The sun was setting in the west. Despite the overwhelming reluctance, humans belong to the realm of the living, ghosts to the realm of the dead. Li Ying was already gone, never to return.

The Empress Dowager’s palanquin finally returned to Daming Palace. Cui Xun made an excuse about having business to attend to. He didn’t accompany the Empress Dowager back but stayed behind to keep Li Ying company.

When the Empress Dowager’s palanquin departed, Li Ying knelt and kowtowed deeply. For the motherly love and care she had received, she not only failed to repay her adoptive mother but also caused her to grieve for thirty years. Such filial impiety filled her with immense shame.

Cui Xun watched the fragile figure kowtowing beneath the Bodhi tree facing the direction of Daming Palace. After a moment of silence, he bent down and helped Li Ying up. “The Empress Dowager has already left. Please rise.”

With his support, Li Ying stood up unsteadily. Her eyes were swollen and red, and her body was exhausted from excessive weeping, making it difficult for her to stand. Seeing her condition, Cui Xun helped her sit under the Bodhi tree to rest, and he sat down beside her.

They remained silent for a long time, until the sky darkened, the silver moon hung high, and stars filled the heavens. Finally, Li Ying spoke: “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, thank you.”

Cui Xun replied, “You needn’t always thank me. You’ve helped me greatly as well.”

Li Ying nodded and then said, “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, I must leave now.”

Cui Xun wasn’t surprised: “When will you depart?”

“Tonight,” Li Ying said. Mount Maozhong is the entrance to the netherworld. I’ll set out for Mount Maozhong tonight.”

Cui Xun sat cross-legged beneath the Bodhi tree. Moonlight poured down like white silk across the sky, filling the ground with clear radiance. He silently watched as moonlight filtered through the Bodhi tree’s lush branches and leaves, scattering fragments like broken jade on the ground. After a long while, he finally spoke: “Congratulations, Princess.”

Li Ying tilted her head up to gaze at the tranquil night sky, watching the brilliant river of stars. She said softly, “Although I have many attachments in this mortal world, I know that I no longer belong here. Li Ying’s life has ended. It’s time to abandon this life and begin the next.”

Cui Xun’s lips moved slightly, as if wanting to say something, but in the end, he only said, “I wish you a safe journey, Princess.”

Li Ying nodded: “Now my revenge is complete, my hatred dispelled, my wishes fulfilled. I have no more attachments in this life. On the path to the Yellow Springs, I will fare well.”

She paused, then took out a gilded silver incense ball from the five-colored lotus pouch at her waist. The incense ball was composed of two hemispheres joined by a hinge for easy opening and closing. Inside was a small receptacle for holding incense. When closed and gently shaken, a subtle fragrance would waft out, refreshing the spirit.

Li Ying handed the gilded silver incense ball to Cui Xun: “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, this is my gift of thanks. You don’t sleep well. If you keep this incense ball with you, it will calm your mind and help you rest better at night.”

Upon hearing this, Cui Xun didn’t take the incense ball. Instead, he showed slight surprise, as if a secret had been discovered: “How did you know I can’t sleep at night?”

Li Ying smiled gently: “Does Lesser Chamberlain Cui remember when we first met?”

“Of course, it was the second day of the first month.”

Li Ying shook her head: “No, it was the first day of the first month.”

Cui Xun was slightly startled. Li Ying continued: “On the evening of the first day, after Lesser Chamberlain Cui attended the Grand Court Assembly, you were exhausted. After retiring, you were awakened several times by nightmares. After the last awakening, you got up and closed the latticed window.”

With Li Ying’s reminder, Cui Xun finally recalled that night when, closing the window, he had vaguely glimpsed a figure wearing a narrow-sleeved multi-colored skirt. But when he looked more carefully, the figure had disappeared. He thought he had seen wrong due to fatigue, so he hadn’t dwelt on it.

But it turned out he hadn’t been mistaken.

Cui Xun couldn’t help but smile lightly: “So it was the Princess that day.”

