Mu Sui and Meng Ruji faced each other in the thatched hut, exchanging glances in silence.

Just then, suddenly, layers of ethereal blue light began floating from the giant’s corpse on the table. This light was identical to the scattered points of light in the Nai River.

In moments, the giant’s corpse vanished with a “whoosh,” instantly turning into a cloud of smoke!

Meng Ruji started, crying out: “My money!”

The smoke flew out of the thatched hut. Meng Ruji hurriedly chased after it, not forgetting to grab the copper coin left on the table before leaving.

Chasing outside, Meng Ruji saw the smoke fly over the Nai River, then quickly sink into the water. The scattered points immediately merged into the river water and disappeared in an instant with the rapidly flowing current.

Meng Ruji watched helplessly as the smoke drifted away, then looked toward the far end of Nai River where the water flowed upward into the sky, finally dispersing into the heavens. In daylight, this reverse-flowing water looked like clouds or ribbons scattered from the sky.

Meng Ruji understood: “He’s gone to his next life…”

The person was dead, dispersed, no evidence left, completely dashing her hopes of getting money from the government office…

“Sigh…”

She looked up and let out a long sigh, lamenting that today’s work was all for nothing…

However, before Meng Ruji’s sigh could fade, another point of light suddenly appeared in the air where the blue glow had just passed. Meng Ruji’s tone immediately lifted: “Hm?”

“What’s this?”

Following her question, the light point floated in front of Mu Sui, then slowly descended and stopped on the ground.

The light faded, revealing three pieces of paper and a money pouch on the grass.

Meng Ruji looked at Mu Sui, then at the items on the ground: “I heard someone mention at the marketplace earlier that when you send someone to their next life, their wealth becomes yours…” Meng Ruji looked at Mu Sui. “This is that criminal’s wealth, right?”

Mu Sui thought it might also include the other two’s wealth combined.

But he didn’t want to tell Meng Ruji about the stronghold incident. He didn’t want Meng Ruji to know that he hadn’t obeyed her today.

So before leaving the marketplace, Mu Sui had notified the government office to arrive an hour after him to catch the thieves. He hadn’t told the bandits his name either, only saying that tomorrow someone would come with a sweet potato to claim the reward. He also planned to go collect it secretly tomorrow while Meng Ruji was away.

If the money were little, he’d exchange it all for food to bring back to Meng Ruji.

The excuse would be the same old one…

If the money was a lot… he’d exchange it gradually, a little each day, and find ways to make Meng Ruji think it was money she’d earned…

Anyway, he’d secretly give all of tomorrow’s money to Meng Ruji.

Mu Sui had it all planned out, so now he simply agreed with Meng Ruji’s words.

Mu Sui picked up the papers and the money pouch from the ground.

The three papers were a house deed, a land deed, and an indenture contract.

“House deed and land deed… looks like it’s for this thatched hut in front of us and the land underneath.” Meng Ruji leaned against Mu Sui’s arm, craning her neck to study the diagrams on the contracts. “Didn’t expect this place to be his. He was an inn owner.”

Mu Sui looked at the other paper – the “indenture contract.” It had a human portrait drawn on it with the character “贰” (two) written beside it. Looking at this nearly abstract facial portrait, neither Meng Ruji nor Mu Sui could recognize the person.

Meng Ruji had Mu Sui put away all three contracts. The inn and land here were too remote to be useful, but maybe they could exchange them for something at the government office.

One money pouch remained. When Mu Sui opened it, inside weren’t copper coins but something Meng Ruji hadn’t seen since arriving in the Placeless Realm – silver.

A large silver ingot!

Meng Ruji’s pupils seemed to light up with the silver ingot’s gleam.

Mu Sui glanced at it, then took Meng Ruji’s hand and poured the silver ingot into her palm: “For you.”

The silver ingot fell into her palm, heavy and bright. Meng Ruji had never found silver so beautiful!

Mu Sui watched her expression, and his lips curved up along with Meng Ruji’s smile.

Good. He would give her much more money in the future.

Meng Ruji examined the silver from every angle. Unlike the copper coins engraved with “无留” (Placeless) and “不渡” (No Ferry), this silver was smooth all over with only one character carved at the bottom: “留” (Stay).

Looking at it, Meng Ruji felt both angry and amused: “Those earning copper are ‘placeless and no ferry,’ those earning silver get to ‘stay,’ so those earning gold probably get to ‘cross over’?”

After cursing, she paused, then suddenly realized:

“Gold!”

Meng Ruji immediately turned to head upstream along the Nai River: “Mu Sui, take your money. I’m going to handle something. I’ll pay you back later. You go home first!”

“No.” Mu Sui grabbed Meng Ruji’s arm. “The money is yours. Take it. Wherever you go, I have to go too.”

