“If you were still alive, you would certainly be a good official.”

Xu Hexue knew that Ni Su spoke these words to him with such firm conviction perhaps out of a kind of trust, or perhaps out of her own principles for judging people.

What she said was clearly something very pleasant to hear.

Yet Xu Hexue couldn’t help but feel wounded by it.

He was not.

But at this moment, there was nothing he could say to her.

“Xu Ziling.”

As Xu Hexue was lost in thought, he heard her call out again. His gaze fell on the sleeve she had grasped. He looked up to meet the eyes of this young lady before him, crystalline with moisture.

“Since I can summon your soul, can I also summon my brother’s soul?” Ni Su stared intently at him.

If she could summon her brother’s soul, she could learn who had harmed him.

Her gaze was full of hope, but Xu Hexue looked at her and said: “The reason you were able to summon me back into the mortal world is because the Earth Count of Youdu aided you.”

This was the second time he mentioned the Earth Count of Youdu. Ni Su recalled the old monk with the curled white beard in the cypress grove of Great Bell Temple in Que County. From the hidden pocket in her sleeve, she drew out that beast pearl.

“The beast pearl you have is carved in the true form of the Earth Count. He is the divine creature who governs Youdu.”

Xu Hexue looked at her beast pearl and spoke.

Since he was a divine creature, how could he indulge every request? The karmic connections involved could probably not be forced. The hope that had just ignited in Ni Su’s heart was mostly extinguished. She held the beast pearl, silent.

“Ni Su.”

Xu Hexue handed her another piece of sugar cake. “But with this beast pearl, and with the remnants of your brother’s soul fire, I may be able to let you see him one more time.”

Hearing this, Ni Su’s head shot up. She was about to say something when she saw the faint luminous dust around him. She immediately looked at his sleeve cuffs and shook her head. “But you’ll be injured because of this.”

“The beast pearl contains the Earth Count’s power. I won’t need to use my arts.”

Xu Hexue simply sat down on the prayer cushion beside her. “It’s just that there are countless souls in Youdu. To find your brother through the beast pearl may take a very long time.”

It might not be so timely.

“Even if I cannot hear him tell me himself, I will seek justice for him on my own.” Ni Su looked toward the two memorial tablets behind the incense table and spoke.

Xu Hexue said nothing, staring at her profile, then suddenly lowered his eyes to look at the embroidered characters along the edge of his sleeve.

“You truly don’t need to use your arts?”

Ni Su felt somewhat uneasy and turned back to look at him.

“Mm.”

He nodded.

“Then you—”

Clearly Ni Su was the one who lit the lamp for this lonely soul, yet at this moment, she felt as if he had personally ignited a flame in her heart. “Are you still unwilling to tell me your old friend’s name?”

Ni Su had always wanted to help him, but somehow, he had never been willing to mention that old friend’s name, nor did he ever say whom she should take him to find.

“He is not in Yun Jing at present.”

Xu Hexue said.

“Then where did he go?” Ni Su pressed him. “I can accompany you to search. As long as I find the person who harmed my brother, no matter how distant the mountains or far the waters, I’ll accompany you.”

She had long since stopped crying.

No more tears hung in her eyes—only her eyelids were reddened—as she gazed at him thus.

Hearing her say “distant mountains and far waters,” Xu Hexue unexpectedly looked up to meet her gaze. Outside the eaves, rain struck the banana leaves, arriving suddenly.

“He will return.”

He said, “I don’t need you to accompany me to very distant places. Ni Su, some people and some matters can only be awaited in Yun Jing.”

The hall full of bright orange-yellow candlelight illuminated Xu Hexue’s face. His lowered lashes concealed his expression, but it seemed that in this moment, he was enveloped by a deathly stillness that did not belong to the mortal world.

He rarely mentioned anything from his life. Aside from that childhood anecdote about his brother and sister-in-law that he had shared to comfort her in the Yinye Bureau prison, he had never spoken another word.

He resisted her inquiries.

Ni Su didn’t know what he had experienced during his life, and she was unwilling to touch upon his pain. The night rain fell steadily. In the long silence, she thought for a very long time before saying: “Then if there’s anything you need my help with, you must tell me. Whatever it is, I can do it.”

By lamplight, her clear eyes reflected her sincerity.

Outside, the rain rustled, striking the latticed windows. Xu Hexue met her gaze.

He said nothing, while Ni Su’s attention was drawn to the fine rain outside the door. She finished the remaining half of the sugar cake, looking at the courtyard that appeared especially hazy in the rain mist, and suddenly said: “It’s raining.”

She turned back. “In this kind of weather, you won’t be able to bathe.”

Because there was no moon.

Xu Hexue looked toward the eaves outside, listening to the pattering rain. He said: “Tomorrow, can you take me to the Thankful Spring Pavilion at Eternal Peace Lake?”

“All right.”

Ni Su gazed at him.

Having just brought back her brother’s ashes, Ni Su found it difficult to sleep. After applying medicine to her injuries, she went to light the incense and candles in the adjacent room.

After finishing these tasks, she returned to kneel on the prayer cushion before the incense table, keeping vigil over the lamp and candles, turning page after page through the unfinished medical text, tracing her brother’s handwriting.

