Her elder brother was smiling.

But in Ni Su’s memory, her brother actually rarely smiled. He was somewhat like their father—even in his youth, he had displayed a steady and composed nature. During the vast majority of days when their father devoted himself wholeheartedly to studying their family’s medical traditions and treating patients, it had always been this elder brother who disciplined Ni Su’s conduct, taught her to identify medicinal herbs, and instructed her in the principles of being a good person.

Ni Su had once believed that in this lifetime, if she ever did something wrong or took a wrong path, she need not worry, because her brother would discipline her and pull her back on track.

He was Ni Su’s elder brother by blood, and even more so, he was the teacher who guided her and encouraged her to uphold the aspirations in her heart. From childhood to adulthood, he had made Ni Su understand that as a woman, she might be able to live a different kind of life in this world.

Not to be a caged bird confined within inner chambers, but to be a soaring oriole with spread wings.

Ni Su forcefully wiped away her tears, trying to see her brother more clearly, but she watched as his form, pieced together from soul flames, gradually faded. She reached out helplessly to touch him, only causing the soul flames to shatter and scatter even faster.

“A’Xi, your brother is proud of you.”

The flowing light was completely absorbed by the beast pearl, leaving only this phrase from Ni Qinglan’s voice echoing through her dream.

Ni Su opened her eyes. The blue-gray light of dawn had already filled the latticed windows of this room. She stared blankly at the bed curtains above, and only after a long while did she numbly wipe her damp face.

She remembered her brother’s disappearance last night, remembered that beast pearl flying back into Xu Ziling’s hand, and how he had helped her onto the bed. She had wrapped herself in his blanket and cried for a long time.

The entire dreamscape afterward had been filled with her brother’s voice and appearance.

Ni Su touched the pillow—it felt somewhat damp. She raised a pair of red and swollen eyes and saw that the blue gauze curtain had been lowered at some point. Outside, a figure sat at the writing desk, the sound of turning pages deliberately careful—unless one listened closely, it was inaudible.

“Xu Ziling.”

Ni Su spoke, her voice somewhat nasal.

The person behind the desk paused in turning the pages. He immediately stood up. Presumably because the punishment he had suffered at the Petition Drum Court when he had used magic to help shield her from the beating had been severe, these past few months of incense and candles had not fully repaired his soul-body. So he still needed to support himself on the desk corner when rising, standing with some difficulty, but his steps toward the curtain were quicker.

“What is it?”

Ni Su saw the hand that lifted the curtain—though pale, the faint blue slightly bulging veins looked no different from an ordinary person’s. Even every inch of bone and sinew was beautiful.

He had changed into a light blue round-collared robe. A section of pure white inner garment collar made him look even more like a green pine covered in snow, his eyes clear and cold yet crystalline.

“You sat up all night?”

Ni Su saw he still held a scroll in his hand.

“I don’t experience the fatigue of flesh and blood. Even when I close my eyes, I’m not actually sleeping.”

Having transformed into a ghost spirit, one loses some of the five senses of being human. The only reason he possessed the sense of pain was to facilitate the Sovereign of the Earth using it as punishment against him.

And human sleep, human food—all the various things that sustained a person’s life were actually unrelated to him.

Many times when he closed his eyes, he was merely trying to recall memories from when he was human.

Ni Su watched him set down the scroll and light the stove to brew tea. She suddenly realized the room was warm and cozy. Looking down, she saw the nearby brazier burning bright red.

Throughout this night, she didn’t know how many times he had added charcoal.

“I haven’t yet thanked you for letting me see my brother one last time.”

Ni Su huddled in the blanket watching him.

Xu Hexue shook his head. “The Sovereign of the Earth left this beast pearl for you—it should have been meant to thank you. Without the beast pearl, I couldn’t have helped you either.”

“Thank me for what? For burning cold-weather clothes for you? For summoning you back?”

“Mm.”

“But,” Ni Su discovered she couldn’t recall the face of that white-bearded, curly-haired old monk from the Great Bell Temple in Que County, in the cypress forest, “why would he go to such trouble to help you return?”

Fate and opportunity were wondrous things. For instance, if she hadn’t met Xu Ziling, perhaps she would have traveled to the capital alone. Perhaps she would have died under the punishment rods, unable to see her deceased brother again.

