Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A cold, eerie wind swept through the dungeon.

Qiao Ying huddled in a corner, shivering from the chill.

She clutched the back of her head, which still throbbed faintly. Suddenly, a few scattered words surfaced in her mind:

“Transmigrated into a book,” “male and female leads,” “female cannon fodder”…

The words felt strangely familiar, but before she could think them through, pain pulsed through her skull. The moment she tried to use her head, it felt as if her brain were about to split open.

All Qiao Ying could be sure of was that she had been injured and had lost her memory. For now, she gave up trying to dwell on it. After resting for a long while and recovering some strength, she climbed up from the floor.

Everything around her was deathly quiet. All she could hear was the wind, and the air was thick with a dark, damp smell that made her stomach turn.

Qiao Ying walked to the cell door and saw the iron lock fastened tightly to it. She tried fiddling with it a few times, but as expected, with her strength alone, there was no way she could open it.

Then she suddenly heard footsteps. Qiao Ying hurried back to the corner, lay down, and closed her eyes, pretending she was still unconscious.

The people who came were delivering food. Two men in black glanced at the girl in the cell. One of them said, “Did you put in too much medicine? It’s been so long, and she still hasn’t woken up. She didn’t pass out for good, did she?”

“What does that have to do with me? It’s clearly because this sheltered young miss is too weak. If she can’t handle it, that’s her problem.”

“Don’t forget, this woman was captured on orders from above. The order was to make her suffer, not to take her life.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t worry, she won’t die. At most, she’ll sleep for a few more days. Speaking of which, just how did this woman offend the higher-ups?”

“How would I know? Don’t go prying into what the higher-ups are doing. Come on, there’s still a blind man in the next cell waiting for food. Don’t waste time.”

“How did that blind man offend you? Why did you insist on dragging him in here?”

“That blind man? Bah. I was gambling just fine, and the moment he showed up, I lost everything down to my underpants. That unlucky bastard looks strange as hell too, like some kind of monster. His life isn’t worth anything anyway, so I grabbed him along the way to use as expendable material.”

The two men went to the neighboring cell and stayed there for a while. Before long, they left, laughing and talking.

Qiao Ying, still lying in the corner, opened her eyes, somewhat at a loss.

Who were the higher-ups behind them?

It seemed that person had a grudge against her?

Qiao Ying’s mind was a complete muddle, and she couldn’t figure it out. Remembering that the men in black had said there was someone in the cell next door, she finally got up and looked over.

The dungeon was dim, lit only by a few candles. The faint points of light did nothing to dispel the cold.

On the other side of the bars, a slender figure sat quietly, leaning against the stone wall.

It was a youth of about sixteen or seventeen. He wore a pale blue robe that had been washed until it had faded nearly white. The collar and cuffs were frayed, yet they still set off the clean, elegant line of his shoulders. His head of silver hair was unbound, spilling down beside his cheeks like shattered moonlight, a few strands clinging to his porcelain-white jaw.

Most striking of all was the snow-white silk covering his eyes, though it could not hide the exquisite contours of his face.

At that moment, his head was lowered. He held half a dry, hard steamed bun and was chewing it slowly, one small bite at a time, as if the gloom and cold around him had nothing to do with him.

Even trapped in prison, the youth gave off an innocent, harmless air. He did not seem like some wicked villain.

“Hey, young master… young master!” Qiao Ying had practically plastered herself against the bars dividing their cells, looking somewhat ridiculous.

Fortunately, the youth lifted his face slightly, giving her a response.

Qiao Ying said, “I was walking along the road when they knocked me out for no reason and locked me up here. I just heard them say you were dragged into this for no reason too. Do you know where this is?”

The youth smiled. “No.”

Even his voice was pleasant, clear and gentle like jade striking jade. In this dark, damp place, it felt like a spring breeze.

Qiao Ying slid down along the bars and sat on the ground, letting out a deep sigh. But when she looked again at the blind youth across from her, even though he was in such desperate straits, he could still calmly eat a dry, stiff steamed bun with apparent relish. That kind of optimism was genuinely admirable.

Qiao Ying touched her flattened stomach. Only by eating her fill would she have the strength to escape. So she picked up the two steamed buns from the bowl by the door. They were cold and hard. In all her life, she had never eaten anything so awful.

After forcing down one steamed bun, she really couldn’t eat anymore. She wrapped the remaining one in a handkerchief and hid it. Then she smashed the bowl, concealed a sharp shard in her palm, and hid the rest of the fragments beneath the pile of withered straw.

The commotion Qiao Ying made was not exactly small. She looked warily toward the person in the neighboring cell.

Yet the youth seemed not to have heard anything at all. After finishing his two dry, hard steamed buns, he appeared bored. Leaning back against the wall, he picked up a strand of straw from the ground and began weaving it into a grasshopper.
Though he could not see, his long, slender fingers were nimble.

