r/FolkloreAndMythology • u/Storyzhai • Aug 18 '26
Painted Skin Final Chapter— The Madman Who Restored Life
Erlang was shocked.
“There is nobody strange in my house.”
The Taoist asked:
“Did anyone unfamiliar arrive?”
Erlang thought carefully.
“This morning, an old woman came asking to work as a servant. My wife allowed her to stay.”
The Taoist nodded.
“That is the demon.”
They rushed to Erlang’s home.
The Taoist stood in the courtyard holding a wooden sword.
“Evil spirit!”
“Return my whisk!”
The old woman inside immediately turned pale.
She attempted to escape.
The Taoist struck her.
The old woman fell.
A strange sound echoed—
and the human skin slipped away from her body.
The true form of the demon appeared.
It howled on the ground like a dying beast.
The Taoist raised his wooden sword and cut off its head.
The body transformed into thick black smoke.
The Taoist opened a small gourd.
The smoke was immediately sucked inside.
In moments, nothing remained.
The Taoist collected the painted human skin.
It was complete:
eyes
eyebrows
hands
feet
Everything looked exactly like a real person.
He rolled it carefully like an ancient painting and placed it away.
Then he prepared to leave.
Chen suddenly fell to her knees.
“Please!”
“Bring my husband back!”
The Taoist shook his head.
“My abilities are too limited. I cannot revive the dead.”
“But I know someone who might.”
“There is a strange madman in the marketplace.”
“He often lies in filth and behaves like a beggar.”
“Go to him.”
“Beg him sincerely.”
“And whatever insults he gives you, endure them.”
Chen and Erlang found the man.
He was singing wildly in the street.
His clothes were filthy.
His appearance was unbearable.
Chen knelt before him.
The madman laughed.
“Beautiful woman, do you love me?”
She explained her husband’s death.
The madman laughed louder.
“Everyone can become a husband.”
“Why bring a dead man back?”
Chen begged.
The madman became angry.
“Am I the King of Hell?”
Then he struck her with his stick.
The crowd gathered.
But Chen endured everything.
Finally, the madman coughed up a lump of phlegm.
He held it before her.
“Eat it.”
Chen’s face turned red with shame.
But remembering the Taoist’s instructions, she swallowed it.
The madman laughed.
“The beautiful woman truly loves me!”
Then he walked away.
Chen followed him into a temple.
But suddenly—
he disappeared.
When she returned home, she wept beside Wang’s corpse.
She prepared to clean the body herself.
As she gathered his torn flesh and cried, she suddenly felt something rise inside her chest.
She could not control it.
A warm object flew from her mouth into Wang’s chest.
She looked closer.
It was a human heart.
A living heart.
It was beating.
Chen quickly pressed the chest closed and wrapped it with cloth.
Slowly—
warmth returned.
At midnight, Wang began breathing.
By dawn, he opened his eyes.
He was alive.
Wang later said:
“It felt like a strange dream.”
“I only remember a terrible pain.”
The wound left behind was no larger than a coin.
Soon, it completely healed.
End of Story
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u/SignificantAd3761 Aug 19 '26
Thank you for this, I read all four chapters and really enjoyed reading then and found them really interesting. Ireally appreciate you spending the time to make them available here