After hiring the cook, Jiang Ai again recruited a highly skilled doctor from outside with a combination of threats and generous payment, bringing him into Yu Zhou City—to treat the child the king had brought back.

That day, she and Yan Ke waited outside the life gate of the Nine Palaces Maze, discussing how to fabricate an explanation for the other palace lords if He Simu couldn’t make it out. Then they saw He Simu emerge from the life gate with the young man, with two flames burning on He Simu’s soul candle.

Jiang Ai was genuinely shocked, thinking this young man truly had a strong fate.

But how could anyone enter the Nine Palaces Maze and emerge completely unharmed? After coming out, the young man remained unconscious, constantly muttering in his sleep and breaking out in cold sweats. The doctor she hurriedly summoned from outside said he had a persistent high fever, but no visible wounds on his body—the cause of his illness lay in his heart.

Who knew what the young man had seen while lost in the Nine Palaces Maze?

This was troublesome. Illnesses of the body were easy to treat, but illnesses of the heart were difficult to cure. Which of the evil spirits in this entire city didn’t have some psychological issues? They couldn’t even heal themselves, let alone others. Even the highly skilled doctor was at a loss, and Jiang Ai thought the money had been completely wasted.

Since this child had fallen into misfortune while trying to save her, Jiang Ai frequently went to visit him. During this time, He Simu hadn’t held court meetings and had moved her office for handling official business from the main hall to the young man’s room. Whenever Jiang Ai visited, she would see He Simu calmly reading official documents while the young man lay on the sickbed, pale-faced with tightly furrowed brows.

He seemed trapped in a nightmare, occasionally clutching the blanket tightly as if trying to cry out, but the sound remained stuck in his throat, never forming clear words. Jiang Ai listened carefully and felt as though he was calling for help.

What was wrong with this handsome child that he couldn’t even call for help? It made one’s heart ache.

A few times, she heard the child finally make distinguishable sounds, all calling “He Simu.” Whenever this happened, He Simu would put down her documents, walk to his side, and hold his hand, interlocking their fingers. The child would then relax his brow, peaceful for a long while. Occasionally, He Simu would wipe his sweat or straighten his disheveled clothes.

Once, He Simu stared at their interlocked hands in a daze, then said with a hint of realization, “So this is what moved his heart.”

Jiang Ai immediately asked curiously, “Moved his heart? For what?”

“Ten fingers connected to the heart.”

He Simu gave Jiang Ai an answer she couldn’t understand. Jiang Ai realized this wasn’t a good time to ask further questions, so she only advised, “I think this child is quite handsome and truly sincere toward you. Before his soul candle was extinguished, he even told me that if he could make it out alive, he wanted me to tell him about my past. Why don’t you accept him as your lover? From what I’ve seen, many of those you’ve met before couldn’t even compare to him.”

He Simu remained silent for a moment, then let out a long sigh.

After ten days of recovery, Duan Xu finally woke from his tormenting nightmares. He Simu didn’t realize it at first, only hearing him call “Simu” and going over to hold his hand as usual.

Unexpectedly, Duan Xu was startled, his eyes—made even darker by his illness—blinked as he gripped her hand tightly while smiling, “Do I get such good treatment just because I’m sick?”

Only then did He Simu realize Duan Xu had regained consciousness. She breathed a sigh of relief and sent a ghost servant to call the doctor Jiang Ai had hired. Since he was holding her hand too tightly, she hesitated but ultimately didn’t pull away.

In the past, she had always found Duan Xu’s constant smiling somewhat annoying, but now she felt it was good just to see him smile again.

The doctor said it was a good sign that Duan Xu had regained consciousness and hurriedly prescribed several medicines to restore his health. This doctor, over fifty years old, couldn’t stop smiling, looking happier than anyone else. Rather than showing a physician’s parental care, it seemed more like relief that he wouldn’t have to worry about being eaten by these evil spirits for failing to save the patient.

Duan Xu sat up in bed leaning against the headboard, holding the medicine bowl with a pale face. He stared at the thick black medicinal liquid for a while, then turned to He Simu and said, “I don’t have the strength. Could I trouble Your Majesty to feed me?”

He Simu, who was sitting in the room reading official documents, looked up and gestured for the ghost servant to feed him, but Duan Xu wouldn’t give the medicine bowl to the ghost servant. Looking at her, he said, “If you ever exchange taste sensations with me in the future, you’ll know that I’m particularly afraid of bitterness. This medicine smells extremely bitter.”

