What about you?
She was determined to demolish the towering walls Yu Zezhi had built, to tear apart the Mist Barrier, to make the truth climb mountains and cross rivers to reach her.
Wu Yinyu’s expression was frivolous, her posture indolent, but her words were as sharp as a blade.
She raised her hand and pointed through the air towards Yu Zezhi’s heart. “A true heart for a true heart?”
Under the running water, Yu Zezhi’s hand abruptly froze.
She turned her head to look at Wu Yinyu. In her silence, her eyes were devoid of joy or sorrow, as indifferent and merciless as when she had interrogated crimes in the White Jade Capital.
Wu Yinyu simply allowed herself to be stared at, perfectly composed. She drawled, “The Judge has already discovered my anomaly. You won’t escape either.”
“Must you know?” Yu Zezhi said.
“Is the truth bitter? It’s still better than being kept in the dark.” Wu Yinyu stepped closer and, without asking, took hold of Yu Zezhi’s hand, which was still under the water.
She picked up the hand towel nearby and gently wiped the back of the other’s hand.
“Bitter.”
After a moment, Yu Zezhi forced out a single, thin syllable.
Wiping her hand for her, Wu Yinyu said, “Do you know what it’s like to have no sense of belonging? Just like this, like me.”
“How so?”
Wu Yinyu clenched the towel and said slowly, “Since I was little, I was treated like a Ghostly Evil in the Wu family. I always felt that this sky and this earth didn’t suit me at all. But I’m not a cynical person, nor do I hate this place. It’s just that some strange thoughts often surge into my heart.”
“For example?” Yu Zezhi took the towel from her and unhurriedly turned off the water valve.
“I don’t belong here.” Wu Yinyu placed her hand over the back of Yu Zezhi’s. Her own hand was very cold.
Yu Zezhi was silent for a long time, her gaze fixed on Wu Yinyu without shifting. Finally, she said, “You are indeed not from here.”
Wu Yinyu had long anticipated this, but hearing it spoken aloud still made her heart tremble slightly. “Then what about you?”
“Neither am I,” Yu Zezhi said, her gaze lowering. She held Wu Yinyu’s hand in return, picking off a speck of ash that had stuck to her wrist.
It tickled.
Wu Yinyu’s five fingers curled inward. Her worldview of the past twenty years was shattered in an instant. She needed a moment to digest that this human world was merely a reincarnation along her vast, long path.
Wu Yinyu gave a wry smile. “Over there, what was I originally doing? I must have had some status, right?”
Yu Zezhi placed the hand towel into the basket. It wasn’t like she was lying, but rather stating a fact. “I am not clear.”
“You’re not clear?” Wu Yinyu narrowed her eyes.
“Truly.” Yu Zezhi looked at her. “Over there, it seemed like you didn’t need to do anything.”
Wu Yinyu scoffed lightly. “Then, what has Boss Yu been hiding from me all this time for?”
Yu Zezhi always maintained an appearance of calm composure, and now was no exception.
Her expression was unruffled, but it was a long while before she uttered a single, indistinct sentence, so muddled it was as if she were struggling.
“I don’t want you to go back,” she said.
How willful. How unreasonable.
Yu Zezhi turned to face her, her brows tightly knitted. “That place will only bring you harm.”
For a moment, Wu Yinyu’s breath stopped, her heart pounding in chaos. She badly wanted to grab Yu Zezhi by the collar and yank her close, forcing a more intense expression onto that face.
But she only thought inwardly: She wondered who it was that had hurt her.
She snorted out a laugh. “I’m not afraid. Is Boss Yu afraid on my behalf? Are you a coward?”
Yu Zezhi didn’t answer.
Wu Yinyu then asked, “Then tell me, what’s the deal with this Prayer Wheel? What’s hidden inside? Why does it seep ink?”
The Prayer Wheel lay on the sink’s counter, entirely dark and heavy. At first glance, one couldn’t even tell if it had ink on it.
“This Prayer Wheel… is indeed not yours. I’ve never seen this object before. But something of yours is trapped inside.” Yu Zezhi reached out and rotated the Prayer Wheel.
She continued, “Why does it seep ink? Because what’s hidden inside is a painting. Previously, I took the liberty of searching your bedroom, and at the hotel, I looked around boldly. It was all to find this.”
The hand-cranked Prayer Wheel was only so big—its cylinder could be wrapped up in one hand. How could a painting be hidden in such a tiny space?
“A painting?” Wu Yinyu naturally didn’t believe it. She had considered that perhaps an inkstone or something similar was hidden inside, but never had she guessed a painting.
“Mine?” She seemed amused, laughing in surprise. “Boss Yu must be joking. How can a painting swallow souls?”
Yu Zezhi’s tone was faint. “You’d have to ask the owner of the painting scroll.”
Wu Yinyu was stumped. She knew nothing of any painting, so how could she explain?
“What else do you want to know?” Yu Zezhi simply asked.
Wu Yinyu folded her arms and stepped back two paces, leaning diagonally against the doorframe. “I’ve had some strange dreams. In the dreams, there’s a White Jade Capital, a great fire, and thunder.”
