Ghost Husband

Ghost Husband is the second installment in Qiong Yao's "Plum Blossom Trilogy." Set in a border town in early Republican-era Hunan, it tells the story of Yuan Lemei and Ke Qixuan, a couple betrothed to each other in infancy, and of a love that transcends life and death. Eighteen years earlier, while fleeing hardship, the Ke and Yuan families were set upon by bandits; Lemei's father was killed in the chaos, and Lemei's mother, Yingxue, held the Ke family responsible, planting a feud between the two households that could never be untangled. Grown up, Lemei happens upon Qixuan dancing in a mask at a heaven-thanking ceremony in Wushan Village; recognizing her by the plum-blossom birthmark on her wrist as the fiancée fate had chosen for him, Qixuan falls quietly in love with her, and she with him. Yingxue vehemently opposes the match, and Lemei vows to die rather than give in, until her mother finally softens and consents. Just as the wedding approaches, a mysterious fire breaks out at the Ke household; Qixuan is left terribly disfigured and crippled in both legs. Unwilling to burden Lemei, he has his family spread word that he is dead—yet the stubborn Lemei carries his spirit tablet into the Ke house as his bride, keeping vigil alone night after night, and in her dazed grief she becomes convinced that Qixuan is still beside her. Concealing his identity, Qixuan disguises himself as an old gardener and haunts the grounds of Luoyue Pavilion, where Lemei mistakes him for her dead husband's ghost—hence the title "Ghost Husband." With delicate strokes the novel portrays the barrier between life and death and the tug-of-war between love and dignity, until at last the lovers' sincerity dissolves a feud spanning two generations. This edition is a volume in the Writers Publishing House "Complete Works of Qiong Yao," set from the definitive text the author rewrote in her later years.