He blinked with innocent eyes. He Simu glared at him for a while, then rubbed her temples, dismissed the ghost servant, and walked over to take his medicine bowl. With an expressionless face, she scooped a spoonful and said to him, “Open your mouth.”

Duan Xu obediently opened his mouth and was stuffed with a heaping spoonful, causing his brows to furrow tightly.

He seemed to truly fear bitterness. What kind of taste was bitterness? Was it that terrible?

He Simu thought that next time she should ask Jiang Ai’s cook to prepare some preserved fruits. Though thinking this, she said, “Afraid of tickling and afraid of bitterness—did you see yourself being chased and tickled while being fed medicine in your illusion?”

Duan Xu laughed, his eyes curved in clear brightness. He shook his head, with a smile lingering in his eyes, and said slowly, “Do you want to know what I saw? If you want to know, I’ll tell you.”

He Simu put down the medicine bowl and looked into his eyes. She thought she should say that she wasn’t interested in his past, that he shouldn’t tell if he didn’t want to, and likewise, he shouldn’t inquire about her past.

But, she did want to know.

He had struggled in nightmares for so long; what he experienced must have been more than what he had told her.

So He Simu remained silent, and Duan Xu took her silence as consent. He leaned against the headboard, thought for a moment, and said softly, “I told you before that when I was at Tian Zhixiao, even before completing my training, I did some things for the High Priest and the royal court. Because of those things, I learned about the situation in the royal court and got more blood on my hands.”

“Mm.”

“At that time, the High Priest received a prophecy saying that in the six prefectures near the capital, there was someone born on the seventh day of the eighth month who connected with evil gods, opposed the azure god, would weaken the royal family, and endanger the Dan Zhi rule. So Tian Zhixiao was ordered to search for people born on the seventh day of the eighth month with unusual signs within the range of the prophecy and to interrogate and execute them on behalf of the High Priest. We probably captured… several hundred people.”

Duan Xu lowered his eyes. His pale fingers interlaced then separated, then overlapped again. This was his habit when thinking, but now he wasn’t thinking—he was convincing himself to remember.

“There were men and women, adults and children. The High Priest believed that cruel and prolonged deaths would sever their connections with evil gods. So some were hung upside down and slowly sawed in half from between their legs, while others had their intestines pulled out alive and wound around wooden frames… These punishments were all carried out by Tian Zhixiao in front of all of us, and many of the executed were people I had captured. When these people died, my peers would cheer to celebrate the defeat of the evil gods.”

After a pause, Duan Xu gave a light laugh, “Because I was one of the most outstanding disciples of our class, sometimes they would have me personally… carry out the executions.”

His words stopped here, followed by a long silence.

“Han Ling Qiu also personally carried out executions. I gave him a potion to erase his memories, so he probably won’t remember for the rest of his life. That’s good—it’s better to forget and never remember.”

He Simu stirred the medicine in the bowl and asked, “Then why didn’t you forget?”

“If even I forget, who else would remember them?” Duan Xu raised his eyes to look at He Simu and asked, “Those people died in agony—will they become evil spirits?”

“Children who are tortured to death easily become evil spirits because they have little worldly experience but strong desires. For adults who are tortured to death, if they don’t have strong attachments to the world, they won’t become evil spirits.”

Duan Xu breathed a sigh of relief and said, “That’s good then. It’s enough for one person to seek revenge.”

“Whether you were there or not, with such decisions from the High Priest and Tian Zhixiao, they were destined to die. You don’t need to carry the burden of all their deaths.”

Duan Xu was silent for a moment, his eyelashes trembling slightly as he gave an almost imperceptible smile.

“Simu, my birthday is the seventh day of the eighth month.”

Most children at Tian Zhixiao were orphans, and few knew their birth dates. This information wasn’t specifically asked when joining Tian Zhixiao, so within the entire organization, only he knew that he also met the criteria for those being hunted. When he captured others with the same birthday and watched them being executed, he was always anxiously wondering if he was the person the High Priest and Tian Zhixiao were looking for.

But he could not communicate with gods; he didn’t even believe in gods.

In this confusion, he accumulated strength and finally managed to escape from Tian Zhixiao, evading various searches and pursuits to return to Da Liang. Five years later, when He Simu invited him to form a contract, he suddenly realized. The “evil god” mentioned by the High Priest was actually referring to the Ghost King.

