Lin Sui’an was far too excited: This was exactly the kind of scene that adults should be watching!

She touched the tips of her feet to the ground, her silhouette flashing, and she was behind the folding screen in an instant — a pair of eyes glittering bright, bright, bright… and then, they went dark.

Behind the screen, there was indeed a woman lying on the floor, dressed in a red skirt, lovely and beautiful — but she was not engaged in any unspeakable act. She had simply fallen over. A chubby rabbit with black ears and white fur was hopping all over her, frightening her into a stream of startled cries. Doctor Ji frantically chased after the rabbit, and trailing behind him was a grubby little boy, roughly three or four years old, calling out “Bunny, bunny!” over and over again.

Lin Sui’an: I psyched myself up for nothing — and this is what I get??

“Ahem — hem hem hem!” Behind her, Hua Yitang sounded as if a clump of rabbit fur had lodged itself directly in his throat, coughing so violently it seemed his lungs might fly out.

Doctor Ji wiped his sweat. “This young lady… have you come to see a doctor? My apologies, please wait just a moment…”

Before he could finish, the rabbit landed a fierce kick squarely against Doctor Ji’s face, leaped three feet into the air, and shot like an arrow straight into the inner courtyard.

Doctor Ji clapped a hand over his face and gave chase. The little boy let out a wail and launched himself forward like a monkey, throwing his arms around Lin Sui’an’s thigh, scrambling up her body with legs kicking and flailing until he clung to her back, both arms locked around her neck — completely unafraid of strangers. Tears carved two pale streaks through the grime on his little face. “Bunny! I want my bunny!”

Lin Sui’an: “…”

The child was small, but his strength was considerable. Not daring to use force for fear of hurting him, Lin Sui’an twisted around and fired a desperate signal at Hua Yitang — this pampered young master had the most tricks up his sleeve, surely wrangling one little terror was nothing to him… Oh?!

Hua Yitang had somehow been backed into a corner by the red-clad woman named You Jiuniang. She pressed forward boneless and pliant, eyes shimmering with tears — a pitiful beauty to behold. “Young master, you look so handsome — surely you have a kind heart as well. This servant has twisted her ankle, it hurts terribly, might you be so kind as to see me home~”

Hua Yitang’s face flushed a deep crimson, both hands gripping his folding fan crosswise in front of his chest like a soldier mounting a last desperate defense against the enemy. “This young lady, seeing how your complexion is rosy, your breath is full, and your voice resonates like a bell, you shall surely live to a ripe old age — Lin Sui’an, save me!!”

Lin Sui’an: “…”

Are you not supposed to be Yangdu’s number one pampered young master? You can’t even handle a little situation like this?

You Jiuniang pressed even closer. Hua Yitang let out a string of frantic “ayaya” cries as if he’d been scalded. Lin Sui’an sighed and flashed to his side. Being about the same height as You Jiuniang, she ended up face to face with her. You Jiuniang gave a startled jump, stumbled on her feet, and sank softly downward. Quick as lightning, Lin Sui’an reached out and caught You Jiuniang’s slender waist, then turned and shoved the little boy at Hua Yitang. “This older brother smells wonderful — go hug him.”

The two of them instantly swapped predicaments. The little boy launched himself at Hua Yitang, while Lin Sui’an found herself holding You Jiuniang.

Lin Sui’an was very satisfied: A soft, warm, fragrant beauty was far preferable to a little terror.

Hua Yitang’s face had gone green. The child smeared drool all over his face. “Older brother smells so good, you smell delicious.”

“Are you unhurt?” Lin Sui’an steadied You Jiuniang and now noticed she was a rare beauty indeed — skin like jade, make-up exquisite, and particularly those eyes, dark pupils gleaming like autumn waters, fetchingly captivating.

“Many thanks to this… this bold and valiant young lady for her rescue.” You Jiuniang’s face blushed crimson, showing a touch of shyness — entirely unlike the brazen boldness with which she had cornered Hua Yitang just moments ago.

“Ahem — hem hem hem!” Hua Yitang coughed violently.

You Jiuniang’s gaze swept between the two of them a few times, then she covered her lips and laughed softly, pulling a flower-patterned calling card from her bodice and pressing it into Lin Sui’an’s hand. “If young lady has time to spare, do come to my home for a drink.”

