Ye Jinyi walked up to the door of her apartment and took out the key from her pocket to unlock it.
Click!
Ye Jinyi stepped into her tiny room and sat down on that stiff bed.
Now, everything had changed, yet somehow, nothing had.
She turned on her computer and found it was still working.
She tried opening a browser, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t access a single website.
Looking at the full Wi-Fi signal in the bottom right corner of the screen, Ye Jinyi had already guessed the answer before she even booted up the computer.
“Just as I thought.”
This world had long been sealed off from the outside, turned into a separate realm.
How could any information from outside possibly get in?
Ye Jinyi shut the computer and found a lambswool jacket in the room.
It was the one she got the first time she turned into this form.
“Haven’t worn you in so long, all because I’ve been hiding from people trying to kill me.”
After saying that, Ye Jinyi pulled a few more clothes from under the bed.
These were all outfits she got on the night she became a loli.
Ye Jinyi knew exactly what they used to be.
They were the uniforms she wore back when she worked at the Heavenly Court Group.
“Thanks for sticking with me all this time, even when I ended up like this.”
Ye Jinyi changed out of the clothes she’d grabbed for free from the subspace and put on that original outfit again.
She dragged over her computer chair and walked into the bathroom.
Standing on the chair, Ye Jinyi looked at the little loli in the mirror.
For some reason, it felt like ages had passed.
That light blond hair she once had—now it had turned into a pure, snow-white color.
Ye Jinyi stared into the mirror.
The once dazzling cross-shaped stars in her eyes had long vanished.
She looked at the girl in the mirror, and somehow it felt like that reflection might talk back to her.
“Hmm… I think what Luo said today, that was actually your wish, wasn’t it?”
“Right? Right…?”
“I’m a grown-up, a mature adult—I’d never think about kidnapping someone!”
“You agree, right? Right…?”
Watching the girl in the mirror repeat her words over and over, Ye Jinyi just felt more and more hollow with each question.
“I think… I really might do it after all…”
“AAAHHH!!!”
Ye Jinyi leapt down from the chair and hurriedly threw the door open, sprinting downstairs, not even bothering to close it behind her.
After she exited the apartment building, she ran straight in the direction of Yunhai Lake.
Under the pale moonlight, the biting wind swept through her snowy-white hair, brushing against her cheeks.
Ye Jinyi dashed through the sea of people rushing by, running toward the palace she had emerged from.
She didn’t know how long she had been running before her numb legs finally slowed to a stop.
Huff—huff.
“I’m so fucking exhausted.”
As she caught her breath, a cold sensation suddenly touched her neck.
Ye Jinyi stood up and looked to the sky, only to realize that snow had begun to fall.
She stood there in a daze, watching the snow grow heavier and heavier, covering the entire street in a flawless white.
The moon never ceased.
The snow drifted with the wind.
Only Ye Jinyi stood in the middle of the snow-covered street, blankly staring at everything.
The falling snow had buried many things—including her final signpost.
The one who wanted to live had ultimately become the calamity ghost, frozen in a thousand-mile ice coffin.
In the blur of her vision, tears welled up at the corners of Ye Jinyi’s eyes, but within seconds of falling, they froze on her face.
“So… so… I was already lost in this snowy night, wasn’t I?”
The night she became what she is now—it was also a snowy night.
That snow had taken so much. It took away her past, took away the young man once called Ye Jinyi.
From that day on, only a confused little girl remained in this unfamiliar world—constantly running, and when she could run no longer, she built walls, shut herself in, and rejected any connection with the world.
Only now did Ye Jinyi realize—Luo had been right.
She pressed hard against her chest, her heart already screaming in agony.
“I want to cry… I want to scream… I want to fill this empty heart!”
“Wuaaah!”
The sound of sobbing came with a flood of unstoppable tears.
Loneliness, emptiness, fear, confusion, self-loathing—a flood of emotions finally crushed her nerves.
Now, the girl had no one left to blame.
She herself was the greatest sin—the universally recognized mistake, the dangerous object, the criminal.
“Why… why… why is it that just for daring to wish for a tiny bit of happiness, I have to bear so much guilt?!”
“Can’t I just have a strawberry cake of my own, a birthday that belongs only to me?!”
“I don’t want to do anything wrong.”
“I just want a warm hug.”
“I just want the tiniest bit of safety that belongs to me. Are those really so wrong?”
“Why are those things the very things I’m not allowed to have?!”
“God, I admit I’m greedy, but are these wishes really too much?”
“Ye Jinyi…”
Yingmeng looked through the glass, watching Ye Jinyi in her completely broken state.
Finally, she understood what Ye Jinyi truly longed for.
“Sister… if you’re still willing to accept me…”
The snow kept falling. No one answered Ye Jinyi.
People always speak of the strictness and mercy of gods, but for thousands of years, no god has ever descended with even a single blessing.
Even the nations that once upheld faith were eventually reduced to rubble.
Ye Jinyi wiped her tear-streaked face, though the cold had already made her look dreadful.
After drying her tears, she continued walking toward Yunhai Lake.
There was nowhere left to retreat to now—not even a city wall of absolute-zero ice could withstand the assault of reality anymore.
In this illusion of a world, at least one thing still remained—something she could still feel.
Returning to the palace at the center of Yunhai Lake, Ye Jinyi patted the snow off herself at the door, then wandered the halls for a long time before finally finding the bedroom.
“Ye Jinyi!”
Just as she stepped into the room, she heard Yingmeng calling her name.
“Sister!” x2
Ye Jinyi immediately ran toward the mirror in the bedroom, but when she saw Yingmeng perfectly mirroring her every movement, she quickly turned her body around and stepped slowly backward until she was beside the mirror.
“Should be fine now, right?”
Ye Jinyi asked, thinking she had finally stood in the right spot.
“Mm…”
Yingmeng’s voice was soft, and where Ye Jinyi couldn’t see, dark circles had started forming beneath her eyes.
“Sister, can I tell you… about my story?”