Night in the Netherworld King's Palace was nothing like night in the mortal world.
The mortal world had stars, the moon, and wind at night.
The Netherworld's night held only a single ghostly, icy blood moon, suspended at the end of the Yellow Springs.
Moonlight spilled down, bathing the entire palace in a cold white glow.
Lin Wantang sat by the window, still clutching the old dossier.
The final line of bloody writing had vanished.
But the words remained branded in her mind.
Do not trust the Netherworld King.
She looked up toward the doorway.
Ye Chenyuan stood at the end of the corridor.
The man had his back to her.
His black robes hung around him, his long hair lifted by the night wind.
He looked so lonely that it was hard to believe he was the Netherworld King who governed the life and death of countless ghosts.
Lin Wantang suddenly thought of that woman.
Shen Yuexi.
She had said that a thousand years ago, Ye Chenyuan had failed to protect her.
Siming Xingjun had also said that her death was connected to Youxu.
And now, the dossier was telling her—
The person who had truly betrayed her might very well have been surnamed Ye.
If that “Ye” referred to Ye Chenyuan…
Then everything was completely different.
“Wantang.”
The man's voice suddenly came from outside the door.
Lin Wantang snapped back to herself.
“Hmm?”
Ye Chenyuan turned around.
“You've been watching me for a long time.”
Her heart skipped.
“Have I?”
“You have.”
“I just…”
She paused.
“Suddenly thought you looked pretty good.”
Ye Chenyuan's brow twitched.
“Just good-looking?”
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
He walked into the room.
“You're tired after meeting Siming Xingjun today?”
“Not really.”
“Then why aren't you asleep?”
“I can't sleep.”
Ye Chenyuan sat down across from her.
“Because of Shen Yuexi?”
Lin Wantang looked at him.
“That too.”
“What else?”
She fell silent.
“Nothing.”
Ye Chenyuan stared at her.
“You're hiding something from me.”
It wasn't a question.
It was a statement of fact.
Lin Wantang's heart tightened.
This man's insight was terrifying.
She lowered her head and took a sip of the tea, which had already gone cold.
“What if I said I just suddenly remembered some things?”
“What things?”
“My past life.”
Ye Chenyuan's expression shifted.
“How much do you remember?”
“Not much.”
“What did you see?”
“A girl.”
“Shen Yuexi?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“She told me she wanted to go to Youxu with me.”
Ye Chenyuan said nothing.
Lin Wantang looked up.
“Did she really want to protect me back then?”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
Lin Wantang froze for a moment.
“You knew?”
“I knew.”
“Then why did she kill me afterward?”
Ye Chenyuan fell silent.
“Because she was being controlled.”
“By whom?”
“Youxu.”
“How?”
“Someone tampered with her soul contract.”
Lin Wantang stared at him.
“Who did it?”
Ye Chenyuan didn't answer.
She suddenly laughed.
“You won't tell me again.”
“Because I can't tell you yet.”
“Why not?”
“I'm afraid you'll do something foolish.”
“Like what?”
“Go looking for the answer.”
Lin Wantang raised a brow.
“I was going to look for the answer anyway.”
Ye Chenyuan frowned.
“That's why I don't want you to know too much.”
She suddenly stood.
“Ye Chenyuan.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think I'm weak?”
The man was slightly taken aback.
“No.”
“Then why won't you tell me anything?”
“Because I'm afraid you'll get hurt.”
“But your Netherworld already reaped my soul by mistake.”
“I was hunted by evil ghosts, too.”
“I don't even know why I died.”
“And you keep telling me not to ask.”
She looked at him.
“What are you so afraid of?”
Ye Chenyuan was silent for a long time.
At last, he said quietly, “I'm afraid of losing you again.”
The room fell silent.
Something seemed to gently bump against Lin Wantang's heart.
She turned her face away.
“You're always like this.”
“Like what?”
“You say things that leave people with no idea how to respond.”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“Then don't respond.”
“Just know.”
Lin Wantang lowered her head.
The tips of her ears quietly flushed red.
The next day.
Lin Wantang arrived at work right on time.