With that, she cast one last lingering glance at Lin Sui’an and drifted away.

Lin Sui’an: ???

Hua Yitang’s face was not merely green now — even the roots of his hair had gone green. The little boy in his arms started wailing again. “I want my bunny! Bunny! Bunny!”

Hua Yitang, with the look of a man resigned to his fate, carried the child toward the inner courtyard. Lin Sui’an followed behind, her head swimming with exasperation. Passing through the inner gate, her view suddenly opened up — the courtyard was not large, only two side rooms, but the windowsills and eaves were planted all over with neat rows of greenery. The leaves ranged from tender green to yellow-green to deep ink green, varied in shape and uneven in height, and a faint herbal fragrance drifted through the air.

Lin Sui’an spotted the fat rabbit at once — no, not one fat rabbit, but five or six fat rabbits, scattered throughout the medicinal herb garden, all of them gnawing happily away with their prominent front teeth. Fine bamboo stakes enclosed the herbs, and a sun shade hung overhead — clearly the garden was tended with care. Most of the branches and leaves were sheltered within, but the few exposed leaves had been nibbled clean.

Doctor Ji held up a large basket and crept carefully toward one of the rabbits. Just as he was about to drop it over the animal, a woman came charging out of one of the side rooms and flung a rolling pin straight at him. “Ji Gaoyang, did you pawn off my dowry again?!”

The blow caught Doctor Ji completely off guard. He tumbled to the ground with a thud, the basket dropping neatly over his own head. The startled rabbits gave mighty kicks, leaping into the air and bolting in every direction. Lin Sui’an’s eyes and hands moved faster than thought — she snatched three rabbits mid-air by the ears with her right hand, then kicked out with her feet, sending the remaining three bounding upward, caught them with her left hand, and had three more pairs of rabbit ears firmly in her grasp.

The little boy in Hua Yitang’s arms broke into delighted laughter, slid down to the ground, ran to the corner of the courtyard and retrieved a large wooden cage. Lin Sui’an stuffed all the rabbits inside. The little boy crouched beside the cage, chattering and burbling away at them — clearly long accustomed to the chaos of his household.

The woman chased Doctor Ji, hitting and scolding him. Doctor Ji rolled and scrambled, fleeing faster than the rabbits, pleading for mercy as he ran. “My dear wife, calm down! Calm down — it was only a temporary measure, I shall redeem them in a few days.”

“Ji Gaoyang, if your words could be trusted, a sow could climb a tree!”

Hua Yitang stared, dumbfounded. “Could this be the virtuous wife that the rumors speak of?”

Lin Sui’an: “…”

With the inner courtyard in such an uproar, it was clearly no time for business. Lin Sui’an and Hua Yitang could only return to the front hall to wait. A full incense stick’s worth of time passed before Doctor Ji finally emerged — a bruise forming on his forehead and three bloody scratches raked down his neck, testament to how fierce the battle had been.

“My apologies for keeping you waiting so long — and for the… ahem… spectacle.” Doctor Ji looked deeply embarrassed, bowing repeatedly. “Have you two come to see a doctor? Please, please — I am mortified!”

Hua Yitang waved a hand. “I have not come for medicine. I wished to ask Doctor Ji for a favor.”

Doctor Ji: “Whatever Ji can do, please speak freely.”

“I would like to ask Doctor Ji to examine Lu Shi’s body.”

Doctor Ji frowned. “Has Old Lu’s body not already been examined?”

Hua Yitang produced three gold leaves and set them on the wooden table. “I would trouble you to examine it once more.”

Such generosity left Doctor Ji wide-eyed with astonishment. He immediately straightened and clasped his hands in salute. “May I ask how the two of you are called?”

Hua Yitang: “You need not know.”

Doctor Ji glanced several times at the gold leaves, then looked at Lin Sui’an, and a look of understanding crossed his face. “Could this young lady be the one who paid for Old Lu’s funeral arrangements today?”

Lin Sui’an nodded.

“Are the two of you relatives of Old Lu?”

Hua Yitang: “We met him only once, a chance acquaintance. Seeing him die under such peculiar circumstances, we find it difficult to let the matter rest.”

