Chapter Twenty-Eight: Becoming a Ghost

The Prince of Zhou fell silent after uttering his final laugh. Zhu Zijin, holding a bowl of chilled cream, froze when he realized his father had stopped moving. Trembling, he reached out a finger to check for a pulse.

Pan Jun had already stood up. She said to the servants waiting nearby, "The Prince of Zhou has passed away."

Zhu Zijin collapsed to his knees with a heavy thud and burst into loud sobs. Suddenly, the courtyard was filled with deafening wailing. Those who had served the Prince most closely cried the loudest and most bitterly, sitting on the ground with their heads thrown back. They were not just mourning the Prince; they were mourning themselves.

Pan Jun’s gaze swept over them. The youngest among them was about seventeen. Over the past two months, Pan Jun had grown familiar with him. He was always diligent, and because his father had followed the Prince of Zhou into exile in Yunnan, he had been highly valued since entering the manor, eventually being promoted to serve the Prince at the age of thirteen. He had known since last year that he would be required to be buried with the Prince, and he was only sixteen then.

Pan Jun turned and walked away. Outside the main courtyard, a group of beautiful women lay weeping on the ground. The most elegantly dressed among them was a woman in her thirties—one of the Prince’s secondary consorts. If no imperial decree arrived to prevent it, they, too, would be required to follow him in death. The Princess Consort, Madame Gong, had been among them, but she was no longer there.

The funeral arrangements had been prepared long ago. The manor stewards immediately produced the necessary items, and a mourning hall was constructed with record speed. Officials from the Ministry of Rites assisted, and they soon guided Zhu Zijin in dressing the Prince in his burial robes and placing his body into the coffin inside the hall.

Pan Jun walked around the mourning hall, quietly chanting a sutra. The soul, which had been on the verge of dispersing, slowly coalesced until it took shape, sitting atop the coffin. He looked bewildered. Pan Jun walked up to him, tapped his forehead lightly, and whispered, "Collect your spirit."

The Prince of Zhou instantly regained his focus. Upon waking, his eyes met Pan Jun’s smiling gaze.

The Prince: "..."

Inside and outside the hall, the wailing continued. The Prince turned his head stiffly to look at the man lying in the coffin, his eyes widening in shock. He... he really had become a ghost! It was a brand-new world, a brand-new realization.

The Prince drifted upward, floating around with great interest. He floated out of the hall, out of the courtyard... and then found he could not go any further. He looked back in confusion, then drifted lightly back. At first, he was clumsy, often blown off course by the wind, but he gradually learned the trick. Like a child learning to walk, he began to drift forward, stumbling according to his own will.

He drifted over to Pan Jun and asked, "Why can't I leave the Prince of Zhou's manor?"

Pan Jun replied, "Your Highness, you only have seven days. If you drift out and cannot find your way back to enter the underworld smoothly, you will become a wandering spirit, easily devoured by the spirits and demons outside. This manor is protecting you."

"Meow—" Pan Xiaohei signaled that someone was approaching.

Before the sound faded, Xuanmiao pushed the door open. "What are you doing here? The Princess Consort requests your presence, and the Prince of Xiangfu is demanding that the six secondary consorts be buried with the Prince..."

Xuanmiao’s voice cut off abruptly. Her eyes widened as she stared at the Prince of Zhou’s soul, which was floating in mid-air, curiously poking his head toward the rafters. She shot a sharp, fierce look at Pan Jun and hissed, "Are you insane?"

In this world, except for the dead with deep obsessions who return to the human realm, ghosts do not naturally form a human shape; they are merely fuzzy clusters of energy. They slowly dissipate into heaven and earth. Some Taoists believe this is a return to nature, while others believe it is the process of heading to the underworld to be reincarnated. Only those with great resentment or obsession, refusing to die or accept their passing, naturally regain their senses and exist in another space as human-shaped entities, invisible to ordinary people—what people call ghosts.

Beyond natural ghost formation, there is another method: when a person has just died, one can guide their soul energy to reconvene and awaken the spirit they had in life, thus turning them into a ghost.

Xuanmiao had captured ghosts and communicated with them throughout her life, but this was her first time seeing someone artificially coalesce a soul into a ghost. She stepped forward, grabbed Pan Jun’s arm, pulled her behind her, and stared warily at the Prince.

The Prince: "..."

When he was distributing his estate before he died, he had even given Xuanmiao a sword. How had he become an enemy after only two hours?

Pan Jun poked her head out from behind Xuanmiao and explained, "Don't worry, he has all his memories, and this soul is firmly coalesced. Not a single thread of his spirit is missing."

The Prince felt a jolt of anxiety and drifted down to ask, "Can parts of the soul go missing?"

"Of course," Pan Jun said. "An unskilled practitioner performing a soul-summoning might only draw in one fragment, leaving the others scattered across heaven and earth. The soul summoned that way would have an incomplete personality; not only would they not remember things clearly, but they could also be quite vicious."

"But I am not unskilled," Pan Jun added. "While I may be average at other things, I am most proficient in formations, talismans, and soul-summoning. So, Your Highness, rest assured, you are quite complete."

Seeing the vivid expressions on the Prince's face, Xuanmiao relaxed slightly, but seeing how lightly Pan Jun treated the matter, she felt a lump of frustration in her chest.

Just as she was about to speak, the door was pushed open again. Tao Ji hurried in. "Junior sister, what are you doing in here? The Princess Consort, the Heir, and the Prince of Xiangfu are arguing."

As he spoke, Tao Ji walked straight through the Prince's soul. As he passed, he shivered and frowned. "Why is it so chilly? You're quite far from the mourning hall..."

Pan Jun’s eyes widened. She looked at Tao Ji, then at the Prince’s soul, then back at Xuanmiao, her eyes lighting up. "You didn't see him?"

