Zheng Hongjun and Song Shuangmei were first. The fell onto their knees in unison and began to beg forgiveness, apologizing for what they'd done to Xiao Yi and her sister.

Zheng Baolong was next. He spoke from where he stood, several meters behind everyone else. Although he did not raise his voice or kneel down, he seemed sincere. "I'm sorry I hurt you. You can kill me, haunt me, or do whatever you have tobut, please let my kids go. I'm sorry, my girl." His head dropped down. I watched in surprise as a pair of tears fell from his face.

Xiao Yi didn't seem to notice any of their apologies. Her face was angled skyward and the red tinge of her body pulsed lighter and lighter.

"Is she talking to someone else?" I wondered, watching her curiously.

When the silence had gone on too long, her adoptive father spoke up. "Xiao Yi, won't you talk with me?"

Her face dropped from the sky and locked onto the man. A peaceful smile slowly dawned on her face. "She's already forgiven them." I thought again and began to murmur the incantation that would lead her onto the next plane.

I finished the rites and dismissed the supernatural air around me as Xiao Yi's red form disappeared into nothingness. When it was done, I asked everyone to leave.

The police shuffled Zheng Baolong back into the patrol car and drove towards the station. Zheng Hongjun and Song Shuangmei bid us goodbye and said they were returning to their village. They didn't even mention wanting to see Xiao Wen, which lifted a heavy weight off my shoulders.

I was about to leave the watermelon field when Xiao Yi's adopted father stopped me. "You're Xiao Yong, right?" He asked. I nodded. "Will she be okay, you know, where she's going?"

I nodded again, "Yes, she'll be fine. Don't worry." I paused for a moment and added, "I'm very sorry for your loss."

On the way back, Lv Bin told me that his crew would leave tomorrow. "She's gone," He said, "Our job is done thanks to you."

I was walking back from the police station with Zhao Jie when he interrupted my thoughts. "You're really powerful now aren't you?" He looked at me with a kind of admiration. I shrugged. "It's cool. I hope I can be like you some day."

I shook my head at him. "This is a strange burden to shoulder, Zhao Jie. You wouldn't say that if you'd been through all of this. It's crazy."

We were silent the rest of the way home.

When our school holiday ended I rejoined the student body as a third year in junior high. My parents expressed their usual desire that I thrive as a student and encouraged me to study hard to get into a high reputation school like Zhao Yuan.

Although I took pride in my studying, I spent a lot of my time outside of school researching and practicing my Taoism. If school were to ever test us on that, I'd do quite well, something I constantly told my dad.

When classes resumed I became quite close with You Xiaoqing again. We spent a lot of time studying around classes and my training, which helped improve my marks.

Winter came around and my family moved into the new house on the other side of the village. My room was almost twice as big as the last one and it had a grand window that let in a lot of natural light. The only downside was that Zhao Jie and I were no longer neighbors.

Spring Festival made its way closer on the calendar, something that was made better by a letter from Master Liu. His note chastised me for showing off my skills in front of Lv Bin and warned me not to use the Peach Blossom Mirror around other Taoists. I read this with as little chagrin as manageable and vowed to myself to keep from making these mistakes again.

"You're safe as long as I am in the game, but know that I can't always protect you. I won't be around forever." His words read.

"Not a very jolly message." I muttered, but smiled anyway. It was always nice to hear from him.

Xiao Wen grew substantially that year and developed the lovingly annoying habit of following me around. She'd chatter constantly and ask to do everything that I did. It was awful.

I spent the months after the spring festival studying for the high school entrance examination, but when it came around my scores were nowhere near as good as Zhao Yuan's. I was accepted into two schools, neither as prestigious as hers, but not bad organizations by any means.

The boys didn't do as well as I did. Zhao Jie, Shang Haoming, and Ku Tou scraped by and got into high schools, though it didn't look like any of them would be my classmates. I remember saying silent prayers that I would at least get into the same school as You Xiaoqing.