“Ah—” Doctor Ji nodded. “Ji is only a physician. Conducting a hasty examination, I may well have missed something. If the two of you have doubts, you could request the county yamen to send the coroner for a second examination.”

Lin Sui’an: “Does the county yamen have another coroner?”

Doctor Ji gave a dry laugh. “…Heyue City has only one coroner.”

Hua Yitang: “Is there another physician in the city who can conduct autopsies?”

“It is filthy work. No one is willing to do it. Had Xiao Yan not asked, I would not have done it myself. And besides —” Doctor Ji hesitated, then continued, “The two of you are not Old Lu’s kin. To request an examination, you would need to obtain the agreement of that Lujiu fellow. But Old Lu has already been buried — they say the dead should be left in peace. Exhuming a body to examine it would require digging up the grave, and Lujiu is a difficult man. I doubt he would agree.”

Lin Sui’an was startled. “So few hours have passed, and he has already been buried?”

Doctor Ji sighed. “Old Lu’s body had already begun to decay. He needed to be interred quickly. To speak plainly — given the state the body had reached, even if Ji were to examine it again, there would be little left to find.”

A fair point. Lin Sui’an thought to herself — she had no idea how advanced forensic techniques were in this era. What if they dug up the grave and came away empty-handed…

Truly infuriating. Before her stood an insurmountable wall of technological limitations.

“From the way Doctor Ji speaks, you know where Lu Shi was buried?” Hua Yitang asked.

Doctor Ji’s face twisted with reluctance. “Well, this…”

Hua Yitang produced two more gold leaves and placed them on the table. “I would trouble you to tell us.”

Doctor Ji hesitated for a long while, staring intently at both of them, then let out a heavy sigh. “Lujiu buried Old Lu in the Wasteland Burial Grounds.”

Of course Lujiu couldn’t be trusted. She had given him a gold leaf — granted, Hua Yitang’s gold leaf — and he had still dumped the old man in the Wasteland Burial Grounds. Lin Sui’an’s teeth itched with fury. How dare he take her money — fine, Hua Yitang’s money — but still! There was absolutely no forgiving such a mercenary, petty little villain!

“Lin — Sui — an — Lin — Sui — an —”

Behind her, Hua Yitang’s voice drifted like an old sock hanging from every tree branch, carried by the night wind to flutter everywhere at once.

Lin Sui’an stopped, irritation flaring. “What is it? Summoning a spirit?”

“Shh, shh, shh!” Hua Yitang nervously raised a finger, glancing all around. “Don’t say that — if some unclean thing hears and latches on, that would be very bad indeed!”

Hua Yitang rubbed his arms. “Why don’t we go back into the city first and find Mu Xia, Yita, and Jin Ruo to come with us? More people means more yang energy — a little protection from evil spirits wouldn’t go amiss.”

Lin Sui’an: “Who was it that said curfew was about to begin, that there was no time to spare, and that we absolutely had to leave the city immediately?”

“Who was it that said an autopsy should be done sooner rather than later, lest things change?”

Hua Yitang shuddered. “Now that I think about it — it’s not the case changing I’m afraid of. It’s the corpse changing.”

Small wonder Hua Yitang was such a coward — the scenery of the Wasteland Burial Grounds was genuinely unnerving.

The Wasteland Burial Grounds lay to the northeast outside Heyue City, five li from the walls. Once it had been open wilderness; at some point lost to memory, it had gradually become a burial place for the nameless and the unclaimed. Gazing across it now, scrub grass grew wild in all directions, not a soul in sight. Thin moonlight seeped through the gaps between clouds and caught on the blades of grass, as though a layer of white frost had settled over everything. Scattered among the weeds were grave mounds of every size — some overgrown with thorns, some scorched black. The wind wandered through the grave markers and the weeds, like wronged souls keening a mournful song. Now and then a foul, charred stench drifted by — whether the droppings of wild beasts or the smell of burning flesh, it was impossible to say.

Lin Sui’an raised an eyebrow. “Are you afraid of ghosts?”

