The children hanging from the tree could neither speak nor cry. They were like real puppets, limp and harmless.

Yet as Ci’an walked away from them, farther and farther, their expressions gradually came alive. Their lifeless bodies were filled with immense emotions, making their faces indistinguishable from those of ordinary human beings.

Malice, hatred, jealousy, resentment, hostility—countless emotions intertwined. The sparks of hatred transformed into innumerable hands reaching toward the retreating figure, as though they wanted to drag her into the fiery depths of hell as well.

The small, frail figure seemed to sense something and turned around. Her face was utterly expressionless. She stared blankly at the twisted shadows rushing toward her, as though she were looking upon something from a distant memory, something she had once cherished. A faint smile appeared on her face.

That innocent smile seemed completely out of place on this night when the nightmare had become reality.

The great hands of hatred, filled with resentment, howled as they tried to tear that smile from her face, to rip it apart and bury it in the dust so it would never again be exposed to sunlight.

But in the end, all they could do was spread their five fingers and gently push the girl on the back—

Go faster. Don't look back.

The children hanging from the tree shed blood and tears as they watched the only child escape to safety, as though it were themselves who had escaped.

Ci’an stumbled along, the maid gripping her hand tightly. Even though it was difficult, Ci’an did not pull away.

As they moved farther from the flower field, the maid's pace gradually slowed. Only after the surrounding noise had disappeared and there were no other figures in sight did the maid seem to remember that she ought to offer some comfort.

“Miss Ci’an, are you all right? Don't be afraid. I'll take you somewhere safe.”

“Where are we going?”

The maid's voice was calm and cold, stripped of the timidity and humility she had always displayed. She didn't even look back.

“Somewhere safe, of course.”

“What about Mom?” Ci’an asked.

“Madam? Don't worry. She'll be fine.”

“I mean Mom.”

The maid stopped.

Her chilly voice drifted down from above, carried to Ci’an's ears by a gust of cold wind.

“You mean that ghost? She's been dead for a long time.”

A soundless, deathly silence slowly descended.

Everything around them seemed to sink into a swamp of blood. The air carried the smell of decay, exactly the same as when she and her mother had gone to retrieve the female ghost.

Ci’an pulled her hand free from the maid's.

“You poor child. I thought you'd get better, but you've only gotten worse.” The maid finally looked at her. “There's no saving you. The entire Yu family is going to die. But I'll save you. You can be the exception.”

She crouched down until they were eye to eye and stroked Ci’an's cheek.

“After all, I was the one who delivered you. You're a good child. I can spare you.”

“I remember you,” Ci’an said.

The maid smiled.

“No wonder the people at the sanatorium said you were a freak. I only held you a few times, and that was shortly after you were born. You hadn't even been brought home yet. The caregivers were all terrified of you. Why? You were only a little child.”

“I remember now. It was because you weren't normal. You didn't behave like a child. You could see things other people couldn't. They all said you could see ghosts. They even said there was a ghost living inside your body.”

“Miss Ci’an, you've grown up, but you've become more and more forgetful.”

“Your mother died long ago. She died the day she gave birth to you. The mother you've been seeing is actually a ghost. Her soul refused to disperse after death, and she returned as a vengeful spirit.”

Ci’an had known all of this for a long time.

“So what? She's my mother.”

The maid's smile disappeared.

“She is an evil ghost. Sooner or later, she'll hurt everyone—including you.”

Ci’an remained unmoved and turned to walk back.

The maid seized her wrist.

“Miss Ci’an, your temper has really gotten worse. There's no going back.”

At some point, fog had appeared around them. Beginning from the road beneath their feet, the surrounding scenery faded in and out of view. The black night seemed perpetually covered by a veil, reality and illusion flickering back and forth.

Hints were everywhere. Every sentence, every word along the way subtly influenced the world in Ci’an's eyes.

This was hardly surprising. After all, the person who had first discovered that this child was different from ordinary people had been her former caregiver—now the maid.

Long ago, to ensure that this child could continue living in the present, she had planted a command in the child's mind:

Her dead mother had become a female ghost and returned to the human world.

Only this could conceal the fact that her biological mother had repeatedly tried to kill her. Only this could allow her to survive—even if she had to live beneath strange gazes and inside a fabricated world.

But things had slipped out of control.

Not long after leaving, the child was brought back to the main family home to be raised there, publicly declared an adopted child and registered under the names of her elder brother and sister-in-law. And so it remained until now.

Ci’an said nothing.

The maid loosened her grip, walked in front of Ci’an, crouched down, and placed both hands on her shoulders.

“Come with me. Everyone here deserves to die. No one can save them.”

She wanted to see Ci’an's expression clearly.

But when Ci’an suddenly raised her eyes, the maid was shaken by the look in them and actually froze.

Ci’an said, “Would you like to hear a story?”

“A male teacher was burned to death in a school warehouse. The investigation afterward revealed that he had assaulted more than one person—the girls in his class, students from his tutoring sessions, even his own daughter.”

“It was said that this daughter had been in the same class as the girl who was considered a suspect. In that fire—or perhaps even before it—what role do you think she played?”

The fingers gripping Ci’an's shoulders tightened.

The maid's expression darkened.

“Who told you that?”

“Jiayan.”

“Impossible! Even if she remembered, she couldn't possibly…”

The maid suddenly stopped herself, anger flashing across her face.

