Chapter Sixteen Summary | Cora and Harvey Test Folk Remedies

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

At 1:26 a.m., Harvey Chen wakes Cora with a phone call. He has an idea inspired by rewatching the Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire IV: he wants to try traditional methods for warding off jiangshi (hopping corpses) on the hungry ghost they believe is Delilah. Harvey confides that he doubts Yifei’s plan (the “ghost party” scheduled for the fifteenth) will work and suggests they experiment without telling Yifei. Cora agrees to meet him at Foley Square.

Cora arrives first and senses a figure watching her from the brightest part of the park—not Delilah, who is drawn to darkness. Harvey shows up with two backpacks, a broom (peachwood, because jiangshi hate peaches), rice, coins, and a handheld mirror. He explains that jiangshi supposedly stop to count spilled rice or coins, and that they fear their own reflection. They scatter rice and coins around the path. When Harvey pretends to be a jiangshi, they practice using the broom to keep him at bay. During their mock fight, Cora shoves Harvey against a tree. The tree’s bark feels wrong—translucent, like loose skin—and its branches are sharp talons. Cora drops the mirror, which shatters. Harvey follows her gaze and comes face to face with Delilah’s ghost.

Key Events

Harvey calls Cora at 1:26 a.m. with an idea based on Mr. Vampire.
He expresses doubt about Yifei’s plan and suggests they keep their experiment secret.
Cora agrees to meet at Foley Square; she senses a figure watching her in the light.
Harvey brings a peachwood broom, a mirror, rice, coins, and steamed buns.
They spill rice and coins along the path as a decoy for the ghost.
They practice fighting with the broom; Cora pins Harvey against a tree.
The tree is revealed to be Delilah’s transformed form; Cora shatters the mirror.
Harvey sees Delilah’s face in the tree’s hollow eyes.

Character Development

Cora Zeng – Cora’s grief makes her cling to the idea that Delilah’s soul still exists inside the hungry ghost. She agrees to Harvey’s plan not because she believes in the folklore, but because “it seemed like you thought it would work.” Her willingness to act, even without faith, shows her desperation and her desire to do something rather than wait passively. The chapter also reveals her deep loneliness: she thinks she and Harvey are only together because both are “too strange for anyone else.”

Harvey Chen – Harvey’s enthusiasm for the folk remedies masks his insecurity. He admits the plan feels “dumb” once he’s explaining it in person, but he still wants to believe. His decision to exclude Yifei stems from his perception that Yifei’s approach (the ghost party) is too personal and not objective. Harvey’s fear of the dark—noted when he says he can’t turn off the lights after the train station incident—humanizes him and underscores that he, too, is struggling.

Delilah Zeng – Though not physically present until the final moment, Delilah’s ghost is the central absence. Cora still refers to the hungry ghost as “my sister,” a sign that she has not accepted its transformation.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Folkloric remedies as coping mechanisms – Harvey’s jiangshi countermeasures (rice, coins, mirror, peachwood) represent a human need to impose order on chaos. The failure of each item—the rice only attracts pigeons, the mirror shatters—suggests that simple rituals cannot resolve complex grief.

Sight and blindness – The chapter contrasts modes of seeing. Cora feels watched but cannot identify the figure in the light; Harvey turns around only after Cora’s cue; the mirror, meant to repel the ghost, instead breaks. Seeing Delilah’s face comes at a cost—the shattering glass echoes the shattering of Cora’s fragile hope.

Transformation of the familiar – The birch tree that Cora shoves Harvey against is not the tree she thought it was. Its bark is “translucent, like loose skin,” and its branches are “taloned points.” The ordinary public park becomes a landscape of horror, mirroring how grief transforms everyday spaces.

Friendship forged by circumstance – Cora reflects that she and Harvey are only hanging out because they are both too strange for others. This acknowledgment of their mutual isolation deepens the bond between them, even as they fail to banish the ghost.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter Fifteen is a turning point in tone. It moves from passive waiting (Yifei’s plan) to active, if misguided, intervention. The failure of the folk remedies underscores the novel’s central tension: Can the supernatural be reasoned with, or must it be confronted directly? The revelation that the tree itself is Delilah’s ghost reframes Cora’s environment as a threat she cannot escape. Harvey’s decision to sideline Yifei plants seeds of division among the three characters, raising the stakes for the chapters ahead.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Harvey want to keep his plan a secret from Yifei?
Harvey believes Yifei is not being objective because her own past trauma (possibly involving her family’s death) makes her plan too personal. He worries that what worked for her family won’t work for Cora’s, and he wants an alternative in case Yifei’s approach fails.
What does Cora mean when she thinks, “it’s that you’re asking me to believe in folktales when I don’t believe in anything at all”?
This line reveals Cora’s profound skepticism born from loss. She no longer trusts in systems—whether religious, scientific, or folkloric—to provide answers. Her participation in Harvey’s ritual is an act of solidarity, not faith.
How does the park setting contribute to the chapter’s atmosphere?
The empty, quiet park in the early hours of the pandemic—normally vibrant—becomes a liminal space where shadows shift and modern art takes on menacing shapes. The abandoned playground, the trash blowing past, and the “pockets of darkness” reflect Cora’s psychological isolation and the lurking presence of death.