Chapter 33: Nothing in this world could hold them anymore.

From beginning to end, it had always been only her!

Wang Manyin covered her face, weeping until she nearly fainted. Countless scenes from the past flashed involuntarily through her mind. Back when Cheng Mingheng was still alive, every time he returned from his travels, he would bring her not just ready-made pastries or dried fruit, but a variety of confections she couldn't find in Xiuning—delicacies that could only be bought elsewhere.

At the time, she hadn't thought much of it. She had only complained to him about having too many pastry molds, more than their small kitchen could handle, never once wondering why he would bring her more when he knew she already had enough tools for the job. And then... there was the dowry her parents had given her when she married. She vaguely recalled that it truly had included the deeds to two pastry shops. Yet, over these years, busy with the trivialities of the inner chambers, she had simply handed the management of those shops to trusted servants. Beyond checking the ledgers at the end of each year, she had paid them no mind.

So, that was it. Her childhood dreams—her daughter remembered them, her late husband remembered them, and even her parents, who had sent her off to marry so early, had remembered them. Only she had forgotten. She alone had cast everything to the back of her mind. It was she who had let herself abandon the name "Wang Manyin," allowing the world to fasten that shackle called "Madame Cheng" upon her. It was she who had trapped herself within those four square walls, transforming into a gray, listless, resentful woman of the deep inner chambers.

If only she had been a little braver when she was young. If only she had held on a little longer and not given up on herself so quickly.

"You were right, Yuniang... you were right," the woman said, her voice strained as she let out a few low, ragged sobs. "There are so many great roads in this world... a woman truly doesn't have to sharpen her head just to squeeze onto that narrow path of being a 'virtuous wife and good mother.'"

"So, what do you need Mother to do for you, Yuniang?"

Having cried her fill, Wang Manyin slowly raised her head, revealing eyes reddened from sorrow beneath her palms. "Or rather, is there anything I can help you with right now?"

"Nothing left, Mother." Cheng Yingxue shook her head, gently resting her small face against the woman's knee. "You don't need to do anything for me... you only need to be safe and sound."

"All your daughter wants is for you to be safe... Once my own business is established, I will find an opportunity to take you away as well."

"Mother, when that time comes, let's leave the Cheng family together... let's leave this place that can trap a person to death, shall we?"

The young girl's eyes were filled with hope. Wang Manyin stared at the expression on her face for a long time, and in the end, she could not hold back, nodding gently as she whispered, "All right."

And so, the fledgling that had already broken free from its cage had finally persuaded its mother to join it in racing toward those mountains and forests known as "freedom." Nothing in this world could ever trap them again.

*

"Yo~ it’s been a whole day. Little Changling, have you missed me?"

The teasing, familiar, and infuriating tone accompanied that unrefined, boneless posture, lolling lazily against the eaves.

When the moon reached the center of the sky, Su Changling saw the beautiful female ghost in the bright red wedding dress once more within the desolate Wangchun Garden, where half of the veranda had collapsed. Unlike their previous meetings, this time she seemed to have no intention of concealing her appearance, brazenly allowing her face—which bore an eight-tenths resemblance to Su Changling’s—to be exposed in the frost-like moonlight.

"Well? Have you thought over the question I asked you last night?" the vengeful spirit said, smiling as she rested her chin on her hands. "Is such a human world truly worth you stooping down to save it?"

Su Changling, clutching her long sword, remained calm. "It is."

"Oh?" Now it was the ghost's turn to be surprised. "You were still hesitating last night, unable to make up your mind. Why are you suddenly so determined tonight?"

"Are you sure? You don't intend to change your mind again?" The ghost raised her voice as if in temptation. "The human world is hardly a place that caters to one's wishes."

"The human world is indeed not a place that caters to one's wishes," Su Changling replied with a nod, her expression unchanging. "But that is not a reason for me to abandon it."

The ghost turned her head abruptly, her eyes turning blood-red in an instant. "Why?"

"Because the human world is too vast," Su Changling said calmly. "The suffering I have experienced and witnessed is not enough to summarize its entirety—so naturally, I cannot easily abandon the whole world just because of that."

"Moreover, the human world is not unchanging."

The ghost widened her spectral eyes in disbelief. "...What?"

"It is changing," Su Changling said without hesitation. "No one can say for sure what the human world will become in the future."

"It might become better, or it might become even worse than it is now—but regardless, it will change. And there will always be people in this world trying to change it."

"Therefore, as long as there are people who have not given up hope, as long as there are people trying to change things and putting in genuine effort," Su Changling said, stepping closer to the ghost leaning on the eaves, "then the human world is worth saving."

"It is worth me taking a gamble on its uncertain future."

Even if the result might be less than satisfactory, it did not matter. This was enough.

The young girl lowered her eyelashes slightly as she thought this. However, the vengeful spirit leaning on the eaves seemed suddenly provoked, clutching her head and shrieking, "Impossible... You are lying to me! What you are saying... this is simply preposterous!"

"I know you cannot understand." Su Changling’s voice was steady and unhurried. In this moment, the roles of the human and the ghost seemed to have completely reversed, her gaze towards the spirit filled with tolerance and warmth. "After all, your world was completely sealed off the moment you first stepped into this small building years ago."

"You, with your eyes blinded by hatred... of course you would not notice anything else."

"So, the human world you have not seen, I have recorded for you." Su Changling reached into her robes and pulled out a small magical artifact capable of recording images.

The mountain cliffs she had climbed during the day, the flora and fauna she had witnessed, and the vibrant scenes of the small town were displayed one by one before the vengeful spirit.

The ghost had been quite resistant at first, but gradually, she found her entire attention captured by the images of the mortal world.

"The tavern with the red lanterns at the corner of the street is still open..." the ghost murmured, staring at the tavern in the projection that was bustling with diners. "Back then, I loved their sugar-steamed custard and pan-fried tofu the most."

"I never imagined... that even after a hundred years, they would still have successors."

"They do, and diners from north and south come in an endless stream." Su Changling glanced at the tavern's sign as she followed the ghost's gaze, then turned to look quietly at the spirit, who seemed lost in memory.

"So now, do you think the human world is still worth saving?"