“You're trying to manipulate me!”

“It's so pitiful. You're the one nobody loves. You want to change all of this, to stop us from reuniting, but it won't work. I've always been perfectly lucid.”

After a long while, the maid slowly exhaled.

Her expression was almost pitying, yet perhaps also mocking.

“You really are… crazy.”

Ci’an calmly corrected her.

“You're the crazy one. Did you come here for revenge?”

“My target for revenge is someone else. None of this has anything to do with you. I won't hurt you. You're only a child.”

Ci’an didn't understand.

“Evil is present in human nature from birth. No one would bare their fangs at a child or show them kindness without a reason, unless…”

“Unless…” the maid softly repeated the words, her tone suddenly light and carefree. “It's part of her memories.”

“I don't know how you found out, but you're right. I'm one of them too.”

The maid gave a low laugh that gradually turned into wild laughter. Then the mournful laughter abruptly stopped.

She shouted, “That man deserved to die! I've dreamed of killing him! Feng Jiang set that fire. I should be thanking her, so how could I possibly avenge a beast like him?!”

“Feng Jiang…”

The maid tilted her head back and covered her face with her palm, yet a glimpse of her tragic fate could still be seen.

“I owe her my life. She burned the culprit to death for me. I wanted to do something for her, even if she didn't care.”

“At first, I wanted to give Yu Xin's life to her. But later I thought that would be far too easy on Yu Xin.”

“What would be the perfect revenge? For someone who had lost everything to reclaim everything that belonged to her, and to inflict every bit of the suffering she had once endured upon the person who caused it.”

“But even that wasn't enough.”

“It wasn't fair.”

“The victim had become a ruthless demon, and it was all because of the perpetrator. So why, in the end, was it the victim who had to betray her own nature and suffer her way forward?!”

“It isn't fair. It will never be fair!”

“An eye for an eye sounds nice, but I couldn't do it. Only a life for a life could completely put an end to the disaster.”

“I don't understand. Yu Xin destroyed her entire life. She made every decision that woman made afterward run contrary to what she had originally wanted. So why could she remain completely indifferent?”

The maid was consumed by an obsessive confusion, drowning in suffering from which she could not escape.

As the daughter of the true culprit, she still could not escape the demon's gaze.

The heavy weight of guilt surrounded her, repeating again and again the story of her helplessness. As she grew older, she could neither protect herself nor save anyone else. The double torment of guilt and self-loathing forever trapped her beneath the shadow of sin.

Unable to face the past, unable to save herself, she had regarded Feng Jiang as her only hope.

But when even that final hope completely fell, she placed all her hatred upon Yu Xin—the person who had dragged that hope into hell—in an attempt to redeem herself by becoming a savior.

Yet whether as a caregiver or a maid, she ultimately could not bring herself to strike down the person who had lost everything and become a perpetrator herself.

Whether as victim or savior, she could never understand why the hope that had fallen into ruin could remain so eternally calm.

Ci’an remained unmoved and repeated the same words for the second time.

“I remember you.”

The maid's fingers loosened.

She stepped back, barely concealing the terror in her eyes. Soon, she regained her composure.

“Impossible. You couldn't have known what happened back then. You're testing me. It means nothing. You're just wasting time. You're stalling. Who are you waiting for?”

“I'm a freak,” Ci’an said.

“I've never denied that you're a freak. That's not an explanation.” The maid frowned.

“I heard it. Inside the womb, the person who knew everything was Mom. And she was the one who went mad.”

“She never slept. She came back as a female ghost.”

The maid instinctively wanted to deny it.

But the fear that suddenly arose within her froze her in place. In an instant, she felt cold from head to toe.

“It's useless.”

She couldn't speak.

Ci’an spoke for her.

“I've always been lucid. I watched clearly as you planted that command inside me. But so what?”

“You wanted to plant a ghost inside my body, to deceive me into believing that Mom had died.”

“But in reality, I'm the ghost living inside Mom's body.”

“Whether she accepts it or acknowledges it or not, I've always existed. I won't disappear or change simply because she wishes me to.”

“I can even understand why she wanted to kill me. I don't blame her.”

“I'll love her.”

What would it take to find peace?

How much would you have to give up before you could finally see the world through her eyes?

And when that happened, would we be looking at the same scenery?

The maid knelt on the ground, once again overcome by a profound sense of helplessness.

She had lived with this feeling since childhood. It was nothing unfamiliar. Yet when it descended upon her again, she still could not bear it.

Ci’an coldly gazed at the world—and at her.

“I'm her child. You could have taken your anger out on me. But you didn't.”

“You even suffered because of it. Why?”

“Have you begun to waver too?”

“Who is the one betraying their own nature?”

“You hate her, and you hate me because I share her blood. But you can't bring yourself to hurt me.”

“You couldn't do it even many years ago.”

“In the end, you simply need hatred in order to survive.”

“How pitiful. No one loves you.”

“You don't understand why Mother can remain completely indifferent. I'll tell you why.”

“Because what Mother ignores isn't suffering or betrayal.”

“Love or hatred—she wants none of it.”

“She is strong enough to bear any consequence.”

“That is why she is always so gentle.”

“And Mom…”

“She is the complete opposite.”

“No one can drive her mad…”

“Except herself.”