Qiao Ying moved back into the corner and stayed there quietly.

She had no idea how much time had passed before two more men in black came to deliver food. Judging by their voices, they were the same two men from before.

“I heard they need even more people this time. The dozens we sent over last time are all gone.”

“Perfect, then. Send that blind man I caught over.”

“What use is a blind man?”

“He can still pick up a hoe and dig in the mines, can’t he? If he can’t hold out and dies, we can just toss the body anywhere.”

“Ugh, I drank too much just now. I need to use the latrine. I’m going on ahead. Hurry back after you deliver the food, and we’ll play a few more rounds!”

“Fine, fine. I know.”

One of the men in black turned and ran back. The remaining man came to Qiao Ying’s cell first. He had just set down the bowl of steamed buns when he noticed that the girl inside was still curled up in a ball, unconscious.

After all, the girl was a wealthy young lady, pampered since birth, with skin that was fair and delicate. Though she had been dragged here in a sorry state, her bright, beautiful face had not been damaged in the slightest. If anything, she looked even more pitiful and helpless.

The man in black began to feel restless. He glanced around.

The other men in black were all outside gambling. They would not come over.

The person in the neighboring cell was a blind man, weak and delicate. Even if he heard something, he would not dare react.

The higher-ups had only said they could not take this woman’s life. They had not said he could not do anything else.

His thoughts wandered wildly, and as if possessed, he took out the key, opened the cell door, and crept inside.

Unable to contain his excitement, he rubbed his hands together. “Little beauty, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for offending the higher-ups. If not for that, you wouldn’t be here, giving me the chance to have my way with you.”

Just as the man’s hand was about to touch the girl’s collar, the person “unconscious” beneath him suddenly moved.

The shard stabbed hard into his neck. In an instant, blood sprayed out.

The man instinctively clutched the wound, but blood was rushing out between his fingers. A wheezing, leaking sound came from his throat, and his eyes were filled with disbelief and terror.

The girl was still gripping that bloodstained piece of porcelain. Her knuckles had gone white from the force of it, and her own hand had been cut as well. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably, but one thought kept echoing through her mind: If you don’t kill him, you’ll be the one who dies.

She squeezed her eyes shut, gritted her teeth, and stabbed the shard down again. Once. Twice…

The man collapsed into a pool of blood, his body twitching. His wide-open eyes remained fixed on her, while the punctured windpipe in his throat kept releasing that wheezing sound, just like a beast struggling in its final moments.

Qiao Ying’s hands shook. Once she confirmed he could no longer move, she hurriedly stepped over his body and ran out.

In the cell on the other side, the young man had been sitting against the wall the entire time. He toyed with a little grasshopper woven from straw, the corner of his lips curved in a smile.

“So even a tiny ant can hurt someone.”

With a click, the sound of a lock opening suddenly rang out.

Heavy footsteps. Ragged breathing. And the coppery smell of blood clinging to a skirt hem. All of it drew closer and closer.

“Will you escape with me?”

The careless smile at the young man’s lips grew a little more contemptuous. “What?”

“Let’s escape together. I just heard them say they want to send you somewhere else. If you go there, you’ll die. If we make a run for it now, maybe we can still survive.”

His pale hand was suddenly seized by a warm one. Who knew where this delicate young girl got so much strength, but just like that, she pulled him to his feet.

Once he stood up, Qiao Ying realized he was tall and slender, much taller than she was. In an instant, she had to lift her head to look at him. From up close, the young man’s white hair looked even purer than snow, making his face seem all the more exquisitely beautiful.

Qiao Ying gathered herself. “You can’t see well. I’ll lead you.”

She lowered her voice and, holding his hand, walked out of the cell.

Qiao Ying did not know how many people were in this dungeon. Perhaps she would be killed after taking only a few steps. But she did not want to sit and wait for death. If she did not take this chance, who knew how many more men like that, who wanted to take liberties with her, she would encounter? If she did take the chance, at least there was still hope.

Only a few candles burned faintly in the tunnel, their wavering light and shadows making it seem as if countless ghosts were lurking all around them.

Qiao Ying was very nervous and unconsciously tightened her grip on the young man’s hand. She did not realize that her own hand was trembling slightly.

A moment later, the laughter of men playing Pai Gow came from up ahead.

Qiao Ying hid behind the corner. In her other hand, she was still gripping that bloodstained shard. Quietly, she poked half her head out to observe what was happening ahead.

There were seven or eight grown men gathered there. There was no way she could beat them.

After hesitating for a long while, she finally led the young man a few steps to the side, behind a pile of cargo crates. “Hide here.”
Then she let go of his hand.

