Lin Wantang stood at the entrance to a side hall of the Netherworld King's Palace and didn't move for a full quarter of an hour.
She lowered her head and stared at her wrist.
The red Yellow Springs Flower was even more vivid than before, like a drop of blood congealed on her skin.
Everything that had happened in the Hall of Judgment was still impossible to shake from her mind.
A thousand years ago.
The person who killed her.
The Nether Ruins.
A forged soul-reaping warrant.
And Ye Chenyuan's words—
“This time, I won't let anyone kill you again.”
Lin Wantang raised her head.
“So I really died in my previous life?”
Gu Changsheng, standing beside her, nodded.
“Yes.”
“I was killed too?”
“That's how it appears for now.”
“Then why didn't Ye Chenyuan just tell me directly?”
Gu Changsheng was silent for a moment.
“Because His Highness was afraid you wouldn't be able to handle it.”
Lin Wantang let out a laugh.
“I'm already dead. What else could I possibly not handle?”
Gu Changsheng looked at her.
“Some wounds still hurt, even if a soul can't bleed.”
His words left Lin Wantang stunned for a moment.
She didn't ask anything else.
Because she had suddenly remembered the scene she'd just seen.
The heavy snow.
The Yellow Springs.
Herself in white.
And the pain suppressed in Ye Chenyuan's eyes for a thousand years.
Maybe Gu Changsheng was right.
Some things couldn't be endured simply because you knew the answer.
“Miss Lin.”
Xie Qi came running from a distance.
“His Highness wants you to go to the main hall.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
Lin Wantang looked up.
“Wasn't he going to deal with the Nether Ruins?”
“That's why he summoned you.”
“What does he want me for?”
Xie Qi hesitated.
“You'll know when you get there.”
Lin Wantang gave him a look.
“You've been talking more and more like Gu Changsheng lately.”
Xie Qi: “…”
“You never say anything all the way through.”
“It's not that I won't tell you. I really don't know.”
“Fine.”
She turned and walked toward the main hall.
After two steps, she looked back.
“Oh, right.”
“Yeah?”
“You said yesterday that there was milk tea in the Ghost Market.”
Xie Qi froze.
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“You still want some now?”
Lin Wantang nodded.
“I do.”
Xie Qi couldn't help asking, “You're already dead. How are you still thinking about milk tea?”
Lin Wantang answered with complete justification, “Because I hadn't finished the cup I was drinking before I died.”
“So?”
“I need to finish it now.”
Xie Qi fell silent for a long while.
“All right.”
“Once everything's settled, I'll take you there.”
Lin Wantang smiled.
“Deal.”
Inside the main hall.
Ye Chenyuan sat on the high seat.
Gu Changsheng stood to one side, several scrolls of case files spread open in his hands.
And in the center of the hall stood a huge water mirror.
The water mirror still showed the mortal world.
Lin Wantang recognized the familiar street at a glance.
It was where her accident had happened.
The crash site had already been completely cleared away.
The road had been restored to smooth pavement.
The convenience store was still open.
There wasn't even any trace left of where she'd stood that night.
She suddenly felt dazed.
So the mortal world really didn't stop just because one person was gone.
Cars still drove as usual.
The convenience store was still open for business.
Pedestrians continued hurrying past.
Only she had been left behind forever in that one night.
“Do you see it?”
Ye Chenyuan asked.
Lin Wantang nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Your time of death.”
The image in the water mirror began rewinding.
12:03 a.m.
12:02 a.m.
12:01 a.m.
At last, it stopped at 11:58 p.m.
Lin Wantang frowned.
“There's a problem?”
Gu Changsheng nodded.
“There is.”
He pointed at the image.
“Your original time of death wasn't 12:03 a.m.”
“Then what was it?”
“12:38 a.m.”
Lin Wantang froze.
“What?”
“You should have been able to live another thirty-five minutes.”
She stared at the water mirror.
In front of the convenience store, her counterpart in a black jacket was drinking milk tea while holding her phone.
If everything had followed the normal course of fate, she should have met with an accident thirty-five minutes later.
But…
Xie Qi had happened to appear thirty-five minutes early.
