The Dead Groom's Bride

Go send me home already

"Ling Ling!"

Ling Ling jerked her head up, she was deep into Junjie when she was Interrupted.

Bolin stood in front of her, he emerged from a secret passage from the mansion. He went alone without anyone else with him.

Ling Ling breathed in relief as she saw Bolin in one piece.

"Bolin!" She exclaimed excitedly and jumped off the boulder running for his arms.

Boling swallowed her in his embrace. "I'm glad you're safe, Ling Ling. I was so worried."

"Yes, I know. Thanks to him..." Ling Ling turned over to her shoulder to look back at Junjie but he was no longer there. He vanished swiftly with the wind.

He's gone...Ling Ling scanned her eyes around, but the vegetation was thick, and it had gotten darker.

"Who was it?" Bolin asked.

"Someone." Murmured Ling Ling distantly.

"The same someone you told me earlier?"

Ling Ling lifted her eyes to Bolin. "Don't worry about him. He was a very strange man anyway."

"Let's go take you back to the mansion."

"Right."

Bolin picked up her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. He started walking off to a different direction when for a moment, Ling Ling thought she saw a flash of eyes watching them from the field.

They were bright, and they were sharp, and she had realized it was Junjie who watched them from a safe distance.

She grabbed Bolin's arm with her other hand for extra security. "Yes, let's get out of here."

The walk back to the mansion was peaceful. They weren't cornered by ogres, monsters, or demons wanting to eat her. Ling Ling thought it was strange that Bolin was able to find it so easily when she couldn't find the mansion at all earlier.

They walked inside the gate, the yard seemed eerie and thick with fog. Almost like a cemetery deep at night. It was scary, and Ling Ling found herself clasping to Bolin tighter.

The Lao's mansion doesn't seem like a hunted house in the world of the living. It seemed vibrant and alive. "It seemed so different, Bolin."

"What seem different, Ling Ling?"

"The mansion. I don't remember it being so creepy."

"Oh, it's probably because we are entering the spirit of the mansion, not the actual mansion."

"The spirit of the mansion?"

"Yes, everything has a spirit, Ling Ling and this is the spirit of the Lao's mansion."

"Is that why I lost sight of it earlier?"

"Yes, when you entered the spirit world, everything shifted and rearranged you won't always find the same thing at the same place. You need to let its spirit call to you."

Ling Ling made a sound of understanding. It was something that made sense but not entirely. "I see. Now, would you be able to send me back to my body?"

Bolin smiled and kissed her forehead. "Wouldn't you want to stay with me for a little while?"

Ling Ling forced a smile. She wished she had it in her heart to tell him yes but after what she'd been through today, she don't think she would want to stay in the spirit world at all.

"No, Bolin. I would like to go back to my body."

"That's a shame. I would've love to spend more time with you."

"Perhaps in my dreams again, Bolin."

Bolin sighed melancholily, "very well, if that's what you want. I will send you back to the human world immediately."