“That day, I saw him beneath the execution platform. He lunged forward, shielding his teacher’s body. It was then I knew—he was Xu Hexue.” The young man spoke while gesturing with his withered hands. “I saw you take him away.”

His eyeballs moved sluggishly, his gaze falling unabashedly on the medicine basket she carried.

“What do you want to do?”

Ni Su retreated two steps warily.

“He damaged himself too severely. Mortal medicine, incense, and candles cannot heal him.” The young man’s eyes could clearly see through the woven vine gaps that ball of luminous white light. “But I can.”

Ni Su’s heart stirred, yet toward this mysteriously appearing young man, she still maintained a cautious scrutiny.

The young man simply pulled down his hood. Thin cloth strips wrapped around his head. Beneath the cloak, his frame was terribly thin. Those eyes with their extremely dark pupils fixed on her. “Do you have steamed buns to eat?”

At this hour the street no longer had food stalls selling steamed buns. Ni Su bought him an oil-paper package of flatbread. He seemed not to notice the just-cooked flatbread was hot, pulling out a piece and stuffing it into his mouth.

From the food stall to the medical clinic—this short distance—Ni Su had just stepped up the stairs when she turned back to see the young man standing below smacking his lips. The oil-paper package in his hands was already empty.

Ni Su had no choice but to turn back and buy another package for him.

The young man sat beneath the corridor eaves, wolfing down flatbread, his speech muffled and slow. “You gave me two steamed buns before too.”

“That day I saw him standing beside you, but at that time, I didn’t yet know he was Xu Hexue. I thought he was in the Nether Capital.”

He said.

“Do you know him?” Ni Su sat on the other side, turning her head to look at him upon hearing this.

“No.”

The young man shook his head, took a bite of flatbread, then said, “But my mother knows him.”

“Who is your mother?”

The young man ate half the flatbread before wiping his mouth and saying, “My mother is from Daizhou. Eighteen years ago, on the road to Yongzhou for her wedding, she encountered a small squad of barbarian soldiers. They killed everyone in the wedding party—my maternal grandfather and grandmother died too. Only my mother was taken by them, treated as a prostitute for their amusement.”

“They had infiltrated the northern territories to gather intelligence. Vice General Xue Huai, under General Yujie Xu Hexue, discovered them and led soldiers to annihilate them. Only then did my mother escape that wolf’s den.”

The young man continued, “My mother’s family was destroyed, she had no one to rely on. Lord Xue Huai brought Mother back to Yongzhou. Who knew that family in Yongzhou originally meant to marry my mother would hear of this matter and want to drown my mother in a well.”

She heard Mother say it was a blazing sunny day. Yongzhou’s wind and sand were heavy, scraping people’s cheeks painfully. She was seized by her husband’s family, her hands and feet bound, forcibly pressed at the well’s mouth.

“A defiled woman, especially one used by barbarians—how can our family accept her? After such a thing happened, you should never have come to Yongzhou!”

The mother-in-law’s face was burned red by sunlight, those eyes like hooks gouging at her flesh.

“What family could still want such a bride?”

“Better to die cleanly…”

“Don’t even know why she came here…”

People all around chattered, all with sharp cutting words.

“I never intended to enter your family’s door again…” Her entire body trembled as she raised her voice, yet the crowd was noisy and no one cared. She repeated, “I never intended to enter your family’s door again. I just… had nowhere to go.”

“You actually still want to live?”

The mother-in-law exclaimed in disbelief.

“Is that not allowed?”

She asked.

The mother-in-law refused to acknowledge her, brows knitted tight, calling for people to grab her and force her into the well.

A long spear broke through the air, embedding with a “bang” into a tree trunk beside the dry well. The shaft trembled, flashing sharp silver light.

The onlooking common people retreated in panic. Everyone saw the young general in red robes and silver armor, sword at his waist, gripping the reins, riding his horse closer. From his elevated position, he glanced lightly at the two men pressing down on her shoulders—they immediately went weak in the knees, shrinking back.

“Of course it is allowed.”

The young general sat on his horse, the edges of his vermillion robe trimmed with silver scales. No one had answered her question—he answered it clearly and forcefully. “You have not entered their family register, so you cannot be constrained by local customs. Moreover, I believe such customs have no need to exist.”

“Today, whoever dares to throw you into this well will be condemned to death.”

The woman spoke tremblingly, “General, her family accepted our family’s betrothal gifts. How can we not count…”

“Xue Huai, do you have money?”

The young man turned his head, looking at the vice general behind him.

“…”

Xue Huai reluctantly reached into his armor to fish out a money pouch and tossed it to that woman, then said, “Inconvenient to carry, only this much. General, you must remember to repay it.”

The young man made an “mm” sound, stroking the horse’s mane. A pair of clear, cold eyes glanced at that woman. “Is it enough?”

“This…”

The woman weighed it—actually more than the betrothal gifts she had spent.

“Xue Huai, go untie her.”

The young man was too lazy to look at that woman again, merely lifting his chin toward Xue Huai.

Xue Huai acknowledged and stepped forward, but unexpectedly the woman by the well turned back to look at that deep, pitch-black dry well, then suddenly threw herself headfirst down into it.

