Han Shousui

Lady **Han** was a former Oujo or Nightingale Woman (low-ranking consort) who allegedly hung herself after the poison used to kill the then-Magpie Consort was found in her room, but was actually killed by the Empress Dowager's eunuchs. Her ghost possessed the jade earring kept by her former fiance, Kaku Kou.

## Appearance

According to Ashuu, she was a beautiful woman with a slightly ephemeral feeling to her who didn't stand out.

Her ghost is a pale skinned woman with long hair tied up in a bun. She wears a red *ruqun* and a single jade earring. There are three gold stars tattooed on the inside of her wrist, signifying that she is a concubine of the Ka dynasty.

## Personality

Lady Han was a kind and gentle woman who readily helped those who are in need.

## History

Lady Han was engaged to Kaku Kou since they were both young. However, one day, her father, a government official, forced her to go to the inner palace. The night before going to the capital, she secretly went to see Kaku Kou and gave him one half of the jade earrings she inherited from her mother so that they both had something to remember each other by.

As a low ranking comsor, Lady Han didn't have her own palace, but instead lived in Jakusou Palace, the palace of the Magpie Consort, a self-important and impudent woman. Lady Han took pity on So Kougyou, who found it hard to make a living in the inner palace because she was not from a well-to-do family, and employed her as her lady-in-waiting. She would often talk about Kaku Kou to her. One day, she found a young Ka Koushun crying in the inner palace after his mother's death. He asked about the single jade earring she was wearing and she told him that she gave the other one to someone important, so in this way, they were connected. Jealous, Koushun asked her for the earring and she gave it to him with a smile, not knowing who he was and simply wanting to calm him down.

The Magpie Consort was the daughter of a vassal who wasn't in the Empress Dowager's faction, and she became pregnant with the Emperor's child. The Empress Dowager poisoned her, and her man paid Kougyou's servant to plant the poisonous plant in Lady Han's room. During the investigation by the inner palace eunuchs, the poisonous plant was found in Lady Han's room. On the day it was discovered, the Empress Dowager's eunuch killed Lady Han and made it look like she hung herself in her room. The injustice and the fact that she was never able to see Kaku Kou again caused her spirit to linger. Afterwards, it is rumored that her ghost can be seen wandering around and crying.

## Plot

One of Koushun's spies finds the other jade earring in the inner palace. It is given to Koushun, who catches a glimpse of her ghost. In order to find who dropped the other earring, he brings the earring to the Raven Consort, Ryuu Jusetsu. He tells her about the ghost and Jusetsu uses her magic to summon her, who appears as she was when she died.

After Jusetsu and Koushun find Kakuhou, who dropped the earring while he was sneaking into the inner palace to find and question her handmaid about the truth behind her death, Jusetsu summons Lady Han's ghost so the two can have one final reunion. Koushun assures that Kaku Kou that the procedures are under way to capture the eunuch who killed Lady Han. When Jusetsu returns both earrings to Kaku Kou, Lady Han's ghost reverts back to her original appearance. The two kiss and, now with her innocence proven, Lady Han's ghost can finally be sent to paradise.