“So that means…”
Lin Wantang spoke slowly.
“When you reaped my soul, I wasn't actually dead yet?”
Xie Qi lowered his head.
“That's right.”
“Why was my soul pulled out by you?”
“Because your name was written on the soul-reaping warrant.”
Lin Wantang looked at Gu Changsheng.
“It was fake?”
“Not an ordinary fake.”
Gu Changsheng opened a case file.
“That soul-reaping warrant bore the genuine Netherworld soul seal.”
“Which means?”
“Someone obtained access to the Netherworld's authority.”
Lin Wantang's expression shifted.
“Someone can directly mobilize the Soul-Reaping Bureau?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did they bring my death forward by thirty-five minutes?”
Gu Changsheng fell silent.
Ye Chenyuan spoke.
“Because thirty-five minutes later, someone would have stopped you from dying.”
Lin Wantang froze.
“Who?”
Ye Chenyuan didn't answer.
He merely raised a hand.
The water mirror changed again.
The time returned to 12:03 a.m.
The car accident.
The vehicle losing control.
Her being knocked down.
Everything was exactly as she remembered it.
But in the next second, a blurred figure suddenly appeared in the water mirror.
It was a man in a gray trench coat.
He stood across the street.
He never came any closer from beginning to end.
He only watched.
Lin Wantang's pupils abruptly contracted.
“That guy.”
“Who?”
“I saw him at the funeral.”
Ye Chenyuan's expression darkened.
“Are you sure?”
“I'm sure.”
She pointed at the water mirror.
“He was outside the mourning hall at my house.”
“From the moment my accident happened until the funeral, he was there the whole time.”
Gu Changsheng frowned.
“We can't find anything about his identity.”
“Can't find anything?”
“There are no birth or death records.”
Lin Wantang's heart sank.
“Like me?”
“No.”
Gu Changsheng shook his head.
“The Book of Life and Death rejected your record.”
“But he…”
“Someone deliberately erased every trace of him.”
The image in the water mirror suddenly changed again.
Lin Wantang saw her home.
Her mother sat in the living room.
Her father stood by the window.
A cup of milk tea sat on the table.
She froze.
“When was this?”
“The day after your death,” Gu Changsheng said.
“Your mother bought a cup of milk tea exactly like the one you were drinking on the night you died.”
Lin Wantang's nose stung.
In the water mirror, her mother placed the milk tea in front of her photograph.
“Wantang.”
“Wasn't this your favorite?”
“Mom bought it for you.”
Lin Wantang stood outside the mirror.
Tears fell from her eyes without warning.
“Mom…”
She reached out.
But she couldn't touch a thing.
Ye Chenyuan stood beside her.
He didn't comfort her.
He simply stayed with her in silence.
After a long while, Lin Wantang wiped away her tears.
“I want to go back.”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“No.”
“I just want to see them one more time.”
“You can't come into contact with the mortal world right now.”
“Why not?”
“The Nether Ruins have already set their sights on your soul.”
“If you go back, your family will be dragged into it too.”
Lin Wantang froze.
“My family?”
“Yes.”
“Then I have to go back even more.”
Ye Chenyuan frowned.
“Wantang.”
His voice was very soft.
Yet it made Lin Wantang stop.
He looked at her.
“You're not alone anymore.”
She was slightly stunned.
“What does that mean?”
“You died.”
“I know.”
“But your death isn't the end.”
“Someone is using your death to open the seal on the Nether Ruins.”
Lin Wantang's expression slowly changed.
“My death… is a key?”
“Most likely.”
Ye Chenyuan looked toward the water mirror.
“That is why they took you thirty-five minutes early.”
“Because the moment your soul left your body…”
Gu Changsheng finished, “the Nether Ruins could sense you.”
Lin Wantang fell silent.
She finally understood.
She wasn't just a case of wrongful soul-reaping.
Someone had deliberately caused her death.
Someone had also deliberately brought her to the Netherworld.
Even the seemingly accidental error in soul-reaping might have been carefully orchestrated.
“What about you?”
Lin Wantang suddenly asked.