The dry well was very deep. Everyone heard the heavy sound of her landing. No one had anticipated she would suddenly jump into the well herself.

“My mother said when Lord Xue Huai rescued her from barbarian hands, she originally thought she could still live. But that day, seeing so many pairs of eyes, hearing so many people say she should die, shouldn’t live—she felt again that she couldn’t live.” The young man spoke very slowly, even playing with the oil paper in his hands very slowly.

“Then you…”

Ni Su wanted to speak but hesitated.

The young man raised his eyes to look at her. “You know what I am, right?”

“When General Xu ordered people to retrieve my mother’s corpse from the well for burial, they discovered the mud below was buried with countless pale white bones. What seemed like muddy water was actually all women’s bones underneath. From that time on, he strictly ordered Yongzhou to abolish this evil custom. Under his jurisdiction, Yongzhou and surrounding county towns no longer dared to privately dispose of women within their clans. Otherwise, they would be condemned according to law.”

“Because of this, he offended many Yongzhou clans.”

“Though my mother’s corpse was buried, the dry well retained talismanic marks left behind when certain families drowned daughters-in-law who bore no children and hired Daoist priests to suppress their souls. My mother temporarily could not leave the well because of those talismanic marks—until my father, drunk, accidentally fell into the well.”

The young man scratched his head through the cloth strips. “The matter between the two of them became somewhat cliché—nothing more than my father being saved by my mother so he wouldn’t fall to his death, and then somehow one person and one ghost took a liking to each other.”

“And then, you came to be?”

Ni Su finally found a gap to interject.

“Mm, they also regretted it very much.” The young man nodded.

“Why regret it?”

“A ghost-birth—they didn’t know I would grow like this, didn’t know I would grow faster than normal people, have no body hair, and wouldn’t live long.”

Ni Su startled. No wonder—according to what he said, this year he should only be seventeen or eighteen, yet with his current appearance, he looked like a young man in his twenties.

“Then why did you come to Yun Jing?”

She asked.

“My mother had me deliver a letter to Minister Zhang. That day you gave me steamed buns to eat—I had just delivered the letter into Minister Zhang’s hands.”

“What letter?”

“She said General Xu did not defect to the enemy and betray the nation. Someone must know this truth. In this world, not everyone can curse him and destroy him.”

“But Minister Zhang was exiled for many years. My mother waited a very long time before he returned to Yun Jing as an official. She had me bring the letter to Minister Zhang. Though insufficient as evidence to overturn the case, at least it could make Minister Zhang suspicious. Perhaps one day, General Xu’s innocence could be restored.”

Speaking of this, he seemed somewhat melancholy. “Unfortunately, Minister Zhang also died.”

Ni Su remained silent for a long time before speaking: “What is your name?”

“Qingqiong. ‘Battle blood wipes my sword, this sword breaks through the azure vault.'”

His features were not as animated as ordinary people’s; even his smile was stiff. “My mother said this is General Xu’s poem.”

A young general’s high spirits were almost entirely contained in this poem.

Ni Su silently recited it once in her heart, somewhat lost in thought.

“Young mistress, if we are to save General Xu, we must hurry.” Qingqiong’s voice fell.

Ni Su immediately looked up. “Hurry?”

“My mother now resides in the Nether Capital, but my father can often hear Mother speak. His legs are inconvenient—he couldn’t come to Yun Jing with me. As long as we go back to see my father, there will certainly be methods from the Nether Capital to heal his wounds.”

Qingqiong said.

Ni Su did not hesitate, immediately nodding: “Good, I will depart with you to Yongzhou at once.”

“You…”

Qingqiong had not expected her to agree so readily. “That’s the frontier. If you’re afraid, I can take General Xu myself.”

“He was summoned by me. He cannot leave my side even half a step.”

Ni Su raised her head. Upon the eaves tiles, pale gold like lacquer. “I must save him.”

Qingqiong watched her stand, quickly walking into the room opposite. Before long she emerged again, holding a wrist pillow in her hand. She walked before him, asking him to extend his hand.

Qingqiong froze, then said, “This isn’t an illness. You can’t cure it…”

Ni Su’s fingers lightly pressed his pulse. “Though you are a ghost-birth, your father ultimately gave you a body of flesh and blood. As long as it is a body of flesh and blood, to a greater or lesser degree, I can also reduce your suffering.”

Though Ni Su specialized in women’s medicine, she was not limited only to women’s medicine. His body coldness, blood stagnation, joint pain ailments—she also had methods to alleviate them.

“As long as your mother can save him, along this journey I will buy you many steamed buns and flatbreads to eat. If you want to eat other things, that’s fine too. This is my gratitude.”

Ni Su said.

Qingqiong said nothing. After a while he looked at her. “Aren’t you afraid of me at all?”

He was born strange. No one dared approach him like this.

Ni Su withdrew her hand, having roughly assessed the situation in her heart. “I don’t know what there is to fear.”

She lowered her eyes to look at the medicine basket at her waist. Inside, that ball of luminous light floated. When she extended her finger into the basket, it would actively press against her fingertip.

“Ghosts are not ghosts; people are the true ghosts.”

“In this world, there exists nothing more terrifying than people.”