Chapter Seven: Yifei’s Scar and the Hungry Ghost
⚠️ 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
Cora arrives at Yifei’s apartment in Confucius Plaza, a redbrick tower guarded by a bronze Confucius statue. The elevator is out, so she climbs twenty-one flights of stairs. Yifei’s white roommates, Paisley and Ryan, are on the couch watching a sitcom. Yifei pretends she cannot speak English, speaking only Mandarin to Cora while making absurd statements in Chinese that the roommates ignore. Once in Yifei’s bedroom—a cluttered space filled with scavenged objects from crime scenes—Cora asks if she seems weird. Yifei responds with a question about her own history with ghosts. Yifei reveals a jagged, half-moon-shaped scar on her ribs, claiming it came from a hungry ghost. Cora is skeptical; she thinks of her dead sister Delilah, whose body was so destroyed that no ghost could return. Despite her doubts, Cora finds herself staring at the scar and eventually leaves, still troubled by the floaters in her vision that she suspects are something sinister.
Key Events
- Cora climbs twenty-one flights of stairs to Yifei’s apartment in Confucius Plaza, noticing unmasked people in the stairwell.
- Yifei’s roommates Paisley and Ryan believe Yifei does not speak English, so she speaks only Mandarin with Cora in front of them.
- Yifei makes up ridiculous statements in Chinese (e.g., “My ears are full of bees”) to test the roommates’ inattention.
- In Yifei’s cluttered bedroom, Cora asks if she seems weird; Yifei dismisses the question by noting they are both crime scene cleaners.
- Yifei shows Cora a purple scar on her ribs, shaped like bite marks from a hungry ghost.
- Cora internally argues that ghosts are not real, remembering her sister Delilah’s irrecoverable death on train tracks.
- After touching the scar, Cora sees dark silhouettes in her peripheral vision that she rationalizes as tricks of light.
Character Development
Cora is torn between rational denial and growing suspicion that something supernatural is happening. Her internal monologue reveals deep trauma over Delilah’s death, which she uses as proof that ghosts cannot exist. Yet she cannot stop herself from touching Yifei’s scar and later hallucinating shadows. This chapter shows Cora’s fragility and her desperate need to believe in a world that makes logical sense.
Yifei emerges as a far more complex figure. Outside her hazmat suit, she is playful and strategic—she deliberately plays the role of a non-English speaker to avoid conversation. Her bedroom is a chaotic museum of stolen artifacts from crime scenes, and she openly burns joss paper to appease hungry ghosts. The scar on her ribs is both a physical and emotional wound, and her willingness to show it suggests a deep trust in Cora, even as it challenges Cora’s worldview.
Paisley and Ryan serve as foils: they are oblivious to Yifei’s intelligence and use, representing the casual racism of assuming an Asian person does not speak English. Yifei exploits their assumption for her own peace, highlighting her quiet resistance.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
Hungry ghosts dominate the chapter as both a literal claim and a metaphor. Yifei’s scar gives the ghosts physical reality, while Cora’s skepticism grounds the theme in grief. The burning of joss paper symbolizes attempts to feed the unappeasable dead. The motif of hunger reappears: Cora’s missing apples and teeth marks on her table in an earlier chapter connect to the scar’s bite pattern.
Clutter vs. emptiness contrasts Yifei’s overstuffed room with Cora’s sparse apartment. Yifei’s hoard of crime-scene keepsakes suggests she cannot let go of death, while Cora’s denial is a form of emotional emptiness.
Language and power appear through Yifei’s Mandarin performance. Her choice to pretend she does not speak English is a subtle act of subversion against her white roommates, who assume linguistic inferiority. Cora’s weak Mandarin (“I like butter”) underscores her own cultural disconnection.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter Seven is a turning point for Cora’s arc. Yifei’s scar forces Cora to confront the possibility that the supernatural is real, undermining the clinical, evidence-based worldview she uses to cope with Delilah’s death. The chapter also deepens Yifei’s character, revealing her as someone who carries physical proof of the ghosts she believes in. The scene in Yifei’s bedroom is the closest Cora has come to sharing her own fears; although she remains silent, the question “Do I seem weird to you?” shows vulnerability. Finally, the reappearance of the floaters/shadows suggests Cora’s own haunting is escalating, setting up the next chapter.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Yifei pretend not to speak English with her roommates?
Yifei’s roommate Paisley assumed from the start that Yifei could not speak English. Yifei goes along with it because it allows her to avoid conversation and maintain privacy. She uses Mandarin (which the roommates cannot distinguish from Cantonese) to make absurd statements without being understood.
2. What is the significance of the scar on Yifei’s ribs?
The scar is shaped like a bite mark, which Yifei claims came from a hungry ghost. The scar serves as tangible evidence of supernatural attack, challenging Cora’s rational skepticism. It also connects to the earlier motif of missing food and teeth marks, suggesting that the hungry ghost may have visited Cora’s apartment as well.
3. How does Cora’s memory of Delilah affect her reaction to Yifei’s story?
Cora uses her sister’s death as proof that ghosts cannot exist. Delilah was so thoroughly destroyed by a train that an open-casket funeral was impossible; Cora believes nothing could return from such absolute loss. This memory hardens her denial, yet she cannot stop herself from touching the scar and later seeing shadows, indicating her belief is wavering.