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“Me?”
“Why do you know me?”
He was silent.
“You know about my previous life.”
“I do.”
“You know how I died.”
“I do.”
“You know about the Nether Ruins.”
“I do.”
Lin Wantang advanced on him step by step.
“Then do you also know…”
She stared into his eyes.
“Who I really was in my previous life?”
Ye Chenyuan didn't answer.
“Tell me.”
“It's not time yet.”
Lin Wantang smiled.
“That again.”
She turned around.
“Fine.”
“I won't ask.”
Ye Chenyuan frowned slightly.
“Are you angry?”
“No.”
“You're angry.”
“I really am not.”
“Your expression says otherwise.”
Lin Wantang turned back and glared at him.
“Netherworld King, aren't you being a little too controlling?”
Ye Chenyuan: “…”
Gu Changsheng silently lowered his head beside them.
Xie Qi couldn't help looking up at the ceiling.
For the first time, he felt that the Netherworld might truly be in for a change.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the main hall.
An underworld enforcer rushed in, flustered.
“Your Highness!”
“What is it?”
“Something has happened in the mortal world…”
“Where?”
The underworld enforcer gasped for breath.
“Miss Lin's home.”
Lin Wantang's expression changed instantly.
“What happened to my home?”
“Your mother…”
The underworld enforcer paused.
“She saw you.”
Lin Wantang froze.
“What?”
“Just now, in the water mirror.”
“She suddenly said…”
The underworld enforcer swallowed.
“She saw you standing behind her.”
Lin Wantang whipped her head toward the water mirror.
In the image, her mother stood in the living room.
Her back was to the camera.
Slowly, she turned around.
Her eyes stared straight into empty space.
“Wantang.”
She spoke in a low voice.
“Is that you?”
Lin Wantang's eyes instantly reddened.
“Mom…”
Her mother's lips trembled.
“Mom can see you.”
“Are you still here?”
Lin Wantang instinctively stepped forward.
Ye Chenyuan grabbed her.
“Don't go.”
“She saw me!”
“That isn't you.”
“What?”
Ye Chenyuan's expression was icy.
“Someone is using the aura of your soul to create an illusion.”
The mother in the water mirror suddenly smiled.
But her smile became extremely strange.
A blood-red flower slowly surfaced on the wall behind her.
The Yellow Springs Flower.
Lin Wantang's pupils abruptly contracted.
“No!”
She wrenched herself free of Ye Chenyuan's hand.
“That isn't my mother!”
The water mirror suddenly shattered.
A mass of black energy shot out of it.
Ye Chenyuan raised his hand.
The black energy was instantly forced back into the water mirror.
“Seal!”
Boom!
The entire main hall trembled.
Lin Wantang stared fixedly at the water mirror.
For the first time, she truly realized that the person hiding in the shadows had begun to make a move.
And—
They had already found her family.
“I have to go back.”
Lin Wantang turned around.
Ye Chenyuan blocked her path.
“No.”
“Move.”
“I can't.”
“That's my mom!”
“I know.”
“She’s in danger!”
“That's exactly why you can't go back.”
Lin Wantang gritted her teeth.
“All you ever say is no.”
Ye Chenyuan didn't move.
“Because I don't want to watch you die a second time.”
One sentence.
It silenced her instantly.
The man looked at her.
For the first time, he didn't conceal the emotions in those pitch-black eyes.
Fear.
Pain.
And an obsession buried for a thousand years.
“A thousand years ago, I failed to protect you.”
“This time, I won't make the same mistake again.”
Lin Wantang stared at him, dazed.
Something in her heart suddenly ached fiercely.
She lowered her head.
“But that's my mom.”
“I know.”
“I can't do nothing.”
Ye Chenyuan was silent for a moment.
“You can.”
She lifted her head.
“Really?”
“You can.”
He raised his hand.
A black token dropped into her palm.
“This is the Netherworld King's Seal.”
“It can briefly connect your soul to the mortal world.”
“But you can't appear there directly.”
“You can only pass messages through dreams.”
Lin Wantang closed her fingers around the token.
“Okay.”