Li Ying smiled faintly: “I was looking for someone to help me investigate a case. Naturally, I had to see if that person was reliable.”

Holding the gilded silver incense ball, she suddenly said: “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, there was another matter on the evening of the first day of the first month. Do you remember?”

“What matter?”

“You saved a moth.”

Li Ying’s voice was that of a sixteen-year-old girl, gentle and sweet, but also slightly nasal from crying. She spoke softly, like a gentle breeze, refreshing the spirit: “Before, I had heard palace servants speak of you. They said you were a cruel official, merciless and extremely brutal. But that night, I saw a moth trapped in the window crack, struggling but unable to free itself. When you went to close the window, you also noticed it. I thought you would ignore it, disregard its life, and close the window. But instead, you picked up the moth from the crack and released it.”

Before Li Ying’s eyes, the scene of that day seemed to reappear—the tiny moth, once released, fluttering its transparent wings with effort, stumbling through the air toward the sky: “At that moment, I believed that Lesser Chamberlain Cui wasn’t a bad person. How bad could someone who would release a moth be? Everyone was cursing you, but I felt that you must have had reasons for what you did.”

She looked at Cui Xun, her gaze gentle yet determined: “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, during the Lantern Festival, I told you I trusted you because Mother valued and employed you, so I trusted you too. But actually, it wasn’t just that reason. I trusted you because I trusted you. I believed I wouldn’t misjudge a person.”

The bright moon hung high, pouring clear moonlight over the ground. Beneath the Bodhi tree, it was as if fine silver gauze had been spread out. Moonlight fell on Cui Xun, bathing him in its clear radiance. At the tip of his nose was the subtle fragrance from the gilded silver incense ball, faint yet lingering, filling his sleeves with delicate fragrance. Cui Xun’s fingers, resting on his knee, slowly clenched. He said: “Is that so? Did that happen? I don’t remember.”

Li Ying seemed to have anticipated his response. She smiled: “It was such a small matter. Naturally, Lesser Chamberlain Cui doesn’t remember.”

She opened the incense ball and sniffed it gently: “Lesser Chamberlain Cui, actually, I very much wish to hear about what’s in your heart. But I’m afraid I won’t have the chance now. This incense ball contains herbs I blended—cinnamon twigs, mugwort, polygala, angelica, Sichuan lovage, and agarwood. It can calm the mind and aid sleep.”

She closed the incense ball and handed it to Cui Xun: “For you.”

Her gaze was clear, but Cui Xun suddenly avoided her eyes. This time, he didn’t refuse but silently accepted the incense ball. He opened it and held it to his nose to smell: “There seems to be plum fragrance as well.”

Li Ying paused briefly, then smiled: “No, there isn’t.”

Cui Xun didn’t ask further. He closed the incense ball: “I accept it.”

“Good.” Li Ying nodded: “Then I’ll go.”

“Farewell.”

Li Ying stood up. Today, her attire was identical to when Cui Xun first met her—a green short-sleeved jacket on top and a red and white multi-colored skirt below. Her hair was styled in double buns with a celestial-gazing hairpin. With bright eyes and white teeth, she possessed the grace of an immortal and the quality of jade. She took two steps forward, preparing to leave, when Cui Xun suddenly called out to her: “Princess.”

Li Ying turned back. Cui Xun gazed at her steadily, his eyes no longer cold and indifferent but seeming to contain thousands of emotions intertwined. His fingers slowly clenched, and in the end, he only said: “Be careful on your journey.”

Li Ying smiled slightly. She nodded, and then her figure gradually faded in the hazy moonlight, finally disappearing completely from Cui Xun’s sight.

In the night, a palanquin styled like a pavilion, surrounded by white gauze embroidered with auspicious flower patterns, moved swiftly, carried by paper figurine bearers.

Li Ying sat upright in the palanquin. She was going to the netherworld.

At the bearers’ pace, she would reach Mount Maozhong in two hours.

A plum blossom incense burner burned inside the palanquin. Li Ying suddenly recalled Cui Xun’s words: “There seems to be plum fragrance as well.”

She had said, “No, there isn’t.”

