It seemed a very long time passed, yet also seemed only an instant—the tip of the incense finally produced a spark.

Everyone’s suspended hearts fell back into place with a thud.

Xie Daozhi gently shook it. The flame died, and a wisp of light smoke curled upward.

He inserted the incense into the incense burner, then picked up the envelope beside it and held it to the candle flame.

“Father?”

Xie Zhifei cried out in alarm.

Why burn the letter when everything was fine?

Xie Daozhi’s back hunched down another degree. He didn’t even glance at his son. After the letter finished burning, his legs bent and he knelt to the ground, his body slowly prostrating.

Lying with all five points touching the ground—this was the posture of one who repents.

Any words would be empty.

He wouldn’t defend himself, wouldn’t explain, wouldn’t seek any reason or excuse—only deep repentance.

The incense burned little by little.

Across forty years of lengthy time, across the mortal realm and the underworld, across the heart knots of two men.

After a long while, Xie Daozhi choked up and spoke.

“I was wrong.”

“Can you forgive me?”

Whoosh—a gust of wind swept through the courtyard, swirling up dust from the ground.

Xie Zhifei’s head jerked aside as he quickly closed his eyes.

Yan Sanhe remained completely motionless, staring at that stick of incense. She watched it burn at an incredible speed to its end.

When the last bit of incense ash fell into the incense burner, Yan Sanhe heard a “click.”

That was the sound of the coffin closing!

The exhaustion from two tense months seeped into every inch of bone and blood vessels. As she let out a long breath of relief, she collapsed forward.

“Yan Sanhe?”

Xie Zhifei’s heart plummeted rapidly.

…

Yan Sanhe actually remained conscious.

She could feel herself being lifted horizontally by that Xie wastrel, carried a very long distance, then to a courtyard.

After placing her on the bed, the person muttered quietly.

“No breasts, no butt, light as nothing—can this even be called a woman?”

Mind your own business!

Yan Sanhe really wanted to jump up and slap him twice, but she knew her current state—she was a corpse that couldn’t speak or move.

After a while, footsteps approached. Someone entered the room.

That person placed three fingers on her wrist and pondered for a long while.

Before Yan Sanhe could hear his final diagnosis, she felt herself drifting lightly to a courtyard.

The courtyard was very large, surrounded by high walls. Inside the walls, crabapple blossoms bloomed brilliantly.

Someone plucked one and forcibly pressed her head down to insert it.

“Tsk, so beautiful!”

“Take it away! Girls wear flowers. I’m a boy—I won’t wear it.”

“How do you know you’re a boy?”

“Mother said so. Girls love to cry, boys are mischievous. I don’t love to cry—what else would I be but a boy?”

“You don’t love to cry? Ha ha ha ha!”

“You’re making fun of me!”

She got angry and stamped her foot: “I’m telling Father and Mother!”

“If you dare tell, next time you cry don’t expect me to comfort you!”

“Hmph, who needs your comfort!”

She ran off to find Father and Mother, but no matter how she ran, she couldn’t escape that crabapple grove, as if hitting a ghost wall.

Looking back, that person had also disappeared.

Suddenly, raging fire blazed up, consuming everything before her eyes. Heaven and earth split open, and a ghostly hand reached out, desperately dragging her backward, backward…

Yan Sanhe struggled to cry out but couldn’t produce a single word. She only felt her body continuously falling, falling.

Falling into a sunless hell!

“Uncle Pei, how is she?”

Imperial Physician Pei pondered, pondered, and pondered some more.

“She caught a chill and overexerted herself. She’ll be fine after sleeping and drinking a few bowls of medicine.”

Xie Zhifei looked at the person on the bed. His heart that had sunk to the bottom finally floated back up. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard Steward Xie shouting outside.

“Imperial Physician Pei, Imperial Physician Pei, the Old Madam says she wants to eat sweet dumplings.”

“At a time like this, let her eat whatever she wants!”

“But the Old Madam says she wants to go to the garden for some air.”

“Oh my, my dear ancestor!”

Imperial Physician Pei jumped up and said to Xie Zhifei: “I must go check. Never mind the garden—I can’t even let her go to the courtyard.”

After he left, only one lying down and one standing remained in the room.

Xie Zhifei glanced at the person on the bed and without another word walked to the outer room.

For an unmarried man and woman to share a room alone was ultimately inappropriate.

“Steward Xie?”

“Third Master?”

“Find the most steady and reliable person to come attend to Miss Yan.”

“Yes!”

“Wait, where is Father?”

“Replying to Third Master, Father is currently in the Old Madam’s room.”

Steward Xie said this much, then had a thought. “Third Master, do you think the Old Madam might be…”

Xie Zhifei nodded lightly.

“Amitabha, Heaven protect us.” Steward Xie quickly bowed toward the sky.

“Why bow to that thing?”

Third Master Xie glanced at the wing room behind him. “You should bow to her.”

…

Sien Hall.

A roomful of people stared fixedly at Imperial Physician Pei.

“Impossible, this is absolutely impossible!”

Imperial Physician Pei held the Old Madam’s pulse, somewhat doubting life itself. “Old Ancestor, don’t move. Let me check again!”

“Old Pei!”

Xie Daozhi looked tense. “How is it?”

Imperial Physician Pei ignored him and examined her for quite a while longer before releasing her hand, looking incredulous. “Truly extraordinary—the Old Madam’s pulse is no different from an ordinary person’s.”

“Ah…”

Exclamations filled the room.

“This is wonderful!”

“Old Ancestor, you scared us all to death!”

“I said the Old Ancestor has great fortune and a long life—she’ll live to a hundred.”

The Old Madam’s eyes grew hot, her gaze looking deeply toward her son.

This look held both the relief of surviving calamity and an indescribable sigh.

Xie Daozhi’s throat choked. “Eldest, see Uncle Pei out on my behalf. The rest of you, disperse.”

His wife, Lady Wu, said considerately: “Master, your complexion is poor. The Old Madam’s side should still…”

Two sharp beams of light shot toward her. How could Lady Wu dare say more? She sheepishly withdrew.

Once she withdrew, everyone else followed, but one young man in brocade robes didn’t move.

Xie Daozhi’s eyes slowly swept over him twice, then said coolly: “It’s late. Second Son, you should go too.”

Second Master Xie Buhuo said gently: “Father should also take care of your health. Father has grown quite thin these past days.”

“Mm.”

Having received this “mm,” Xie Buhuo withdrew and closed the door.

Just as he reached the eaves, he saw Xie Erli, having seen off Imperial Physician Pei, walking in from outside.

Xie Buhuo moved aside.

“Elder Brother.”

“Mm.”

Xie Erli hurriedly nodded and brushed past him.

Xie Buhuo’s expression couldn’t help but change. He turned his head to look at the inner room.

For a long while, no sound came from within.

After turning over a dozen thoughts in his mind, Xie Buhuo sneered twice and strode out of the courtyard.

“Second Master.”

In the shadowed corner, his trusted aide Wu Xing waited for him.

Xie Buhuo walked over with hands behind his back, expression cold. “Go investigate everything that happened in Father’s study these past days.”

“Second Master, rest assured, we’re already investigating.”

Wu Xing kept his voice extremely low.

“I heard it’s related to the young woman who held the Eldest Master hostage that day. Right now, Third Master has sent her to Jingsi Residence.”

“Jingsi Residence?”

Second Master Xie’s complexion instantly turned deathly pale.