The moment she entered the Soul-Reaping Bureau, she noticed that every underworld enforcer was staring at her.
“What is it?”
Xie Qi immediately ran over.
“You don't know?”
“Know what?”
“Your fight with the evil ghost yesterday has spread throughout the entire Netherworld.”
“And?”
“Now everyone is calling you…”
Xie Qi paused deliberately.
Lin Wantang glared at him.
“Calling me what?”
“The Yellow Springs Fiend.”
Lin Wantang fell silent.
“Who came up with that?”
“No idea.”
“Does it sound good?”
Xie Qi nodded.
“Pretty impressive.”
“I don't want it.”
“Then what do you want to be called?”
Lin Wantang thought about it.
“The Yellow Springs Milk Tea Fairy.”
Xie Qi: “…”
“No good?”
“I don't think the Netherworld can handle that.”
“Never mind, then.”
She sat down at her desk.
She had just picked up her pen when a dossier was brought in.
“What is this?”
“Your new assignment.”
“That fast?”
“His Highness issued it personally.”
Lin Wantang opened it.
There was only one sentence inside.
“Investigate the disappearance of the three departed souls who vanished from the Yellow Springs Ferry Landing last night.”
She frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“That's right.”
Xie Qi nodded.
“After that batch of Youxu evil ghosts appeared last night, three departed souls went missing.”
“They don't have death records?”
“They do.”
“No records of leaving the Netherworld?”
“None.”
“Then that's strange.”
Lin Wantang opened the dossier.
The first name was Zhang Cheng.
He had been a carpenter when he was alive.
The second was Wang Qiuniang.
She had been a seamstress.
The third was Shen Xiaowu.
He had been a seventeen-year-old boy.
The three had nothing in common.
Except for one thing—
All of them had run into trouble at the Yellow Springs Ferry Landing.
“I want to go to the scene.”
Xie Qi nodded.
“I'll go with you.”
Yellow Springs Ferry Landing.
The white mist was even thicker than usual.
Lin Wantang stood at the water's edge, carefully examining the ground.
Soon, she found a trail of footprints.
“Whose are these?”
Xie Qi shook his head.
“Not an underworld enforcer's.”
“Not a departed soul's, either.”
“Then what are they?”
Lin Wantang crouched down and lightly touched one with her fingertip.
A freezing aura shot through her fingertip and into her body.
She jerked her hand back.
“So cold.”
Xie Qi's expression changed.
“Is this the aura of Youxu?”
“Not entirely.”
Lin Wantang studied the traces on the ground.
“It looks like someone dragged something away from here.”
She followed the footprints forward.
They led all the way to the riverbank.
Then they abruptly vanished.
“Did they jump into the river?”
Xie Qi shook his head.
“A departed soul that falls into the Wangchuan River is swallowed by the water immediately.”
“There couldn't be no trace.”
Lin Wantang thought for a moment.
“Is there any other way?”
Xie Qi pointed toward the Yellow Springs River.
“Use your Yellow Springs Flower.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“Aren't you an underworld enforcer?”
“I don't have a Yellow Springs Flower.”
Lin Wantang closed her eyes and focused.
The red flower on her wrist began to glow faintly.
The waters of the Yellow Springs River started to churn.
The next moment, three blurry figures appeared on the surface.
Zhang Cheng.
Wang Qiuniang.
Shen Xiaowu.
The three were running desperately.
Behind them was a white figure.
Lin Wantang's pupils contracted.
“Shen Yuexi?”
The woman in white reached out.
The three departed souls stopped at the same time.
The image abruptly ended.
Xie Qi hurriedly asked, “What did you see?”
“Shen Yuexi.”
“She took them?”
“That's what it looked like.”
“Then let's go find her.”
Lin Wantang didn't move.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she wasn't taking them.”
“What?”
“She was saving them.”
Xie Qi froze.
In the final moment of the image, she had seen Shen Yuexi raise her hand.
The black aura was drawn out of the three departed souls.
And that aura…
Was exactly the same as Youxu's power.
Lin Wantang suddenly understood.
“They weren't taken.”
“They were infected.”
