I keep coming back to the tragedy of Shen Jiu and how readily his fellow peak lords accepted a cuckoo into their nest. The people who had known him best and least but never bothered to question why he'd become a different person overnight.
Ghost!Jiu who had too much resentment to let go so he's forced to watch this usurper wearing his skin. His rage fills the bamboo house that used to be his sanctuary but no one can see or sense his presence.
The maelstrom of his resentment tears paintings from the wall, shatters his desk to splinters, and reduces his fine robes in the wardrobe to tatters. If he had breath anymore, his chest would be heaving with effort. But a blink later and everything is back as it was before.
He cannot succeed even in this. The wail builds in his chest like the winter storms that scream through the mountains but outside of his prison, the tranquility of Qing Jing Peak continues unaffected.