Hua Yitang immediately flared up indignantly, knocking the fan handle against his chest with a series of dull thuds. “I, Hua Yitang, am a full seven-chi man — of c-c-c-c-c-course—” Suddenly the air erupted with a wailing, ghost-like howl of wind, and Hua Yitang let out a yelp, snapping his fan open and shielding his head with it. “Of course I’m afraid of ghosts!”

Lin Sui’an couldn’t hold it back — she burst out laughing. “What is there to be afraid of? If anything, other things should be afraid of you.”

“Hm?”

Hua Yitang’s immaculate white robes were immersed in the darkness, as though a layer of soft haze had been draped around him, and combined with his otherworldly, striking face — Lin Sui’an thought to herself: if not a beautiful ghost, then certainly a fox spirit.

“Come on, it should be just up ahead.” Lin Sui’an tilted her head to indicate the direction. According to Doctor Ji’s directions, Lu Shi should be buried in the area of the newer graves.

Hua Yitang’s eyes had gone red at the rims. He looked as though he was about to be frightened into tears. Hesitantly, he reached out, and his long, fair fingers pinched the sleeve of Lin Sui’an’s robe.

Lin Sui’an squinted at him.

Hua Yitang’s fingers were trembling wildly. “Temporary measure.”

Lin Sui’an had no choice but to let him cling on and lead the way herself. Hua Yitang was tall and broad-shouldered, yet he insisted on defying all physical logic by compressing himself as small as possible behind her, tiptoeing along with his eyes darting in every direction — Lin Sui’an had the distinct impression she was leading a timid, cowardly Samoyed on a walk.

The newer burial section was not difficult to find — the mounded earth was fresh and unleveled, the grass had not yet grown, and scattered here and there were a few paper offerings partially burned, likely set alight by those accompanying the burial for peace of mind. But Lin Sui’an circled among the grave mounds several times, and the earth of every mound looked too settled to have been turned that day. Lu Shi’s grave was nowhere to be found.

“Damn it all — they didn’t even put up a marker!” Lin Sui’an cursed Lujiu roundly in her heart.

“I — I — I feel something’s not right!” Hua Yitang yanked frantically at Lin Sui’an’s sleeve.

Lin Sui’an: “What?”

“Don’t you think there are far too many graves in this Wasteland Burial Grounds?”

Lin Sui’an shook her head. She had no reference for how large such a burial ground should be.

Hua Yitang’s face grew ever more ashen. “Ordinarily, when common people die, their kin and children purchase grave plots for a proper burial — the choice of location and its fengshui is considered with care, and no one simply dumps their dead carelessly. Those who end up in a wasteland burial ground are generally one of a few types: those who committed grave crimes, those who were utterly alone with no family, and those who were unknown strangers. By any reasonable reckoning, these three types of people should not be numerous, and yet the number of graves here—” Hua Yitang hunched his shoulders. “Is roughly two or three times what you would expect for a county of this size.”

Lin Sui’an: “What does that mean?”

Hua Yitang leaned carefully close to Lin Sui’an’s ear. The scent of flowers and fruit and wood that clung to him deepened in the night air, his voice almost like a breath of perfume drifting into her ear. “We’ve walked into a ghost’s maze!”

Lin Sui’an abruptly stepped back half a pace — not because of what Hua Yitang said, but because he had drawn too close, and his warm breath against her ear left a tingling sensation she couldn’t shake.

Was the man doing it on purpose?

Lin Sui’an glared back at him.

She thought she saw the ghost of a smile flicker at the corner of Hua Yitang’s mouth — but the next instant she doubted it, blaming the poor light. Before she could think further, she saw his eyes go wide, his outstretched hand trembling violently as he pointed at something behind her, teeth chattering like a rusty gear had been jammed in his jaw.

The expression on Hua Yitang’s face was horrifying enough that Lin Sui’an’s own scalp began to prickle. She turned her head stiffly, one frame at a time — and couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath.

At the center of the Wasteland Burial Grounds stood a weeping willow. In the night, the trailing branches hung silent and black as a woman’s long dark hair, and at the tips of those strands, clusters of blue-green ghost-fire flickered and danced. Then the wind rose, and the clawing, flailing branches whipped and thrashed madly, scattering the ghost-fire into the sky.

In the pale blue light, a shadow emerged — a white neck, suspended in midair.

With no head.