Seeing his firm resolve, Meng Ruji thought for a moment: “Are you hungry?”

“No.”

“Then let’s go together!”

Meng Ruji led Mu Sui upstream along the Nai River. By the time evening approached and stars appeared in the night sky, the Nai River water also began glowing with an eerie light.

Finally, in the distance, Meng Ruji saw the banner reading “Mo Neng Ferry.”

On the familiar wooden dock, old acquaintances Da Lü and Xiao Hong seemed to have just started their work, arranging their small stools at the ferry without sitting down yet.

Meng Ruji thought for a moment, stopped walking, turned to stare at Mu Sui, and warned him:

“At Mo Neng Ferry, those twin brothers have nasty mouths. If they start arguing later…”

“I’ll kill them.”

“You absolutely must not kill them!” Meng Ruji immediately interrupted. “I won’t be in jail with you.”

Mu Sui’s lip corners turned slightly downward, his face full of displeasure.

Meng Ruji rubbed her temples: “Today we’re just here to ask about something. Don’t fight.” After speaking, she didn’t move, just stood there staring at Mu Sui, wanting to get a promise from him.

Mu Sui held back for a long time before finally nodding with difficulty.

Only then did Meng Ruji resume walking toward the ferry.

Mu Sui still said quietly behind her: “They’ll make you unhappy. I don’t like it when you’re unhappy.”

“There are many things in life that make people unhappy. In this world, you can’t always do only things that make you happy.” Meng Ruji said. “Just accept it. Think more about things that make you happy.”

Mu Sui thought for a moment:

“Then I can only think about you.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji’s steps suddenly stopped.

Mu Sui was a step behind her. Though Meng Ruji stopped suddenly, Mu Sui didn’t bump into her but steadily stopped just an inch behind her.

Then Mu Sui saw Meng Ruji turn her head. She looked strange, glanced at him, and muttered: “Where did this little wild man learn such words?”

Mu Sui tilted his head at Meng Ruji, not understanding.

Meng Ruji didn’t explain and continued walking.

On the dock, Meng Ruji and Mu Sui’s footsteps made the old wooden boards creak. Da Lü and Xiao Hong had just sat on their stools and hadn’t yet assumed their sleeping positions when they heard the noise and turned to look.

“Hmph.” Da Lü sneered, looking displeased. “It’s you two again!”

“Come for jail food again?”

As Meng Ruji expected, nothing good came from their mouths.

Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui and saw him looking away at the distance, seemingly deliberately avoiding looking this way, his cold face showing no emotion.

Not knowing how long he could hold out, Meng Ruji wanted a quick resolution. She immediately raised her hand to reveal the silver ingot.

“In the Placeless Realm, money talks. I understand the rules.”

“Oh…” Da Lü said sarcastically, “A whole silver ingot.”

“How generous.” Xiao Hong continued relentlessly. “Think you can talk with this?”

“Our ferry tickets.”

“They are expensive.”

Meng Ruji said patiently, “I’m not buying tickets. I just want to know today – does your ferry ticket for one person cost one gold piece?”

Da Lü and Xiao Hong exchanged glances. Da Lü raised an eyebrow: “Well, this information…”

Xiao Hong continued: “Indeed costs money to buy.”

“Needs one silver.”

“Not cheap at all.”

Meng Ruji had already guessed this. The ferry could return to the mortal world, so surely many people in the Placeless Realm wanted to buy tickets.

But so many people in the marketplace didn’t know the ferry ticket price, proving this price wasn’t meant for everyone to know. People only knew it was expensive, but how expensive specifically – no numbers.

This number became special information.

Special news required special prices, naturally costing money.

And why would people who paid for this information tell others? Especially when the information itself was expensive, people would choose secrecy.

Because revealing information meant revealing oneself as “wealthy.”

After today’s events, Meng Ruji roughly understood why she could only see “poor people” in the marketplace – because when you’re powerless and alone, “showing wealth” becomes very dangerous.

The giant was killed, and his wealth went to Mu Sui. Whoever had money became a target for theft, robbery, or even murder.

Like Zhuliu City and that wealthy city lord, even strangers wanted to take bites out of them with words.

“I’ll give you one silver.” Meng Ruji offered the silver ingot. “Tell me, how much do ferry tickets back to the mortal world cost?”

Da Lü and Xiao Hong exchanged glances again. Da Lü stepped forward, took the silver ingot from Meng Ruji, and then broke off two small pieces. The broken pieces immediately became two round silver pearls.

Da Lü returned the remainder to Meng Ruji: “We’re honest people.”

“Don’t covet your wealth.”

“Your ingot is ten silver.”

“One pearl is one silver.”

“We’re taking two silver pearls.”

“Information for two people to hear.”

Charging per person – Meng Ruji found nothing wrong with that. She put away the remaining silver ingot.