The question that had puzzled him for years was finally answered—he was truly the person mentioned in the prophecy.

All those who died horribly before his eyes, all of them, died in his place.

Since that was the case, he thought that regardless of whether gods existed in this world or what their will might be, he must make this prophecy a reality.

He Simu knew what Duan Xu wanted to say. Looking at his expression lost in memories, she thought this scene seemed somewhat familiar. So she reached out to pat his face and said, “Wake up, the nightmare is over.”

Just as he had done to her long ago.

Duan Xu’s eyes flickered, and he asked, “Is it over?”

“It’s over. Now you’re my contract holder, and no one in this world can make you experience such nightmares again. I won’t allow it.”

He Simu gave a light laugh. She raised the spoon and said kindly, “Open your mouth, take your medicine.”

“…”

Duan Xu frowned, then smiled again and tactfully expressed, “This is also part of the nightmare.”

“I said no one can make you experience nightmares. I’m a ghost, not included in that range.” He Simu smiled.

So Duan Xu, with a bitter face, pinched his nose and drank the medicine bit by bit.

The next day, when Jiang Ai asked He Simu if she could tell Duan Xu about her past, He Simu finally agreed. Always loving to watch the drama unfold, Jiang Ai was overjoyed and immediately ran to chat with Duan Xu. Jiang Ai started from when she attended He Simu’s full-month celebration feast to the previous Ghost King’s death and their joint effort to suppress the rebellion. The four hundred years of history were discussed from sunrise to sunset.

He Simu wasn’t present, but judging by the time it took, she roughly knew that Jiang Ai had spilled everything, and couldn’t help feeling that sensation of “pain” from when she was human returning to her mind.

A few days later, when Duan Xu was able to move freely, He Simu went to find him.

The weather was somewhat gloomy that day, at the end of spring and beginning of summer, as if heavy rain was approaching. He Simu took him out through the back gate of the royal palace to the middle of the rear slope of Xu Sheng Mountain. This place faced away from Yu Zhou City and toward the human world, where one could finally see some black roof tiles, the comings and goings of mortals, and rising cooking smoke.

On this rear slope of Xu Sheng Mountain, twenty-two graves were arranged in a row across the verdant grassland. None of the graves had tombstones, only mounds, and each grave had a tree planted beside it—twenty-two trees of different varieties.

He Simu stood among these graves and said to Duan Xu, “In these four hundred years, I’ve had twenty-two lovers. These are their graves. Some contain their remains, others are just cenotaphs. Most didn’t know my true identity. The longest time I spent with any of them was about twenty years, off and on.”

She had buried their past together here, facing the human world from this city of ghosts.

He Simu pointed to the first grave covered in lush grass and said, “This was the first mortal I loved when my father had not yet perished. At that time, he followed me wherever I traveled, and even after knowing my true identity, he never backed away. His name was…”

He Simu’s voice paused here. The wind blew her long hair and sleeves, and she maintained this stance, frowning in deep thought for a long time before reluctantly saying, “I can’t remember. I once loved him dearly, but now, I can’t even recall his name.”

Duan Xu’s eyes flickered as he gazed steadily at He Simu. This girl with a long life, for whom he had developed feelings, wore a rust-red curved-hem robe whose color even she couldn’t discern. Her expression was indifferent yet resolute. He seemed to already know what she was going to say.

“Whether you call it fickle or heartless… Duan Xu, I am this kind of evil spirit. My life spans thousands of years, and time erodes everything. One day, I will forget even your name, let alone those tumultuous experiences in your past and the memories between us. My parents and relatives were with me day and night for nearly a hundred years, yet lately, I find their images becoming blurred. How long can you accompany me? If you unfortunately become an evil spirit, I wouldn’t even like you. In the end, you’ll be just a tiny ripple in my thousands of years of life.”

Duan Xu wanted to say something in rebuttal, but before he could speak, He Simu asked, “Would you be content with that?”

She was very clever, knowing he couldn’t say the word “content.”

Duan Xu only gazed deeply into her eyes, and He Simu smiled slightly, in the impending stormy weather, like some kind of solid and ominous premonition.

“You seem to be very serious about liking me, so I must seriously reject you. Little Fox Duan, you have your dreams. Your less than twenty years of life have been too bitter—you should live happily from now on. You will meet a girl you like more, marry her, have children, and enjoy a perfect family with relatives you can rely on. Tian Zhixiao was your nightmare before you turned twenty, so don’t let me become your nightmare after twenty.”