But actually, there was.

While recuperating at the Cui residence, she had wanted to blend calming herbs to make an incense ball for Cui Xun. The herbs were gathered quickly, and the blending wasn’t complicated. When she had placed the precisely measured cinnamon twigs, mugwort, polygala, angelica, Sichuan lovage, and agarwood in a bronze mortar and was crushing them into powder with a white jade pestle, she suddenly took out a dried red plum blossom from her pouch.

This plum blossom was from that day at Ximing Temple, in the snow, when she was distressed about being a ghost, walking on the ground without leaving footprints. Cui Xun had let her walk behind him, stepping in his footprints in the snow. At that time, a red winter plum had fallen onto his shoulder, then drifted down into her palm. As if bewitched, she had kept this fallen plum, carefully placing it in her pouch.

Li Ying looked at the fallen plum for a long time, then pursed her lips and carefully placed it in the bronze mortar. Then, holding the white jade pestle, she meticulously ground the fallen plum together with the other herbs into fine powder.

So there was indeed plum fragrance in that incense ball.

Li Ying lowered her eyes. Was she truly without attachments in this life?

As she was thinking, suddenly the palanquin stopped.

They had arrived at Mount Maozhong.

Mount Maozhong was shrouded in white mist, with birds crying mournfully. Li Ying stepped out of the palanquin. All around was dark and without light. She stood before a massive stone gate carved with fierce ghost patterns. On either side of the gate stood two huge bronze ox lanterns, their ox heads burning with two balls of green ghostfire. Above the stone gate were four large characters:

Netherworld Ghost Court.

This was the entrance to the underworld.

Li Ying took a deep breath. She stepped forward twice, walked up to the stone gate, and called out loudly: “I am Princess Yong’an, Li Ying, coming to the underworld for reincarnation.”

The green ghostfire jumped violently, burning even more fiercely. Li Ying heard two cackling laughs from the bronze ox lanterns, then the stone gate rumbled open. Without hesitation, Li Ying quickly walked through. After she entered, the stone gate rumbled shut again, continuing to separate the worlds of the living and the dead.

As soon as Li Ying entered the netherworld court, it was as if she had stepped into endless nothingness. Around her was a dense darkness where she couldn’t see her fingers before her. In her ears were the wailing cries of evil spirits being punished in hell. Even the air was bone-chillingly gloomy and terrifying. Li Ying shivered slightly, bit her lip, and continued forward through this nothingness.

After walking for an unknown time, she finally saw a glimmer of light. Joyfully, she quickened her pace forward. Before her was a winding black river, its surface shrouded in mist. On both banks was barren land without a blade of grass. Looking down at the ground, Li Ying saw that the soil was red.

Red like human blood.

She recoiled in horror, taking two steps back. The previously calm river surface suddenly roared to life, the entire river turning blood-red. Countless emaciated hands reached out from the river, futilely waving in the air, but in the next moment, they were swallowed by high-leaping, fang-filled ghost beasts called bo’er xiang. The river surface was immediately covered with floating dismembered limbs.

Li Ying felt sick. She retched dryly, leaning against a jagged, strange rock, her entire body trembling.

She was afraid.

Suddenly, she heard a calm voice: “Those are all ghosts who cannot cross the Nai River. They insisted on crossing, and were all eaten by the bo’er xiang in the river.”

Li Ying was startled. Behind the strange rock was a small boat with a ferryman wearing a bamboo hat, his face unclear.

Li Ying suddenly remembered something: “May I ask, are you the ferryman who carries departed souls across the Nai River?”

The ferryman nodded.

Li Ying became excited: “I’ve heard that after crossing the Nai River, one can enter the cycle of reincarnation. Boatman, can you help me cross the Nai River?”

The ferryman shook his head.

Li Ying was shocked: “Why not? I am no longer an unjustly killed soul. I know who killed me, and my killer has been punished. My revenge is complete, my grievances dispelled. Why can’t I cross the Nai River?”

The ferryman just shook his head. His voice was ancient: “You… cannot.”