Chinese Mythology Tales 3

Hello everyone! Starting today, I'll be sharing Chinese mythological stories with you.

I'll do my best to explain any terms that might be unfamiliar, so before reading the story, it would help to understand some background about these special terms. The title of this story is:The Revenant Bride

Term Explanations:

官府 (Guānfǔ)​​ - The county magistrate's office, functioning as both courthouse and administrative center.

​客店 (Kèdiàn)​​ - A traditional Chinese inn for traveling merchants, similar to a coaching inn in medieval Europe.

​灵床 (Língchuáng)​​ - A funeral bier where corpses were displayed before burial, often for several days according to Chinese customs.

​纸衾 (Zhǐ qīn)​​ - Burial shrouds made of special paper, believed to protect the deceased in the afterlife.

Story Content:

Old Man Cai ran a roadside inn near Yangxin County. One stormy evening, four exhausted cart drivers arrived—only to find every bed occupied. "We'll take any shelter," they pleaded.

The innkeeper hesitated. His daughter-in-law had just died, her corpse lying in state awaiting a coffin. But the desperate travelers insisted: "Even your funeral parlor would suffice!"

The men bedded down near the candlelit bier, where the young woman lay beneath paper shrouds. Three fell asleep instantly—but the fourth, Li, remained uneasy.

At midnight, rustling...

The corpse sat up.

Li watched in horror as the revenant—skin like waxed parchment, forehead wrapped in burial linen—stooped over his companions. She breathed into each man's face. Three slow exhales. Three sleeping forms went still as stone.

When the dead woman turned toward Li, he pretended to sleep, stifling screams as icy breath filled his lungs.

At dawn's first light, Li bolted. The corpse gave chase—her stiff limbs gaining unnatural speed. He fled through barley fields, past sleeping villages (why did no one wake?), until spotting a Buddhist monastery.

"Help!" Li pounded the gates. The monks hesitated—until they saw the revenant closing in.

Li dodged behind a white poplar. Left. Right. Left again. The furious corpse mirrored his movements until—SNAP!—her fingernails sank deep into the bark. There she remained, frozen in rigor mortis, fingers hooked like eagle talons.

The county magistrate needed six men to pry the corpse loose. Back at the inn, Old Man Cai discovered three blue-faced travelers—dead without a mark. Only Li survived to tell the tale.

"Four men left our village," he wept to the magistrate. "Who'll believe I returned alone?" The official gave him a notarized account... and a strong recommendation for therapy.