My mind was still hazy when I heard muffled voices talking next to me.
"Please help us, Elder. We've tried every doctor in the area … they said she's beyond saving. But she's only six! Our only child!"
The voice startled me. It was my mother, but she had passed away five years ago. How was she here? I couldn't see anything around me except darkness. Where was I?
"Her illness is past the point of healing," a man replied. He sounded farther away, and I couldn't hear him too clearly. "I could try the way I explained to you earlier. Though as I've said, it is a forbidden art, and your child will have to bear the consequences."
My mother seemed to be hesitating. Then I heard my father's voice: "If her fever doesn't break, she'll be gone before nightfall. What consequences could be worse than Qing-er dying?"
