The Eczema's Eclipsing: A Su Shi Ghost's Midnight Revelation

In the heart of ancient Hangzhou, where the West Lake is as serene as the ancient Chinese poets who once roamed its banks, lived a young artist named Ling. Her passion for painting was as fervent as her curiosity about the enigmatic Su Shi, the Tang Dynasty poet whose works whispered secrets of the beyond. One fateful night, as the moon hung low in the sky and the city slumbered, Ling's life was about to take a chilling turn.

Ling had always felt an inexplicable connection to Su Shi's verses, which seemed to echo the very essence of the world around her. She spent hours sketching the landscapes that the poet had so vividly captured in his verses, dreaming of the day when she might uncover a piece of the mystery that had been hidden for centuries.

The night of the Eclipse was no ordinary night. The moon was obscured by a rare solar eclipse, casting the world into a deep twilight. In her small studio, Ling found herself drawn to a painting of the West Lake that she had recently completed. It was a scene from Su Shi's poem, "Midnight in the Garden of Cranes," where the poet speaks of the ghost of a young woman who is destined to die by the stroke of midnight.

As she gazed upon the painting, she felt a strange chill, as if the very air was charged with an ancient, otherworldly energy. She turned on a lamp, the light flickering in the dim room. The painting seemed to pulse with a life of its own, as if it were trying to communicate something.

Ling's mind raced back to a visit to the West Lake the previous week, where she had been struck by the eerie beauty of the cranes that nested there. The legend of the cranes was intertwined with the story of the ghost, and she couldn't shake the feeling that the painting was somehow connected to the real-life occurrences she had witnessed.

She decided to paint the scene from the poem exactly as it was written, hoping to capture the essence of the story. As she worked, her hands trembled with excitement and a sense of foreboding. She felt as if she were reaching out into the past, trying to touch something that was meant to remain hidden.

Midnight approached, and with it, the chilling realization that the painting might not be a mere artistic endeavor but a bridge to the supernatural. As the clock struck twelve, the room grew cold, and the painting seemed to come alive. A ghostly figure emerged from the canvas, her eyes wide with terror and sorrow.

"Please, help me," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Ling was frozen, her brush hovering over the canvas. She could see the figure clearly, but she was too scared to move. The ghost, recognizing her fear, turned to the artist, her eyes filled with a plea for understanding.

"I am the spirit of the woman from Su Shi's poem," she said. "I was destined to die by the stroke of midnight, but I could not rest until my story was told."

Ling, her heart pounding, reached out to touch the ghost. As her fingers brushed against the canvas, a surge of warmth enveloped her. The ghost's eyes closed, and for a moment, Ling was left alone in the room, the painting still before her.

The next morning, as the sun rose over the West Lake, Ling found herself back in her studio, the painting untouched. She knew that the ghost had left her a message, a revelation that would change her life forever.

As she reflected on the night's events, Ling realized that her connection to Su Shi's poetry was no mere coincidence. The artist had been chosen to bridge the gap between the world of the living and the world of the spirits. She had become the guardian of a secret that had been hidden for centuries, a secret that could only be revealed through the power of her art.

And so, with a newfound purpose, Ling set out to create a series of paintings that would tell the stories of the spirits that had been lost to time. Her art became a bridge between the living and the dead, a testament to the enduring power of love, loss, and the poetic spirit of Su Shi.

The Eczema's Eclipsing: A Su Shi Ghost's Midnight Revelation was not just a ghost story; it was a story of love, loss, and the eternal connection between the living and the departed. It was a tale that would echo through the ages, a reminder that some secrets are meant to be uncovered, and some spirits are meant to be remembered.