Peeking through the window, Wang makes a startling discovery − the girl is actually a "green-faced monster, a ghoul with great jagged teeth like a saw."[2] All this while, she had been wearing a mask made of human skin, on which her attractive features were painted.[2]
In petrification, he returns to the Taoist priest and begs him for help. The priest agrees but concurrently wishes to be lenient on a likewise sentient being, thus only offers Wang a charm meant to ward off demons.[3][a] Wang goes back home and hangs the charm outside his bedroom, but it has no effect on the demon. Instead, she turns enraged and rips out Wang's heart.[3] Wang's spouse reports this to the priest who, incited to fury, launches a full-scale offensive on the demon.[3] They find that it has transformed into an elderly helper working at Wang's brother's place. In the climax, the demon reverts to its original form, and the priest beheads its with his wooden sword.[5] The demon's remains dissipate into smoke which the priest stores in his calabash.[5] He also rolls up the demon's "painted skin" and stores it away.[5]
Later on, the priest tells Chen to visit a lunatic beggar at the marketplace, should she wish to revive her husband. The madman treats her with disrespect by continuously demeaning her, but she takes it in her stride and patiently pleads with him for help.[6] Finally, he coughs out some phlegm[b] and makes her swallow it. The beggar makes his leave and Chen is left feeling deeply ashamed.[6] Back home, during funeral preparations, the phlegm hardens gradually and rises from Chen's stomach to her throat. Ultimately she disgorges a throbbing heart, which she places into the gaping wound in Wang's chest; slowly, his life is restored.[8]
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