"You probably know what happened after that. I ran for my life through the fire, making it to the far edge of the warehouse, but in the end I collapsed from exhaustion and passed out."
"When I woke up again, I was already in the hospital, and my face had become like this."
Gu Mian looked at the woman's face.
From the half that hadn't been burned, he could tell she had once been a pretty, delicate-looking girl, but the other half, twisted and disfigured, was impossible to ignore.
"For the first few days after I woke up, I had nightmares every night. I dreamed Zhong Min was coming to take my life. My older sister came to visit me a few times... I mean, the daughter of my biological parents."
"My sister said she'd held me when I was born, but I'd forgotten all about it. She was very kind to me. When she saw something was wrong, she secretly went to the village to find a spirit medium."
"The medium took one look at me and said I was being haunted—by Zhong Min, of course. She said there was nothing she could do, then ran off immediately."
"After that, I dreamed of Zhong Min every night. I dreamed I'd returned to the warehouse where the fire started, and that she was crawling out of the flames to kill me."
"She kept getting closer. Every day, she came nearer, until she was almost close enough to reach out and choke me to death."
"I thought I was done for, but then my sister came again. She brought me that..."
The woman looked toward the shrine in the corner of the living room. "My biological parents gave me away as soon as I was born because they wanted a son.