The year my sister and I were born, the Moore family became rich overnight.
A Taoist priest foretold that our family had both a “blessed daughter” who would bring prosperity and a “drought demon woman” who would bring ruin.
When I came of age, the matriarch of the Lancaster family offered half of their fortune as a bride price to have me use my body to cure Adrian Lancaster, who was paralyzed and impotent.
Three months after we shared a bed, I was diagnosed with twins.
Adrian immediately dropped to his knees and proposed to me.
My sister, however, had been rejected by seven fiancés and, in a fit of rage, killed someone.
But on the eve of my wedding, I suddenly fell gravely ill.
My parents claimed it was urgent and insisted my sister marry in my place.
That night, she escaped arrest and married into the Lancaster family,
while I was tricked onto a cruise ship, my blood drained as I was dragged three hundred nautical miles, leaving behind nothing but my bare bones, trapped aboard and unable to reincarnate.
Ten years after my death, the Princess Mary, the world’s most luxurious cruise ship, set sail for the first time,
hosting Adrian Lancaster and my sister’s tenth wedding celebration.
In front of everyone, my sister was diagnosed as carrying ninety-nine babies.
The crowd erupted, praising her as a true “blessed mother.”
But the next second, the bridesmaids’ heads were severed out of thin air.
My sister’s belly split open, her intestines punctured, and her lungs shredded.
Adrian spent a fortune to hire Master Gregory, a “walker between worlds,” to traverse the realms of yin and yang and slay the vengeful spirit.
He comforted my sister, saying, “Don’t be afraid. Once I catch the spirit, I’ll make you an amulet from her soul.”
My parents painted the Eighteen Ghost-Slaying Formation in blood to destroy me.
“Even in death you can’t behave! Ruining our darling girl’s tenth wedding—you deserve to be obliterated!”
But Master Gregory made three trips into the underworld and returned with a drastically changed expression.
“There are a hundred ghosts roaming this ship at night. Who exactly is the one that died?”
Everyone shivered.
My parents and sister froze. “Of course… of course it’s Isabella Moore. She’s the only disgrace this family’s ever produced.”
Guests eager to curry favor with the Moore family chimed in.
“Who else could it be? Mr. Moore has been a righteous merchant his whole life, kind and generous, but somehow had such a disgraceful daughter! How could her soul be missing?”
“The Princess Mary was Miss Isabella’s wedding gift—how could anyone have died on it, let alone a hundred?”
“Master, you’re not a fraud, are you?”
“No,” he said.
Sweating profusely, Master Gregory closed his eyes again to confirm.
When he opened them, fear filled his gaze.
“My eyes see the truth between worlds—there is more than one dead here!”
His expression turned grave.
“Miss Moore, have you felt your organs twisting, your body chilled? That’s a sign of a hundred ghosts passing through you. If it’s not resolved…”
“Both you and the child in your womb will die a violent death, with no chance of rebirth!”
Everyone held their breath in fear.
My sister’s eyes bulged as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
“Ah—don’t come near me! Evelyn Moore! She’s here to take my life—”
My parents’ faces darkened, and they quickly interrupted:
“Paranoid nonsense.”
“All of Oceanview City knows your sister Isabella took her own life—it has nothing to do with you. You must be scared out of your wits…”
Master Gregory’s expression shifted with understanding.
“If Mr. Moore can’t tell the truth, I can’t save Miss Moore.”
With that, he stood to leave.
The next instant, the grand ceiling of the gilded ballroom crashed down,
revealing mottled rust and bloodstains beneath the gold paint.
The crowd gasped.
Someone stopped Master Gregory and pointed at my parents.
“Didn’t you say the Princess Mary was newly built, sailing for the first time? These rust marks are a decade old!”
“What’s going on?”
My father looked at the blood streaming from beneath my sister and spoke helplessly.
“Back then, she died on the Princess Mary.
And with her, over a hundred half-naked crew members.”
