This was Kai Xin's first time visiting an amusement park in the evening.

Perhaps because of the weather, there were no other visitors anywhere in the park.

Under the overcast sky, the amusement park was brightly illuminated, yet there wasn't a single person in sight.

Kai Xin held Ci'an's hand, seeing ghostly figures everywhere she looked. She nervously reminded her,

"Ci'an, hold my hand tight, okay? Don't be scared. There are no ghosts in this world."

Ci'an gazed at the female ghost's figure.

Her voice was so soft that it sounded as though she were speaking only to herself.

"I'm not afraid anymore."

A muffled rumble of thunder erupted in the distance.

Kai Xin began to feel uneasy.

"Sounds like thunder. Do you think it's going to rain? Did Miss Yu Xin bring us here to look for the treasure? I only mentioned it once, and she remembered. She's really such a nice person."

Kai Xin kept talking to distract herself, her grip tightening around Ci'an's hand.

They climbed into one of the Ferris wheel's gondolas.

From high above, they looked down at the empty amusement park.

The entire park looked like a graveyard where the dead had come to wander, its breathtaking beauty emerging beneath the veil of night.

Kai Xin pressed herself against the window, puzzled.

"Miss Yu Xin, has this amusement park been abandoned? There aren't any visitors or staff. How are all these machines still running?"

Yu Xin gazed out the window, as though waiting for the rain to arrive, and replied casually,

"It's actually very lively. So many wandering ghosts are enthusiastically welcoming you. You just can't see them."

Kai Xin's face turned deathly pale.

"G-ghosts? Where are the ghosts? Ha... Miss Yu Xin, don't joke around, okay? There are obviously only three of us here."

Yu Xin's gaze drifted toward the two girls.

Her voice was light and airy.

"They're right in front of me. Two little ghosts who are here to claim lives. Sooner or later, you'll be killed by them."

Kai Xin hadn't expected an adult to be afraid of ghosts too.

She secretly giggled, cleared her throat, and solemnly said,

"But Miss Yu Xin, there are no ghosts in this world. Right, Ci'an?"

Ci'an remained silent.

Fortunately, Kai Xin had long since grown accustomed to her being quiet.

Because of this little exchange, the last traces of her own fear disappeared.

She gratefully said,

"Miss Yu Xin, thank you for bringing us on the Ferris wheel. It's really beautiful here."

"It would be even more beautiful if you fell from here. Want to see?"

Ci'an followed her gaze outside.

It started raining.

The sky had turned completely black.

The amusement park, bathed in the curtain of rain, resembled an exquisite and precisely crafted music box. Its beautiful melodies drifted through the wind, singing of a sorrow that refused to disappear.

The Ferris wheel stopped at its highest point.

The female ghost gazed at it with fascination, her entire body enveloped in an intense aura of self-destruction, as though she might jump at any moment.

"The Ferris wheel has malfunctioned. These machines are very old, and no one usually maintains them. It'll probably stay suspended here."

"Being stranded on the highest structure here during a thunderstorm... Do you think we'll become lightning rods?"

"This place isn't open to the public. I didn't tell anyone we were coming."

"In other words, no one is coming to rescue us."

She opened the glass window and spoke without hurry.

"Are you scared? Want to jump down with me?"

"Staying here is far too dangerous."

Kai Xin was momentarily speechless.

She couldn't decide which was more dangerous—falling to her death or being struck by lightning.

The female ghost held onto the window frame and leaned her upper body outside.

Terrified by the movement, Kai Xin suddenly panicked.

"Wait! Are you kidding? ...Miss Yu Xin, what are you doing? You're not actually planning to jump, are you?"

The female ghost tilted her face toward the sky.

Rain fell from above, soaking her face and tracing countless lines down her cheeks like tears, splitting her features apart until they resembled the face she had worn before death.

The wind reached a deafening crescendo when a vehicle appeared in the distance.

One foot stepped onto the window ledge.

Her mood seemed to howl along with the wind.

The female ghost was smiling.

Her beauty was breathtaking, yet beneath that smile seemed to lie an immeasurable sorrow and countless painful memories.

Ci'an reached out and caught the hem of the ghost's black dress.

"Don't die."

"Mom."

Below the Ferris wheel, Madam had indeed arrived.

Kai Xin shouted excitedly,

"Ci'an! Look! Your mom really came to save us! That's wonderful! We're saved!"

The Ferris wheel began moving again.

Accompanied by the unpleasant groaning of its gears, it struggled through the wind and rain until it finally reached the ground.

When they stepped out, the mournful howl of the wind rushed toward them.

Because Madam had arrived, Kai Xin was no longer afraid.

Madam held a black umbrella.

Her carefully pinned-up hair had been disheveled by the wind.

Slap.

A palm struck Miss Yu Xin across the face.

Kai Xin stared upward in shock.

She saw the smile at the corner of Miss Yu Xin's mouth being violently torn apart, transforming into something sinister.

"That really hurt!"

Feng Jiang's expression remained blank.

Her fingers gripping the umbrella were pale and tense.

"Have you had enough?"

She sounded as though she were dealing with an unreasonable child.

Yu Xin grabbed the hand holding the umbrella and leaned closer, whispering into her ear,

"Is this how you treat your closest friend and bedmate? You've avoided me for so many days. Looks like you still haven't taken what I said seriously."

"Tell me, what do you think would happen if I did it right in front of these two little ghosts..."

Feng Jiang interrupted her.

"Come home with me."

Yu Xin's nails dug into the woman's flesh.

She pressed her cheek against Feng Jiang's, almost like an intimate kiss exchanged between people in an old-world ceremony.

Driven by hatred, her expression became wild and obsessive.

"Beg me."

She sneered.

"You're the one begging me now. If you don't cry, how am I supposed to pity you?"

Feng Jiang tilted the umbrella, blocking the two children's view of them.

The rain showed no sign of stopping.

Her voice remained unchanged.

Her expression was equally calm.

"Do you want me to kneel?"

She asked quietly,

"Would it make you happy to have me kneel before you and watch me bow my head?"

She threw the umbrella aside and took a step backward, about to do exactly that.

But a hand clamped tightly around her shoulder, preventing her from moving.

Yu Xin lowered her head.

Her expression disappeared beneath the shadow of her long hair, impossible to read.

Her slender fingers were stretched taut and deathly pale.

Rainwater fell upon them as though boiling in a huge cauldron.

The drizzle continued endlessly, each drop piercing the puppet who had swallowed her own true feelings.

The entire world seemed to become a vast, blood-red sea.

After a long silence, Feng Jiang finally spoke.

"What?"

"Why are you crying?"

It was as though an entire ocean had accumulated within Yu Xin's throat, drowning her in that boiling cauldron.

The rain continued to fall.

At least tonight, it will not stop.

Feng Jiang pushed the woman away and had the bodyguards take the two children away.

She paid no attention to the fact that her own body had already been completely drenched.

"Yu Xin."

She stood beneath the rain that had continued for seven years and called her name once more.

"Do you want to kill me?"

The gentle voice from the past echoed in Yu Xin's ears.

It was not salvation.

It was a demon whispering in her ear.

She closed her eyes.

Pain passed through her eyes, and a sigh escaped from the depths of her soul.

"Please..."

She begged.

"Have some pity on me."

The switch that had unleashed this devastating flood had long since ceased to be in her hands.