Meanwhile, Xu Hexue stood in the room filled with lit candles. On the writing desk were neatly arranged the Four Books and Five Classics, several poetry collections, and a complete set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Several paintings and calligraphy hung on the walls—at first glance a riot of flowers, but in truth possessing form without substance. They were all things Ni Su had bought during the day from the painting and calligraphy stalls outside.

Gauze screens, pale blue curtains, tea implements, a chess board with chess boxes, fresh flowers in vases, wood incense in censers, a clean and tidy bed… all bore witness to the care of the person who had arranged this room.

Elegant yet homely.

Everywhere Xu Hexue’s gaze lingered seemed to faintly touch upon distant memories.

He remembered that he had once possessed rooms even finer than all of this. In his youth he had been surrounded by books and scholarly pursuits, socializing and riding horses with others, playing chess and drinking tea.

One cabinet door against the wall stood half-open. Xu Hexue walked over and hooked his finger through the copper pull. With a faint creaking sound, the room full of lamps illuminated the neatly folded men’s clothing stacked inside.

The cabinet was filled almost to capacity.

The coldness of the copper pull couldn’t match the temperature at his fingertips.

Xu Hexue stood frozen before the cabinet door for a very long time without moving.

Xu Hexue lay on the bed.

White smoke from the incense burner drifted lazily. The lamps throughout the room flickered faintly.

He closed his eyes.

But in his mind was pervasive smoke and haze, waters of hatred flowing east. In the pitch-black sky, lightning flashed and thunder rolled, assaulting his eardrums. A towering pagoda hung suspended in the clouds. Within the tower, soul fires leaped and tore at each other, illuminating all around.

“General! General, save me!”

“I hate Great Qi!”

Countless wails of resentment and hatred nearly pierced his eardrums.

Xu Hexue’s eyes flew open. The luminous dust around him scattered in all directions. The blade wounds he had suffered in life cut open his flesh inch by inch once more. His ears were filled with mingled cries of anguish.

Before he realized it, his hands were full of blood. Only then did he feel that the beast pearl clutched in his palm was scorching hot—so hot that his finger joints curled and his veins bulged slightly.

The candle flames scattered wildly. Half the lamps in the room extinguished in an instant.

Excruciating pain devoured Xu Hexue’s reason. His form suddenly became very faint. The drifting luminous dust emanated an intense aura of resentful malice. Cups and dishes shattered. The incense burner toppled.

Ni Su sat quietly before the incense table when she suddenly heard some commotion. She turned her head sharply and saw that outside the eaves, amid the fine rain, snow was actually falling.

She braced her hands on the floor to stand, her steps unsteady as she walked outside.

The lamps in the room across the way had nearly all gone out. Ni Su’s heart filled with unease. Heedless of the rain and snow, she hurried to the corridor opposite.

With a “bang,” the door flew open.

The lantern on the corridor barely illuminated the chaos throughout the room. Scattered flower petals were embedded among shattered porcelain. The entire screen had fallen to the ground. Fresh blood stained large swaths of the screen’s gauze.

The room was full of the smell of incense ash and blood.

That man lay on the floor covered with ceramic shards. His thick black hair was disheveled and scattered. The inner robe collar that was usually neat and proper was now completely open. His neck line was distinct, his collarbones rising and falling with his violent breathing.

“Xu Ziling!”

Ni Su’s pupils contracted. She immediately ran over.

She bent down to grasp his arm but got a palmful of blood. A lamp that barely remained lit illuminated beneath his wide sleeves a wound where the blade had cut cleanly through.

It was so gruesome, so terrifying that her knees went weak and she collapsed kneeling at his side.

He tilted his face up. Those eyes could not see clearly and had completely forgotten who she was. He trembled, gasped, the veins at his neck more prominent—a color no living person could display.

His Adam’s apple rolled once. The faint candlelight could not penetrate his pitch-black hollow eyes. The luminous dust around him seemed to have grown extremely sharp edges—no longer pleasing to behold but instead stabbing painfully at one’s skin.

“Xu Ziling, what’s wrong with you?” Ni Su wrapped her arms around his waist, using all her strength to try to lift him up. She was alarmed to find his form growing ever more faint as mist. She glanced back at the single burning lamp on the table and was about to release him when he suddenly gripped her wrist tightly.

Ni Su was unprepared and stumbled forward.

His strength was so great it seemed he would crush the bones of her wrist.

Ni Su’s other elbow braced against the floor so she wouldn’t fall onto him, but when she looked up, she saw his eyes squeeze tightly shut, his long lashes soaked with crimson blood.

His eyes were actually bleeding.

Ni Su tried to break free from his hand, but then saw him open his eyes. Blood moistened his pale face. Stared at by those blood-red eyes, Ni Su trembled all over, her body going numb.

Ni Su immediately stretched out her other hand to reach for the lamp. However, the moment her fingers barely touched the edge of the candlestick, her neck was suddenly seized by his open mouth.

Xu Hexue succumbed to an irrepressible destructive urge, his teeth clenching forcefully to break through the delicate, thin skin of her neck.

The candlestick rolled away. The flame extinguished.