Then, what was Xu Ziling’s fate and opportunity?

Xu Hexue paused at her words. His gaze fell upon the tabletop. After a moment, he said: “Because what I seek is also what he seeks.”

The living souls trapped in the Netherworld Pagoda crossed the River of Resentment every year during the Netherworld Release period. But in nearly a hundred years, those who could cross the River of Resentment were few and far between.

Without crossing the River of Resentment, it was difficult to eliminate their grievances and resentment. They could only remain imprisoned in the pagoda—year after year of hatred, year after year of resentment.

But this was not a good thing for the Netherworld.

If resentment and hostility filled the Netherworld, all living souls would inevitably suffer its chaos.

“Then…”

Ni Su asked almost tentatively, in a soft voice, “What do you seek?”

This was already the closest she had come to his unknown innermost matters in their conversations.

Cold wind lightly tapped the latticed window. The charcoal fire in the room suddenly scattered a few sparks. Xu Hexue raised his eyes. The desolate winter scene outside the window overlapped with the desolation in his eyes: “To make the pure truly pure.”

Fifteen years ago, Mount Mushen.

Thirty thousand heroic souls who died in a foreign land with no remains, their blood completely drained.

He wanted to, bit by bit, brush away the bloodstains from their bodies, settle the accounts of their lives, and wipe clean their posthumous reputations.

Even if he could’t lay their bones to rest, he would lay their names to rest.

Ni Su didn’t quite understand. If they were already pure people, how could they be made pure again? But seeing him rise to pour water, she didn’t know whether she should continue asking.

“Would you like some?”

Xu Hexue held the porcelain cup before her.

Ni Su stole a glance at his expression. Like this, he seemed unwilling to say more. She sat up wrapped in the blanket, took the porcelain cup and drank a few sips. Raising her head to meet his gaze again, her voice became much softer: “Thank you.”

The sky brightened a bit more. Yumen pushed the door open to attend to Ni Su’s washing up, and also to comb and style her hair. Xu Hexue silently withdrew outside the door. He stood beneath the eaves corridor. In the courtyard, maids and servant boys came and went sweeping and cleaning, but none ever noticed him.

“Sister Yumen!”

A servant boy hurried over from the front, carrying a food box in his hand. Panting, he ran past Xu Hexue and stood outside the door calling: “Someone up front is looking for Miss Ni!”

“Who is it?” Yumen came out.

“They said… they came for medical treatment.” The servant boy handed her the food box.

Medical treatment?

Xu Hexue lightly raised his eyelids. Sure enough, he heard footsteps from inside the room. Very quickly, that young lady hobbled out on tottering steps. When the morning sunlight shone on those eyes, they were crystal clear. “Really?”

“It seems they came to ask you to go over. They said the patient can’t get out of bed.”

The servant boy scratched the back of his head.

“I’ll go take a look.”

Ni Su supported herself on the door and window, walking forward a few steps. Yumen quickly set down the food box and followed to support her, but she suddenly stopped and turned her head.

Xu Hexue met her gaze, then gently nodded and walked toward her.

Waiting in the front hall was a young woman dressed in coarse hemp cloth. She stood very awkwardly. A servant boy invited her to sit, but she wouldn’t sit down.

Upon seeing Ni Su, the woman accepted the hot tea she offered and said: “My… my mother’s health hasn’t been good for nearly half a year, but she’s always refused to invite a physician. She’s also afraid medicine women might use the wrong medicines, so she’s just been putting it off.”

The woman raised her eyes, secretly sizing up this young lady who was about her own age. She couldn’t help but add another trace of doubt in her heart, but after hesitating, she still said, “I heard about you outside—that you come from a proper scholarly medical family. I thought, you dared to go alone to the Petition Court to seek justice for your brother, so you must be a good person. That’s why I want to ask you to diagnose my mother’s illness. If… if the consultation fee is reasonable.”

As the Winter Examination case was solved and the petition at the Drum Court on the Double Ninth Festival spread throughout the capital, the background and origins of the Ni siblings also became known. Now in the capital, everyone admired this Miss Ni who risked her life to seek justice for her brother.

“You’re the first person to come seeking my medical services. Today I’ll treat it as charity care and accept no payment.” As Ni Su spoke, she asked Yumen to fetch her medicine box.

