Spirit Communication 1

Nothing is sadder than a heart that has died.\ Pessimistic and world-weary people can often see ghosts from the underworld, and witness some ghostly mischief happening in the human world.\ On the night of July 15, Ming Li became completely disenchanted with life; she felt that she had failed as a person, failed because she was too strong-willed, too arrogant, too willful; failed because she had met the wrong people and allowed her sympathies to overflow; failed because she had been too indulgent, too spoiling, and too trusting of her daughter, her expectations too high, her disappointments too heavy.\ In the afternoon, when her nineteen-year-old beloved daughter brought her online boyfriend in front of her, Ming Li almost fainted. What was claimed to be a “top university student from an intellectual family” turned out to be a despicable young man from a remote rural family working as a computer café attendant, deceiving her innocent daughter. What particularly made Ming Li unable to tolerate it was that even though the deception had been exposed, her daughter, as if bewitched, was infatuated with that despicable boy and even threatened to elope with him.\ What attachment could a failure have to this world! Suddenly, Ming Li felt her heart hollowed out, her soul drained, as she wandered in a daze toward the embankment by the river. The dark river sparkled like a large velvet bed. Ming Li longed to lie down, she was so tired, she needed rest, to sleep forever and ever, so that she could no longer be hurt or sad, to find relief. “Relief! Relief! Relief!” This thought urged Ming Li forward, “one step, two steps, three steps…” Her emotions were extremely excited, as if she were not ending her life, but walking toward a blissful world.\ Just as she lunged toward the water, a wisp of mist rose from the river and stopped before her, transforming into a tiny baby, the size of a thumb, with a face not fully formed, the features still indistinct. The baby reached out to her with tiny hands, murmurously calling her “Mom—Mom—.” Through a sort of telepathy, Ming Li recognized this baby as the child she had once carried for four months but had to terminate. Seeing this child, Ming Li felt as if her heart was being cut with knives; she reached out, “Child, forgive me, Mom had no choice!” But the baby did not leap into her arms, instead smiled at her strangely, turned into a small bubble, and floated away on the water. Ming Li closed her eyes and jumped into the river, only to be grabbed from behind. Ming Li turned around and saw her father.Father was still so tall, wearing a sky-blue Mandarin jacket, a yellow outer robe, and a black silk hat—this was the outfit my late father wore when he was laid to rest ten years ago.\ Father pointed at Mingli and scolded, "Useless girl, you shouldn't have come here. My granddaughter isn't grown yet and needs your care. Leaving like this, are you trying to shirk your responsibility as a mother? Don't let me see you again. Go home at once!" Before Mingli could speak, Father had already floated onto the river. "Father—Father—!" Mingli called toward the river, and the water surged as Father's voice came through: "Go home—take care of my granddaughter—go home!"\ Mingli knew that Father had already gone. She still sat by the river; she didn't want to return to that cold and lonely home.\ She thought of the ghost of her prematurely dead baby, of her father's ghost. She knew her mother's and husband's ghosts were watching over her from another world, and tears fell from her eyes.