“Shen Yuexi took them away to purge the Youxu resentment from their bodies.”
Xie Qi's expression changed.
“Then why didn't she just tell us?”
Lin Wantang was silent.
“Because she knew the Netherworld wouldn't believe her.”
“Or maybe…”
She looked into the distance.
“Someone doesn't want us to know.”
“You came after all.”
A voice suddenly rang out.
Lin Wantang spun around.
Shen Yuexi stood on the Yellow Springs Bridge.
Her white robes fluttered in the wind.
Unlike yesterday, there was no killing intent in her expression today.
Only an indescribable weariness.
“You saved them?” Lin Wantang asked.
Shen Yuexi nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they're like you.”
“What?”
“They were reaped before their time, too.”
Lin Wantang's heart jolted.
“What did you say?”
Shen Yuexi looked at her.
“They weren't supposed to die.”
“Someone took their lives early.”
“So do you understand now?”
“Our true enemy…”
“isn't Youxu.”
Her gaze passed over Lin Wantang and landed on the distant Netherworld King's Palace.
“It's someone in the Netherworld.”
Lin Wantang's expression shifted.
“Who?”
Shen Yuexi smiled.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should ask your Netherworld King.”
“Ask him what?”
“Ask him why, a thousand years ago…”
“he personally altered your Book of Life and Death.”
Lin Wantang's pupils contracted sharply.
“That's impossible.”
Shen Yuexi looked at her.
“You don't believe me?”
“I don't.”
“Then you can investigate it yourself.”
“The Book of Life and Death is in the Soul-Reaping Bureau.”
“Yes.”
Shen Yuexi turned around.
“Go take a look.”
“If you find that page…”
“you'll know.”
“Who was really responsible for your death.”
With that, her figure dissolved into white mist and vanished.
Lin Wantang stood there without moving for a long time.
Back at the Soul-Reaping Bureau, she didn't go looking for Ye Chenyuan right away.
Instead, she walked straight into the Archives.
“Miss Lin.”
The underworld enforcer guarding the entrance hurriedly stopped her.
“This is forbidden ground.”
“I need to look up a dossier.”
“You can't enter without His Highness's written order.”
Lin Wantang took out the Soul-Reaping Bureau command token.
“Will this do?”
The underworld enforcer took one look at it, and his expression changed.
“His Highness gave this to you personally?”
“Yes.”
“Then you may enter.”
The doors to the Archives slowly opened.
Inside were countless stacks of dossiers.
Lin Wantang searched by year.
A thousand years ago.
Shen Yueli.
Book of Life and Death.
She finally found it.
But four words were written across the dossier's cover:
“Restricted from the Netherworld King's Eyes.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
The guard shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Lin Wantang drew a deep breath.
“I have to read it.”
“But…”
“If anything happens, I'll take responsibility.”
The guard could only step aside.
Lin Wantang reached out and touched the dossier.
Boom—
A tremendous force suddenly erupted from within it.
She was blasted backward and slammed into a bookshelf.
“Miss Lin!”
She clutched her chest.
A sweetness rose in her throat, and she nearly spat blood.
“What is this?”
The guard said in terror, “A ward.”
“Someone doesn't want you to read it.”
Lin Wantang slowly got to her feet.
“Who?”
At that moment, footsteps sounded behind her.
“Me.”
The man's deep voice rang out.
Lin Wantang spun around.
Ye Chenyuan stood in the doorway.
He looked at the dossier on the floor, then at her.
“Why did you come here?”
Lin Wantang didn't answer.
“You know about this dossier?”
“I do.”
“Why won't you let me read it?”
“Because it's dangerous.”
“Dangerous again.”
She laughed.
“Ye Chenyuan, is that the only thing you know how to say?”
The man fell silent.
Lin Wantang walked toward him one step at a time.
“Shen Yuexi said you altered my Book of Life and Death a thousand years ago.”
Ye Chenyuan's gaze darkened.
“She told you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don't know.”
Lin Wantang looked up at him.
“So I want to investigate it myself.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you haven't recovered your memories yet.”
“Then if I never recover them, does that mean I'll never be allowed to know?”