Da Lü glanced at both of them and spoke eerily: “Mo Neng Ferry ferries the capable.”

His voice drifted through the somewhat eerie mist at the ferry. Mu Sui, who had been looking into the distance, heard this and his ears twitched slightly. He slowly turned his eyes to look at Da Lü and Xiao Hong in the mist.

Xiao Hong softly continued, his tone carrying theatrical inflection: “For the capable, a thousand gold can buy life.”

As soon as these words fell, Mu Sui’s expression went blank for an instant. His mind felt hammered by something as chaotic sounds and images surged forth again.

He seemed to hear someone calling him, but they weren’t calling his name. When Mu Sui tried to listen carefully to their voices, his ears could only hear chaos.

Those people were completely strange, always seeming to stand several steps lower than him.

Accompanying these images and sounds came the familiar headache.

Mu Sui shook his head, forcibly driving those things away.

Meanwhile, Meng Ruji didn’t notice Mu Sui’s unusual forbearance. After hearing this news, she was completely absorbed, thinking to herself.

“A thousand gold to buy life? A thousand gold?”

These past days at the marketplace, though she’d only used copper coins, she’d still asked about the money exchange rules.

Here in the Placeless Realm, a thousand wen could exchange for one silver. Since the marketplace had nothing requiring a thousand wen, Meng Ruji had never seen one silver until today – now she knew one silver meant one silver pearl.

And a hundred silver coins could be exchanged for one gold.

Calculating this: a hundred thousand wen for one gold, and a thousand gold to buy life…

That would be a hundred million wen! Just to buy life!

“This is impossible!”

After calculating, Meng Ruji was stunned. “Converting this to copper coins would sink your ferry boat! The price you’ve set at Mo Neng Ferry is completely unreasonable!”

“This is life we’re talking about.”

Having answered Meng Ruji’s paid question, Da Lü and Xiao Hong’s voices became sharp and grating again: “If you think your life isn’t worth a thousand gold…”

“Then don’t buy it!”

“Someone else will find it worthwhile!”

“That’s right.”

Meng Ruji angrily retorted: “With your prices, you simply don’t want people buying tickets back to the mortal world!”

“Ah, shallow!”

“Short-sighted!”

“We have ferried people across.”

“Just recently.”

“Zhuliu City’s lord crossed over.”

“Zhuliu City…” Meng Ruji hadn’t suffered financial hardship for many years, but in just these two weeks, she was completely outmatched by Da Lü and Xiao Hong in money-related arguments. She could only mutter angrily in place: “That’s a city lord – how many people produce one city lord…”

Hearing this, Da Lü righteously scolded Meng Ruji: “Don’t talk about opportunities!”

Xiao Hong followed up: “Don’t mention luck either.”

“If you can’t earn money, surely it’s not the money’s fault?”

“It must be your fault!”

“Stop looking for excuses in others.”

“Look for reasons in yourself.”

“Why can others earn money?”

“How is it that you deserve not to earn any?”

Each sentence, each word – Meng Ruji felt they were all wrong, but she couldn’t find counterarguments. She stood there getting dizzy with anger, extremely vexed.

When fighting that scheming man-eating criminal, Meng Ruji hadn’t felt any headache. Now she was getting heartsick from anger over money matters. Only in this matter did she feel truly like a tiger fallen to the plains being bullied by dogs!

Pitiful!

While Meng Ruji pressed her temples and took deep breaths, pacing the dock to calm herself, Mu Sui was also covering his head, enduring pain.

Xiao Hong secretly glanced at Mu Sui, then retreated two steps before suddenly charging forward, ramming his head toward Mu Sui while shouting:

“This is for pushing me into the Nai River last time!”

“Bang!” Xiao Hong directly knocked the pain-stricken Mu Sui off the dock’s wooden planks!

“Mu Sui!”

Meng Ruji reacted and shouted, immediately lunging forward to grab Mu Sui’s arm.

But Mu Sui was heavier than Meng Ruji. As she grabbed him, she was also dragged off the dock planks. She hooked her foot into a gap between the dock planks to stop their momentum, but this left half her body hanging outside the dock, struggling to maintain support.

Meng Ruji gripped Mu Sui’s hands with both of hers. Most of Mu Sui’s body had already fallen into the Nai River. The water looked calm but was turbulent, nearly washing him away as he floated on the surface.

Meng Ruji desperately hooked onto the planks, but the river’s powerful current kept pulling at Mu Sui. Just as Meng Ruji was about to lose her grip, Mu Sui grasped her wrist with one hand. He looked at Meng Ruji, his black eyes calm and determined, then, without a word, he pulled her hands away.

“Mu Sui!”

Meng Ruji could only watch as Mu Sui was swept away like a fallen leaf by the eerie and treacherous waters.