Spoiled by Eight Uncles (Lily)

“Aaron is gone. The passionate spirit said bitterly, “Linda ran out of milk, Aaron’s just a few months old; he’s hungry, and he’s innocent. He cried even louder as he was hungry, and he almost gave everyone away with his crying. Linda hugged him tightly and covered his mouth to prevent him from crying, and she accidentally suffocated him to death. “Before | could grieve, | had to piggyback on my mother and drag Linda to run for our lives.” He lost count of the people coming after them, and he forgot how long they did not have a good sleep. His father and Linda's parents lost their lives in the village; when they were running away, his mother was killed on the way. Linda was shot in the leg, and he piggybacked her, and he ran and ran for miles. “Il was dizzy because | was starving.” The passionate spirit said, “Linda hit me and asked me to leave her; | wasn’t willing to.” He did not describe it in detail, but it could be heard that he was helpless and suffering a lot back then.

They all went back to the village once the enemies were gone. “Life goes on. We buried our families, and we planted the crops on the ruined field. When we were starving, we even resorted to eating tree roots. After three years, our second child was born.” It was better this time around; his kid did not eat much, and Linda was recovering from her past traumas.

Yet the foreigners came back, and they were even crueler. “You guys can’t possibly imagine what happened back then; a lot of events aren't recorded in the books.” His second child died; he was cooked by the foreigners. Linda was losing it, and she wanted to fight with them. Yet she was pinned down on the ground. “Her life was slowly losing meaning; my limbs were all broken. But how could I let her go through all of these?” He was recalling the carefree days he had with Linda when they were young; they used to play in the river and gather fruits in the mountains.

There was once a time she was trapped in the mountain with heavy rain, and he piggybacked her when she was crying all the way. He could never leave her alone to die.

“I piggybacked her when the foreigners were sleeping.” The harem spirit was stunned and asked, “Wait... weren't your limbs broken? It's not possible for you to bring her away.” The passionate spirit answered, “I couldn't walk, but I could crawl; | just had to bring her out of the living hell.” His Linda had gone through too much; he was incompetent. He could only watch her being sexually abused; he did not want her to die on the spot just like that. He crawled and hid from all those foreigners, and Linda was begging him to let her go. “I didn’t give in to her.” The passionate spirit said In the end, he passed out. And from that moment on, he lost contact with Linda. When he was awake, there was no one in the village anymore. It was hard to survive; many families were broken. They could not reunite with their families; many of them just numbly lived on.

“But | didn’t want to give up. | asked the survivors; they said Linda was brought away.” Despite having broken limbs, he managed to travel by just crawling. He would eat the grass and even the soil just to fill up his stomach, and he would drink the puddle when he was thirsty. He was being saved later on by a group of people, and he got to know Linda was being saved too, but she traveled with the others to other places. “After | recovered, | was able to walk again. | left the people just to go after her.” The unlucky spirit sighed, “Why must you find her? Where could you find her? Weren't you afraid of the foreigners?” The passionate spirit answered, “What else could | do? She’s timid, and she’s even afraid of the rain. She’s saved, but she’d have no one to depend on.” What if she ran into the foreigners again? What if she didn’t manage to gather food for herself?” When | arrived at Diamond City, | heard that the group that she’s with was there. And indeed, she was tagging along with them.” The passionate spirit continued his journey, and he went after her city by city. And sometimes he totally lost her.

“I went back to our old village, worrying that she couldn't find me if she was back. | engraved our secret symbol on the rock in front of the village.” There was barely anyone in the old village; everyone moved to the village next door. Sometimes, some people might come back to visit for a while. He continued his journey of searching for her for years, and he never stopped. He always got information regarding Linda, but back in the day, there were many women like her, so he could not be sure if it was really her. He was determined to reunite with her, and he survived being caught by the foreigners and hunger. At last, the foreigners were driven out of the country. Everyone was celebrating, and he went back to the village again. He could not find her.

He heard that being a lecturer could teach students all over the country, so he thought maybe the students could help him with his search. “I self-studied and became a lecturer; | kept learning to be on par with society.” Years passed by, and he had told all of his students about his and Linda's story. His students graduated and worked all over the country, yet he still could not get a hold of Linda. He lost his job when he was old. “Before | died, | went back to the village.” He cried, “I only found out that there’s a symbol being engraved by her underneath the same rock!” He yelled, “She was back! She was also looking for me!” What's the biggest regret of one’s life? It's not not finding each other. It's missing each other!” In the end, | didn’t manage to see Linda. | died lingering at the rock in front of the village; | stood there through all types of weather.” He blamed himself, and he waited at the rock obsessively for days and nights. And he turned into a malignant spirit, and she was still not back. “I went to look for her again when | became a spirit.” It was hard for him to find someone alive, and it was even harder for him to search for spirits. Thirty years had passed by. He said, “I didn’t want to possess Aiden, and I've never intended to harm him... But | need to hold on to search for Linda.” He would disappear when he lost all of his deathly energy, so he had to search for food to survive. He had never stopped searching for Linda up until now.