The young man lifted the corners of his lips out of habit. “All right.”

Yet there was a faint trace of boredom in that upward curve.

But in the next moment, he heard the girl’s soft voice. “Go straight for about twenty steps, then turn left. Climb ten steps and there’ll be a door there. That should be the exit from the cells. I’ll lure them away. Once you don’t hear any movement, run over there as fast as you can.”

As if ripples had suddenly frozen over, the smile on his face faded a little.

He asked, “Why not let me lure them away?”

“You can’t see well, so it’s hard for you to move around. If they catch you, you’ll die in their hands. But I’m different. Since the higher-ups ordered that they can’t take my life, if I’m caught, I can just use my life to threaten them.”

Qiao Ying pressed her lips together, then said in an even softer voice, “We’ve already come this far. We have to make sure at least one of us gets out, or it won’t be worth it. To be honest, I’ve lost my memory. Other than my name, I don’t remember anything. If you get out and someday run into someone looking for a beautiful, clever girl, maybe he’ll be my family. You have to help me tell him where I am.”

The sound of drinking and eating meat on the other side had not stopped. Afraid that one of them might come back to check the cells, Qiao Ying hurriedly pushed the young man farther into the corner.

“Hurry and crouch down. We can’t miss such a good chance.”

At that moment, a man appeared behind them. He had gotten drunk, gone off to vomit, and was just coming back.

The man was swaying drunkenly when he suddenly saw the two people who should have been locked in the cells standing ahead of him. His face changed at once.

He had just opened his mouth when he saw the young man turn his face slightly and smile.

A chill in the air condensed into a blade and sliced through the man’s throat.

The man did not even have time to make a sound before he collapsed silently to the ground.

Qiao Ying seemed to have heard something. Just as she was about to turn around, the young man said softly, “The wind has picked up.”

A cold, sinister wind rose without warning. At the same time, the candle flames went out, and the surroundings were instantly plunged into pitch-black darkness where she could not see her hand in front of her face.

Qiao Ying’s hand was taken by a slightly cool one. Unable to see, she could only passively follow the young man step by step in an indistinguishable direction.

“What’s going on? Why did all the lights go out?”

“Light the lamps! It’s pitch-black in here, I can’t see a thing!”

“Ow! Who hit my head?”

…

Qiao Ying’s scalp prickled. The young man was actually leading her through the lively commotion, moving forward without the slightest obstruction. She could feel those voices very, very close to her, but perhaps because the darkness was too thick, none of the men noticed that two “prisoners” were passing right in front of them.

They climbed the steps, left the prison cells, then walked through a long tunnel. At last, they saw the pure, bright moonlight.

Qiao Ying’s eyes lit up. She grabbed the young man’s hand in return and led him quickly out of the cave. When the cool breeze beneath the bright moon brushed past her and she breathed in the fresh air, she finally felt the relief of having survived.

“We’re out!”

The young man smiled faintly. “Mm. We’re out.”

Qiao Ying looked back at him.

The young man’s blue-green robes were dyed with moonlight, his white hair falling like snow over his shoulders. The white silk blindfold covering his eyes also reflected the moonlight, making the line of his jaw appear soft and his faint smile warm. Even the night breeze around him seemed to slow and soften.

Unlike Qiao Ying, who looked as miserable as anyone fleeing for their life, he seemed as though he had merely been taking a leisurely stroll.

Qiao Ying came back to herself and breathed a sigh of relief. The shard she had been clutching tightly finally fell from her hand, but her grip on the young man’s hand tightened again. “Who knows when they’ll realize we’re gone? We need to leave here, now.”

He obediently let her lead him away. Facing the wind, he stepped into the clear moonlight. The mountain path was rugged, yet every step he took was steady.

“What the hell is going on? What are you all shouting about? The lamps are out and none of you even know to light them!”

The man in black who had gone to the latrine to relieve himself arrived one step too late. He tripped over something and nearly fell. Hastily, he took out a fire striker and lit an oil lamp.

Light flared. The instant sight returned, his sluggish sense of smell seemed to return with it, and the thick stench of blood rushed into his nose.

The corpses strewn across the ground had all been separated from their heads. Yet what was eerie was that those severed heads had their eyes open, their empty gazes fixed on the void, while their lips still opened and closed mechanically.

“What’s going on? Why did all the lights go out?”

“Light the lamps! It’s pitch-black in here, I can’t see a thing!”

“Ow! Who hit my head?”

Tiny, stiff voices rose and fell. Those who had not realized they were dead repeated their final words before death, like broken puppets reciting their lines. Within the heavy stench of blood, another layer of bone-chilling horror settled in.

The man who had lit the lamp turned deathly pale. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his head, and screamed in terror, “Ghosts… There are ghosts!”