She deliberately spoke very slowly, her gaze falling to Yu Zezhi’s waist. The other’s side was now empty; the red jade was probably removed long ago.
The coldness in Yu Zezhi’s eyes seemed to shatter, a very subtle shift rippling through her gaze.
“And there’s an unknown person interrogating me,” Wu Yinyu deliberately softened her tone. “On her waist hung a Lotus Pattern Red Jade. That was the reason I tried everything to get the jade pendant a while ago. It was only later that I vaguely felt there was only one piece of that jade, which is why I gave one piece away.”
Her glance swirled, smiling as if with affection, as she looked at Yu Zezhi. “Is the dream real or fake? Do you recognize that person?”
Yu Zezhi’s lips moved, but before she could force out a sound—
Wu Yinyu felt she already had her answer. She asked again, “Is there really a White Jade Capital in the heavens, with you and me both in it?”
“Yes,” Yu Zezhi said.
“This place with the White Jade Capital and the Mortal World…” Wu Yinyu pondered how to describe it. “What’s it called?”
“Wisdom Water Red Mountain,” Yu Zezhi answered frankly.
Wu Yinyu was stunned. She had seen buildings carved from ice and jade, and wooden structures built with mortise and tenon joints, but she had never seen any Red Mountain.
If she really had to speak of a red color, it was only the red on the interrogator’s clothes and the flames her bare feet trod upon.
Such a place was actually called “Wisdom Water Red Mountain.”
Wu Yinyu exhaled softly. “Then how did I come here? Was it Heavenly Punishment? Or, like in those TV dramas, going through Reincarnation to undergo a Tribulation?”
“No,” Yu Zezhi shook her head, subtly gesturing with her chin towards the door.
Wu Yinyu understood and turned to leave, walking over to the sofa to sit down.
The cushion beside her dipped slightly—Yu Zezhi had sat down.
From what Wu Yinyu could recall since meeting this person, it seemed like the first time she’d seen her sit so informally, not stiff and proper.
Yu Zezhi crossed one leg, leaning back. A trace of complexity surfaced in her cold eyes. “It was I who sent you here. But as to why this place, and why the Wu family… that was me fulfilling your request.”
Wu Yinyu hadn’t expected that, in the end, it was she who had deceived herself.
Thinking further, in her dreams, she had indeed made a request, though she had never heard it clearly.
“What else did you do in all this?” she asked.
Yu Zezhi spoke slowly, “I cast the Twelve-Faced Die that held your soul into the Two-World Sea. After your Transmigration, I found you and entrusted you to the Wu family, issuing harsh threats so they wouldn’t dare abandon you. That is all.”
She paused slightly, and without ceremony, brought Wu Yinyu’s smoking pipe to her nose to smell.
Too close. Wu Yinyu’s fingers went numb, her heart tingling, as if what Yu Zezhi was smelling wasn’t the pipe, but her.
“As for me,” Yu Zezhi rotated the pipe, making its red tassel fly, “I originally intended to be reincarnated at random. Unexpectedly, the place I arrived at was too far from you, so I performed Body Possession on a child who had died young in the Yu family.”
“Then why did you hang yourself at the Wu family’s house?” Wu Yinyu frowned and pressed down on Yu Zezhi’s hand, feeling that if that smoking pipe spun any more, her heart would fly right along with it.
Unexpectedly, Yu Zezhi rotated her wrist, and the green agate mouthpiece was suddenly brought close to Wu Yinyu’s lips.
Wu Yinyu stared fixedly at this person, slowly parting her lips, showing her teeth, and biting down on the mouthpiece.
“They say when a ghost dies, it becomes something even less. Since I was faking a threat, naturally I had to act convincingly enough to make sure they wouldn’t dare abandon you,” Yu Zezhi said flatly.
Wu Yinyu laughed around the mouthpiece. Sure enough, this person had two faces—one for the public and one for private.
Yu Zezhi smelled the pipe’s bowl, then traced along the stem until she reached Wu Yinyu’s lips, where she abruptly stopped. Her breath lingering, she said, “It’s late. We leave at first light tomorrow. Rest early tonight.”
Wu Yinyu took hold of the pipe, releasing it from her teeth. “Alright, let me see you back to your room.”
Saying this, she escorted Yu Zezhi into the hallway. After watching that door close, she threaded her way through the crowd of Paper Effigies and returned to her own room.
About half an hour later, Wu Yinyu’s door swung open, and a figure tiptoed out.
Clutching the Prayer Wheel, Wu Yinyu stealthily crept downstairs. In the backyard, she found a patch of dirt, unearthed a shovel, and dug a pit, burying the thing inside.
She knew this object was a positioning device. With it around, she had no place to hide.
But if the Five Gates came looking, she reckoned Yu Zezhi would have a way to deal with it. At that point, the two of them would be grasshoppers tied to the same rope, completely bound together.
After burying the Prayer Wheel, Wu Yinyu returned to her room drenched in sweat and took a quick shower. The moment the back of her head hit the pillow, she fell asleep.
In the night, the jade terraces and pavilions unfurled slowly like a painting scroll. Carved ice flowers bloomed suddenly, and the Spirit Bells on the high pagoda swayed in unison.