Zhao Yuan's college entrance scores were three points too low to get her into Beijing University, which was a major disappointment or so I was told. She ended up being accepted into Fudan University, her second choice. Still, she gained a fabulous amount of renown for being accepted into college, a rarity in our village.

The Zhao family hosted a congratulations party for her. I stayed on the sidelines, talking mostly to Zhao Jie and turning beet red every time Zhao Yuan came around. I didn't dare tell her how I felt.

When the end of summer came rolling and our school assignments came in the mail, I was both disappointed and relieved. You Xiaoqing and I were assigned to Longan Senior High, which was good. Zhao Jie and Ku Tou were both assigned to a separate school though, and I would miss them greatly.

Longan Senior High was in Longan Town. It was known for a having heavy science curriculum and boasted a number of early graduates. They showed this off with a bright orange banner over the school gates. My dad nearly jumped out of his shoes when he saw it.

"Look! Xiao Yong, you can go to a good university even without senior high school!" He nudged me in the ribs and lowered his voice, "You just have be a top science scorer." And then he winked.

I nodded and kept silent. College was a whole different ball game.

You Xiaoqing and I spent the last few days of summer hanging out and planning ahead for the new school. It was several times bigger than junior high and I was honestly intimidated. Everything I'd done felt very big fish small pond.

"Do you think we'll be in the same class?" You Xiaoqing asked.

"If I have anything to do with it." I told her. I was sure to request the same homeroom as her during registration. It'd be nice if we could keep working together.

Two days before classes began our families helped us move into the high school dorms.

I was in the male dormitory close to the southern wall. It was a big square building with three floors. Juniors and seniors were on the first floor, freshmen and sophomores on the second and third. I was on the second floor in the east corner.

I was amazed at the sheer amount of people walking this way and that during the move in. It was almost impossible to see everything throughout the process.

I claimed a bed in my assigned room while my parents spoke with another group of adults in the hallway. Afterwards, our family got together with You Xiaoqing and hers. We went to a restaurant down the road from the school and had lunch. By the time the adults left we were physically and emotionally exhausted.

When classes began I sought her out and made sure that we would have seats next to each other. The other boys in class shot me envious looks when she sat down beside me, sweeping her long black hair back over her shoulder. She really was beautiful.

We started having dinner together once a week and kept in almost constant contact. It was nice. We made friends with some of the others in our class and got used to the new schedules. I was usually out later than she was because I took an evening study class and spent some time in the library afterwards.

It didn't take long before something strange happened. Life was feeling far too ordinary just with school. One night after I finished studying in the library I trekked my way across the small campus to my dorm. I'd taken to using the outside stairways to access the second floor and avoiding the lobby because the older boys crowded in there and didn't like to be interrupted. Heading towards the east stairwell, I walked past the ground floor door.

I climbed the steps towards the second floor per usual and walked past the first dorm. As I swept past the door, the hair on my neck stood straight up. I stopped and concentrated, feeling a very cold breeze sweep past my legs. "It's too warm for that." I thought and turned to look around.

The door to the first dorm on the second floor was closed. There was an old doorknob and what looked like a rusty deadbolt lock above it. I tried it anyway, but the doorknob didn't budge. Looking closer, I found familiar smudge marks on the lock, similar to the ones left after pasting an amulet to something.

"What's going on here?" I wondered, closing my eyes and trying to sense the air around me. I focused on the door with every ounce of my attention.

"There's Yin air here- Agh!" I let out a scream of surprise as someone's hand clapped down on my shoulder. I spun around to find one of the dorm supervisors standing next to me.

"Whoa there! Didn't mean to frighten ya'." He said with a smile. He was a man of about fifty with salt and pepper hair. "What're you doing out here?"

"No- nothing." I managed, "Well, actually do you know who lives here?" I gestured to the locked door behind me.

"I do." He said with a smile. "Well, I used to. I moved downstairs when one of the larger rooms became available. My stuff's still in there though. Moving's always a pain, don't you think?" He grinned at me confidently.

"Okay." I said, politely removing his hand from my shoulder. "But why would you have to put an amulet on there, unless you're hiding something?" I wondered to myself.