Tao Ji asked, "See what?"

The Prince was waving his arms vigorously in front of Tao Ji, apparently finding it amusing, and even reached out to touch his face.

Tao Ji frowned, swiped his hand through the air, and squeezed next to Xuanmiao, looking around. "Junior sister, do you feel that? The yin energy in this room is exceptionally strong."

"I feel it," Xuanmiao said helplessly, bowing to the Prince. "Your Highness, please spare my third senior brother. Do not tease him anymore."

Tao Ji let out a yelp and jumped three feet high, instantly retreating to the corner of the room to keep his distance. "He... he... how did he turn into a ghost?"

The Prince retorted, "If I didn't turn into a ghost after dying, what would I turn into?"

Pan Jun couldn't be bothered to explain further. She picked up the black cat and walked out. It turned out that not all Taoists in this world could see ghosts like Xuanmiao could. Pan Jun suddenly felt much more confident.

She walked with a smile toward the side room next to the mourning hall. The Princess Consort, Zhu Zijin, and the family of the Prince of Xiangfu were all gathered there.

It was summer and very hot. Usually, the coffin would be moved to a different location after three to seven days of lying in state. Whether it would be buried later was a different matter, but it could not remain in the mourning hall indefinitely; it could be temporarily placed in a temple or Taoist monastery while awaiting imperial decrees or condolences from other regional princes.

Before that, however, the funeral objects and the people designated for human sacrifice had to be finalized.

Although the Prince of Zhou had left a will requesting a frugal funeral without human sacrifice, certain things were still expected. Otherwise, not to mention the Prince of Xiangfu, even the eunuchs and the Ministry of Rites officials present would question Zhu Zijin’s filial piety.

Everyone agreed on the burial objects, but Zhu Zijin and the Princess Consort refused the human sacrifices.

Zhu Zijin said, "My father had a final wish not to have anyone buried with him. I do not wish to violate it."

The Prince of Xiangfu replied, "This is the ancestral law. Your father is going to the underworld all alone; you do not think to send servants to attend to him to show your filial piety, but only wish to win a reputation for benevolence. It seems that one who is not a biological son truly cannot be considerate."

The Princess Consort countered, "Fourth Uncle, this is also my intention, and the Prince's intention. As you said, we have no children. The Prince always believed this was the karmic debt of killing too many in his youth while patrolling the borders. Since that realization, we have been lenient toward others, doing good deeds in hopes of being granted a child in the next life. Neither the Prince nor I wish for anyone to be buried with him. Master Zhang of the Ministry of Rites is here; he knows that the Prince petitioned the throne every year to exempt our manor from human sacrifice. The Heir is simply following the Prince’s final wish."

Master Zhang nodded immediately. "That is correct; such petitions did exist."

"Then, in your professional opinion, Master Zhang, is the Heir’s action in accordance with filial piety?"

Master Zhang paused before nodding. "Following a father's wish is, by definition, filial piety."

Zhu Youruo asked coldly, "Then how does the sister-in-law intend to handle the matter of the funeral attendants? According to ancestral law, to ensure the eldest brother is not lonely or wronged on his journey, the six secondary consorts should be buried with him. Do you and the Heir intend to violate ancestral law and suppress this matter?"

Pan Jun and her companions reached the side room. She nudged Tao Ji, who was standing beside her.

Tao Ji shivered and immediately said, "What is difficult about that? Since the Prince of Zhou submitted a memorial before his death, we can simply ask the Emperor for a final decision."

Zhu Zijin nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes. Whether to follow ancestral law or my father’s final wish, let His Majesty decide. I will submit a memorial to him right now."

Zhu Youruo looked at the eunuch. "I fear there isn't enough time; it would delay the auspicious hour for the eldest brother."

The eunuch stammered, "This..."

The Princess Consort glanced at Nanny Qin. Nanny Qin stepped forward and slipped a heavy red envelope into the hands of the eunuch and Master Zhang. "There is time, there is plenty of time. Our manor will send it by fast horse to the capital. We apologize for the trouble and hope you will stay a few more days to handle the official business."

This blatant bribery made Zhu Youruo’s face turn pale, but... there was nothing appropriate for him to say, so he swallowed his retort.

The Prince of Zhou watched from the side and sighed, "The fourth one is good at enduring. If the second one were here, he would have smashed my mourning hall to pieces after being rebuffed like that by the Princess Consort."

Perhaps because he was dead, the Prince was much more candid, commenting on his brother in front of Pan Jun and Xuanmiao. "Actually, the fourth one isn't bad. I hadn't planned on bringing Zijin back, but the Princess Consort kept having nightmares and sent people to the capital to investigate. Alas, the child has suffered so much. That bastard, the second one, not only dumped all the farm work on him but also beat and scolded him at every turn. The boy didn't have an inch of unbruised skin. After all, I raised him from a child; how could I bear to see him die?"

Pan Jun found him long-winded and moved further away. Just then, the Prince of Xiangfu was attacking Tao Ji, claiming his medical skills were poor and that he was merely a Taoist playing with ghosts and gods, and that the Princess Consort and the Heir had been deceived by him, hence their rebellious behavior.

Tao Ji did not fear him and argued back tit-for-tat. Finally, Master Zhang stepped in to mediate, and the two fell silent.

Pan Jun's purpose in coming here was to guide Zhu Zijin in writing the memorial and, incidentally, to nudge Master Zhang and the eunuch, planting a seed for them to have a "good dream" when they returned tonight.

The memorial sent by the manor alone might carry less weight, but if the two imperial envoys sent it back and put in a good word for the Prince of Zhou’s manor, that would be perfect.

She hadn't coalesced the Prince of Zhou into a ghost just to watch the spectacle; he also needed to contribute to his own final wish, didn't he?