too.
That's why he was so late getting back today.
In all these years, something goes wrong every time he leaves home. It's become the norm.
When he was born, the entire imperial palace was bathed in auspicious glow, a sign of the imperial star's descent.
Yet at three, someone used evil arts to forcibly steal his purple gold dragon aura. His mother soon died in anger.
Everyone believed him inauspicious. The national master's remark that "If the Third Prince remains in the capital, it may harm the fortunes of the state" made him a target of public condemnation.
Thus his once exalted identity as eldest son by primary empress Murong Xun was overturned. He was banished to the countryside to take his mother's surname, the pitiful Xie Xun.
Since then, nothing goes smoothly no matter what he does. Misfortune befalls anyone close to him.
Even the wet nurse who came to care for him was affected by the ill fate around him. She fell ill and died.
Villagers see him as a plague god and evil star, avoiding him at all costs.
Xie Xun finds it a miracle he's even lived this long.
...
There is medicine in the house. After simply applying some, Xie Xun goes to the kitchen to start a fire.
It's too late to cook so he washes some sweet potatoes and puts them in the steamer.
When the potatoes are done, Xie Xun inadvertently glances out the window. The moon has reached its zenith, the hour of deepest yin energy.
That silly girl kept stressing the moon would soon reach its zenith. He wonders what she meant.
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, Xie Xun heads back to his room to fetch a plate for the potatoes.
But just as he reaches the threshold, he sees a sight even more terrifying than a ghost.