Yumen originally intended to go along, but was refused by Ni Su. She requested a bamboo walking stick and asked Miss Zhang to help carry her medicine box, then left without even eating breakfast.

Upon arriving at Miss Zhang’s home, Ni Su was in no rush to diagnose the illness. Instead, she sat by the bed and chatted casually with Miss Zhang’s mother for a few moments, quietly soothing the woman’s doubts.

In the villages of the Que County countryside, she had often used this method to draw close to patients, becoming more familiar with them so that they could relax a bit in their hearts.

Near noon, Ni Su finally left Miss Zhang’s home, leaning on her bamboo stick.

“Give it to me.”

Xu Hexue extended his hand toward her.

Ni Su didn’t refuse, handing him the medicine box and saying, “When you were waiting for me outside, weren’t you bored?”

“No.”

Xu Hexue held the medicine box in one hand and supported her with the other. Seeing her steps were truly slow, he thought for a moment and said, “Wait a moment.”

Though Ni Su didn’t understand why, she still obediently stopped.

She watched him set the medicine box on the ground, then take away the bamboo stick from her hand. He then walked in front of her and crouched down, his light blue robe trailing on the ground. He turned his head, and seeing her dazed expression, called: “Ni Su.”

“Your injuries haven’t healed either…”

Ni Su clutched her hem.

“I’m not in pain anymore,” he said, then suddenly recalled that night outside the Du residence when she held an umbrella for him as they walked back. He added, “I’m not lying to you.”

Ni Su noticed he had made himself visible to others, because an old man carrying heavy goods passing by them was examining Xu Ziling with a strange look.

“…”

Ni Su could only lean forward, reaching her arms over his shoulders to circle his neck.

She clearly felt his shoulders and back suddenly tense, like touch-me-not plants being touched. In fact, she also felt somewhat awkward, not even knowing where her hands should properly rest.

Her palms were full of his smooth clothing fabric. Raising her eyes, she saw his neatly arranged hair bound in a topknot, and a jade hairpin inserted in the dark hair.

Xu Hexue picked up the medicine box and carried her on his back toward the end of the alley.

Ni Su’s words became more numerous. She told him what prescription she had written, told him that back in Que County she would always leave patients’ homes before noon.

“Do you know why?”

Ni Su deliberately kept him in suspense.

“You’re afraid they’ll keep you for a meal,” Xu Hexue walked out of the alley and onto the riverbank embankment. Pale yellow willow branches lightly brushed his topknot. “Though people are poor and struggling, they can’t help being hospitable. With you there, she would use the food her family is most reluctant to eat to entertain you. Moreover, you diagnosed her mother’s illness and accepted no payment.”

“You’re… really clever.”

Ni Su had wanted to wait for him to ask “why?”

Though Xu Hexue was born into splendor and luxury, he was not ignorant of human suffering. He had spent five years at the border, and aside from the bloody carnage of battlefields, he had also witnessed the hardships of border residents.

“Practicing medicine seems to be something that makes you very happy.”

Whether it was her expression this morning when she heard someone had come seeking treatment, or the brightness wrapped in her tone just now when conversing with Miss Zhang’s mother at her home—all revealed her state of mind.

“Having someone willing to seek my treatment is the best thing,” Ni Su spoke of this with a smile on her face. “Xu Ziling, having had the first one, it surely won’t be so difficult going forward, right?”

She was full of hope.

“Mm.”

Xu Hexue responded softly.

There were very few pedestrians along the riverbank embankment. A thin layer of ice had formed along the shore. He quietly carried a young lady forward on his back, but didn’t expect her ice-cold fingers to suddenly pinch a small object and press it against his lips.

Ni Su also hadn’t anticipated that her fingertips would touch his lips. She instinctively wanted to withdraw her hand, but the thing she was pinching had already reached his lips. She felt a bit embarrassed and mumbled, “You… open your mouth.”

Xu Hexue unconsciously opened his mouth and bit down on that object.

“Miss Zhang gave them to me. I only took one,” Ni Su withdrew her hand. Seeing the cold wind blow his thick dark eyelashes into a light tremor, she asked, “Is it sweet?”

So it was candy.

Xu Hexue lowered his eyelids slightly and hummed in acknowledgment:

“Sweet.”