Ye Chenyuan didn't answer.
Lin Wantang suddenly asked, “Ye Chenyuan.”
“Hmm?”
“Are you afraid of me?”
The man froze.
“What?”
“Why do you keep stopping me?”
“It's not because you're afraid I'll learn the truth.”
“It's because you're afraid I'll recover my memories?”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
For a long time.
Only then did he say, “Yes.”
Lin Wantang's heart sank.
“Why?”
The man stepped closer, one step at a time.
The distance between them shrank.
Until only one step remained.
He lowered his head and looked at her.
“Because I'm afraid that once you remember…”
“you'll hate me.”
Lin Wantang stood stunned.
“What did you do?”
Ye Chenyuan didn't answer.
She suddenly reached out and grabbed his lapel.
“Tell me.”
“I won't hit you.”
“I won't yell at you, either.”
“I just want to know.”
Ye Chenyuan lowered his eyes to her reddened eye sockets.
“You really want to know?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Even if the answer makes you hate me?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The man closed his eyes.
“Then wait until you recover your memories.”
“I don't want someone else telling you.”
“I want to tell you myself.”
Lin Wantang slowly released his lapel.
“Okay.”
She turned around.
“Then I'll find the answer myself.”
Ye Chenyuan suddenly caught her by the wrist.
“Wantang.”
“Hmm?”
“Why aren't you afraid of me?”
She looked back.
Rarely, a trace of confusion showed in the man's eyes.
“I'm the Netherworld King.”
“I govern life and death.”
“Every departed soul fears me.”
“But you've never been afraid of me.”
Lin Wantang thought about it, then suddenly smiled.
“Because you're not as scary as the rumors say.”
“How am I not?”
“You buy me milk tea.”
“You help treat my injuries.”
“You're afraid I'll die.”
“And you even gave me a raise on my first day at work.”
Ye Chenyuan was slightly taken aback.
“So?”
Lin Wantang looked at him.
“So why should I be afraid of you?”
His gaze shifted faintly.
“If one day…”
“I really become the person you're most afraid of, what then?”
She was silent for a moment.
“Then I'll ask what happened first.”
“Whether you had a reason.”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
Some place in his heart that had lain silent for a thousand years seemed to have finally been touched.
He suddenly reached out and pulled her into his arms.
Lin Wantang went rigid.
“Ye Chenyuan?”
“Don't move.”
His voice was low.
“Let me hold you for a while.”
She didn't struggle.
She simply stood there quietly.
After a long time, the man finally said softly, “Wantang.”
“Hmm?”
“If one day you learn everything…”
“will you still be willing to believe me?”
Lin Wantang didn't answer immediately.
She only said softly, “I don't know right now.”
“But…”
She lifted her head.
“At least until the truth comes out…”
“I won't sentence you to death in advance.”
Ye Chenyuan closed his eyes.
“Okay.”
However, just after the two of them left the Archives, the restricted dossier slowly opened in the darkness.
One page.
Two pages.
At last, it stopped at the Book of Life and Death entry from a thousand years ago.
It clearly read:
Shen Yueli.
Allotted lifespan: 1,372 years.
Original time of death: Undetermined.
But the next line had been forcibly rewritten with a bright-red mark.
“Time of death: One thousand years ago.”
And in the column for the person who made the alteration was the unmistakable seal of—
The Netherworld King's Seal.
At that moment, a low laugh echoed from deep within the Archives.
“She finally started investigating.”
In the darkness, a hand slowly turned the page.
“Good.”
“Now this is getting interesting.”
“Netherworld King…”
“How much longer can you keep it from her?”
At the same time, outside the Netherworld King's Palace, the Yellow Springs Flower on Lin Wantang's wrist suddenly bloomed.
Deep within the heart of the flower, blood-red writing that had never appeared before slowly emerged.
“First memory fragment unlocked.”
“Unlocked memory: Shen Yueli did not die in Youxu.”
Lin Wantang stared at the words.
Her heart jolted.
If she hadn't died in Youxu…
Then who, a thousand years ago, had made her “die”?
And where, exactly, had her true time of death gone?