“And one more thing.”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“I'll accompany you tonight.”
She was stunned.
“You can enter dreams too?”
“I can.”
“But you're the Netherworld King.”
“The Netherworld King is still a ghost.”
Lin Wantang suddenly smiled.
“Okay.”
Deep into the night, Lin Wantang entered the mortal world's dreams as a departed soul for the first time.
White mist surrounded her.
In the distance, she saw her mother.
The woman sat on the couch, still clutching her photograph.
Lin Wantang slowly walked over.
“Mom.”
Her mother raised her head.
“Wantang?”
“It's me.”
She crouched in front of her mother.
“Listen to me.”
“I still…”
She paused.
“can't go back yet.”
Her mother's tears fell at once.
“Are you dead?”
Lin Wantang was silent.
Finally, she nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Then why can you still appear in my dreams?”
“Because someone is protecting me.”
Her mother looked at her.
“Are you going to leave?”
“I don't know.”
Lin Wantang took her mother's hand.
Even though it was a dream, it was the first time she had felt her mother's warmth.
“Mom.”
“Hmm?”
“Don't trust anyone who suddenly appears.”
“Don't drink anything a stranger gives you.”
“If anyone asks about me…”
She paused.
“Don't say anything.”
Her mother nodded.
“Okay.”
“And one more thing.”
Lin Wantang smiled.
“That cup of milk tea…”
Her mother laughed through her tears.
“You're still thinking about that?”
“Yeah.”
“When you come home, Mom will buy you one.”
Lin Wantang's eyes burned.
She knew she might never be able to go home again.
But she didn't say so.
She didn't want her mother to know.
The dream began to collapse.
Lin Wantang hurriedly called out, “Mom!”
“I love you.”
Her mother reached out, trying to grab her.
“Wantang!”
“Mom!”
The two voices rang out at the same time.
The dream shattered.
Lin Wantang opened her eyes with a start.
She was sitting on a bed in the Netherworld King's Palace.
Ye Chenyuan stood by the window.
“Did she hear me?”
“She did.”
Lin Wantang breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you.”
Ye Chenyuan didn't turn around.
“You don't have to thank me.”
She looked at his back.
“Ye Chenyuan.”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you so good to me?”
The man remained silent for a long time.
“Because you deserve it.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Ye Chenyuan finally turned around.
“Because you asked me that same question a thousand years ago.”
“I didn't answer you then.”
Lin Wantang was stunned.
“Why not?”
“Because back then, I thought we still had plenty of time.”
He walked up to her.
“Only later did I realize…”
“If you don't say some things…”
“You really may never get the chance.”
Lin Wantang's heart trembled.
Ye Chenyuan raised his hand and gently rubbed the top of her head.
“So this time…”
“I won't wait until the very end.”
She looked up.
“What exactly are you trying to tell me?”
The man looked at her.
Word by word, he said, “I love you.”
All around them, the only sound was the wind blowing through the Yellow Springs.
Lin Wantang stood frozen for a long time.
“But…”
She spoke softly.
“I don't remember you.”
“It's all right.”
“I'm not even sure I'm the same person I was before.”
“It's all right.”
“Then why…”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
His gaze was so gentle that he seemed nothing like the Netherworld King of legend.
“Because I remember.”
“I remember you.”
“That is enough.”
Lin Wantang said nothing.
She only lowered her head.
A long while later, she finally murmured, “Yeah.”
However.
Just outside the Netherworld King's Palace, at the bottom of the Yellow Springs River, a pale hand slowly reached out from the darkness.
In its grasp was a battered Book of Life and Death.
There was only one name written inside.
Lin Wantang.
Beside the name, the original time of death had been crossed out in blood.
Written in its place was a single line:
“Second death: seven days from now.”
A low laugh echoed through the darkness.
“I couldn't kill you a thousand years ago.”
“But a thousand years later…”
“Do you really think hiding in the Netherworld will keep you safe?”
In the distance, the stone gates of the Nether Ruins trembled once more.
Between the cracks, a blood-red eye slowly opened.
And the sea of Yellow Springs Flowers bloomed in its entirety overnight.