Related Cases (1)
Related Novels (1)
Related Chapters (3)
The Mourners Who Became a Curse
Words: 3076 · Source Novel:: The Sorrow of the Hungry Ghost
With the trial concluded and Huang Fu sentenced to hard labor, the parents perform the final rite—they burn the carved doll and swallow the ashes, merging their grief with the unavenged wrath of the hungry ghost. The story ends with a village plague and the sound of a woman's lullaby drifting from the dry well, leaving the reader to wonder whether the law's triumph was nothing but the midwife to a deeper, unspeakable horror.
The Verdict That Wore a Mask of Ink
Words: 2987 · Source Novel:: The Sorrow of the Hungry Ghost
Xu Xuan is convicted, but an imperial edict—coerced by the eunuch faction—demands his transfer to the capital for review. Huang Fu, understanding that procedure will strangle substance, executes Xu Xuan at dawn and displays the corpse. The parents witness this "victory," but see only a theatre of uprightness: the law has been served, yet the edict's arrival still brands Huang Fu a criminal. The mother screams that justice is merely a ghost dressed in official seals.
The Eunuch's Shadow Cast in Bone
Words: 3124 · Source Novel:: The Sorrow of the Hungry Ghost
Huang Fu, the newly appointed Inspector of Donghai, reopens the case after receiving an anonymous confession written on funerary paper. He unearths the girl's remains in a dry well on Xu Xuan's estate, the skeleton still clutching a lock of its own hair. As Huang Fu prepares the indictment, the parents watch from the crowd, their eyes hollow. They know that procedure can be bought, and that the law's delay is another grave.