Li Yu and his older cousin had both become ghosts. The pain of choking and drowning still lingered in their senses. Both of them knelt on the ground, coughing uncontrollably.
Their parents were too stunned to react. The onlookers had long since fled; only the souls who had come from the underworld remained gathered there.
The old woman crouched down, her expression kind, and gathered her two grandsons into her arms. She comforted them as if they were children. "It's all right, my precious boys. There, there, it's all right now. Look—you've become ghosts!"
Li Yu was so frightened that he shoved the old woman away and scrambled backward. He saw what he looked like now, and he saw his corpse on the ground. He screamed again and again, his mind gone blank, the sounds he made nothing but incoherent cries.
Li Yu's older cousin was completely dazed. He stared blankly at himself, at Li Yu, then at the old woman.
"Don't be afraid. Grandma would never hurt you. This is good for you. You're different now. Now that you've become ghosts, you don't have to fear anything." The old woman tried to persuade them.
"Hee-hee..."
"That's right, that's right."
"You're just like us now."
The souls around them chimed in.
Li Yu was still terrified. He crouched on the ground, wearing a grief-stricken expression, though he couldn't squeeze out a single tear.
The old woman grabbed Li Yu's older cousin, then reached out and pulled Li Yu back, too.
Her arm stretched out, making Li Yu scream as if he were about to be killed. His cries were shrill, the very sound of someone facing death.
"Stop screaming. Xiao Jiu, look at you..." The old woman shook her head and sighed. "I should've known you were a timid boy...